914: Ice

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Ice

Title text: On the plus side, she wrote "Welcome to the AAA Club!" in lipstick on the bathroom mirror, and left me a membership/roadside assistance card on the counter.

Explanation

This comic is a reference to an old urban legend: a guy is drugged, then he awakes in an ice-filled bathtub only to discover both of his kidneys have been harvested by organ thieves. They have left him in the tub of ice, to let him survive in time to get to a hospital for dialysis. It is now his problem to get a new kidney, whereas the thieves can sell the organs to someone who (also) needs a kidney transplantation. By doing it in this way, the thieves prevent themselves from becoming murderers; thus if they get caught they might get a lesser sentence. That would be the explanation why they do not just kill the "organ donor".

In this comic the situation is reversed: Beret Guy (who has just bought some ice for the party he is about to return to) is lured by Danish up to "her place" where he is drugged. The next morning he awakes in a bathtub filled with kidneys, only to discover that his ice has been harvested by Danish.

The title text refers to a similar story where the victim is left a note by their captor or one-night stand that says "Welcome to the AIDS club". Rather than having been involuntarily infected with HIV/AIDS, the victim Beret Guy has been involuntarily enrolled in the American Automobile Association (AAA) and his roadside assistance card has been left on the counter. This could also be another pun on Beret Guy's response of yelling AAAAAAA, which could be another kind of AAA club that he is welcomed to.

There is no display of typical "Beret Guy behavior" in this comic, although it is typical for him to be involved in an incident that turns the world upside down. His encounter with organ thieves only cost him his ice, a party and that he got a nasty experience. But he retained his kidneys and was not infected with HIV.

Transcript

[Megan are setting up a party standing with a bottle in one hand looking at a snack table in front of her. Beret Guy stands behind her with both arms raised. Above and behind them there are a big banner with gray text .]

Megan: Everything's ready...

Megan: Except we're out of ice.

Beret Guy: I'll get some!

Banner: Party!

[Beret Guy is walking down the street past a building with a store window and sign. He is waring a large bag of ice over his shoulder. Danish is standing on the sidewalk up against the brick wall and calls to him.]

Danish: Hey sexy. Where're you headed with all that ice?

Beret Guy: A party!

Danish: There's a better party up at my place.

Beret Guy: But I—

Danish: C'mon, one drink.

Sign: Save Mart

Bag: Ice

[Zoom in on Beret Guy who rubs his eyes groggily, small bubbles floating up from his head. A caption is written above the image in a box that breaks the top frame of this panel:]

The next morning...

Beret Guy: ...Ugh... Where am I?

Beret Guy: I was supposed to—

Beret Guy: —Where's all my ice!?

[Beret Guy looks down to find himself in a bathtub full of kidneys. His scream extends on both sides of the panel, with only the five central A's in full view:]

Beret Guy: AAAAAAA

Trivia

• Since her character introduction, this is the first strip to feature Danish without a connection to Black Hat.

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Discussion

Well, at least he didn't lose his spleen. Davidy²²[talk] 01:30, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

I understood the AAA-Club as reference to him shouting AAAAA. I think that is something pretty common in his situation. --162.158.91.189 20:25, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

lol why would Danish need to harvest his ice anyway? And where the hell did she get a bathtub full of kidneys and an AAA membership? 108.162.215.249 22:31, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

Yeah she should donate those. SilverMagpie (talk) 17:36, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

they could be *sheep* kidneys.New editor (talk) 22:19, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

lucrative ice market Caliban (talk) 20:23, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

I don't think this is Danish. The hair is a little different, and this situation makes more sense if she is a stranger than someone Beret Guy knows. 162.158.63.214 00:13, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

She looks exactly like Danish, and her personality is the same. Beanie (talk) 11:08, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

Is this a "Danish commits an act of surreal sadism" comic or a "Beret Guy gets in a weird situation" comic? 172.70.134.91 03:53, 11 March 2022 (UTC)

don't rule out the possibility of it being both.New editor (talk) 22:18, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

beret guy rubbing his beret implies that the beret is just part of him Me^{[citation needed]} 04:16, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

well, he did staple it to his head...172.70.80.238 03:28, 22 December 2024 (UTC)