Ive supported this since booster’s introduction. Between the inability to “read the room”, fixation on psychology and using said fixation to (try to) compensate for social differences I big relate to them.
I also went into psychology to try to understand people. And I also wound up being less personable as a result.
Since the creator of this strip is likely autistic, and people tend to write what they know and base their characters on aspects of themselves, it doesn’t surprise me that several characters have autistic traits.
It occurs to me that since each character tends to have a consistent color palette in their wardrobe choices, and Booster’s leans heavily into lighter colors and pastels, do you think they deliberately put on a dark coat to better relate to / blend in with Ethan?
Speaking as a colorful dresser myself, outerwear is tricky, because it needs to go with *everything*, and I might end up with a more neutral color than I’d otherwise wear.
“–This means handing things over to our Tame Young Churchlady.
“Some Say that she has a space reserved on her dormatory wall for the taxidermed head of a lust wolf. And that she spent all week, looking for lubricants in the laundry aisles of various grocers. All we know is she’s called ‘THE STIM’.”
Ah, I see Booster got their idea to become a psychologist the same place my cousin did: by watching Frasier growing up.
Unfortunately, she says there’s more to it than being a wise-ass. Also, you need to do nine seasons as a supporting character before you get your own show (she’s on six, I think?).
What show is your cousin a supporting character on?
Also have you ever seen that youtube video – “Niles and Frasier become demon lords”. It is strangely accurate to the formula if not content of the show.
Y’know unrelated but I always thought The Animaniacs had a Cartoon Therapist character which I think is a really fun idea. But Scratchansniff is a pretty shoddy therapist. Like the idea of a therapist helping WB characters with their issues is prime comedy potential, It’s weird that they don’t use it more! And they got rid of him for the roboot so now we’ll never get silly cartoon therapy shenanigans.
True but it feels less like “he’s comedically bad at being a therapist” and more “the show runners didn’t really know how to write a decent therapist. He’s REALLY short with them, which isn’t just bad for a therapist but like…REALLY bad if you’re a therapist for cartoons. You’d think he’d be used to weirdos and wackos and Dots.
The recently finished webcomic “Skin Horse” had Tip, the psychologist on a team of black ops social workers. He is eccentric and utterly self-obsessed, but when the chips are down he’s also dedicated, professional and very effective.
I mean…Booster is going to school to be a psychologist. It makes sense they’re trash at it cause they haven’t finished learning. I don’t even know what year they are. They could be a freshman. Why so defensive on this Booster? This is why you’re here.
Well just because they’re learning doesn’t mean their pride isn’t mixed up in it. I never had an art class prior to going to art school but teenage me would be hurt if you said “you’re bad at art.”
Yeah but did you go around sharing your art unsolicited like you were a pro? Maybe not the best comparison, but people criticize Booster because they rather poorly psychoanalyze everyone they meet for fun. Like that first day when they attended Ruth’s RA meeting.
Yotomoe
I mean I was a teenager who drew so I probably shared my art with anyone who’d give me the time of day. But I get your point.
Booster is good at breaking people down not so much at building them back up yet, probably why they are pursuing a friendship with Ethan, if you can’t make meaningful connections you’re probably on the wrong carrer path.
as long as they don’t recommend ‘alcohol as self medication/therapy’, hopefully they can just still chill together. at the very least they prolly need some hot tea/cocoa if they’re going to be loitering around outside lol
Booster seems to very much believe they’re very good at psychology, based on them psycho-analyzing everyone in the room during the dorm meeting and then going ‘man if everyone wrote smut I’d have the world figured out in an hour’.
It could be like a Roz or Carla thing where ‘I’m so good at this already, I’m acing it’.
Having been a psych major, Booster definitely fits the stereotypes about us, and I admit the stereotype is not unearned. I don’t think I went around psychoanalyzing everyone and pissing them off, but I definitely had classmates who did. Booster needs to find someone sufficiently complex or having a sufficiently off-day so as to completely throw them off, in my experience that is often the first step to fixing this problem, getting a read that’s just so far off base that it’s embarrassing when someone counters everything they say about them.
Personally I pulled it off a couple times by being almost completely unfettered by society’s bullshit, since that can throw up a lot of false flags to people who haven’t encountered that before, and it isn’t particularly common so a lot of people haven’t encountered it. Sadly in this cast Carla’s probably the closest, but I think she believes her own hype enough that she has a dash of genuine narcissism/arrogance and not just the incredible confidence that comes knowing precisely who you are, flaws and all.
Dina might be able to pull it off, but for slightly different reasons. Have Booster and Dina directly interacted yet?
I’ll endorse this, too. I was a neuroscience major so I took a lot of psych classes. The psych majors who wanted to go the counseling route, especially in the early years, often exhibited a lot of confidence. I’d add that, for a lot of people, their confidence comes from a sense of pride in “being a good listener” and “understanding people.” However, the people who end up being good counselors are the ones who realize that it’s not about acting like you have it all figured out and the best counselors are the ones who realize that psychology (as a field) is flawed and that supporting people requires more than what you can learn in a textbook
I’m absolutely willing to admit I’m a shitty friend but if someone called me a shitty artist I might cry.
When I was a kid I was at a protest and an old man saw me drawing and asked me to draw him. When I finished drawing him he said “That looks nothing like me”. That was over a decade ago. I still constantly think about that guy, even though I’m sure he’s never thought about me once.
Sometimes it helps me to remember, in situations like these, that if I stop thinking about it, literally no one in the world will be thinking about it. No one will care. That can be kind of freeing, especially since I tend to beat myself up for really small things that other people probably barely register.
Something that you worked hard at, got trained in, and put the hours of work into matters more than something is considered more everyday. Most people don’t train or put work into learning how to be a good friend (the ones that do might find it hits harder). On a side note, I would always be more proud of art that I put work into, and more sensitive to critique, than any papers or tests that I did. I think that is due to finding the tests and papers easy, while the art was harder and required a lot more work and effort. Always got bummed when friends would only point out all that was wrong with it without saying anything good about it. Just a reminder that recognition of effort matters.
Yeah, this is something that I’ve been trying to train myself to do, acknowledge the stuff I like about things. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking only the areas that could use improvement bear mentioning, since if I like it then it’s obviously good, whereas if something was bad and they still included it they might not have noticed so it’s worth pointing out so it can be improved upon.
Constructive criticism is great because it can help people grow, but feedback that is ONLY criticism isn’t especially constructive, even when given kindly with helpful suggestions. Without also pointing out what was done well you can undermine their confidence and make them less receptive to the criticism, potentially even causing them to change the things that were good because they only heard bad things in feedback, causing them to think it was all bad.
People talk about complement sandwiches, where you lead with a complement to set a positive tone for the feedback and end with a complement so they leave on a positive note, and ideally interspersing as many complements as critiques throughout if you have a lot of feedback. I’m not sure if it’s necessary to have a particular structure when providing feedback, but it’s still a good idea to keep in mind, the issue is having enough complements, since people tend to focus more on things they dislike than things they like overall.
Leorale
It also makes sense if you strongly identify yourself with the thing they’re insulting. Since you don’t strongly identify as a Friend, saying you’re a bad friend feels like they’re insulting your skills at friendship — which, hey, everyone could improve upon. But being an artist is part of your identity. Your art feels like a piece of yourself, and insulting your artistry can feel like an attack on that truest self. That’s way more cutting.
Booster identifies as a psych person a lot more than they identify as a friend. That’s interesting knowledge about them.
159 thoughts on “Punish”
Ana Chronistic
stark contrast from the prior strips in every respect
Ana Chronistic
Rabbi Siegal: Why do you understand it that friends are therapists who deflect with jokes?
RabbiSanchez: Why are you answering my question with a question?Doctor_Who
Man, how weird would it be if the characters involved swapped storylines?
Proxiehunter
Really weird, mostly because I can’t buy that either Ethan or Booster has never masturbated.
Clif
Mike would approve.
Particularly if the awkwardness increases.
Decidedly Orthogonal
Now kith!
FadingMemory
I particularly appreciate the visual difference here RE: the color palette, just felt really satisfying as a transition between the narratives.
The Wellerman
Just gonna say it right now, Booster is totally autistic. ?
Also, Damn You Willis!!!!
Bogeywoman
Ive supported this since booster’s introduction. Between the inability to “read the room”, fixation on psychology and using said fixation to (try to) compensate for social differences I big relate to them.
I also went into psychology to try to understand people. And I also wound up being less personable as a result.
Proxiehunter
There are few people in the strip who aren’t.
Keulen
Since the creator of this strip is likely autistic, and people tend to write what they know and base their characters on aspects of themselves, it doesn’t surprise me that several characters have autistic traits.
zee
Oh 1000% percent, this has BEEN my theory
butts
oh damn we went full pink and flowers to goth city over here
Doctor_Who
It occurs to me that since each character tends to have a consistent color palette in their wardrobe choices, and Booster’s leans heavily into lighter colors and pastels, do you think they deliberately put on a dark coat to better relate to / blend in with Ethan?
Tawdry Quirks
It does seem like they’re matching on purpose, but that exact jacket has appeared in the only other storyline showing Booster outside, so I think that’s just their regular outerwear.
Speaking as a colorful dresser myself, outerwear is tricky, because it needs to go with *everything*, and I might end up with a more neutral color than I’d otherwise wear.
Nathan
It’s also just hard to find good colorful outerwear in “men’s” sizes.
Amós Batista
Joyce expelled us from room, too. Did you see Dorothy looking to us in last panel, laughing?
Freezer
That made me irrationally angry for some reason.
Taffy
Laughter? ?
Freezer
Like I said, “irrational.”
ValdVin
I was ready for more Joyce getting a little weird and a little wild. This is something of a gear crash.
Needfuldoer
The narrative shifted without a clutch.
Taffy
I used to watch a lot of Top Gear, so your post made me think of that older host guy saying (about Joyce) “They call her The Stim”.
Stephen Bierce
“–This means handing things over to our Tame Young Churchlady.
“Some Say that she has a space reserved on her dormatory wall for the taxidermed head of a lust wolf. And that she spent all week, looking for lubricants in the laundry aisles of various grocers. All we know is she’s called ‘THE STIM’.”
Opus the Poet
I know just the guy you’re talking about Clarkson I think his name is. Not May, and not the short guy.
The Oracle
I mean, he ain’t wrong.
Clif
DOA 13: Friends are Therapists Who Deflect with Jokes
Rabbit
*They
The Oracle
Goddamn it.
The Oracle
Ethan, I mean, before I get jumped in a dark alley.
Opus the Poet
Much better to get jumped in a brightly lit alley. Less chance of a mistaken identity that way.
Cmasta1992
Never thought I’d be happy to see Ethan but here we are
Doctor_Who
Ah, I see Booster got their idea to become a psychologist the same place my cousin did: by watching Frasier growing up.
Unfortunately, she says there’s more to it than being a wise-ass. Also, you need to do nine seasons as a supporting character before you get your own show (she’s on six, I think?).
Aura
And even after all that you still don’t know what to do with a tossed salad and scrambled eggs!
Rose by Any Other Name
**singing** “Scrambled eggs and scrambled eggs! Sca-ramble those eggs!”
The Wellerman
? They your favorite way to have eggs?
Taffy
Eggs give me severe stomach ouch, but I’ll still shovel a 4-egg omelet with onions and bell peppers down my fat fuckin’ gullet
Opus the Poet
Closing theme to the TV show “Frasier”
Aura
‘Alas, alack, alay,’ I say, as I watch this pop culture reference flying past me!
Dandi Andi
Maybe they seem a bit confused. Yeah, maybe, but I’ve got you pegged.
Morleuca
before hanging out in the trans reddits, my read of that quote was quite different than it is now.
zee
Soy egg best egg
True Survivor
What show is your cousin a supporting character on?
Also have you ever seen that youtube video – “Niles and Frasier become demon lords”. It is strangely accurate to the formula if not content of the show.
Doctor_Who
She’s got kids, so I’m guessing theirs.
Come to think of it, nine years is definitely not going to cut it. Eighteen at least.
Needfuldoer
The best Frasier fanfiction is this Columbo crossover:
https://twitter.com/joechoui/status/1582419562242273290?lang=en
Yotomoe
Y’know unrelated but I always thought The Animaniacs had a Cartoon Therapist character which I think is a really fun idea. But Scratchansniff is a pretty shoddy therapist. Like the idea of a therapist helping WB characters with their issues is prime comedy potential, It’s weird that they don’t use it more! And they got rid of him for the roboot so now we’ll never get silly cartoon therapy shenanigans.
Thag Simmons
Eh, incompetence can be funny
Yotomoe
True but it feels less like “he’s comedically bad at being a therapist” and more “the show runners didn’t really know how to write a decent therapist. He’s REALLY short with them, which isn’t just bad for a therapist but like…REALLY bad if you’re a therapist for cartoons. You’d think he’d be used to weirdos and wackos and Dots.
Proxiehunter
What about Yakos?
davidbreslin101
The recently finished webcomic “Skin Horse” had Tip, the psychologist on a team of black ops social workers. He is eccentric and utterly self-obsessed, but when the chips are down he’s also dedicated, professional and very effective.
GholaHalleck
Also the years of invisible alcoholism.
Sirksome
I mean…Booster is going to school to be a psychologist. It makes sense they’re trash at it cause they haven’t finished learning. I don’t even know what year they are. They could be a freshman. Why so defensive on this Booster? This is why you’re here.
Yotomoe
Well just because they’re learning doesn’t mean their pride isn’t mixed up in it. I never had an art class prior to going to art school but teenage me would be hurt if you said “you’re bad at art.”
Sirksome
Yeah but did you go around sharing your art unsolicited like you were a pro? Maybe not the best comparison, but people criticize Booster because they rather poorly psychoanalyze everyone they meet for fun. Like that first day when they attended Ruth’s RA meeting.
Yotomoe
I mean I was a teenager who drew so I probably shared my art with anyone who’d give me the time of day. But I get your point.
UrsulaDavina
Booster is good at breaking people down not so much at building them back up yet, probably why they are pursuing a friendship with Ethan, if you can’t make meaningful connections you’re probably on the wrong carrer path.
anon
as long as they don’t recommend ‘alcohol as self medication/therapy’, hopefully they can just still chill together. at the very least they prolly need some hot tea/cocoa if they’re going to be loitering around outside lol
Nono
Booster seems to very much believe they’re very good at psychology, based on them psycho-analyzing everyone in the room during the dorm meeting and then going ‘man if everyone wrote smut I’d have the world figured out in an hour’.
It could be like a Roz or Carla thing where ‘I’m so good at this already, I’m acing it’.
Psychie
Having been a psych major, Booster definitely fits the stereotypes about us, and I admit the stereotype is not unearned. I don’t think I went around psychoanalyzing everyone and pissing them off, but I definitely had classmates who did. Booster needs to find someone sufficiently complex or having a sufficiently off-day so as to completely throw them off, in my experience that is often the first step to fixing this problem, getting a read that’s just so far off base that it’s embarrassing when someone counters everything they say about them.
Personally I pulled it off a couple times by being almost completely unfettered by society’s bullshit, since that can throw up a lot of false flags to people who haven’t encountered that before, and it isn’t particularly common so a lot of people haven’t encountered it. Sadly in this cast Carla’s probably the closest, but I think she believes her own hype enough that she has a dash of genuine narcissism/arrogance and not just the incredible confidence that comes knowing precisely who you are, flaws and all.
Dina might be able to pull it off, but for slightly different reasons. Have Booster and Dina directly interacted yet?
Lan
I’ll endorse this, too. I was a neuroscience major so I took a lot of psych classes. The psych majors who wanted to go the counseling route, especially in the early years, often exhibited a lot of confidence. I’d add that, for a lot of people, their confidence comes from a sense of pride in “being a good listener” and “understanding people.” However, the people who end up being good counselors are the ones who realize that it’s not about acting like you have it all figured out and the best counselors are the ones who realize that psychology (as a field) is flawed and that supporting people requires more than what you can learn in a textbook
Yotomoe
I’m absolutely willing to admit I’m a shitty friend but if someone called me a shitty artist I might cry.
When I was a kid I was at a protest and an old man saw me drawing and asked me to draw him. When I finished drawing him he said “That looks nothing like me”. That was over a decade ago. I still constantly think about that guy, even though I’m sure he’s never thought about me once.
True Survivor
Wow, I am really sorry. That’s awful.
Yotomoe
To be fair It didn’t’ really look like him. He was being honest. He probably didn’t really think it’d hurt my feelings so much.
Yumi
Sometimes it helps me to remember, in situations like these, that if I stop thinking about it, literally no one in the world will be thinking about it. No one will care. That can be kind of freeing, especially since I tend to beat myself up for really small things that other people probably barely register.
Taffy
Ya know what, that’s a really neat idea. Erase the entire thought from existence.
The Wellerman
I concore. Sage advice, Yumi!
The Wellerman
?
Kimi
Something that you worked hard at, got trained in, and put the hours of work into matters more than something is considered more everyday. Most people don’t train or put work into learning how to be a good friend (the ones that do might find it hits harder). On a side note, I would always be more proud of art that I put work into, and more sensitive to critique, than any papers or tests that I did. I think that is due to finding the tests and papers easy, while the art was harder and required a lot more work and effort. Always got bummed when friends would only point out all that was wrong with it without saying anything good about it. Just a reminder that recognition of effort matters.
Psychie
Yeah, this is something that I’ve been trying to train myself to do, acknowledge the stuff I like about things. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking only the areas that could use improvement bear mentioning, since if I like it then it’s obviously good, whereas if something was bad and they still included it they might not have noticed so it’s worth pointing out so it can be improved upon.
Constructive criticism is great because it can help people grow, but feedback that is ONLY criticism isn’t especially constructive, even when given kindly with helpful suggestions. Without also pointing out what was done well you can undermine their confidence and make them less receptive to the criticism, potentially even causing them to change the things that were good because they only heard bad things in feedback, causing them to think it was all bad.
People talk about complement sandwiches, where you lead with a complement to set a positive tone for the feedback and end with a complement so they leave on a positive note, and ideally interspersing as many complements as critiques throughout if you have a lot of feedback. I’m not sure if it’s necessary to have a particular structure when providing feedback, but it’s still a good idea to keep in mind, the issue is having enough complements, since people tend to focus more on things they dislike than things they like overall.
Leorale
It also makes sense if you strongly identify yourself with the thing they’re insulting. Since you don’t strongly identify as a Friend, saying you’re a bad friend feels like they’re insulting your skills at friendship — which, hey, everyone could improve upon. But being an artist is part of your identity. Your art feels like a piece of yourself, and insulting your artistry can feel like an attack on that truest self. That’s way more cutting.
Booster identifies as a psych person a lot more than they identify as a friend. That’s interesting knowledge about them.