Difference between revisions of "374: Journal"
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He explains his scheme to Cueball, about how he sit in a train and writes in the journal while sitting across from such a girl. His intention is to make makes eye contact with her, only to look bashfully down. This is construed to make her believe that he is an emotional guy, that is embarrassed, both about writing the journal, but also because she has caught him staring. He also tries to let her believe that he may be interested in her. He is just waiting for her to start smiling, and then he gets to the point of it all. By rolling his eyes at her while giving her a quick glare only to resume writing he attempts to make her feel {{w|Social alienation|alienated}}. Black Hat assumes that this felling will stay with the poor girl for the rest of they day. The only thing Black Hat gets out of this is the knowledge of having ruined the girls day. As he says ''It's great!'' | He explains his scheme to Cueball, about how he sit in a train and writes in the journal while sitting across from such a girl. His intention is to make makes eye contact with her, only to look bashfully down. This is construed to make her believe that he is an emotional guy, that is embarrassed, both about writing the journal, but also because she has caught him staring. He also tries to let her believe that he may be interested in her. He is just waiting for her to start smiling, and then he gets to the point of it all. By rolling his eyes at her while giving her a quick glare only to resume writing he attempts to make her feel {{w|Social alienation|alienated}}. Black Hat assumes that this felling will stay with the poor girl for the rest of they day. The only thing Black Hat gets out of this is the knowledge of having ruined the girls day. As he says ''It's great!'' | ||
| − | Cueball thinks Black Hat is sickening. And exclaims that: ''This is why they can't have nice people.'' There seems to be missing | + | Cueball thinks Black Hat is sickening. And exclaims that: ''This is why they can't have nice people.'' There seems to be missing an ''over'' or a ''visiting'' in the sentence. So what Cueball means is that it is because of this kind of behavior that he cannot invite any nice people home to their place. Thus indicating that they somehow live together. (This is reinforced in [[542: Cover-Up]]). |
| − | Black Hat excuses | + | Black Hat excuses himself for doing this because it is so easy. He mixes two different concepts together while doing so. {{w|Shooting fish in a barrel}} is an {{w|idiom}}, describing an effortless or simple action, with guaranteed success. So that is easy pleasure. The adding of ''lonely [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=angsty angsty]'' makes the fish sound more like teenagers. The girls Black Hat targets are probably best described as ''lonely angsty teenagers'' which may be a way to describe several young people. And they are the easy targets, i.e. the fish in the barrel, for him to shoot. And this is just so easy and so fun that he cannot help himself. |
The title text implies that Black Hat actually does write in the journal, filling it with the kind of things a nice guy like Cueball might wish to say to a shy girl. But that is only so he can burn it when it is full, thus again cementing the fact that he is a complete sociopath. | The title text implies that Black Hat actually does write in the journal, filling it with the kind of things a nice guy like Cueball might wish to say to a shy girl. But that is only so he can burn it when it is full, thus again cementing the fact that he is a complete sociopath. | ||
Revision as of 15:10, 28 March 2016
| Journal |
 Title text: And the journal is filled with all the things I'd say to her if I were nice like you. I burn it when it's full. |
Explanation
Black Hat isn't the type of person to keep a journal, so Cueball is understandably surprised when he sees Black Hat's journal. Black Hat lives up to his reputation though, as it turns out that the journal is just part of a plot to hurt innocent, preferably shy, girls.
He explains his scheme to Cueball, about how he sit in a train and writes in the journal while sitting across from such a girl. His intention is to make makes eye contact with her, only to look bashfully down. This is construed to make her believe that he is an emotional guy, that is embarrassed, both about writing the journal, but also because she has caught him staring. He also tries to let her believe that he may be interested in her. He is just waiting for her to start smiling, and then he gets to the point of it all. By rolling his eyes at her while giving her a quick glare only to resume writing he attempts to make her feel alienated. Black Hat assumes that this felling will stay with the poor girl for the rest of they day. The only thing Black Hat gets out of this is the knowledge of having ruined the girls day. As he says It's great!
Cueball thinks Black Hat is sickening. And exclaims that: This is why they can't have nice people. There seems to be missing an over or a visiting in the sentence. So what Cueball means is that it is because of this kind of behavior that he cannot invite any nice people home to their place. Thus indicating that they somehow live together. (This is reinforced in 542: Cover-Up).
Black Hat excuses himself for doing this because it is so easy. He mixes two different concepts together while doing so. Shooting fish in a barrel is an idiom, describing an effortless or simple action, with guaranteed success. So that is easy pleasure. The adding of lonely angsty makes the fish sound more like teenagers. The girls Black Hat targets are probably best described as lonely angsty teenagers which may be a way to describe several young people. And they are the easy targets, i.e. the fish in the barrel, for him to shoot. And this is just so easy and so fun that he cannot help himself.
The title text implies that Black Hat actually does write in the journal, filling it with the kind of things a nice guy like Cueball might wish to say to a shy girl. But that is only so he can burn it when it is full, thus again cementing the fact that he is a complete sociopath.
It is clear from the comic that he has already done this several time with great success, but where this comic might be interesting in it self, it was actually only the setup for introducing Danish, whom we meet for the first time in the second installment of the Journal series, of which this comic was just the first. Danish turns out to be a match for Black Hat in every way of the word. If you want to see how Black Hat's scheme worked on Danish, check out 377: Journal 2, released the following week after this one.
The whole "Journal" story are:
Transcript
- [Cueball picks up book from a table.]
- Cueball: Since when do you keep a journal?
- [Black Hat leans over from computer to answer.]
- Black Hat: Oh, I pretend to write in it on the train, and wait for a shy-looking girl to sit across from me.
- [Scene change to a train. Black Hat is sitting across from a girl.]
- Black Hat: I glance up and wait for her to make eye contact, then look down bashfully and, if I can, blush.
- [Scene back to original room with Cueball and Black Hat.]
- Black Hat: Then, when I see her start to smile at me, I roll my eyes and hit her with a quick glare, then resume writing. The alienation stays with her all day. It's great.
- [Black Hat is back to typing on the computer.]
- Cueball: You're sickening. This is why we can't have nice people.
- Black Hat: I can't help it. It's like shooting lonely, angsty fish in a barrel.
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refresh comments!Discussion
It seems to me that panel four is referencing the "This is why we can't have nice things" meme.--208.233.39.21 13:23, 14 November 2012 (UTC)
- Well maybe. Because without knowing that meme it seems like there is something missing. (Like "...we can't have nice people visiting"). --Kynde (talk) 15:21, 28 March 2016 (UTC)
I interpret the title text (about how he writes nice things he would say to the girl in the journal) as part of his technique: he puts himself in the mood of being interested in the girl so that his facial and body language would convey this information as best as possible (so, for example, he will be able to generate a fake blush). Mountain Hikes (talk) 19:08, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
- I thought the title text was Black Hat insulting nice people by burning their thoughts 162.158.57.101 18:47, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
I think Black Hat's roommate is Rob, rather than Cueball. 108.162.221.140 17:40, 20 September 2016 (UTC)
