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Side Effect

|< < Prev #3261 (June 19, 2026)

Title text: Brace yourself--the chirp gets pretty weird.

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Explanation

Beret Guy tells Ponytail about the new medication he’s using, with the normal side effect of sensitivity to sun exposure and the far less normal sensitivity to gravitational waves. At first she replies that those side effects are normal, then does a double take and is confused about the second effect. Then, when she realizes, Beret Guy starts to exhibit the stretching and squishing of a gravitational wave, but by obviously visible amounts. Beret Guy's hat also stretches and shrinks, indicating it could be a part of his body, which contradicts the idea from an earlier comic that it is stapled to his head. (Or perhaps it's part of the strange power the medicine makes him exhibit.)

This is probably the most extreme example to date of Beret Guy being peculiarly sensitive to minuscule external forces. However, rather than showing concern for his body rapidly changing shape, he instead enjoys the feeling, saying 'Whee' in the last panel.

"The chirp" refers to gravitational waves during the end-stages of black hole collision, during which expansion and contraction of the waves increase in frequency to the point where they alternate extremely rapidly. This would cause Beret Guy's body to also change form repeatedly and rapidly.

Transcript

[Beret Guy is standing to the right of Ponytail.]

Beret Guy: This new topical medication makes me extra sensitive to sun exposure and gravitational waves.

[Beret Guy's arms are out.]

Ponytail: Oh yeah, that's a common ...wait, what was that last part?

Beret Guy: Here comes one now!

[Over three panels, Beret Guy is stretched out in height, then he gets shorter and wider, then stretched out again.]

[Last Panel:]Beret Guy: WHEEE!

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