T-Rex: Someone going by the all-caps name "ZACH MORRIS" has tagged my house! My front door is now spraypainted with "Zach"'s stupid name for jerks. I don't even like Saved By The Bell that much!
T-Rex: Forget you, Zach Morris!
Dromiceiomimus: I thought you liked street art, T-Rex! You're always all "Hey guys, let's reclaim public spaces with art instead of ads".
T-Rex: Yeah, but this isn't art! It's tagging. It's just some dude's made up name! Taggers are like dogs, marking their territory wherever they can, and "Zach Morris" is just a dog who likes implausible high school scenarios. Either that, I guess, or Mark-Paul Gosselaar is bored. And experimenting?
Utahraptor: I think you're ignoring the symbolism AND sociology behind tagging, T-Rex!
T-Rex: Explain!
Utahraptor: Okay, so you grow up in the city, and the skyline is dominated by billboards, ads for products and brands you don't have access to. And you realize that nobody cares who you are, but EVERYONE knows who Mickey Mouse is and what a Coke is. So you create a brand for yourself! You make up a tag and put it everywhere.
Off panel: Tagging can really be seen as the logical next step in ads: self-advertising! It can be seen as the price we pay for a culture that has saturated itself with advertising: individual brands, internalized campaigns of self-promotion.
T-Rex: UTAHRAPTOR YOU ARE ZACH MORRIS
