r/QContent • u/BionicTriforce • 12d ago
Comic Comic 5932: NYT Bestseller
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=59328
u/gangler52 11d ago
When you're struggling to make ends meet and your broke unemployed roommate announces she's introduced $5000 to the household, out of nowhere, as if by miracle.
Normal Person: "Praise God, Praise Buddha, Praise whatever higher power is looking out for us. We're gonna make it a little longer."
Faye Whitaker: "Ew, you disgusting weasel. You didn't earn that money properly. What the fuck is wrong with you?" Why do you think this is acceptable behavior?"
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u/gangler52 11d ago
Faye could be the star of a propaganda piece about how "Poor people don't want handouts. They want good honest work in the mines, for benevolent human traffickers."
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u/gangler52 12d ago
"Rewarded for her stupidity", what a dickish way to frame being paid for an interview, which she did so could help out around the house.
Sorry it's so "stupid" to want to buy both rent and groceries this month. Legions of gawkers watching the public spectacle of her family infighting but it's "stupid" to profit off that to any degree instead of just letting it be a thorn in your side forever.
A truly smart person in Anh's shoes would've let Faye get her shop foreclosed trying to pay for 3 people when she already couldn't pay for 2 I guess. Genius strategem that would've paid off big time.
Keep in mind that the last time this woman had $500 to her name, she used it to pay for an AI who got fucked over by her dad's company to get fixed in Faye's shop. What a myopic idiot. She should spend less time selling gossip to gossip mags and more time doing smart stuff like Faye does with her failing business.
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u/Phanimazed 12d ago
I honestly think some of this, more I think about it, is because Faye's got a bit of a parent complex. She gets along famously with her mom, but was very close with her dad before his demise.
I think that she, logically, knows Anh's dad is a complete monster, and that Hannelore's mom is also awful, too, but she defaults to a position of deference to parents. So to her, this at first blush is getting a reward for a betrayal, despite it being something that's only happening because Anh's dad betrayed her first.
I think another aspect is that Faye gets very pouty when someone can make money in a way she can't. I remember her being very defensive and pissy when Sam was selling "sprays", since Faye has only intermittently made money from her art. She also, of course, has only occasionally made sculptures in the strip, and could sell more if she did, but that's a whole other can of worms.
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u/gangler52 12d ago
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. People who don't "appreciate" their living parents have been a sore spot for Faye in the past.
There's not really much to appreciate about Anh's dad. He'd if anything be a much more positive force in her life if he'd died ages ago. But it's probably still a little hard not to hope they'll just find a way to hash out their differences and repair things between them. This gossip article certainly doesn't bring them any closer to that goal.
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u/gangler52 12d ago
Kind of interesting, now that we're talking about it, that the love of her life and only remotely functional romance is with somebody who has no parents, nor even really much past at all.
By dating Bubbles she can completely skirt all the problems that would come from dating a human adult with a messy or complicated relationship with their living parents. Which is most human adults.
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u/DrCaesars_Palace_MD 12d ago
I think it's reasonable to not be happy about it, because, let's be real, Ahn has ALREADY brought SIGNIFICANT heat to the shop just by existing within it's space publicly. Getting torn to shreds by a tabloid could once again bring a lot of negative attention to the shop.
That being said. She's phrasing and approaching it in a pretty shitty way.
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u/gangler52 12d ago
If this article has brought any heat at all to Faye's shop, that's a glaring thing not to mention, coming up on a week of Faye airing her grievances on the matter.
We've seen nothing of the sort.
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u/DrCaesars_Palace_MD 12d ago
yeah. i dont think it's where jeph is taking it, unfortunately, which i feel is something of a writing fumble if so, but i think there IS good reason to be upset, its just... not being explored.
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u/Phanimazed 12d ago
I kind of gave Faye a little too much credit yesterday. I guess she's mad that Anh can get 5 grand from a bit of debasement, and not care about it. Fair enough, I get that she's hurting for money, and frustrated.
What makes it a bit more ridiculous on her part is to conveniently forget that Anh is completely destitute and disowned, and in a markedly worse position than Faye is. Which, luckily, Hannelore pointed out to her right away, but Faye is usually a little bit more emotionally mature than this display.
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u/RowenMorland 11d ago
Faye could probably get 5K for doing a tabloid piece on her gay romance with an AI. which would then likely be published in just as twisted and mean a manner. She isn't offering to sell out a part of her life as vulnerability, she's skipped straight to imagining selling some of Hannerlore's.
But yeah, given the curiosity people have shown I'm sure the tabloids would enjoy a chance to fetishise and put a barely concealed socially regressive bit of bait on an article about that. Which I cant imagine Faye would be comfortable with at all.
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u/jbradleymusic 12d ago
Faye is also the one providing for Anh, yes? And doesn’t have much of a net to fall back on (friend group notwithstanding). So she’s a little justified in being indignant that Anh just kind of made $5k materialize, and it runs the risk of drawing negative attention to her business.
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u/gangler52 12d ago
Quite the opposite. Being the one providing for Anh means Faye benefits from this development more than anybody.
It's if anything quite an unattractive character trait to be so put out by Anh even momentarily becoming less dependent on her. If she wasn't somebody whose good character we were already so sure of we'd probably actually view that as pretty concerning. Shades of Mother Gothel from Disney's Tangled.
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u/gangler52 12d ago edited 11d ago
Most people, if they had an adult dependent in their life like Anh, would expect her to do what she could to start contributing to the finances, even if it were a little uncomfortable or demeaning at times. Most paying work isn't much more fun or glamorous than what Anh did here anyway.
The choice to angrily storm out of the room while making remarks about how much she wants to punch Anh after learning what she's done here is, to be frank, somewhat bizarre.
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u/jbradleymusic 11d ago
“Benefits” remains to be seen, not least because, and I could be wrong, but if Faye’s not entirely legal or above board, this could be catastrophic for the business.
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u/BionicTriforce 12d ago
Hannelore explaining her sympathy to Faye and Faye understanding why Anh did what she did is fine. Faye immediately turning it around and saying she wants to do something similar to Hanners (in a way that doesn't read like a joke), is not cool.
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u/ginger-like 12d ago
I feel like it very much reads like a joke. "Humorously suggesting fucked up courses of action" is one of Jeph's go-to gags.
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u/Phanimazed 12d ago
Yeah, many of which are with Faye. Her and Dora have had dozens of strips, probably, where they joke about become bank robbers, etc, usually for quick cash. Faye's definitely just joking, maybe as a bit of tension-breaking.
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u/gangler52 12d ago
Imo it does read like a joke.
I don't think this is a serious business proposition. She's just gently teasing her friend.
Maybe I'm wrong and the next page will have her continuing to pressure Hannelore to consent to this scheme but I think it's probably gonna move on to the next topic.
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u/ContextBotSenpai 9d ago
(in a way that doesn't read like a joke), is not cool.
In what world was that not a classic QC punchline? Faye is not some evil bitch, who's trying to hurt her friends, lol.
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u/Golden-Sun 12d ago
Part of me wants to see that Faye is concerned about what Ann possibly said, but we know she didnt even read it to check