Questionable Content 14: "I Deserve A Fancy Butt Emblem."

[Morquard]

There's also the fact we're not travelling back in time to see the scene happening. We're listening to a retelling of it by either Brun and Renee, who might very well believe that the confused look at the bullies face was "OMG she's so right, I'll be nothing!" instead of "Huh? What she just say? Weirdo!"

[Max_Killjoy]

I mean, that's not how it really works: irl they would have mugged her, taught her how to dance, and then sold her into slavery. But whatever Jeff wants to portray, I guess.

This is a thing that happens with high school kids? Or did I miss some blue text?

[Traab]

Speaking as a kid who was on the bullied side of things yes, a particularly good line delivered in the right way can and does make bullies back off unless they are trying to start a fist fight. Maybe things are different in the modern age, but back then if you were good enough at dropping lines you could win the confrontation. Having someone you probably treat as retarded hit you like that would have likely shocked and unnerved them. It probably didnt last long, they likely came back the next day, but yeah. Bullies like easy targets they can publicly dominate in some fashion, one who fights back effectively is far from ideal as a target. "Did you see how bad I floored that guy? Yeah thats right, im billy bada** over here!" Feeds the ego far better than "Yeah I won in the end, but the crowd saw me get this black eye in the process."

[Willie the Duck]

I mean, that's not how it really works: irl they would have mugged her, taught her how to dance, and then sold her into slavery. But whatever Jeff wants to portray, I guess.

This is a thing that happens with high school kids? Or did I miss some blue text?

Vinyadan is in a weird mood today, and not exactly explaining ahead of time when making surreal jokes. I would just assume the blue text. Although I too have no idea what this is about.

[Kato]

Or some people assume we're all smart enough to tell sarcasm from serious statements and don't use blue font to point it out..

Also : can we go back to the bread and catgirl fetish jokes?

[Max_Killjoy]

Or some people assume we're all smart enough to tell sarcasm from serious statements and don't use blue font to point it out..

Poe's Law.

[Willie the Duck]

Or some people assume we're all smart enough to tell sarcasm from serious statements and don't use blue font to point it out..

Hence, assume it is a joke.

[Drascin]

Yes, yes, we know, everything is stupid. Seriously, guys. I find "Brun says something weird and vaguely ominous, bullies back off, uncertain" entirely believable. Middle and high school bullies back off constantly, because they're every bit as stupid children as the ones they're bullying.

[Iruka]

Yes, yes, we know, everything is stupid. Seriously, guys. I find "Brun says something weird and vaguely ominous, bullies back off, uncertain" entirely believable. Middle and high school bullies back off constantly, because they're every bit as stupid children as the ones they're bullying.

It does not align with my experiences and seems a bit forced in Brun's complete victory.
I've come to expect thinking along the lines of "Once a loser, always a loser." from school bullies. Especially "stupid children" will assume that life just goes on the way it is.

[Kish]

I'm not at all sure why multiple people are assuming that if the flashback hadn't ended when it did, the next panel wouldn't have been "and the guy on the left overturns Brun's tray into her lap." The only indication they had more of a response than to stare for a second is Renee saying that one of them was, in her reading, motivated to get a career years later by it.

[John Cribati]

The bullies, as far as we see, came here to talk s**t about Brun. Brun talked more s**t than them, and they backed off for today. Brun's words hit a sore spot with one guy in particular and it stuck with him. Words tend to do that on occasion.

There is no indication that they approached her to with the intent of physical violence, and thus no reason to assume they would go for such.

And even so, I'm certain HighSchool!Renee could and would beat any or all of their sorry asses if they went so far anyway.

[Beelzebub1111]

I don't know, this whole thing reeks of a personal vendeta tha jeph has never gotten over about high school. Like "yeah, thats what I should have said. It would have totally owned them". Watching someone's personal revenge fantasy just feels weird.

[Vinyadan]

Yes, it was a joke. It's actually an oblique throw to how funny it is that Jeff managed to create a character that causes immediate inspection and debate about the believability of anything that concerns her, to the point of discussing the local variance in price of raisins and implications of social politics in a specific American county on the diet of poor children; the line in common discourse between poor and abject; the probability of bat handling; how poverty relates to housing choices that might facilitate bat handling; high school social and power dynamics; and neurodivergence and ASD.

I am not faulting the thread with this, by the way. I am not faulting anyone. When you have a funny comic with very little care for reality and you suddenly throw into it a character with a deliberately realistic condition to which the author even declares a personal connection, it's like throwing a stone in the water. And now it is necessary to fact check everything to see if the comic all should be seen in the light of this sudden shift to realism, and essentially examine and, if necessary, rebuild the rules on which it runs and through wish the readers understand it. Especially because this is a comic about quirky people, but now one of them isn't quirky, she's autistic -- a condition with its own challenges when it comes to media -- and so there's a demand for explanation for all of her actions: writing quirk, ASD, nurture, nature, something else (e.g. Hanners's odd behaviour under chemicals)?

[Beelzebub1111]

I don't think its so much the character. I like her, honestly. But Jeph seems to be using her to make COMMENTARY ON SOCIETY. Or at least how he views society. And it all either half-assed, poorly researched or nothing all that controversial to his social group.

As someone I know once put it, He's fellating the ivory tower.

[Cikomyr]

I don't think its so much the character. I like her, honestly. But Jeph seems to be using her to make COMMENTARY ON SOCIETY. Or at least how he views society. And it all either half-assed, poorly researched or nothing all that controversial to his social group.

As someone I know once put it, He's fellating the ivory tower.

You can just ask a refund for that free comic strip if you aren't happy.

[Vinyadan]

You can just ask a refund for that free comic strip if you aren't happy.

That reminds me of Michael Ende's "Momo", where there is a bank where people can put their time. The obvious problem is how you are supposed to get it back.

[Beelzebub1111]

You can just ask a refund for that free comic strip if you aren't happy.

That's a deflection. Just because he's giving away something for free doesn't make him immune to criticism.

[Willie the Duck]

As someone I know once put it, He's fellating the ivory tower.

… and you liked it so much you repeated it?

New comic up! This one genuinely feels like filler (and I'm guessing even Jeph would agree on that point.

[Keltest]

Oddly, my local newspaper just had an article in it describing how bats are getting hit pretty hard here because the volatile weather, especially after the polar vortex, has them waking up prematurely, then going out and getting frozen.

[eee]

Maybe if Beepatrice had said her boss was a fellow AI...

The rest of the conversation is slightly ominous.

[Kish]

Maybe if Beepatrice had said her boss was a fellow AI...

Roko's primacy schtick is that she relates to mechanical bodies the same way most people relate to flesh-and-blood bodies and is as disturbed by watching Faye and Bubbles repair AI bodies as a human might be by watching equivalently extreme surgery, so no, I think she got that.

[Kato]

I don't think its so much the character. I like her, honestly. But Jeph seems to be using her to make COMMENTARY ON SOCIETY. Or at least how he views society. And it all either half-assed, poorly researched or nothing all that controversial to his social group.

Yeah, this is how I feel about the comic a lot recently. Which is why I prefer comics like today.

New comic up! This one genuinely feels like filler (and I'm guessing even Jeph would agree on that point.

I like filler. This one might be a bit crude but it's funny enough.

[Iruka]

That is one industrial strength penile masturbation device.

[Dorath]

I mean, that's not how it really works: irl they would have mugged her, taught her how to dance, and then sold her into slavery. But whatever Jeff wants to portray, I guess.

I know this has been pointed out to you many times, but why do you still insist on spelling Jeph's name wrong? It's an offensive lack of respect.

[Max_Killjoy]

Oddly, my local newspaper just had an article in it describing how bats are getting hit pretty hard here because the volatile weather, especially after the polar vortex, has them waking up prematurely, then going out and getting frozen.

The yo-yo weather is rough on a lot of things... record cold high temps here yesterday and today, in the single digits... forecast for the mid-40s and rain this weekend.

[Vinyadan]

I know this has been pointed out to you many times, but why do you still insist on spelling Jeph's name wrong? It's an offensive lack of respect.

Feel free to report my posts! It's simply how I find it easiest to write it, lectio facilior and all that. After all, Jeff is a diminutive of Jeffrey, which is his actual name.

[Cikomyr]

That's a deflection. Just because he's giving away something for free doesn't make him immune to criticism.

It doesn't make him immune to criticism, but why are you wasting your time with a comic that offends you so much?

People can just stop watching stuff they dislike you know. Why do you waste your time reading what you hate, and then further wasting your time writing posts about how much you hate what you read?

[Beelzebub1111]

It doesn't make him immune to criticism, but why are you wasting your time with a comic that offends you so much?

People can just stop watching stuff they dislike you know. Why do you waste your time reading what you hate, and then further wasting your time writing posts about how much you hate what you read?

I don't hate it though. I just don't like it when he creates a societal model to prove his own views of society correct. Pages like today are why I like the comic. When he devotes his characters and arcs to just making commentary that his core audience already agrees with and acting like he's oh so brave and progressive for saying it grinds my gears.

[halfeye]

As someone I know once put it, He's fellating the ivory tower.

Is today's comic a reaction to this remark?

[jwhouk]

Feel free to report my posts! It's simply how I find it easiest to write it, lectio facilior and all that. After all, Jeff is a diminutive of Jeffrey, which is his actual name.

Actually, it isn't. Jeph is his name.