I dunno, as I understand it, the Peter Principle says that someone keeps getting promoted based on success until they reach just above their level of competence. That does not appear to be the case here.
I think what we have here is a case of “failing upwards“, where a person screws up a job and somehow falls into another cushy job they can also screw up.
(The song in the link ties it to the British class system, but I’m pretty sure it happens in America as well.)
Also called the Dilbert Principle, which is somewhat derived from the Peter Principle. Basically, incompetent people get promoted to positions where they will hopefully do less harm.
One thing I like about Robin (as a character – would not want to be stuck in an elevator with her) is that she TRIES to be nice, but is so incredibly thoughtless, obnoxious, and self-centered about it that she’s actually far more effective than if she TRIED to be horrible. Like, imagine Robin trying to live up to the “republican politician” thing by acting like Mary. Wouldn’t work. She doesn’t have it in her to act mean. She DOES have it in her to act nice and cause migraines at fifty paces.
I’ve always had the opinion that Robin is earnest to a fault. Like she has zero self awareness and zero tact and mostly just goes with the flow. She hasn’t thought 2 steps ahead before in her entire life.
I’d say Robin’s well aware of tact, being in politics. She’s brought up ‘tricks’ like being nice to men in power, not punching up rather than down, etc.
I imagine Robin’s craftier than people think, she wouldn’t have been successful in the first place otherwise. It’s just that she’s a little behind the times with ‘normal’ people.
A bit of both, I’d say. Privilege in that he’ll be meeting the terms of his work visa again and won’t be worried about deportation anymore. Punishment in that he’s got to deal with all of Robin’s quirks.
Jason: At least I don’t have to move back in with my supervillain father.
Robin: Hey J-Town, after you’re done alphabetizing my Skittles, can you teach me to talk all schmancy like you? I have an idea for a prank call to an NPR show that I think will go viral.
Jason:…Wonder if dad’s rented out my room in the volcano lair yet.
Well, it depends on how much the field normally pays. For a high-value field like industrial engineering, underpaying them still requires you to pay them enough that…
People die from exposure at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, that’s a crappy way of compensating people. Don’t go Oregon Trail on them. (I’m actually too old to use that meme, technically.)
well, there are ppl that’d prolly enjoy inking and cleaning up for free, tons of ppl who scanlate/retranslate manga don’t make profit off of it, presumably because of copyright but plenty do it as a spare time hobby anyways, but good luck lol.
I used to work as a flatter. It’s when you put down flat colors for a colorist and they paint on top of them. I got paid ten dollars per page. It was not worth it.
Again, I don’t know where IU stands on the sliding scale of Collegiate Adjunct Treatment, but it is very common for adjuncts to be underpaid themselves. If Leslie’s on the lower end of the scale I can see her saying it out of solidarity. She’s almost certainly way closer in pay to a TA than Robin, who’s not just a professor in her own right but a PRESTIGIOUS one.
Academia: Managing to have MULTIPLE underpaid overworked less-prestigious Stick It Out And Maybe It’ll Be Worth It job classes!
Also 3400 is the number I am using I have been employed by several universities and that’s the most they have paid me per class lowest was 1500. I was teaching five classes at 3 separate universities and still qualified for SNAP and Medicaid.
Someone really needs to bring attention to this issue and by that a segment on Last Week Tonight.
This isn’t Leslie’s worst idea, but I gotta say – if she didn’t want to hire Jason because it would make her untrustworthy, wouldn’t it ALSO make her untrustworthy to help him find the same job but with another prof?
I feel like she wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that, in large part due to how it’d negatively impact Ruth, but also because getting someone deported for the lols is really not like her.
I do think it’s somewhat morally dubious what she’s doing, but I get that she probably has an easier time rationalizing it to herself rather than if it was her taking him on, even if she also just does not have the money to do so.
I do not think she’s trying to intentionally undermine Robin, though. She doesn’t like Robin, but “here, Robin, this guy might fuck one of your students and get you in trouble” would be absolutely reprehensible.
Yeah, that does make it kind of questionable on Leslie’s part. Makes it seem less like her issue is about helping Jason back in to a position of power that he has “unearned” and more about how that would reflect back on her. Which actually makes her seem pretty politically minded, and maybe she has more in common with Robin than she’d like to admit.
But I also think it’s possible she just hasn’t thought this all the way through yet. A student came to her for help, and she wants to help. There’s just more to the situation that makes it challenging.
IIRC, Jason wasn’t teaching sections of Math – he was grading quizzes, helping to hand them back and supposedly helping students who needed some extra tutoring.
I feel the concern with giving Jason a TA job back was placing the students in a position where they would be taught by an individual with an history of unscrupulous abuse of power. However, in the case of Robin’s students that is already the case, so handing office hours over to Jason is basically an improvement.
I feel like it’s one of those situations where life isn’t fair so you gotta do what you can to help because some outcomes are worse than others. Does Jason deserve his job back in a position of power? No. But arguably neither does Robin who is apparently also getting paid more despite being way less qualified or deserving than Leslie. Speaking of deserving, Jason doesn’t deserve to be deported for banging a student and compromising his professional ethics. It’s just a cruel fact his visa won’t let him seek other employment opportunities. So when you add all this up it won’t be a clean solution but maybe it will work out in a way that doesn’t cause unequal consequences. Plus it’s a bonus if it doesn’t blowback on Leslie.
The issue here is the administrative hurdles Robin would have to jump through would make it unlikely but this a comic so Jason is going to be her TA happen with no explanation on how Robin fanagled her way through department protocol which long story short she needs to get approval from the department head and graduate advisor to bypass employing other in department TAs.
Or she just hires him without any of that and things go smoothly or drama down the line beacuse Robin is Robin and half asses it.
I think Ruth’s comment about mistakes tainting a person forever made Leslie feel bad about using Jason’s last-semester actions against him… Even though she was totally RIGHT to do so and the problematic bevahior was literally only a few months ago and he has done zero to atone or fix things or better himself.
I wouldnt say he has taken zero steps his resignation of his TA position rather then fight the charges shows that he knows he did wrong he did apologize to Sal. It doesnt right his wrong but he has taken steps towards atonement and fixing the issue.
I do not think he’s made up for it, so to speak, but this is honestly not true. Had he contested it, he probably would have kept his job. Sal would not have backed up the allegations, and Penny’s word against his was going to be obvious sour grapes from someone who was getting busted, themselves, even if Penny didn’t admit she made it up. Her credibility was shot.
The only reason Jason took the rap was because he felt he deserved it, and yeah, he certainly did. His situation is self-inflicted on several levels.
I’d rather see her hire Jason – at least I could trust that she’d watch him and make sure he didn’t have any other opportunities. Wouldn’t trust Robin to do so.
Yeaaaah, like, I know Willis has kind of written himself into a corner here with Jason’s situation, so I can roll with it as a means of keeping him in the cast without deportation hanging over him all the time. And I don’t think Jason would repeat the mistake he made with Sal. But it does feel a little like a distinction without a difference.
My current job is kind of like that… like, say between me and the person I work with, there are 2 solid jobs, with some different but some over lapping responsibilities. I do maybe 1.3 the total amount of job (varies depending on the week), and she does the remaining 0.7 amount, and she gets paid more than me. But, she’s also decent about it, and the stuff I don’t take on is mostly the stuff that I don’t want to do.
(Like, I’m technically not “qualified” to do the job she has, but I could easily become so, but I don’t want to because then I’d have to do that other stuff. I’m basically fine with stuff except wishing I was paid more, but eh.)
Yeah usually the department provides you with a TA, someone they are already paying,so there is alot of things that may hinder Jason’s chances:
Jason is a mathematican, and while Poly Sci does employ alot of math (despite what some may think) it’s mainly stats though algebra and calculas are often used.
Second if she hire him through the university they are going to probably check his background (despite what you think universities do this.) If so they are going to find out that he was previously employed there and then they find out what happened.
Third IUs Poly Sci program is prestigious its one of the top tier programs they have no shortage of in department TAs who can be employed to help Robin.
Fourth it is also the graduate advisor who determines who gets a TA and I am just going to take a guess and assume Robin isn’t popular among most of the proffesors in the department.
Also hiring Jaspn under the table negates the whole purpose. But I am going to take a guess Robin just does this and gets away with it.
Also the TA situation is usually decided at the beginning of the semester. (When we have disgraced politicians teach a class they usually get TAs upfront, sometimes actual adjuncts. But I don’t know how normal that is.)
That said, Robin apparently has reality-bending powers.
This makes me wonder how Robin got her job. Not her professor position, but how a single, likely bisexual, Hispanic woman got elected in a traditionally conservative district as a Repblican in Indiana? Like did the guy she was running against die?
But real talk I think it’s one of those things where Republicans like electing like minded POC because then they can say “What? We’re not racist. Look at representative DeSanto. She’s hispanic.” Also she’s certainly “white-passing” enough that other than her name most people might not even be bothered. I feel like the uniqueness OF her running was what pushed people to vote for her. Hell even Leslie can’t help but GUSH about her when she first showed up just because of what her being elected MEANS (despite her not actually voting for her or wanting her in office).
I understand lying but it’s not like Indiana is running short on marginally successful or motivated middle aged white men who can lie for a cushy, essentially lifetime appointment in congress. What did the district run out of dentists, used car salesmen, and washed out former college athletes, the year she ran?
Was she actually a congresswoman in shortpacked? That seems so random since from what little I know of it’s about a toy store right? I only really read it when a comment links to it for some obscure context that’s relevant to DoA like most recently about Lyle.
Yup its about a toy store and in shortpacked Nancy Peolosi had died Robin ran for her seat congress and won. I think there was a cereal involved but I don’t know if it was only for when she achieved world peace but ruined her relationship with Leslie or both.
Man that comic makes no sense for a DoA only reader. I went over there once and Joyce was fighting a version of Sal that had a robot arm I guess, with no context as to why. I’m guessing it’s related to earlier in the comic but I don’t know how.
Assuming you want to. Or you can just take my word for it when I tell you that it was Joyce’s robot arm that Sal stole, because why would I make something up and lie to you?
“I understand lying but it’s not like Indiana is running short on marginally successful or motivated middle aged white men who can lie for a cushy, essentially lifetime appointment in congress. What did the district run out of dentists, used car salesmen, and washed out former college athletes, the year she ran?”
Our diversity of politicians to lie to us is our strength.
I love their dynamic now that Robin’s not being completely toxic. I think it helps that Robin is still Shortpacked Robin pretty much whereas DoA Leslie is a great straightman. (We already knew she was a great queer woman, even if she herself would say she’s bad at it.)
Oh, this can’t possibly go wrong. HEHEHEHHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAAAHHHAHAAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
It must be difficult for Leslie to go and ask Robin for a favor, but Robin seems willing to do anything for her and this is really sad. I hope Robin rejects the idea of hiring Jason due his past. If she hire him the situation would become more complicated both between Leslie and Robin, and between Jason and Ruth and between them I would be sorry.
It just occurred to me that there is no way a university would hire a professor who didn’t have a college degree which means Robin should certainly know what a TA is at least.
Not only that, but last time I checked to be an actual professor at IU you need to have a doctorate. It’s possible Robin is technically an instructor, meaning she merely has to have a masters, though some departments might make exceptions for legitimate experts in the field. I have no idea if political science does so.
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pay is commensurate to one’s unsuitability to the job
*sad trombone*
The Peter Principle in full effect. 🙁
I dunno, as I understand it, the Peter Principle says that someone keeps getting promoted based on success until they reach just above their level of competence. That does not appear to be the case here.
I think what we have here is a case of “failing upwards“, where a person screws up a job and somehow falls into another cushy job they can also screw up.
(The song in the link ties it to the British class system, but I’m pretty sure it happens in America as well.)
Also called the Dilbert Principle, which is somewhat derived from the Peter Principle. Basically, incompetent people get promoted to positions where they will hopefully do less harm.
When I was younger, I always kinda liked Dilbert, I never could quite get the jokes but it was just… ordinary in a likable way.
Too bad the author turned out to be a right-wing conspiracy theorist. 😑
I almost said as much, but then I remembered this is more the Dunning-Kruger of the Peter Principle
One thing I like about Robin (as a character – would not want to be stuck in an elevator with her) is that she TRIES to be nice, but is so incredibly thoughtless, obnoxious, and self-centered about it that she’s actually far more effective than if she TRIED to be horrible. Like, imagine Robin trying to live up to the “republican politician” thing by acting like Mary. Wouldn’t work. She doesn’t have it in her to act mean. She DOES have it in her to act nice and cause migraines at fifty paces.
She’s the Spongebob to Leslie’s Squidward.
I’ve always had the opinion that Robin is earnest to a fault. Like she has zero self awareness and zero tact and mostly just goes with the flow. She hasn’t thought 2 steps ahead before in her entire life.
Going with the flow was kind of a double edged sword in this case though.
Oh for sure. I don’t think it’s a positive or negative trait in a vacuum. It’s just a trait.
I’d say Robin’s well aware of tact, being in politics. She’s brought up ‘tricks’ like being nice to men in power, not punching up rather than down, etc.
I imagine Robin’s craftier than people think, she wouldn’t have been successful in the first place otherwise. It’s just that she’s a little behind the times with ‘normal’ people.
She also had to be openly counseled by her aide in front of the class about how pandering to be.
That’s it, that is Robin in a nutshell, thank you, it’s perfect.
Somebody better plug that leaky tire.
Hisssss.
Jason working for Robin? I don’t know if that’s privilege or punishment.
A bit of both, I’d say. Privilege in that he’ll be meeting the terms of his work visa again and won’t be worried about deportation anymore. Punishment in that he’s got to deal with all of Robin’s quirks.
I’d call it “privishment,” personally.
That’s so funny, I thought the same thing when he started dating Ruth.
Jason: At least I don’t have to move back in with my supervillain father.
Robin: Hey J-Town, after you’re done alphabetizing my Skittles, can you teach me to talk all schmancy like you? I have an idea for a prank call to an NPR show that I think will go viral.
Jason:…Wonder if dad’s rented out my room in the volcano lair yet.
Judging by Jason’s predilections with Ruth, I think the two might be interchangeable.
[sings] There’s a fine line between privilege and punishment…
There’s a fine, fine line between what you wanted, and what you got.
And you never know ’till you reach the top if it was worth the uphill climb.
Yes it’s a fine, fine line between a job… and a waste of Jason’s time.
I appreciate the genuine concern in Robin’s eyes in that last panel, even as Leslie is staring off into the distance likely imagining violence.
did she think that was a politics only thing? you can underpay people to do most of your job in many professions
Man, I can’t wait till I have enough money to underpay people to help me with comics.
Well, it depends on how much the field normally pays. For a high-value field like industrial engineering, underpaying them still requires you to pay them enough that…
… wait, comics?
… how many pennies do you have on you?
I make comics, so 0.
Pennies?
Nah, you get them to do the grunt work for the exposure.
People die from exposure at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, that’s a crappy way of compensating people. Don’t go Oregon Trail on them. (I’m actually too old to use that meme, technically.)
well, there are ppl that’d prolly enjoy inking and cleaning up for free, tons of ppl who scanlate/retranslate manga don’t make profit off of it, presumably because of copyright but plenty do it as a spare time hobby anyways, but good luck lol.
I used to work as a flatter. It’s when you put down flat colors for a colorist and they paint on top of them. I got paid ten dollars per page. It was not worth it.
That’s pretty much how capitalism works.
Leslie, if you want to be paid more, you should wear a bow tie. Being able to tie it isn’t even required. Just so long as it’s visible.
I’m glad Leslie acknowledges, point blank, that T.A.s are underpaid.
Again, I don’t know where IU stands on the sliding scale of Collegiate Adjunct Treatment, but it is very common for adjuncts to be underpaid themselves. If Leslie’s on the lower end of the scale I can see her saying it out of solidarity. She’s almost certainly way closer in pay to a TA than Robin, who’s not just a professor in her own right but a PRESTIGIOUS one.
Academia: Managing to have MULTIPLE underpaid overworked less-prestigious Stick It Out And Maybe It’ll Be Worth It job classes!
You say MULTIPLE like it’s unusual.
Not as much as adjuncts TAs at IU make 30k adjuncts make maybe 3400 per class where I taught I got 20k salary ontop of my tuition being covered
Also 3400 is the number I am using I have been employed by several universities and that’s the most they have paid me per class lowest was 1500. I was teaching five classes at 3 separate universities and still qualified for SNAP and Medicaid.
Someone really needs to bring attention to this issue and by that a segment on Last Week Tonight.
This isn’t Leslie’s worst idea, but I gotta say – if she didn’t want to hire Jason because it would make her untrustworthy, wouldn’t it ALSO make her untrustworthy to help him find the same job but with another prof?
Part of me is worried that she’s doing it because she HOPES it’ll blow up in Robin’s face. I doubt it but I could see it.
I feel like she wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that, in large part due to how it’d negatively impact Ruth, but also because getting someone deported for the lols is really not like her.
I do think it’s somewhat morally dubious what she’s doing, but I get that she probably has an easier time rationalizing it to herself rather than if it was her taking him on, even if she also just does not have the money to do so.
I do not think she’s trying to intentionally undermine Robin, though. She doesn’t like Robin, but “here, Robin, this guy might fuck one of your students and get you in trouble” would be absolutely reprehensible.
Yeah, that does make it kind of questionable on Leslie’s part. Makes it seem less like her issue is about helping Jason back in to a position of power that he has “unearned” and more about how that would reflect back on her. Which actually makes her seem pretty politically minded, and maybe she has more in common with Robin than she’d like to admit.
But I also think it’s possible she just hasn’t thought this all the way through yet. A student came to her for help, and she wants to help. There’s just more to the situation that makes it challenging.
It’s sometimes extremely useful to have someone on tap willing to be less ethical than you.
A TA teaching a section is a different thing than a TA being a grader and dogsbody and never directly interacting with the students.
IIRC, Jason wasn’t teaching sections of Math – he was grading quizzes, helping to hand them back and supposedly helping students who needed some extra tutoring.
I feel the concern with giving Jason a TA job back was placing the students in a position where they would be taught by an individual with an history of unscrupulous abuse of power. However, in the case of Robin’s students that is already the case, so handing office hours over to Jason is basically an improvement.
This. I was looking for a comment like this
Ditto
There’s a part of me that wonders if this isn’t a way of sabotaging Robin, too.
I feel like it’s one of those situations where life isn’t fair so you gotta do what you can to help because some outcomes are worse than others. Does Jason deserve his job back in a position of power? No. But arguably neither does Robin who is apparently also getting paid more despite being way less qualified or deserving than Leslie. Speaking of deserving, Jason doesn’t deserve to be deported for banging a student and compromising his professional ethics. It’s just a cruel fact his visa won’t let him seek other employment opportunities. So when you add all this up it won’t be a clean solution but maybe it will work out in a way that doesn’t cause unequal consequences. Plus it’s a bonus if it doesn’t blowback on Leslie.
Think of the nice white boy. His future will be ruined.
If he’s grading, then yes. Everyone comes to Robin’s classroom for sin, but they’re always mad at her that they find it.
The issue here is the administrative hurdles Robin would have to jump through would make it unlikely but this a comic so Jason is going to be her TA happen with no explanation on how Robin fanagled her way through department protocol which long story short she needs to get approval from the department head and graduate advisor to bypass employing other in department TAs.
Or she just hires him without any of that and things go smoothly or drama down the line beacuse Robin is Robin and half asses it.
I think Ruth’s comment about mistakes tainting a person forever made Leslie feel bad about using Jason’s last-semester actions against him… Even though she was totally RIGHT to do so and the problematic bevahior was literally only a few months ago and he has done zero to atone or fix things or better himself.
I wouldnt say he has taken zero steps his resignation of his TA position rather then fight the charges shows that he knows he did wrong he did apologize to Sal. It doesnt right his wrong but he has taken steps towards atonement and fixing the issue.
I do not think he’s made up for it, so to speak, but this is honestly not true. Had he contested it, he probably would have kept his job. Sal would not have backed up the allegations, and Penny’s word against his was going to be obvious sour grapes from someone who was getting busted, themselves, even if Penny didn’t admit she made it up. Her credibility was shot.
The only reason Jason took the rap was because he felt he deserved it, and yeah, he certainly did. His situation is self-inflicted on several levels.
I’d rather see her hire Jason – at least I could trust that she’d watch him and make sure he didn’t have any other opportunities. Wouldn’t trust Robin to do so.
Yeaaaah, like, I know Willis has kind of written himself into a corner here with Jason’s situation, so I can roll with it as a means of keeping him in the cast without deportation hanging over him all the time. And I don’t think Jason would repeat the mistake he made with Sal. But it does feel a little like a distinction without a difference.
Maybe Robin doesn’t have the qualifications yet? Looks like her class is big enough for a TA.
*checks alt-text* *counts the S’s* *types* *finagles* *types again*
That’s Hisssssssssssssslie Bean to you!
Panel 2 Robin still so much in some kind of love, holy crow
I love people in love. I can say I love love. And I love people in love. And I love people who love love who’re in love. And I love loving love.
If the AIs take over cartooning, you have a second career as a song writer.
She’s adorbs!
My current job is kind of like that… like, say between me and the person I work with, there are 2 solid jobs, with some different but some over lapping responsibilities. I do maybe 1.3 the total amount of job (varies depending on the week), and she does the remaining 0.7 amount, and she gets paid more than me. But, she’s also decent about it, and the stuff I don’t take on is mostly the stuff that I don’t want to do.
(Like, I’m technically not “qualified” to do the job she has, but I could easily become so, but I don’t want to because then I’d have to do that other stuff. I’m basically fine with stuff except wishing I was paid more, but eh.)
“Anythin’ fer ya always.”
Dammit Robin, you really can’t hide it.
I love these two-gether <3
I do too… just not in this continuity.
Same, I definitely prefer them in the other universe.
Yeah usually the department provides you with a TA, someone they are already paying,so there is alot of things that may hinder Jason’s chances:
Jason is a mathematican, and while Poly Sci does employ alot of math (despite what some may think) it’s mainly stats though algebra and calculas are often used.
Second if she hire him through the university they are going to probably check his background (despite what you think universities do this.) If so they are going to find out that he was previously employed there and then they find out what happened.
Third IUs Poly Sci program is prestigious its one of the top tier programs they have no shortage of in department TAs who can be employed to help Robin.
Fourth it is also the graduate advisor who determines who gets a TA and I am just going to take a guess and assume Robin isn’t popular among most of the proffesors in the department.
Also hiring Jaspn under the table negates the whole purpose. But I am going to take a guess Robin just does this and gets away with it.
I truly wish I could edit my posts, beacuse I use a phone to wrote this and by the time I realize the errors the message is already posted.
Your errors and typos only jump out in that 4 seconds between pressing “Post Comment” and the page refreshing. Ask me how I know!
Seconded.
Also the TA situation is usually decided at the beginning of the semester. (When we have disgraced politicians teach a class they usually get TAs upfront, sometimes actual adjuncts. But I don’t know how normal that is.)
That said, Robin apparently has reality-bending powers.
I’m still not convinced this isn’t Walkyverse!Robin, in the middle of her Cadbury Creme Egg Cereal blackout.
This makes me wonder how Robin got her job. Not her professor position, but how a single, likely bisexual, Hispanic woman got elected in a traditionally conservative district as a Repblican in Indiana? Like did the guy she was running against die?
Gumption.
But real talk I think it’s one of those things where Republicans like electing like minded POC because then they can say “What? We’re not racist. Look at representative DeSanto. She’s hispanic.” Also she’s certainly “white-passing” enough that other than her name most people might not even be bothered. I feel like the uniqueness OF her running was what pushed people to vote for her. Hell even Leslie can’t help but GUSH about her when she first showed up just because of what her being elected MEANS (despite her not actually voting for her or wanting her in office).
She lied… alot and no one called her on it.
Like every politican who gets elected and those who do not get elected.
I understand lying but it’s not like Indiana is running short on marginally successful or motivated middle aged white men who can lie for a cushy, essentially lifetime appointment in congress. What did the district run out of dentists, used car salesmen, and washed out former college athletes, the year she ran?
I mean if this was real life then yes but in shortpack Robin ran for congress and won. So her congressional status is probably a nod to shortpacked.
Was she actually a congresswoman in shortpacked? That seems so random since from what little I know of it’s about a toy store right? I only really read it when a comment links to it for some obscure context that’s relevant to DoA like most recently about Lyle.
Yup its about a toy store and in shortpacked Nancy Peolosi had died Robin ran for her seat congress and won. I think there was a cereal involved but I don’t know if it was only for when she achieved world peace but ruined her relationship with Leslie or both.
Man that comic makes no sense for a DoA only reader. I went over there once and Joyce was fighting a version of Sal that had a robot arm I guess, with no context as to why. I’m guessing it’s related to earlier in the comic but I don’t know how.
Robin had super-speed powers fueled by sugar. I believe she ran for Congress in Cadbury-Creme Egg Cereal induced haze.
You can begin at the beginning and binge.
Assuming you want to. Or you can just take my word for it when I tell you that it was Joyce’s robot arm that Sal stole, because why would I make something up and lie to you?
“I understand lying but it’s not like Indiana is running short on marginally successful or motivated middle aged white men who can lie for a cushy, essentially lifetime appointment in congress. What did the district run out of dentists, used car salesmen, and washed out former college athletes, the year she ran?”
Our diversity of politicians to lie to us is our strength.
While not fitting the “traditionally conservative district” part, I can’t help but think about the real life example of George Santos.
Also, she wasn’t out as queer when she was elected, and that bit of news did hurt her political prospects when it first came out.
American politics is a hell of a mess apparently
Apparently.
Do you come from somewhere it isn’t a hell of a mess?
And if it’s not a mess, can I live there? This place is a hellhole.
Maybe the Good Ol’ Boy accent helped.
She’s conventionally attractive and said the awful things they wanted to hear.
Most likely shenanigans.
Or just the universe bending in her favor – like how she got the university job.
I legitimately cannot tell what is going on with Robin’s smile in panel 2. Did she materialize (and then spit out) a toothpick to have sticking out?
I think it’s part of her facial expression: a closed-mouth smile.
That used to be Becky’s job, but now they’ve both got new ones.
I love their dynamic now that Robin’s not being completely toxic. I think it helps that Robin is still Shortpacked Robin pretty much whereas DoA Leslie is a great straightman. (We already knew she was a great queer woman, even if she herself would say she’s bad at it.)
Can’t wait for them to finally get together in 10 years.
So, end of term in-comic?
Oh, this can’t possibly go wrong. HEHEHEHHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAAAHHHAHAAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
no, not at all.
*cough* *cough* nepotism *cough*
The dean actively dislikes Robin, so it has to be something…
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/junior/
Combination of the actual famous poly-sci professor leaving and the former Congresswoman showing up looking for a job at basically the same moment.
…oh dear.
OH DEAR.
I can see this leading to mass firings and general mayhem.
I like that Leslie skated right past the “Anythin’ fer ya always.”
Also I made some watercolored drawings of Joyce and Becky!
https://twitter.com/namioshiro/status/1609898132476727296
These are cute Wendy! Love how you did the hatching on their hair.
Thanks!
D’aww…
Amazing! 😍
It must be difficult for Leslie to go and ask Robin for a favor, but Robin seems willing to do anything for her and this is really sad. I hope Robin rejects the idea of hiring Jason due his past. If she hire him the situation would become more complicated both between Leslie and Robin, and between Jason and Ruth and between them I would be sorry.
That’s an interesting solution to the ethics question.
Leslie’s face breaking in the last panel is wonderful.
Not her mental state, I mean, just the comedy of it.
It just occurred to me that there is no way a university would hire a professor who didn’t have a college degree which means Robin should certainly know what a TA is at least.
Not only that, but last time I checked to be an actual professor at IU you need to have a doctorate. It’s possible Robin is technically an instructor, meaning she merely has to have a masters, though some departments might make exceptions for legitimate experts in the field. I have no idea if political science does so.
I know what emotion Leslie was supposed to convey but she looks super drunk on the last panel