Pokémon evolve
Knowing how much my readers love video game references, I thought I’d deliver another grade A zinger. I’ve never played Pokémon, but I’ve certainly discussed it with my young nephew for what may be days of my life by now, and it is a fool who does not take note of someone who knows much more than they.
I think about how things might Pokémon evolve… all the time.
Finally! Someone has found a practical use for mayonnaise!
I had lost all hope for mayonnaise when I realised that even butter could not save it. Claire is scary insightful!
Mayonnaise certainly does ruin things.
What….are y’all TALKING ABOUT
I’m a big mayo fan.
Ah, so… isn’t there an item you use on them to make them evolve? Has she searched the wastebasket to find a used … um.. power fruit (? help me out here, youngins)
Pinap berry, at least in Pokémon Go.
That just gets you extra Candy which you need to evolve. Since Tackleford is probably not in the Sinoh or Unova regions, I don’t know if she’d need any extra item beyond candy
I am going to refer to them as power fruit from now on 🍍
Fishman sighting, panel 3!
My theory is that Des Fishman licensed his likeness in order to pay for the various bills he rang up in New Bobbins, thus we see his image on various accouterments and advertising.
It tracks.
We know he’s a pitchman for fish food.
He’s a former candidate for Parliament in the Bobbinsverse, as I recall? Or municipal office?
Des may have quite the following out there by now, in his curious little life there in his penurious mansion with the oldest living man in continuity as his servant.
Yes, it was Parliament. And he later discovered he is the 19th Lord Sunderland, which U guess means he is now a member of the House of Lords?
I’m American — I have no idea how that works.
I guess, not U guess (I hate the fact we can’t edit our posts).
But “U guess” is a common American phrase…
Didn’t he discover he was the 19th lord Sunderland BEFORE he ran for Parliament?
Yes, I do believe so.
Of course ‘jort’ is the onomatopoeia for mayonnaise being squirted on a bound life plan.
“Jort” killed me. Yes. Of course.
John Allison uses Pokemon Reference! It’s super effective!
Poor Lottie. She’s known Claire all these years, and this is the scariest she’s ever seen her. She has no idea…
Given her history Claire may not be being figurative when she says she wants to put it in a bonfire.
A bonfire is Claire being restrained in her thinking.
I find myself concerned about the fate of Lottie’s soggy purple puffer, which does not seem in evidence today.
And that’s led me to wonder what happened to the leather jacket Mimi gave her, which I don’t recall seeing since the end of “Modern Men”.
She might have outgrown it? I forget how old or how tall she was when she got it.
Lottie contemplated giving up the purple puffer 3-6 months ago, comic time, here: https://badmachinery.com/comic/lotht/
I’m not sure if that means that particular jacket has been in use for a long time or if she’s simply rocked that style for a long time. I sincerely doubt she’s had a growth spurt recently enough to affect the wearability of the late laundered polyester purple puffer. (But if she defied the drying instructions, that may have affected the wearability.)
I think Norah meant Lottie might have outgrown the leather jacket, not the purple puffer.
I think Lottie was 14 in “Modern Men”. She should have finally made it to 19 now. But I don’t think she’s actually grown much in the meantime.
I’m terrified. Claire is so angry she isn’t even lisping!
Claire rarely lisps these days. Only when she really lets her guard down, I think. Though I seem to recall that Colm held the opposite theory about Claire’s lisp, more or less.
She lisps in panel 2, presumably due to tiredness.
That’s what I presumed and didn’t mention. I simply meant that she isn’t lisping when she’s angry, which was a problem when she was younger.
Claire’s attraction to fire still exists, good to know that she has decided to replace it with mayonnaise. Lottie looks really scared, by the mayonnaise and by Claire being right. But it’s so nice to see how much they care for each other ♡.
a) Why was the mayonnaise bottle on the desk in the first place? I can only see coffee and a banana skin in its vicinity. b) Is that Noel Edmonds in the document behind the mayonnaise bottle? That might be even more scary than Evolved Claire.
The Noel Edmonds book first appeared back on the 20th.
This is a failure of imagination so spectacular that it worries me. What else might a large, empty plate have had on it? I EVEN DREW CRUMBS
Oh, yeah. That’s clearly the ubiquitous (SPELLED IT RIGHT FIRST TRY — SPELLING POWER ACHIEVED OR SOMETHING??) crumby plate with a banana peel on it. No mistake. Another college dorm mainstay I might add.
Yes, I see the crumbs, but the plate is dominated by the banana skin. I can’t think of anything crumby that can be doused in mayonnaise and eaten in the same meal as a banana (and this coming from someone who, like Marlon*, was occasionally partial to a ketchup sandwich [albeit not inch-thick]). However, I will freely admit that I have no imagination, for anything other than the realm of science (cartoons are what keep me grounded).
* No, not Brando.
A turkey sandwich?
A few hundred possibilities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sandwiches
Dangit. I made the mistake of reading that, and now I’m all hungry.
You’ve never eaten a sandwich, and then a banana, and then put the peel on the plate to take to the kitchen? What planet are you on man.
ANYTHING can be eaten in the same meal as a banana.
The boring-but-sensible answer is that the mayo was there to go on a sandwich that is no longer visible because it has now been eaten. Either that or it was an ingredient in some exotic experimental coffee drink.
Maybe both? Given Lottie’s knowledge of cheese coffees, mayonnaise coffee is a frighteningly plausible outcome.
The important question is whether it would be mayoffee or coffonnaise.
The other question is: Is it something you sip from a mug, or something you spread on a sandwich?
I can almost see the ad campaign for coffinnaise: “Wake up for your graveyard shift with chibi vampirella-approved coffinnaise!”
Have you been in a college dorm?
I’m truly wondering what other applications Pokemon evolution could have in the Allison Cinematic Universe.
Jack Finch has evolved into Jack Sparrow!
Sonny has evolved into daddy
And of course:
Erin Winters has evolved into Mordawwa!
The ‘morning after’ strip of Eustace and Esther in the caravan also comes to mind… what did he say, ‘boy no longer… I AM MAN’ or words to that effect!
Eustace also “evolved” into Scientist the otherworldly horse (and back again).
Everyone here has a lot of good figurative examples but I was thinking more literal like what if Desmond Fishman could transform into some kind of Kaijuman. Or any of the Bad Machinery era monsters.
Pepper pokémon evolves into… Archie?
Erin → Mordawwa was pretty literal. Actually, I guess it was a two-step evolution: Erin → Amazon Erin → Mordawwa.
Lottie helped deliver Claire from the LSE Hell of her parents’ making. I love seeing Claire so passionate to rescue Lottie from the potential Hell of her own making.
You know, now that you mention it, Claire COULD have been a little more grateful. But they seem to have patched it up so that’s okay. God I love these friends.
Little Claire evolves to Condiment Claire if she only sleeps two hours at night.
Confident Claire??
Aside from wondering about the flammability of mayo, I’ve also just noticed that the last comic in the queue indicates “SOLVER AUTUMN SPECIAL CONCLUDES” — in July? Has Brexit affected the seasons in some way I’m not aware of?
It’s set in Autumn. It would have run in autumn too but I wrote something that didn’t work when I started drawing it so this story was bumped up.
John posted some lame explanation along with the cover on June 10, but of course the catastrophic meteorological and astronomical effects of Brexit are a much more likely reason.
ALL RIGHT yes Brexit has caused “calendar collapse” and the Great British Summer 2022 (“phew what a scorcher – Britain set to bask in 32 degree heat” – The Daily Star) has been sold to Qatar. HAPPY NOW????!!!!!!
Energy prices are so high, Brits are literally pawning off summer
Perhaps they are still using the Julian Calendar?
Claire’s action mayo may not be wise.
Nice try.
Claire has always been scary. Just ask her ex or select property owners near were she grew up.
Or you could ask Camille (see link). However, Lottie’s been blissfully unaware of Claire’s terrifying side, until now. And this is really just a mild glimpse. https://www.gocomics.com/bad-machinery/2019/01/24
Just ask anything or anyone flammable in the vicinity, really.
I find Claire’s pyromania to be one of the most interesting character notes in the Bobbinsverse. She’s clearly a good person and has only ever set things on fire from good intentions, but, you know, fire doesn’t stop the party just because it does a good deed or whatnot.
I feel I must convey a set of experiences I just had recently:
I just dreamed that I was in some kind of alternate universe, and there, our good Englishman was running the local hi-fi shop, a la Fallon Young in the original Bobbins days. I came in to purchase a solid audio/video mixer, and while John’s shop did not have what I wanted exactly, no one else did either and John’s shop was closer than anything else I knew of, so I handed him $5 and his pretty assistants a further $5 simply for existing, while complaining bitterly that American shops did not have what I needed as they “only made products for stupid people.”
This beats out the *other* Bobbinsverse dream I had a week ago handily, in which Bob Warren broke the screen on a beloved smartphone I’ve had for almost a decade.
I don’t know what these dreams mean.
Upon payment of my meagre paychecks this week, however, I should, however, be happy to hand the shopkeeper a fiver or tenner just for existing and making our lifes better as he has done for decades, should this experience prove efficacious.
Thank you all for listening to my madness tonight.
I am now imagining a new corporate chain:
“American Shoppes – Products for Stupid People”
You’re sitting on a gold mine here, Trebek.