Grrl Power #123 – It’s only trivia until you’re quizzed on it
So Leon evidently has his nerd chops in order. And don’t worry if you had trouble parsing “When does the narwhal bacon?” It is in no way a proper sentence, but to some of us, it makes sense. I will grant it is more of a Geek reference than a Nerd one though, according to my own private definition if the words.
Now something else to entertain you, Fred Perry of Gold Digger fame, which I’ve mentioned a few times before as being my favorite comic is finally doing a webcomic. As well as continuing a regular schedule with Gold Digger, cause Fred is a machine. You don’t even need to read its About section to tell that it’s heavily influenced by Adventure Time and My Little Pony. It’s called Action Time Buddies. It’s just getting started but still swing by and give it a look see.
Edit: A bit of an update, I’ve replaced Bochs with Puck, despite my memory, Bochs was a double amputee, and not actually a Dwarf. Also I’ve added Carrot – there’s a lot of dwarves I could have included but there’s only so much space and Carrot is one of the more notable ones.
max’s experession in panel 5- “my god what have i done?!?!”
Actually it’s more of an “…uh..hello?” face. XP
And something tells me those two are gonna get along famously.
Outdone, IMO, by Max’s expression in the last panel. Sort of a “Oh ghod, why am I even trying?”
I am sure there are various of Sydney’s friends (such as the comic shop guy) who have worn similar expressions.
Not only do we know that Leon is a nerd but we also know that the writer of the comic is a nerd.
To be more specific a (picks up list) *ahem* redditor, whovian, trekkie, LoTR fan, and those are all the ones I recognized. Hmmm when I first read this I thought I knew more…oh well.
(cough, cough) man I’m old. I was personally wondering why he didn’t mention Miguelito Loveless
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Loveless
We’re not all spring chickens here. I remember watching ‘Wild Wild West” a lot.
He was a really good actor. Is he still alive?
No, I think he died sometime in the 70s cause I remember he had to be replaced by Paul Williams, playing his son, in a TV movie.
You’re not too old but you are an hour late: I mentioned Loveless, but more cryptically, to see if anyone would get it. Now thanks to you who could not?
There was a Loveless-like character in a Lone Ranger cartoon at the same time. I always thought someone watched the WWW and said “Damn that’s good stuff!” We call it ‘steam punk’ now.
Technically Cattle Punk. WWW pretty much invented the subgenre
No not some obscure thing called cattle punk (what the hell is that?) but steam punk. Use of steam engines to make work of machines and in some ways predating I.C.E. powered devices from cars to robots.
Anybody ever listened to Abney Park? The first steampunk band.
They have some pretty good songs. I like “She” in particular, and Airship pirates is pretty fun to hear.
they play at SteamCon in Seattle/Bellevue WA. all the time. plus they have a few of their songs on rotation on the goth/industrial radio show “on the edge” that plays Sunday nights from 1800 to 2400 every week on KNHC C89.5 FM… AND, they have an RPG based on them too… haven’t played it yet, but the book is a good read.
He also forgot Hugo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZYT2SfduXA
Holy crap, I feel like Tom, Mike and Crow should be sitting at the bottom of the screen.
Also Miles, greatest nerd dwarf of them all :)
Please tell me that’s a Vorkosigan reference….
MST3K only does movies though, not TV series…however bizzare (Sid and Marty Kroft stuff is always weird)
they did do shorts, which were sometimes episodes, but these were from back when you’d have these ten minute shows that would sometimes come on before a movie; you know that time that is now used only for commercials and previews.
Yeah anyone remember “Lidsville”?
Not to mention H.R. Puffnstuff…and the crossover between the two (One lidsville episode had Hoodoo have a blind date with Witchiepoo)
No Star Wars trivia? At all? For shame…for shame…
Probably because it’s too easy. Unless they pulled out some obscure extended universe stuff, but that’s a migraine waiting to happen.
I try to stay away from the Star Wars books myself. Too many books to buy.
Same with the Star Trek books.
That’s why http://www.tvtropes.org has the trope “Crack is Cheaper”
They can always get into a discussion of 3rd Ed and FR in particular and who knows Ed by more than a byline or a Facebook friending.
Otherwise known as a “check please!” scenario with my DnD group. Once “conversations” like that start, ’tis usually time to pack it in.
that’s why i go to the public library. i can find almost every trek/wars book ever written including “splinter of the mind’s eye” but i digress….
Ahh, but can you name the Star Wars Dwarf? (and no I don’t mean the Actor in artoo.)
And Yoda doesn’t count because he is the correct hieght for his race.
Wicket?
My money’s on Runt Ekwesh, from the X-Wing series; technically not a dwarf, but still very small for his race.
they could just have done a “which is the star wars misquote?”
Question: Who shot first?
Answer: Han, of course.
Question who drew first?
Greedo
Who threatened to kill first?
Greedo
Who defended himself first?
Han Solo
IMO, it Doesn’t matter WHICH way things go (or are edited) -.Greedo was, at the very least, a shoo-in for a Darwin Award.
Based on subsequent events, Greedo clearly couldn’t shoot worth a darn anyhow. Despite this handicap, he pulls a gun, in what could charitably called “a rough place”, on someone who is also armed. He openly and repeatedly threatens that person. He lets that person drop one hand below the table.
Greedo was too stupid to live. What Han did was (A) a kindness, and (B) a public safety thing.
Hey, at last he apologized for the mess afterwards.
And he paid for the cleanup
don’t you mean “she” pulls a gun? Greedo was wearing heels at the time.
(now there is some nerd trivia).
Interesting, didn’t know that. But the one does not necessarily equate with the other – especially for an alien species.
Besides, what happens in the cantina, STAYS in the cantina.. ;)
Leon’s expression in panel three is full of awesome and win.
That final line from Maxima made me laugh. Also, I am greatly wondering what sort of corrections and additions your readers will post in the comments.
You are missing part of the triumvirate of the geek & nerd herd. The Dork. They are the ones who think most of what the Geeks & Nerds do is cool. They also like the sillier side of things. Growing up, I have been classified as all three of those things. That is why when I was playing one of my many online games, I ran into a guild that just spoke to me. It was the GeNerDork Guild. It was a amalgam of Geeks, Nerds, and Dorks. I now find myself recreating that guild in other games to allow others like myself to find company.
On a side note…I love the fact that yes Maxima was considered a nerd/geek at some point in her life, but she is not comfortable enough to be classed in Sydney & Leon’s class of Nerd.
Binwin! theres a nerd dwarf right there.
The narwhal bacons at 1:15 gmt the chicken, however, crows at midnight, but only when the cow walks backward, and pig moos…
sounds like “ello, ello”
I am insulted, INSULTED that you did not include Hilmor. (or at least the dwarf from order of the stick)
I must admit I have not read a lot of OotS. Drawing a comic really cuts in to my comic reading time. :P I know it’s one I should keep up with though. The problem is their archive would take days to go through.
Actually, with his thumb out of commission for a while there, you just missed a good time to catch up a bit. ^_^.
You forgot Hoggle.
*Squees at you* Someone else who knows of Hoggle, yay!
I’m not sure if Hoggle would count as a dwarf. He’s short, yes, but so are all the other goblins.
Jareth actually CALLS him a dwarf, therefore he is one.
Hoggle is too a dwarf! He has never been referred to as something other than a dwarf, and Jareth calls him a dwarf on more than one occasion.
Okay. I’m dissapointed with him… HE FORGOT GIMLI!!!!! HOW DO YOU FORGET GIMLI?!?!?!?
-Khaos
He didn’t forget Gimli, he preempted Gimli. Thorin II (Oakenshield) was a distant relative of Gimli, whose father (Gloin) accompanied Thorin on a quest to regain his home & kingdom. You might remember the story: they call it “the Hobbit” around here.
Syd also mentioned only 1 dwarf per universe, so mentioning both Thorin and Gimli would have broken that rule.
Thorin before Gimli because you actually don’t have Lord of the Rings without The Hobbit, whether from an in-universe perspective or from a writing perspective.
HA! When she said “How Many Doctors?” The more obvious interpretation would been that she was asking about Dr. Who. For which the answer is currently 11. Or 12. I haven’t watched it in a while. The 10th one really pissed me off, being all messianic and crap like the Jesus lion in Narnia.
So I guess it’s a case of the author being able to read his own mind. Oh what a surprise.
Dude, you did not just diss Aslan.
He’ll eat you alive.
Or worse (2nd book of the series). He’ll give you a fair chance out, but if you don’t take it, enjoy the rest of your life.
Never forget Aslan is not at all a “tame” Lion, hence why he bit the White Witch’s face off, never heard of Jesus doing that one :).
Jesus ranted and raged in the outer courtyard of the temple in Jerusalem, in order to kick out the merchants and money changers. Does that count?
Only if he ate them,
his Dad would have sent zombies or evil spirits after them. But its like if Bruce Lee had Ghandi as a son. only more extreme as the existing differences are beyond comparison.
Aslan is Jesus, as Jesus would appear in Narnia. That is 100% intentional in the books.
You misunderstand. There are 11 Doctors Who, the reason why it’s funny is because he interpreted the question correctly and added in a character from a completely different and unrelated universe whose name is also the Doctor. Eleven was the correct answer, but twelve was the answer of a truly dedicated nerd.
actually in the whovian universe there are technically 12 doctors. through a very strange loophole. that is an iffy subject of wether to count it as a full regeneration or not.
Didn’t they kill off the Doctor #11 for real in the middle of his last transformation?
I don’t get to watch the show much so I’ve lost touch.
*River’s Spoilers: The Doctor that was killed mid-regen was actually 200 years older and sent the letter that brought everybody there, including a version of himself from a different point in his own timeline.
given how often various transformations run into people who recognize them, that he hasn’t met yet; but he ends up transforming again before we ever see a story that involves running into those people who recognized him before; I call BS on the entire continuity of the show anyway.
Also depends on whether you count The Valyard as a Doctor.
It also depends when the comic is set. Have all the same episodes been aired?
What about DoctorDonna? Or clone Tennent that is the Doctor, but not a time lord? Or the Doctor’s daughter who is a clone of himself?
Actually I would think a better response would have been. “Do you want me to include the character known as The Doctor from The Authority series (Image Comics, now owned by DC).
Oh wait, I get it, there are 11 Dr. Who’s and one “the doctor” from star trek voyager.
Sorry, I’m going to have to knock off points for missing Dr. Who and the Daleks (Peter Cushing) and Scream of the Shalka (Richard Grant, yes the one who just played a villain in The Snowmen, funny how that works out).
No one remembers Trevor Martin! *single tear*
Or maybe, it’s the horrendous american movie (the one with Eric Roberts as The Master) they are ignoring
Actually, that one counts as #8. Eccleston’s #9, the first in the TV series after the “hiatus”.
Well, the problem you run into with “How many Doctors?” is that such a question can be interpreted in so many ways. For instance, you could argue that the Cushing Dr. Who movies were simply the First Doctor portrayed by a different actor. You could argue that The Valeyard was no longer the Doctor in the same way that Darth Vader was no longer Anakin Skywalker; he’d traded in the name and the job for something far darker. So there’s wiggle room with that question – and any Whovian worth their salt would recognize that. Overall, I’d give the answer a 9.3 out of 10; he answered the question in a correct manner (How many Doctors, rather than how many actors portraying the Doctor), throwing in Curse of Fatal Death was awesome, but not talking about the Valeyard was a bit of a trip-up.
Actually, the count is one off if we’re counting number of Doctors and not number of actors. We’re at 11 now, but we had 2 of 10 at one point. And they are biologically distinct beings, one of whom cannot ever regenerate and lives a separate life in a separate universe. So that’s 12 Doctors.
I find myself out classed in nerd and geek-dom here….
i got outclassed at the narwal part
I had to read the Fezzes and Bowties before I got that she was asking about THE doctor.
And the first dwarf that came to mind was Red, followed by Carlos.
Sydney looks positively adorable in the last panel. That little satisfied look and approval clearly being sent Leon’s way. Sydney has found a new friend.
I… am afraid at what Sydney and Leon will do in the future with this newfound friendship.
Also, those 11 dwarves he names…
…they now must go on an epic adventure to free each of their homelands from (insert peril here).
what Sydney and Leon will do in the future with this newfound friendship.
start asking each other obscure questions
Talking in ‘code’ to both annoy, irritate and confuse/baffle everyone else (specially Maxi :P)
Re: the post script of the Enterprise A being 3025 meters after refit, the A never got a refit, that was on the Original, no suffix letter. Or, as Scotty said, “No bloody A, B, C or D!” In original service configuration, the Constellation Class Starship was 289 meters, refit to the 305 meter configuration in 2270, destroyed in 2285, replaced with the Enterprise A in 2286, a new keel-up build as a “Constitution Class” which was the designation shown for earlier builds despite several references in TOS as Constellation Class.
(NOW who’s the nerd?)
I am humbled and shamed. Though at least Leon is correct in the comic itself.
Actually, I have two errors there myself. The first, of course, the “3025 meters” length, that is a typo, naturally. And, I did check some older references, it never was Constellation class. Not sure where I got that from. Now I feel like “Dork Nerd” ;-\
Starfleet’s Enterprise is a Constitution class starship.
Your memory may have triggered off of:
“In 2369, commander of the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise-D, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, regarded his former command, the Constellation-class USS Stargazer as …” (found at https://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Constellation_class )
the narwhal bacons at midnight! in denver! omg! :D hahahahahah!!
Thought she was gonna kiss him…
=^_^=
Part of me was hoping so actually. Me thinks I see Syd’s new love interest?
I got a star wars trivia. Zombies in star wars? The answer is yes. How many wookies were involved in the incident? I believe it was 4. Was the wookie part sad? Yes. It was very sad.
Now the question is, did star trek have zombies, also the question which star and/or star’s had zombies could have been used.
That depends, are we counting “rapidly degrading clones fast-aged in an anti-force bubble” as zombies?
if it’s not a virus or an infection, I don’t think it can be counted as a zombie outbreak, zombie apocalypse, or zombie in the traditional sense, though I guess it makes it more of an idea then a label.
– “Traditional” zombies were no more than living humans who were brainwashed into slavery/servitude with a combination of drugs & hypnotic suggestions by voodoo witch doctors, & haven’t been seen on-screen (to my knowledge) since Bill Pullman’s film: “The Serpent & the Rainbow”.
– Romero’s horror-films NEVER used the “Z”-word for his flesh-eating corpses, only the term “Living Dead”. The whole “Infectious Bite”-trope was stolen from Vampire/Werewolf-lore, & that in turn was probably inspired by medieval outbreaks of rabies.
– Both recent zombie-tropes (“dead”=”zombie” & “Brains!”) came from “non-Romero”-spinoff films,
& started with: “The Return of the Living Dead (1985)”
– The most recent type of zombies are the “Infected”, who are simply aggressive carnivorous (but still alive) disease-carriers. See “Zombieland” & “I Am Legend” as recent examples.
Sorry, but I went back to Wikipedia after writing the above, & it’s not 100% accurate.
I refer you to these 2 links, for more detail:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_(fictional)]
Zombies come from Voodoo. The rest are mere pretenders.
I always thought of the Borg as being zombie-ish.
Sorry.. I just don’t get Leon’s first comment. Why is he talking about newtons?
Newtons, named after famed genius Sir Isaac Newton is a means of measuring as defined here.
newton, the absolute unit of force in the International System of Units (SI units). It is defined as that force necessary to provide a mass of one kilogram with an acceleration of one metre per second per second. One newton is equal to a force of 100,000 dynes in the centimetre-gram-second (CGS) system, or a force of about 0.2248 pound in the foot-pound-second (English, or customary) system. The newton was named for Sir Isaac Newton, whose second law of motion describes the changes that a force can produce in the motion of a body.
if you’re asking why he seems to suddenly be talking about newtons for no apparent reason, see page 121
the E is actually 705 meters according to the Star Trek Encyclopedia.
almost every comment for this page makes me want to post a link to someone yelling out “neeeerd!” but I already did Homer Simpson on one page and don’t want to spam the comments with the actual clip, or other homages and parodies of it.
FOUL. You forgot the USS Enterprise, and the X from just Enterprise with that quantum leap guy from St. Louis. And maybe the HMS Enterprise.
Which USS Enterprise? They mentioned USS Enterprises A-D (NCC-1701A through NCC-1701D), missed the straight up NCC-1701. Perhaps you are talking about the USS Enterprise that is a US naval ship, but still which one? You have CV-6, CVN-65, and CVN-80 plus other USS Enterprises pre-1938.
Well, there is the one where Checkov had to go and get Nuclear particles from the Nuclear wessel.
That would be the just recently decommissioned USS Enterprise CVN-65, the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier in history, which will be replaced by CVN-80, a Gerald R Ford class aircraft carrier.
Little did Sydney know, but thanks to a freak wormhole in space and time her question in the sixth panel was one of the proximate causes of the Great Crossover Wars.
Battle raged as the strange sciences and weird magics of a thousand universes vied for supremacy, conquest, independence, or just to be left alone. And as the C-beams glittered in the dark, and the Zars sang their triumphant song of death, and the ship of dead men’s nails sailed, and the Eighteenth Men sent their despairing message to the past, all the world looked up and cried “save us”. And Sydney whispered “Awesome”.
No-prizes on offer for the first to name the six universes (unsubtly!) referenced above!
Well, C-Beams are from Blade Runner.
the Zars are from the Wind on Fire trilogy.
and the ship of dead men’s nails is the Naglfar, from Norse Mythology.
the Eighteenth Men are from Last and First Men.
all the world looked up and cried “save us” is a reference to Watchmen, it’s Rorschach’s line.
I’m assuming the sixth reference is the wormhole and war reference, which is Hitchhiker’s Guide.
Did Sydney have a reason to mix SI and English units?
If this kind of thing comes up again, see if you can get slugs into the mix. At least three possible puns come to mind immediately.
Proof that I no longer qualify for geekhood =\
+1 for the Penny Arcade D&D reference, and +10 for pimping Fred Perry.
ATB is so family-friendly saccharine that, if it weren’t for his immediately recognizable style, I’d have a hard time believing this was Fred Perry’s work.
It’s a little like Peebo Adventures in that regard.
I’m seeing some epic team-ups in their future.
The stain on Leon’s shirt vanishes between panels 2 and 3. Also, Binwin? Yay!
I’m disappointed by no Carrot Ironfoundersson, commonly known as ‘Captain Carrot’. (Though Cheery Littlebottom would have been acceptable.)
I’m also sad that “Willow” wasn’t on that list…
…NO – NOT the Willow from “Buffy” – Warwick Davis!
Technically, Willow Upgood wasn’t a dwarf, but a Nelwyn.
I love this comic, for just the sheer amount of geekness!
Sad face becase no Miles Vorkosigan, though.
This comic shows why I tell people I’m not a geek/nerd. I lack the frontal lobes. ~.~ I feel smarter knowing what they’re talking about, but dumb that I’m not sure if they’re right.(Of course they probably are.)
I’m surprised no one mentioned the Shadowrun books which had a lot of dwarves and according to the “history” the Mayans predicted that magic would come back in the “Sixth World”. Which is now.
My answer to that question would have included several of my PCs, including from Shadowrun, and commentary on whether different D&D campaign settings qualify as different universes or not.
hey, I’ve been reading this comic for a while now, first time poster. and I gotta say THANK YOU FOR THIS!! Now when people call me a nerd I can just refer them to this and say, “Maybe so, but I’m not even close to this level of nerddom.” (But is it weird that a part of me wants to be?)
There are always degrees of nerd-dom about any topic. The best response to someone giving you a hard time about being a nerd is to quiz them on whatever their favorite thing is. Who won the last 20 welterweight boxing matches, how many CCs the latest engine in whatever car is, what’s the best wood to turn on a lathe. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the answers, just once they rattle off a bunch of, let’s face it, irrelevant facts, just look at them and go, “Neeeeeeeerd.”
Fair point. but in the wide world of nerddom (and I don’t care if my computer says I’m spelling it wrong, that’s what I’m going to call the nerd domain!), I’ve been in the lesser ranks of standard nerd (with a Sydney-worthy spice of gamer nerd thrown on top). And I salute all those who would be considered my superiors :)
I would so fail that test…
An android in the webcomic down the block is channeling someone…but whom?
Quantum Vibe
Maybe they’re both channeling the same thing.
To be blunt, she did just discover that she had been mind-raped to the max. It would take more control just anyone has not to react as she did. And while violence has a certain satisfaction, I hope her revenge works out to the “Trading Places” solution (make the rich b*tards poor).
Frankly, I’m expecting either her friends or herself to exact a devastating & permanent vengeance upon her betrayers…
…in the courtroom!
Her non-human status (& sub-human treatment) does not change the fact that they ignored the terms of the old man’s will, you see!
“Seems to me, the best way to get back at rich people is to turn them into poor people…”
– – – Eddie Murphy’s character “Billy Ray”, in “Trading Places”
Yes, this is me backing you up, ChattaStarHawk!
:)
I am probably going to be the only one to say this but…
The first Dwarf that came to mind when the 12 Dwarves question was asked was Red Dwarf. Dave If you had left that one out I would have called you a smegging smegger of a smegging smeggerer of a smeghead.
That and I would have cut off all access to your curries & Largers until the next comic.
(Texas Red Dwarf nut right here, now i need for Season 10 to come out in the USA while I wait for them to film Season 9 [yes they did it out of order deliberately])
Honestly there are a lot of universes with dwarves, I had to cull the list to a few that I knew people would recognize and a few that would make most people reach for the googles. Red Dwarf is obviously the best dwarf.
I would have failed halfway through her questions as I have only watched 1 episode of MLP and I have no idea what that dwarf thing was about.
“Dwarves” (the term is used loosely) from various fantasy, sci-fi and fictional sources. From the 1st page of the comments:
Sleepy: Disney’s Snow White animated film
Thorin (Oakenshield): Lord of the Rings trilogy (or novel, since Tolkien intended it to be just a single book); more accuratelym he’s from “The Hobbit”, the novel that chronologically came before it (both in terms of publication and setting)
Tyrion (Lannister): Game of Thrones fantasy novel series
Flint: Dragonlance setting of Dungeons & Dragons RPG and its novels
Bochs: ???
Magni: Norse myth; also from the World of Warcraft MMORPG
(High King) Thorgrim (Grudgebearer): Warhammary Fantasy Battle tabletop miniature wargame and its fiction
Bruenor: Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons & Dragons RPG and its fiction
Randall: Time Bandits movie
Master: Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome movie
Binwin (Bronzebottom): PvP webcomic
Red: Red Dwarf, a British sci-fi television series; Red Dwarf was the ship and is also a reference to a particular kind of star (a red dwarf)
Nice. 11 of 12. Best I’ve seen so far.
I do feel obligated to point out that the Hobbit, while published before LotR, was written after (I believe, at the suggestion of his publisher).
That last stars the will be around in a very old universe will be red dwarves. The only place to siphon energy.
Until it all collapses back to into a new singularity.
No it wasn’t, Tolkien started writing the Hobbit in letters to his son during WWI, while he was a soldier. I have read every single volume of the “Encyclopedia of Middle Earth”, nowhere does anything say he wrote LOTR first.
Oh, no. I got this list from a comment on the first page. On my own, I recognized only 5 from Leon’s list- which makes me worried I’m about to get my geek certification revoked.
Thanks for explaining the references to me. ^_^
Bochs appears to be an error on David’s part, mixing up Roger Bochs, a guy who got his legs cut off and created a robot, with Puck (Eugene Judd), a man who gained his powers and lost his height by storing a spirit within himself, both from the Alpha Flight comics.
(Credit to NOTDilbert for helping unravel this one.)
Bochs was from Alpha Flight (Marvel). He could merge with his armour.
Holy…. Aaaand now i have this image of Leon in a red and white checked Gingham dress, army boots and a Penguin puppet.
And very VERY cross!
p4 is best panel.
Is she doing Shatner in p6?
Seemed more that she was trying to come up with a stumper of a question/Ultimate Test of Nerdage question on the spot
That’s how I took it at first, but on a second readthrough (and following the Enterprise question), I found myself reading it as Kirk.
Well, that can work as well, a little bit of both (specially the last pause is totally ‘Shatnerd’* :D)
*yes, do notice how that looks :(