No, there wasn’t. They had to cancel that version after Gary Cooper stabbed that one guy.
foducool
did he put all the blame on the guy he stabbed? because that’d be kinda ironic lol
Some Ed
Um, where did you get that story? Or are you just trying to gaslight Gaslight (1944) like MGM tried to gaslight Gaslight (1940), except with less money and more defamation?
You might as well give up, because there was also Gaslight (1958), so there’s a lot of targets to go after.
Wikipedia is my friend, but clearly not yours – at least not in this instance.
Delicious Taffy
Damn, I’ve been gaslit by Gaslight. Looks like real gaslighting was the friends we manipulated along the way.
There was also an earlier version, which sticks much closer to the text of the play, meaning that in the first 90 seconds or so of dialogue the word “queer” is used at least six times in its original sense (“It’s a very queer house, that,” “queer goings-on indeed,” that sort of thing). which it turns out is about as many as I can take in that short a span of time before no longer being able to keep a straight* face.
I loved the version of Gaslight with Angela Lansbury! That was the second one made. It might not be my fave movie, but I’d be happy to talk about it in the context of the Bechdel Test, gaslighting, and/or feminism! It had such a cathartic ending and was well ahead of its time.
Meh. I have a SEP, and did even back when I had a Hawaiian t-shit. The shirt threw off the field. I could wear bunny slippers and a velociraptor mask and people would *still* notice me.
Though, to be fair, the velociraptor mask did hide my medusa-like hair, which seems to be what my SEP usually banked on. But the Hawaiian shirt threw off the field without the mask, too. It’s possible what didn’t work for me would work for Joe, because he’s starting from a different baseline, with his fundamentally neat hair versus my fundamentally trying-to-escape hair. (Update: my fundamentally trying-to-escape hair has mostly escaped. The SEP doesn’t work as well now.)
They’re a relic of a time long past! Down with loudly colored shirts! Long live beige!
(Just to be clear, I was mostly joking in the original comment as well. I do hate the style, but that’s a matter of personal preference rather than quality.)
Zach
It’s often used ironically. Like a nice button down flower print tucked into black slacks. If you are otherwise very clean cut and suave, it contrasts to make you look more so.
zee
Never! Bring back Hawaiian shirts! Viva la jimmy buffet!
You’re thinking of Magnum P.I., starring Tom Selleck.
Incidentally, Selleck was up for the role of Indiana Jones at the time, and even did some test photos in costume, but he turned it down because of schedule conflicts.
This, Chip and Dale’s Rescue Ranger outfits were both based on Tom Selleck characters.
Ah, looking up the pictures online, I’m pretty sure you’re right! Thank you for the correction.
Chris (the other one)
Yeah, Sonny Crocket wore a lot of pastel suits and complimentarily colored t-shirts and Henley style.
Magnum and his pilot sidekick (don’t remember the name) mostly wore Hawai’ian shirts.
I have always been happy about that. Tom Selleck got a great TV series, Harrison Ford created an iconic character. I’ve always felt that Tom would have been wrong for Indy, because he was TOO “heroic.” It’s far more impressive that “Everyman” Ford play the hero.
That’s exactly what it means. If I go to a bank with the intent to rob it, but the teller has a big iron on his hip and stops me, I haven’t robbed a bank.
Eldritchy
[looks at Gabriel Iglesias and his Indian Bank Robber skit]
Shade
You still committed a crime though.
Delicious Taffy
Yeah, but the crime was “attempted” robbery, which is distinct from robbery in that the only thing taken was my freedom.
LiamKav
“A big iron on his hip”
That’s exactly what Joe is going to need to use on that shirt after all this crawling.
He’s about one panrl away from breaking DARVO out.
“I’m not crawling along the floor to escape, that’s preposterous! You came up with that accusation, so YOU must be the one who’s REALLY crawling on the floor!”
Also known as the preferred grammatical tense of conservatives everywhere, am I right.
Needfuldoer
I thought that was attempted gaslighting, but they keep changing their narrative so now there’s a dozen versions of every story. that all sound “pLaUsIbLe” enough in a vacuum (to fool the rubes with soundbites) but conflict with each other.
That’s not exactly it, but you’re on the right track and I agree here isn’t gaslighting here. It’s not gaslighting if the speaker’s intention is not to deceive. He doesn’t want wanted to believe he’s not there, he just wants to do his joke bit or be ignored.
I would say it does count only technically in the sense that this ‘could be’ the start of such a pattern (like how people refer to it as verbal abuse when someone screams names at them even if it is the only time they have done so as abuse only exists when it is a pattern, not a one off) but obviously we know it won’t be and this is just one instance of him point-blankly denying reality to Leslie’s face and he’s not going to come back to do so to Leslie over and over and over again until she does start to actually doubt her own memory, perception and sanity.
It’s still best not to use gaslighting too lightly as a word considering how often people rampantly misuse it just to mean ‘lies’ though when it is more specific and malicious than just lying to someone at random and has a specific intent.
As for the last part, I hold the same view in regard to ANY psychological term, whether professionally recognized or only a tool for self-help.
Sam
I agree with that. Making light of words and phrasings like ‘triggered’ and ‘intrusive thoughts’ and other such terms causes people real distress as they aren’t taken seriously when it matters then.
Because most of these things do occur on a milder scale for normal people. But they are maladaptive, more frequent and exist to a more severe degree when they are a symptom or used by affected people.
If someone made light of flashbacks as an experience, I would be obligated to throttle them as I have only experienced ONE but it was not a fun time. My foot got caught so I fell on a mini-trampoline, winding myself, but which triggered an instant recall of a near death experience and flooded in feelings that I couldn’t breathe and was going to die. With none of the acceptance that came with actual oxygen deprivation, so it was in fact, even worse somehow!
And then I couldn’t bring myself to go near the mini-trampolines again in case it somehow happened again. I will confront my fears of heights, snakes and spiders, but you can’t make me go near one of those trampolines again.
That’s so sad. So sorry that happened to you, and that you won’t be able to go on trampolines again!
Speaking of gaslighting, diminishing the seriousness of psychological and self help terms through such misuse could also further enable leveling by manipulative people and groups.
Leveling is a psychological manipulation kind of like gaslighting where one party who’s conduct is significantly worse than the other on any objective analysis of the situation will attempt to assert that they are on equal moral standing by adding bogus elements to their opponent’s side while denying awkward elements in their own.
One recent example of this (fitting well with the themes of this comic) is how religious conservatives claimed that recent bills protecting LGBTQ+ rights were “prejudiced against people of faith”. Here, they attempt to draw a false equivalence between objecting to prejudice and being prejudiced.
Joe has taken the Venom Snake school of Sneaking I see.
Also. . I kind of like what Leslie just did there. Naturally turning a odd scene into a jumping off point for a discussion. That’s really really cool actually.
All of the lessons last semester I can remember that aren’t hilariously/dramatically derailed, Leslie does a pretty good job. She really is a good egg, she just has terrible choice in partners on top of all the other fallibility your average human has in their possession.
161 thoughts on “Tabling”
Ana Chronistic
sequence breaking ALL THE LESSONS
unless someone’s fave movie (play) is Gas Light
a/snow/mous/e
There was a 1944 movie called Gaslight based on the play, so it could still be someone’s favorite movie.
Delicious Taffy
No, there wasn’t. They had to cancel that version after Gary Cooper stabbed that one guy.
foducool
did he put all the blame on the guy he stabbed? because that’d be kinda ironic lol
Some Ed
Um, where did you get that story? Or are you just trying to gaslight Gaslight (1944) like MGM tried to gaslight Gaslight (1940), except with less money and more defamation?
You might as well give up, because there was also Gaslight (1958), so there’s a lot of targets to go after.
Wikipedia is my friend, but clearly not yours – at least not in this instance.
Delicious Taffy
Damn, I’ve been gaslit by Gaslight. Looks like real gaslighting was the friends we manipulated along the way.
Clif
+1 Internets
Rabid Rabbit
There was also an earlier version, which sticks much closer to the text of the play, meaning that in the first 90 seconds or so of dialogue the word “queer” is used at least six times in its original sense (“It’s a very queer house, that,” “queer goings-on indeed,” that sort of thing). which it turns out is about as many as I can take in that short a span of time before no longer being able to keep a straight* face.
*So to speak.
Carla's #2 Fan
I loved the version of Gaslight with Angela Lansbury! That was the second one made. It might not be my fave movie, but I’d be happy to talk about it in the context of the Bechdel Test, gaslighting, and/or feminism! It had such a cathartic ending and was well ahead of its time.
C.T. Phipps
Poor Joe. He unwittingly engages in all the behaviors he thinks he’s not engaging in.
butts
quiet as a worm
Thag Simmons
flawless plan rosenthal
Schpoonman
If Joe isn’t doing meme Solid Snake grunts while he’s trying to “stealth” his way out of the classroom he doesn’t deserve Joyce.
Cholma
Where’s a cardboard box when you need one?!
StClair
!
ShellShockBP
text you can hear
Keulen
“Colonel, I’m trying to sneak around, but I’m dummy thicc and the clap from my ass cheeks keeps alerting the guards.”
Yotomoe
Otokon, this hawaiin shirt seems to have a really low Camo index.
Schpoonman
You get me. <3
TemporalShrew
“Otacon, I’m trying to sneak around, but the twang of my lap steel keeps alerting the college professors.”
Wizard
Camo has to be tailored to the environment. I’m not sure a Hawaiian shirt would provide effective concealment anywhere outside of a tiki bar.
Jamie
Not coincidental that so many spies end up in tiki bars, I guess.
Stifyn Baker
It would work really well, if only he had a Somebody Else’s Problem Field.
Some Ed
Meh. I have a SEP, and did even back when I had a Hawaiian t-shit. The shirt threw off the field. I could wear bunny slippers and a velociraptor mask and people would *still* notice me.
Though, to be fair, the velociraptor mask did hide my medusa-like hair, which seems to be what my SEP usually banked on. But the Hawaiian shirt threw off the field without the mask, too. It’s possible what didn’t work for me would work for Joe, because he’s starting from a different baseline, with his fundamentally neat hair versus my fundamentally trying-to-escape hair. (Update: my fundamentally trying-to-escape hair has mostly escaped. The SEP doesn’t work as well now.)
Delicious Taffy
But how does it taste?
Regalli
Good job, Joe, you’ve managed to be dramatically more noticeable, memorable, and suspicious than if you’d just walked out.
Unless Ruth and Jennifer are still fighting, in which case staying out of their line of sight is 100% reasonable, I agree.
Shadow Dreamer
I know, right? No getting in view of THAT fight.
Jane
I mean, the dirt could really only improve that shirt. What was he thinking when he bought it? That he would be guest-starring on Miami Vice?
(Might be thinking of the wrong show, I’m not really up to date on my 80s television; I just vaguely remember a design like that.)
Yotomoe
I refuse. I mean I refuse, to stand idly by while people insult a quality hawaiin shirt.
Jane
They’re a relic of a time long past! Down with loudly colored shirts! Long live beige!
(Just to be clear, I was mostly joking in the original comment as well. I do hate the style, but that’s a matter of personal preference rather than quality.)
Zach
It’s often used ironically. Like a nice button down flower print tucked into black slacks. If you are otherwise very clean cut and suave, it contrasts to make you look more so.
zee
Never! Bring back Hawaiian shirts! Viva la jimmy buffet!
Mr D
Hawaiian shirts are so comfyyy
Jeff K!
You’re thinking of Magnum P.I., starring Tom Selleck.
Incidentally, Selleck was up for the role of Indiana Jones at the time, and even did some test photos in costume, but he turned it down because of schedule conflicts.
This, Chip and Dale’s Rescue Ranger outfits were both based on Tom Selleck characters.
Jane
Ah, looking up the pictures online, I’m pretty sure you’re right! Thank you for the correction.
Chris (the other one)
Yeah, Sonny Crocket wore a lot of pastel suits and complimentarily colored t-shirts and Henley style.
Magnum and his pilot sidekick (don’t remember the name) mostly wore Hawai’ian shirts.
Dave the Inverted
T.C.
(And I didn’t have to look that up.)
Ed Rhodes
I have always been happy about that. Tom Selleck got a great TV series, Harrison Ford created an iconic character. I’ve always felt that Tom would have been wrong for Indy, because he was TOO “heroic.” It’s far more impressive that “Everyman” Ford play the hero.
Some Ed
I’m not sure why, but I somehow had the idea that Joe’s father might have bought him that shirt.
BBCC
Pfffft, the shade. Professors are always good at that.
RassilonTDavros
Something about this scene seems really familiar, somehow.
Stephen Bierce
*plays the theme for the Alfred Hitchcock TV series on the hacked Muzak*
OBBWG
Followed by The Love of Three Oranges by Prokofiev
Dana
Why is it the theme from Alfred Hitchcock Presents always morphs into the theme from Leave it to Beaver in my head?
Demoted Oblivious
Because it reveals a hidden truth?
NinjaNick
“Move along, nothing to see here.”
Keulen
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
Nick Piers
Why is Joe tagged in this strip? I don’t see him.
Clif
Joe’s not tagged. He’d have ro be there to get tagged.
Dave Van Domelen
I’m not sure it counts as gaslighting if no one believes you….
SuperZero
Just because it’s not successful doesn’t mean you didn’t do it.
Delicious Taffy
That’s exactly what it means. If I go to a bank with the intent to rob it, but the teller has a big iron on his hip and stops me, I haven’t robbed a bank.
Eldritchy
[looks at Gabriel Iglesias and his Indian Bank Robber skit]
Shade
You still committed a crime though.
Delicious Taffy
Yeah, but the crime was “attempted” robbery, which is distinct from robbery in that the only thing taken was my freedom.
LiamKav
“A big iron on his hip”
That’s exactly what Joe is going to need to use on that shirt after all this crawling.
Needfuldoer
He’s about one panrl away from breaking DARVO out.
“I’m not crawling along the floor to escape, that’s preposterous! You came up with that accusation, so YOU must be the one who’s REALLY crawling on the floor!”
Delicious Taffy
Also known as the preferred grammatical tense of conservatives everywhere, am I right.
Needfuldoer
I thought that was attempted gaslighting, but they keep changing their narrative so now there’s a dozen versions of every story. that all sound “pLaUsIbLe” enough in a vacuum (to fool the rubes with soundbites) but conflict with each other.
Carla's #2 Fan
That’s not exactly it, but you’re on the right track and I agree here isn’t gaslighting here. It’s not gaslighting if the speaker’s intention is not to deceive. He doesn’t want wanted to believe he’s not there, he just wants to do his joke bit or be ignored.
Carla's #2 Fan
My autocorrect had some fun there! I meant to say “He doesn’t want them to believe he’s not there…”
Sensei Le Roof
Unfortunately, it doesn’t count at all. Success is irrelevant.
gaslighting (verb): to cause (a person) to doubt his or her sanity through the use of psychological manipulation.
It’s not just a synonym for lying to someone.
Wagstaff
Not just sanity; gaslighting is also used to incubate distrust in one’s own memories, emotions and cognitions.
Sam
I would say it does count only technically in the sense that this ‘could be’ the start of such a pattern (like how people refer to it as verbal abuse when someone screams names at them even if it is the only time they have done so as abuse only exists when it is a pattern, not a one off) but obviously we know it won’t be and this is just one instance of him point-blankly denying reality to Leslie’s face and he’s not going to come back to do so to Leslie over and over and over again until she does start to actually doubt her own memory, perception and sanity.
It’s still best not to use gaslighting too lightly as a word considering how often people rampantly misuse it just to mean ‘lies’ though when it is more specific and malicious than just lying to someone at random and has a specific intent.
Wagstaff
As for the last part, I hold the same view in regard to ANY psychological term, whether professionally recognized or only a tool for self-help.
Sam
I agree with that. Making light of words and phrasings like ‘triggered’ and ‘intrusive thoughts’ and other such terms causes people real distress as they aren’t taken seriously when it matters then.
Because most of these things do occur on a milder scale for normal people. But they are maladaptive, more frequent and exist to a more severe degree when they are a symptom or used by affected people.
If someone made light of flashbacks as an experience, I would be obligated to throttle them as I have only experienced ONE but it was not a fun time. My foot got caught so I fell on a mini-trampoline, winding myself, but which triggered an instant recall of a near death experience and flooded in feelings that I couldn’t breathe and was going to die. With none of the acceptance that came with actual oxygen deprivation, so it was in fact, even worse somehow!
And then I couldn’t bring myself to go near the mini-trampolines again in case it somehow happened again. I will confront my fears of heights, snakes and spiders, but you can’t make me go near one of those trampolines again.
Wagstaff
That’s so sad. So sorry that happened to you, and that you won’t be able to go on trampolines again!
Speaking of gaslighting, diminishing the seriousness of psychological and self help terms through such misuse could also further enable leveling by manipulative people and groups.
Leveling is a psychological manipulation kind of like gaslighting where one party who’s conduct is significantly worse than the other on any objective analysis of the situation will attempt to assert that they are on equal moral standing by adding bogus elements to their opponent’s side while denying awkward elements in their own.
One recent example of this (fitting well with the themes of this comic) is how religious conservatives claimed that recent bills protecting LGBTQ+ rights were “prejudiced against people of faith”. Here, they attempt to draw a false equivalence between objecting to prejudice and being prejudiced.
William Leonard Reese Jr.
Joe has taken the Venom Snake school of Sneaking I see.
Also. . I kind of like what Leslie just did there. Naturally turning a odd scene into a jumping off point for a discussion. That’s really really cool actually.
Schpoonman
All of the lessons last semester I can remember that aren’t hilariously/dramatically derailed, Leslie does a pretty good job. She really is a good egg, she just has terrible choice in partners on top of all the other fallibility your average human has in their possession.
JessWitt
Should’ve brought a cardboard box, Joe.
Kitschensyngk