See, IRA has no problem communicating his feelings, and he’s a horrible, pathetic embarrassment of a human being. You can be so much more than Ira, Nick.
His “doing this to preserve humanity” schtick is an excellent example of someone devising a “good” excuse for doing something abjectly evil.
Bruce A Munro’s youtube link below shows C.M. Burns of The Simpsons employing the same tactic.
So he’s not really an argument for letting all the hairless monkeys die, but Ira’s mindset is a sound argument for letting all the non-humans have their way with him. They might not kill him (H.T. definitely would), but Ira might wish they had.
Or, no, wait, despite the humanoid appearance and the fact that he doesn’t specify “your”, Ira could be instructing someone who is in fact a robot. Maybe even a T-1000 liquid metal shapeshifter.
Everyone remembers the limbs that could become spiky, right?
The T-1000 as I recall used spiky limbs to kill John’s foster parents, and at one point turned its hands into crowbars in order to grab onto a truck that Sarah, John and the original-flavour Terminator were trying to escape in from the psych hospital.
I’d like to think this forum is civil enough that we can actually talk to each other. And perhaps it’s not the pinnacle, but I’d like to hope (desperately) that it couldn’t get any worse than that.
Hey, now, don’t get carried away. I never said we always agree, and I’m pretty sure that everyone here likes to think that they’re almost always right. It’s more civil here than YouTube and any Disqus thread I’ve ever seen, but it’s still a normal forum.
I was thinking more that Ira was Meat-Nick after a time machine malfunction and some bad experiences, considering how the art style makes them look damn similar here.
Meh. Six or one, half a dozen of the other. If you think Frank Burns is much worse than CM Burns, clearly they’ve changed the character since I stopped watching the Simpsons.
Personally, I don’t know anything about CM Burns, since I never did watch the Simpsons. In fact, I’m only assuming that he’s from the Simpsons because of your comment.
But I’ve watched MASH repeatedly for nearly 50 years, and Frank was never as bad as Ira is.
Well, I came around to the notion that Hawkeye and Trapper (or BJ) spent an awful lot of time harassing and bullying Frank while claiming to be better than him.
There was an awful lot of behaviour from a lot of the people in MASH that was, shall we say, less than exemplary. One of the things that always bugged me most was how Frank and Margaret repeatedly accused others of insubordination, but despite their apparent belief that they were the two most “military” people on-base, they regularly called Henry incompetent, and went over his head to get their way. And yet no one once accused either of them of insubordination.
I remember, too, once being struck by a time when they had this ranking officer (colonel or general, I forget which), who was about to launch some sort of high-casualty attack. Hawkeye doped his coffee with something that made the guy show symptoms of an appendicitis attack. Hawkeye removed the healthy appendix and went through a guilt trip about it at the end of the episode.
What bothered me is that, a couple of years earlier, Hawkeye had done exactly the same thing to the infamous Colonel Flagg, without any sort of guilt trip at all.
The principal difference between those two events was that when they did it to Col. Flagg, Hawkeye and Trapper were in complete agreement on it, and even had the tacit approval of Lt.Col. Blake. But when Hawkeye did it to Col. Lacy, B.J. was completely against it, and Col. Potter didn’t know anything about it (he was trying to get Col. Lacy removed from his post ‘by the book’).
Frankly, the motive was more honourable with Col. Lacy, and the fact that B.J. opposed him was probably the only reason Hawkeye felt bad about it. It’s not like either surgery was dangerous, but in both cases, deceit was the main problem.
I grew up watching reruns of M*A*S*H, and to my amusement I noticed a few years ago that I now enjoy the later seasons much more than the earlier seasons. And Winchester replacing Burns was, for me, the last major (ha!) step in the transition from the frat-boys-at-army-camp atmosphere to something more mature and interesting. The playing field in the Swamp felt a lot more level with a third roommate who was competent and intelligent; Houlihan became a more interesting character once she ceased being defined by her relationship with Burns; Hunnicutt was just generally a more likeable human being than McIntyre; and unlike Blake, Potter seemed like he’d actually be capable of providing leadership when it was needed.
Yes, there was a distinct change in the atmosphere when Colonel Potter arrived (among others). I could be wrong, but I think there was only one time in those 8 seasons when Hawkeye called him “Sherman”, and that was very deliberate. Whereas I’m not sure if there was even one time when either he or Trapper called Henry “Colonel”. Col. Potter commanded respect.
B.J. was more mature than Trapper. Hawkeye called both of them his best friends, but where Trapper was just a fellow joker, Hawkeye actually respected B.J.
There was plenty to dislike about Charles – he was the quintessential pompous ass – but he was still a more likable person than Frank.
Unfortunately, in the later seasons, they started drawing from real life stories from the US Army’s time in Korea, so the show changed from being a sitcom to something more serious. Because let’s face it – there’s nothing funny about war.
It would be quite a stretch to say they think in similar ways. Nick might kill someone to protect the lives of himself or his friends (especially Virginia), but aside from that, he would never take another life, or condone doing so.
More like they think in opposite ways: Nick (facetiously) wants to die because others know about his crush, whereas Ira (literally) wants to kill the others who know about his crush.
I would say that they do think in similar ways apart from alignment (Ira being L/E while Nick would be Neutral). The only question in my mind is whether Ira is Nick’s father, grandfather or great-grandfather.(Although I still like the “Clone” theory). But seriously, apart from moral alignment what differences between them do you really see? o_O
Exactly what I meant, but I see I explained it badly.
They both thought of the same idea.
But one as a joke, and the other as an actual action.
They think similar ideas, and apply them in opposite ways.
Studies have shown that people with well-balanced personalities [interpret that in a couple of ways] only consider death by spikey robot limbs every other tuesday
Nick, actions speak louder than words! Dr. Lee is perhaps the *only* person unaware of your true feelings, because you “friend zoned” her!
Go kidnap Mr. Green, bring him to Virginia hog-tied in ribbons and challenge her to lobotimize him so only the kindly Ira persona exists. After all, Mr. Green himself professed to being as much Ira as anyone else – you’d be curing him!
Anasigma uses state of the art networked surveillance and suppression equipment for detecting and halting the spread of enemy facts. The convenient interface destroyed $700 million worth of hardware and 73 operatives with a single click when Ira’s assistant attempted to forward an email.
Due to human error during software agent setup, one of the facts suppressed in real time by the system is the former existence of the Hartford Dodgers major league baseball team. Nobody is aware of the configuration mistake, because the agents incidentally suppress that knowledge as well. That particular query does contribute over half the total “enemy moles extirpated” figure of the annual counterintelligence report, however. The bolstered statistic proves the system necessary and effective, insuring that it remains well funded year after year.
“Attempting to forward an email has disastrous consequences” must be the nineties version of an airline food joke. Quality humor delivered straight to your doorstep.
Nobody cares but me, but I just want to tighten that one up. Sorry.
Anasigma uses state of the art networked surveillance and suppression equipment for detecting and halting the spread of enemy facts. The convenient interface destroyed $700 million worth of hardware and 73 operatives with a single click when Ira’s assistant pressed the wrong button replying to a group email. It worked perfectly. Even now, nobody knows what the email said.
It seems that clones are created at whatever age the DNA sample is. That’s why Helen’s clone of Dave was the age when Dave first hired in, and Nick is less scrawny than he used to be.
See, IRA has no problem communicating his feelings, and he’s a horrible, pathetic embarrassment of a human being. You can be so much more than Ira, Nick.
I like your logic. It pleases me greatly.
Ira is a human being?
He’s the worst kind of human being.
His ‘doing this to preserve humanity’ schtick might work out better if he wasn’t an excellent argument for letting all the hairless monkeys die.
His “doing this to preserve humanity” schtick is an excellent example of someone devising a “good” excuse for doing something abjectly evil.
Bruce A Munro’s youtube link below shows C.M. Burns of The Simpsons employing the same tactic.
So he’s not really an argument for letting all the hairless monkeys die, but Ira’s mindset is a sound argument for letting all the non-humans have their way with him. They might not kill him (H.T. definitely would), but Ira might wish they had.
Mr. Green had to make up a fake identity to even pretend he had a chance with Dr. Lee. And even his pretend body isn’t as stone cold as Nick’s.
Though it is hard to compete with carbon steel.
Of course, she starts with herself, which forces Ira to start all over.
Ah, but if she was careful, she’d have NOT learned who the crush was of, and specifically directed that detail to be kept off the paperwork.
So she knows the crush exists, but only people she has delegated to investigate, plus the people they investigated who know need be killed.
Next level admin.
Or, no, wait, despite the humanoid appearance and the fact that he doesn’t specify “your”, Ira could be instructing someone who is in fact a robot. Maybe even a T-1000 liquid metal shapeshifter.
Everyone remembers the limbs that could become spiky, right?
The only power I remember it showcasing was the ability to permanently morph cinema into video games.
The T-1000 as I recall used spiky limbs to kill John’s foster parents, and at one point turned its hands into crowbars in order to grab onto a truck that Sarah, John and the original-flavour Terminator were trying to escape in from the psych hospital.
It looks like she’s carefully looking *near* the list, but not *at* the list.
So the only really ironic kills on that list are going to be Ira and Ginny.
Then it is true. Ira is Nick’s father.
That would be the pinnacle of “adding insult to injury”.
You all regularly blow my mind. Thank you. Oh, and Awgie, how can you know” it’s the pinnacle?”
It’s ALWAYS “This is as far as we’ve gotten.”
I think I’ve screwed up. I’ve addressed another commenter, and that’s probably a no-no. Ooops,and sorry.
I’d like to think this forum is civil enough that we can actually talk to each other. And perhaps it’s not the pinnacle, but I’d like to hope (desperately) that it couldn’t get any worse than that.
Oh, God.
WE’RE all in a simulation.
http://skin-horse.com/comic/he-breathed-out/
Hey, now, don’t get carried away. I never said we always agree, and I’m pretty sure that everyone here likes to think that they’re almost always right. It’s more civil here than YouTube and any Disqus thread I’ve ever seen, but it’s still a normal forum.
I was thinking more that Ira was Meat-Nick after a time machine malfunction and some bad experiences, considering how the art style makes them look damn similar here.
That’s better than my “They’re all part of the same clone family” theory but truthfully Occam’s Razor is on the side of Ira being Nick’s Dad.
This should be a Hallmark card.
Ira is competing hard for the C. Montgomery Burns Irredeemable Bastard Award.
More like Major Frank Burns.
Oh, he’s way beyond Frank Burns.
Yeah, Major Burns was incompetent. His selfishness was almost always foiled by his own actions.
Meh. Six or one, half a dozen of the other. If you think Frank Burns is much worse than CM Burns, clearly they’ve changed the character since I stopped watching the Simpsons.
One of my favorite Burns segments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-QeTbmchvQ
Personally, I don’t know anything about CM Burns, since I never did watch the Simpsons. In fact, I’m only assuming that he’s from the Simpsons because of your comment.
But I’ve watched MASH repeatedly for nearly 50 years, and Frank was never as bad as Ira is.
Is awgiedawgie saying “boo?”
Or “Boo-urns?”
Well, I came around to the notion that Hawkeye and Trapper (or BJ) spent an awful lot of time harassing and bullying Frank while claiming to be better than him.
But I think we had this discussion before.
There was an awful lot of behaviour from a lot of the people in MASH that was, shall we say, less than exemplary. One of the things that always bugged me most was how Frank and Margaret repeatedly accused others of insubordination, but despite their apparent belief that they were the two most “military” people on-base, they regularly called Henry incompetent, and went over his head to get their way. And yet no one once accused either of them of insubordination.
I remember, too, once being struck by a time when they had this ranking officer (colonel or general, I forget which), who was about to launch some sort of high-casualty attack. Hawkeye doped his coffee with something that made the guy show symptoms of an appendicitis attack. Hawkeye removed the healthy appendix and went through a guilt trip about it at the end of the episode.
What bothered me is that, a couple of years earlier, Hawkeye had done exactly the same thing to the infamous Colonel Flagg, without any sort of guilt trip at all.
The principal difference between those two events was that when they did it to Col. Flagg, Hawkeye and Trapper were in complete agreement on it, and even had the tacit approval of Lt.Col. Blake. But when Hawkeye did it to Col. Lacy, B.J. was completely against it, and Col. Potter didn’t know anything about it (he was trying to get Col. Lacy removed from his post ‘by the book’).
Frankly, the motive was more honourable with Col. Lacy, and the fact that B.J. opposed him was probably the only reason Hawkeye felt bad about it. It’s not like either surgery was dangerous, but in both cases, deceit was the main problem.
I grew up watching reruns of M*A*S*H, and to my amusement I noticed a few years ago that I now enjoy the later seasons much more than the earlier seasons. And Winchester replacing Burns was, for me, the last major (ha!) step in the transition from the frat-boys-at-army-camp atmosphere to something more mature and interesting. The playing field in the Swamp felt a lot more level with a third roommate who was competent and intelligent; Houlihan became a more interesting character once she ceased being defined by her relationship with Burns; Hunnicutt was just generally a more likeable human being than McIntyre; and unlike Blake, Potter seemed like he’d actually be capable of providing leadership when it was needed.
Yes, there was a distinct change in the atmosphere when Colonel Potter arrived (among others). I could be wrong, but I think there was only one time in those 8 seasons when Hawkeye called him “Sherman”, and that was very deliberate. Whereas I’m not sure if there was even one time when either he or Trapper called Henry “Colonel”. Col. Potter commanded respect.
B.J. was more mature than Trapper. Hawkeye called both of them his best friends, but where Trapper was just a fellow joker, Hawkeye actually respected B.J.
There was plenty to dislike about Charles – he was the quintessential pompous ass – but he was still a more likable person than Frank.
Unfortunately, in the later seasons, they started drawing from real life stories from the US Army’s time in Korea, so the show changed from being a sitcom to something more serious. Because let’s face it – there’s nothing funny about war.
if this is a set-up for m and nick to take out ira, i am ALL FOR IT.
Two choices.
Just a joke to make Nick’s words literal…
… or the setup to show they do think in similar ways…
It would be quite a stretch to say they think in similar ways. Nick might kill someone to protect the lives of himself or his friends (especially Virginia), but aside from that, he would never take another life, or condone doing so.
More like they think in opposite ways: Nick (facetiously) wants to die because others know about his crush, whereas Ira (literally) wants to kill the others who know about his crush.
There’s also the point that the method of killing is similarly oddly specific.
I don’t think that should be taken as anything but a punchline. Laugh and pass it by.
I would say that they do think in similar ways apart from alignment (Ira being L/E while Nick would be Neutral). The only question in my mind is whether Ira is Nick’s father, grandfather or great-grandfather.(Although I still like the “Clone” theory). But seriously, apart from moral alignment what differences between them do you really see? o_O
I choose to believe it’s foreshadowing the endgame… nothing like an epic spiky robot limb fight to cap off your webcomic arc!
This is one of Jeff’s scripts, but I like to write Nick and Ira like one of them is the Bizarro version of the other.
They are kind of polar opposites, so you’ve succeeded.
Exactly what I meant, but I see I explained it badly.
They both thought of the same idea.
But one as a joke, and the other as an actual action.
They think similar ideas, and apply them in opposite ways.
As for this new aide-de-camp, she must be aware that killing “them” would also involve killing “her,” because she knows, too.
Classic introvert vs. extrovert.
Studies have shown that people with well-balanced personalities [interpret that in a couple of ways] only consider death by spikey robot limbs every other tuesday
Sloppy research, folks. Nick’s supposed to be Jewish, but “Kill Me With Your Spiky Robot Limbs, Oh Lord” is Methodist!
I’m not familiar with that hymn. Can you post lyrics?
Someone more pious than I is welcome to try.
Nick, actions speak louder than words! Dr. Lee is perhaps the *only* person unaware of your true feelings, because you “friend zoned” her!
Go kidnap Mr. Green, bring him to Virginia hog-tied in ribbons and challenge her to lobotimize him so only the kindly Ira persona exists. After all, Mr. Green himself professed to being as much Ira as anyone else – you’d be curing him!
Anasigma uses state of the art networked surveillance and suppression equipment for detecting and halting the spread of enemy facts. The convenient interface destroyed $700 million worth of hardware and 73 operatives with a single click when Ira’s assistant attempted to forward an email.
Due to human error during software agent setup, one of the facts suppressed in real time by the system is the former existence of the Hartford Dodgers major league baseball team. Nobody is aware of the configuration mistake, because the agents incidentally suppress that knowledge as well. That particular query does contribute over half the total “enemy moles extirpated” figure of the annual counterintelligence report, however. The bolstered statistic proves the system necessary and effective, insuring that it remains well funded year after year.
“Attempting to forward an email has disastrous consequences” must be the nineties version of an airline food joke. Quality humor delivered straight to your doorstep.
Nobody cares but me, but I just want to tighten that one up. Sorry.
Anasigma uses state of the art networked surveillance and suppression equipment for detecting and halting the spread of enemy facts. The convenient interface destroyed $700 million worth of hardware and 73 operatives with a single click when Ira’s assistant pressed the wrong button replying to a group email. It worked perfectly. Even now, nobody knows what the email said.
Nick doesn’t know it, but he has waaay more of a chance with Virginia than Ira could ever hope for.
Ira should take what he can get. Just give his assistant dark hair and glasses, and pretend that he won.
Or clone her, considering clones can be created at whatever age desired apparently. They have more than enough genetic code….
It seems that clones are created at whatever age the DNA sample is. That’s why Helen’s clone of Dave was the age when Dave first hired in, and Nick is less scrawny than he used to be.