I dunno, I’ve always thought of the “friend zone” as a sitcom cliche that doesn’t necessarily occur in the wild. But then my wife and I were friends before we hooked up 14 (oh god!) years ago, as were my sister and brother-in-law, so maybe my data is biased?
Weeeeeeell, “friendzoned” is an attempt to turn “I have an unreciprocated crush on a friend” into “my friend is clearly a bad person for not wanting to bone me.”
People believe in lots of things that don’t exist. Please continue to not believe in this one.
It’s probably even worse than that — I, for example, only date friends. The shortest I’ve been friends with anyone before dating them is about seven months.
I think the friendzone was invented by pickup artists to mark women like me as “not up for one-night stands”, and widely misinterpreted.
“Friend-zone,” was invented by Joey, from the show Friends, to explain why Rachel wouldn’t want to date Ross again after being friends with him for too long.
equisetophyta: I like that phrasing, may I quote it?
On the flip side, Darekun: Back in my bad-old-days, one person I knew commented “well, if I’m not having sex with my friends, who *am* I having sex with? People I meet in bars?
It CAN mean that. It can also mean people who specifically don’t date close friends even if they otherwise would, because of social complications. There’s a school of thought on this subject which leads people to act in many nonsensical ways.
I can’t help but consider that a hideously trite response to complex emotions that is entirely lacking in any empathy at all. Yes it can be about blame, but it can just as easily be lamentation.
The “friend zone” is contentious topic with a misleading name. The difference being that not all friends are equal. Some are friends with the potential for transference. Others are “sorry, but I don’t think of you that way” friends. The latter is what is generally referred to as the “friend zone”.
Sidenote : Averting complete breakdown of communication in the latter case can be considered quite a feat…
Oof, now there’s a thought. Nick was a hikikomori when he was human, and his in-person social circle hasn’t gotten that much wider since then. She literally is his best friend; depending on how he sees his cow-orkers, she may be his only friend! Not that I *want* to see the ‘ship sink, but that’s not a great basis for a healthy relationship…
he’s pretty tight with the department of irradiation and possibly friends with that time traveling boy among others. He just doesn’t really feel the need to make more friends.
Jonah Yu? I remember that they were online rivals before Nick got geeknapped, but I think Nick only knows Jonah from one single-question phone call in this timeline, if even that.
The mad scientists are the genre savvy ones, execpt when they have contractual genre blindness. The sane ones are convinced this is reality and it doesn’t work like a film/tv show/webcomic.
Even so, stories reflect how people think. In Nick’s case, cliched stuff (especially that of the almost-disney movie genre) should indicate how he’ll think pretty well.
Man if ONLY they’d both use the resources around them to learn how to *properly* have heart to hearts.
Well… if ONLY the resources around them weren’t Tip and Unity… (okay, bound to be hi-larious either way, really, and oh goodie it’s a weekend cliffhanger)
(aside: this may just about be the prettiest strip I think I’ve ever seen from Shaenon. it’s *gorgeous*, and with Pancha’s touch and with the curve-ball of the pink dating sim there’s just so much here to WUV IN ALL CAPS. alsoplus, belatedly realised where she was in panel one, and oh the *feels*…)
I realize that this is not an unrealistic outcome given nick’s personality, but it’s also the least satisfying ending to the arc you could possibly have used.
(TUNE: “You’re The One That I Want” from Grease, John Farrar)
Ginny’s a friend, but we’re not dating
‘Cause I don’t have a bod!
If I did, then we’d be mating …
Do some copulating!
The way it is now,
We can’t go to far …
I’m a disembodied brain!
Can’t do her nohow,
‘Cause I’m in a jar
In the cockpit of a plane! (It’s insane,
It’s a mother-loving pain!)
If I just had a schvantz!
Yes, if I had a schvantz! (no more failure!)
If I just had a schvantz!
Yes, if I had a schvantz! (ge-ni-ta-lia!)
If it could hang,
Then we could bang!
You know, if they can make hyper-realistic drones in female form, surely they can make male ones as well. Nick may not be programmed in multiple techniques, but surly something fully functional can be procured.
That one apparently cost millions. Then again, it’s been built before, so even without Anasigma’s help, she may be capable of building a drone. And if she’s as capable as she seems, she can probably find or otherwise create a source of funding to use.
‘course; treating her right is probably the only way he’s ever gonna have a chance at fixing that.
On the other hand, ESPECIALLY with Ginny’s history… it is most likely Nick’s very unavailability which makes him so attractive to her. All of us fixate on an unattainable mate at some point in our lives; she merely “connects the dots” with them…
mnem
*Passes out face-down on keyboard; will wake up with waffle-face*
Nick really needs to get that simulated internal environment fixed. Or a drone that’s “fully functional.” I’m reasonably sure Dr. Lee could assist with either or both of those.
Am I really the first one to point out that control over internet adult toys exist?
(To be fair, I only know this because a different web-comic referenced them, specifically with respect to their utility for a disembodied human mind living in a computer)
aww, he needs to talk to gerda!
Damn you, Shaeffrey … I’ve used that tune from “The Wizard of Oz” too many times already. Let me sleep on it, I’ll come up with something else.
Which, of course, won’t stop me from singing it to myself all day. Argh.
May I recommend Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” or Jefferson Airplane’s “My Best Friend”?
Or perhaps “If I Needed Someone” by The Beatles?
or perhaps Weezer’s version
As long as we’re recommending songs…
Somebody to Love (Queen)
You Belong With Me (Taylor Swift)
Slow Down (The Beatles)
Can’t Fight This Feeling (REO Speedwagon)
I Hate Myself For Loving You (Joan Jett)
I Wanna Know What Love Is (Foreigner)
The Girl From Ipanema (Frank Sinatra)
You Sent Me Flying (Amy Winehouse)
What the heck? He FRIEND ZONED her?!? (Even though he may not have thought that was what he did…)
There are very few scenarios that could go worse than that…
I dunno, I’ve always thought of the “friend zone” as a sitcom cliche that doesn’t necessarily occur in the wild. But then my wife and I were friends before we hooked up 14 (oh god!) years ago, as were my sister and brother-in-law, so maybe my data is biased?
Yep. Happens in the wild all the time. Ah well. Friends are still good.
Weeeeeeell, “friendzoned” is an attempt to turn “I have an unreciprocated crush on a friend” into “my friend is clearly a bad person for not wanting to bone me.”
People believe in lots of things that don’t exist. Please continue to not believe in this one.
It’s probably even worse than that — I, for example, only date friends. The shortest I’ve been friends with anyone before dating them is about seven months.
I think the friendzone was invented by pickup artists to mark women like me as “not up for one-night stands”, and widely misinterpreted.
“Friend-zone,” was invented by Joey, from the show Friends, to explain why Rachel wouldn’t want to date Ross again after being friends with him for too long.
equisetophyta: I like that phrasing, may I quote it?
On the flip side, Darekun: Back in my bad-old-days, one person I knew commented “well, if I’m not having sex with my friends, who *am* I having sex with? People I meet in bars?
It CAN mean that. It can also mean people who specifically don’t date close friends even if they otherwise would, because of social complications. There’s a school of thought on this subject which leads people to act in many nonsensical ways.
I can’t help but consider that a hideously trite response to complex emotions that is entirely lacking in any empathy at all. Yes it can be about blame, but it can just as easily be lamentation.
The “friend zone” is contentious topic with a misleading name. The difference being that not all friends are equal. Some are friends with the potential for transference. Others are “sorry, but I don’t think of you that way” friends. The latter is what is generally referred to as the “friend zone”.
Sidenote : Averting complete breakdown of communication in the latter case can be considered quite a feat…
Your best friend who is totally responsible for you not having a schvantz in the first place.
Oof, now there’s a thought. Nick was a hikikomori when he was human, and his in-person social circle hasn’t gotten that much wider since then. She literally is his best friend; depending on how he sees his cow-orkers, she may be his only friend! Not that I *want* to see the ‘ship sink, but that’s not a great basis for a healthy relationship…
He and Marcie and Chris hang out a lot.
he’s pretty tight with the department of irradiation and possibly friends with that time traveling boy among others. He just doesn’t really feel the need to make more friends.
What time travelling boy? Did we get a crossover with PS238 or something? (The Shaenonverse does have a time-traveling girl wandering about…)
Jonah Yu? I remember that they were online rivals before Nick got geeknapped, but I think Nick only knows Jonah from one single-question phone call in this timeline, if even that.
“Cow-orkers” may just be the best typo ever.
Why do you think it’s a typo?
Cow-orker is a standard way of describing a co-worker who is barely competent at the job.
tune: “Do I Hear a Waltz?,” Richard Rogers & Stephen Sondheim, Do I Hear a Waltz?, 1965, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcSWZM-PuFc
If I had a schvantz
I’d bang her if I had a schvantz
She took it away
But in my book she’s still A-OK
If I had a schvantz
Standing tall and straight like a sconce
I would show her the man I had become
Then I’d get me some
Loving her would take a miracle
She’s become
My best friend
Our situation’s satirical
Guess my dream
Has to end
So there’s my response
Say “my best friend” with nonchalance
But oh, I would show my emotions, if I had a schvantz!
COWARD!
You’d think a designated “sane” scientist would be a little more genre savvy, huh?
The mad scientists are the genre savvy ones, execpt when they have contractual genre blindness. The sane ones are convinced this is reality and it doesn’t work like a film/tv show/webcomic.
Even so, stories reflect how people think. In Nick’s case, cliched stuff (especially that of the almost-disney movie genre) should indicate how he’ll think pretty well.
Man if ONLY they’d both use the resources around them to learn how to *properly* have heart to hearts.
Well… if ONLY the resources around them weren’t Tip and Unity… (okay, bound to be hi-larious either way, really, and oh goodie it’s a weekend cliffhanger)
(aside: this may just about be the prettiest strip I think I’ve ever seen from Shaenon. it’s *gorgeous*, and with Pancha’s touch and with the curve-ball of the pink dating sim there’s just so much here to WUV IN ALL CAPS. alsoplus, belatedly realised where she was in panel one, and oh the *feels*…)
ahhhhhh why.
I realize that this is not an unrealistic outcome given nick’s personality, but it’s also the least satisfying ending to the arc you could possibly have used.
(TUNE: “You’re The One That I Want” from Grease, John Farrar)
Ginny’s a friend, but we’re not dating
‘Cause I don’t have a bod!
If I did, then we’d be mating …
Do some copulating!
The way it is now,
We can’t go to far …
I’m a disembodied brain!
Can’t do her nohow,
‘Cause I’m in a jar
In the cockpit of a plane!
(It’s insane,
It’s a mother-loving pain!)
If I just had a schvantz!
Yes, if I had a schvantz!
(no more failure!)
If I just had a schvantz!
Yes, if I had a schvantz!
(ge-ni-ta-lia!)
If it could hang,
Then we could bang!
Cue the background violins . . . .
I hope that your readers have (or can find) a copy of, “Yiddish for Yankees;: Or, Funny, you don’t look gentile”
Not exactly the outcome I had imagined. Color me surprised.
Did they ever say what was done with his OEM body? If it was frozen…
MRE’s.
Someone,I think maybe Violet Bee, said that it was disposed of.
“You really don’t want to know.”
http://skin-horse.com/comic/when-you-are-so/
i’ts people soylite is people
You know, if they can make hyper-realistic drones in female form, surely they can make male ones as well. Nick may not be programmed in multiple techniques, but surly something fully functional can be procured.
That one apparently cost millions. Then again, it’s been built before, so even without Anasigma’s help, she may be capable of building a drone. And if she’s as capable as she seems, she can probably find or otherwise create a source of funding to use.
But in a male model, where would the gyroscopes go?
Presumably, slightly, well…lower.
It’s not like the gynoid had very big gyroscopes to begin with. Just make the android model a little huskier if you have to.
Isn’t “my best friend whom I want to share my life with and bang” a pretty apt description of love anyway?
Nick, I swear to God. You were never cautious or diplomatic before–why now?!
Because now it matters.
That, and because he’s slightly bang-impaired.
‘course; treating her right is probably the only way he’s ever gonna have a chance at fixing that.
On the other hand, ESPECIALLY with Ginny’s history… it is most likely Nick’s very unavailability which makes him so attractive to her. All of us fixate on an unattainable mate at some point in our lives; she merely “connects the dots” with them…
mnem
*Passes out face-down on keyboard; will wake up with waffle-face*
Nick really needs to get that simulated internal environment fixed. Or a drone that’s “fully functional.” I’m reasonably sure Dr. Lee could assist with either or both of those.
Am I really the first one to point out that control over internet adult toys exist?
(To be fair, I only know this because a different web-comic referenced them, specifically with respect to their utility for a disembodied human mind living in a computer)
You mean “teledildonics”, nyao? I hear that they’re kinda overrated…
Virginia blushes – 25
27
I think this is more what Nick had in mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaZpZQG2z10
I bet Dr. Lee could actually BUILD you a schwantz.
It’s time to accept the hard truths in life, my dear.
Yes, you’re in love with a military helicopter.
An honestly cute one, too.
Well damn. It looks like that ship just hit a reef.
Get you a man who is literally over 15 tons and still thinks they aren’t enough man for you.