Babble from the Barrel – Chapter 9, Prologue, Strip 10

The Professor(ian) is back after a long absence (discounting cameos), and right away he’s back to lecturing. Something of a job-related medical condition for him.

And of course he’s hard to beat when it comes to providing exposition, but that’s not what he’s doing here: he’s not out to provide an explanation, he’s just trying to obscure the fact that none exists. For that, he just heaps buzzword onto buzzword (largely established in popular consciousness by B-movies of the past) until he achieves a critical mass of incomprehensibility…the point were audiences are more willing to blindly accept the result than to strain their brains probing the convoluted mess for any signs of sense or coherency. Which, I guess, is kinda okay in the context of a B-Movie Script…unfortunately, people increasingly use the same technique in real-life discussions, as well…

As for the final panel…well, many people decry the lack of magic in our existence, and dream of living in a world full of magic. But this is what a living in a world of magic really entails for anybody who isn’t a high-level magic-user themselves: the most random, bizarre shit happening all the time, ruining everyone’s day (or life) for no other reason than some wizard being particularly creative or untethered in their approach to some mundane problem or other. >_>

More on Thursday.

P.S.: Sorry for panel one – I couldn’t manage to get everyone’s face into the frame, but I gave Snuka a little flag with his name on it, so he can make his presence known even from out-of-frame.

2 Replies to “Babble from the Barrel – Chapter 9, Prologue, Strip 10”

  1. I just assumed Snuka was out for the count for an un-filmed (or at least unused for now) related incident and they were NOT going to delay shooting. So they just gave him a little flag to hold up since he couldn’t hold his head up.

    I can’t help but wonder if the Professorian has just started a trend of making “university towns” where the laypeople can study magic. I could see these barrel towns becoming a thing.

    1. It’s not what I had in mind, but I actually like your theory regarding Snuka and his little flag much better than my own – so I’ll now consider it canon. XD

      Well, I guess the barrel could have other advantages, as well – in terms of defense, being surrounded by a barrel would be a lot more secure than using a town wall that could be scaled or otherwise surmounted. Local merchants would complain about the hassle of getting goods into and out of the barrel though… but then, merchants do a lot of complaining in any sort of university town, anyway…

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