Editing 2824: Abstract Pickup

{{comic
| number    = 2824
| date      = September 4, 2023
| title     = Abstract Pickup
| image     = abstract_pickup_2x.png
| imagesize = 187x364px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Escape Artist Frees Self From Conversation With Pickup Artist
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Abstract art|Abstract artists}} are individuals who create artworks that do not attempt to represent external reality. Instead, they emphasize shapes, colors, forms and gestural or non-representational elements in order to convey emotions, concepts or ideas. Abstract art can take various forms, including paintings, sculptures, and other visual media.

{{w|Pickup artist|Pickup artists}} are individuals who engage in strategies and techniques to attract and form romantic or sexual relationships with others, typically focusing on short-term or casual encounters. These strategies often involve tactics for initiating conversations, building rapport and escalating physical intimacy. Pickup artistry is often associated with misogyny, manipulative behavior and a lack of respect for others.

Stereotypical pickup artists are misogynistic males who feel disproportionately hard done by and are (over)reacting to the perceived antipathy from "all women" and a typical technique that they might use is "negging", or making a comment which is intended to lower their target's self-esteem under the guise of being perfectly normal (and even complimentary) small-talk. Randall has previously indicated his disdain for pickup artists in [[1027: Pickup Artist]] and [[1178: Pickup Artists]].

The word "artist" has different meanings in these two phrases. In the first one, it means someone who makes paintings as a profession or hobby, and "abstract" narrows down the types of paintings. In the second, it means a practitioner of some activity, and "pickup" is the (reprehensible) specific activity. The joke is in conflating the two senses when saying that the two groups have merged.

White Hat is a representative of this combined group and in his usual fashion seems to have mixed the two in a peculiar manner, calling a bunch of cubes "cute". He's talking to a group of cubes he has just painted, which he describes as a melange (being an artistic term for a disordered mixture), in his role as an abstract artist. But by the end of his comment he has passed through a disarming compliment (that they are "actually very cute", seemingly saying that few other people will ever think the same), revealing his pickup artist tendencies by seemingly dismissing them as a "dizzying swarm" which few would call "cute"(showing White Hat's signature peculiarity as no one will call a melange of cubes cute).

In the title text, it appears that a third type of artist (the {{w|Escapology|escape artist}}, again very different from both of the other types of artist) has fulfilled their own "role" by escaping from conversation with a pickup artist. Assuming that the escape artist is a women, this might be an additional joke that pickup artists are not good at "picking up" women and instead just act like "a bunch of chains" to escape from.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[White Hat holding a paintbrush in his left arm standing next to an easel. An abstract painting of differently sized black and white rectangular square shapes rest on top of the easel.]
:White Hat: Hey there, chaotic melange of cubes- 
:White Hat: you're actually pretty cute for a '''dizzying swarm!'''
:[The words "dizzying swarm!" are written in wavy bold letters.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Bad news - the pickup artists and abstract artists have merged.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Romance]]