Potato is yum

It’s been a few weeks since Qi scans released chapter 234 of Top Tier Providence. This story is probably among my top 10 favorites and is pretty hilarious. One of the things the author commonly does is reference real life events or other stories and satirize them to send some kind of message or just for laughs. Much of the story mocks typical story tropes and pokes fun at some global politics and other matters.

In chapter 234, the author decided to reference Charlie Kirk’s assassination which kind of felt a bit ugh. I don’t really think the whole thing is as bad as many others in the community want to make it seem but it does leave a bad taste in an otherwise incredible story. It isn’t totally unexpected that something like this happens. If anything, Top Tier Providence has been rather tame in it’s political satire in comparison to western equivalents.

It’s kind of obvious that not every joke will land and I think it’s great that such a work is able to be this successful. I do think that the thought process behind this chapter wasn’t really that well calculated as it really seems like the author came up with some idea and forgot to really think about it. I have noticed that many of these Chinese authors are much more willing to write satire and especially political satire in comparison to Korean and Japanese authors. This could also just be a product of my samples in which almost all of the comics I read that have comedy are by Chinese authors and artists.

I find it kind of surprising how big of a reaction the general community gave to this chapter as it really didn’t seem like the author was trying to mock Charlie Kirk but rather the situation around which the assassination happened. When attempting to read between the lines, the author actually seems to be attempting to satirize the irony of the motive of someone who supports guns being killed by a gun at a time when they are talking about guns. Of course this gets taken the wrong way because it is incredibly difficult for people simply skimming the story to actually pick up on the irony.

Maybe people just aren’t paying attention to what the author is trying to say and think that all humor is just a means to laugh at the subject. I could also be reading into this too much but I love the story too much to just point a finger at the author and call him a shitty person even though that could be the case.

If you haven’t read Top Tier Providence I would highly recommend giving it a read. It is an incredibly unique system cultivation story with a very unique premise of someone who wants to avoid trouble and attention.