Selkie has the right ideas about alien invasions.
↓ Transcript
Discarded dialogue:
Prof: Dick? Really?
Selkie: (sheepish) I forgots his names?
Prof: You just called him "Tommy" three times a moment ago.
Selkie: ...I remembereds?
Prof: Dick? Really?
Selkie: (sheepish) I forgots his names?
Prof: You just called him "Tommy" three times a moment ago.
Selkie: ...I remembereds?
Today's edition of the Secret Commentary is empty, because Dave failed to come up with something for it.
I love the ‘Ooops’ videos. Also the look on Trunchypoo’s face right there.
Did Truck FINALLY get the reference? In a way, I’m glad Trunchbull saw those other videos though. Anything that might make him realize that no matter what her species, Selkie is still just a little girl.
Especially with her blushing (purple) and being embarrassed.
Especially with her blushing (purple) and being embarrassed.
I think it’s more arrogance on Truck’s part that he didn’t get the “Dick” reference until now … after all, nobody would dare insult a Trunchbull, would they?
Haha, Selkie is still just a little girl after all! Wonder if that “humanizes” her some to the guy. The facial expressions on everyone here are awesome. I’m so eager to see the results…especially when the next video is played.
…assuming he doesn’t promptly delete it.
Not likely. He may not like unpleasant truth, but he is a professor, not likely to destroy impirical evidence.
Empirical evidence of a teacher being harassed by his son, as well as other teachers witnessing it. Truck might try to destroy the recording, but Mister Trunchbull would realize that destroying the recording would be pointless because there are too many witnesses.
Also, i don’t think Prof. Trunchbull is that kind of person. I am pretty sure he thinks of himself as a greatly moral that protects his family against the machinations of others. Up until the last strip, he probably was completely sure that Truck never did anything wrong.
Being hit in the face with it like this, i doubt he would just try to cover it up. He will probably still try to protect his family, but more importantly realize that Truck himself is the main problem here, not others unfairly conspiring against him.
I don’t think Truck would think of destroying the video, he’d most likely think of destroying the phone itself.
Truck’s game is officially over in 3…2…1…
And I do feel sorry for his father. He is definitely going to feel betrayal after having such faith in his son. I think the biggest punishment Truck is going to get is not his Dad’s anger, but his disappointment.
And, judging by the expression on Truck’s face in panel 3, he knows it.
Nah. I think the lightbulb over his head is for Selkie ‘getting his name wrong’. As in, “WAIT, she called me WHAT????” not “uh-oh evidence I sassed a teacher”.
I looked back to the comics of Selkie in the library talking to truck and you can see the phone on the shelf over her shoulder! Didn’t notice the little purple rectangle before. Very nice work, Dave.
Heh, a fun little break from all the seriousness of Mondays page.
I quite like the little off screen “Spoilers alerts” both for the content of the spoiler, and the fact that she even used it in her alien invasion thoughts video.
After the reveal of her most private thoughts re: dancing, aliens and ponies, the reveal of the fact that she called the kid she’s afraid of/son of the man she’s afraid of a very bad word is joyous in comparison…
LOL
Oh, she couldn’t have meant it like THAT. I mean, she was by the detective stories, and Dick is just a term for detective (like Dick Tracy [lets see who remembers that movie, comics, radio drama, NES video game, etc.]) Not sure why she’d be calling him a detective…unless it was for figuring out she was in the library…
She was in the section of the library with detective stories in it. I think the comment was at least part Selkie playing “detective” and part insult.
Bonus funny on calling Truck a “Dick.” 🙂 Somehow I’d failed to make that secondary connection until just now.
Man, Truck is going to be atomized, isn’t he? Especially after we learned how much trust his Dad had placed on his character.
That’s prolly what stings the most for Trunchbull. He trusted Truck, believed him to be a good kid, and now this.
Yeah, this is what surprises me. I figured Prof Trunchypoo would be just as much in denial as Truck. But it turns out he really believed he was speaking the truth — he really believed Truck was in the right. Whoda thunk.
I’m surprised Selkie didn’t use up all the phone’s memory.
that’s what 4 gig SD cards are for 😉 especially when typical phone vids are in the hundreds of megs… plenty of room in there for this purpose… though playing devil’s advocate here, we may see her video get cut off at an unfortunate point due to memory issues on the card… that would let Truck get a smidgeon of parental leeway in this case….
then again, i haven’t taken many vids with my phone and never in such length that i’d run out of room on the SD card but, does anyone know what WOULD happen if you run out of card space? would the video override portions of itself and you only get the last few seconds of video even though you were recording for longer? or would it just gleefully record and record until it has no more space then just.. stop… even though the CAMERA still thinks it’s recording, it’s just not being saved anymore? heck, would the video file even work, or would it be a corrupted file format kind of thing, and thus unwatchable?
I had to go back and re-read what happened in the library, couldn’t remember. I wonder if the Professor will show any kind of remorse, either now or later, over getting people fired for telling the truth and doing their job?
and THIS is why cell phones aren’t allowed in school. Selkie’s had that phone for less than a day, most of which she was supposed to be spending in school. and she’s already made a bunch of silly videos. Most kids won’t have incriminating evidence to film.
While I agree that cell phones should only be used outside of class most of the time, Selkie made those videos yesterday. She’s wearing the same purple shirt she was wearing the day she got the phone in the videos, and a pink shirt today.
Good spotting, and a good effort on Dave’s part to avoid continuity problems.
Actually, the problem with cellphones in class is the distraction of the students mainly because the teachers find it hard to control in a classroom environment. My son’s school uses them as part of the curriculum and they have far fewer problems. They actually didn’t have that many problem before because they had realistic rules about cellphone use– but integrating it into the curriculum seems to have helped a lot.
To think this started out as a little fish girl getting adopted.
The interesting thing here is that I don’t think Selkie realizes the true significance of the Library Videos. I suspect she just thinks of them as evidence of Truck misbehaving in a way that goes well above and beyond standard bullying – threatening and attempting to attack a teacher are well beyond most eight year olds’ pay grade, after all.
Trunchy, however, is going to finally be faced with the evidence that this is his fault. I don’t think he gets that yet. So far, I think he just believes that Truck is being disobedient – that if Truck was behaving as he’d been taught, he’d be a little angel. The Library Video will drive the point home that no, Truck is behaving exactly as he’s been taught.
For the same reason, I hope that Truck’s punishment for this fiasco doesn’t involve any hitting. While I would be the first to celebrate if one of Truck’s victims put him in the hospital, a beating from Dad – while it would certainly communicate “You’re not the one in charge here” – would only reinforce the lesson that Truck has already learned too well, which is that if you’re in charge, and people don’t do what you say, you hurt them. It might end Truck’s bullying for the moment, but it would return full force once he was in another situation where he felt he should be the one in charge.
Until the recent dialogue between Todd and Trunchbull, I thought that was how he’d learned this lesson in the first place. I got the sense that Truck’s father was extremely physically abusive. “You have to do what I say” or it’s okay to beat you up…
Maybe the mother? Or maybe Trunchbull is just good at hiding that side of himself in public. Most abusers seem to be.
It seems to me that Truck is just too young to understand the difference in respect and fear…this is compounded by the fact that his dad uses a respected position to threaten others. Since he is just a kid and doesn’t have a high position…he uses violence and the threat of his father to gain what he thinks is respect.
But then…I’m not a psychologist…so I just say the kid is a giant dick.
To be fair, learning the difference between respect and fear is something a lot of people have missed. It’s not age related so much as experience related. Selkie certainly knows the difference. She respects Todd and fears Truck, or I should say, FEARED Truck since she certainly doesn’t now.
And no matter what happens at this point, Truck has gone from big man bully on campus ruling with an iron fist to probably the lowest kid on the totem pole. Irony would be if he started getting bullied. The mighty has fallen.
Here’s a thought. What if Daddy Trunchbull is the one getting abused? His wife is HUGE, and he considers it a giant nono to hit a girl. Soooooo, if the wife is quick to anger, and slaps him around a little, he could be laying down and taking it when she gets fired up, just to keep the “peace” so to speak.
I would have an easier time believing this than believing that Trunchbull was the physically abusive parent. His dickishness seems to come from a place more intellectual than physical, while Truck’s is due to a lack of experience and critical thinking. But we don’t know that much about the Mrs…
I have to wonder … is the ‘waitaminute’ because Truck realized that this is the video of him blatantly defying an authority figure, verbally threatening and physically attacking said authority figure, confessing to attacking Selkie, and confessing to essentially using his father to get away with past misbehaviour? Or is it just that Truck finally realized Selkie was deliberately insulting him back there?
{Kosh} YES. {/Kosh}
Given this point in the story, I think it’s become a fair topic to discuss; what would you folks find to be the most appropriate course of action when you find out your child is like Truck?
Put yourself in Papa Trunchbull’s shoes here, where the child he thought was perfectly well behaved is…well, this. And it may or may not be your own faulty teaching.
No one is ever going to want to accept that their child is a Truck, and I’m certain even Trunchbull won’t know exactly what to feel about this for some time.
I wouldn’t allow my child to become a Truck. But in the event that it did, I would give him a shot of humility. I would likely take him to a soup kitchen and just sit down and make him watch people struggling to survive. Then explain that this could happen to anyone at any time. A bad turn of luck could send us in this direction and that no one is on top of the world forever.
Meh. Better make him shovel horse poop for a weekend.
I think seeing the position of the weakest and being lectured about how with a bad moment any of us can become that would have a better effect than cleaning horse crap. The second one isn’t related to the issue at all. You’re a bully=/=Clean up horse crap for a weekend.
His dad´s lectures on how to behave haven´t worked. The incentive structure “Bully other kids => Shovel horse poop” has a better chance of working.
I love this scene, but what really got me was Panel five where it shows Selkie in the different camera positions. Really good angles there man.
Maybe the principal will come around when he realizes the library video can save his butt if the Trunchbulls decide to go to the school board, or to the lawyers. Suddenly that “contraband” can save his job and hopefully Todd will use that leverage… in a responsible way of course.
But hadn’t Principal Ashton tried to save his arse by sucking up to Professor Trunchbull?