Jean AKA Jeannie AKA Jeanie is a film, book, and magazine reviewer for a national magazine. Most of Jean’s work is done through email, which means he doesn't have to go into the office.
On a trip to find a gift for his girlfriend, Jean found an empty Genie Bottle. Upon picking up this bottle, Jean became the bottle’s new genie-powered occupant. Not only was Jean turned into a genie, but the bottle turned him into what he believed a genie of the bottle should look like. Which, due to his fascination with a classic 60s TV show, turned him into a busty blonde woman.
A junior engineer working for a small engineering firm in Cocoa Beach. The firm focuses mostly on NASA projects.
Neil is Jean’s best friend. When Jean was turned into a genie, Neil became Jeanie’s master.
Not unless she vacated the doorway Neil was looking towards between the time he said it and the time Jeanie looked. I’m pretty sure it’s your standard “Look! A distraction!” tactic.
Strictly speaking, “you mean the actual Belle”, or “you mean it’s actually Belle” would be more grammatically accurate. But I can totally see someone omitting “it’s” out of confusion/shock/lack of sleep. That’s why I decided not to change that line.
slightly more seriously, it seems to be what Robert is saying. I can see a sleep-deprived person forgetting words (or at least forgetting to SAY a word or two).
I agree with Robert. It would be slightly better if it were “you actually mean Belle,” but either “actually” or “actual” make sense in the form used. Besides, Jeannie is sleep deprived and speaking in vernacular.
Ah jeez, save me from OCD grammarians. Look, grammar doesn’t matter that much in regards to a character unless it deviates greatly from an established speech pattern or is really egregious. In fact bad grammar can often be an identifying trait. I’ve had fights over editors correcting text. However, a narrator’s diction should almost always be perfect, but even then there are exceptions.
In fiction they nearly always do, because you don’t want the reader/viewer to misunderstand what’s going on. And improper grammar can easily lead to misunderstandings. Surprise is usually conveyed by stuttering or blabbering, to make it obvious the character is surprised.
In this case, it’s not egregious enough to warrant a correction. There’s no other way to interpret the statement, though it did take me a second to figure out what she meant to say. This kind of stuff makes people working on natural language parsing AI pull their hair out though. 🙂
I missed that, too, and it’s such a good trick I might steal it.
Too bad the strip isn’t animated. Instead of just a ghost image, we could have a silhouette of Neil in smoke that drifts away–along with appropriate music and maybe a “Meep-meep”…
BTW, I read Mel Blanc’s autobiography a couple of days ago, and he said that he only recorded the “meep-meep” once, and it was used for the rest of the Road Runner cartoons.
Unfortunately he is faced with a magic being that can teleport across the country in a split second. The only thing limiting Jeanie is her mind, such as it is. Neal’s only options are, do the deed, or misdirection. That might not work as well a second time.
Neil is definitely doing a treating action here, but it only a temporary victory considering who Jeanie is. He may be able to out finance Jeanie a few more times, because, Jeanie’s not that bright. But, in the end, he going to have to either use the Master to servant/Genie command to stop Jeanie’s drive at him or yield to Jeanie’s demands on himself.
I don’t see Jeanie giving up the persuite of Neil that easily.
@Larry: [Neil’s] going to have to either use the Master to servant/Genie command to stop Jeanie’s drive at him or yield to Jeanie’s demands.[/quote]
Most likely, yes. There’s a slim chance that blocking her, even for a moment, will be enough for her to realize what she’s doing–but as you say, Jeanie’s not that smart.
The Body language was excellent in this strip with Jeanie crawling up to Neil, and in the end with her looking peeved at being rejected.
She really is out of her mind right now, and the girl inside her is in the drivers seat.
Question is when she gets some sleep and her male self is back in control will she be embarrassed or will she just blame Neil.
Bonus question is will she ask Bell for help to get Neils attention?
Weirdly (considering our normal positions on things) I agree with 50srefuge on this one. Going by Jeanies body language (good job on that, very feminine) there’s a good chance she won’t be proofing Neil back for another attempt at sex if only because her feelings are hurt. However even if she doesn’t after some sleep neither of them will as you said forget her on all fours begging for sex.
It’s going to be interesting to see the fallout from this. Even with Neil ducking out, it’s not going to be easy for either of them to forget Jeanie down on all fours begging for sex. That’s got a have a lingering effect on how Neil sees Jeanie and how Jeanie sees herself.
Yes, Jean(ie) can poof Neil back–after all, she poofed “McGuyver” from halfway across the country to help get Natalie out of custody. But will she remember?
I remember a cartoon where Bugs Bunny asks the audience:
I Wonder if Daffy will remember he can fly? (THUD!) I guess not.
Jean(ie) will not remember she can poof Neil back if not poofing it back would be funnier.
I think Neil has escaped–into something even worse.
for Ephemera: Well, at least there aren’t flames coming out of her body and in her eyes.
for 50srefugee: If Jean(ie) decides she wants to earn Neil’s attention, maybe she’ll show up at his job…and there she might find Kendra (who’s probably really Caley) aiming her short-tight-skirted-hips at Neil…and maybe we’ll have a new pole dancer at The Hiram…and when Araceli finds out Jean(ie) has been mean to Caley (your evil thoughts here)
Minor segue but I do love the disney cartoon where Daffy say’s he can’t swim and Porky asks him if he’s really a duck at all to which his response is “I don’t know, this comes off really easily” and pulls his bill off.
In the Tv show Jeannie would just keep poofing major nelson back or lock in a jail cell in his living room until she got what she wanted or he put his foot down. She also would poof him into his sleep wear when he dressed up for a date with “old friend”.
Which probably wouldn’t had happened if Jean haven’t hid the truth from Belle in the first place. Yes, it would’ve had meant some changes in their relationship (both being “plug sockets” now), but Belle’s lack of commitment since Jean’s djinnication to Jean stems from Jean’s lying and “her” failure to secure Belle that “she” was still serious about being together. Most girls/ladies don’t seem to want to wait around a long time for their boyfriends to decide when they want to start acting like mature men again. They’ll just move on to someone better hopefully.
Wait a minute… what’s going on here is that Neil pretended to be talking to the real Belle. Jean(ie) turns around to face Belle, who isn’t really there, and that’s when Neil takes his leave.
Most of you must have figured this out already, but I’m old and haven’t had nearly enough sleep lately.
In military terms, this is known as a faint. You act like your going to attack one place and then you deviate away from what they think your going to attack and attack someplace else. Basically, Neil side tracked Jeanie’s attention someplace else and then cut and run on her.
Sherman used what was known as faint several times while he was marching through Georgia during the American civil war. Sherman what act like he was going to attack someplace and South would collect there army there to defend that city and then drop back and attack another city. In military terms, that known as a faint.
If it makes you feel better, it took me about thirty seconds to really figure out the last panel. My initial thought was that Neil had disappeared because he was just an illusion created by Aracelli as a test, which was what Jean said was sneaky.
Seconds later, I realized that made no sense at all. First of all, Jeanie had poofed Neil there, so it was clearly real Neil. He also actually acted like Neil, which I can’t imagine a fake Neil animated by Aracelli would. Then I re-read it and it clicked.
I don’t think the strip is actually confusing. It helped that I woke up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, and blearily read the new strip.
Except when Neil needs something like a prom date–quite possibly the only date he’s ever had. With any more experience with dating, how could he have completely missed that Kendra was coming on to him?
My last comment was meant to be a reply to 50srefugee.
———–
Although I think the chances are slim it will turn out that way, aside from getting arrested and having unwanted attentions from Rodge, Neil seems to be better as Natalie–and probably more effective as an engineer because with Natalie’s killer looks, he can much more easily sell his ideas to other engineers–probably female engineers, too. (Even Dilbert has one female engineer.)
“Neil seems to be better as Natalie–and probably more effective as an engineer because with Natalie’s killer looks, he can much more easily sell his ideas to other engineers”
So what happens when Natalie gets older and her “Killer Looks” fade? What if Natalie were as much a schlump as Neil is? Are you saying that Neil’s ideas cannot stand on their own? Will Natalie’s hotness improve the reliability of the space probes she designs?
Being a hot female does not make you a better person than being a competent, or even an inspired, engineer. Two different fields of endeavor.
And I very strongly object to the all too prevalent idea that women are, as a class, better than men. Men and women have different strengths and weaknesses. Both are crucial to keeping a society going, to say nothing of biologically keeping the species going.
I don’t want to go off on a political tangent here, but I want to see Neil become a better man, not another woman relying on her “feminine wiles”.
I work in a male dominated industry and I have to say the whole cute girl gets things easier is a stereotype that can actually hurt more than it helps. Even if your not doing anything different a lot of the guys at the same level are going to compalin that you are. A girl I work with injured her wrist in a car accident recently and there were “jokes” about what she’d been doing to injure it. Admitedly they also had a go at the manager but well the point is. Being a girl in a guy dominated industry is actually made harder by that stereotype in a lot of ways. You achieve something and there are comments about “how” you achieved it, you don’t and there are comments that you’ve got no business being there and if you weren’t a girl you’d be pinned to the wall over it.
Senko, you are absolutely right. “Cute girls have it easier” only works outside of traditional male roles.
For better or for worse, males are wired up to regard cute females as, well, females, potential mates. A girl playing off that tendency cannot be expected to be taken seriously, and a girl who doesn’t will be treated that way anyway unless she is very good. Or not cute.
Jeanie seemed awfully nonchalant about possibly being discovered by Belle, must be the lack of sleep again. I wonder what will happen if Jeanie keeps on staying awake.
Physically, you can only stay awake about three or four days, then you will mentally and physically collapse and probably fall asleep anyway. But, before that happens, you start to slur your words and become mentally disjointed and incoherent in your speak and start babbling a bunch of nonsense.
Classic and clver
HAHAHAHA XD
Well done Neil xD
Now Poof him back Jeanie xD
Fast enough for the dust to settle back onto Neil?
Run Neil, RUN!
Are his feet making the cartoon-running bongo sound?
Oh my gosh! Did I actually call this one?
I certainly came close:
“how is Belle going to feel when she comes back…and finds Neil having sex with herself?”
We’ll see if Belle was really there, or if that was just Neil distracting Jeanie to make his escape.
Not unless she vacated the doorway Neil was looking towards between the time he said it and the time Jeanie looked. I’m pretty sure it’s your standard “Look! A distraction!” tactic.
Quick thinking for Neil if Belle wasn’t really there. (The more I look at the comic, the more I think she wasn’t.)
Cue Benny Hill Theme!
OK; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg
Shouldn’t it be actual instead of actually?
“Wait… you mean the actual Belle?”
Strictly speaking, “you mean the actual Belle”, or “you mean it’s actually Belle” would be more grammatically accurate. But I can totally see someone omitting “it’s” out of confusion/shock/lack of sleep. That’s why I decided not to change that line.
Yep, joining in to say that dialogue works perfectly as it is.
Ah , so for the fact the character pulled an all-nighter like that grammatical rules are toss out the window?
Or am I misreading this?
@Mulgarath: tossed* ;P
slightly more seriously, it seems to be what Robert is saying. I can see a sleep-deprived person forgetting words (or at least forgetting to SAY a word or two).
I agree with Robert. It would be slightly better if it were “you actually mean Belle,” but either “actually” or “actual” make sense in the form used. Besides, Jeannie is sleep deprived and speaking in vernacular.
Ah jeez, save me from OCD grammarians. Look, grammar doesn’t matter that much in regards to a character unless it deviates greatly from an established speech pattern or is really egregious. In fact bad grammar can often be an identifying trait. I’ve had fights over editors correcting text. However, a narrator’s diction should almost always be perfect, but even then there are exceptions.
Would you mind explaining further?
People do not always speak grammatically correctly all the time, and even less so when surprised.
In fiction they nearly always do, because you don’t want the reader/viewer to misunderstand what’s going on. And improper grammar can easily lead to misunderstandings. Surprise is usually conveyed by stuttering or blabbering, to make it obvious the character is surprised.
In this case, it’s not egregious enough to warrant a correction. There’s no other way to interpret the statement, though it did take me a second to figure out what she meant to say. This kind of stuff makes people working on natural language parsing AI pull their hair out though. 🙂
And that is why much of fiction dialogue seems unnatural.
I do like that she kept her Jeannie hat.
Personally, I think it is an ugly hat and I wish she’d get rid of it like she got rid of the veil.
Neil should have done the Beep Beep raspberry burn up escape.
I meant “burn out” like the Road runner.
OMG Neal left so fast he left an after image, very good CD!
I missed that! Very good indeed!
I missed that, too, and it’s such a good trick I might steal it.
Too bad the strip isn’t animated. Instead of just a ghost image, we could have a silhouette of Neil in smoke that drifts away–along with appropriate music and maybe a “Meep-meep”…
BTW, I read Mel Blanc’s autobiography a couple of days ago, and he said that he only recorded the “meep-meep” once, and it was used for the rest of the Road Runner cartoons.
He also said that he recorded “beep-beep,” not “meep-meep.”
I know it was spelled “beep-beep” in the comic books in the ’60s. In fact, the series title was “Beep-Beep the Roadrunner,” IIRC.
Whether that is canon for the film cartoons, I don’t know.
I remember the 60’s comic. It wasn’t much like the cartoons. All the characters talked, and the Road Runner had a wife and kids.
“Look over there!”
Mean while back at the ranch….
Quick thinking, Neil. Now…how long can he keep running?
Unfortunately he is faced with a magic being that can teleport across the country in a split second. The only thing limiting Jeanie is her mind, such as it is. Neal’s only options are, do the deed, or misdirection. That might not work as well a second time.
Or, now that he’s interrupted Jeanie’s “thought” process, he may be able to persuade her no means no.
I didn’t think reason was a viable option after ducking out.
Not like Neil’s out of Jeanie’s life forever. All he did here was interrupt her momentum. Like a slap in the face, only without the repercussions.
(BTW, I agree with you on the body language. Jeanie’s pose in the last panel is classically feminine–crossed arms, closed knees.)
Neil is definitely doing a treating action here, but it only a temporary victory considering who Jeanie is. He may be able to out finance Jeanie a few more times, because, Jeanie’s not that bright. But, in the end, he going to have to either use the Master to servant/Genie command to stop Jeanie’s drive at him or yield to Jeanie’s demands on himself.
I don’t see Jeanie giving up the persuite of Neil that easily.
@Larry: [Neil’s] going to have to either use the Master to servant/Genie command to stop Jeanie’s drive at him or yield to Jeanie’s demands.[/quote]
Most likely, yes. There’s a slim chance that blocking her, even for a moment, will be enough for her to realize what she’s doing–but as you say, Jeanie’s not that smart.
The Body language was excellent in this strip with Jeanie crawling up to Neil, and in the end with her looking peeved at being rejected.
She really is out of her mind right now, and the girl inside her is in the drivers seat.
Question is when she gets some sleep and her male self is back in control will she be embarrassed or will she just blame Neil.
Bonus question is will she ask Bell for help to get Neils attention?
Weirdly (considering our normal positions on things) I agree with 50srefuge on this one. Going by Jeanies body language (good job on that, very feminine) there’s a good chance she won’t be proofing Neil back for another attempt at sex if only because her feelings are hurt. However even if she doesn’t after some sleep neither of them will as you said forget her on all fours begging for sex.
CD you got the female body language spot on the last few panels.
Or to put it another way, Jeanie has really mastered female body language.
It’s going to be interesting to see the fallout from this. Even with Neil ducking out, it’s not going to be easy for either of them to forget Jeanie down on all fours begging for sex. That’s got a have a lingering effect on how Neil sees Jeanie and how Jeanie sees herself.
Yup, well spotted. Jeanie’s presented herself as a sexual being, and there’s no going back from that.
Yes, Jean(ie) can poof Neil back–after all, she poofed “McGuyver” from halfway across the country to help get Natalie out of custody. But will she remember?
I remember a cartoon where Bugs Bunny asks the audience:
I Wonder if Daffy will remember he can fly? (THUD!) I guess not.
Jean(ie) will not remember she can poof Neil back if not poofing it back would be funnier.
I think Neil has escaped–into something even worse.
Of course, in the last frame,Jeanie looks like her feelings are hurt. She might not want to poof him back.
And wouldn’t that be something? Jeanie, discovering that she has to earn Neil’s attention?
The cartoon is The Million Hare (1956).
for Ephemera: Well, at least there aren’t flames coming out of her body and in her eyes.
for 50srefugee: If Jean(ie) decides she wants to earn Neil’s attention, maybe she’ll show up at his job…and there she might find Kendra (who’s probably really Caley) aiming her short-tight-skirted-hips at Neil…and maybe we’ll have a new pole dancer at The Hiram…and when Araceli finds out Jean(ie) has been mean to Caley (your evil thoughts here)
CORRECTION: The Million Hare is from 1963. The THUD! is (of course) Daffy falling off a cliff.
That would fit the green-eyed theme.
Minor segue but I do love the disney cartoon where Daffy say’s he can’t swim and Porky asks him if he’s really a duck at all to which his response is “I don’t know, this comes off really easily” and pulls his bill off.
In the Tv show Jeannie would just keep poofing major nelson back or lock in a jail cell in his living room until she got what she wanted or he put his foot down. She also would poof him into his sleep wear when he dressed up for a date with “old friend”.
Jean: That’s sneaky. (from Neil running off)
Said the lying, gender-turned genie who attempted to cheat on “her” girlfriend, in her image no less.
*snort*
You talk like the rules apply to sociopaths.
Well, to be fair, “her” girlfriend has apparently been running around quite a bit.
Which probably wouldn’t had happened if Jean haven’t hid the truth from Belle in the first place. Yes, it would’ve had meant some changes in their relationship (both being “plug sockets” now), but Belle’s lack of commitment since Jean’s djinnication to Jean stems from Jean’s lying and “her” failure to secure Belle that “she” was still serious about being together. Most girls/ladies don’t seem to want to wait around a long time for their boyfriends to decide when they want to start acting like mature men again. They’ll just move on to someone better hopefully.
Wait a minute… what’s going on here is that Neil pretended to be talking to the real Belle. Jean(ie) turns around to face Belle, who isn’t really there, and that’s when Neil takes his leave.
Most of you must have figured this out already, but I’m old and haven’t had nearly enough sleep lately.
In military terms, this is known as a faint. You act like your going to attack one place and then you deviate away from what they think your going to attack and attack someplace else. Basically, Neil side tracked Jeanie’s attention someplace else and then cut and run on her.
Faint? If you faint in the military, you get laughed at and maybe go to sickbay. A feint, on the other hand….
*criticizing spelling: time to double- / triple-check for Muphry’s Law*
Sherman used what was known as faint several times while he was marching through Georgia during the American civil war. Sherman what act like he was going to attack someplace and South would collect there army there to defend that city and then drop back and attack another city. In military terms, that known as a faint.
Sherman fainted (passed out) because he had faint (weak) hope that his feint (misdirection) would succeed.
If it makes you feel better, it took me about thirty seconds to really figure out the last panel. My initial thought was that Neil had disappeared because he was just an illusion created by Aracelli as a test, which was what Jean said was sneaky.
Seconds later, I realized that made no sense at all. First of all, Jeanie had poofed Neil there, so it was clearly real Neil. He also actually acted like Neil, which I can’t imagine a fake Neil animated by Aracelli would. Then I re-read it and it clicked.
I don’t think the strip is actually confusing. It helped that I woke up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, and blearily read the new strip.
Seems like a lot of us read this comic on little sleep.
You know if they would just release this strip at a civilized hour we might be able to make our comments fully rested, or at least fully caffeinated.
Who knew Neil could be devious? XD
I seem to remember an incedent involveing jumping jacks not too long ago.
and he got away with it!! ( or maybe she let him)
Sometimes I think Neil is only just now realizing what a ditz his genie is, and that he can use that get what he wants.
Jean was probably a ditz too, but then he was a guy, and Neil didn’t want anything from him.
Except when Neil needs something like a prom date–quite possibly the only date he’s ever had. With any more experience with dating, how could he have completely missed that Kendra was coming on to him?
My last comment was meant to be a reply to 50srefugee.
———–
Although I think the chances are slim it will turn out that way, aside from getting arrested and having unwanted attentions from Rodge, Neil seems to be better as Natalie–and probably more effective as an engineer because with Natalie’s killer looks, he can much more easily sell his ideas to other engineers–probably female engineers, too. (Even Dilbert has one female engineer.)
“Neil seems to be better as Natalie–and probably more effective as an engineer because with Natalie’s killer looks, he can much more easily sell his ideas to other engineers”
So what happens when Natalie gets older and her “Killer Looks” fade? What if Natalie were as much a schlump as Neil is? Are you saying that Neil’s ideas cannot stand on their own? Will Natalie’s hotness improve the reliability of the space probes she designs?
Being a hot female does not make you a better person than being a competent, or even an inspired, engineer. Two different fields of endeavor.
And I very strongly object to the all too prevalent idea that women are, as a class, better than men. Men and women have different strengths and weaknesses. Both are crucial to keeping a society going, to say nothing of biologically keeping the species going.
I don’t want to go off on a political tangent here, but I want to see Neil become a better man, not another woman relying on her “feminine wiles”.
Here Here!!
I agree.
I work in a male dominated industry and I have to say the whole cute girl gets things easier is a stereotype that can actually hurt more than it helps. Even if your not doing anything different a lot of the guys at the same level are going to compalin that you are. A girl I work with injured her wrist in a car accident recently and there were “jokes” about what she’d been doing to injure it. Admitedly they also had a go at the manager but well the point is. Being a girl in a guy dominated industry is actually made harder by that stereotype in a lot of ways. You achieve something and there are comments about “how” you achieved it, you don’t and there are comments that you’ve got no business being there and if you weren’t a girl you’d be pinned to the wall over it.
Senko, you are absolutely right. “Cute girls have it easier” only works outside of traditional male roles.
For better or for worse, males are wired up to regard cute females as, well, females, potential mates. A girl playing off that tendency cannot be expected to be taken seriously, and a girl who doesn’t will be treated that way anyway unless she is very good. Or not cute.
Jeanie seemed awfully nonchalant about possibly being discovered by Belle, must be the lack of sleep again. I wonder what will happen if Jeanie keeps on staying awake.
Physically, you can only stay awake about three or four days, then you will mentally and physically collapse and probably fall asleep anyway. But, before that happens, you start to slur your words and become mentally disjointed and incoherent in your speak and start babbling a bunch of nonsense.
You can go a bit mental to. Psychotic i believe.
Maybe if neil puts a brown wig on Rodge Jeanie will think he’s Neil in her sleep deprived state.
I wonder when Neil will figure out the only way to stop Jeanie is to get her into her bottle…and what sort of reaction will that cause? Hmmm…