2013-10-29 Your bedroom floor

[themacnut]

(I have to admit, though, this is the sort of strip that reminds me why I have quite such a large soft spot for Scary-Go-Round - a comic where even teenage geeks can take this sort of hint when it's staring them in the face.)

The HUGE difference between the Scary-Go-Round comic and this installment of SOTR is that in SGR the girl at least took the initiative to kiss the boy and get things started. Marie just...lay there. Teenage boys, the geeky ones anyway, generally need more clue than that (see Rocky's post for another excellent example of Guys Don't Get Female Hints. Epic levels of cluelessness? Maybe, but the girl could also have just asked Rocky to the dance and been done with it.

[That Guy]

Forget money, we need to set up charities and donate clues.

[Dorgengoa]

As long as this doesn't turn into an "Everybody Loves Raymond"-style gender scenario, I don't see much of an issue. Y'know, the whole "Men are dumb, but well-meaning, while the women are shrewish and unreasonable" thing.

[Azrael]

*smacks Alex with a Cluex12* I'd use my Bowie facepalm, but I seem to have lost it.

You mean ?

This one:

[Hurbster]

Dude is clueless and girl goes tsundere mode and doesn't explain what she means and her feelings for him. What else is new?

Bit of a recurring theme here I think.

[Spidrift]

(I have to admit, though, this is the sort of strip that reminds me why I have quite such a large soft spot for Scary-Go-Round - a comic where even teenage geeks can take this sort of hint when it's staring them in the face.)

The HUGE difference between the Scary-Go-Round comic and this installment of SOTR is that in SGR the girl at least took the initiative to kiss the boy and get things started.

Well, yes. That's the other thing about SGR; teenage girls with enough sense to compensate for occasionally clueless males, and to be good-humoured about it, even as the needle on the teen male's IQ meter slams into the left-hand stop.

(Nice line in the latest Bad Machinery on the subject, actually. "None of the boys who might help can make a sentence any more. They caught PUBERTY. I have to fold my arms a lot.")

(Aaaargh. I now have visions of Sandra's fan club coming to resemble Shelley Winters's. There was "fan fiction".)

As long as this doesn't turn into an "Everybody Loves Raymond"-style gender scenario, I don't see much of an issue. Y'know, the whole "Men are dumb, but well-meaning, while the women are shrewish and unreasonable" thing.

You mean, standard old-school sitcom, conventional teen comedy, and default teen comedy manga?

[Pking]

I cant really fault the guy. In order to pick up on the cues he'd have to be paying attention to them in the first place. While alot of guys would be receptive to their female friends being in a relationship with them you have to change the way you view them slightly. There's looking at her as a friend and there's looking at her as a woman who is also a friend.

[Quinlan1973]

Yep, thought that would end something along those lines.

[KiTA]

It's called the Westermarck effect. If you grow up with someone of the opposite gender identity, you tend to instinctively reject them as a sexual being.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westermarck_effect

[enigmaxtreme]

When will the day come when a woman makes the first move? Speaking as a guy, we are idiots, you basically have to take your shirt off before we get the hint....

[Spidrift]

To be fair to ourselves, it's partly idiocy, but partly politeness-or-caution. Misinterpreting a woman's actions as an invitation when they aren't can make for embarrassing impoliteness at best, serious criminal charges at worst.

(Which isn't explicitly crossing Alex's mind here, but may plausibly be his habit of mind.)

[philippos42]

So much for Gallic suavity!

[Spidrift]

They're speaking English.

[JTheCreator]

When will the day come when a woman makes the first move? Speaking as a guy, we are idiots, you basically have to take your shirt off before we get the hint....

Basically this and what the next guy said. We hate being in awkward and embarassing situations, especially when we cause them. Plus, you ladies have the horrible habit of not just friend zoning a guy, but avoiding him like the plague if he shows unrequited interest. So these days, we try not to look too much into your "hints" unless they come with a side order of boobs.

[Raamyah]

A side order of boobs goes well with just about anything.

I'm betting, since they've been together as kids, Alex made a pass at Marie at some point in the past, but Marie didn't notice or friendzoned him immediately. Granted, this happened when they were much younger, so it's been programmed into his brain that Marie is just his friend. Either that, or this is the latest in a long string of incidents where Marie has tried to get Alex's attention. Why do you think they wrestled so much as kids? Alex, pay attention!