# I don't quite get today's "Questionable Content" strip **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [April 13, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967 "2010-04-13T17:48:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 117
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2322 "2020-01-29T06:17:49Z")
theres a few ways they do the "bottom " surgery and one or two of the “alternate” surgeries can cause mild cases of “gastrointestinal distress” ie you get bad gas and the runs when anything remotely disagreeable is consumed because they go through a different part of the stomach/intenstines for the surgery ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2323 "2020-01-29T06:22:37Z")
So Claire’s Schrödinger dickgina gave her the shits. Uh… got it. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2324 "2020-01-29T14:18:20Z")
That’s obviously not what’s happening here, for multiple reasons. The two most important, one in-universe, one out: In universe: Claire explicitly states that it’s a transient issue caused by last night’s dinner. (Based on the ‘no-dairy’ thing, she might be lactose intolerant and decided to chance it, or underestimated to amount of dairy in her meal.) Since a) Bubs knows she’s trans, so she wouldn’t need to lie about it, and b) if she did feel the need to obfuscate, not mentioning any cause would be far more common, we can be sure that that’s true. Out of universe: Jeph is _absolutely against_ revealing Claire’s genital status. He wouldn’t sneak in an answer, even in a super-obtuse way like that. (And, again, this is very likely a ‘fuck you’ to the people who keep asking him about it.) (Also, it’s not a common side effect for the preferred form of GRS, so it would be a very, very strange choice indeed even if Jeph were to suddenly do a 180 on that.) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2325 "2020-01-29T15:37:55Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > feel the need to obfuscate I am totally going to use this euphemism the next time I get the shits. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2326 "2020-01-29T21:18:58Z")
Didn’t realize this thread was still around. What do people think of the whole recent Roko storyline? I find myself liking her less and less as we see more of her. She started the quest for a better body for May’s benefit, but when she found a simple solution that could benefit her friend she turned it down because it wasn’t enough personal satisfaction for Roko if Spookybot were to solve the problem. So she sets out, and her first step is to try to find blackmail material on a government worker who’s (as far as we’re told) doing his job rather than researching the way the laws funding May’s body work. When she fails to find anything to illegally threaten him with, she schedules an appointment so that she can try to talk him into changing the allocation of limited funds, but she doesn’t have any useful argument for what he should do or why. Also, he’s written to be extremely obnoxious so that we can say ‘gosh, what a meanie’ - he actually reads like an autistic person who’s not putting up a front to me, the bluntness and things like ‘I have a schedule’ comment in particular. Then when her plan to blackmail or convince this guy fails, she decides to try to arrange a meeting with the head of AI-Human relations where she will present some data she gathered off the net. While we don’t know exactly what will happen, in the real world this would be a laughably absurd plan. Also I don’t buy that a former beat cop would be so clueless and naive about how government works and how ‘the system’ treats ex-cons, she should be at least a bit more knowledgeable and cynical. Overall it seems Roko is a bully who puts up a front of helping a friend to cover that she’s really doing a vanity project, and someone who’s not very smart and is embarked enthusiastically on what is either a plan doomed from the start or a plan that has no relation to the real world. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2327 "2020-01-30T00:20:49Z")
I’m fairly “eh” about Roko and nothing about her made her interesting enough (to me) to become a regular character. I guess I don’t dislike her but I only care about her story in so far as May is usually amusing. Spookybot I almost actively dislike and the less of them I see, the better. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2328 "2020-01-30T02:11:18Z")
I’m sick of the goddamn robots, but I agree that May is sporadically enjoyable. Let’s have more Emily, with her plan to help satellites make friends with one another. And her dogs. “Are those really their names?” “Maybe!!!” ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2329 "2020-01-30T02:48:56Z")
Today’s comic (4189) seemed to indicate that Claire was telling Pintsize for the first time that she’s trans, but I know that’s not true. They had that talk when he was talking about body modifications. (“I just wanted to poop hamburgers, is that wrong?”) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2330 "2020-01-30T05:17:03Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Didn’t realize this thread was still around. What do people think of the whole recent Roko storyline? I find myself liking her less and less as we see more of her. She started the quest for a better body for May’s benefit, but when she found a simple solution that could benefit her friend she turned it down because it wasn’t enough personal satisfaction for Roko if Spookybot were to solve the problem. So she sets out, and her first step is to try to find blackmail material on a government worker who’s (as far as we’re told) doing his job rather than researching the way the laws funding May’s body work. When she fails to find anything to illegally threaten him with, she schedules an appointment so that she can try to talk him into changing the allocation of limited funds, but she doesn’t have any useful argument for what he should do or why. Also, he’s written to be extremely obnoxious so that we can say ‘gosh, what a meanie’ - he actually reads like an autistic person who’s not putting up a front to me, the bluntness and things like ‘I have a schedule’ comment in particular. Then when her plan to blackmail or convince this guy fails, she decides to try to arrange a meeting with the head of AI-Human relations where she will present some data she gathered off the net. While we don’t know exactly what will happen, in the real world this would be a laughably absurd plan. Also I don’t buy that a former beat cop would be so clueless and naive about how government works and how ‘the system’ treats ex-cons, she should be at least a bit more knowledgeable and cynical. > > Overall it seems Roko is a bully who puts up a front of helping a friend to cover that she’s really doing a vanity project, and someone who’s not very smart and is embarked enthusiastically on what is either a plan doomed from the start or a plan that has no relation to the real world. I’m still trying to figure out if Jacques intends Roko to be seen as a terrible person or if he’s unaware of it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2331 "2020-01-30T05:23:15Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > All Melon, all the time. No, the last thing this webcomic needed was yet another wacky female character. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2332 "2020-01-30T05:38:30Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > OK - so Claire (and Emily) first turn up in [strip 2203](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2203) - I didn’t start looking from the beginning, I probably picked up the story at 1500 or so … > > Unlike some of the other webcomics I read regularly (Girl Genius and Schlock Mercenary), I have never been invested in the storyline of _Questionable Content_ sufficiently to re-read the entire archive. > Nor _Something Positive_ for that matter, which would probably be an exercise in masochism. ehh there’s only one really bad storyline in something positive that i hated and it was an off and on thing that ended pretty fast so a read from the beginning isn’t to bad, the sense of humor actually more savage in the beginning tho ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2333 "2020-01-30T05:39:19Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > No, the last thing this webcomic needed was yet another wacky female character. Don’t worry; in a few months she’ll have the edges filed off and be fairly normal and need to step aside for the next wacky female character. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2334 "2020-01-30T13:58:09Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > …so a read from the beginning isn’t to bad, the sense of humor actually more savage in the beginning tho It takes only until the fourth strip for Faye to say “If I sense any lusting, I will stab you and then poop into the wound.” when I got to that line I could tell that **QC** and I were going to have a long and pleasant relationship. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2335 "2020-01-30T14:31:37Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m still trying to figure out if Jacques intends Roko to be seen as a terrible person or if he’s unaware of it. It’s hard to tell isn’t it? Lots of things signal that we’re supposed to like her, but the stuff she’s actually doing is a selfish mix of a bad cop and naive idealist. She is named for a concept that involves a being that does terrible things, so maybe she is intended to just be awful. (Roko’s Basilisk is the concept of a transhuman AI that copies people into simulations and tortures them if they knew about the possibility of the AI and didn’t do what the AI wanted in the past) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2336 "2020-01-30T14:45:28Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Didn’t realize this thread was still around. What do people think of the whole recent Roko storyline? I find myself liking her less and less as we see more of her. I can only reiterate what I said upthread: > [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I’m about ready to give up on the strip. I don’t care about Roko, detest Brun, find Melon annoying, and this is the first time in months we’ve seen a main character. Bring back Martin, Faye, Dora, and Hannelore! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2337 "2020-01-30T14:59:22Z")
The Claire coming out to Faye thing is just a setup for a Faye-Bubbles fight because bubbles knew and didn’t tell Faye. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2338 "2020-01-30T15:16:15Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > The Claire coming out to Faye thing is just a setup for a Faye-Bubbles fight because bubbles knew and didn’t tell Faye. I was wondering about that also. When did Claire tell Bubbles? Before or after Faye were a couple? Beforehand, Faye has absolutely no right to be upset. Afterwards, and I think it’s at reasonable for Faye to expect Bubbles to ask Claire if she can share the info with Faye. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2339 "2020-01-30T16:16:14Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > The Claire coming out to Faye thing is just a setup for a Faye-Bubbles fight because bubbles knew and didn’t tell Faye. Christ, I hope not. That would be hugely out of character for her. Why would Faye be angry about that? It’s not something that effects her at all, one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2340 "2020-01-30T17:01:00Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Christ, I hope not. That would be hugely out of character for her. What, acting out based on emotions and sabotaging her own relationships? No, that sounds exactly like Faye. > [@](#): > > Why would Faye be angry about that? It’s not something that effects her at all, one way or the other. Trust issues, mainly, I imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/2341 "2020-01-30T18:18:00Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > What, acting out based on emotions and sabotaging her own relationships? No, that sounds exactly like Faye. I also don’t think having wild emotions and sabotaging her relationship is out of character for her, but I’ll be surprised if Jeph has one of the main cast react in a way that can be read as ‘they aren’t cool with Claire being trans and/or think it’s an issue of any sort’. He’s really treated the topic with kid gloves and seems deathly afraid of appearing in any way to condone transphobia, and it seems like that development would tread to close to ‘this character in the cast has a problem with Claire’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967.md?page=116) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967.md?page=118)