
The Man Behind the Friday Funnies
Raoul Pascual started doing cartoons for his office mates
in his old job as a designer in a marketing/publishing company in Burbank
California. After leaving the company, he decided to keep in touch with
his friends by sending them original cartoons based on some joke emails
he received. Encouraged by their positive reactions, he decided to send
them out to other friends. This continued and what started with a handful
of recipients, he now delivers his jokes to thousands of people in several
countries every Friday morning.
One thing Raoul realized was there were still many who
were using slow dial-up internet connections so he intentionally keeps
the file sizes very small for an easy download.
At first the drawings were just quick black and white
pen sketches. Then it evolved into full color cartoons. Now, people send
him large videos and graphics. Many are not TGIF material simply due to
the file size but there are some exceptionally funny clips that Raoul
sends them out as attachments.
In the beginning Raoul's choice of jokes were simply based
on how hard he laughed when he read them for the first time. Then some
readers complained about the content being too graphical. He screened
those out. Then some complained about obscene languages and Raoul got
rid of that too. Then someone pointed out that some jokes were offensive
to some ethnic segments of society. Aging jokes are still fair game but
blonde jokes, ethnic jokes, political jokes, religious jokes, sexual jokes
--- these are off limits! With so many "sensitive" people out
there, it's amazing that any joke even makes it to the list. But somehow
a few do. Thank God for that! Of course a few borderline jokes
make it through the cracks especially when Raoul has so much in his hands
that he zombies out on Thursday evening.
Raoul considers this as one big experiment. Since his
first TGIF joke (the exact date is vague but his earliest one on file
was dated April 23 2004) he has not missed delivering a joke on Friday
morning. Even on vacation, he sends them out one way or another. The experiment
is one of consistency and quality --- how long will this record stand?
How long can jokes be funny without offending anybody?
If you do not receive your TGIF joke by Friday lunch time
(PST), there might be a glitch in your email system. If this ever happens
don't hesitate to re-subscribe to the list.
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Address all suggestions and questions to: raoul@tgifjoke.com