Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird

[Keltest]

Faye, that appears to be a foot. Learn some organization skills.

Also, don't just throw feet around, youre going to trip on it, and you've already met your limit for hospital visits this decade.

[Morquard]

Gotta say i'm disappointed Jeph. This was the perfect opportunity to show a box with "Butts" on it, and it containing just that. And you blew it.

[Beelzebub1111]

Ah, here it is. The "response to people bringing up problematic implications" page. I was waiting for this one. It's like clockwork.

[georgie_leech]

Were you expecting the first thing after Hanners came back and said she was doing better, to be her social circle to immediately question whether she''s actually doing better? I know when I haven't seen someone in a while, my first instinct is to be happy at seeing them again, not to question the basis for them returning.

This feels less like a response to criticism to me, and more like the natural progression of things. It's even coming from the mouth of the other character we know has struggled with a mind not always under their control.

[The Glyphstone]

Agreed. If this is some sort of author-response to criticism, he's presented it at a logical time and in a sensible way that it doesn't feel jarring the way some other Very Special Comics have.

[Shadow of the Sun]

As I've said before, I'm a fellow OCD sufferer and I don't find this particularly problematic.

I can't say there's a consensus here, but a few people who are also neurodivergent and have anxiety issues in this thread have said that we don't find this depiction problematic and think it's actually reasonably realistic and pretty good.

I'd rather see a character with OCD make progress over time than them stay crippled by it.

[John Cribati]

And Also theres the part where the "problematic implications" were really just exaggerations of what was actually happening. Like. Just the thought of seeing "character with anxieties has learned a coping mechanism by effectuvely putting herself through a fascimilie of a form of therapy that is actually used" and equating it to "charaacter with anxiety is cured of their anxiety" would be laughable if it didn't show how little people actually understand about mental disorders.

[Willie the Duck]

Ah, here it is. The "response to people bringing up problematic implications" page. I was waiting for this one. It's like clockwork.

In the same way that a good lecturer will know how many points they can make before circling back to address the thoughts people will have been wondering about regarding point #1, yes it was predictable. Pretty well timed, too.

[Max_Killjoy]

I find Jeph's handling of "ISSUES" often ham-handed and full of metro-trendy "holier than thou" preaching... but today's page doesn't feel at all unnatural beyond the sit-com joke setup itself.

[Wraith]

I find Jeph's handling of "ISSUES" often ham-handed and full of metro-trendy "holier than thou" preaching... but today's page doesn't feel at all unnatural beyond the sit-com joke setup itself.

This is very similar to what I was starting to think about today's strip. Hanners spending time to specifically spend confronting her anxieties and finding new, healthier ways to cope with them in order to lead a more rounded life, without the instant miracle cure of eradicating them entirely, is entirely plausible.

With the benefit of hindsight, her wackier behaviours - essentially a gallery of her self-harming for "humourous" effect - were the strips that we should have been referring to as exploitative. Realistic, in some peoples' cases perhaps, but in general exaggerations, and applying that to mental illness for a joke should be far more problematic than Hanners spending time getting her life together with the support of her friends.

[Max_Killjoy]

This is very similar to what I was starting to think about today's strip. Hanners spending time to specifically spend confronting her anxieties and finding new, healthier ways to cope with them in order to lead a more rounded life, without the instant miracle cure of eradicating them entirely, is entirely plausible.

With the benefit of hindsight, her wackier behaviours - essentially a gallery of her self-harming for "humourous" effect - were the strips that we should have been referring to as exploitative. Realistic, in some peoples' cases perhaps, but in general exaggerations, and applying that to mental illness for a joke should be far more problematic than Hanners spending time getting her life together with the support of her friends.

I think there are times when Jeph's not trying to tell a joke, but because it comes between two jokes, there's a bit of whiplash.

And there are other times when Jeph is trying to do self-effacing humor through his characters, but from this side of the screen it just comes across as being mean to his own characters.

[Traab]

This is very similar to what I was starting to think about today's strip. Hanners spending time to specifically spend confronting her anxieties and finding new, healthier ways to cope with them in order to lead a more rounded life, without the instant miracle cure of eradicating them entirely, is entirely plausible.

With the benefit of hindsight, her wackier behaviours - essentially a gallery of her self-harming for "humourous" effect - were the strips that we should have been referring to as exploitative. Realistic, in some peoples' cases perhaps, but in general exaggerations, and applying that to mental illness for a joke should be far more problematic than Hanners spending time getting her life together with the support of her friends.

Remember the comic where she was cleaning the ceiling by using suction cups to cling to the top? I think that was around the time when she was at her most frazzled/deranged and her ocd/anxiety was being treated as an easy excuse for punchlines.

[Wraith]

Remember the comic where she was cleaning the ceiling by using suction cups to cling to the top? I think that was around the time when she was at her most frazzled/deranged and her ocd/anxiety was being treated as an easy excuse for punchlines.

Remember that time the entire comic was 4 panels of Hannelore brushing her teeth over and over until her mouth was full of blood? And then resignedly reaching for the dental floss, implying that she was going to continue hurting herself and was fully aware of the futility of her actions?

At least I... think... that was a punchline?

[Max_Killjoy]

Remember that time the entire comic was 4 panels of Hannelore brushing her teeth over and over until her mouth was full of blood? And then resignedly reaching for the dental floss, implying that she was going to continue hurting herself and was fully aware of the futility of her actions?

At least I... think... that was a punchline?

I may have blanked that out... do you recall about when that was ?

[Wraith]

I tell a small, unintentional lie - it was 8 panels.

[georgie_leech]

I tell a small, unintentional lie - it was 8 panels.

I don't think that was being played for comedy... Now, the ice cubes on the next page, those were meant to be funny.

[Vinyadan]

I got more of a feeling of tenderness from that page, because it was showing a weakness in everyday life that was representative of something larger in Hannelore.

[Max_Killjoy]

I don't think that was being played for comedy... Now, the ice cubes on the next page, those were meant to be funny.

Yeah, I don't see any punchline or ha-ha in the brushing teeth strip... seems more poignant that poking fun.

[Shadow of the Sun]

There is a lot of Hannerlore humour in the earlier strips, but I'd never found them particularly exploitative. A lot of it was "oh ****, that's exactly how it is, this is funny, this guy gets it!". The strip about the rapping penis telling her to kill her friends, for example... that's obviously exaggerated but it's one of the few times I've seen someone actually look at the intrusive thoughts that come as a result of OCD without boiling it down to "lel he washes his hands a lot!"

[mucat]

I, too, am not going to tell you how to run your business, Faye. I'll just tell you how anyone with the sense God gave gravel would run your business, and that is by NOT CONSOLIDATING BALL BEARINGS TO SAVE SPACE.

That is all.

[Cikomyr]

I, too, am not going to tell you how to run your business, Faye. I'll just tell you how anyone with the sense God gave gravel would run your business, and that is by NOT CONSOLIDATING BALL BEARINGS TO SAVE SPACE.

That is all.

I think she did it on purpose to give something to do to Hanners

[Max_Killjoy]

I, too, am not going to tell you how to run your business, Faye. I'll just tell you how anyone with the sense God gave gravel would run your business, and that is by NOT CONSOLIDATING BALL BEARINGS TO SAVE SPACE.

That is all.

Over the years, I think, we've seen Faye demonstrate that her amount of "sense" is quite variable, and does not always exceed that of gravel.

[Felius]

Huh, artshift again? Or is it just my eyes?

[Gnoman]

A music joke in Questionable Contnent? How unnatural!

[VoxRationis]

Am I just unusually drunk tonight, or is the art tonigh particularly angular and unsettling?

[Wraith]

I think that the colour looks a little bit washed out - Claire and Hannelore are definitely a shade or two paler than they were last week.

As for angular.... I can see that. It's subtle, but especially around Marten's jaw, he's gone from squared off to actually square with pointed corners, more like Dale.

[Shadow of the Sun]

On Pateron, Jeph mentioned that he is experimenting with the art style again.

[Evil DM Mark3]

I, too, am not going to tell you how to run your business, Faye. I'll just tell you how anyone with the sense God gave gravel would run your business, and that is by NOT CONSOLIDATING BALL BEARINGS TO SAVE SPACE.

That is all.

Like you've never had an idea that made total sense inside your head, only for the glaring flaws to blossom forth after 5 seconds of exposure to the outside world. That panel might be the first time she ever said it out loud. Interesting fact, saying things you are thinking forces your brain to re-evaluate them as it treats the sound from your voice as new info and processes it like anything else it hears, that's why "It made sense in my head" is such a common occurrence.

[Wraith]

To be fair, there is context that we're not being told in the comic.

Let's say you buy 2,000 BB's of one size, 2,000 of another, and 2,000 of a third and store them in the same bucket. If you only use 5 BB's a week, it's going to be 15 years before it makes even the slightest bit of difference to you, compared to the shelf space which you might be using hourly?

I mean, I wouldn't do that. I'd just put up another shelf, because I'm not a maniac. But there are people who think this way; they walk around among us, free and at liberty to do these things unimpeded.

[Cazero]

Let's say you buy 2,000 BB's of one size, 2,000 of another, and 2,000 of a third and store them in the same bucket. If you only use 5 BB's a week, it's going to be 15 years before it makes even the slightest bit of difference to you, compared to the shelf space which you might be using hourly?

It's going to waste time on every job that use one because you know have 2/3 chance of not getting the size you want at random and have to sort them by hand every time you pick one. And then there's inventory.
Plus considering the way ball bearings are stored (form-fitting like a liquid), it doesn't take more shelf space if you use the right shape of containers.