Questionable Content XX: XXX?

[Wraith]

A few more snarkers on Reddit have pointed out that Iris wasn't a cafeteria worker, she was a groundskeeper.

Personally, I prefer the interpretation that she is just incapable - either through her personality or dumb misfortune - of holding down the same job for more than a couple of months at a time. From jaded cafeteria worker, to apathetic groundskeeper, to Cursed Goth Burrito store, to whatever else, that's much more fun little bit of world-building and backstory for her than just "Jeph forgot again"

I hope this streak keeps up and we don't abruptly break to claire or ayo being high.

Wasn't this party Ayo's idea in the first place? She went around inviting people to it, at least, so presumably we'll go back to her at some point.

[VoxRationis]

This doesn't really seem like a proportionate response to Liz's needling Iris to come inside and join the fun.

[Rodin]

This doesn't really seem like a proportionate response to Liz's needling Iris to come inside and join the fun.

I dunno. Iris reads to me like someone with a lot of social anxiety, and I had a whole post in my head criticizing Liz's behaviour this week. I only didn't post it because I'm trying to turn down the negativity.

If I'm in Iris's position, I left the party because I need some space. Like "incipient panic attack" need. If someone comes out and wants to have a quiet conversation with me, great. But someone coming out trying to psychoanalyze me and drag me back into the party would be the LAST thing I want. That person being high and/or stoned would only make it worse, because the lack of inhibitions would be pissing me off even more.

So yeah, I can see myself going "psychoanalyze THIS" in an attempt to get the other person to leave me the hell alone. And then feeling bad when I realize I've done some real damage with my words. Today's comic feels really genuine.

[Keltest]

I dunno. Iris reads to me like someone with a lot of social anxiety, and I had a whole post in my head criticizing Liz's behaviour this week. I only didn't post it because I'm trying to turn down the negativity.

If I'm in Iris's position, I left the party because I need some space. Like "incipient panic attack" need. If someone comes out and wants to have a quiet conversation with me, great. But someone coming out trying to psychoanalyze me and drag me back into the party would be the LAST thing I want. That person being high and/or stoned would only make it worse, because the lack of inhibitions would be pissing me off even more.

So yeah, I can see myself going "psychoanalyze THIS" in an attempt to get the other person to leave me the hell alone. And then feeling bad when I realize I've done some real damage with my words. Today's comic feels really genuine.

I think I disagree with that. Iris wants someone to come out and tell her to come back inside and have fun, she doesn't want to be out there alone. That was established a couple pages ago. The problem here is that Liz called her on it as basically the first thing she said, so now she feels like she needs to maintain the edgy loner thing in order to preserve her dignity.

[Wraith]

I think it might be a tiny little more accurate to say that Iris would like for Willow to come out and invite her back in. Everyone else seems fully aware of her infatuation, it's only Willow who seems not to which is why Iris can be so rude to everyone else. In her mind, not only is she keeping up her edgy persona but they're "the wrong one" so gets to 'punish' them for what she perceives as spoiling her attempt for attention.

[Spriteless]

I like Willow too. A few years ago J Jaques had baker boss girl complain that she had to be the mom friend and bully her coworkers into asking dudes out for dates. Very tone deaf. But Willow just gets the vibes and does the emotional work to keep things groovy. Very astute.

[Beelzebub1111]

Did claire suffer any effects of being stoned? She seems exactly the same? I thought the whole point was ro tone down her personal responsibility for everyone else.

[Lumus]

Did claire suffer any effects of being stoned? She seems exactly the same? I thought the whole point was ro tone down her personal responsibility for everyone else.

She said "None of our business." That's pretty unprecedented.

[tomandtish]

Regarding today's comic, M&Ms has done both a Chili and a Jalapeno version in the past. Neither seem available at present in the USA

[Mechalich]

Regarding today's comic, M&Ms has done both a Chili and a Jalapeno version in the past. Neither seem available at present in the USA

I would submit that the quality of chocolate in M&Ms isn't worth it for a spicy pairing. A high quality dark chocolate on the other hand, that makes it work.

[Beelzebub1111]

Does anyone else get annoyed by characters laughing at jokes the other characters made? Like the little "snrk" at marten's 'hotel management' joke. I guess it's a...ludonarative dissonance if I didn't fine the joke that funny. And then I think of Jeph drawing it out and thinking of how funny his joke is, which in my opinion wouldn't seem out of place a Chuck Lorre production.

My point is in this comic Faye feels like the laugh track on a bad sitcom. This scene plays out better without her commentary.

[Keltest]

Does anyone else get annoyed by characters laughing at jokes the other characters made? Like the little "snrk" at marten's 'hotel management' joke. I guess it's a...ludonarative dissonance if I didn't fine the joke that funny. And then I think of Jeph drawing it out and thinking of how funny his joke is, which in my opinion wouldn't seem out of place a Chuck Lorre production.

My point is in this comic Faye feels like the laugh track on a bad sitcom. This scene plays out better without her commentary.

I think it would be weirder if people cracked jokes and nobody ever reacted to them. And its not like she was guffawing or anything.

[Beelzebub1111]

I'm not saying don't react. I'm saying she should contribute something to the scene if she's going to be in it. more than "ha." and "you guys sure are funny. I'm leaving."

There is probably something she could have added, like if she built off of Marten's joke instead of just laughing at it. like "Just in time for the continental breakfast" to lead into the coffee thing.

[Rodin]

I'm not saying don't react. I'm saying she should contribute something to the scene if she's going to be in it. more than "ha." and "you guys sure are funny. I'm leaving."

There is probably something she could have added, like if she built off of Marten's joke instead of just laughing at it. like "Just in time for the continental breakfast" to lead into the coffee thing.

I don't mind characters laughing at jokes, but I do miss the characters riffing on one another's jokes. There were a couple comics relatively recently where Faye and Marten did that, and Jeph even named one of the comics "QC Classic".

And I'm just there screaming at my monitor "YES! That's why old QC is classic! Do more of this!" Then we got a month of booze, weed, and fart jokes.

[Beelzebub1111]

I think her book will do well with that tone, and though I hate to say it, she can get away with it because she's cute. If she were a middle aged white guy it would come across as condescending and mansplain-ey. If she does it it could be popular because "she's just a 19 year old girl and can you imagine?" Like she could get away with it on the talk show circuit as well.

[Wraith]

And I'm just there screaming at my monitor "YES! That's why old QC is classic! Do more of this!" Then we got a month of booze, weed, and fart jokes.

There's nothing inherently wrong with booze, weed and fart jokes; quite a bit of early QC wasn't far off from that.

I think the most disappointing thing about the last couple of months for me, is that they were booze, weed and fart jokes didn't do anything. Like you said, in old QC it would be because people were riffing off each other or we'd at least get Hannelore's horrified face in Marigold's bedroom before following up with the running joke that it proved that Hannelore's friends were real people and not robots.

But with this? We were teased with the idea of Liz being bad enough while drunk and would be a chaos-goblin while high? But all she did was... have a mopey conversation. Similarly, the whole party was Ayo's idea, but it turns out she didn't even flunk out of university for partying too much because she's never done anything before and promptly fell asleep.

What was the pay off of the last 60+ strips? It was just a low-key party where nothing much happened, while Marten and Faye were supposedly having a heart-to-heart off camera. I know that not every joke has to be an absolute banger, and very few webcomics can be barrel-scrapingly awful all of the time, but... What is this?

I think her book will do well with that tone, and though I hate to say it, she can get away with it because she's cute.

If Claire's great idea for Liz - the academically implausible, neurodivergeant, garbage-dwelling recluse who keeps sexually harassing her coworkers and being obnoxiously irritating to everyone else - is to write a book about being more relatable to normal people, I think we should be asking yet more questions about Claire's aptitude for management....

[Mechalich]

If Claire's great idea for Liz - the academically implausible, neurodivergeant, garbage-dwelling recluse who keeps sexually harassing her coworkers and being obnoxiously irritating to everyone else - is to write a book about being more relatable to normal people, I think we should be asking yet more questions about Claire's aptitude for management....

There's also the problem that the 'explain quantum physics' space is fairly well served. A quick google search just revealed that 'Quantum Physics for Dummies' just released its third edition a month ago (this makes me happy), and there are any number of quite famous physicists/authors - most obviously Neil DeGrasse Tyson, but also Sean Carroll, and even the late Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time is now somewhat dated, and would be moreso in the QC-verse, but the book remains near the top of the physics sales list) - active in the space. In general, both physics, biology, and the social sciences have a lot of good books on any big topic, usually dominated by a handful of major players who have been active for decades - ex. the late E.O. Wilson wrote basically every book about ants that the general public had any interest in.

If there's open space, I think it's in chemistry. A book about Moray - let's call it My Life as a Slime Girl - is a huge opportunity both scientifically and to sell a bunch of books. It would, of course, have to be ghostwritten.

[Wraith]

While a valid idea, there are many problems with it in-universe. Starting with the fact that Liz seems to be a Physicist rather than a Biologist, Chemist, Computer Scientist, or some other kind of useful academic (don't worry, my degree is in History; I'm allowed to name and shame pointless academic choices) and so would have to learn a completely new discipline to make the attempt.

Then ending with the fact that no one knows how AIs work in this setting, least of all the physically impossible ones like Moray. This is Nobel Prize-winning stuff potentially from a 19 year old, and I don't think I'm ready for that level of Mary Sue-ness.

...Oh no. I just had a vision of Jeph writing Liz writing "Quantum Physics for Gen Z Kids" and just the concept made a little bit of my soul cringe into a ball.

[Beelzebub1111]

I thinik the real problem with it is that any book Liz would write would be limited by Jeph's understanding of quantum physics and the scientific process. Really what Liz should be focusing on is LEARNING things rather than making a discovery or...inventing something? I don't know what she did to earn her accolades so I don't really know what she's supposed to be doing. What I do know is that she has the most advanced tools at her disposal, what she should be doing is trying to measure or simulate reality, whatever she finds out in her measurements and simulations is what she publishes her findings. From her napkin notes it looks like she's trying to formulate a theory first rather than just looking at stuff and trying to see a pattern then attempting to disprove her pattern. It seems backwards for how I understand science to work.

Or maybe she can try to disprove someone else's theory? Like instead of trying to make a name for herself or her own model, maybe she can disprove String Theory or something.

[Mechalich]

While a valid idea, there are many problems with it in-universe. Starting with the fact that Liz seems to be a Physicist rather than a Biologist, Chemist, Computer Scientist, or some other kind of useful academic (don't worry, my degree is in History; I'm allowed to name and shame pointless academic choices) and so would have to learn a completely new discipline to make the attempt.

Then ending with the fact that no one knows how AIs work in this setting, least of all the physically impossible ones like Moray. This is Nobel Prize-winning stuff potentially from a 19 year old, and I don't think I'm ready for that level of Mary Sue-ness.

...Oh no. I just had a vision of Jeph writing Liz writing "Quantum Physics for Gen Z Kids" and just the concept made a little bit of my soul cringe into a ball.

I wasn't suggesting that Liz write a book about Moray, just generally if Cubetown were to go in on producing science books that would be a good place to start.

I thinik the real problem with it is that any book Liz would write would be limited by Jeph's understanding of quantum physics and the scientific process. Really what Liz should be focusing on is LEARNING things rather than making a discovery or...inventing something? I don't know what she did to earn her accolades so I don't really know what she's supposed to be doing. What I do know is that she has the most advanced tools at her disposal, what she should be doing is trying to measure or simulate reality, whatever she finds out in her measurements and simulations is what she publishes her findings. From her napkin notes it looks like she's trying to formulate a theory first rather than just looking at stuff and trying to see a pattern then attempting to disprove her pattern. It seems backwards for how I understand science to work.

High-level quantum mechanics investigations are more like mathematical research than experimental research. There is data, it comes from things like particle accelerators and neutrino detectors and stuff and since you can't just schedule a day at CERN, it's all pre-existing. So, much of the research is formulating theories and equations that try to explain the data, or at lest some part of the data, mathematically. Based on Liz's blackboard notes, she seems to have taken her shot at trying to develop a unified field theory or something similar, which is absolutely the sort of thing an overly ambitions person in her position with a blank check and no real expectations might try to do.

The problem with Jeph's clearly limited understanding of quantum physics is that he doesn't seem to quite grasp that there are countless smaller questions within the Standard Model and Quantum Field Theory and what Liz really needs is to be assigned to a team of researchers that's already working on any one of them.

[Cikomyr2]

Wait, you guys think Jeph would seriously consider defictionalizing a science book?

[georgie_leech]

I gotta say, I don't think Jeph needs to understand QM any more than the Big Bang Theory writers needed doctorates to write their brand of humour. If anything, I think it'd be a mistake to delve too deep into real world science for this comic. "This character is smart but any book she wrote would be condescending" is perfectly serviceable as far as character humour goes.

Also I can think of, like, at least three people in my life that I think could use those books.

[Beelzebub1111]

Getting flashbacks to the most frustrating episode of Frasier. But as long as you aren't giving out medical I suppose it is fine.

[Radar]

Getting flashbacks to the most frustrating episode of Frasier. But as long as you aren't giving out medical I suppose it is fine.

My flashback was about Dr. Tire. I am not sure if Frasier was even available in TV in my country during its original run.

[Gnoman]

Wait, you guys think Jeph would seriously consider defictionalizing a science book?

No, but he is more than a little bit likely to dedicate strips to showing Liz writing the in-universe one, which is all too likely to be an excruciating "this is what laypeople think science is" exercise.

I gotta say, I don't think Jeph needs to understand QM any more than the Big Bang Theory writers needed doctorates to write their brand of humour.

BBT actually had science people on staff, which is why they actually avoid a lot of the lazy "what people think a scientific genius looks like" takes.

[Mechalich]

BBT actually had science people on staff, which is why they actually avoid a lot of the lazy "what people think a scientific genius looks like" takes.

BBT was also mostly about scientists interacting with other scientists, since with the exception of Penny, who was deliberately positioned as the 'normal' one, every major character had some kind of advanced degree. This meant that the characters had things in common both in terms of their work-related topics and their various hobbies.

In the case of Liz, this is reversed and she's the odd one out. Out of the rest of the main cast only Clinton can even kind of talk to her about her work in a limited way. Liz went on this trip because she's desperate for human interaction, which certainly makes sense. The problem is, all her interactions come off as forced, because they are. She doesn't have anything in common with the main cast. These are not the kind of people she would normally hang out with (or in Claire's case, should hang out with, who willingly goes on vacation with their boss?). She really didn't need to continue being a part of the comic.

[Rodin]

BBT was also mostly about scientists interacting with other scientists, since with the exception of Penny, who was deliberately positioned as the 'normal' one, every major character had some kind of advanced degree. This meant that the characters had things in common both in terms of their work-related topics and their various hobbies.

In the case of Liz, this is reversed and she's the odd one out. Out of the rest of the main cast only Clinton can even kind of talk to her about her work in a limited way. Liz went on this trip because she's desperate for human interaction, which certainly makes sense. The problem is, all her interactions come off as forced, because they are. She doesn't have anything in common with the main cast. These are not the kind of people she would normally hang out with (or in Claire's case, should hang out with, who willingly goes on vacation with their boss?). She really didn't need to continue being a part of the comic.

The comic itself has a good comparison for this - the space station arc. There we see Marten being the odd man out at a party full of scientists, and the science on display is a mix of mad scientist funny stuff (the emotion-based cocktail) and pure technobabble. Which is how it should be, really, because having Liz try to talk about actual science when Jeph doesn't know much about it doesn't really work. The following bit with science dude and Marigold is super cute because they stay away from science talk, and Marten gets to show off an area where he is much more experienced - romance.

And the contrary example with Liz is when she talks about her prosthetics with Clinton. That shared experience makes for a very cute talk, and they stay away from how the prosthetics work and focus on how difficult it was learning to use them. It's easily the most likeable Liz page in the entire comic and I wish there were more of it instead of all the "Goblin Liz wants to go to Space" stuff.

[Mechalich]

New comic, and Jeph completely fails to manage the timelines.

Liz has been out of school for two years. She ran through school at a hyper-accelerated rate which makes it basically impossible for anyone she went to school with to have been out of school for longer than her. Rajesh, at best, acquired his PhD in the same semester Liz did and has been out of school for the exact same two years she has. If he was average in school, then he'd be a post-doc at present, since only rockstars get professorships or cool research gigs like Liz has straight out of school (Liz being scouted by Cubetown because she's a child genius is one of the few things about her character that does make sense). He cannot have been 'pluggin' away' for a long period, because he's had at most the same amount of time Liz did to work.

Could a fresh out of school post-doc luck into a research project that lands on the cover of science? Sure, it happens, sometimes a new hire gets tossed a project that turns out to be amenable to a breakthrough because of a new tool or unexpectedly important because of commercial applications or something, but it's mostly a matter of luck.

Ultimately, Liz is nineteen. She is, as has been mentioned in the comic quite recently not yet old enough to drink in Massachusetts. Most people her age are just starting college (or dropping out like Ayo). Yes she wasted two years, but that simply means she's only six years ahead of her peers instead of eight.

[Wraith]

There's a niche case where Rajesh isn't on the cover because of a significant breakthrough - maybe he's the youngest/first transgender/American-Punjabi/whatever Associate Professor at Harvard or something, and it's just news.

Similarly, 'average' is only Liz's opinion of him - she got two PhDs in what seems to be a long-weekend, for all we know he's genuinely brilliant except in comparison to her alone.

I have absolutely no doubt that Jeph doesn't understand the Research Associate/Fellow/Academic route into higher education, but that can be hand-waved away by the existence of radically unorthodox institutions like Cubeland, or progressively liberal places like SMIF. The more unfortunate part of this exchange is that he still thinks we care that Liz is unhappy, despite demonstrably NOT having been plugging away for at least 2 years.

[BRC]

New comic, and Jeph completely fails to manage the timelines.

Liz has been out of school for two years. She ran through school at a hyper-accelerated rate which makes it basically impossible for anyone she went to school with to have been out of school for longer than her. Rajesh, at best, acquired his PhD in the same semester Liz did and has been out of school for the exact same two years she has. If he was average in school, then he'd be a post-doc at present, since only rockstars get professorships or cool research gigs like Liz has straight out of school (Liz being scouted by Cubetown because she's a child genius is one of the few things about her character that does make sense). He cannot have been 'pluggin' away' for a long period, because he's had at most the same amount of time Liz did to work.

Could a fresh out of school post-doc luck into a research project that lands on the cover of science? Sure, it happens, sometimes a new hire gets tossed a project that turns out to be amenable to a breakthrough because of a new tool or unexpectedly important because of commercial applications or something, but it's mostly a matter of luck.

Ultimately, Liz is nineteen. She is, as has been mentioned in the comic quite recently not yet old enough to drink in Massachusetts. Most people her age are just starting college (or dropping out like Ayo). Yes she wasted two years, but that simply means she's only six years ahead of her peers instead of eight.

Eh, Liz is an *******, and just says "We were in school together" not "We graduated together"

yes, Jeph 100% meant to imply that Rajesh was Liz's classmate, but considering what we know about Liz, it's entirely possible that he was a well regarded professor with a long career under his belt, and she did not respect him because she's an ******* who thinks she's smarter than everybody else.

I guess it's also possible that Rajesh is ALSO a super-genius who got scouted by a major research org, and is featured on Science as an up-and-coming scientist to watch due to the breakthrough he made in two years, and Liz describing him as "Average" is because she's an ******* who doesn't acknowledge that other people can ALSO be smart, but if you're going to go for that joke, you might as well go for broke and make him Liz's professor with a nobel prize who Liz downplays because he treated her like any other PhD student instead of falling to his knees in awe of her brilliance like she expected.