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www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Patrick Willems @patrickhwillems.bsky.social ⋅ 1m
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️𝓝𝓪𝓷𝓲 
Good ol’ Charlie Sanchez…
Talk about a call back.
Wow, classic reference.
I wish I could give this 1000 upvotes.
It deserves ten times that.
I feel like maybe Carla could’ve just asked Leslie for Charlie’s last name or something and worked from there.
To be honest if she needed the last name she could have meerly asked Booster or Walky what the former’s last name is. However, given that Charlie and Carla have the same fairly small class together, I suspect this is not so much about Carla having trouble getting accesses to Charlie’s person and more about Carla being afraid to talk to Charlie (crushes are scary). She likely wants Booster to provide a good impression, an excuse to talk to Charlie, and a buffer when she does (AKA I think she has stomach butterflies and is hoping having a wing-person will make them go away).
That’s true, but it also just seems like she doesn’t know where Charlie lives. I think she’s decided to give up on the Booster route not that they were actually any help.
How do you explain to a narcissist that fixate on someone they can’t have?
I’ll go with … puppet theater?
Ooh, you’ve got to be a real psychologist to pull off that sort of thing
well she is self absorbed but she’s not malicious enough to attain info about charlie in any underhanded way but other than a day off/weekend, you’d think if she’s that desperate for charlie’s attention she’d just wait til their next class together and basically try to pester her all classroom
Didn’t she already attempt to pester her all class? With the CARLA sign and so on. Charlie didn’t notice it.
I don’t think that was all class, and Charlie didn’t notice *until after Carla left.* The funniest thing about this whole plotline to me is that all Carla needs to do to be acknowledged is to be a little more patient without storming off.
yeah, and the class before even without the ‘signage’ stuff it did look like she was either on her phone or so on top of that one girl being like “i already know everything!” so that almost seems like it’d be a group effort to ignore carla or so but it would be hilariously f’d up if they did talk and be like “she’s a little intense for me i’m just going to tune her out (on purpose) now” lol
Okie Carla. We believe you.
Carla is peak one of my favorite imaginary humans. (Well, obviously, she’s the best.)
Booster should throw a jug of water over both of them and lock both of them out of the room
Why Walky? He’s the one doing Booster a favor currently.
No he’s not, he’s still talking.
Booster didn’t tell Walky to get rid of Carla.
They tagged Walky in so they wouldn’t have to deal with Carla themselves.
Other than closing the door in Carla’s face, which Booster could have done themselves, there’s nothing that can be done other than talking to and convincing her to leave somehow.
Booster specifically requested: “Engage our visitor at the door.” That is what Walky is doing.
After Booster passed along the favour of being woken up? Blaming Walky for any of this is incredibly myopic.
i mean at this point i’d just text charlie.
or fake a screenshot of charlie texting booster like “oh yeah that one girl in my class, but i don’t rly have time for any new relationships, even a platonic one”
So, how will Linda react to this pairing? Assuming she knows Carla’s “secret”.
…to CarlaxCharlie? Not sure why she’d be particularly interested in two young adults dating when neither of them is Walky or Jennifer.
On one hand, I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t care who her son’s roommate’s sister is dating, but on the other I can see her being annoyed that someone adjacent to her family is dating someone rich when her kids aren’t dating rich people.
If the notion of Walky x Carla ever entered Linda’s noggin, she’d be all over it like … like jimmies on cupcakes.
Or do you just mean Walky being friends with Carla?
That feels like a real strong assumption, honestly
It’s not a thing and it’s not about to become a thing, but Carla is ungodly rich, so even if she disliked her personally I think Linda would be able to live with it. She and Chuck both feel like social climbers to me
Whoever this ‘Charlie’ person is!
I didn’t think about it until it was pointless to make a comment but does Carla’s comment about “the correct gender” yesterday strike anyone else as being a bit off? Like what would she have said if Walky said he was dating a guy? Would she have complained that he wasn’t dating the “correct gender”?
Honestly I think she would have just pulled a Becky, like ‘eh, guys, not for me, have fun’. The ‘correct gender’ seems to be more her playing up how sapphic she is due to her pride in it rather than actually thinking people should only ever date cute girls. Though I do agree, using the phrase ‘correct gender’ is eh… messy.
I assumed that it was a sarcastic use.
I still haven’t figured out what she was on about.
She would not likely have complained, but maybe made some joke about that instead. The point is just that she’s sapphic, it doesn’t really extend any deeper than that.
Carla is an egoist and is very silly. She’s also been up all night obsessing about Charlie. She might say a number of inappropriate things for the lols, but I think she was making a sleep-deprived joke about how she likes being a girl and wants to date girls. And therefore everyone should want to be a girl and want to date girls.
And I think she might have said something like, “Ick, boys are gross, don’t date one!” There are guys who are furious right now that three women are staring in a Marvel movie …shrug… “how dare they make any movies with women?!” Hopefully she doesn’t spend all her time online yelling about how boring it is that most movies are about guys.
oh no it’s Ghostbusters (2016) discourse all over again
Hating on The Marvels because it has three female leads is completely ridiculous
Hating on The Marvels because its a really bad movie is an entirely different story
I truly doubt Carla spends any time online telling people they’re wrong. Of course they’re wrong, they’re not Carla. That’s to be expected.
It could just be overcompensating from her transition. She had a big, public fight to be recognized as a girl (a fight which she still has to have on a daily basis with people like Mary), and she’s also homoromantic (if asexual). So yeah, she’s fiercely defensive of ‘yeah girls are awesome, I’m a girl, have you noticed that girls are great?’.
I don’t think she’s a misandrist or anything, she just has negative interest in anything to do with guys.
Misandrist, no. Obnoxious, narcissist, yes. It makes sense that she’d view any gender she associates with as the correct one. Carla also knows everything there is to know about gender which makes her automatically correct! I do think we should remember these characters are mostly young and deep in thier cringe era.
Wait, there’s a non-cringe era?
am 59. hope to get there some day.
–Dave, am assured by myself that I am not gonna go Republican in my old age, let alone Tea Party/MAGA/whatever they are then, so at least there’s that
Heh, when I was younger people kept telling me “As you get older, you’ll find your politics become more like your parents’.” Mostly people who didn’t know my parents.
They were right, though. I started out vaguely left-of-centre, and I’m well on the way to becoming as far left as my Dad, who would have been a Red Clydesider if he hadn’t been born a decade or so too late, and in Edinburgh.
Thanks for the neat reference!
Psh, it was a joke
Last two strips, Walky’s smiling a lot for some one a whose been woken up this early. My conclusion: Carla is acting more silly than mean. She’s got a case of the sleep-deprived, over the top, first-crush sillies. Carla is just half a step a way from throwing a toy at Charlie, a la Walky.
would make it messed up if charlie ended up being transmasc later on lol
Oh I’m sure it’d be a case of “if it’s you it’s okay”. One thing about Carla is she’s never been malicious. Rude, self-centered, arrogant, narcissistic, unintentionally bigoted, inconsiderate, and all around a pain in the ass? Sure. But cruelty isn’t her thing.
I’ve decided that she’s just being mysterious so we’ll all talk about her.
it’s more or less a form of trans humour. a lot of trans people will joke that their transitioning gender is better for one reason or another, but it’s just that; a joke. (usually; there are outliers who should never be counted. another example, but for lesbian/gay, would be “why would you wanna date men when women exist,” and vice-versa.
carla being such an aggressive person, however, kind of makes it difficult and uncomfortable to read because of how she pushes her ideas on others and may be why it reads as ‘off’ specifically. i’ve never found this sort of humour funny and it can be hard to separate between someone who is joking and someone who seriously means it, having encountered many people in the second camp during my own transition.
can’t picture her beautiful face, eh?
Your diagnosis strengthens
All she has to do is wait in the right spot and when there’s someone with a beautiful face, that’s probably Charlie. She’ll be holding hands and/or getting stepped on in no time.
“stupid sexy flanders”
She’s big-time infatuated, it seems.
Yet still act like Charlie is an object.
i mean ‘objectifying’ is a bit much b/c if she rly wanted to she could’ve just literally gotten more up in charlies face as opposed to being behind her with that sign with her name, but i imagine this arc is going to end with them having some kinda relationship, if not just a friendship b/c unless it’s played up comedically/for laughs i don’t see it being/ending with carla being liek “oh actually after talking to them ‘properly’ for five mins they’re kinda boring” or it’d feel like it was all for nothing
More like an idealised abstraction. Which arguably is worse for Carla since that makes it that much harder to realise “oh wait, this is a human”. Though for the rest of the world it is better, because all evil starts at treating people as things.
me every time a trans woman likes somebody
omfg its comedy. COMEDY
..they yelled at the internet, like a fool
Yeah, it really sounds like she forgot Charlie’s name.
Heh, just the other day I had something that happens to me a lot: at an all-staff meeting a guy I worked with slightly 30 years ago came over to say hi, howyadoin’, and I instantly thought “I know you, now what is your name and why do I know you?” For me faces stick but names slip off.
I think this might be Carla’s first crush as she seems somewhat overwhelmed not only with how to go about asking somebody out, but by her own emotions. She appears to either to be actively deceiving herself or painfully unaware in regards to what she actually wants out of this relationship. Additionally, while Carla has always been one to resort to extremes to achieve minor goals, she seems to have invested a lot of effort and discomfort into meeting and impressing a girl she has never even talked to.
This makes me wonder what exactly led to Carla choosing to fixate on Charlie as opposed to any other girl. I bet it was the plaid shirt – plaid is sexy (why else would the Scotts traditionally cover their groins and bags with it).
IF (and that is several big ifs) this crush eventually progresses to actual intimacy rather than infatuation and fixation, at some point Carla is going to have to open up a crack in her carefully constructed defenses of performatively Not Caring, taking the risk of exposing herself to possible hurt by expressing sincerity.
Wait, no – that’s like, step 3, minimum. First she has to identify (or be told of) that necessity; then she has to decide if she wants to/if it’s worth it. Then she can act on it… or not.
Dang, this stuff is hard.
She opened up to Walky, once.
Yeah, I won’t hold her being pissy about Ultra Car against her, since he was for sure being an idiot in that conversation. On the other hand, I also think people take “characters willfully joking” too literally, that she and Walky don’t hate each other or anything like that and are just both flippant people.
Precious things cost a lot. It’s wonderful when you get to that point of “Lordy yes! I want to lay down this armor, just for that one person, and if the price is pain I’ll pay it.”
well carla did ‘fixate’ on her after she interpreted charlie’s delayed reaction as ‘ignoring’ her , tho i’m sure she can’t have been the first one to try to tune her out
Carla gets what she wants. If she can’t get it, the wants it more.
Usually that “it” is validation, but she’ll settle for attention.
*then she wants it more.
I accidentally a word.
Walky is handling all this with a lot more alertness than I would have on a Sunday morning in winter.
well the cold might jump start your brain but other than sleeping in on weekends (tho walky did say he was going to get up early otherwise/might leave right after carlas done), but i imagine if ur on a school schedule and used to waking up early they’re all able to have a somewhat decent convo
He’s helping somebody else with their problem. When you’re helping somebody else with their problem, you have a legitimate excuse for not doing anything about your own problem(s). You’re helping! That makes you a good person! You can’t be mad at somebody for being a good person! Also, you’re probably not likely to make your own life worse, and telling your mother she’s a controlling, racist narcissist and really not a kind person, or your girlfriend that she’s lovely but puts a lot of pressure on you even if part of that would be expecting the ability to stand up to your controlling narcissistic racist mother, or your one ex-gf that you’re sorry you put her in a shitty situation but she’s a great friend and you value her and you’re sorry things got complicated and you’ll do better at keeping her out of your mother’s warpath (and then you have to tell her both how pissed and how nuclear your mother can be), or your other ex that you’re worried about her..? These things will probably make things more awkward.
He’s conflict-avoidant, attracted to distractions like electricity to conductive, earthed metals, and this is a low-stakes issue he has no personal link to! It’s a PERFECT deep immersion project!!! Heck, he could get more invested in this meetcute than Carla!
“Willis, scribbling in his notebook”
–Dave, for the good of the many
Yes to almost all of this, although I would add that, given Linda has repeatedly gone to court to get Amber expelled, Amber is well aware how pissed and nuclear she can be. Walky may want to tell her “If part of your reasoning for agreeing to this was that it couldn’t get worse, you should know that it can always get worse,” though.
Did she actually go to court? I know she talked about it after the event, but Jennifer tried to talk her out of it (and then Blaine died).
Now I check, Amber says the Walkertons have “tried” to sue Stacy 30 times, but it’s not clear if any of them actually got as far as court.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/windmill/
I’m not even sure what they’d be suing for, given that the material harm happened when amber was a kid.
You have to file within a reasonable time and the only person amber got caught hurting was ryan who they don’t have a vested interest in.
Like, yeah, you can try to sue anyone for anything, but most lawyers will try to dissuade you if you’re just being ridiculous.
I am aware of a real-life case in which, after MUCH testimony, the judge looked at the plaintiff and asked, “is that all you’ve got?”
They’re young, they can handle a little sleep deprivation.
He was going to get up early anyways, for church, presumably. But yes, I don’t know why people expect to have conversations or small talk within an hour of waking up.
Carla REALLY needs some therapy.
Why?
“My parents being rich have done nothing harmful to me.” < Except made you completely self-absorbed.
I don’t know you can blame that on her parents. That could all be from struggling with her identity and with other peoples fucked up reactions to her identity.
So the therapist knows she exists. and that her dress is nice
A therapist might benefit from talking to someone who has it all together for a change.
ppl with crushes(?) can act pretty erratically, at least she’s not actually going with walky’s suggestion of ‘hacking’, but for someone ace, she does seem a bit desperate for validation but otherwise i don’t think carla would’ve cared/given charlie the time of day if they were just some ‘boring’ classmate who just did basic small talk and didn’t go outta their way to give carla more attention otherwise/intiiate a convo.
A desire for validation has absolutely nothing to do with asexuality. And very littel to do with aromanticism.
uh hu.
Carla, you should know that screaming outside the door of your crush’s sibling in the early hours of the morning is already lunatic behaviour, you’re past the stalkery event horizon
i’m not close with my sibling, but i feel like, while it was done in a humorous way , i’d think having someone throw a pie at your friend/relative could be construed as assault to where i wouldn’t wanna give her a chance to talk to her
Honestly, depending on the circumstances, I might find that endearing.
If a relative of mine called having soft food thrown at them “assault”, I’d reflexively defend the pie thrower.
Eh, this is part of Booster’s and Carla’s “obnoxious to each other dynamic”.
Carla did approach Booster twice about this, both times at a normal time, and Booster was all “but are you really committed?” So Carla is trying to one-up them by following their request, but being annoying about it.
The one thing I’d fault Carla on is being so… Walky about having a crush on someone.
She needs a boom box, that will get Charlie’s attention.
4 out of 5 John Hughes(es) agree.
next she need to come in front of Charlie’s windows with a boombox
Third panel is intense “I…I just want senpai to notice me~” energy.
“Senpai will never notice you, nerd!”
So, huh. Carla’s been told since she was a kid (probably not since she was a small kid, but certainly since she was a kid) that she’s Wrong and Bad, by a great many people. How did she cope with this? By following the lead of her parents, who by most reports are pretty great and presumably tried to drown out the haters with praise, and telling her to ignore them. And also by being acerbic and kind of mean, cause you gotta get your kicks somehow.
Now she’s met a pretty girl whose so oblivious that no amount of self aggrandizement is getting through to her, and she doesn’t want to be *mean* at her. So she’s completely lost.
hopefully if something does happen between the two of them, carla wouldn’t be more ‘demanding’ like “you aren’t affectionate enough” since she seemingly wants ppl to worship the ground she walks on normally i can’t imagine how tedious it’d be to be in a relationship
Like stellatedHexahedron says, Carla’s normal attitude seems to be a defence mechanism against bigotry, which eventually became the defining quality of her personality. I would guess that in a Genuine Relationship with someone (not even necessarily a romantic one, just a genuine one) it would be unnecessary, because she’d know. The problem is she doesn’t know how to get to that point.
I can’t believe Carla is getting dating advice from Walky of all people… then again he did saw some success.
Eh, not all tech-heads are hackers. Carla’s a white-hat, at best.
Ooooo, Carla has a crush on Whatever-Her-Name-Is.
Carla and Whatever-Her-Name-Is sittin’ in a tree
trying to fix this po-et-ry.
Carla and Walky should make out.
I’ll be the most sincere I’ve ever been on the internet.
Seeing Carla’s hormone/ego related stress made me realise that I don’t know if I stopped being a creep because I finally understood how fucked it up was, or because it got to be so much work.
Can’t even get existential about it. Either way, it worked out.
The “Against all logic I’m kind of happy I got out of bed for this” smile on Walky. . .
Also, the website doesn’t seem to disconnect randomly most of the time anymore, so thanks for taking care of that problem that seemed to affect just a handful of people, whatever it was.
Anyone reminded of Louise Belcher and Boo Boo?
I want to throw a pie on her beautiful face!
Carla is indeed the cutest, someone really ought to let Charlie know.
Ok real talk.
is Carla actually into charlie, or can she just not handle NOT getting charlie’s attention?
this feels like that one fairy odd parents episode where timmy wishes he and trixie were the only 2 people on earth, and trixie goes mad from the lack of attention, demanding that timmy call her pretty.
Yes.
Charlie not paying attention to her is what got Carla’s attention. And now she’s into her.
is she, though? i don’t think i’ve seen any interactions between them, besides the first one that started this whole “give me attention” arc.
I wonder what’s going to happen when they do meet and carla finds out that charlie isn’t ignoring her, and is actually basically unable to talk most of the time, because of some issue i don’t fully understand.
yes.
I imagine she has a crush but she has so little understanding of human interactions that she doesn’t know how to handle it.
I think if she didn’t really like Charlie she would be able to remember to not remember her name more than half the time. For Carla that’s like when you can’t say their name without smiling.
It’s not a word I’d normally associate with her, but damn. Carla is adorable here. Sure, there’s some problematic amounts of narcissism layered on top, and yes, it might be kind of infuriating having to deal with it in real life, but still. Adorable.
Would it still be adorable if it was a guy doing and saying the exact same things as Carla is doing?
Or would it be considered wierd, creepy and extremely inappropriate?
If he was doing it from the same kind of naive crush that he didn’t know how to handle that Carla seems to be dealing with here I think it would be. Like Walky throwing a toy at Dorothy.
If it was a more deliberate scheme to get access to a girl by a guy who knew exactly what he was doing – yeah, not at all cool.
What if the world was made of pudding?
to answer your two questions: yes. no.
I do think it would be considered weird and inappropriate. it hasn’t crossed the threshold into creepy yet, but maybe Carla will get there
I’d consider it weird, slightly creepy, and mildly inappropriate — the same things I consider Carla’s approach. She’s floundering her way through an early crush, and not doing a perfect job of it, but those mistakes don’t make it less adorable.
What if she was a nepalese cricketeer? With a lisp? And three nipples? Would it still be adorable
And what if walky was a gecko and saturn didnt exist. THEN what
aw
Yeah Carla’s acting pretty weird, but you gotta grade her on a curve because she’s an engineering major. Easily in the 90th percentile for normalness in that category.