464: RBA

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RBA

Title text: This is a story all about how I started drinking.

Explanation

A Bel-Air is an internet meme where a poster on a message board starts a post on a serious topic, but partway through the post switches to reciting the lyrics to the opening theme song of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a 1990s sitcom starring Will Smith (previously known in his rapping career as the "Fresh Prince") as a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who has been sent to live with his affluent and stuffy Aunt and Uncle in Bel Air, Los Angeles by his mother as a consequence of a single altercation with a couple of no-good guys who were making trouble in his previous neighbourhood.

Megan in the comic reverses the traditional arrangement by starting the conversation with a recitation of the lyrics to said theme song, and then switching partway through to a very serious discussion of the status of their relationship culminating in a break-up.

The lyrics go like this:

Now this is the story all about how

My life got flipped, turned upside down

And I'd like to take a minute just sit right there

I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-air

The title RBA is an initialism for Reverse Bel-Air.

The title text is also an RBA, but one that diverges from the song lyrics much more quickly. It's a play on the phrase "started drinking." This phrase usually refers to someone becoming an alcoholic (in this case, it would be because of the break-up), but in this case refers to the actual fact that Cueball had just started drinking (a glass of water) when Megan started talking to him.

A similar (though less serious) play on the Bel-Air meme was later used in 1059: Bel-Air.

Transcript

[Megan walks up to Cueball pouring himself a drink.]

Megan: Now, this is a story all about how

Megan: My life got flipped turned upside down

Megan: And I'd like to take a minute

Megan: Just sit right there

Megan: I'll tell you how I became uncertain about our relationship. I think you just like having a girlfriend, it doesn't matter who.

Megan: I think we should break up.

The reverse Bel-Air only works once, so make it something unforgettable.

[Cut to a dropped glass, the drink spilled on the ground.]

Cueball: ...wait, seriously?

Megan: Yeah.

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Discussion

I can't find any reference for the title "RBA". What does it mean?--Dgbrt (talk) 16:32, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Reverse Bel-Air 83.186.30.214 22:00, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, we should explain that. Not all people here are from the US, like me.--Dgbrt (talk) 22:16, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Please enter discussions here.--Dgbrt (talk) 21:06, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

OK, but why have they disappeared off stage? And why is the cup dropped? -- Psb777 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

When you're shocked, you drop things. Mikemk (talk)

Hm, I'm not sure that's water. It looks like he poured it out of a bottle of some sort in the first panel. Maybe it's juice?172.69.62.124 17:42, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

The cup didn’t break, so it’s probably a plastic one. If it was glass it would have shattered. He poured it out of a bottle, so it’s probably alcohol or juice. The title text mentions drinking, so I would guess alcohol.