John Paul Weber is your Comic Strip Critic and host of The Punchline, a Web series
dedicated to reviewing Newspaper Comics, later including Web Comics (though only the good ones as a rule). Weber started the show in April 2012, gradually gaining a small following. Eventually he was discovered by Rowdy C, who offered to post The Punchline on his website. This drew the attention of The Cartoon Hero, who put in word to the people at Reviewers Unknown. The Punchline joined RU in November 2012.
- Author Appeal: Retail and Calvin and Hobbes so very much.
- Other comic strips he's discovered over the course of his show also count, such as Lio.
- Berserk Button: Garfield is the biggest target of his ire. John also dislikes what he calls "zombie strips", comics that have been running for 50+ years and have nothing entertaining about them any more, surviving only on the nostalgia of older readers. There are several exceptions to this, such as Dick Tracy and Ginger Meggs.
- Brain Bleach: Tends to use a fair amount of it. Diamond Lil had so much disturbing imagery that he ran out of it.
- Catchphrase: His usual opening for the show, "Hello and welcome to The Punchline! I'm your Comic Strip Critic!" He also ended most of videos from 2012 to early 2013 with "... and I read the funny pages in the hope that, someday, they will be," though he himself has noted that, after finding many good comic strips, as well bad ones, it has become a tad redundant, and he needs a new one.
- Caustic Critic: Averted for the most part; unlike most online critics, he truly does want to review good material and point out its good points, possibly to help shine a positive light on a dwindling medium. When he does find something bad, though, he can tear into it as well as anyone.
- "The Comic Strip Doctor" is a spin-off in which he addresses faults with comics he dislikes and then finds ways on which they can be improved.
- Celebrity Endorsement: He's plugged the comic strip Retail constantly since debuting the show in 2012. On Retail's official website, almost all the comments for past strips are dated 2012 or later...
- Crossover: With Rowdy on The Garfield Show.
- Limited Wardrobe: Always seen wearing the same black-and-red track jacket.
- Shared Universe: Cameos and crossovers made him part of the Reviewaverse.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: He reviews the Chick Tracts from a Christian perspective, and boy was he angered by The Fundamentalist bigotry it expells (especially towards Catholics).
