Grrl Power #681 – Babelfishing
This is one of my favorite pages in a while, as if features Sydney at peak Sydney. You have to forgive her for forgetting to lead with English, but she got excited about breaking out her vast repertoire of fictional alien greetings.
As a first contact protocol, shotgunning a bunch of different languages probably isn’t the best strategy. Especially if, like Sydney, you only know a handful of words from each one. Sydney is properly fluent in Klingon though, and while Qapla’ isn’t actually a Klingon greeting, I thought it would be easier for you guys to recognize than the actual word, which seems to be “nuqneH.” I vaguely recall hearing that in an episode or two, but if there’s a single word that means “Yo, what up, Klingon here.”, it’s Qapla’.
This particular page features a pair of cameos. One of them shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. The other one is preeeety obscure, I think. I’ll probably blab about it one someone guesses it, cause it’s from something cool I saw when I was a kid. Weirdly, and I didn’t know this until a few years ago, but it was my first exposure to the Cthulhu mythos. That’s all the hints you get. :)
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"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
As a native hungarian I am not sure if I should feel offended or be proud that my mother tongue is once again a joke (quoted).
I dunno about the characters, but the “thing” about most or all of them speaking English has been “troped” before, in Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers, by Harry Harrison. Alas….
Don’t forget Piccolo talking to Nail in DBZ Abridged too.
Harry Harrison was also fluent in a few other languages, but his fave was Esperanto. He might have had Sydney say “Saluton!” first.
:D
Can you possibly be both? Proudly offended?
I don`t know. I love it when I see my native language in this comic, especially when it`s a joke or just szomething random or funny. And my native language is Hungarian too.
Hungarian here too, but no offense taken here, I seriously love the double-take on the old Monty Python sketch, turning it on its head. Well done!
No comment on the xenomorph in the background.
That’s because it is a poster seen on the last page
It got real Nyarlathotep in here all of a sudden.
GLEMPH! I can’t believe nobody has recognized him yet :-)
I loved Ghastly’s Ghastly comic. I was disappointed when he stopped updating. That was always a fun read.
I google’d that comic. Then I had to click that way REAL FAST.
NSFW
Surprised you even found it, last I saw the entire comic had been taken down (this was years ago of course).
It’s a Keenspace page, so it’ll probably last as long as the platform does. Of course, it was last updated in 2015 and there were only 16 comics after 2006, so it’s unlikely there will ever be any more, either.
“Qapla'” is actually the traditional Klingon farewell. It literally translates to “success” or “good luck.”
And here I always that was “Caplock” to remind the listener that everything said before that was ALL IN CAPITALS. ;)
Sydney, Sydney, Sydney. How could you forget to lead with “Rai and Jiri at Lungha. Rai of Lowani. Lowani under two moons. Jiri of Umbaya. Umbaya of crossed roads. At Lungha. Lungha, her sky gray.”
Hah hah, that would have been a good one to include.
But that’s an English translation.
“Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra”
because like Qapla’ you’re going with the recognizable, not the best fit.
Damn, beat me too it
Shaka, when the walls fell.
Sydney and Squidward at Alari. Sydney of Earth. Squidward dismembered under one moon. Cora and Sydney missed connection. At Fracture, tired and hungry, her meds running low.
Lol, “Liv Nud Gurlz, Artifisal Nud Gurlz”.
The universal greeting only works when you hand out energon. Silly Sydney.
She also said it wrong. And didn’t do the gesture.
Anál nathrach, orth’ bháis’s bethad, do chél dénmha?
Heh, haven’t seen an Excalibur quote in a LONG time…
Scaroth I got instantly, that second could be the Space:1999 Bringers Of Wonder creature (No time to look up the species name), but would the unnamed creature from Space:1999 Dragons Domain (Season 1 & that still creeps me out when it spat out the smoking remains of its victims) be a closer fit.
The second one is just on his way to Earth for some sex tourism.
Showing my age.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Death
Chicken dinner?
Oh I was off, I thought it was that thief guy from Buck Godot.
Given amount of cameos and references in Buck Godot, that probably was a reference also.
I mean, we are starting on the intersection of Flash Gordon and Waiting for Godot, and it’s getting only more profound all the way down.
I knew it was meant to be a Doctor Who monster. For a mad moment, I thought it was the Master from “The Deadly Assassin”, but then remembered he had two eyes.
if “Adorable stupidity” could be used as a power source she could power a star ship.
she does, the orbs are foci for her Korna style superpower and do nothing in their own right. how bored would she get if her game style powers spelt everything out for her ( a power gamer like her would just rush the opt spec) … probably not very given how quickly her world showed her both alien and supernatural paradigms to explore now that i think about it.
Naw, that would mean she actually has a superpower, and should be more photogenic, and… “pneumatic.”
“Let’s speak the universal language of the universe…
English.”
Makes sense for anyone interacting with Earth, actually, English is the universal trade language on Earth and near-universal for tourism.
And the one most expected to result in clueless cultural faux pas, whether the speaker is native or not.
Not just tourism. Sex tourism.
The most important type of tourism.
As long as it’s anonymous…
I truly assumed the anonymity factor was a given, as any good sex tourism is.
That only applies to species with a sense of “shame” regarding their sexual activity. I mean find a species where sexual acts are the equivalent of a handshake, and only care if you are sexually mature and consenting.
Of course what is “sexual” varies by culture not just species. After all at one time…and still in some places kissing in public was/is forbidden.
Showing any indication of any curve of your body was/is.
But then you have things like the Bonobo that have little quickies as a greeting like its a handshake. So its not unreasonable to have a species where they fondle each other’s breeding tendrils as a sign of trust and a bond of friendship to give each other such pleasure.
Although what qualifies as “sex” could be taken into account as well one supposes. Like stated above, some consider lips touching strictly a sexual act, heck if its a species with seaslug like anatomy a French kiss could be the equivalent of felatio without you knowing “till its too late”. and be a form of greeting among the Slug Women of Homnes.
Then of course you have species where sex means nothing at all to a species. Say one like flowering plants where they do not need to seek out a partner or socialise beyond the releasing of pollen. Or ones which reproduce by a means other than sex. Or who have no interest in reproduction.
Also consider the Quaking Aspen tree. It has both sexual and asexual ways to reproduce.
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/case-study-the-glorious-golden-and-gigantic-13261308
Congratulations. You’ve all somehow done it. You made the concept of anonymous sex tourism boring.
:( *sniffle*
*cries*
Hey, just pop onto a plane to England! You will not be the first American tourist I have shown a good time.
Um in the literal sense, rather than the euphemism. I’m very good at making things exciting.
Although it would not be anonymous, unless we wore masks.
In Sci-fi the don’t reproduce, or have to use a very special means to make another of their kind aliens have an interesting concept. Something analogous to sex but isn’t sex strictly speaking. Just to human onlookers its the best guess they have and the best some of those species can think to describe the sensation to humans, although for some (usually the ascended/energy being types) its a full body in and out, soul included, feeling of connection, warmth, and intense pleasure that to a human is like a massive orgasm extended; and in some settings can actually ruin sex for the mortal as nothing they experience physically after that could ever compare.
One I find fascination is a subdued version from Steven Universe, Gem Fusion. The Gems normally fuse for combat, but they find the experience unites their minds and feelings and “feels great”. Gems that form a relationship with each other may fuse for periods of time or stay fused indefinitely as the combined persona *combining their minds and emotions creates a new persona* is an expression of their feelings so they stay in this state till they have an emotional disturbance, willfully separate, or some outside force separates them. They regard it as the ultimate connection between two gems, and their tyrannical culture even strictly regulates it and/or creates taboos about *two different types of gems fusing* or look down on Gems even of the same type that stay fused too long as they “get sentimental” ect…
On the specific plant example, it is always an interesting thought experiment to consider sapient species with unusual life cycles and disconnected reproductive patterns. Like collective wombs/collective hatcheries, pollen/seed spreaders to the wind. Or those whose young don’t start of sentient and are released in massive competing swarms where only some survive long enough to even become what the adults would consider babies.
As an extreme example I have “Ancient Dragons” a race that can reproduce as early as 15 years old, however no member of this race becomes sapient till around 500 years old. So the “ancient” adults who are space faring, magical, and extremely powerful, usually won’t even acknowledge any offspring they have (or descendants of those offspring) as their own till they’ve survived to the self aware point. One result of this being local mortals on “nursery planets” may think the animal like and much smaller and weaker dragons are a different species than the massive indestructible immortal and intelligent dragons that lord over the regions full of dragons. Basically, an Ancient may have a clutch of eggs, but if only the great, great, great grandchild of that line or so survives long enough to develop magic and intelligence will the “ancient” dragon acknowledge them and then regard them as “their child”.
of course you also have that race from Andromeda whose name I forget who have a swarm of fuzzy tadpole offspring that devour everything including each other and the adults raise the ones that survive to the point that they molt into “babies” and crawl free of the water. I based my demon slug girls on this concept where their swarm of larva consume all meat in the area including each other *although the adults regard it as fusion, to an onlooker its clearly consumption* until they mature to the point that immortality kicks in. Basically they won’t acknowledge any of the sewer dwelling swarm and bother to raise them till they mature beyond the point where they can die.
Remember, when it comes to demon slug girls, just say ‘NO!’.
“Let’s speak the universal language of the universe…
EnglishMoney.”I hope she figures it out on the next page, good references though.
Those aliens speaking not just English, but English with an obvious Received Pronunciation accent.
Reminds me of an episode of the OTR sci-fi radio series X-Minus-1, “Early Model”, where the natives on an alien world, whose reptilian forms are described as the least likely lookalikes for stereotypical bowler-hatted Britons, have their speech translated to the American explorer/trader as RP, due to his automatic translator being “a London model.”
Plus the sign RIGHT BEHIND THEM is also in English :)
Nah. The sign doesn’t remind me of the radio episode.
“No, no, no, Donna. Don’t. Just…don’t.”
She’s at this universe’s version of the Bazaar at Deva!
Man I loved the Myth books back in the day
Now THERE’s a crossover.
Judging by the speech patterns, not only are they speaking English, they ARE English!
Quite old ones, going by the bowler hat.
That’s no alien! That’s Jacob Rees-Mogg in disguise.
Or out of disguise, perhaps :-P
nud girlz eh? My mind went to Nerd girls first….
No reason they couldn’t be both.
Should have whipped out her mobile phone and tried a 5 note tonal phrase.
Got the Dr Who cameo, who’s the other dood…does seem familiar…
Alloway, Masata friends. I honestly can not frelling believe that she did not lead with “Iä! Iä! Sidney fhtagn!”
Alien: Eh? You don’t look like you’re sleeping to me!
I am the Dreamer and the Dream.
I know Scaroth in the suit, but while I’ve seen Mr. Tentacles there somewhere, it escapes me.
My goodness, I had no idea that Casuarina Glauca was an extra-terrestrial species. Live and learn. The more you know …
Meh … close enough for government work.
Odd thought, her not knowing everything is being translated means she did just land down there and there was no traffic control or anything to guide her or else she’d know they understood her….unless it was a glowing pair of dotted lines to a landing pod with no greetings and she just inferred to land. Otherwise this high tech station just allowed a body to exit an ultra tech portal to just land wherever. Pretty trusting station I’d say.
Made a similar comment on the first page, no one reads the first page after the first day
Did…. did Sydney not notice that the signs are in English?
An interesting parallel: After living for 26 months in the outsticks of Japan, I was in Tokyo waiting for my flight the next day. In the meantime, I was tasked with giving the incoming replacements a tour of the city. Not having seen much English for the last two years, I was trying to read the Kanji on the subway signs, while the replacements were a block ahead — knowing full well where to go because they were reading the English on the signs just below it (which I hadn’t even seen!)
It has a lot to do with what you expect and what you’re looking for.
I can tell you from experience that it doesn’t do any good to try to start a conversation in a language that you aren’t prepared to understand the answer.
Geez, Sydney, one of those creatures is wearing an ordinary three-piece suit. Couldn’t you assume that he might have come into contact with Earth culture at some time and start with English?
There’s a similar scene in one of Thryth’s works, my boss. Lucretia, for doing it? Simply asks “What language do you speak”…in 15 different languages.
Saturday morning TV sigmon the sea monster that was a long time ago 1976 .
Kinda reminds me of Cousin It (minus the eye ball)
Get off Mah lawn
The alien on the left also looks somewhat like Camille, the pleasure-GELF from Red Dwarf in her true form, though I’m not sure. She did have only one eye though.
But hers was on the end of an eyestalk.
Also, given the bowler hat, it’s more likely to be Hector, than Camille.
I think the tentacled alien is from “Lost In Space” (original series).
More dubious is that in the presumably short time she has been wandering around before approaching the two *ahem* club-goers she has not chanced across -anyone- having a conversation she could overhear, even if just on the local equivalent of a phone.
So I’m wondering if the artificial nude girls are clones or androids?
I’m hoping DaveB is going to bring the story inside so we can find out. It has been over a dozen pages since our last bit of fan service, so I’m ready for some more.
Actually I just realized that this is a perfect setup for the Stripper with a Heart of Gold trope. Sydney stumbles into the strip club, then passes out due to lack of food and sleep, plus her adrenaline crash and the onset of PTSD. The girls working the club rescue her, and we get some fantastic fan service scenes.
Aw yeah Ms. Dem Five
Gaaah!
*gouges own eyes out*
No TvTropes warning! And such tempting clickbait, to lure me!
Which was the baitword? ‘Stripper’, ‘Heart’ or ‘Gold’? For… research reasons
The phrase. It eluded to an interesting story.
Rather than a boring text.
Remember how there were too many Harems?
I know the Cousin It-looking one! Kinda! It was one of those Twilight Zone-type shows, particular one eludes me at the moment, but the episode in question centered around a professor giving a lecture that was basically narrating a H.P. Lovecraft story. At the end he (accidentally?) read a spell channeling Yog-Sothoth that changed him into THIS, and said “Any questions?”
Not the Twilight Zone. Night Gallery, also a Rod Sterling show. “Professor Peabody’s Last Lecture”. https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-29f_l2YLoTQ/T24yQZ4GpEI/AAAAAAAABtg/RWDbcvELJts/s400/NightGallery-PPLL3.jpg
Hah, a great guess, but not the specific inspiration for this cameo.
Scaroth’s been mentioned… and the tentacle beats reminds me a bit of the creature from the Green Slime…
In hindsight and that the other one is a Doctor Who character, and there has been Lovecraftian stuff appear in Doctor Who for YEARS!!! I’m having a though that it might be Yog-Sothoth (who in Doctor Who is known as the Great Intelligence)
You sure that that is not Paul “Sinnerman'” Sinha? From the original “The Chase”? He is always wearing a similar white three-piece suit
Apparently Sydney doesn’t realize Disco was a human fashion trend. That’s OK. It’s an easy mistake to make.
Well, Disco IS quite alien looking to us today…
Wait… has no one seriously guessed that this is Yog-Sothoth? I saw the comic early this morning. I figured someone would have mentioned him by now.
Honestly Sydney, you could have tried “Drem Yol Lok, Paaz Shul Grind” (Greetings, nice to meet you). Given that Skyrim has been ported to just about every platform imaginable, I’d be shocked if there wasn’t an alien tech version.
Grrl Power is still set in 2011
Back in #383 Leon’s talking about playing DOTA 2, which wasn’t released till mid 2013. I think Grrl Power’s timeline is “fluid” to say the least. :-)
In a world with supers, magic and the supernatural, the specific developments may occur out of sequence compared to a baseline world. Even one which is all but identical otherwise.
All it would take, for example, is a nerd with a genie bottle, choosing to wish for their favourite entertainment to be released ahead of schedule. In fact even a super deciding to promote a product could skew things enough to get a product produced faster than it was in our timeline.
Promoting in what sense? They’ve not been openly known about for more than a week.
Archon have not, but Sydney and Joel were aware of supers right at the beginning of the comic. They had just not been officially recognised by the government. Whereas they had been active in the private sector, doubtless including promotions. Whether or not everyone believed them, enough would to drive their endorsements well above mere celebrity levels.