WCDT 4806 to 4810 (June 13 to June 17th, 2022)

[Gyrre]

Couldn't think of a better poll.

[hedgie]

Might want to correct the spelling of "Magenta".

[Wombat]

Melon's new design is really cute. Her words, less so.

[Farideh]

'Next' and 'Previous' works for me, but the 'Random' button sent me to comic #30,433.

Re. today's comic: no more bugs laying eggs in you, Melon? Now what are you going to do with your evenings if you're not taking care of your pets?

[DaiJB]

Couldn't think of a better poll.

That's fine!

Octarine! 

edit: Also, I'd be too busy laughing to be scared, Melon...

[St.Clair]

Melon can show you fear in a picture of kittens.

[Near Lurker]

I feel like Roko gets more than enough of this from Yay.

[BenRG]

Once again, we see that Melon is The Wise Fool, behaving like a cloudcuckoolander but with this strong underpinning of deep philosophical awareness of the potentials of reality.

She also has a deep love for her big sister Roko.

[hitmiccs]

Is it just me or does anyone else see a broken picture-icon in place of today's comic?

€: I can click "next" as many times as I want and it counts up and loads the page, too, but there's nothing on it.

€²: "Latest" works for me, but sends me to comic 42523 

[Gyrre]

Might want to correct the spelling of "Magenta".

Yeah, I made this on my phone.

[Gyrre]

Very tempted to replace the poll with the last verse of I'm Checkin In from The Simpsons.

[tom103]

Is it just me or does anyone else see a broken picture-icon in place of today's comic?

€: I can click "next" as many times as I want and it counts up and loads the page, too, but there's nothing on it.

€²: "Latest" works for me, but sends me to comic 42523 

Same here. Apparently Jeph changed how comics are numbered. The image file names are now GUIDs, and the comic's number is the first digits of that GUID. This broke the previous/next feature, since GUIDs are not sequential. You can find the previous comics by going to the archive.

BTW the RSS feed seems to be broken as well. I'm not getting new comics since June 7.

[Potato Farmer]

Existential dread has always been a bit strange to me.

I mean, obviously your life is meaningless in the face of the universe. But why does that matter?

[Tova]

Existential dread has always been a bit strange to me.

I mean, obviously your life is meaningless in the face of the universe. But why does that matter?

Existential dread is not exactly something that can be rationalised. I've experienced it. I couldn't begin to explain it.

[flondrix]

Is it just me or does anyone else see a broken picture-icon in place of today's comic?

€: I can click "next" as many times as I want and it counts up and loads the page, too, but there's nothing on it.

€²: "Latest" works for me, but sends me to comic 42523 

Same result; However, if I go to the proper URL for any existing comic prior to today (such as https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4805 for "Messy Joeseph"), it loads properly.  "Previous" and "Next" even work properly so long as I do not try to navigate to any comic after 4805.

As for this website, apparently other people see a poll, which I do not.  Or else it is a running "in" joke that I am not in on.

[flondrix]

Existential dread has always been a bit strange to me.

I mean, obviously your life is meaningless in the face of the universe. But why does that matter?

Existential dread is not exactly something that can be rationalised. I've experienced it. I couldn't begin to explain it.

Have you even felt like you might fall into the night sky?

[John Allenson]

Perky Lovecraftian horror.

[Farideh]

There was a poll earlier this week. Gyrre, did you remove it?

[hedgie]

Might be my fault.  I noticed a spelling error.

[shanejayell]

Not seeing todays comic. Huh?

[Cheetaur]

yeah the latest comic is broken for me as well, i suspect he knows things are broken and will be trying to fix things ASAP. If anyone has a capture of it would love to see it.

[DaiJB]

Huh. The comic-breakage continues. I try to go to QC as normal, but end up with a comic a few days old and can't go forward to the latest one. We'll try again later...

[Tova]

So I guess the latest one is still here:

https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=42523

I'd love to know what's caused this, uhh, technical hiccup.

[cesium133]

It's all the way up to 42000 comics!? I'm never going to get the tag thingy updated.

[Tova]

Looks like it's been fixed now, and there's a new one.

https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4807

Does anxiety rash really appear that quickly, or is it just a QC cartoonish convenience?

[shanejayell]

Awww. Poor Emmett.

[badbum61]

I thought it was spelled "aboot", eh.

[Gyrre]

There was a poll earlier this week. Gyrre, did you remove it?

I don't recall doing so, so probably not.

[Gyrre]

Awww. Poor Emmett.

That ssems like a histamine reaction caused by stress. I've heard of that sort of thing before. Joy Demora (Hunger Pangs) has something like that that she's quite open about on her blog.

[Oenone]

Didn't Marigold get stress hives her first date with Dale?

https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2634

Perhaps they're cousins???

[Farideh]

Oh Emmett. I'm 38 and I still watch cartoons, they're for all ages! I had a conversation with some coworkers recently where I recalled a fact that was taught to me by Carmen Sandiego. Just because something is animated doesn't make the quality less than 'real' series.

[BenRG]

I think that Jeph is hinting that Emmett may have some issues with wanting to please their mother. One moment, they're rebelling in secret and then reflexively saying stuff that Sam knows is untrue because... Why? They think that those responses will please some internal assumption of what they think their mother wants to hear?

[flondrix]

Looks like it's been fixed now, and there's a new one.

And, appropriately, the first line of dialogue is " 'm back."

Does anxiety rash really appear that quickly, or is it just a QC cartoonish convenience?

Would antihistamines work against anxiety rash?

For that matter the poll says "Negative histamine reaction"; [Jack Nicholson voice]Is there any other kind?[/Jack Nicholson voice]

[flondrix]

I think that Jeph is hinting that Emmett may have some issues with wanting to please their mother.

More like, issues with wanting to stay out of trouble.

"I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove anything!" --Bart Simpson

Back before such things could easily be done digitally, some jokers changed all the dialogue in the comic strips appearing in a joke issue of The Cornell Daily Sun.  Calvin was being confronted by his mom and blurted out a long string of denials including "I didn't know the whore in Tijuana had a knife!"

[traroth]

Emmett has issues...

[flondrix]

Emmett has issues...

Does it count as "mommy issues" if your mother really is watching everything you do, and actually does run your life, and treats you like a child because you are one?

[flondrix]

BTW, I was re-reading the initial appearance of Emmet, and I noticed this comic:

When did May start dressing so...wholesome?

[notStanley]

Oh Emmett, as Farideh said, "for kids" is more the writers intent instead of the media.  One stressful summer my favorite decompress after work was a spliff and Nickelodeon :}

[hedgie]

And Tai is known for getting high and watching "Adventure Time" at work.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Is that like Teen Titans doing Scooby-do stuff, except they're all robots?

In other news, Melon's eyes are still mismatched. They were both blue in her original appearance, both orange later. So I suspect they weren't fixed because they aren't damaged.

[shanejayell]

More Emmett. Awww.

Also, Faye should get back to seeing her therapist, IMHO....

[Farideh]

We don't actually know if Faye ever stopped going, although given the money trouble she and Bubbles have had, my guess would be 'yes'.

[Scarlet Manuka]

I think that Jeph is hinting that Emmett may have some issues with wanting to please their mother. One moment, they're rebelling in secret and then reflexively saying stuff that Sam knows is untrue because... Why? They think that those responses will please some internal assumption of what they think their mother wants to hear?

Not presuming to speak for Emmett, but this is the way some kids behave. One of my daughters was always really terrified of upsetting us (when young, even saying her name in a mildly disapproving tone of voice was enough to make her burst out in tears; it was very hard to find methods of discipline that didn't provoke a wild over-reaction from her). As she grew older she would often tell us what she thought would make us happy, rather than the truth. We were able to help her grow out of that eventually, but even now she's reluctant to tell us things that she thinks we'll be even mildly upset or annoyed by, even though in probably 90% of those cases we aren't upset at all.
Not sure how related it is, but she was also the only one of our three who was ever an effective liar - the other two were always pretty easy to see through.

[MMoyle]

I can't wait for Emmett to meet Hannelore - they'll have so much to talk about!

[Gyrre]

Existential dread has always been a bit strange to me.

I mean, obviously your life is meaningless in the face of the universe. But why does that matter?

[TV4Fun]

We don't actually know if Faye ever stopped going, although given the money trouble she and Bubbles have had, my guess would be 'yes'.

They must be doing a bit better financially if they could afford all that fancy equipment.

[Mr_Rose]

We don't actually know if Faye ever stopped going, although given the money trouble she and Bubbles have had, my guess would be 'yes'.

They must be doing a bit better financially if they could afford all that fancy equipment.

I thought they ripped most of that off of CW's back door clinic at the fight club?

[Annemoon]

Would antihistamines work against anxiety rash?

Yes. A rash is an immune response that is supposed to detect an unwanted agent and provide the relevant skin with the tools to fight it. Special immune cells (mast cells) release histamines to increase blood flow in the area to give more space to remove the unwanted agent, causing it to expend. The problem arises when the response is triggered by an incorrect trigger. Most commonly known is an allergens e.g. a substance - like nuts or whatever your allergy is for - incorrectly triggers this mast cell and causing it to release histamines - causing the blood vesicles to increase - more blood - etc. Potentially in stress one of the components of stress (it's all chemicals in the end) also triggers this histamine response. Anti-histamines are just the anti-thesis for histamines, so it works no matter what triggered it.

[BenRG]

So, what does everyone think? Given the strength of Emmett's psychosomatic response to the thought of angering their mother, is this a sign of abusive parenting? If so, do you think that Jeph will follow this up or will we just have Becky back off after a few strips if she sees that Emmett is in good hands Sam and Bubbles (please note that I didn't mention Faye ).

[oddtail]

So, what does everyone think? Given the strength of Emmett's psychosomatic response to the thought of angering their mother, is this a sign of abusive parenting?

No, I think Emmett is just *very intense* in terms of emotions, even for a kid.