Shaenon, I see from Twitter that you and Jeff are thinking of starting a Patreon. Yes! Great idea! Do it soon! I think you’ll find that you both have a lot of willing supporters out there. I’m a Patreon supporter for some other cartoonists, and I consider it a real privilege to be a patron of artists I admire. Even though my monthly contribution is very small, the artists are finding that all of us supporters together add up to a very nice, reliable stipend.
See, this is why we need to improve the quality of our schools. The citizen can’t even infer what has happened from context.
I propose we make “Mad science in popular culture and our world” an obligatory element in… English I guess? It should at least mention the Frankenstein (1931) movie, Edison and Tesla.
A while back I had the idea of assigning each character a quotation from a children’s book, and Tip’s was from Peter Pan: “It is only the gay and innocent and heartless that can fly.”
Yes, but she still didn’t answer the question.
While a sufficiently educated citizen might reasonably deduce that mad science made a building fall down, the question asked was “What happened here?” The implication is that she’s actually curious, since a supposedly solid building just fell down, and the only folks on the scene are a lab-coated young woman and the remodeled head of an antique robot, without visible means of mass destruction. At that point, a polite request for plot explication seems only natural.
Now, a foolish question would have been something like “Who did this?” since there is a lab-coated young woman and the remodeled head of an antique robot on the scene. They provide clear evidence of mad science at work.
Don’t forget the effect of reality filtering–a casual civilian in this world doesn’t even blink at a woman in a coat with a mechanical head. They just don’t register. I occasionally wonder what the rank-and-file cops who get called into big shootouts (remember early Narbonic?) think they’re dealing with, since they obviously don’t buy into the notion that there’s a madwoman inside breeding mutant Brobdignian hamsters….
The head is obviously one of those tin decorator-objects sold in boutiques and the decor section of garden centers. The new character probably assumes it was bought in the mall, just before the mall fell.
I’m fairly sure a decent percentage of civilians are not reality blind, judging from previous comics: must make working alongside the rest of the cops rather difficult in such situations.
80% is a pretty decent percentage, I would think. Reality filtering is very common but the reality blind are still outnumbered 4 to 1. 80 ought of one hundred would see a talking mechanical head and think “oh, a talking mechanical head”. (Now whether they care is another question…)
And, while I’m at it the 11th Doctor never wore a fez. He tried one on *once* and was told within 30 seconds to take it off.
Actually, she did answer the question. She “struck a blow” (hit it with her tiny metal thing) against “capialist society” (the mall, a social space as far as capitalism has them)
Improv based on the Doctor Insano method.
Not surprising, given that Dr. Insano is based on pretty much every mad scientist cliche ever.
…still waiting on a mad science-off between him and Doctor Holocaust.
Well, they didn’t have a science off, but they did have this.
Improvisation can work, and in all honesty is probably the best approach, or she’ll sound fake.
Shaenon, I see from Twitter that you and Jeff are thinking of starting a Patreon. Yes! Great idea! Do it soon! I think you’ll find that you both have a lot of willing supporters out there. I’m a Patreon supporter for some other cartoonists, and I consider it a real privilege to be a patron of artists I admire. Even though my monthly contribution is very small, the artists are finding that all of us supporters together add up to a very nice, reliable stipend.
Oh my goodness yes, heartily seconded.
See, this is why we need to improve the quality of our schools. The citizen can’t even infer what has happened from context.
I propose we make “Mad science in popular culture and our world” an obligatory element in… English I guess? It should at least mention the Frankenstein (1931) movie, Edison and Tesla.
From the looks of it, it could have been an inside job.
No mention of Babbage? Or Isambard Brunel?
“Mad science in popular culture and our world” should be an obligatory element of the mandatory Forbidden Sciences Curriculum.
Philo T. Farnsworth, the Man who Invented Television. And tabletop fusion.
She’s finally getting into it!
“Dr. Nan Darling” is still script-channeling Shatner, I see…
“Nan Darling”? That’s .. that’s brilliant.
(Sure, it’s the wrong breed of dog but Newfoundland is in Canada! It all fits!)
I’m assuming Dr Wilkin wrote the script. Trust Tip to crib from a book about never growing up.
A while back I had the idea of assigning each character a quotation from a children’s book, and Tip’s was from Peter Pan: “It is only the gay and innocent and heartless that can fly.”
Yes, Sweetheart. The power of Mad Science was within you all along. You simply have to let it flow.
Yes, but she still didn’t answer the question.
While a sufficiently educated citizen might reasonably deduce that mad science made a building fall down, the question asked was “What happened here?” The implication is that she’s actually curious, since a supposedly solid building just fell down, and the only folks on the scene are a lab-coated young woman and the remodeled head of an antique robot, without visible means of mass destruction. At that point, a polite request for plot explication seems only natural.
Now, a foolish question would have been something like “Who did this?” since there is a lab-coated young woman and the remodeled head of an antique robot on the scene. They provide clear evidence of mad science at work.
Don’t forget the effect of reality filtering–a casual civilian in this world doesn’t even blink at a woman in a coat with a mechanical head. They just don’t register. I occasionally wonder what the rank-and-file cops who get called into big shootouts (remember early Narbonic?) think they’re dealing with, since they obviously don’t buy into the notion that there’s a madwoman inside breeding mutant Brobdignian hamsters….
The head is obviously one of those tin decorator-objects sold in boutiques and the decor section of garden centers. The new character probably assumes it was bought in the mall, just before the mall fell.
I’m fairly sure a decent percentage of civilians are not reality blind, judging from previous comics: must make working alongside the rest of the cops rather difficult in such situations.
Only 20% have reality filtering. A full 80% see everything as it is.
And while I’m at it… the 11th doctor never wore a fez in public.
*sheesh* I’m grumpy….
80% is a pretty decent percentage, I would think. Reality filtering is very common but the reality blind are still outnumbered 4 to 1. 80 ought of one hundred would see a talking mechanical head and think “oh, a talking mechanical head”. (Now whether they care is another question…)
And, while I’m at it the 11th Doctor never wore a fez. He tried one on *once* and was told within 30 seconds to take it off.
*grumble*
Actually, she did answer the question. She “struck a blow” (hit it with her tiny metal thing) against “capialist society” (the mall, a social space as far as capitalism has them)