185

Surprised
Posted on May 14, 2013 by David M Willis

185 thoughts on “Surprised”

  1. Jen Aside

    FOOMP

    1. Doctor_Who

      And Joyce is right next to her. You think she found Sal’s hair hard to resist before? Now it’s actively consuming her.

      1. otusasio451

        Are you suggesting…that Sal’s hair is alive?

        Good Lord. We’ll all perish.

        1. Björn

          It doesn’t get much hotter than this. 😀

    2. stevecharb

      Welcome to the 80’s!

      1. Jenny Creed

        I wondered where the eighties went. Apparently they put all of it into Sal and went out of business.

    3. Jehosaphat

      Sploosh.

  2. Sir Robin

    This is either really good or really bad

    1. NerdHerder

      I choose to think of it as a FOOMP of victory.

      1. Bearer of Bear News

        Well, before she tried hard and still didn’t do well…

        She was never shown to actually learn the material, so it is doubtful her showing was any better than before.

        So her confidence is all from having sex with the TA. He is a stickler for rules and her surprise means it probably is a FOOMP of shocked defeat.

        1. CiaranLovejoy

          That’s what I was thinking, Jason probably still gave her a bad grade and took the sex as a given, thinking that they actually shared something special, which clearly they did, but Sal wont admit it to herself.

        2. Sailor_Arashi

          You’re both wrong. Someone just shot her in the back of the back of the head with a vortex gun. That’s the sound they make, too!

        3. Ivan

          That’s a pretty risky approach for a TA – who could be accused of taking advantage of a failing student, if not worse, unless he video tapes everything as I do, as an instructor…. I MEAN, UNLESS THERE WAS A WITNESS!!

        4. Cancerous Tomato

          Yeahhh, he was pretty much backed into a corner once they had sex. If he fails her, she complains he slept with her under false pretenses, and he gets into boatloads of trouble. If he passes her despite her abysmal showing, he’s guilty of some pretty serious academic dishonesty, not to mention actually sleeping with her in exchange for grades.

        5. Notebooked

          I’m not sure even Sal slept with him in exchange for good grades, really. She seemed to want sex for sex.
          (If she’s got a good grade, and this turns out to be a FOOMP of triumph, I wonder if this won’t lead her to a crisis of conscience in that she knows she hasn’t changed enough to facilitate that good a grade, leading her to confront Jason about it and so on.)

        6. Yarrr

          Sal seems a bit cool for that. It’s not like he came on to her anyway.

        7. Logit

          There is a pretty easy out to said corner. Just have the professor grade her paper.

        8. JepMZ

          No way, man. She didn’t do it for the grades! She gave up and did something completely different, which is what she was telling Joyce about.

          She expected to see a gigantic zero on her paper, hehe

  3. piemanpie24

    Are those cameos I see?

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      and thanks to Sal’s hair, they will never be seen again.

  4. Plasma Mongoose

    That full-body shampoo really works wonders.

    1. Sensedog

      Indeed. The extra “bounce”.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        She needs to invest in some smoothing conditioner though.

        1. Portmaneau

          Who needs conditioner when the results are all over the place?

  5. Leorale

    Yay, now Sal has hair like mine! FOOMP for the win.

    1. Kannyn

      Says the Galasso gravatar.

      1. Geegles

        Yells Ruth back at yelling Galasso…

        1. Vabolo

          Smiles Joyce at the avatars.

        2. VMtheCoyote

          comments the… the… the abomination.

        3. Icalasari

          Guess the abomination gave your avatar a headache?

        4. Resne

          Dat top hat.

        5. cookie1995

          Dem Sunglasses

        6. Makkabee

          Dose eyebrows.

        7. Usayasha

          Motorcyccccccllllllllleeee…..

        8. Björn

          At first I thought your avatar’s nostrils were the eyes. That made it even more abomination-y. 🙂

    2. AgentKeen

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV0imDALBHI

      1. Aras Pabedinskas

        That is frightfully appropriate.

  6. Yotomoe

    Her grade was so sexy that she got immediate sex hair.

    1. ArkhamTexan

      It gives me the impression she leaves her sex hair untouched.

      … Hot.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        But how will she put her helmut back on?

        1. ArkhamTexan

          Oh, THAT hair!

        2. Aras Pabedinskas

          Now I want to see a photoshop of Sal with Melonhead Ethan’s hair.

  7. Yusaku777

    Ok, starting a petition to get an animated gif of Sal’s hair going poof.
    “We, the undersigned…”

    1. Yotomoe

      Ah man. If I had more time on my hands…

    2. Welknair

      Do want.

    3. Ivan

      I’m in…

    4. CianM1301

      Where do I sign?

    5. molochmachine

      Sick today, so I had a little time to mess around with this:

      http://s4.postimg.org/mhrakgp99/sal.gif

      1. Yusaku777

        You, Sir and/or Madam, are truly an inspiration, and a generation thanks you for your work!

      2. ASmellyOgre

        That is AWESOME.

        1. ASmellyOgre

          I hope you don’t mind, molochmachine, but I put that up on Tumblr because it is just TOO good. It links back to your post here, but if you want me to change that to some personal blog or something I’d be more than happy to.

        2. molochmachine

          No prob at all, this is the only place i posted it. Just messin’ around. Share away 🙂

    6. Portmaneau

      We the people have spoken

  8. Wonder Wig

    Hey, that’s one of my wig powers.
    http://www.wonderwigandalfredoboy.com/?p=238

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      I only hope she uses her powers for GOOD instead of EVIL!

      1. hmrc4evr

        Heh. Good to see another Between Failures reader over here Plas. Great avatar.

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          Kiitti! ^_^ I’ve being reading BF for a couple of years now.

      2. Ivan

        I hope she uses her powers for nudity!

        1. Felix Kütt

          *add’s an infinite loop of g+1’s*

  9. Kernanator

    Reminds me of my adventures in trying to get my hair under control.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Does that mean that you have a jewfro?

      1. Yotomoe

        No. (S)he’s a hair trainer. (S)he had to whip it into submission.

        1. Cholma

          It’s not easy to wear a condom hat with poofy hair.

        2. Animal

          I really don’t want to know how you know that.

      2. Kernanator

        Maybe? All I know is that my parents have really curly hair, and as a result, so do I.

        1. Khrene Cleaver

          Well, Afros come from people of African decent.
          Jewfros usually refer to people of European Jewish decent, like Einstein.

          Arabic peeps can have curly as well (shouldn’t be a shock cause well Middle east is right next to Africa and Jerusalem is part of the Middle East) but we don’t have a term for that.

          I’d personally suggest “Afghanfros” but that only narrows is down to Afghanis and Arab-os sounds too much like a racist cereal.

  10. Plasma Mongoose

    In the fifth panel, the Cthulhu hair consumes those two unfortunate students standing behind Sal.

    1. Yotomoe

      That’s where she gets her power.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        and here is the proof!

  11. Doctor_Who

    Hmmm, good or bad?

    If it’s good, maybe she picked up more during those tutoring sessions than she thought. Or mathematical skill is sexually transmitted.

    1. Yotomoe

      Wow. Maybe I should consider getting with girls who are good at math. And also having the kind of personality that makes people want to be with me.

    2. SUGauthor

      Well my knee jerk reaction is that Jason is giving her special treatment, in which case I’ve lost all respect for him, I do suppose its possible that she just remembers this tutoring session better though.

      1. AgentKeen

        I’m generally pretty honest and all, but if I got some Sal bonky tonkin’, I’d commit all sorts of heinous atrocities for her.

        …I mean, that’s romantic, right?
        …..Right?

    3. clodia

      I feel like she ought to know the results if she put her honest effort in. If she did poorly and knew it, and wasn’t relying on having boned the TA, then she shouldn’t be so cocky. If she did well, surely she’d know.

      The only way I can see her having an honestly good grade is if she didn’t put much thought into it because she thought the TA would pass her, but went ahead and quickly picked what seemed to be the right answers. In such a scenario, the explanation would be that by not overthinking it, she managed to actually grasp the material. Which would prompt further study sessions. This is my preferred outcome.

  12. Z3tto

    Clearly Sal’s about to go Super Saiyan on Jason’s ass.

    1. Yotomoe

      Not gold enough. She’s only Raditz level Saiyan.

      1. james

        well at least she’s not Yamcha

    2. Neospector

      Curses, my best joke stolen!
      That means I have to go with the “Hair” references.

  13. S. Sagara

    :prays that’s a good foomp:

  14. NaYa

    Chi-chi-chi-chia!

    1. Doctor_Who

      Can Chia-Sal be a new stretch goal added to the Kickstarter? 😉

  15. Yusaku777

    Everyone is jumping to “She got an awesome grade!” Am I the only one who clearly sees this as “The bastard gave me an F after I gave him an O?!?!”

    1. vsophi

      That’s what I assumed.

    2. Terrh

      I agree here. My gut feeling is she failed big-time

    3. Memyself

      I assumed a bad grade.

      1. Yotomoe

        When you assume you make an ass out of uma thurman.

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          She needs no help in that department. 😛

        2. AgentKeen

          Especially by misspelling her name

        3. Yotomoe

          I…I think I spelled it right.

        4. AgentKeen

          (I meant in assumE, sorry, joke fail….)

    4. J-Dawg

      Yeah. I also assumed it was a bad grade. Raping your teacher isn’t usually the way to get preferential treatment on scoring. I kind of wish we’d gotten to see the aftermath of their tryst. Given Jason’s personality, I can’t imagine it being anything but awkward.

      1. fit-to-freak

        Wait Sal raped him???? Fuck I need to re-read that part.

        1. Ivan

          It could have been that she was just lousy compared to the older (and needs more representation!!!) Penny!!

        2. Heavensrun

          Eh, she didn’t ask, and she jumped him. He had expressed attraction to her before that, so I wouldn’t be surprised if in the moment he acquiesced, or simply didn’t say anything against it, but if he said to stop even once, then yeah.

  16. Tan

    I admit, I am surprised.

  17. ridtom

    Off-screen Joyce is being devoured by Sal’s luscious* hair.

    *Her words, not mine

    1. Totz the Plaid

      Nah, you can see her flinching to get out of the way.

      1. SUGauthor

        Though being covered in Sal’s hair certainly won’t help with Joyce’s current lesbian problem.

  18. Chronos

    Do not stare directly into the hair, or you’ll be turned to sto

    1. Aras Pabedinskas

      But I don’t want to turn into a stop sign!

  19. Andiemus

    “Needs improvement. A- on the quiz.”

    1. Portmaneau

      They’ll need to work on it in his office

  20. DontLookAtMe

    Wow, her head exploded! Luckily her hair contained it so nobody else was hurt.

  21. MarcinMN

    It’s the humidity.

  22. Aras Pabedinskas

    “It’s rare when hair gains sentience, however in an odd way, there’s some sense to it. The hair is often the closest to the human brain, and on the occassion that the hair root somehow penetrates the skull, it begins to bond with the brain itself, subjugating some of the surrounding grey matter, gaining the tiniest shred of intelligence. As in all cases where something realizes it is smarter than every other being, the hair then develops a sense of superiority over the other 100,000 thousand folicles on the head, and in an effort to prove its dominance, it will stand it’s full length away from the head, a literal showing that it is above the rest. However when multiple roots breach the skull, such in the case of head injury brought on by such trauma as banging one’s head against the top of a window frame, the hairs that makes it through and root themselves in a localized area will often start to develop a sort of hivemind, and thus will move as one entity in their effort to dominate, resulting in what some like to call, a cow-lick. However, in the even rarer case multiple fractures, such as those caused by a motorcycle crash, every single hair on one’s head can take root, and as a result become a part of a single hivemind. This will usually result in the hair going lax, as it has nothing to prove when every single hair is simply a part of itself, however, in the rare case when the hair finds that their exist hair on other beings, the imperitive of the being shifts back to a show of domination. This manifests itself as what scientists like to call, the lions mane, refusing to stay down, and occasionally, attacking those that come near it.”

    1. Ivan

      Did anyone read that whole mega-paragraph? I thought about using the same amount of time to cruise for crack whores at this hour!

      1. Portmaneau

        Time wasted nonetheless

  23. Plasma Mongoose

    Danger: Sal’s hair ahead!

    1. Heavensrun

      BRILLIANT.

  24. AgentKeen

    Hmmm, so, did she get a good grade or a bad one, and was it deserved or not?

    Personally, I’m leaning towards good grade, and she confronts Jason about ‘not needin’ his charity for slap jackin’ him’, but she actually deserved the grade. I mean, all sorts of good brain chemicals get released after doodlin’, so maybe that’s all she needed?

    1. AgentKeen

      Also, I got all three of Sal’s euphemisms in on this page, whoo!

      1. SUGauthor

        10 points.

        1. AgentKeen

          How many points do I need to trade in for an Internet? It’d be my first!

        2. Andiemus

          Ten thousand and fifty eight point six.

        3. AgentKeen

          Aww, dang…
          -drops the points into a dinosaur bank-
          Someday… someday…

    2. Heavensrun

      But…she made it pretty damn clear that she -expected- to get a good grade for “doodlin'” him. In fact, it’s not hard to see the implication that that’s the main, if not only, reason she did it in the first place.

      1. AgentKeen

        Yeah, because of her look in panel 2, I’m guessing she expected a good grade, as well. Going back to the doodlin’, I read it as more of Sal, um, needing her back scratched, and deciding Jason was… you know what, euphemisms are harder than Sal made them look.

        Anyhow, looking back, it still seems like it was mostly a ‘I have a hankerin’ for some doodlin’ and you’ll do’, but I’m also super naive and easily miss some of the more down-played cues of dishonest intentions (i.e. maybe the ‘we both want to get out of here’ and the joke about ‘marks’ were supposed to tell me that she was doing this for a grade, but they only hit me as Sal being a bit sassy).

  25. Uniqueantique

    I have no idea what grade she sees, but this strip made me literally laugh out loud. Funny as hell.
    And I wonder how long it took to draw all that fantastic hair?

  26. BranTheQuixotic

    Jason failed her. I mean, seriously. That guy? So stiff, so buttoned up?

    He gave her the grade she deserved based on her work.

    Sal’s gonna be pissed.

    1. BranTheQuixotic

      IT IS HAIR OF SURPRISE. She looked confident in the second panel. Surprise means failure.

      1. AgentKeen

        ooo, good point, I failed to take into account the look of self-assured victory…

  27. SUGauthor

    Hovertext ingenuity has climaxed. The only thing that could top it is a one about pajama jeans.

    1. Ivan

      I thought that hover text was about her pubes!

  28. Alex Stritar

    It’s like the reverse Pinkemena Diana Pie.

    1. Dierna

      Not really. Pinky started with the flat hair then got her poofy hair when she was effected by the sonic rainboom.

      1. Alex Stritar

        True. … Come to think of it, Sal’s was poofy before the aliens killed her parrents, so she might really be the anti-Pinkie

        1. AsimovSideburns

          No, it goes flat when she’s sad, so she IS Pinky.

          Oh god I just terrified myself.

        2. Crimson Doom

          Wait, I thought we were talking about the pony, not the lab rat. 😛

  29. Dierna

    Wow and I thought River Song had big hair!

  30. Nena

    I can’t wait to see what the result is. 😛

  31. Uniqueantique

    The more I think about it, I wonder if it is a grade at all?

    1. Ivan

      IT’S AN INCOMPLETE! She has 10 more “meetings” scheduled to get her grade!

      1. SUGauthor

        Extra credit for every article of clothing she “forgets” to wear

  32. Ross V

    There’s totally a doodle of them having wild monkey sex on the page instead of a grade.

    1. AsimovSideburns

      Heh. Doodle.

      He doodled a doodling doodle.

      Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

      1. SUGauthor

        Rose rose to the rows of rose, and rose a rose to her rose rows of rose.

        1. Neospector

          James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.

  33. Uniqueantique

    Sounds like something the artist would do….sort of.

  34. Iggzy

    I’m guessing it’s a phone number and a photo of Jason winking and doing a sex gesture with his hands.

    1. Tenn

      Unfortunately, it’s a British sex gesture. Sal interprets it as “them copper mines are full of celery, my good fellow”.

      1. Wazza

        …that’s not universally a sex thing?

  35. scabbert

    She gets rough and stuff with her afro puffs.

  36. Lanodantheon

    This could be very good or very bad for her…

  37. Tenn

    Heheh. T&A with the T.A…

    Wow, that was funny for long enough to write it down. I think I can even hit “Post Comment” before I start feeling ashamed…

    1. Tenn

      WHAT HAVE I DONE.

      1. Heavensrun

        YOUR JOKE WAS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD! (/zoidberg)

  38. Raoullefere

    I don’t know if Joyce is surprised, but I certainly am. I never managed to do that to any student. Get them to pull their hair out in handfuls, yes, but this… Jason has powers beyond my ken.

    1. Ivan

      Well… then you missed out on the entire point of teaching a class, didn’t you?!?

  39. Notebooked

    Go ‘fro it, Sal.
    (Sal’s been away for quite a dang while! This seems like a FOOMP of triumph, which means…man, this relationship is gonna be awkward.)

    1. Heavensrun

      Hah, no. You don’t react like that when you see what you’re expecting to see.

      I mean, well, unless you’re some kind of weird human/blowfish hybrid, you don’t react like that -anyway-, but in a fictional cartoony sense…She got an F. I’d bet money on it.

      1. Notebooked

        Yeah, true, but on the other hand she might not have been expecting it. She’s put on airs for Joyce before, and may be doing the same here.

        Man, looking back, it’s way too early to theorize anyway and it’ll be revealed tomorrow so I shouldn’t even be guessing when I can just guess.
        (Jason really ruffled her…’fro-thers? No, crap.)

  40. Ivan

    Wow! Talk about parallel comic thought! Check out SMBC for today!!

    http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20130514.gif

    It’s what I would have done, after a confirmation meeting to assure that she would commit herself to some self improvement…

    1. Heavensrun

      You would have given an A to somebody who didnt understand the material, that couldn’t do the work, and could barely construct a coherent sentence? Or are you saying you’d give her an A for jumping you?

      May I just take a moment to say that either case is exactly the MOST WRONG THING YOU COULD DO?

      1. Ivan

        The A would be for the quality of the jumping! (Could be a C- too… )

        1. Heavensrun

          You are a horrible person.

  41. Jimmy

    I’m betting he gave her an F and now she’s going to storm in there and try to beat him senseless. Just my thought anyway.

    1. Portmaneau

      Beat him

    2. Comrade

      Somehow I think there’s no ‘try’ about it if Sal decides somebody’s gonna be beaten senseless…

      1. Jimmy

        Haha good point!

  42. lightsabermario

    This is the music that is playing in the background while her hair transforms.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48XYBDLPNCc

  43. Arturo

    Yeah, the humidity will do that.

  44. The One Guy

    So a one-on-one session with the TA will give you big hair? Well Sal, you’re right; that is surprising.

    1. Portmaneau

      Maybe Jason moonlights as a hairdresser.

  45. bunivasal

    Let me guess: it’s Jason, so he graded her even more harshly to assuage his feelings of guilt for having slept with her.

    Which seems like a bad plan.

  46. Skydron

    Judging by what happened to Sal’s hair, I’ve come to the following two conclusions…
    1) T.A. gave her a rather nice score.
    2) T.A. has some honor and did not change her grade

  47. phlebas

    “F: needs more tutoring”?
    “F, and by the way Jason gave this one to me to mark, regards, Penny”?

    1. George

      Everybody seems to assume it’s an extreme grade provoking this reaction, but it could be the comments. Think he has it in him to write a racy enough poem to get Sal’s hair to do that?

      1. Notebooked

        “Oh Sal of South States, I’m a toff
        And you’re the girl I’m dreaming of
        I beckon — come to me again
        And take a tour of ol’ Big Ben…”

    2. Ivan

      I think you’re on to something. That, indeed, would be the ideal twist. Especially if she wants to get it re-considered and Penny is game! WooHoo! More lesbian comic scenes to think about!

      (this is such a sad life… )

  48. Arkadi

    Drowned in a river of (luscious) chocolate!

  49. Whittier

    I think the lesson has a note saying something to the effect that Jason is apologising for his egregious error and then knock her down a few pegs. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for.

  50. I also teach math for a living.

    This is what their campus gets for not making the tests anonymous (where the student signs his test with a number assigned at the beginning of the test).

  51. Roborat

    And, ironically, it was that exact moment that Sal’s conditioner proved to be unable to hold against Indiana’s humidity.

  52. tb

    Maybe this is meant to be open to interpretation, but I just feel like I missed something.

  53. penguintruth

    She became Starfire?

  54. Pingback: Dumbing of Age - OH MY LORD

  55. Aslee

    I just really, really hope that all Jason did was give her the grade she deserved. Not, you know, an even worse one. I mean, I know he can be an asshole, but surely not that much of one.

    Surely.

  56. fangseeker

    He probably wrote her a dirty sonnet.

  57. Maycroft

    Jason’s evil plot: giving her her actual grade so she continues going to one-on-one tutoring

  58. JA

    I am confuse. Is the grade good, bad, or did the humidity in the room suddenly jump 102480%?

  59. Fred

    When I went to college, they didn’t pass out completed tests. Grades were VERY confidential, and sent via email or posted by the door, obfuscated by Student Number.

    Maybe Sal was expecting to flunk the test, and then get a good grade via canoodling… and then the test looks easy to her. She WAS amazed by what her tutoring session accomplished:

    Jason boinked the math into her… it’s got to be true!

  60. Daenel

    Hmph.
    Now we see what kind of person she is.

    If he graded her to the positive because of the sex,.. she needs to crawl up under him and try to soak up knowledge from him like a sponge – Or refuse the grade on principal.

    If he graded her to the negative in spite of the sex,.. she needs to decide if there will be more to this sexual thing, or take this as a life lesson – Or try to punish him for not compromising his ideals.

    I wait on pointed ears and pitchforks.

  61. niblik

    Wow, I thought I couldn’t possibly find Sal any more sexy… and then this!
    Joy!

  62. Random Webcomics Junkie

    Holy shit, Sal would look unbearably hot with a lady-fro.

    I’ve always felt like it was weird for her to have straight hair. This proves that not only would changing it not look bad, it would look fucking amazing.

  63. DarkoNeko

    hairpocalypse !

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