# 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:** 73
**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:** [October 8, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1441 "2014-10-08T02:04:09Z")
I admit i haven’t had a whole lot of relationships in my life, but even so, none of them have ever involved foreshadowing. Is that how it works for y’all? Most of mine have pretty much cone out of nowhere, whether it was with a random stranger i met in a bar, or someone I’d been socializing with for a few years. Hell, my last relationship with a woman went almost exactly like this. We both hung out in the same circles. After knowing her for a while, we ended up alone at some point, and I realized she wanted to kiss me. (I realized it about five minutes too late to act on it, because I’m kind of dumb.). Called her up the next day to ask her out for realsies, and we ended up dating for about two years. My point is, Claire’s a cute girl, and is interested in Martin. Martin’s just figured this out, and has decided to give it a shot. They’re not getting married, or announcing their undying love for each other. They’re just dating. Isn’t this exactly how dating works for most people? ---
**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:** [October 8, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1442 "2014-10-08T02:33:21Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > They’re not getting married, or announcing their undying love for each other. They’re just dating. Isn’t this exactly how dating works for most people? There are no simple relationships in this strip. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1443 "2014-10-08T02:48:57Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > (I realized it about five minutes too late to act on it, because I’m kind of dumb.) Preach, Brother! Preach! (All right, back to the beat.) ---
**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:** [October 8, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1444 "2014-10-08T02:55:11Z")
The real question is “Is this how dating usually works for Marten?” People’s foibles are played up in the comics versus real life. ---
**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:** [October 8, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1445 "2014-10-08T03:21:01Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There are no simple relationships in this strip. There are no simple relationships, period, but I don’t see how that’s responsive to what I wrote. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1446 "2014-10-08T03:26:08Z")
Plotlines really do seem to just erupt randomly in this strip. Marten has been crafted to date as fairly non-assertive nice guy bordering on supine at times. I think the interesting part will come when his mother or father finds out his new girlfriend is trans. I will predict she will not be understanding about it despite his mother’s profession as a dominatrix and the fact his father is gay. They will want bio-grandkids. ---
**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:** [October 8, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1447 "2014-10-08T03:58:49Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > The real question is “Is this how dating usually works for Marten?” People’s foibles are played up in the comics versus real life. I’m not sure that’s a meaningful question. We’ve only seen Martin in two relationships before now, one of them started a heck of a long time ago, and the other was a rebound after the first one fell apart. That’s not much of a sample, and one would hope that Martin’s grown up some between when he first started dating Dora and today’s strip. In terms of this “coming out of nowhere,” it took a little under five hundred strips between Martin becoming aware that Dora was interested in him (which was basically the very first strip she appeared in, #75) and them hooking up (first kiss was in 564). Martin’s first clue that Claire was interested in him was, I believe, the night of his dads’ wedding, when he woke up with her cuddled up next to him, in 2406. Their first kiss was in 2808, just over four hundred strips later. There’s a lot of other stuff in the two relationships that’s different - the “will they/won’t they” aspect of Martin and Dora was played up a lot more, and I get the impression that a lot more time passed in-strip before Dora and Martin hooked up than Martin and Claire, but Jeph’s been planting the narrative seeds for this relationship for about as long as he did for the other. ---
**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:** [October 8, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1448 "2014-10-08T04:27:08Z")
I was okay with this development, but I’ve been shipping those two since the wedding, so I may not have the proper perspective. The QC boards have had a lot of similar comments: “what the hell?” -type stuff, but it didn’t feel that out of nowhere to me after the wedding strips. Jeph was obviously going to take this somewhere, it’s just less satisfying (I agree this is the case) than one would hope. I think some of this is Jeph not wanting to piss off trans people – he’s said in posts he’s wanted to handle this carefully – but also he’s taken shortcuts a bit lately, for reasons that are unclear – witness the ridiculously compressed Marigold/Dale denouement – and you end up with something done a little _too_ carefully and a lot too quickly to feel quite right. But ultimately it didn’t bother me all that much in this case, as I was rooting for the characters (well, Claire; Marten is just Everyman) and wanted to see where something like this led. So – it started kinda sloppily, but it has some potential going forward to develop these characters in some fun ways. I’ll be patient a bit. > [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > You must remember that Emily really looks up to Claire and is in fact the only other character in the series that knows Claire is trans. Which means she will probably blurt out something dumb but not out of malice. This. Claire’s identity has obvious drama potential, Emily is unpredictable by any sane person. Shit will go down. ---
**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:** [October 8, 2014, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1449 "2014-10-08T04:36:42Z")
Also: I was listing in my head all the QC characters, and how they might react to Marten dating a transwoman, and I couldn’t think of anyone who would even blink or be anything other than chill. Oh, she’s trans? Cool. Except maybe Steve getting pretty confused, perhaps unsettled (“bros! bros! bros!”), I got nothing. So perhaps the “Claire is trans and nobody knows!” drama will be a thud, story-wise. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1450 "2014-10-08T04:41:24Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > I think some of this is Jeph not wanting to piss off trans people – he’s said in posts he’s wanted to handle this carefully – but also he’s taken shortcuts a bit lately, for reasons that are unclear – witness the ridiculously compressed Marigold/Dale denouement – and you end up with something done a little _too_ carefully and a lot too quickly to feel quite right. Marigold/Dale’s hookup “compressed”? Are you serious? That dance went on for well over a year, maybe two. ---
**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:** [October 8, 2014, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1451 "2014-10-08T05:12:04Z")
No, I meant specifically the denouement, not what led up to that. Edit: and not being a litcrit person, maybe I’m misusing that term. I mean there was an (obviously, humorously intentional) “OK, they kissed! You all knew it would happen anyway!” in bright red letters. That ridiculously compressed, that thing. ---
**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:** [October 9, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1452 "2014-10-09T01:19:29Z")
Weird, tomorrow’s went up [way early](http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2809). No, there nothing in there that moves anyone’s story forward, so you won’t be spoiled if you look. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1453 "2014-10-10T01:01:00Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > I’m calling a Friday cliffhanger: > > They’re out as a couple to the group, everyone’s all excited, and then Thai fires Martin. Well…never mind then. ---
**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:** [October 10, 2014, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1454 "2014-10-10T01:07:34Z")
Yep: > [@](#): > > OMG I SHIP 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:** [October 10, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1455 "2014-10-10T01:26:36Z")
I’m guessing the ethical issues will be solved one of two ways: Tai hires Claire on as a paid employee, making her Marten’s equal, rather than his subordinate. (This opens a whole new box of ethical issues on Tai’s part, which might cost her her job, but I kind of doubt it.) Marten quits, prompted not by the ethical concerns, but by the conversation he and Claire had before all this about not intending to stay at the library forever. (And then Claire gets hired on for his old job.) I think this one has the most drama potential, because it’s Marten tearing up his life again (albeit with his new relationship with Claire to keep him well-rooted in the old one). ---
**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:** [October 10, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1456 "2014-10-10T02:00:29Z")
Okay, I spent a substantial part of the last week archive-binging on **Questionable Content**. I had been reading the daily for a couple of months – on my Darkgate daily comix page – and finally got tired of not knowing who anyone was (mixed up Faye and Marigold, for instance). But I kept at it because the punchlines were so good. “Now I know what wieners smell like.” (snerk) How come you fuckers didn’t tell me about this thing BEFORE? ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1457 "2014-10-10T02:11:14Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Okay, I spent a substantial part of the last week archive-binging on **Questionable Content**. > > I had been reading the daily for a couple of months – on my Darkgate daily comix page – and finally got tired of not knowing who anyone was (mixed up Faye and Marigold, for instance). But I kept at it because the punchlines were so good. “Now I know what wieners smell like.” (snerk) > > How come you fuckers didn’t tell me about this thing BEFORE? This thread is like, four years old. ---
**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:** [October 10, 2014, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1458 "2014-10-10T02:37:01Z")
That’s NO excuse. ---
**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:** [October 10, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1459 "2014-10-10T02:48:43Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > That’s NO excuse. Now go read _Something Positive_ and _The Order of the Stick_. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1460 "2014-10-10T03:39:50Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Now go read _Something Positive_ and _The Order of the Stick_. And, if you REALLY want a hopelessly eternal archive-diving project, go check out Sluggy Freelance if you haven’t done so before. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967.md?page=72) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967.md?page=74)