Ctrl+Alt+Del

2002webcomicclassic

Ctrl+Alt+Del, often shortened to CAD, is a gaming webcomic by Tim Buckley that launched on October 23, 2002, starring roommates Ethan and Lucas. It birthed the infamous 'Loss' four-panel strip, invented the gamer holiday Winter-een-mas, and picked up a loud anti-fandom around its poorly received 2006 animated adaptation.

webcomic memesgamingexploitable templateslate 2000s memesforced meme memes

Overview

Ctrl+Alt+Del, or CAD, is a gaming webcomic written and drawn by Tim Buckley that follows roommates Ethan and Lucas as they obsess over games, hardware, and console launches1. The strip's title riffs on the Windows Control-Alt-Delete keyboard command used to interrupt a frozen system4.

Beyond the strips themselves, CAD is best known for producing the 'Loss' four-panel strip, which became one of the internet's most parodied image macros3. It also invented Winter-een-mas, a January holiday created in-comic by Ethan where each of the last seven days of the month celebrates a different gaming genre1. Detractors adopted the B^U emoticon to mock the strip's flat art and reused facial expressions, nicknaming its creator 'Tim B^Uckley.'

How It Spread

In 2006, Blind Ferret Entertainment helped Buckley launch Ctrl+Alt+Del: The Animated Series, a subscriber-only cartoon that debuted on February 12. Subscribers paid $30 for twelve three-minute episodes, and the reception was brutal, with complaints about the writing, voice acting, and animation sparking annotated parody edits of every episode3.

On November 23, 2012, Buckley announced a story arc that killed Ethan and closed out the original cast, followed by a 'Hollywood Reboot' redesign of the main characters1. Between October 2014 and May 2015, the CAD site posted pages from a digital comic book called 'Analog and D-Pad,' recasting Ethan and Jacob as superheroes1.

The strip hit a second wind on Tumblr in late 2016 through the Two Panel Rule, the joke that cutting the middle two panels out of any CAD strip usually makes it funnier3. Blog metalslugx posted an early example without explanation, blog devipotato later reblogged it with context, and on December 11, 2016, blog eggcup's take pulled over 48,000 notes and spawned copycat blogs dedicated to CAD panel removals.

How to Use This Meme

The most common remix format is the Two Panel Rule: pick a Ctrl+Alt+Del strip, crop out the two middle panels, and repost the four-panel joke as a two-panel joke. The gag typically leans on how the setup-and-punchline compression exposes the strip's rhythm3. The 'Loss' panel, meanwhile, is usually parodied by redrawing four unrelated objects in the same one-two-one-three character layout without labels.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ctrl+Alt+Del

2002webcomicclassic

Ctrl+Alt+Del, often shortened to CAD, is a gaming webcomic by Tim Buckley that launched on October 23, 2002, starring roommates Ethan and Lucas. It birthed the infamous 'Loss' four-panel strip, invented the gamer holiday Winter-een-mas, and picked up a loud anti-fandom around its poorly received 2006 animated adaptation.

webcomic memes gaming exploitable templates late 2000s memes forced meme memes

Overview

Ctrl+Alt+Del, or CAD, is a gaming webcomic written and drawn by Tim Buckley that follows roommates Ethan and Lucas as they obsess over games, hardware, and console launches1. The strip's title riffs on the Windows Control-Alt-Delete keyboard command used to interrupt a frozen system4.

Beyond the strips themselves, CAD is best known for producing the 'Loss' four-panel strip, which became one of the internet's most parodied image macros3. It also invented Winter-een-mas, a January holiday created in-comic by Ethan where each of the last seven days of the month celebrates a different gaming genre1. Detractors adopted the B^U emoticon to mock the strip's flat art and reused facial expressions, nicknaming its creator 'Tim B^Uckley.'

How It Spread

In 2006, Blind Ferret Entertainment helped Buckley launch Ctrl+Alt+Del: The Animated Series, a subscriber-only cartoon that debuted on February 12. Subscribers paid $30 for twelve three-minute episodes, and the reception was brutal, with complaints about the writing, voice acting, and animation sparking annotated parody edits of every episode3.

On November 23, 2012, Buckley announced a story arc that killed Ethan and closed out the original cast, followed by a 'Hollywood Reboot' redesign of the main characters1. Between October 2014 and May 2015, the CAD site posted pages from a digital comic book called 'Analog and D-Pad,' recasting Ethan and Jacob as superheroes1.

The strip hit a second wind on Tumblr in late 2016 through the Two Panel Rule, the joke that cutting the middle two panels out of any CAD strip usually makes it funnier3. Blog metalslugx posted an early example without explanation, blog devipotato later reblogged it with context, and on December 11, 2016, blog eggcup's take pulled over 48,000 notes and spawned copycat blogs dedicated to CAD panel removals.

How to Use This Meme

The most common remix format is the Two Panel Rule: pick a Ctrl+Alt+Del strip, crop out the two middle panels, and repost the four-panel joke as a two-panel joke. The gag typically leans on how the setup-and-punchline compression exposes the strip's rhythm3. The 'Loss' panel, meanwhile, is usually parodied by redrawing four unrelated objects in the same one-two-one-three character layout without labels.

Frequently Asked Questions