Time & Perspective Quote by Sergio Aragones

Comedy is supposed to read at the speed of a laugh. Sergio Aragones, a master of wordless mayhem and marginalia, is warning that the real enemy of a gag isn’t taste or even timing - it’s your own technique getting in the way of the joke’s velocity. “Complicated” here isn’t just about intricate plotting; it’s about any idea that forces the artist to stop being a performer and start being an engineer.

The intent is practical, almost shop-floor advice: draw in service of the punchline, not in service of your cleverness. Aragones is talking from a medium where every extra panel, prop, and camera angle adds cognitive load. The subtext is a quiet skepticism toward “smart” comedy that needs to be diagrammed. If you’re preoccupied with staging, you’re likely telegraphing, over-explaining, or polishing the life out of the moment. The gag starts to feel like homework - for you and for the reader.

Context matters: Aragones came up in the MAD ecosystem, where jokes had to land fast, visually, and often without a single line of dialogue. That tradition rewards clarity, rhythm, and a kind of cartooning muscle memory - the ability to hit a beat with minimal fuss. His line is almost a manifesto for spontaneous-looking craft: the highest skill is making the audience forget there was ever a “way” you drew it. When the joke works, the drawing disappears and the laugh stays.