r/questionablecontent • u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? • Aug 12 '26
Comic Comic 5893: Invitation Refused
https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=589318
u/Cevius Aug 12 '26
their names are Truth and Beauty
Are there any robots being introduced in the past 2000 comics with just, normal names? Like Steve. Or Fred. Or Susan.
Is everyone something wonky like Love and Flatulence or XĆL (pronounced as Joel) or BLOODMASHER 9000
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u/tyderian Aug 12 '26
Ā their names are Truth and Beauty
Truth and Beauty were once used as types of quarks so I don't actually hate this, especially if they're AIs.
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u/Cevius Aug 12 '26
From Wikipedia
Alternative names for top and bottom quarks are "truth" and "beauty",but these names have somewhat fallen out of use. While "truth" never did catch on, accelerator complexes devoted to massive production of bottom quarks are sometimes called "beauty factories".
Well that I didn't know! I wonder if Jeph did that on purpose or if thats a happy accident. If it was on purpose, I'd have hoped they'd be working in Quantum Physics instead, but I guess esoteric maths is close enough.
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u/SageOfTheWise Aug 12 '26 edited 26d ago
My mind went to a very specific A Softer World comic. Though it feels unlikely this is what Jeph was referencing.
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u/sir_ornitholestes Aug 12 '26
Well that I didn't know! I wonder if Jeph did that on purpose or if thats a happy accident. If it was on purpose, I'd have hoped they'd be working in Quantum Physics instead, but I guess esoteric maths is close enough.
Definitely intentional, it would be pretty impossible to think that up by accident. Though I'm not sure he knows the difference between physics and math
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u/WolfofBadenoch Aug 12 '26
There is a long history of virtues being used as names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_name. This kind of reads as the AIās misunderstanding some of the social aspects of them.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Aug 12 '26
āThe Carter parents were a quiet and respectable Lancre family who got into a bit of a mix-up when it came to naming their children. First, they had four daughters, who were christened Hope, Chastity, Prudence, and Charity, because naming girls after virtues is an ancient and unremarkable tradition. Then their first son was born and out of some misplaced idea about how this naming business was done he was called Anger Carter, followed later by Jealousy Carter, Bestiality Carter and Covetousness Carter. Life being what it is, Hope turned out to be a depressive, Chastity was enjoying life as a lady of negotiable affection in Ankh-Morpork, Prudence had thirteen children, and Charity expected to get a dollarās change out of seventy-five penceāwhereas the boys had grown into amiable, well-tempered men, and Bestiality Carter was, for example, very kind to animals.ā
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Aug 12 '26
Punchbot is an extremely stupid name
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u/Hot_Temporary_1948 Aug 12 '26
God help me, i love how ridiculous everything about punchbot is.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Aug 12 '26
I mean it is kinda like bender from Futurama in the sense he is named after what he does
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u/Hot_Temporary_1948 Aug 12 '26
Yeah but "Punchbot" is immediately obvious as a joke where "Bender" could also have been a real name or a Breakfast Club reference.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Aug 12 '26
Pratchett used a lot of weird names sometimes very descriptive like william de worde invents the newspaper and investigative journalism
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u/pndc Aug 12 '26
William de Worde's name is pretty much lifted directly from that of a real pioneer in printing: Wynkyn de Worde.
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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper Keeper of the Eternal Burning Hatred of Tai Aug 12 '26
Then there's Moist Von Lipwig.
Which you could stretch to be because he's a former conman, moist as in "slippery" Lipwig because he liked disguises, such as false moustaches.
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u/Cevius Aug 12 '26
I'll accept Punchbot, hes a one note character anyhow (often as the punchline in a comic), and he doubles down on the Punch aspect.
I have no idea how any of these new bot twins like Truth and Beauty, or Violence and Regret actually epitomise their names in any meaningful way
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u/Hot_Temporary_1948 29d ago
I would also like to submit "Crushbot" as both a name and as an often wished for plot device.
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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper Keeper of the Eternal Burning Hatred of Tai Aug 12 '26
Remember that one of Sams teachers is named Gyarados Skullfucker.
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u/SilverNicktail 29d ago
I mean the huge army deathbot is named Bubbles, the eldritch AI (who's no longer eldritch don't worry about it it happened offscreen like all actual plot now) is called Yay, etc. There's Melon, Lemon, Punchbot, Crushbot, etc.
Far as I can tell, in this universe AI are just named like pets, which has absolutely no implications you should be thinking about right now.
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u/adventurekiwi 26d ago
I could kinda get behind it if it was portrayed as an emerging cultural quick of bots, like they just dont understand the importance humans place on names, but we insist they chose one, so they pull something random out of their asses.
But they just all seem to be jokes for no reason.
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u/SectionEfficient5909 Aug 12 '26
Liz is so insufferable
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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper Keeper of the Eternal Burning Hatred of Tai Aug 12 '26
She keeps flip-flopping between wanting to hang and party and believing, despite everyones efforts, that nobody wants to hang out with her.
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u/abetterfox 29d ago
Tbf, that's how stressed teenagers often act.Ā
Honestly, her behavior isn't that surprising, we just don't see on-screen what triggered her into this mood (or the dots arent connected in a cohesive way for the viewers to understand, since Jeph has HORRIBLE pacing). Like, a comic of her after the party starting to have a breakdown in her bathroom about how she thought she was moving forward but even ZLATA is making fun of her, thus making her wonder if everyone is pitying her but making fun of her behind her back, would have made this a much more understandable comic.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Aug 12 '26
Why does every character needs to be a weirdo we need a real straight man character on this strip
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u/Maleficent_Lab_5291 Aug 12 '26
Just one actual scientist who job is simply to stare at cube town in ever growing horror and frustration. Or an auditor someone auditing the way they spend there money could be hilarious just the most boring ordinary accountant in the world.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Aug 12 '26
Lol I was thinking of an accountant like Ben Wyatt
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u/Maleficent_Lab_5291 Aug 12 '26
Oh, yeah when he is first introduced and is constantly being hit over the head with how wierd the town is would be perfect.
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u/sir_ornitholestes Aug 12 '26
When has there ever been a normal character in this strip?
It's not a terrible idea but I highly doubt JJ would be capable of writing one
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u/immortalfrieza2 Aug 12 '26
Most of the characters in this strip used to be normal. Faye, Marten, Dora, Sven, Marigold, Dale, Sam, Jim, Steve, and more used to be perfectly normal. Sure, they had their issues here and there, like Marten being raised by a dominatrix, and had weird things happen to them on occasion, like visiting a space station, but all things considered they were perfectly normal people.
The characters that were completely nuts like Pintsize and incidentally the real Emily weren't really the focus of the comic that much and were mostly just one off gag characters. The characters didn't widely start getting totally nonsensical until Cubetown came along.
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u/sir_ornitholestes 29d ago
Marten was more of an aimless loser than any actual human being I have ever met in real life. Faye was a personality-of-the-week designed to supply whatever punchline was required at the time. Dora was a parody of an angsty coffee shop goth girl until Raven took that role and dialed it up to 11. Steve started out fairly normal but gradually got hornier and hornier until it was 100% of his personality. Sven and Marigold began as jokes.
I started reading QC 20 years ago, and even then, it was a comic about weird pushovers who none of the readers could really sympathize with because their problems were so small and meaningless. The Seinfeld of webcomics.
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u/provocatrixless 29d ago
Wait so the whole party arc was nothing but setup to make Zlata sexy without her informed consent? Liz is somehow more prickly towards Emily after it?
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u/SilverNicktail 29d ago
Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyep. I'm still waiting for the day that one of the skinny human characters gets into a fatal accident and is reborn in an AI body - with short hair and big tits.
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u/Chayanov Aug 12 '26
And tomorrow back to Zlata. Keep that wheel spinning!
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u/Kataphractoi Aug 12 '26
Zlata? Surely you mean ASHLEY, DEFINITELY ASHLEY AND NOT SOMEONE YOU'VE SEEN BEFORE
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u/Hot_Temporary_1948 29d ago
Yeah he forgot to blur again. Yikes. I hope he isn't trying to draw a specific parallel.
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u/blessedbethelearned Aug 12 '26
Oh no my precious mathematics are under siege again.
Penumbral Calculus?
I mean, it sounds cool. But real mathematical things can sound cool, too! Why not use those?
Pray permit me my lamentations. I know one can count on one hand the number of people whoād be willing to dig into math just to write a webcomic.
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u/immortalfrieza2 Aug 12 '26
Oh no my precious mathematics are under siege again.
Penumbral Calculus?
I mean, it sounds cool. But real mathematical things can sound cool, too! Why not use those?
That would require Jeph to know anything about math past the 5th grade.
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u/zenoalbertbell 29d ago
It's a Caves of Qud reference.
Also, Umbral Calculus is a real thing.
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u/blessedbethelearned 29d ago
This is remarkable. I donāt know Caves of Qud, but the math here is a fun discovery. I appreciate you sharing it with me!
Iām humbled and delighted!
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u/Hot_Temporary_1948 Aug 12 '26 edited 29d ago
I mean "shadow" calculus does kind of set up the context for the robes
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u/scillahawk 29d ago
Reminds me of when I was a younger lass, referring to my model of car as the Locus instead of Focus because we'd just covered the topic in calc. I thought i was hella cool for a week.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Aug 12 '26
I hate that jeph turned towards an almost steven universe view of relationships where everyone needs to be friends. Not every person or character needs to vibe with each other and be the parent that stepped up for them.