464: RBA

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RBA

Title text: This is a story all about how I started drinking.

Explanation

A Bel-Air is an internet meme where a poster on a message board starts a post on a serious topic, but partway through the post switches to repeating the lyrics to the opening theme song of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", a 1990s sitcom starring Will Smith (previously known in his rapping career as the "Fresh Prince") as a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who has been sent to live with his affluent and stuffy Aunt and Uncle in Bel Air, Los Angeles by his mother as a consequence of a single altercation with a couple of no-good guys who were making trouble in his previous neighbourhood.

Megan in the comic reverses the traditional arrangement by starting the conversation with a recitation of the lyrics to said theme song, and then switching partway through to a very serious discussion of the status of their relationship culminating in a break up.

The lyrics go like this:

Now this is the story all about how

My life got flipped, turned upside down

And I'd like to take a minute just sit right there

I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-air

The title RBA is an initialism for Reverse Bel-Air.

The title text is a play with the usual meaning of someone becoming an alcoholic (in this case because of the breakup), but in this case refers to the actual fact that Cueball had just started drinking (a glass of water) when Megan started talking to him.

A similar (though less serious) play on the Bel-Air meme was later used in 1059: Bel-Air.

Transcript

[Megan walks up to Cueball pouring himself a drink.]

Megan: Now, this is a story all about how

Megan: My life got flipped turned upside down

Megan: And I'd like to take a minute

Megan: Just sit right there

Megan: I'll tell you how I became uncertain about our relationship. I think you just like having a girlfriend, it doesn't matter who.

Megan: I think we should break up.

The reverse Bel-Air only works once, so make it something unforgettable.

[Cut to dropped glass, drink spilled on ground.]

Cueball: ...wait, seriously?

Megan: Yeah.

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Discussion

I can't find any reference for the title "RBA". What does it mean?--Dgbrt (talk) 16:32, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Reverse Bel-Air 83.186.30.214 22:00, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, we should explain that. Not all people here are from the US, like me.--Dgbrt (talk) 22:16, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Please enter discussions here.--Dgbrt (talk) 21:06, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

OK, but why have they disappeared off stage? And why is the cup dropped? -- Psb777 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

When you're shocked, you drop things. Mikemk (talk)

Hm, I'm not sure that's water. It looks like he poured it out of a bottle of some sort in the first panel. Maybe it's juice?172.69.62.124 17:42, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

The cup didn’t break, so it’s probably a plastic one. If it was glass it would have shattered. He poured it out of a bottle, so it’s probably alcohol or juice. The title text mentions drinking, so I would guess alcohol.