Waking Up Dead

So, this comic addresses something I’ve noticed over the years—especially when dealing with professors in college: people are unusually easy to lie to. For most of my life, I’ve tried not to lie to people. I’ve been very good at that, and will most likely tell the truth than try to lie my way out of something.

However, I’ve noticed that, when jokingly answering “Sure!” in place of a yes or no, with a sarcastic tone, the person I am speaking to accepts it as a “yes.” Allow me to present a hypothetical scene to further explain this phenomenon:

STUDENT is sneaking into a classroom to steal something from a locker. The lockers are never locked, however, the room is only open during a certain time period. At all other times, the room is in use. A PROFESSOR is supposed to watch the room between classes, but Student snuck in before the professor arrived. Student pulls the object out of locker as the professor walks in.

PROFESSOR: What are you doing here?
STUDENT: Uh… [looks at object in hand]
PROFESSOR: Oh, are you one of the students from the last class? Are you putting that away?
STUDENT: [Awkward pause] Sure!
PROFESSOR: Alright, well, just make sure you get what you need before you leave! [smiles]

End Scene

You have no idea how many times this sort of interaction has happened to me. From people giving my projects more meaning than originally intended, to getting myself out of situations I should have gotten into trouble in, answering “sure” in a sarcastic, wide-eyed expression to yes/no questions has saved my ass countless times. It’s unusual, as I’m not even trying to get out of it most of the time; often, I am expecting to be at least called out on it, but it never happens.

Now, I’m fully aware that by posting this, more people are likely to call me out on it, and that’s fine. I really don’t want to get away with this crap, and usually, I never do much that would actually get me in trouble (nothing illegal, nothing immoral, and especially nothing like the example I wrote). It mostly happened with slide-show projects that I kind of half-assed, and the professors ended up giving me higher grades because they filled in their own blanks with my “sure!” response.

This week Frank’s class begins, and thus, the studio is going to be closed. I spent some time working on his site the other night. He wanted me to transfer some content between his old and new sites, and so I spent about an hour copy/pasting stuff, only to find out later that my assignment had changed.

Anyway, at this point, I have no idea what I’m doing tomorrow. I may attend the workshop, or I may sit home and work my ass off on comic pages. On a related note, I’m very glad we have gotten to where we are in the story, as these next few pages are going to be really fun to make. I’m excited to draw it, so I hope you’re excited to read it!

Anyway, I’ll see you all on Friday!