The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Achewood => Achewood => Topic started by: nuero on May 19, 2006, 06:15:47 am
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http://achewood.com/index.php?date=05192006
I laughed at this strip really hard.
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http://achewood.com/index.php?date=05192006
My God, Molly comes into her own. This may make her smarter than Ray with his ball-sack technology.
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Whoops! Beat me to it. But yes, I agree, I was laughing out loud at this one. It felt like a classic strip, not to disparage the current direction. I'm slowly starting to enjoy Molly, I hope to see her back-story explored as Onstad hinted.
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It isn't often that Beef is at a loss for words. the "Jesus Molly I---" seemed like it was a seminal moment for him in this relationship. big things for Beef coming, I think.
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Oh my. Oh my. This is just, just. Yeah I like this.
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Great strip, but you can't use speaker phone all the time. He should get one of those earphone things.
Edit: and for the second day in a row, the person who made the second thread had a better title.
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"Hey mom, the phones for you"
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Edit: and for the second day in a row, the person who made the second thread had a better title.
We late thread starters pride quality over getting it up as fast as possible. Interpret that as you will.
Molly is such a nice girl at times. What she did right then is basically perfect for Beef. That is exactly what he would want. Therefore, today's strip was pretty awesome.
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Molly is great!
And quite the craftsperson to.
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I've been lurking for awhile, but...
first post! /wave
Anyway my first impression here was that Molly made this kind of over the top contraption just to underscore how ridiculous Beef is being about the whole cell phone issue. I feel like that's the kind of acid wit she uses. So I thought it was funny how Beef, of course, just took it completely seriously and loved it. But Molly's smile the last few panels makes me think that maybe she was honestly well-intentioned and trying to be genuinely helpful all along.
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My first thought was "Great, now everyone at TOUAMB will be blathering on about how grand Molly is.. fuck that bitch."
I don't know if it's healthy to be viewing a webcomic about cats through the distorted lens of all you imaginary people but there you have it.
Today's didn't exactly make me chuckle but it didn't make me gouge my eyes out either I guess.
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These last two have been very comic-strip
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And there isn't a dang thing wrong with that.
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The line about "dippin' fries" is definitely something that you'd only think of from being buddies with Ray. Actually, I can see Ray commissioning some more pairs of foil undies for a Peter Cancer Awareness Party, all with some healthy foods that are supposed to fight cancer (according to the magazines in Dr. Andretti's waiting room) and girls in nurse uniforms handing out pamphlets about cell-phone radiation.
And I love it whenever Beef does his Exactly, although offhand I think today's strip and this strip (http://achewood.com/index.php?date=12112003) are the only occurrences.
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Anyway my first impression here was that Molly made this kind of over the top contraption just to underscore how ridiculous Beef is being about the whole cell phone issue. I feel like that's the kind of acid wit she uses. So I thought it was funny how Beef, of course, just took it completely seriously and loved it. But Molly's smile the last few panels makes me think that maybe she was honestly well-intentioned and trying to be genuinely helpful all along.
You're right, I'm still on the fence as far as what Molly meant to say. Still, it's a nice gesture, and we're going to see at least one more strip that involves beef walking around town getting dirty looks from people who think he's perpetually excited
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You're right, I'm still on the fence as far as what Molly meant to say. Still, it's a nice gesture, and we're going to see at least one more strip that involves beef walking around town getting dirty looks from people who think he's perpetually excited
...and hella yellin' into his dong.
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And I love it whenever Beef does his Exactly, although offhand I think today's strip and this strip (http://achewood.com/index.php?date=12112003) are the only occurrences.
Yeah, the exactly is one of those mannerisms that's so distinctive, colorful, and spot-on that I actually imagine it spoken aloud. As for other appearances, there is this one (http://achewood.com/index.php?date=04072006), but I guess it depends on whether you count "exactly" sans italics.
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Now if only the undies had a built-in phone charger...
I expect these to appear in the Achewood store. If they do not, I will be sorely disappointed.
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I really wish yesterday's strip was just a one-off, because the visual of Beef wearing tin-foil under##### complete with protruding, cell-phone-holding phallus is just disurbing. A dude cannot go outside wearing those. A dude cannot.
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yeah what the hell dude this is disturbing.
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Being a deeply-neurotic person dating a woman with large arts-and-crafts skills, I identify here.
She has had to make me weird things to calm my ass down and made them well.
The "Bead Store is a Boring Place" strip spoke very loudly to me.
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yeah what the hell dude this is disturbing.
Whatever man, this is the only way to keep the gubbmint RFID signals out of your seed. It's a multi-tasker.
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I can't decide if Molly is making fun of Beef or not and that's about to drive me mad.
Still, I see one design flaw in her project: there should be an opening at the bottom of the phone compartment for those equipped with a ChatSack®.
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but wait.
if he is worried about peter cancer, why would she put the phone basically directly over it?
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I really wish I could work in it in a more clever way, but I feel compelled to note that cats have barbed penes.
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but wait.
if he is worried about peter cancer, why would she put the phone basically directly over it?
Either it's a safe distance from his junk, or Molly *really* doesn't want kids (kittens?).
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I really wish I could work in it in a more clever way, but I feel compelled to note that cats have barbed penes.
Old-skool, yo.
Anyway, I like this, especially the ludicrousness of Beef wearing special undergarments when he doesn't even normally wear #####. For some reason stuff dealing with the cats' clothes or lack thereof always makes me laugh.
So, Q, what do you like about Achewood, again?
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but wait.
if he is worried about peter cancer, why would she put the phone basically directly over it?
um being at the end of the suspension apparatus, there is more foil in between the phone and the peter than there would be anywhere else. Not that foil actually protects one from radiation (http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/).
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So, Q, what do you like about Achewood, again?
I dunno man... I am becoming Grumpleluffagus no?
I like when the one cat and the other cat have funny adventures.
Also, more lyle.
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Q is a guy. He does not want to read about the cats having feelings about relationships.
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Q is a guy. He does not want to read about the cats having feelings about relationships.
You kidding me? I believe some unknown newb called me a girly girl once.. I am the king of feelings and relationships. I just hate Molly is all. I am sorry about this.
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Hating Molly is an A-OK feeling.
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Still, I see one design flaw in her project: there should be an opening at the bottom of the phone compartment for those equipped with a ChatSack®.
Beat me to it. Clearly, another four-week arc is required to correct this oversight.
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um being at the end of the suspension apparatus, there is more foil in between the phone and the peter than there would be anywhere else. Not that foil actually protects one from radiation (http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/).
Oh, MIT humour. Priceless.
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Ok, it took me some gin martinis to realize the point of this strip: Molly plans to use the undies as a strap-on.
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Q is completely right, Molly is and always will be a stone cold bitch. She is nice in this strip and maybe this explains why she and Beef are still together, because they are horribly disfunctional but understand each other's disfunction.
Wait for her to use this to guilt Beef into doing something he doesn't want to.
Also phone hanging out front + chatsack = walking around with tiny balls hanging out in front of your #####.
What the hell Onstad?
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There's a local band called Hating Molly. I wonder if they're named after the Achewood character!
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I'll bet they totally are.
for real, my band must be named in reference to achewood. that is my goal.
also: I am already plotting about how to find people who like Achewood at College. Is that lame? probably.
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Q is completely right, Molly is and always will be a stone cold bitch. She is nice in this strip and maybe this explains why she and Beef are still together, because they are horribly disfunctional but understand each other's disfunction.
Wait for her to use this to guilt Beef into doing something he doesn't want to.
I never quite got what's with all this Molly-hating; I just see her as more mature in regards to the complexity of ordinary life (just watched "American Splendor", by the way, and am thinking that Harvey Pekar's wife is another example of this 'saving woman' pattern, just like Nastenka and the dreamer and Sofya and Raskolnikov in Dostoievski's books, or Olga and Oblomov in Goncharov's), which means she can be a pain occasionally, but I think Beef is smart enough to recognize that she probably saved him from himself, with all his "never been too much to look at no sir"; if it involves her trying to reform him, well, the dude buries t-shirts in the yard, he could use some reforming. I mean, I didn't see any sign of her being a compulsive neurotic reformer or anything, it's just that she's... what's the word, "adult"?
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As a fellow chick who is mostly normal but also gets really catty sometimes, I love Molly. I feel like she might understand that, even though I don't watch tv, and am otherwise pretty disconnected from pop culture, I read US Weekly in the checkout lane and check Go Fug Yourself as though they were life-giving manna from heaven.
I agree with you, dejavroom, that this is a very Dostoevsky-esque woman in a lot of ways, but then he can't write for female characters either. I have been the "saving woman" for the neurotic guy before, and let me tell ya, it sucks. If this were real-life, she'd dump his crazy butt after a couple of years of dealing with his inability to even pick out a damn bottle of olive oil at the store (true story!). There's really nothing a girl gets out of such an arrangement other than a near-constant feeling of smug superiority, and that can only sustain you so long.
But maybe I'm projecting. Message boards: therapy for broke nerds!
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I have trouble picking out a product when there are many choices and no information on which is the superior choice. Toothpaste and dishwashing soap are particularly difficult in this regard. When I've done this in the pressense of a lady friend it has resulted in sarcastic ridicule (then and later). I need a woman who understands her man like Molly does.
~Paul
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yeah seriously.
Also: dishwashing detergent and dishwashing liquid are not the same thing. WHY? WHY ARE THEY NOT THE SAME THING?
one will make your dishes clean. one will make your dishwasher fill up with bubbles and you'll have to get bowls to "bail out" your dishwasher. you will be ridiculed for years about this.
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Ok - normal confusion is one thing. At the store, my dude picks out a loaf of bread while I quickly get everything we need from the produce section. It might be one of those evolutionary biology things, I don't know. Maybe the girls had to constantly scan the environment for nuts and berries while the guys just hunkered down until they saw a mammoth and then fixated on it or something. Bad example. But still, taking care of overly neurotic men who have little to give in return is not noble, it's co-dependant. If my anecdote distracted from that point, I am sorry.
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I think part of the problem stems from the whole "I love you! Now change for me!" Sort of dealio you see that sets in with some relationships.
Not that it's not normal to change over time mind you, she just gives off that... vibe.
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Speaking as someone who is in this sort of relationship, Q, it's less "I love you! Now change for me!" than it is "I love you, but your neuroses are crippling you and the relationship, and I'm not going to let you just wallow in them anymore." If being a good girlfriend means allowing a profoundly depressed dude to self-flagellate all the time about tiny things, well, then I'm a pretty bad girlfriend.
Seriously, should I just go open up a "Molly-Strip-Triggered Relationship Therapy For Broke Nerds" thread?
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V-adore, if I ever meet you in person, I am so buying you a drink of your choice. Maybe two. I thought you'd know what I was trying to say there.
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Speaking as someone who is in this sort of relationship, Q, it's less "I love you! Now change for me!" than it is "I love you, but your neuroses are crippling you and the relationship, and I'm not going to let you just wallow in them anymore." If being a good girlfriend means allowing a profoundly depressed dude to self-flagellate all the time about tiny things, well, then I'm a pretty bad girlfriend.
Oh sure, go and sound reasonable about it.
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Yeah, I see it less as "I love you, now change" and a lot more as "I love you so, for Christ's sake, learn how to deal with at-least SOME things so that you can be happy once in a while and that we can be happy together too."
When a dude is a stable and mostly-happy dude and his girl is trying to nudge him into being something else, it is one thing and it is a bad thing.
When a dude is able to fieldstrip computers and defeat 2,998 bikers with only his wits and his insane friend as his weapons, yet he goes catatonic at the sight of dog poop and cannot carry a cellphone ever for fear of nut-cancer... it is another thing altogether.
Beef is a wonderful character for a comic strip but if he were real, he would be one of the most acute manic depressives on record. There is nothing wrong with his lady, who sees the real him shining through, trying to talk him out of a little of his madness.
Sometimes, my relationship with my girlfriend is like that too.
She's so helpful that I'll even occasionally go to bead shops with her.
Even though they are very very Boring Places.
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Speaking as someone who is in this sort of relationship, Q, it's less "I love you! Now change for me!" than it is "I love you, but your neuroses are crippling you and the relationship, and I'm not going to let you just wallow in them anymore." If being a good girlfriend means allowing a profoundly depressed dude to self-flagellate all the time about tiny things, well, then I'm a pretty bad girlfriend.
Yes, it seems more like 'change for yourself' than 'change for me'. Although I learned the hard way that it's a bad idea to be in the psychologist role to someone you are dating (particularly if you are not a professional!).Inevitably, they do not change fast enough, and you are just left feeling exasperated and trapped with a seemingly-helpless dependent (and they are all blubbering about how much they need you while resenting you at the same time).The best sort of nerd match is one whose neurotic 'quirks' approximately match your own in severity but cover a different set of things, then yay! You can both help each other out. Also professional help when necessary.
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Worst Part about trying to fix an SO: once they are fixed, they don't need you anymore.
that is heartbreaking.
dude is able to fieldstrip computers and defeat 2,998 bikers with only his wits and his insane friend as his weapons
dude remember when he did that? that was awesome.
something about that phrase is really great. hm.
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The cartoon cats evoke deep discussion of relationships.
And Paul: There is nothing simple about picking out toothpaste. They are messing with our minds with all those irrelevant choices, the evil American toothcare-industrial complex. Don't even get me started on shampoo.
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um wow. I cannot believe I didn't think of this before:
When I was a little bitty boy
my grandmother bought me a cute little toy
Silver bells hangin' on a string
she told me it was my ding a ling
My ding a ling, my ding a ling
I want to play with my ding a ling
My ding a ling, my ding a ling
I want to play with my ding a ling
And then mother took me to Grammer School
But I stopped all in the vestibule
Every time that bell would ring
catched me playin' with my ding a ling
Once I was climbing the garden wall
I slipped and had a terrible fall
I fell so hard I heard bells ring
but held on to my ding a ling
Once I was swimming cross Turtle creek
many snappers all around my feet
Sure was hard swimming cross that thing
with both hands holdin' my ding a ling
This here song it ain't so sad
the cutest little song you ever had
those of you who will not sing
You must be playin' with your own ding a ling
My ding a ling Your ding a ling, your ding a ling
We saw you playin' with your ding a ling
My ding a ling everybody sing
I want to play with my ding a ling
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Let us not forget that Beef and Molly came together as many nerd-couples do... in a strange idealized situation where they were both operating at their very best and their very healthiest when they met, as well as being isolated from the things that most riled up their neuroses.
Which is very often how nerd couples hook up, you know, in a shared club or shared project or at a fan convention or some other place so removed from their mundane realities that they can be significantly more confident and less scared of romantical possibilities. I mean, that's the whole thing about people trying to make an internet hookup work out, right?
It's not because... its an easy hook-up or because its excitingly kinky... but because the situation is so divested from their usual screwed-up lives that they can actually get their macks on a little bit. Meeting in heaven is just sort of... the most extreme version of that, yes?
And, anyway, Beef also puts up with and tries to help Molly with her personal difficulties as well... her instinct toward being judgemental, her near-total unemployability, her old-fashionedness, etc. There's a line between co-dependence and just helping each other out, you know? Sometimes it isn't co-dependence, if both parties are aware of the pitfalls of allowing it to become co-dependence.
It can be just healthy mutual helping. Whether that's always the case with Beef and Molly, of course, is another matter... but it seems as though Molly is at least aware of the situation of trying to not be co-dependent about the helping.
Which seems good.
I have no idea if Onstad thought this all through in the beginning or not but it's actually a really well-painted picture of dork-love.
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My first thought was "Great, now everyone at TOUAMB will be blathering on about how grand Molly is.. fuck that bitch."
Well, you hit that nail on the head. I just didn't feel until recently that much was being done with Molly. She's the only regular female character these days, but what purpose does she serve? I think it took Onstad a while to find sea legs with writing a female (the early Molly blog was so sex obsessed in comparison to the others that I had to cringe). Molly seems like the "straight man" character of the strip, much as Teodor is but without Teodor's insecurity. She needs something like this to define her, or else she's just there as background so Beef can blather about programming or vodka. I need a break from Ray and Beef.
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If they are stitched with copper wire, then they are in fact a little groin faraday cage and do shield his package from harmful rays.
Also, molly wears those sexy socks.
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I find Molly to be very well-written especially in her blog. Reminds me very much of a colleague's main squeeze.
I am however surprised that this Walk Around Dong invention of hers is sincere, and not an attempt to attack Beef by offering a ridiculous solution to his neurosis (someone else had this ideas before me. I steal ideas). Then again, this is a Silly Place where you could say "Walk Around Dong" and be understood.