Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT strips 3931-3935 (4th to 8th February 2019)

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Tova:
I'd like to declare my own personal bias on this topic.

My own real-life name has an unusual spelling and is frequently misspelled.

I am pretty forgiving in general when people misspell my name because the spelling is so unusual, and I certainly appreciate that mistakes can and do happen. I can't deny, though, that I get a little warm and fuzzy feeling whenever someone takes the trouble to get it right from the very beginning. I do get disconcerted when people on Facebook misspell it even though the correct spelling is right there on the screen in front of them (true story), or when I fill out an application form and the company fails to transcribe my name correctly (also a true story).

Malicious misspelling upsets me. I find it to be childish at best. Even for Australian politicians such as Tony Abbott - as hilarious as Mister Rabbit is, constructive political dialogue suffers as a result of this schoolyard nonsense.

Long story short - I find deliberate mangling of someone's name to be hurtful and, as a running joke, unfunny.

If a character got, for example, Marten's or Hannelore's name wrong in a single comic, would this, too, turn into a running joke? I suspect not, because those characters are popular, and I think the mods would come down on it like a ton of bricks. The mere fact that one character got a name wrong does not, in my opinion, cut it as an excuse to make a running joke out of it when we know what the character's correct name is.

Maybe your argument is that Jeph was making that joke and so it's fine for us to continue with it. I would have to grudgingly concede that, but I have an issue with this kind of thing in general, particularly with regards to shipping, as a continuing instance of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do. But that's a topic for another day.

What rule are we operating under?

"... please try to spell people's (and characters') names right - it's only polite."
Or is it:
"... please try to spell characters' names right, unless a character gets an unpopular character's name wrong, in which case all bets are off."

Feel free to call Peter a dick, a philanderer, call him out for othering - whatever you like. But even though it's impossible to hurt a finctional character's feelings, the day will come when someone who identifies strongly with the character you are poking fun at will decide this is not the community for them (less likely for someone like Peter, more likely for someone like Tilly). They will turn away from this place because they will see us as the dicks.

And you know what? They will probably have a point.

My two cents. Carry on.

Penquin47:
When Delilah misremembered Marten's name as Mark, some people in the forums ran with that for a bit.  Sometimes, there have been jokes about "I wonder what Faye's roommate is up to... what was his name?  <insert list of names beginning with M here>."

Tova:

--- Quote from: Penquin47 on 10 Feb 2019, 22:03 ---When Delilah misremembered Marten's name as Mark, some people in the forums ran with that for a bit.

--- End quote ---

I'll have to take your word for that because I don't really recall. Funny you should bring that example up though, because that was a random hookup as well, right? Essentially Jeph making the same joke. Interesting, no?

The whole thing with people joking that they've forgotten Marten's name because he hasn't appeared in ages doesn't bother me quite as much, for reasons I can't really justify (although it has gotten a bit old).

OldGoat:
As consistently as noobs are corrected for calling the God of This Comic Universe "Jeff," there is a certain irony in the tolerance displayed this past week for mangling the pickled pepper picking pecker's name.  If we must see him again perhaps Mr. Piper will perturb Faye who will no doubt please the population present in these precincts by punching the pompous poultroon's protruding proboscis.

BenRG:
Seriously, mate, how long did you sweat over a notepad to compose that?

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