Ray and MENSA

Ray and MENSA 10/17/2005 « prev 1st rand curr next »

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RUTABAGA

Dammit, if only they were that easy.

And, oddly enough, still has 3 lames. 3 guys really hate asherdan.

15 lames now, 15 people really hate asherdan

I think I saw two in the earlier comments without one lame on them.

I was probably hallucinating, but I like think not.

most asherdan comments are pretty good, but lamed into nothingness, and then followed by a bunch of comments about how they are pretty good.

I love how Ray doesn't even try to solve the puzzle. That 10 bucks is totally not worth his time.

Also, the spineless E is a nice touch. Hardcore, 80's style.

I've always been a fan of triangle-A's myself

I assumed he tried but couldn't figure it out.

A spineless 'E' is a silent cry for help, a symbol of deep psychological terror.

That will be $400, Ray.

I sign my name with spineless "E"s.

Do I still have to pay you $400?

Note that Ray doesn't write out "Seventy-Five" in the DOLLARS field. He puts another $75.00, just in a different handwriting.

Hilarious.

-=RAY=-

Man this just nails everything about Mensa in a way that is so perfect it makes me feel a little weird.

I never figured Ray as the fountain pen type.

Well, he is writing to Mensa.

Dude writes lotta checks.

The sad thing is that he remembers Ringo and forgot George Harrison :(

Not when you think the Beatles consisted of John, Ringo, Paul, Anita and The Fat One

I think the real joke here is overlooked by people who haven't actually looked into or dealt with MENSA personally. This strip represents pretty well their overall requirements for admission and in fact their worth as an organization.

It's SO TRUE. I know a guy. Total washout. Struggling through his 3rd year of community college. Dude has no job, lives in his parents basement, has money coming out of his ears. Had to take High School Algebra 4 times. This dude was not the president of the equation of the week club, let me tell you. Moral of this story: he's in Mensa and he's the assistant regional coordinator.

Now everyone let us watch as I screw up my italics for all eternity to see.

OH HELL AND DAMN YES

YOU ARE BBCODING THE DREAMS OF THE CHILDREN WHO HAVE NO ONE TO SPEAK FOR THEM

This is you right? You told us a story about yourself?

You did not get the daily double.

Let's be honest, though. If it was about me, it would be pretty damn impressive if I was in my 3rd year of being a community college washout at age 17.

how does one have money coming out of ones ears, with no job?

Inheritance.

'Sup, Doc?

Not a hell of a lot. Started school again. Sucky schedule this semester, and a lotta stress now that I'm two years removed from graduating and getting out there into reality-world. How about you?

Oh, just spending my time surrounding myself with amazing musicians in the hopes of being confused for an amazing musician as opposed to being seen as what I actually am, which is a solidly mediocre musician. It usually works.

MENSA tried "darker and edgier" in the nineties, but realized along with everyone else that they're no Frank Miller

Oh my goodness! From the "Mensa Workout" on their website...

[IMGS OFF]

orange tits

Stronger

Some observations:

1. The wrong answer is far more popular than the correct one. Apparently the achewood fanship is more willing to collectively wish for orange tits than to deal with the word "stronger"...

2. This comment of xiaomimi's was lamed. Now, not only does she routinely bust ass to provide us with the relevant blogs alongside each comic, with convenient hyperlinks no less, but in this case she has done outside research to show us a concrete example of the relevance and accuracy of the strip. This does not seem lame. I ask, L_C_B, did your finger slip? Did you mean to click elsewhere? If not, perhaps you could do more for the community than xiaomimi? Fie. Shame on you, sir.

oh man, he called the lightning, you brought the thunder

apparently folks with transmetropolitan avataricons totally have each other's backs.

is that how it works? is this a thing? summarily I shall change my own avataricon (is that the correct term? Is that slang of todays youth culture?) to Hugh Laurie and become hell of tight with Spinynorman and we will drink wine and eat chicken and everything will be a-ok

Back off buddy. I'm Spinynorman's icon buddy. He's mine.

Am I Hedonismbot's icon buddy? Because I'm not okay with that.

I drew my own. I have no wine but ample chicken. Perhaps I shall press the chickens in a chicken-press to make Chicken Wine.

I would like to sample a glass of your finest Chicken Wine.

(never did I think I would get a chance to typ that. Thank you. Thank you som

so...much. My comment brilliance was shattered. *sob*

oh, oh gosh.

GERSTRON, THE ACCUSER

Following his recent open heart surgery, doctors described Ray's condition as "stable, with all signs pointing to a full recovery".

Oh man, Rutabaga! What is that stuff?

It is a hella nasty tuber that your grandma will call 'soul food' and trick you into eating.

[IMGS OFF]

I know it looks harmless...
Do not be fooled.

I ain't remember no damn rutabagas at Soul Food Night in college

That's because you were eating soul food in Oklahoma.

also college

Educated Oklahomans got no soul. This started as joke, but in the end I can't help but believe it.

so... can someone solve the thing? is it even a puzzle? i would try but uni is finished for the year so my brain has turned off.

see the word is basically just written under the question in non-mixed up order.

It appears the date on the check is simply Tober 05.

So Ray is in MENSA. Then did he really try to get smooth on some chick with a bag of raisins in her purse?

I can only name three Beatles and my roommates hate me for it. It was awkward when they showed me a picture of John Lennon and asked if I knew who it was, and not knowing the answer, I replied randomly with "Mark David Chapman."

The End! No Moral.

Weekend Blogs

Nice Pete: Book update for October 15th.

Today's Blogs

Pat: Bye, bye Trader Joe's!
Teodor: Ray's Mind-Menses
Philippe: Franky's mom is causing trouble.

Damn but those blogs are unusually excellent today.

Pfft. Who can't name all four beatles?

Let's see.

John Lennon.
Elvis.
Thomas...Jefferson.

And Dr. Phil.

Mark, Paul, John, and Leviticus. Right?

I think that one of the hidden geniuses of this strip is the fact that MENSA just randomly drops the P-bomb (the Pliny the Elder bomb, similar to the F-bomb in many ways). It's like they just want so hard to appear smart, they will name-drop things that smart people know about. Funny to me, anyway.

MENSA is to classical literature as Family Guy is to '80s TV shows.

What made this strip for me is that the plural of 'genius' is genii. Not 'geniuses'.

Mensa, I am yur mom and I took you to school that car of pain. SAY IT!

Holy fuck, i mis-spelled 'your' while correcting Mensa's vocabulary. People die from this much poetic justice.

The justice would have been more poetic if you'd actually been correct. I gave you a chubby anyway, for trying to be clever. It is important to try and be clever!

Also, for what it's worth I believe you are taken to school in the car of pain.

Although at a guess, I'd say that's worth about nothing.

Ray's just the kinda guy to sign over $75 without question when the letter tells him to "brace yourself for another incredible year as yourself!" The dude loves encouragement, and honestly, I think we can all relate.

The real MENSA test is how this all fits together as one document. He appears to be holding a single page, but there is a letterhead at the top of the text shown in panels 2-4.

The only solution I can see is that panel 2 is a letter, and panels 3 and 4 are either two sides of a card insert, or maybe a folding card insert, as such:

[IMGS OFF]

aw man that image is nice, good on you saulbellow.

I knew Ray didn't really have a one-eighty IQ.

The amusing part is that he payed to join MENSA and they told him he was a genius, and he believed this. This very belief marks him as the opposite of a genius.

Those MENSA people think they're so smart.

Pliny the Elder was a cool dude, who wrote alot of great books, some of which are quoted to death by Tacitus (early, important historian). Unfortunately, other than these quotes, his early histories are completely lost. Dude even seems to have invented the Biography, but alas and alack, we only have a few quotes of this as well.

Only one work of his remains: a very important 37 volume encyclopedia of all known knowledge from his day, the "Historia naturalis" - important because it was in Latin, not Greek, and in 77 CE (AD) it was the first time such learning was presented in Latin. In fact, Pliny goes on long-winded like about how silly the Greeks are.

Later, the dude got himself killed by Vesuvius when it brought the smack down on Pompeii and Herculeum - an event he failed to record at all!

So, the "complete works" of Pliny the Elder is all 37 volumes of "Historia naturalis", which Onstad has Mensa putting in a single volume (!) and, given the catalog of all things natural that this is, the most likely solution to the puzzle is:

RUTABAGA.

But now you know.