1917: How to Make Friends

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How to Make Friends

Title text: No, wait, come back! I want to be friends at you!

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a user who also doesn't know how to make friends - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

This comic shows Cueball (standing in for Randall) trying to be friends with Hairy.

It starts out with a common way of making friends or interacting with friends, hanging out over a meal. However, Cueball then says that he also doesn't need to eat to talk, which, while true, is a bit of an odd thing to say. Cueball then says he doesn't need to eat, meaning he doesn't need to eat right now, but he goes on to clarify that he does need to eat, meaning in general, and again it's odd that he clarified. He then awkwardly talks about how he can eat later if Hairy would rather just talk. This is obviously a situation that Randall has encountered before, and he apologizes for trying to offer advice.

The title text says Cueball wants to be friends at Hairy, rather than with him.

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

A panel with the words : Presenting: How to make friends. The next panel with Cueball and Hairy talking Cueball:Want to eat food together? Cueball: We could also sit together without talking. I don't need to eat. I mean, I do need to eat. But if you don;t want to eat then we can just talk. I can eat later. Next panel with words

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Discussion

Please clarify: What are "friends"? 172.68.58.95 08:18, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

A friend is what you should treat people as - i.e. as a friend in themself, not as a means to a friend.141.101.105.156 11:36, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

D"Friends" are sacrificial humans you should always have with you while in the woods, in case of bear encounters.--108.162.245.220 13:08, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

Or see Randall's take on this in his comic?: 1485: Friendship. :) --Kynde (talk) 22:00, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

Randall has obviously not read Stu the Cockatoo is New at the Zoo. Pmakholm (talk) 08:36, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

hairy is a jerk and unworthy of cueball's friendship. --Misterstick (talk) 12:56, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

"Go eat food" might be an effect of the post-"Thing explainer" simple English addiction, already mentioned in some other strip. In fact, the rest of his speech also looks a bit like that.--162.158.90.162 17:30, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

Yes, I also think this comic uses simple words. --162.158.238.191 09:36, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

If I had a Tumblr, I'd set this as my profile picture. But the stigma of being "the kind of person who whines about vwxyzir disability on Tumblr" is bad enough that I don't wanna go there. Promethean (talk) 05:28, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

I thought that he was saying the opening dialogue from The Social Network so I came here to check

Seems like Randall likes to blame lonely people as being morally deficient and selfish... Must be easier than acknowledging the issues they face... 162.158.255.238 05:58, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

Ummmm, REALLY sure that he's identifying HIMSELF as lonely, and feels it is HIS own fault. He's not attacking abstract strangers, he's belittling himself. NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:04, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

Current explanation says that he "feels compelled to clarify that he does need to eat (meaning in general)". No, not in general, he is specifying he needs food at the moment, that it is time for him to eat right now, seeing as he later clarifies that he can just eat after. (So, he's hungry, but not so much that he can't wait). Also, what's H2G2? NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:04, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

The 'in general' interpretation seems more likely to me, and is certainly the way I read it. If he was just hungry but not that hungry, he probably wouldn't have used the word 'need'. And Randall seems like the sort of person who would feel the need to clarify, in case of confusion, that he is an organism that needs to consume food.141.101.105.156 16:45, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

I felt the use of the word "need" was in reference to it being lunchtime (or dinnertime), that it's time to eat and as such he can and should, and should be figuring out what to do for a meal around now, but his hunger hasn't hit yet (or isn't that strong yet) so he can wait too. IDK, it's just that whenever Randall does one of these "I'm terribly socially awkward" comics that it really speaks to me, that we're very much the same in this regard. Maybe that leads to a greater ease in understanding what he means and where he's coming from. It certainly feels like it, like I have no problem fully understanding them with 100% certainty. As I said, the fact that he says he can just eat after confirms that he means it's time for him to eat now, but he's trying to be accommodating by saying he can just eat later. NiceGuy1 (talk) 07:52, 24 November 2017 (UTC)

H2G2 is a droid from Star Wars. Like R2D2 used to be able to, it can fly, but instead of using thrusters, it flies by throwing itself at the ground and missing. (Actually, on the chance that you weren't subtly suggesting that an editor expand the acronym for the sake of others -- and by now, the information is in a link rather than in that state -- it's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.) Nyperold (talk) 02:10, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Note how the text in the black bubble in the last panel is slightly darker than the text in the black bubble in the first panel. 172.68.132.95 21:01, 11 March 2019 (UTC)