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Best Birthday Party Ever!

1 (1.4%)

Ask him how he met his GIRLFRIEND.

1 (1.4%)

Wait, so you guys AREN'T a couple?

10 (13.5%)

If I were into dudes, I could do WAY better than that!

1 (1.4%)

You were FLIRTING with me! And you have a GIRLFRIEND!

0 (0%)

MARTEN's the one who wanted to get his flirt on with you.

2 (2.7%)

You made it AWKWARD. Maybe it wouldn't have BEEN Awkward...

0 (0%)

Talker Johnson PI - he talks too much, and somehow that helps him solve crimes.

14 (18.9%)

I'm not even sure what they're trying to do

1 (1.4%)

Oh, look at the time, I'd better get going.

0 (0%)

Elliot: "I'm sure Padma won't make a..."

0 (0%)

AAAAAA! How can a dude your size be so stealthy?

6 (8.1%)

I tend to quietly loom. It's a problem.

11 (14.9%)

Eww, you eat beef jerky? It could be butt-meat!

3 (4.1%)

It came from the steak part of the cow.

4 (5.4%)

Bee arr bee.

1 (1.4%)

Did you eat all my jerky? (MO! Mayme...)

10 (13.5%)

I'm gonna have a heart attack!

0 (0%)

If you could get a heart attack from ONE bag of jerky...

1 (1.4%)

OH MY GOD WE HAVE TO GET YOU TO THE HOSPITAL

8 (10.8%)

Total Members Voted: 63

[jwhouk]

By the way: anyone notice that the eyes of the girl in the one poster changed since we last saw it?

...Didn't think so. 

[Border Reiver]

We know how Hanners stays so slim. It's all the joules she burns flailing and flipping out!

Then explain why I'm not that skinny with all the jumping to conclusions and running off at the mouth that I do.

[Black Sword]

Welp. Marigold tried. OFF TO FLAIL AND PANIC!

[zmeiat_joro]

What? You mean contributing to the death of the English language? No, you're not the only people doing that.

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore." - James Nicoll

I agree with him, and I majored in it at university.

Diane Duane once put these words into a character's mouth: "English doesn't so much borrow from other languages as chase them into dark alleys, knock them down and go through their pockets."

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."

# (This observation is extensively quoted even outside of Usenet, and has appeared in textbooks. It has also been misattributed, in part and in whole, to Booker T. Washington, to Ambrose Bierce, and, in one case, to the painter James Nicoll (1846–1918).)

[El_Flesh]

ooo what fun hanging out with hanners

[iduguphergrave]

<deleted by moderator>

Please remember that incivility and  ad hominem remarks are not tolerated here.
Paul

[Carl-E]

Hey, now - that was uncalled for! 

(was that uncalled for?  I don't really know either of you well enough to tell...)

[Kugai]

I suddenly had this vision of Corporal Jones from Dad's Army

"Don't Panic!!!! Doooooooon't Paniiiiiiiiiiic!!!!!!!"     



That's the Hanners we've all come to know and love alright.

[TheEvilDog]

What? You mean contributing to the death of the English language? No, you're not the only people doing that.

Technically, we talk German 99% of the time, so you could at most argue we are contributing to the death of German language

Well thats alright then 

[Armadillo]

Hello, anonymous internet forum.  I...I have a confession to make.

I don't like Hannelore.  AT ALL.  I don't think she's cute, I don't think she's funny, I don't find her antics enjoyable or droll or anything of the sort.  If I had someone in my social circle who behaved like her, I would go out of my way to never be in the same room with them.  In short, I don't get the Hanners love.

I'll be in the corner awaiting the inevitable flogging.

[Odin]

The only people that like Hannelore as a character are the ones not-so-secretly wishing Jeph would Rule 34 her.

[Carl-E]

I knew someone in our social circle with that level of naivete.  And, IRL, I did try and avoid her - it was like having a conversation with one of those those early AI programs - incredibly frustrating, and you had to explain everything. 

I personally like Hanners best when she calls people on their own silliness, or drops pearls of absolute wisdom into a conversation. 

The freakouts would be hard to deal with IRL as well, but that would induce feelings of pity and frustration more than aggravation and disgust.  I'd want to help calm her...

[Armadillo]

I knew someone in our social circle with that level of naivete.  And, IRL, I did try and avoid her - it was like having a conversation with one of those those early AI programs - incredibly frustrating, and you had to explain everything.  

I personally like Hanners best when she calls people on their own silliness, or drops pearls of absolute wisdom into a conversation.  

The freakouts would be hard to deal with IRL as well, but that would induce feelings of pity and frustration more than aggravation and disgust.  I'd want to help calm her...

I'd want to help her, too...

...until the 156th time it happened, then I might just tell her to F off.  

Personal story time!

I have a group of friends who share a common hobby, and we'll get together a few times a year for an evening of laughter, friendship, and damn good beer.  Everybody has a great time, we all have maybe one or two too many beers, and merriment is the rule of the evening.

...except for one person who always, and I mean always, has an emotional meltdown at roughly the same time every party.  The first couple of times it happened, we would all stop the raucousness and try to calm them down and get them back into the swing of things.  The problem was, it sucked the life out of the party for a good hour or so, but we didn't care because hey, who hasn't been there emotionally, right?

When it started happening at EVERY party, EVERY bar night, EVERY cookout, EVERY event is when it got damn old, and we all stopped giving half a crap.  

[DSL]

I've had a couple co-workers who exhibited low-level Hanneloreism (one would stand behind you as you worked, staring at the back of your neck, waiting for you to turn around instead of saying something like "Hi" or "Excuse me ... " ... Yeah, this unabashed Hanners fan wonders how he'd handle knowing one in real life.
I wonder if that's why Jeph seems (to me, anyway) to be de-aging her, to where she's more like a cute goofy kid instead of the creepy woman upstairs, and therefore easier to like as a character.
My other theory is that she's the Spock (or better, Data) character: The outsider's perspective on human foibles.

EDIT (after reading posts that went in about same time as this one): Hanners' saving grace as a character is that she does step outside herself, to help a friend or otherwise perform maintenance on her social circle. In so doing, she helps herself as well .. either coming to terms with some aspect of her condition or battling it, even a little. Even in the current strip, her concern for herself transfers (albeit comically) into concern for Marigold.

[beanzilla]

Linguistically speaking, besides, addition of things like BRB does nothing to the English lexicon but expand it. A language doesn't die unless it's systematically suppressed.

I have so much like for this statement.

[cesariojpn]

Most "Tofu Burgers" are actually made from Okara, a byproduct of Tofu making.

I coulda swore  that said okra.  Took three readings to ralize I was wrong. 

Thank goodness. 

The thought of an okra burger is just... harsh 

Don't feel bad, I keep thinking of Okada for some odd reason.

[Dr. ROFLPWN]

The only people that like Hannelore as a character are the ones not-so-secretly wishing Jeph would Rule 34 her.

I hate to be the exception to your erudite goddamn theory, but I like Hannelore as a character, yet I don't pop huge boners off of her; it's hard to think of her as sexual at all.

And Armadillo, Carl: you're reaching. By a lot. Hannelore is not that fucking bad. Two of my best friends in the world have ADD/OCD combos in a hardcore way, and yet I love hanging out with them. Their "freakouts" become comedic once they settle down and are back at the level, and are really not that disruptive unless they occur at a big social gathering. Anyone going into FTFO mode at a big social gathering is disruptive, and I don't think we've actually seen her disrupt a party like that.

Her space-born naïveté, I admit, I've never had to deal with, but as an obviously exaggerated character, it's charming, a quirk. Probably dealing with it in real life would be grating? I guess? Dealing with Marigold in that setting would too: anyone who's actually spent time with someone like Marbear knows that; a male version of her was the dude my primary social group, nerds all, just had to cut ties with because he was too fucking annoying. Fuck, Faye  would get one round of shitty, snotty remarks before I divested myself of her company entirely.

And then fucking Marten. I have dealt with Martens. You want to punch them. They are not cool. You know who had all the emotional breakdowns at parties/in public everywhere I've lived? The Marten types.

There is a reason they are "realistic characters", not real people.

[StevenC]

Wanting to punch someone who had shitty things happen to him and isn't happy about them is kind of a dick move.

[Dr. ROFLPWN]

If they can't stop bringing it up all the goddamn time or keep bemoaning that they don't even know why they came, this was stupid, bawwwwww, I feel perfectly justified in being a dick to them. I mean, it's like "sorry, skinny emo indie dude, I don't want to hear about your fucking problems all night. We asked if you felt like coming, you said yes; part of the social contract is not being a whiny piece of shit."

This could segue into a miniature rant about how the more I hear about Marten's problems, the less I like Marten himself. It makes him a cipher/Everyman a little more for me every time someone projects onto him, and it's kind of distasteful. I'm starting to agree with a friend of mine, who would suggest to Jeph that maybe he should go the Bobbins/Scary-Go-Round/Bad Machinery route; start fresh, same locale, but different characters as the focus.

Of course, I'm not Jeph, and I'd like to see what Marten has in store for him next, sure, but...come on, people, he had a girl break up with him? People are not as sensitive as you'd like about it? He can't score his first night back on the scene? CALL THE POLICE, IT'S THE MINOR PROBLEMS OF LIKE EVERY 20-SOMETHING. Yet every week, I hear about how shafted he gets and how terrible his life is! Bull, the dude has an intact social circle post-breakup, a job that pays for a snazzy goddamn apartment and looks ridiculously easy, and is blessed with good looks and charm. Marten is going to be just fine.

Shit, I went and did an acrobatic pirouette off the handle, but I'm tired of this phenomenon. It ain't gonna stop, but at least I registered my complaint. >:[

[StevenC]

Well, that's it. It's not him who is complaining every time about how shitty his life is. The comics about his post-breakup have been going on for many weeks but in comic time, it was just 1-2 days after said breakup until recently. And I think a few days after, he is allowed to feel mopey about it. The ones complaining about his shitty life are we readers because for us it has been going on for weeks whereas for the character it has just been a few shitty days.

[westrim]

Jeez, what's with the sudden bust of Hannelore dislike?  Unless there's a large stock of socially stunted space babies I don't know of, she isn't like anyone in real life - that's why she's amusing. She isn't constantly naive - often she's the most insightful character in the comic. It is a tool that Jeph uses occasionally, but just because a car has a sunroof doesn't mean it's defined by it. Same with the freakouts- there's been what, 5 over the course of the strip? 10, at the absolute most? And the ones that I recall are all for understandable things, like getting touched too much or inadvertently hitting on the boyfriend of a very insecure person. Most of the rest of the time she's a very non self centered person and constantly pushing herself to be better and more social, and the worst thing to do to someone like that is rebuff them and encourage their isolation just because you find them to be awkward.


Doc, remember that until a couple strips before the bar (at which point it timeskipped at least a couple weeks), every comic since the breakup had been within a week of the breakup. There was even a big conversation about Marten's mom and her behavior (which I refuse to go back to) because while it had been a month and a half realtime, it was only two days later comic time.

At any rate, I don't recall Marten showing up to any gatherings asking "why am I here?" unless he was dragged into going.  He's usually a pretty mellow, optimistic guy, and I think with all the hubbub since the breakup people are forgetting that. Go binge on a string of comics in the 1000s to remember how happy everything normally is.

But yes, please don't conflate the forum's behavior and attitude over the last couple months with the characters behavior and attitude, either during that span or the life of the comic. That way be   and  .

[Dr. ROFLPWN]

You're right, you're right. I am even now reconciling with the handle, and I may have overstated/projected (whoooooops)  the "Marten type" for effect. I'm just frustrated. What I really want is to see Marten move forward and gain a new conflict, a new storyline, etc. And I think it's good to see Jeph moving towards what could potentially be one.

[westrim]

You're right, you're right. I am even now reconciling with the handle, and I may have overstated/projected (whoooooops)  the "Marten type" for effect. I'm just frustrated. What I really want is to see Marten move forward and gain a new conflict, a new storyline, etc. And I think it's good to see Jeph moving towards what could potentially be one.

It's okay, it happens to the best of us, and certainly to me. And I agree that the sooner there's no more angst concerning Dora, the better.

[Carl-E]

You're right, you're right. I am even now reconciling with the handle

That just sounds wrong...

[TheEvilDog]

At this point, I'd actually rather one of the other main characters in some sort of conflict, either from the fallout of the breakup or from their own misadventures.

For example, we all know Dora is "fine" after the breakup, though there are hints that she expects her friends to be abusive towards her, to blame her, etc, and how we expect her to be in therapy. But what if she was confronted with the idea that Marten was getting his coffee from one of her rivals, or that they were getting friendly? Would we see Dora sighing to herself and saying that Marten has moved on, or would we get a typical Dora reaction where she sees something, gets the wrong end of the stick and ends up having to apologise to everyone in the building? Needless to say, thats just one scenario, but there are other possibilities.

It would be kind of interesting to see how the others might react in those situations, but then again, it's Jeph's comic, we're just along for the ride.

[westrim]

At this point, I'd actually rather one of the other main characters in some sort of conflict, either from the fallout of the breakup or from their own misadventures.

For example, we all know Dora is "fine" after the breakup, though there are hints that she expects her friends to be abusive towards her, to blame her, etc, and how we expect her to be in therapy. But what if she was confronted with the idea that Marten was getting his coffee from one of her rivals, or that they were getting friendly? Would we see Dora sighing to herself and saying that Marten has moved on, or would we get a typical Dora reaction where she sees something, gets the wrong end of the stick and ends up having to apologise to everyone in the building? Needless to say, thats just one scenario, but there are other possibilities.

It would be kind of interesting to see how the others might react in those situations, but then again, it's Jeph's comic, we're just along for the ride.

Bitching and asking "are we there yet" and poking the people next to us all the way.

Hey, I like that. Sigging.

[jwhouk]

MOMENT... OF... THE WEEK!!!!

Best Birthday Party Ever!    - 1 (1.7%)
Ask him how he met his GIRLFRIEND.    - 1 (1.7%)
Wait, so you guys AREN'T a couple?    - 8 (13.3%)
If I were into dudes, I could do WAY better than that!    - 1 (1.7%)
You were FLIRTING with me! And you have a GIRLFRIEND!    - 0 (0%)
MARTEN's the one who wanted to get his flirt on with you.    - 2 (3.3%)
You made it AWKWARD. Maybe it wouldn't have BEEN Awkward...    - 0 (0%)
Talker Johnson PI - he talks too much, and somehow that helps him solve crimes.    - 13 (21.7%)
I'm not even sure what they're trying to do    - 0 (0%)
Oh, look at the time, I'd better get going.    - 0 (0%)
Elliot: "I'm sure Padma won't make a..."    - 0 (0%)
AAAAAA! How can a dude your size be so stealthy?    - 5 (8.3%)
I tend to quietly loom. It's a problem.    - 8 (13.3%)
Eww, you eat beef jerky? It could be butt-meat!    - 2 (3.3%)
It came from the steak part of the cow.    - 3 (5%)
Bee arr bee.    - 0 (0%)
Did you eat all my jerky? (MO! Mayme...)    - 9 (15%)
I'm gonna have a heart attack!    - 0 (0%)
If you could get a heart attack from ONE bag of jerky...    - 1 (1.7%)
OH MY GOD WE HAVE TO GET YOU TO THE HOSPITAL    - 6 (10%)

Total Voters: 60

[cabbagehut]

Honestly, I've got some similarities to Hannelore - I don't exactly identify with her, because I don't have OCD or any real incarnation of it that I know of.  I had some very serious social issues when I was younger and had all sorts of stupid neuroses that would prevent me from interacting like a regular person (for example, if people could see my socks, it would drive me batty, to the point that I couldn't focus on anything else).  I've since worked through a lot of them and am better, but they still come out.

People tend to get really frustrated with you, like a lot of the posters are saying here.  It's hard when things will just set off your friend into a round of freaking out and you can't really do anything to stop it, and if it happens often, it starts to wear you down, too.  Hannelore is lucky in that she's got some very understanding and patient friends.  She's fun to read about, and I do enjoy her as a character (I don't have any desire to see her Rule 34'd, though!).  I think the thing that makes me like her the best is that she's trying to deal with her issues.  I have a lot of patience for people who are putting forth effort.  Hannelore has taken risks that scared her, tried new things (her trying different medications and whatnot kind of struck home for me), and had some failures along the way.  That makes her a more sympathetic character than someone who's like, "everything is terrible, and it's just going to stay that way!  TERRIBLE."

On a similar note, I think that's why many of the characters are sympathetic in the comic, even if you wouldn't like them in real life.  Almost all of them are making a conscious effort to try to work through their issues and be better people.

[TheEvilDog]

it's Jeph's comic, we're just along for the ride.

Bitching and asking "are we there yet" and poking the people next to us all the way.

Hey, I like that. Sigging.

So happy to provide you with 9/26ths of your new signature. 

[westrim]

it's Jeph's comic, we're just along for the ride.

Bitching and asking "are we there yet" and poking the people next to us all the way.

Hey, I like that. Sigging.

So happy to provide you with 9/26ths of your new signature. 

Yes, that was quite kind of you.