Focus group
Posted on December 17, 2019 by David M Willis

134 thoughts on “Focus group”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    I love jobs where literally everything means something completely different

    *has not gotten used to “revert” means “reply”*

    1. Ana Chronistic

      Shaver-Gleason?

      1. xmd

        Cameo, panel 2, above Dina. From twitter: Dr. Linda Shaver-Gleason @LindaHyphen Musicologist, mother, (soon to be) assasinated by cancer. Writes Not Another Music History Cliché! @MusHistCliches She/her

        1. Ana Chronistic

          I figured she was a cameo, but a curiously specific one (I mean, I got “Sue”)

          Fuck cancer assassination!

        2. Tarpo

          It will never stop being weird to me when people I have known in one way or another for decades are known in a completely different way by tone of other people

        3. Kyle

          Holy shit, I haven’t seen Linda in years, probably around the time she was first diagnosed. Sad to hear that she’s in her final days, it’s been a hard fight.

        4. Adam Black

          but whos the Blonde woman in panel 5?

        5. Kyle

          Looks like Mandy was mistagged as Meredith

    2. Bicycle Bill

      “revert” means “reply”? Sez who?

      1. MLEst1

        Indian customer service. Since revert means “to return” I imagine it got used as “to return an answer” but it makes for some awkward emails if you aren’t expecting it

        1. Laika

          Our Indian IT support does this as well. I’m glad to hear neither I or they are strange.

        2. Kaidah

          It’s an Indian thing? That explains why my dispatcher uses it in that way all the time. It may technically be correct, but it’s an awkward turn of phrase. At least here in Canada.

        3. Ana Chronistic

          it’s “chiefly Indian” per online dictionary sources

        4. thejeff

          Probably not technically correct, but a poor translation that’s become a standard feature of Indian English tech jargon.

    3. BrokenEye, the True False Prophet

      So… espionage, then?

  2. Khantalas

    Not Empire Strikes Back?

    Goddamn millennials.

    1. Charles Phipps

      I feel like it’s what elected her. The Attack of the Clones campaign instead of Dinobot.

    2. Charlie Spencer

      Not “Wrath of Khan”?

      Damn Gen-Xers.

      1. Khantalas

        Wait Wrath of Khan is newer than Empire Strikes Back (1982 vs 1980).

        1. Charlie Spencer

          Older franchise.

  3. Doctor_Who

    Plot Twist: that is literally the only Star Wars Robin has ever seen. All of her campaign speeches are cribbed from the love scenes.

    “I don’t like libs. They’re coarse and rough and irritating, and they get everywhere.”

    Her constituency eats it up.

    1. Ana Chronistic

      “My love for you is like a loving river of loving, love!”

      1. 3oranges

        That’s not from the movie! I believe it’s from Revenge of the Sith.

      2. Needfuldoer

        It’s an older reference, but it checks out.

  4. Cattleprod

    The only time you should mention Attack of the Clones in a campaign is when you imply it’s your opponent’s favorite Star Wars movie.

    1. RicardtheDragoon

      I remember playing the campaign in Attack of the Clones on Xbox. Yes, the normal Xbox. Still the best Star Wars-themed video game I have ever played.

      1. Needfuldoer

        The only Star Wars game I’ve played for any substantial length of time is The Empire Strikes Back on the Atari, where you have to shoot AT-ATs with your eight-pixel Snowspeeder until they change colors and eventually explode. Maybe this situation needs to be remedied?

      2. Keulen

        My favorite Star Wars video games are still the old Battlefront and Battlefront 2 games made in 2004 and 2005. Not the crappy newer games with the same name made by EA a few years ago.

      3. begbert2

        For me it’s a tossup between Galactic Battlegrounds (2001) and Knights of the Old Republic (2003). Battlegrounds is a contender because I like turtling up and in it you can combine both shields and walls, which is like your walls having walls which is glorious. And KOTOR of course is a Star Wars game where you have more story than combat and, like maybe only the second dumbest alignment system possible, so what’s better than that?

        1. Roborat

          Mine are the X-Wing, Tie Fighter and Alliance games. Played the crap out of them.

      4. thejeff

        I liked the old X-Wing and Tie Fighter games.

      5. Bicycle Bill

        My favorite Star Wars game was the 1983 arcade game, a first-person shooter where you were Luke Skywalker (Red Five) attacking the Death Star in your X-wing fighter — dogfighting TIE fighters and strafing the surface of the Death Star before making the climactic run down the trench to launch your proton (not photon; that was Star Trek’s thing) torpedo at the exhaust port.

  5. Suet

    If only ya could grandstand to the children, alt-text.

    Also, do your stuff, Becky

    1. Suet

      Plus, by this moment, the focus group would’ve been watching The Mandalorian, really

      AKA more time to stay AWAKE A-WOOOOO

  6. Hilzabub

    I’m surprised there was no fallout from the frightening dinosaur child threatening Robin. Maybe I just want Becky to have it all.

    1. Charles Phipps

      Becky would kick Robin out of her apartment.

  7. Pocky

    Wow, between actual Focus Grouping, and watching one of the prequel trilogy. . .

    This is a tough choice on how to torture myself for a night.

    1. AeromechanicalAce

      Eh, Revenge of the Sith is okay.

      1. DrunkenNordmann

        Mostly because of Palpatine – Palpatine is a treat.

        1. motorfirebox

          Having an actual director directing helped, too.

        2. Kensou

          Lucas directed all three of the prequels. Were you thinking of Return of the Jedi?

        3. Sunny

          The fight scene choreography is also really good in Revenge of the Sith.

          And just in case you want 13 minutes of analysis for every minute of fighting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvW4touytkc

      2. Keulen

        I’d say Revenge of the Sith is definitely the best of the prequel trilogy.

        1. Jon Rich

          That is a *low bar to clear.* But I would agree. The emotions actually feel raw, there’s lots of beautiful fights, and everything feels like it matters.

        2. JBento

          That’s because it was the last of the prequel trilogy, and then we were free. FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

    2. Wizard

      Pretty sure panel seven is just a copy-paste of panel five.

  8. Charles Phipps

    How did Robin become a GOP Senator when she just wanted to hang out with friends and goof off? I feel like there needs to be a evil mastermind somewhere.

    1. Dana

      She’s just a House member. That’s not an answer, but I really want it to be.

    2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Like the President of the Galaxy. Her job is not to exercise power, but to draw attention away from it.

    3. Kat

      By voting along party line and letting the Party run most of her campaign’s talking points? Given that Congress is about numbers, you really just need manipulatable butts in seats. I can see it.

      1. thejeff

        She still had to win the election and in particular the nomination, if this is as solid a GOP seat as it now seems. Those can be hotly contested for open seats and it’s not like being a young Latina is big plus in a Republican primary.

        I suspect shenanigans were involved.

        1. RIK

          On the other hand, she’s a young Latina who will say and vote for literally anything they tell her to in order to gain/keep her position.

          She can be both the token woman AND the token brown person Republic*ns and “Centrists” can point to to argue that any given policy isn’t wildly racist and/or sexist.

          The far right didn’t get to where it is by being stupid…

        2. thejeff

          Sure, she’s useful once she’s there and that would likely be enough for her to get reelected, were it not for the recent scandals, but she had to beat out white men to get there and that’s a feat. It’s one thing to say it’s good to have a token, but other Republicans would want that seat. It’s possible the shenanigans involved someone clearing the way for her so they would have a token, but that would take those shenanigans to justify.

          There are reasons there’s only one Latina Republican in the House.

        3. Makkabee

          Given the frequency with which right wing leaders get caught in gay sex scandals, I can see her winning the nomination more or less by default because she was the only primary opponent of Mr. Self-Destructo who hadn’t bothered to announce she was dropping out of the race.

          I can very easily see her failing up into the seat because she was too lazy and disorganized to file some paperwork.

        4. thejeff

          “shenanigans” 🙂

  9. Nono

    “Linda Shaver-Gleason”?

    1. BBCC

      https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/1206466999704002561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3Adamnyouwillis%7Ctwcon%5Etimelinechrome&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dumbingofage.com%2F2019%2Fcomic%2Fbook-10%2F02-to-remind-you-of-my-love%2Ffocusgroup%2F

  10. Stephen Bierce

    *plays the old Cream version of “After Midnight” on the stereo*

  11. pdp15

    “Only if you promise to skip over the Jar Jar Binks scenes.”

  12. BBCC

    Dude, come on, I *liked* the prequels and even I’ll admit that’s the worst one.

    1. Bagge

      Isn’t that the one where Yoda kicks the crap out of Christopher Lee?

      If that’s not the high mark of the series I don’t know what to tell you.

      1. William Leonard Reese Jr.

        That part is cool. . . it’s just that the parts of the movie not focused on Detective Obi-Wan Kenobi is suuuuuuch a slooooooog to get through.

        1. Bagge

          Eh, So it’s a five minute movie of pure awesome, that for some reason is bundled with two hours of stupid filler material.

          I can live with that.

          (Kinda the same with Frozen. a wonderful 30 minute movie of heartwarming sisterly love… and some weird filler material about trolls with shipping googles)

    2. Dara

      I literally fell asleep in the theatre for 45 minutes the first time I saw it and then when I watched it again at home much later (before The Force Awakens) I realised I had missed LITERALLY NOTHING THAT MATTERED.

    3. Mr. Bulmbin

      The middle movie of a Star Wars trilogy seems to always best be described as “Had some good moments, but is paced so awfully that actually watching it whole is a shithead idea”. Episode II, Episode V, Episode VIII.

      1. thejeff

        Isn’t Empire generally regarded as the best Star Wars movie? Or close to it at least.

      2. JBento

        Er, Empire Strikes Back is DEFINITELY the best of the Star Wars movies (except possibly Solo and the second of the current Disney trilogy, which I have not seen and therefore cannot comment on).

  13. DailyBrad

    Probably my least favorite Star Wars film, but sure, fuck it, I’m in.

  14. Dean

    Robin, you could have just said that you wanted everyone to leave.

  15. Rotunda

    Walky is *still* eating pizza. He has not been seen *not* eating pizza for a month and a half real-life time.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Seriously, his stomach is like a black hole

      1. Charles Phipps

        He’ll help Dina eat Robin when she breaks her promises but only if she’s covered in cheese and pepperoni.

      2. Nono

        If he’s already having some kind of existential crisis over his early smarts not lasting him into college, I can’t imagine how bad he’s going to take it when his metabolism crashes and burns in ten years’ time.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      Speaking of Walky, why isn’t he tagged?  He’s standing right there in the open in panel five, still scarfing down pizza.  And in that same panel, isn’t that Joe in back of Becky?  He’s not tagged either.

  16. Rocketboy1313

    “The cartoon?” he asked hopefully.
    “No,” she said.
    “Then no,” he said.

    1. Dracke

      thats clone wars

  17. Piotr W

    And that’s why I like Robin 🙂

  18. Kama621

    No-tag for blowjob cat?

    1. shadowcell

      that’s rough

      and coarse

      and gets everywhere

    2. Bicycle Bill

      I agree.  He (she? it?) is more recognizable than that little bit of Meredith that we see in panel five, but she got tagged anyway.

    3. Alan in DC

      Meester Willis, have you ever gotten any kind of comment from Joe LaMantia, the local Bloomington artist that created “Artisticat” (B.J.Cat’s *actual* name), about the exposure his creation is getting in DoA?

      Or at least the nickname it got stuck with?

      1. Bicycle Bill

        I asked a similar question about the nickname a few months back, and Willis responded in the comments with this reply —
        “I didn’t name it Blow Job Cat. I got that name from the Bloomington residents who introduced me to it.”

  19. Clif

    I’m just assuming it’s the fan cut with Jar-Jar edited out.

    1. ninja_jesus

      I want the fan remake with Jar-Jar actually being a Sith Lord in disguise.

  20. Schol-R-LEA

    As I said yesterday – exceptionalism is one hell of a drug.

    And Robin is mainlining the bongo.

  21. tirachokko

    Can WE watch attack of the clones? like, collectively?

    1. Dracke

      hope so

    2. Needfuldoer

      I still haven’t watched that one all the way through.

      1. fire_daws

        You’re not missing much.

        Seriously, about 80% to 90% of the film is filler.

  22. Dean

    I am shocked to find myself agreeing with Robin but she’s right, nineteen year olds look like baby birds fresh from the egg.

    1. 3oranges

      Is that meant as a compliment or a serious insult to their appearance

      1. Rachel McCall

        Yes.

    2. Rachel McCall

      I was going to say the same thing.

    3. Needfuldoer

      I see kids in driver’s ed cars these days and seriously ask “when the hell did they start letting children drive?!” Then I remember that was me 16+ years ago, and getting to that point felt like it took forever.

  23. Bagge

    Lamp could have shed some light on the issue

  24. Tacos

    OK so now she can ask them what’s their opinion on sand?

    1. abysswatcher1993

      It’s coarse and it gets everywhere!

  25. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    Not even The Phantom Menace or Revenge of the Sith? Robin truly IS a monster!

    1. Virago

      I’d argue pairing it with Phantom would be even worse

      1. Needfuldoer

        The Phantom Edit isn’t a terrible movie.

  26. abysswatcher1993

    I am more interested in Episodes 4, 5, 6, 7 and Rogue One. I saw Episode 2 many times when I was a teenager, but as an adult I realize the computer graphics were oversaturated.

    1. Jon Rich

      That is *hardly* that movie’s greatest flaw. Or even anywhere near it.

      1. JBento

        But only because the list is so long.

  27. Hugo Bedward

    I’m surprised we’re still at the party in the next storyline.
    Usually there’s a small timeskip to the next morning.

    1. thejeff

      Usually everyone’s asleep.

      We’ve picked up again after midnight before, when there’s something going on in the early morning hours.

  28. JediMB

    I don’t think I’ve watched Attack of the Clones in…

    *checks release date*

    Okay, probably 15 years. What is time.

  29. auroki

    I’m gonna be focus grouping friday for sure!

    I feel like Robin would like eps 6 thru 9. Anyone else?

  30. Beef

    Literally just watched attack of the clones. It was bad

    1. Jon Rich

      But was it rough, coarse, and irritating?

      1. Beef

        Why yes in fact my Facebook review called it worse than sand

  31. Yotomoe

    No they understood it was attack of the clones. That’s the appropriate reaction.

  32. Phil

    …let’s do an actual focus group instead.

  33. DSL

    “Attack of the Clones.” That metaphor’s so obvious y’all have to be deliberately avoiding noticing it, right? Please?

    1. Jon Rich

      I’m afraid I don’t get it, could you explain?

  34. davidbreslin101

    Robin thinks it’s a good movie, but a wierd one- the hero wins, but he gets hardly any screen time. (The hero being Palpatine.)

  35. Willoughby Chase

    Oh, I like this game.

    “Protect Worker’s Rights” == “Get Rid of Worker’s Rights”

    1. Willoughby Chase

      “Cleanest Water” == “Put more lead in the Drinking Water”

      Ooooh, fun and poisoning for all the family!

      1. Charles Phipps

        “Right to work state” means “Get rid of unions so we can work you like slaves.”

        1. JBento

          “States rights” = “gosh darn it, we should be able to own black people”

  36. hof1991

    Our skies act under Bush allowed more pollution. Didn’t say what shade of blue.

  37. JBento

    They had to watch Attack of the Clones? MORE THAN ONCE? Does Robin’s monstrosity know no limits?

  38. Arianod

    “You’re like a little baby. Watch Attack of the Clones.”

  39. Lacuna

    “It’s 1800, ladies! Tell your husbands, lesbian wifeys, voter eligible friends and family, vote for DeSanto!

    …shoot, meter’s all wrong. Play me off, Becky.”

  40. Rabisch

    Focus grouping means Masochism and pain Contest. Can’t believe someone it’s able to see that movie for a second time.

  41. NemesisDancer

    I’m a little confused by one of the tags today – who is Linda Shaver-Gleason? I assume she’s the bespectacled party guest in the blue top but this is the only comic she’s appeared in, so is it a fan cameo (possibly courtesy of Patreon) or something?

    1. Zee

      It’s explained in the third comment

  42. Tomn

    Honestly Robin seems to have recovered fairly well from the po-faced threat of disembowelment and cannibalism.

    1. Bagge

      Or as they call it in Congress: Tuesday

      1. JBento

        I thought Tuesdays were for tacos! THE MONSTERS!

        1. Bagge

          I mean… canibalism and tacos are not nessecarily incompatible, only hopefully.

    2. Charles Phipps

      Robin isn’t aware she’s not leaving the apartment alive.

      1. Bagge

        I think Dina made that pretty clear.

  43. Killer Klown

    I… probably would be a little worried about anyone who uses Attack of the Clones as a roadmap for a political campaign.

  44. DragonLizardJareth

    OH VECTOR SIGMA NO! NOT THAT ONE! ANYTHING BUT THAT ONE!
    Attack of the Clones was utter horse shit…
    If you have to watch a prequel movie make it a good one… like Rogue One…
    Or at lease Revenge of the Sith!

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