Something*Positive/Headscratchers

• The first time we meet Pamjee, it's a flashforward, she's fifteenish and Aubrey chews her out for having wine coolers in her room - in this house we drink seriously, young lady! - and is implied to insist Pamjee drink hard alcohol until she learns to like it, or something. Okay, very S*P humour, fair enough. But then we find out later that little Pamela Jocelyn was given up for adoption by a mother who had a history of problems with drugs, which could very likely include alcohol. Her older brother was born addicted to cocaine. Aubrey and Jason accept that although no problems have manifested with Pamjee yet, they could turn up at any point, and go ahead and adopt her anyway. This makes the earlier comic one hell of a lot less funny.
  • I wouldn't be entirely certain that Aubrey's stated reason for making her drink hard liquor is the true one. She may be trying to scare Pamjee off of alcohol the way parents sometimes do. After all, it's way in the future, and we don't really know how the characters are going to be until we get there.
  • After seeing their methods of parenting the infant Pamjee, I wouldn't be surprised if teen Pamjee has had shots growing up.
    • I think that's the OP's point: Aubrey is encouraging someone who potentially has a genetic disposition towards addiction binge drink. It's horrible, horrible parenting that highlights that Aubrey is a horrible, horrible person.
• How can a neutered cat still impregnate another cat? Does Choo-Choo Bear just have extra balls hidden somewhere?
  • He's practically a Shape Shifter. Why not?
  • Some cats are weird and some vets are incompetent. We had a cat that had to be neutered 3 times before it took.
  • Choo-Choo Bear already has impossible physiology. I just took it as an extension of that.
• The fact that Randy keeps recycling the same punchline bugs me, because I otherwise like the comic. But it seems like every fourth strip ends with this:

Character A: I can't believe (person did horrible thing)!
Character B: That was an awful thing to do.
Character A: Yes, they should know (this is how you do horrible thing properly).

• Personally, I love the comic, but I get annoyed by the big planned-out storylines that hit big, introduce a bunch of stuff, and then disappear for several months (or even permanently). Some of it's okay (Kharisma's storyline has a bit of a "slow burn" going, but even that's huge gaps spring up. When are we finally going to see that new "Bian" girl again? Monette's TV show was hinted at for nine months before we saw it, and then it got promptly forgotten. Davan and Jason were supposed to direct Titus Andronicus but it got dropped. I know Randy has a kind of comic writer ADD, but seriously.
  • Horray! Bian's been seen again! Anyone who doesn't follow this strip religiously would be totally lost.
  • Part of it is that the comic, as much as possible, passes in real time. So while a string of comics will cover a single event, the next one seen could be days in the future. Given the number of characters, how far apart they are, and any given event period, some things just don't get seen.
• It doesn't piss me off, but this is something that bugs me a little. PeeJee's nickname is a shortening of Penelope Jennifer. PamJee is a shortening of Pamela Jocelyn. But going by the names, shouldn't her nickname be PamJo? ** I don't think there are any "rules" regarding nicknames - remember, PeeJee chooses to go with "PeeJee" instead of her father's nickname for her - "Penny-Jenny". PamJee is probably "PamJee" because that's what her parents choose to call her.
• Currently, Mike's going through a period of again being impossibly annoying when it comes to playing tabletop games, and I'm quite sick of it already. It's overplayed, it's been done before and Mike deserves a break where people don't hate him.
  • *waves agreement flags* Totally agree with you there. I mean seriously. We don't even SEE the event that made everyone despise him. It's like it was just decided "oop! Let's drop every drop of Character development and make him a douche again"
  • Mike is just too easy a target for Milholland. Every time he needs a character to hold an opinion he dislikes, but can't figure out how to tie this into one of the mains just walking along and meeting some random ranting ugly psycho, he defaults to Mike. For example, the series of comics about the real-life event of a guy breaking into someone's apartment with a sword because he thought a woman was being raped. The person relating the story withholds key pieces of information from Mike, and basically just expects him to leap to agreement with her without these. (Also these were withheld from the audience, most likely to troll them into "pulling a Mike".) It's not until later that he learns the whole story, which means he goes groveling back to his girlfriend/wife/whatever to apologize for being a complete and total idiot, since he didn't agree with her/Milholland's original thought on base principle alone. That was one of the parts that made me realize that the writing wasn't just haphazard, jumpy, and a constant stream-of-consciousness of Milholland's opinions, but was in fact lazy. Despite all the kudos it gets for character development, the moment he needed a "jerk gamer" he went right back to Mike because, god dammit, you're not supposed to like Mike, you're supposed to like the sadistic, sarcastic, snide main cast.
  • It's not a phase, Mike has never stopped being an annoying baby when it comes to gaming. Sometimes he's more tollerable than others, sometimes not, it's likely all dependant on how much he's enjoying the game. Honestly, as much as it may be annoying, recent events have been completely in character for Mike. His annoying habits have never stopped being there, they've just been toned down for a while. Really, the primary thing keeping him in check were Peegee, who moved far enough away to make little impact on him, and Tamara, whom he's recently managed to piss off, which left him completely unchecked and growing more and more defensive and martyr-like as he digs himself deeper. Just give it time, he'll get himself under control again eventualy, granted he'll just backslide again later but that's just who he is.
  • He seems to be clawing his way back with the "Pythagorean" arc -- a nice Call Back to this strip and a way to bond with other cast members based on an area of shared geekiness.
  • I'm just tired of Mike period. The last time I laughed at something that involved Mike at all was the Redneck Tree incident, and it wasn't Mike that was being funny there.
    • Yeah, clearly it was the rape that was the star there.
• What was Fred's job? At one point he was a barber and another he worked in a factory.
  • I think he worked at the factory until he retired (forced into early retirement?) and then took the barbershop job for amusement/extra money/to pass the time.
  • I thought it was the other way around. I seem to recall one flashback (edit: found the link) that showed him working as a barber when he first started dating Faye (which occurred before they moved to Texas) which would imply that he worked at the Factory later in life. Possibly he was unable to make it as a Barber in Texas so he took a job at the local factory.