782: Desecration
| Desecration |
 Title text: It gets worse! You know that wizened old monk with the gypsy wife whose voodoo shop we smash up every day after school? |
Explanation
Megan and Rob are horrified to discover that the bones they had dug up and turned into puppets were actually from an ancient Indian burial ground. The joke is that they already seem to know that they were Indian bones, so their origins really shouldn't come as a surprise. They actually already know that they are desecrating something holy - hence the title.
A common trope in horror fiction is that anyone defiling an ancient Indian burial ground will have a horrible curse cast upon them. Another common trope is having a curse cast upon oneself by a gypsy or voodoo woman, or a wizened wizard or monk as mentioned in the title text.
Megan and Rob seem to be unknowingly, and stupidly, angering every supernatural being and force in their entire town, thus setting themselves up for at least a dozen potential horror plots at the same time.
A common complaint about many horror stories is that the protagonists are flat out stupid in order to make the plot and horror work. This comic deliberately targets and makes fun of this, mocking the obliviousness that many stock horror characters show as to getting themselves into trouble with supernatural forces.
Transcript
- [Megan running towards Rob.]
- Megan: ROB! ROB!
- Rob: You look terrified! What's wrong?
- Megan: We've made a huge mistake!
- [Both standing in place, Megan has hands up in an explaining gesture.]
- Megan: Remember last week when we dug up all those Indian bones and made puppets out of them?
- Rob: Sure...
- [Megan is throwing her arms out.]
- Megan: It turns out they were buried over an ancient Indian burial ground!
- Rob: Oh my God!
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Oh god, I thought the tombstones were just there for decoration! I didn't think there'd actually be people buried under them! Davidy²²[talk] 02:33, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
(Personally I think the real explanation is something of a "Hot Apple Pie may be hot!" nature. While they apparently have no problem with unburrying indian bones from the ground, the realisation that they were in an indian burial ground (surprise, surprise!) causes them concern. Just like the (semi-mythical?) people who don't realise hot things are... hot. 178.98.77.240 00:20, 4 May 2013 (UTC) )
Is it too unsafe to assume that because the standard, typically drawn stick figure is referred to as Rob, that the character in most of these strips is named Rob and not Cueball? As I understand it, Cueball was made up on this site and not by Randall. --98.203.241.55 22:12, 22 May 2013 (UTC)
- Rob Cueball? I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait (talk) 17:15, 26 January 2015 (UTC)
- And 11 years after the first mention of "Rob", we finally have our answer 1783: Emails -- Yosho27 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
I think this is a truth in fiction so to speak. In many story lines there's moments where, "You remember that time we broke all those spiritual laws? Well it appears that [G]od(s) is angry." A secular example, anyone thinking to themselves, "Seriously officer, I only had three or four drinks, and I had to get home." "Well, now you are DUI." *gasp* "Really?!??! Oh no!" Cflare (talk) 17:58, 7 August 2014 (UTC)
Another interesting thing here is that Cueball instantly understands the association between curses and desecrating Indian burial grounds despite being stupid enough not to know A. you shouldn't mess with burial places and whatnot in the first place, and B. that the site of buried Indians is, by definition, and Indian burial ground. 173.245.52.92 03:21, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
I actually heard Rob's voice as the narmy "Oh my God!!!!" quote from Trolls 2.108.162.219.144 18:30, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
I feel like it's not clearly enough explained here that the joke is that a place where Indian bones are buried is by definition an Indian burial ground (as is mentioned above in the discussion) 162.158.154.115 15:01, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
