5-4-12 Unheard of TV reference

[sgtrock]

You guys are all missing one important clue: Every interaction shown has been with girls. I wonder why T did that?

... sgtrock wins the thread.

Aaand I just got an addition to my sig!

[Lia S]

1) What sgtrock said while winning the thread.

2) People with some type of autism or another tend not to use expressions that are weird when taken literally. Expressions like the brainstem tickling comment. Such expressions aren't consciously avoided, they are just not the first to occur to them/us (I'm really not sure if I should include myself here. I'm an odd case.). Someone with a "worse" type of autism will even have lots of difficulty figuring out what was meant, because they'll be trying to imagine how exactly one tickles a brainstem and be very distracted by that.

3) The things said by the girls aren't covered by fog or something like that, they're censored out. Their actual words are being blocked out by Ronnie's overanalysis, not by an inability to "see" them.

It's not lupus. I mean autism. Not autism.

By the way, if the girls on this page are QUILTBAG readers... final-panel girl, you look adorable <3 .

[Artemisia]

For some reason, when I saw tickling brainstems all I could think of were disembodied brains trying to mate. . .don't know if that makes any sense whatsoever.

[Lia S]

I'll just leave this here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdI_MmN-Lp4

[Freemage]

1) What sgtrock said while winning the thread.

2) People with some type of autism or another tend not to use expressions that are weird when taken literally. Expressions like the brainstem tickling comment. Such expressions aren't consciously avoided, they are just not the first to occur to them/us (I'm really not sure if I should include myself here. I'm an odd case.). Someone with a "worse" type of autism will even have lots of difficulty figuring out what was meant, because they'll be trying to imagine how exactly one tickles a brainstem and be very distracted by that.

3) The things said by the girls aren't covered by fog or something like that, they're censored out. Their actual words are being blocked out by Ronnie's overanalysis, not by an inability to "see" them.

It's not lupus. I mean autism. Not autism.

Heh. Thanks for that last line, there. It made me giggle.

By the way, if the girls on this page are QUILTBAG readers... final-panel girl, you look adorable <3 .

[/quote]
I admit to a fondness for Panel 4's gothgirl, myself. She's doing it right, too--just a few pieces, carefully selected.

[Otaking]

I admit to a fondness for Panel 4's gothgirl, myself. She's doing it right, too--just a few pieces, carefully selected.

I'd like to pet her tarantula myself.

[CassieGlitz]

Is there a single overweight person in these comics who isn't bitter or twisted?

[Tamar]

I know, right? Listen, I've read T's explanations before, where he's maintained that he wants to avoid the "jolly fat guy/girl" stereotype. I get it. But the thing is, if you invert the stereotype too many times, it picks up some unfortunate implications of its own, yanno?

You know who I would've like to have seen more of in P&A? This girl. Weezy. Noticeably overweight, not fashion-conscious...but friendly, pleasant and a bit bashful/modest in an endearing way. I'd have hung out with her if she'd gone to my high school.

And yes, I know about Tim in Fans and Sophia in Cool Cat Studio. Fine, but as Freemage pointed out, they're in different webcomics from the P&A/QUILTBAG setup. In that, we've seen that while not all unpleasant characters are fat, all (recurring) fat people are unpleasant. No, I don't think T should go and create a pleasant, heavy-set character just so there can be a pleasant, heavy-set character. That would be tokenism. But let's hope, at least, that Ronnie undergoes some character development such that he becomes more likeable.

[LookingIn]

For some reason, when I saw tickling brainstems all I could think of were disembodied brains trying to mate. . .don't know if that makes any sense whatsoever.

Something like this maybe?

[Artemisia]

A-yep!

[LookingIn]

I know, right? Listen, I've read T's explanations before, where he's maintained that he wants to avoid the "jolly fat guy/girl" stereotype. I get it. But the thing is, if you invert the stereotype too many times, it picks up some unfortunate implications of its own, yanno?

You know who I would've like to have seen more of in P&A? This girl. Weezy. Noticeably overweight, not fashion-conscious...but friendly, pleasant and a bit bashful/modest in an endearing way. I'd have hung out with her if she'd gone to my high school.

And yes, I know about Tim in Fans and Sophia in Cool Cat Studio. Fine, but as Freemage pointed out, they're in different webcomics from the P&A/QUILTBAG setup. In that, we've seen that while not all unpleasant characters are fat, all (recurring) fat people are unpleasant. No, I don't think T should go and create a pleasant, heavy-set character just so there can be a pleasant, heavy-set character. That would be tokenism. But let's hope, at least, that Ronnie undergoes some character development such that he becomes more likeable.

But also remember that this is his introduction to the world of QUILTBAG and T has a long track record of reversing the course with many characters from unlikeable to either semi-good or decent people who need some guidence from an outside source... I refuse to believe he is making him out to be a bad guy, just a guy with problems who needs help and when he gets that help we get to see the real Ronnie emerge.

[LookingIn]

A-yep!

That particular episode was the first thing that popped into my head when you mentioned that, not sure if that was also what you were thinking the same thing or if just a random thought

[Artemisia]

Well, I watch Ugly Americans, Robot Chicken, and a bunch of other stuff, so, yeah, that came to mind

[Kamino Neko]

I can't get the link to work, but I just have to say... We're very advanced in Canada. >_>

[Chistery]

To be fair he wasn't wrong to call her out.

What, he's wrong? He's supposed to just pass along some message as an "in-joke" because she can't be bothered to use Facebook, IM, Twitter, Tumblr or whatever's meant to be trrrrrendy? Is it really inclusive of another person to use them like that, never explaining the joke, subverting him into a dumbwaiter? Isn't that incredibly insulting?

I'm not saying he handled it well or this isn't the result of some serious baggage on his part, but damn, the kid's right. She's presuming everyone wants to be included in her hip-and-edgy questionnaire, the circle of friends, and that everyone de facto understands her in-jokes. I'd say she's Lisa writ small.

And he's right, most people don't sincerely mean or say anything in a daily interaction, they're just motions. The trick is to get over caring about it and operating the same. If anything, he's expecting a lot considering how little he's putting into this right now. (That's really hard to do when you're stuck in the fat-kid-with-no-friends depression cycle)