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November 6, 2011
Reader Comments (28)
To avoid similar situations, maybe you should try to keep away from having a round smooth head.
"Stop thinking...let things happen...and be...the ball."
Omg, this cuts deep, man
Scott - Is this a repeat, or am I experiencing spillover from my last employer? It seems terribly familiar.
The RJ-17, the cadillac of forms
Grammer!
I think we've all been the ball at one time or another. I especially like the second panel's last line.
Gobbler, I thought that too so I searched. It is almost a repeat of this one. And after hunting that down, I can now go on with my day in peace.
damn you Jenkins! This is not the first time that he has refused to fill out the Cadillac of forms
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=RJ-17
Viva El Pelon!!
Basic Instructions: How to come up with a comic after watching Caddyshack (be the ball)
Once again, 'they' and 'their' is plural. 'Someone' is singular. 'They' cannot have A job. If 'they' have a A job, that means all of them have one job. If 'someone' has a job, that job is his. The pronoun 'his' is inclusive. That means it includes all people regardless of gender. It does not mean a male person. Would you rather be incorrect than risk offending those who are ignorant of the proper use of English? If the answer is yes, what else will you do to avoid offending the ignorant?
Otherwise, the strip is outrageously funny.
Please remember I'm only talking about the misuse of grammar in the narrative, dialog is fair game.
"You're the ball"
It's funny because it's true.
I don't know why everybody thinks I'm a bitch. I honestly don't. I haven't said a deliberately hurtful thing in twenty years, and then, it was to somebody who really needed it.
But...
Somehow, on every job, all the foreman has to do is say "get to work or I'll send Dee to talk to you", and it's all asses and elbows for a week!
Has to be SOME use for lack of social skills...
Nice work Scott, best comic you've done in a while. If I wanted to give someone a good example of what your comic's all about, I'd use this.
Is it just me, or does Jenkins look like he has a head injury? One pupil looks bigger than the others. I mean, other. Hmm - maybe I'm the one with the head injury.
"You're the ball." BAHAHA. Favourite line of the last few comics.
Uh oh - Will this be repeat of people asking whether this is a repeat? How soon before the repeat of "first"?
Duck and cover! The repeat of people with different language-use preferences will soon be at hand!
Note: grammar — Someone's observations and preferences about a language, often used in an OCD-manner to abuse others into learning that someone's preferences. [There's no bad grammar, just unappreciated or purposefully misunderstood.]
BTW, the RJ-17 form always reminds me of the EE214 Test held by an NPC professor in a MUD (very early on in the last decade of the 20th century) that was one of the best weapons in the whole MUD. Like, kill a dragon in just a few hits. Incredible. No, really, I mean it. It was very unbelievable, even for a MUD.
EE214 was an electrical engineering course, and the test was said to be very hard. Apparently delivering the test to a creature (or anyone) in the MUD afflicted mind-boggling massive damage, over and over again with each deliverance. Needless to say, defeating the professor in order to get the test for one's own use was very difficult... Unless you were very high level or had lots of armor, you would usually died from his first delivery of the EE214 Test, and if not then the second time he passed it out to you.
I'm thinking the RJ-17 form might be comparable, except Jenkins seems to have a natural immunity to it, and I suspect the EE214 would be of little use against him.
@gobbler Yeah, I am pretty sure it is a repeat.
Note from Scott: Uh, sadly, it is not.
@Elyob: He and his most definitely do primarily denote a male person -- even though they can and are frequently used in a somewhat gender-neutral manner, one (well, this one at least) can not help but mentally think of them as masculine regardless of the author's intent. It may not be "old school proper" to use they/their as a gender-neutral equivalent of he/she and his/her, but, given the lack of anything better and given the desire to have a word that genuinely is gender-neutral, so the reader doesn't have to continually have to evaluate whether a specific gender is being specified or not and whether that's germane to the topic at hand, they as an equivalent of he/her and their as an equivalent to his/her is now commonly understood by all -- even those of you who cringe at the use -- and accepted by most. English is a changing language, and this is a change (or not a change at all) you may just have to get used to.
So leave poor Scott alone!
I'm in favor of using "they" as the singular gender neutral. There is a precedent for using it that way since at least the 15th century,
Elyob,
You are incorrect. Their can be used as an indefinite singular antecedent in place of the definite forms 'his' or 'her'. Now please let everyone enjoy their comic in peace.
It's not a repeat, it's a running joke.
"You're the ball." Awesome.
What about the TPS reports?
It's not a repeat, it's a sequel.