Questionable Content XIX: Give Jeph Just A *Little* Credit, Here

[Mechalich]

One thing I don't understand is that we were introduced to several new characters who had some level of interesting stuff going on. And we seem to have adopted the one that is an abrasive jerk whose circumstance is mostly a result of her own actions. And this is all framed like..."oh poor baby" while also trying to say that she's an adult. It's frustrating to say the least.

Honestly, she reminds me of all the worst aspects of Faye. Another snarky sarcastic girl who is mean and insults you but is actually really sad and maudlin, and can pivot on a dime as long as marten is there to help her out. It's practically Jeph's signature at this point.

The character I think Liz resembles the most (and could quite possibly be modeled on, given Jeph's age and Massachusetts-related past), is Will Hunting from the film Good Will Hunting. Both characters are precocious mathematical geniuses who are aggressively defensive to the point of massive self-sabotage and who are broadly incapable of taking control of their own lives. The big difference is the Will had a good reason for being messed up as he was, a history of childhood abuse, and a logical-in-context history of messing up throughout his youth that left him on the verge of self-destruction that only the unexpected recognition of his genius and the choices of others to reach out and support him at significant personal cost offered the possibility of escape. Also, the movie is quite careful to make certain that while the audience is supposed to feel bad for Will, it also calls him out for wasting his potential.

One of the big problems with Liz is that QC has broadly failed to show or tell us anything about her potential. Yes, she apparently earned two PhDs at a very young age, but that's a credential, not an accomplishment. And then she apparently wasted two years doing nothing. The world contains plenty of people in self-destructive death spirals, and it's impossible to save them all. QC needs to provide a reason why saving this one is something we, the audience, should care about.

[Scarlet Manuka]

The raunchiest of auras? Is that really what you meant to say?

(some browsing of online dictionaries later)

OK, so some dictionaries list dirty, slovenly, etc. as a secondary meaning (a very few have it as the primary). I hadn't come across that usage before. I still think e.g. "rankest" would have been a better choice, but OK.

[Wraith]

It sort-of works from a Commonwealth perspective? "Raunchy" in Britain usually means exciting or excitable, usually with a sexual or tantalising implication, but also (less commonly, yet perfectly sensibly) just in a platonic sense. "Telling a raunchy joke" could mean one referring to sexual content, and/or one that has a lot of foul-but-good-natured language in it. Think it like, someone who is flirting outrageously by telling crude jokes but staying just on the 'fun' side of obscene.

It's a little bit odd, but it parses and I had just put it down the the British/Canadian English differing from American English. Not that it would mean anything for Marten, but from Jeph who has no such consistency among his characters and their quirks, it makes sense.

I don't think Marten meant to suggest that his hoodie would calm down someone whose aura was being sexually explicit. In context, I think the word that he was going for should have been 'the rowdiest of auras'.

[otakuryoga]

hmmmm, couldnt they just call Sam?
she prolly knows where Emmit lives
or her number(see if they hear her phone ring)
or her moms number

[Wraith]

Just.

Go.

Home.

You're either already late, and standing around squealing about it in a coffee shop is only making it worse... Or you're not, and you arrive home early without consequence except having to look for your 'phone.

That's it. That's how you solve this critical, "interrupt your Cubetown for this special emergency broadcast" dilemma.

[EDIT] It occurs to me that this plan relies on Emmett knowing their own address, which at this point is... y'know..... [/EDIT]

Alternatively; Mom is Professor of the Internet so she's absolutely guaranteed to have an email address that shows up on Google (if not an office extension for 'phone as well), and at least one person present in the room right now has wi-fi access inside their skull.

I'm not sure how those two facts could be related, maybe someone smarter than me can help.

[Vinyadan]

I share the confusion as to why this arc is happening, although a part of me wants it to be about something amazingly dumb, like a Vespavenger-style crusader that now steals teenagers cellphones to break them free of obsessive parental control. Faye and Bubbles will now have to enter the CellSader's Dungeon and retrieve Sam-not-Sam's phone, while the kid actually follows them around as a weepy cohort.

[geoduck]

It might be an attempt to actually show how Elliot keeps getting into trouble which so far has only been described after the fact.

[Willie the Duck]

It might be an attempt to actually show how Emmet keeps getting into trouble which so far has only been described after the fact.

Hmm. As much as we are all internally screaming things like, 'Just. Go. Home.,' these are relatively accurate teen behaviors (being careless or thoughtless and ending up in a minorly bad situation and then freezing up rather than doing the sensible thing to remedy the situation). If this plot is to showcase how Elliot ends up in trouble, all that's left is a discussion while they walk back about other times this has happened, but with significantly more 'trouble' (including us getting the last half of a story involving fire, flooded basements, excessive amounts of ferrets, or whatnot).

Subplot: I forget, does Bubbles know that Yay needs to be weened from their privacy violation godmode schtick?

[Ionathus]

Emmett continues to not be an interesting troublemaker. If "stayed out too late and lost their phone" counts as wacky hijinks, then I'm the freaking Joker by comparison.

[Keltest]

Hmm. As much as we are all internally screaming things like, 'Just. Go. Home.,' these are relatively accurate teen behaviors (being careless or thoughtless and ending up in a minorly bad situation and then freezing up rather than doing the sensible thing to remedy the situation). If this plot is to showcase how Elliot ends up in trouble, all that's left is a discussion while they walk back about other times this has happened, but with significantly more 'trouble' (including us getting the last half of a story involving fire, flooded basements, excessive amounts of ferrets, or whatnot).

Subplot: I forget, does Bubbles know that Yay needs to be weened from their privacy violation godmode schtick?

I don't actually know how much this is a privacy violation. Phonebooks are still technically a thing, and even though cell phones have made them largely unhelpful, the idea that your phone number is public is still a thing in a lot of people, especially the older generations.

[Wraith]

If this plot is to showcase how Elliot ends up in trouble, all that's left is a discussion while they walk back about other times this has happened, but with significantly more 'trouble'

That's fair. It leaves an open ended question along the lines of: if 'I forgot my 'phone and was late for dinner' is an example of Emmett's random escapades, at what point does that escalate into behaviour like hijacking a zamboni?

But 'and then they panicked and did something stupid' is a perfectly acceptable answer. Even so, I would have liked to see THAT story rather than the one which ends "..and then Bubbles googled it, the end".

Subplot: I forget, does Bubbles know that Yay needs to be weened from their privacy violation godmode schtick?

If memory serves, this is entirely a Roko-driven plot. Others have shown concern that Yay could do these things, but every other time I can think of when it's been brought up, it's something like Marten and Claire asking Yay for more dirt on Cubetown, or even praising them for it being such a struggle not to do it more often.

[Ionathus]

Even so, I would have liked to see THAT story rather than the one which ends "..and then Bubbles googled it, the end".

It's a perfect example of the increasingly short half-life of QC conflicts!₁ Things used to simmer. Dora and Marten's troubles were brewing for hundreds of comics. Same thing with Faye's alcoholism. Is it too much to ask that the story be patient enough to set up its own payoffs?

I mean, I'm not terribly interested in more of this storyline but I'm kind of hoping they talk about it a little more at the very least. If they don't, this "Emmett loses their phone" was a complete nothingburger of a plotline.

And yeah, now I'm sad that Emmett didn't panic and try to steal a zamboni to get home faster. So thanks for that letdown.

1. Complete with "Spookybot fixes it for everyone."

[The Glyphstone]

No zamboni, but we do learn Emmett fell down a well at some point. So there's our obligatory Emmett Noodle Incident.

[DavidSh]

"toll/smol"? Seriously? Does anybody actually write this? Does anybody actually say this, and if so, how would it be distinguished from "tall/small"?

[Wraith]

Ah, I get it now.

This entire arc, from the moment that Emmett walked into Union Robotics with nothing better to do, has been building up to exactly one thing: Jeph continues to introduce all of his characters to all of the other characters, because they way everyone knows each other and can share the hive-mind of information, plots, anecdotes and similar without having to bother his arse with explaining it.

He did something similar last year, when Clinton met Willow, who turned out to live with Ysime and Iris, and taught yoga to Marigold and Hannelore, who works in Coffee of Doom and is friends with Martin, so now Willow knows Claire and Pintsize.... Y'know, that completely natural process of "following strangers down the street until they introduce you to new strangers". Which is basically what Emmett did, having nothing better to do than hang out in the workshop of the last two people they met previously no matter how briefly or erratically.

Now that Claire is going to Cubetown, we have less reason to visit Mom Augustus, so now if we need some awkward internet-adjacent Boomer humour then hey look, Professor Internet-Mom totally organically knows Faye and Bubbles! And her kid probably plays Minecraft and watches anime, double score! .....Even though both Streamer Mom and Prof Internet Mom is probably Gen X, if not possibly even a Millennial i just don't care

[Willie the Duck]

"toll/smol"? Seriously? Does anybody actually write this? Does anybody actually say this, and if so, how would it be distinguished from "tall/small"?

I didn't believe 'cringe,' 'based,' 'bop,' or 'so very extra' were real until I heard coworkers' kids use them. I bet they write it more than speak it. So much more of kids-these-days vernacular* is forged online or through text than when we were young -- not that my generation didn't have 'L337' and 'pwned,' albeit in the online subset of Xers.
*and yeah, I think Jeph is trying to be hip to the young-ins

[Ionathus]

He did something similar last year, when Clinton met Willow, who turned out to live with Ysime and Iris, and taught yoga to Marigold and Hannelore, who works in Coffee of Doom and is friends with Martin, so now Willow knows Claire and Pintsize.... Y'know, that completely natural process of "following strangers down the street until they introduce you to new strangers". Which is basically what Emmett did, having nothing better to do than hang out in the workshop of the last two people they met previously no matter how briefly or erratically.

Ugh, I'd blocked out that Willow plotline. It was almost interesting when Marten introduced her to Claire and there was a brief moment of conflict where Claire said "absolutely not, you're done 'bringing home strays' so to speak, it's super suspicious that this woman somehow knows you and just followed you around." That could have been an interesting arc, where Claire's insecurity or paranoia or, y'know, completely normal self-defense mechanisms clashed against Marten's easygoing Ultimate Chill. I would love to see more instances of Claire the tightly-wound overachiever obsessed with her future actually being at odds with her boyfriend with no ambitions who just lets randos follow him around.

Instead the conflict's half-life was measured in individual panels and anything interesting had decayed into much more stable "mutual understanding" isotopes within a week.

The Emmett example though -- I don't actually mind this. I felt like Emmett hit it off with Faye and Bubbles last time, and Faye is well-established liking kids so it makes sense they'd meet up again. I just don't get the toothless "forgot my phone" drama. If it's meant to showcase Emmett's anxiety it's coming off a little too strong, and turning it into a punchline.

"toll/smol"? Seriously? Does anybody actually write this? Does anybody actually say this, and if so, how would it be distinguished from "tall/small"?

I didn't believe 'cringe,' 'based,' 'bop,' or 'so very extra' were real until I heard coworkers' kids use them. I bet they write it more than speak it. So much more of kids-these-days vernacular* is forged online or through text than when we were young -- not that my generation didn't have 'L337' and 'pwned,' albeit in the online subset of Xers.
*and yeah, I think Jeph is trying to be hip to the young-ins

My wife and I are both firmly millennials and she's referred to us as "tol & smol" plenty of times before. Agreed that it doesn't feel organic at all coming from Emmett's mom but I do feel like that's at least somewhat the point -- older generations misusing slang will never not be a source for comedy.

[Vinyadan]

My wife and I are both firmly millennials and she's referred to us as "tol & smol" plenty of times before. Agreed that it doesn't feel organic at all coming from Emmett's mom but I do feel like that's at least somewhat the point -- older generations misusing slang will never not be a source for comedy.

http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/4p16/

[Wraith]

Ugh, I'd blocked out that Willow plotline.

If I have to suffer with the burden of knowledge, I don't see why I should have to suffer alone.

The Emmett example though -- I don't actually mind this. I felt like Emmett hit it off with Faye and Bubbles last time, and Faye is well-established liking kids so it makes sense they'd meet up again. I just don't get the toothless "forgot my phone" drama. If it's meant to showcase Emmett's anxiety it's coming off a little too strong, and turning it into a punchline.

I made a joke above about Emmett probably not knowing their own address, but on reflection... that might actually have been more interesting and appropriate than what we actually got.

They're new to Northampton, have been to Union Robotics only once before, and never to Coffee Of Doom. They're sheltered and don't have reliable access to the internet, so maybe directions to their street aren't that obvious? And Mom is Professor of the Internet, so she definitely knows better than to have her home address freely available, even assuming that her details have been updated since they moved in and such. So Emmett panics because they're in a strange town, with strangers, and doesn't know how to get home which, for a neurotic teen, is more than enough to trigger a panic attack that prevents them from explaining further.

That's why Bubbles couldn't just Google the address and solve the problem instantly - even Emmett isn't dumb enough to have doxx'd themself, even if they had the opportunity. That's why Emmett couldn't just go home and Professor Mom had to come to CoD to pick up Emmett - home isn't within easy walking distance, and the only person with a car is Dora who (apparently) isn't in the shop today. And we learn something actually valuable about Emmett's back-story in the process, rather than unshown anecdotes about stuff that will never be referenced again.

I think this highlights the problem with the 'losing the phone' story; it's fine, but it's also a wisp of a fart of a plot that is less worthwhile than the same amount of time doing filler portraits of the characters with 'Random Facts' superimposed around them.

[Beelzebub1111]

I wish Jeph had the cojones to actually show us the trouble Emmit causes in a big way. Have her burn down Union Robotics, purely by accident of course, to show that this does happen to them and it is unfortunate, but without actual consequences it doesn't hold up to the past things they said they've done. "Forgetting to call home" doesn't exactly measure up.

[Delicious Taffy]

Two strips in a row, it's been "You can use me as clothes and a bong, literal objects!" and I'm starting to think Moray has low self-esteem. While I share Jephs clear enjoyment of goo girls, this still feels weirdly sad. Maybe she'll ease up when she gets used to being around Marten.

Also, Claire is surprisingly chill about another woman playing backpack for her boyfriend with the express purpose of keeping him warm. Maybe it's me but that seems pretty physically intimate.

[Vinyadan]

Wait, Mammaries Evans will just keep what she confiscates and let other people smoke it? Seriously, how does "legal" work here?

Of course, one could think that Evans is acting like that to make sure Claire gets what she wants, even if it means going against the most basic principles of law enforcement.

And there's the whole carousel around it -- you can't just confiscate stuff like that, you are supposed to send illegal drugs to a lab for testing. So there was no testing. And now Evans has a stash of drugs that were confiscated by her, but were originally acquired through unknown means, and may contain more or less anything, from Fentanyl to cyanide to linseed oil, and she explicitly said she doesn't know what it precisely is, and she's now offering it to civilians.

Wow. This beats Moustache RoboCop getting drunk in a bar while wearing his uniform.

[Beelzebub1111]

Substance Abuse^tm comes in clutch to save the day. Whenever characters go on benders like this I always think back to Faye's psychiatrist talking about the dangers of self-medication with mind altering drugs. I wonder why we haven't seen her in a while.

[Mechalich]

Wait, Mammaries Evans will just keep what she confiscates and let other people smoke it? Seriously, how does "legal" work here?

Of course, one could think that Evans is acting like that to make sure Claire gets what she wants, even if it means going against the most basic principles of law enforcement.

And there's the whole carousel around it -- you can't just confiscate stuff like that, you are supposed to send illegal drugs to a lab for testing. So there was no testing. And now Evans has a stash of drugs that were confiscated by her, but were originally acquired through unknown means, and may contain more or less anything, from Fentanyl to cyanide to linseed oil, and she explicitly said she doesn't know what it precisely is, and she's now offering it to civilians.

Wow. This beats Moustache RoboCop getting drunk in a bar while wearing his uniform.

So, the tricky thing here is that while what Evan is proposing to do would indeed violate any number of laws and certainly qualify as a firing offense if Evan were a cop, she is not. Evan revealed that she (moronically, asking to get shot) carries a squirt gun, not a real firearm. Canadian police, by contrast are armed. Canada is not like the UK, the Canadian police can and do shoot people. Evan, therefore, is merely a private security guard, rather like a mall cop or the security guards at a factory checkpoint. She does not have the power to arrest anyone.

That means the child in question simply willing surrendered the 'confiscated' cannabis, and no legal action took place. There's no chain of custody, and the cannabis is no functionally Evan's to do with as she wishes. Now, ethically, sharing it is incredibly suspect, but that's par for the course in Cubetown.

This does circle back to the question of how Cubetown is organized. Is the whole platform the private property of the Director? That's possible, and probably makes the most sense. Given how many people seem to live there, Halifax PD probably has an officer permanently on site who sits in a tiny office next to the helipad and prays the phone doesn't ring for the whole shift.

[Wraith]

That means the child in question simply willing surrendered the 'confiscated' cannabis, and no legal action took place. There's no chain of custody, and the cannabis is no functionally Evan's to do with as she wishes. Now, ethically, sharing it is incredibly suspect, but that's par for the course in Cubetown.

On the one hand, you're not technically wrong. On the other, it kind of gets worse with every iteration - if a 6 foot 6" amazonian-robot-bodybuilder in a bullet-proof vest with "SECURITY" stencilled across the front, and what looks like the plastic handle of a tazer sticking out of their pocket (waterpistol or otherwise, I wouldn't know) walked up to me and demanded that I empty my pockets... "willingly surrender it" becomes a hell of a lot muddier even if I weren't a minor.

There's a version - a bad faith one given the obviously intended comedic tone of QC, I freely admit, but certainly relevant to the situation - of the story above where Evan has used very sketchy authority to accost a child and intimidated them into taking their stuff, without any accountability or parental consent/involvement. Stuff that she's now giving away for her own benefit in the form of social credit.

But she's "not a cop" I guess, so that makes it okay.

[Mechalich]

On the one hand, you're not technically wrong. On the other, it kind of gets worse with every iteration - if a 6 foot 6" amazonian-robot-bodybuilder in a bullet-proof vest with "SECURITY" stencilled across the front, and what looks like the plastic handle of a tazer sticking out of their pocket (waterpistol or otherwise, I wouldn't know) walked up to me and demanded that I empty my pockets... "willingly surrender it" becomes a hell of a lot muddier even if I weren't a minor.

There's a version - a bad faith one given the obviously intended comedic tone of QC, I freely admit, but certainly relevant to the situation - of the story above where Evan has used very sketchy authority to accost a child and intimidated them into taking their stuff, without any accountability or parental consent/involvement. Stuff that she's now giving away for her own benefit in the form of social credit.

I think a more useful comparison is how University Campus 'police' - who are often not armed officers on smaller college campuses (larger US universities often have their own zip codes and therefore a legitimate PD with arrest authority) - will make students pour alcohol down the drain if they break up an underage party under an implicit 'we could call the real cops about this, but we're not going to do that because it would suck for everyone involved.' It's not the taking away part that's really the issue here - it is illegal for a minor to be in possession of cannabis - but that Evan, by redistributing things, has effectively generated a low-key extortion racket. It may not be illegal, but the ethics are extremely murky.

Zooming out significantly further. Why are there any minors residing in Cubetown at all? This is not a suitable environment for children.

[Vinyadan]

Zooming out significantly further. Why are there any minors residing in Cubetown at all? This is not a suitable environment for children.

More unsupervised child labour, maybe?

[Beelzebub1111]

Zooming out significantly further. Why are there any minors residing in Cubetown at all? This is not a suitable environment for children.

How long has cubetown been around? They may have been born there. Adults do make children appear from time to time, and frequently not on purpose.

[Willie the Duck]

Or someone had a kid elsewhere and brought them along when they were hired. Somewhere between 'hey I just got a job in <foreign country> and the whole family is coming with me,' and those kids who spent ages 9-13 growing up on a sailing ship or Antarctic research station off Tierra del Fuego and starts high school (now back in the home-country) with poor boundaries and social skills, or similar. Honestly, over in the other half of the strip, it would make sense if this is what happened with Emmet rather than just being 'from Canada' as an explanation.

Re: Evan and the weed -- Yeah, they're a mallcop-like cop. Or maybe those cops from the vespabot storyline who were going to hotbox their squad car. And no, she shouldn't be doling out confiscated drugs* for use by the feral scientist currently low-key partying with the new librarian-savior. Honestly, I don't have a problem with this in principle, as totally irresponsible minor authority figures (the vespabot cops, or Tai, or the highers-up that Tai caught boning in the copy room) has been a mainstay of the comic and used well to comedic effect in the past. It's just that I don't find any of this funny or know how it advances anything.
*legal (but age-restricted) or otherwise

[Ionathus]

IDK Evan running a contraband black market could actually make me care about the Cubetown stuff so that's something to consider