Comics I Don’t Understand

Well, Just… Ouch.

Cidu Bill on Feb 26th 2009

So because Boyd is gay he uses tampons?? I can’t imagine even Ann Coulter suggesting something like this.

Okay, maybe…

Filed in Bill Bickel, Meaning of Lila, comic strips, comics, humor, tampons | 26 responses so far

26 Responses to “Well, Just… Ouch.”

Ed Feb 26th 2009 at 02:09 am 1

Methinks the blonde was avoiding the word ‘tampon’ out of fear of disturbing Boyd (who she suspects would consider the topic unreasonably unpleasant, I guess).

Boyd is making fun of her; obviously he doesn’t have one, but by claiming he does he makes it clear that her reticence is misplaced. Hence, the blonde’s sheepish expression in the final panel.
Singapore Bill Feb 26th 2009 at 03:12 am 2

Of course he has tampons. He uses them to stop post coitus leakage. I don’t understand why it is supposed to be funny, though.
Annie Benson Feb 26th 2009 at 05:03 am 3

Once, I was ride the train between San Diego and LA with a good male friend. The train was crowded so we weren’t wandering around, just sitting and chatting. He suddenly got a very bad bloody nose. Getting to the restroom would have been a hassle becuase of the number of bodies in the way, and he undoubtably would have gotten blood on his nice shirt before he got to the facilites.

Fortunately, I happened to have a couple of sanitary napkins with me in my purse. It took a bit of convincing, but he really didn’t want to have to spend the rest of the day in a bloody shirt. Turns out they make excellent compresses and absortion devices for nasty bloody noses.

So maybe Boyd is prone to having very bad bloody noses, and is much more hardcore about it than my friend was.
chuckers Feb 26th 2009 at 05:45 am 4

I am with Ed on this one.
Nicole Feb 26th 2009 at 09:28 am 5

Boyd was making a joke

Annie has discovered what EMS personel have known for a long time. They will often carry them to staunch the blood flow of wounds
Morris Keesan Feb 26th 2009 at 09:41 am 6

See, for example, the Wikipedia article on tampons, which says, “As a medical device, the tampon, (from the French for plug, or stopper) has been around since the 19th century, when antiseptic cotton tampons treated with salicylates were used to stop the bleeding from bullet wounds, and there have been reports of modern menstrual tampons being used for the same purpose by soldiers in the Iraq War.”
Mark Jones Feb 26th 2009 at 09:54 am 7

I think Ed has it.
Powers Feb 26th 2009 at 10:15 am 8

“Gay people act like women”. That’s the joke.
Steven Hunter Feb 26th 2009 at 11:03 am 9

@Singapore Bill: I don’t know what kind of gay sex *you’ve* been having but as a gay man, I can assure you that “post coitus leakage” is pretty much a non-issue. Gay men do not generally carry around tampons. (Not withstanding that there are inevitably some gay men who find it erotic to use such a device in that manner; Rule 34 and all.)
Nicole Feb 26th 2009 at 11:30 am 10

Steven — as far as “post coitus leakage” goes … I susgest you google “santorum”. However you are correct, gay men do not use tampons for that.

Powers — I think you are confusing effeminate and feminine. None of the gay men who have been and are my friends act like women. Not one, some were effeminate, some were flamboyant, a few were drama queens and a few were quite butch, but none acted the way my women friends act.
Singapore Bill Feb 26th 2009 at 01:56 pm 11

Steven Hunter:

I guess I’ll make reference to Internet rule 35: No matter how outrageous your statement, someone will think you really, really do mean it.

Regardless, I still think it’s a better explanation than “Gay men are like women!!!!OMGWTFBBQ!!!!1!!1!” which seems to be the actual joke.
This guy I know Feb 26th 2009 at 02:52 pm 12

@Singapore Bill and Steven Hunter

I don’t mean to nitpick, but you are getting the Rules of the Internet wrong.

Rule 34: There is porn of it. No exceptions.
Rule 35: If no porn is found of it, it will be created.

The 36th rule seems more applicable to Steven Hunter’s comment.
Rule 36: No matter what it is, it is somebody’s fetish. No exceptions.

Singapore Bill’s “rule 35″ really needs to be made into an official rule. It just cannot be number 35.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, there are other corners of the internet in which I can post, pointing out the mistakes of others, and thus validate my own existence. Or I’ll go find some lolcats.
Name withheld Feb 26th 2009 at 06:37 pm 13

Dare one suggest hemorrhoids ?
Elliott Feb 26th 2009 at 11:33 pm 14

Boyd is a sex ed teacher, obviously. I witnessed one of those in seventh grade. He had a tampon in his shirt pocket and whipped out to the amazement of the boys in the class.
Winter Wallaby Feb 27th 2009 at 12:24 am 15

Nicole, I think Powers is describing the intended joke (”gay people act like women”) not his own beliefs. Although I would point out that, indeed, half of “gay people” do indeed act like women.
Adam! Feb 27th 2009 at 03:12 am 16

Clever, Wallaby, but as long as we’re being pedantic I’ll point out that a smaller percentage of women are gay than men.

This comic made me frown.
BlueRaja Feb 27th 2009 at 04:51 am 17

Yeah Powers definitely has it, not everyone can be as politically correct as you bunch, sorry to have to be the one to break it to ya.
jjmcgaffey Feb 27th 2009 at 05:38 am 18

The other half of the joke, of course, is ‘men are always disturbed by “feminine problems”‘. Which is true less than half of the time (in my experience), but that’s the stereotype. So (many) women will go out of their way to avoid mentioning pads or tampons or that they’re on their periods around men - and many others will deliberately talk about them in order to shock a man (sometimes works, too).

So the joke is partly Boyd’s having a tampon (or at least saying he does) and partly her careful avoidance of the word until Lila forced her to say it - and then Boyd’s casual acceptance/knowledge. I think the artist put the wrong expression on her face - Boyd and Lila look properly smug, but she should be at least disconcerted by Boyd’s comment if not shocked, instead of simply happy he has what she needs (at least, that’s how I read her expression).
McHopey Feb 27th 2009 at 07:42 am 19

I don’t see Ann making this joke either, but Barry Sotero might. After all, he enjoys picking on defenseless widows with his humor. What an ass.
Powers Feb 27th 2009 at 07:59 am 20

Wallaby is correct; I meant to say “gay men” but there’s no way to edit comments and I didn’t think it was worth calling attention to with a correction post.

jjm - I think her expression says “duh, I should have asked Boyd first.”
The Ploughman Feb 27th 2009 at 11:47 am 21

I think the mistake in the cartoon (giving the artist the benefit of the doubt that the joke is supposed to be “Boyd is not offended by tampons”) is that the word “tampon” is blurted a panel too soon. It seems funnier to me if the word is hemmed and hawed around for the first three panels, then the final one has a line for Boyd like “You mean a TAMPON, right? No problem, got one right here.”

Of course, if the joke is supposed to be “gay people carry around tampons,” well, there’s nothing that can really be done to make that funny.
elizabeth Feb 27th 2009 at 02:03 pm 22

and here I thought that Boyd is so used to taking care of Lila, that he carries tampons for when she needs them…

because honestly, Lila strikes me as just that clueless/scatterbrained that she would expect not to have to carry tampons around and who else but her best friend (male/female, gay/straight, what difference does it make?) would be there for her when she needs one…
Elyrest Feb 27th 2009 at 02:32 pm 23

elizabeth - that’s what I thought when I saw this one too.
Keera Feb 27th 2009 at 04:57 pm 24

So, when does this comic get funny?
Charlene Feb 28th 2009 at 02:17 pm 25

About the same time jokes implying that Obama’s really a sexist Muslim do.
Charlene Feb 28th 2009 at 02:18 pm 26

(Not to say that Muslims are sexist, but that joke failed at trying to push two buttons that have already been worn down by Rush Limbaugh.)