Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2013-02-22
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2013-02-22

by shaenon on February 22, 2013 at 12:00 am
Chapter: Railway Children
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Discussion (43) ¬

  1. JohnBobMead
    February 22, 2013, 10:35 am | # | Reply

    Now THAT’S how you do it, write it out so GODOT can see it and we CAN’T, very sneaky, ten points for style!

    yrs,

    John Mead

  2. Tetra Valent
    February 22, 2013, 2:14 pm | # | Reply

    It’s pitch black in there. How does GODOT see what she wrote?

    Usually Not Intelligible To You
    Undead Never Inclined To Yodel
    Uncanny Natural Instinct To Yell
    Unity Noshes In Time, Yes (sammiches!)
    Uh, Never Is Today Yesterday

    Hey, who says it has to make sense? She doesn’t (make sense, that is).

    So now our esteemed authors have claimed that a suitable backronym does in fact exist. Come on, guys, out with it!

    • Stickmaker
      February 22, 2013, 3:01 pm | # | Reply

      That whole wall is a touch-sensitive display.

    • jdreyfuss
      February 22, 2013, 11:02 pm | # | Reply

      White gel pen.

  3. Freddie Freelance
    February 22, 2013, 2:55 pm | # | Reply

    Here’s the Acronym Finder definitions:

    United National Indian Tribal Youth, Inc
    Unbounded Nondeterministic Iterative Transformations
    United Neighboring Interdependent Trusted Youth
    United Neighboring Interdependent Trusted Youth
    Unified Nevada Information Technology for Youth

    http://www.acronymfinder.com/UNITY.html

    Acronym Maker also makes some fun ones:

    http://www.acronym-maker.com/generate/?w=unity&wl=

    • JET73L
      July 31, 2018, 2:38 pm | # | Reply

      > Undead Nightmare Idea (Thorax Yak)

      Is acronym-maker the new Skynet? Is acronym-maker the new GODOT?

  4. Ryushikaze
    February 22, 2013, 3:12 pm | # | Reply

    Apart from Unified Necrotic Intelligent Technological Ylem, I present…

    UNITY needs infinite tasty yumyums.

  5. woozy
    February 22, 2013, 3:13 pm | # | Reply

    I don’t want to be a grouch but I never liked the idea of UNITY being the one impossible to bacronymable acronym. It never accrued to me that Godot could simply be delusional and UNITY is no less unbacronymable then any other batch of letters.

    • Ryushikaze
      February 22, 2013, 3:17 pm | # | Reply

      I think the fact that the commentariat have provided innumberable (because most are now missing) sensible and otherwise backronyms proves it’s not impossible.

      • woozy
        February 22, 2013, 9:25 pm | # | Reply

        Which is why I didn’t like the idea. There’s nothing magical or impossible about unity or *any* bunch of letters. But the idea of godot being deluded and assuming it’s impossible and very obviously impossible when in actuality its as mundane as any other is sort of funny.

      • EmuSam
        February 22, 2013, 9:31 pm | # | Reply

        GODOT may require sensible, or even perfect. I’m not satisfied with any of the Ys the commentariat have thus far supplied. I think it has to be a noun, and it has to be, perhaps not uniquely UNITY, but applicable and enduring. So no Youth, Yoda, etc.

        Darn you, Shaenon and Jeff, for making me read 1181 Wiktionary entries.

        • EmuSam
          February 22, 2013, 11:02 pm | # | Reply

          I wonder if she’s a type of yeast. Or yersinia, one variety of which causes bubonic plague. I wonder to what degree perfection requires a common English term or portmanteau of common English morphemes.

          Yerba if she’s sufficiently composed of plant matter. Yeat means gate, and would metaphorically apply if her primary or high secondary purpose is sufficiently transitional.

          They’re just waiting for us to decide for them, aren’t they. I can’t stop. Yessotoxin: another that might apply based on chemical composition. Yeuk: most of the rest of Skin Horse would agree she’s often an irritant.

          Yeatmanite, yecoraite, yedlinite, yftisite, yimengite, yixunite, yill (ale), yingjiangite, -ylidene, -yl, ylem (plasma, and this should make a comeback), -yleme, ylang-ylang, ylide (a general organic chemistry term), -yne, ynose, ynofuranose (this one sounds fun), ynol, yoderite, yogurt, yola (cocaine), yolk, yoshimeraite, yoshiokaite, yofortierite, yohimbine, ytterbite, yttrium, ytterbium, yttrocerite, ytterbia, yttriferous, yttrocolumbite, yttria, yttrotantalite, yttrialite, yttrotitanite, yvonite, yuanjiangite, yugawaralite, yuksporite, yushkinite, yuzu (orange), yukonite, yulan, yucca, yufts (leather), yuanfuliite: composition.

          Also composition: a number of yellow-‘s, often birds, fish, or plants.

          Yeti. Yggdrasil. Yin-yang, especially if she’s part of a matched pair. Wait, she IS a mismatched set. Yex: hiccup. Yiffer: long pole. Yidaki: digeridoo. Yiff: had to be included, Google at your own risk; also yinzer. Yinz: I think UNITY has used this contraction of you-ones. Yid: offensive. Yippie. Yuppie. Yielder. Yobo: a fighter; very appropriate. Yogacharya: yoga teacher. Yoke. Yorga, woman, Australian. You and whose army. Yok: Gentile. Yokel, yodel, yogini, yoke, yokelet (small farm), yokibus (thingumajig), yorikiri (sumo move, not a leg-sweep), yoni (female organs as objects of veneration), yorker (a trick in cricket), you, yokefellow, yokozuno (highest rank of sumo wrestler), yonsei (fourth-generation Japanese-American), yooper (native or inhabitant of the Upper Penninsula, Michigan), yowe (ewe), youtiao (deep fried dough ona stick), yowl, yo-yo, yowie (yeti-like animal in Australia), ypsilon or ypsiliform, yrneh (electrical inductance measure), yotto-, yocto-, yttro-, yuks (a primary motivator for many characters), yukata (light kimono), yuan and other currencies (cost to create), yurt, yusho (another sumo term), yuga (Hindu epoch), yuri, yuruk (rug, not patchwork).

          • AndaisQ
            February 23, 2013, 10:57 am | #

            I think “Yahoo”, as in the Swiftian barbarians, works best.

        • Manifesta
          February 23, 2013, 12:24 am | # | Reply

          I’m with you on not being satisfied with any of our “Y” suggestions so far. But Ginny is Korean. Unfortunately, I don’t speak the language, but is there a suitable Korean word that transliterates with an initial “Y”?

          • EmuSam
            February 23, 2013, 12:23 pm | #

            In order to determine appropriate Korean words, other than the equivalent of Yin and/or Yang (which I think are similar in Korean) (apparently eum-yang; eu is not iottic; only Yang works in Korean), I can run through Wiktionary’s Korean pages for ioticized vowels and diphthongs. I’m reluctant to link. What are the rules for this system for number of links before someone has to approve?

            Anyway, there are seven Korean letters that transliterate to starting with a Y on Wikipedia’s page for Hangul, and three more which it calls ioticized, which means they might get Ys in other transliteration systems.

            If there is a good place to browse more or less alphabetically, I haven’t found it yet. Time to learn how to read a Korean syllable.

          • Ogden Wernstrom
            February 25, 2013, 2:39 am | #

            I think Mr. Lem had a satisfactory answer to the question of acronymizing UNITY in Korean:

            “Make ‘natrium’.”

            “That is not my function. I am a machine that makes things that start with ‘n’. If I made things that start with ‘n’ in any language at all, I would be a machine that makes anything.”

            (Quotes not actually quotes.)

    • CBob
      February 24, 2013, 7:39 pm | # | Reply

      It never accrued to you? Is that like… not being able to collect your thoughts?

  6. Andrew
    February 22, 2013, 3:14 pm | # | Reply

    Is this the point where they make out?

  7. Klyfix
    February 22, 2013, 4:36 pm | # | Reply

    Umm, silly question, but what does Unity mean by “ear guts”?

    • woozy
      February 22, 2013, 9:17 pm | # | Reply

      She shoved pencils in her ears. So its reasonable that those pencils are now bloody and Corey and covered in ear guts.

  8. Dave X
    February 22, 2013, 4:57 pm | # | Reply

    Klyfix: UNITY had sheathed her pencil in her ear as an earplug, hence…

  9. Hugin
    February 22, 2013, 5:21 pm | # | Reply

    Wait a second, wait. UNITY can write? I mean, when she hasn’t eaten brains recently? Did we know she could do that?

    • Manifesta
      February 22, 2013, 7:39 pm | # | Reply

      I’m pretty sure Unity could always write (despite her penchant for filling in the blanks on forms with drawings of penises), but it’s also possible that she just ate some brains from Ginny’s plipper.

  10. Shadowmehr
    February 22, 2013, 7:11 pm | # | Reply

    Anyone else hearing an angelic choir in the background?

    Or would that be too cliche for this comic strip?

    • John Campbell
      February 23, 2013, 1:08 am | # | Reply

      No; everyone present is deafened either by GODOT’s noise attack or by jamming pencils in their ears.

      OR

      That’s just Dave messing with the microwave again.

      Pick your response!

  11. Dieter
    February 22, 2013, 7:46 pm | # | Reply

    Unkillable Necrotic Infiltration/Termination Yorganism.

  12. Terry
    February 23, 2013, 1:07 am | # | Reply

    How about Ultimate Non-living Intelligent Trans-human Youngster? 🙂

  13. nemryn
    February 23, 2013, 1:30 am | # | Reply

    Calling it: This is going to be one of those things where all the characters gush about how amazing the acronym is, but we the audience never get to see it.

    • Tetra Valent
      February 23, 2013, 1:41 am | # | Reply

      I’m afraid you’re right. The handwriting is on the wall.

  14. Brian-M
    February 23, 2013, 3:06 am | # | Reply

    Is this going to be like 99’s real name from Get Smart, or Columbo’s wife, where they occasionally tease the audience with an anticipated reveal which never occurs?

    U.N.I.T.Y.?

    UNITY Needs It To Yell.

  15. MutantSentry
    February 25, 2013, 7:31 pm | # | Reply

    UNITED NATIONS INTELIGENCT TASKFORCE, YOLO! Which I think would move the Narbonic/Skin Horse unvierse into the Doctor Whoverse…

  16. Soleana
    January 10, 2014, 2:24 am | # | Reply

    Keeping her first three canon, if anyone still remembers them, I think she should be Upgradable Necrotic Independent Terror Yankee! Yeahhh!

    • awgiedawgie
      February 22, 2016, 6:16 am | # | Reply

      Well she WAS built by a quasi-government agency…
      Upgradable Necrotic Independent Trackable Yager (yager=hunter)

  17. BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
    January 23, 2014, 5:21 pm | # | Reply

    Unfazed Nutjob Inflicting Torment, Yowzah!

  18. darthbeandip
    February 11, 2015, 7:25 am | # | Reply

    Undead Nanobased Intravenous Trooper, Yo.

  19. Z2
    August 27, 2015, 6:02 am | # | Reply

    Ultimate Notarizing Integrated Technological Youngster
    Undead Notary: Insane Technologies Yearned
    United Nanite Individual and Terrorizing Yobbo
    Ultimate Normalized Insanity This Year

  20. onetruevonix
    June 27, 2018, 2:52 pm | # | Reply

    Union of Nanobots, Imbecility, Tapeworms and Yakflesh

  21. David B Huber
    September 30, 2018, 2:15 am | # | Reply

    Universal Nanite Intelligence Training Yoke

  22. awgiedawgie
    September 30, 2018, 11:09 am | # | Reply

    Keeping in mind that she was probably in stupid mode when she came up with it, so she would use simple words…

    Undead Nanogoo In Terrifying Youth

    I also considered

    UNITY Normally Induces Terrified Yells

    and

    Usually Needs to Induce Terror? Yes!

    • David B Huber
      March 5, 2019, 3:14 am | # | Reply

      +1 for recursive acronym 🙂

  23. JustTheBast
    June 13, 2019, 3:17 pm | # | Reply

    UNITY’s
    Name
    Is
    This,
    Yo.

  24. awgiedawgie
    June 13, 2019, 3:52 pm | # | Reply

    Untie Noose In Ten Years.

  25. Adept Arcanist
    June 27, 2020, 1:06 pm | # | Reply

    A Unity acronym? At this time of year, in this part of the country, written entirely in ear guts?

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