# 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:** 92
**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:** [May 7, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1821 "2015-05-07T00:42:50Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > He actually references it below the comic. > Not that it meant anything to me, but… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1822 "2015-06-01T13:14:44Z")
So this is a lot of fun. ☹ Is Jeph mirroring his real life struggles via Faye’s difficulties staying clean? ---
**Author:** ![Gothic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Gothic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gothic)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1823 "2015-06-01T18:40:42Z")
Has Faye ever been this heavy? ---
**Author:** ![MostlyClueless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1824 "2015-06-01T18:49:40Z")
I believe Jeph has said that Faye was always supposed to be that way, but he got better at drawing the body type over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1825 "2015-06-01T22:36:24Z")
Yep, Faye has always been a little big in the hips and chest. I think it’s just this one comic. Even if you look back in the same story line she’s not as big as today’s comic. [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2962](http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2962) [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2971](http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2971) ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1826 "2015-06-05T11:00:37Z")
Faye was downright skinny when she first appeared, but bloomed as his drawing style changed. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1827 "2015-06-05T12:56:40Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Faye was downright skinny when she first appeared, but bloomed as his drawing style changed. Lately Faye has been quite curvy, for lack of a better term, but the last few strips have made her look overweight to the point of being amorphous. Granted, she is a slacker 20-something who does no apparent exercise and drinks a lot, but that describes everyone in the strip, and Marten is a twig. I hope Jeph works out his issues with alcohol quickly, because this is shaping up to be a Very Special Epiisode, and it’s not that interesting. I’ve long given up any hope that there was a direction that QC was heading towards (the strip could have equally well been entitled One NeverEnding Week in Northampton), so I’m only hanging on for the punchlines. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1828 "2015-06-05T15:56:44Z")
It’s not unknown for people who give up booze to gain weight, as they eat more when they would otherwise have been drinking. ---
**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:** [June 5, 2015, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1829 "2015-06-05T17:16:56Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > It’s not unknown for people who give up booze to gain weight, as they eat more when they would otherwise have been drinking. I actually _lost_ 40 pounds when I stopped drinking in 1994. But then, I was a beer drinker, not a straight-liquor drinker like Faye. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1830 "2015-06-05T17:27:53Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I actually _lost_ 40 pounds when I stopped drinking in 1994. But then, I was a beer drinker, not a straight-liquor drinker like Faye. Yeah, that happens a lot as well - depends if you end up drinking lots of soft drinks and eating more to compensate (pretty much like I did) or cut out the booze but leave everything the same. If Faye is sitting round eating cake and pizza instead of drinking, which I think would be in character, she could have easily gained a noticeable amount of weight quickly. I don’t really know about Jeph’s personal life, but I know he’s been somewhat open about it. Anyone know if he put on weight after quitting? ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1831 "2015-06-05T20:40:20Z")
So why did Marten say what he said on the phone? If he’d wanted Claire to think he was blowing her off to fuck Faye I can’t think of a better way to do it. The Watsonian reason Faye cleared things up is probably that she felt bad about causing discord, and about the fact that her and Marten’s friendship was part of what split Marten and Dora. The Doylist reason is that Jeph is unwilling to have any conflict in Clarten because he’s afraid it looks transphobic, so it has to be more functional than any other relationship given screen time in the 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:** [June 5, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1832 "2015-06-05T21:47:10Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I actually _lost_ 40 pounds when I stopped drinking in 1994. But then, I was a beer drinker, not a straight-liquor drinker like Faye. > [@Steophan](#): > > Yeah, that happens a lot as well - depends if you end up drinking lots of soft drinks and eating more to compensate (pretty much like I did) or cut out the booze but leave everything the same. If Faye is sitting round eating cake and pizza instead of drinking, which I think would be in character, she could have easily gained a noticeable amount of weight quickly. For me, simply cutting out the beer helped to reduce calorie intake. I replaced the beer with Mountain Dew, but I didn’t drink nearly as much MD as I did beer. It also helped that I had lost my driver’s license after a DUI in 1992 and hadn’t gotten around to getting it back (at the time of the DUI, I wasn’t ready to quit drinking, so I just stopped driving altogether), and was walking, bicycling, or taking the bus everywhere. Exercise! Also, shortly after I quit drinking, I got a new job as the graveyard shift cook at a 24-hour restaurant, and I was only eating one meal per day - my shift meal at work. I wasn’t eating at home when I got off work, because I wanted to go to bed on an empty stomach - thanks to cutting out the alcohol, I was finding it very hard to fall asleep (made even more difficult by trying to sleep during the day), so I was taking OTC sleeping pills, and those just wouldn’t kick in if I had a full stomach. OTOH, I’m back to drinking again. I actually started drinking again when I turned 40, after 13 years sober, but I honestly kept it under control for several years, drinking in moderation. It’s only in the last year or so that I’ve started to drink “too much” again (and yes, I’m fully aware of it, and am working on reining it back in), but that has coincided with gradually losing 60 pounds of the course of this last year. I was sober for 13 years, but I went more than 14 years without driving, and continued to walk and bicycle everywhere. In my early 40s, given that I was working mostly as a breakfast cook, I finally decided that I was tired of walking to work at 5AM in freezing winter weather (very cold winters here), and I got my license back. Once I started driving again and stopped walking and bicycling, I started packing the weight on. I peaked at 225. And I’m 5’ 8". Last week, I finally found myself back down to 165. If I can keep myself between 165 and 175, I’ll be happy. If I continue to lose weight, I’m going to start getting concerned that there’s something else wrong with me. > [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](#): > > So why did Marten say what he said on the phone? If he’d wanted Claire to think he was blowing her off to fuck Faye I can’t think of a better way to do it. > > The Watsonian reason Faye cleared things up is probably that she felt bad about causing discord, and about the fact that her and Marten’s friendship was part of what split Marten and Dora. > > The Doylist reason is that Jeph is unwilling to have any conflict in Clarten because he’s afraid it looks transphobic, so it has to be more functional than any other relationship given screen time in the strip. The way I read that scene, Faye (being a woman), heard what Marten said to Claire and realized how Claire was likely to interpret it. So she intervened. Hey, even when I’m _hammered_ (and I don’t think Faye was hammered, she was just starting to get buzzed), I can have enough clarity to see how a situation might be misinterpreted. For Marten’s part, it seemed that he was just trying to save Faye some embarrassment. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1833 "2015-06-05T22:04:58Z")
> [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](#): > > So why did Marten say what he said on the phone? If he’d wanted Claire to think he was blowing her off to fuck Faye I can’t think of a better way to do it. Ohhhh is that what it was supposed to be? That didn’t occur to me. I thought she was just overreacting to him breaking their plans that night. The coding he used seemed really obviously to read “Faye fell off the wagon and I need to help her but want to spare her any further embarrassment,” and I didn’t get why Claire was so pissed off about it. –Maggie “Why yes, I am very easy to lie to! Why do you ask?” the Ocelot ---
**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:** [June 5, 2015, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1834 "2015-06-05T22:44:41Z")
I figured Claire’s reaction was more along the lines of, “Oh, so you don’t want me hanging out with your friends? FINE.” Which sort of plays into the last interaction between her and Faye, which was a little rocky. Claire doesn’t strike me as the type to jump straight to, “You’re cheating on me!” ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1835 "2015-06-06T02:28:42Z")
> [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](#): > > The Doylist reason is that Jeph is unwilling to have any conflict in Clarten because he’s afraid it looks transphobic, so it has to be more functional than any other relationship given screen time in the strip. I think this is spot on. Claire is going to be handled with gentle, respectful kid gloves which I think, unfortunately, is not going to make for very interesting episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1836 "2015-06-06T04:47:21Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I figured Claire’s reaction was more along the lines of, “Oh, so you don’t want me hanging out with your friends? FINE.” Which sort of plays into the last interaction between her and Faye, which was a little rocky. Claire doesn’t strike me as the type to jump straight to, “You’re cheating on me!” If Dora was a bit touchy about Marten hanging out with women, Claire is likely to be even more touchy about Marten hanging out with cis women. > [@astro](#): > > I think this is spot on. Claire is going to be handled with gentle, respectful kid gloves which I think, unfortunately, is not going to make for very interesting episodes. A relationship without conflict makes dull narrative because anything without conflict makes dull narrative. He has two choices, add conflict to the relationship or take the focus off it, but I think he worries that doing either of those things (particularly after [these](http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=615) [strips](http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1300)) will be taken as “trans people shouldn’t be in relationships with cis people, or possibly at all.” ---
**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:** [June 6, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1837 "2015-06-06T06:20:54Z")
> [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](#): > > If Dora was a bit touchy about Marten hanging out with women, Claire is likely to be even more touchy about Marten hanging out with cis women. This doesn’t follow at all. Dora is a neurotic, insecure mess. Claire isn’t. ---
**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:** [June 6, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1838 "2015-06-06T16:59:03Z")
> [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](#): > > If Dora was a bit touchy about Marten hanging out with women, Claire is likely to be even more touchy about Marten hanging out with cis women. I’m with **Kamino** on this one - i don’t think that’s a necessary inference. Besides, it would be too much of a rehash of Martin and Dora’s relationship. ---
**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:** [June 7, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1839 "2015-06-07T01:56:51Z")
Can somebody please explain “cis” to me? I understand BDSM and LGBTQ, but WTF is “cis”? From what I can see, it seems to refer to completely “normal” hetero women. ETA: I’m in the “kink” community. I didn’t think there was a need for an acronym for “vanilla” people. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967/1840 "2015-06-07T01:59:29Z")
“Cis” is the opposite of “trans”. It’s not an acronym, it’s a prefix. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967.md?page=91) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-quite-get-todays-questionable-content-strip/535967.md?page=93)