557: Students

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Students

Title text: The same goes for the one where you're wrestling the Green Ranger in the swimming pool full of Crisco. You guys all have that dream, right? It's not just me. Right?

Explanation

This was the first comic with one of Randall's fun facts.

Students often dream they have assignments they have forgotten about that are due in a very short time period, leaving no time to complete the assignment, thus filling them with the feeling of impending failure. The panic and helplessness of being unable to complete the work in time only subsides when the dreamer wakes from the nightmare, although sometimes they wake to a reality where there actually is a looming deadline.

This comic suggests these dreams continue well after graduation, although there may be a nagging feeling that "I thought I completed everything and graduated".

The title text refers to the Green Ranger from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, or, indeed, any of the many Power Rangers/Super Sentai seasons with a green ranger. Crisco is a brand of vegetable shortening, a fat that is solid at room temperature and frequently used in baking. The joke is that Randall has a very odd recurring dream, and wants reassurance that he is not the only one... but he likely is!

Eleven years later, Megan tells Cueball that just the thought of being in a crowded classroom (even without concerns about an assignment) is scary enough in comic 2285: Recurring Nightmare. But that was due to the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020.

Transcript

[Megan as a teacher speaks to a crowded classroom, where all students are grayed out except one of the Cueball students who is drawn in the normal black line.]

Megan: Your projects are due today by 5:00 PM.

Cueball (thinking): ...I didn't even know we had one.

[Zoom in on Cueball at his small desk still thinking. No other students are visible, but the desk next to his is shown although also fading out.]

Cueball (thinking): Wait. I don't think I've been attending. I must have forgotten I had this class. Shitshitshit.

[Cueball is sitting at his desk, but now seen from the side, looking from the edge of his desk. The very right part of the drawing, with Cueball's back and chair, now begins to fade.]

Cueball (thinking): Okay, I'm gonna fail. Will it hold me back? I just want to get out of here. I thought I had finished my requirements already.

[Cueball takes his hand to his face. This panel fades so much it is only about half a panel. Even the frame around the panel disappears.]

Cueball (thinking): In fact, I think I remember graduating. What the hell is—

[As the previous scene completely fades we find Cueball waking up in his bed with small blobs above his head to indicate the dream disappearing.]

[Caption below the last three panels of the comic:]

Fun Fact: Decades from now, with school a distant

memory, you'll still be having this dream.

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Discussion

The project dream is so true. To this day I have dreams where I signed up but didn't even attend a class that was necessary for graduation. I dream that I'll likely fail the course and need to attend one more semester. Cflare (talk) 17:15, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

There are studies that people successfully passing tests/exams have this dreams way more often. Often also something in the lines of every achievement after college would be nullified when it came out that the testresult was not correct. 108.162.230.221 10:12, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

I had the dream of fighting the green ranger (The original one) in Crisco once, it was weird, and I do not know how or why I had that dream. -Swaphero173.245.54.25 02:15, 2 July 2016 (UTC)

I graduated 15 years ago and I still have annoying dreams that I can't remember which locker was mine. - 162.158.214.58 19:22, 22 July 2017 (UTC)

Same here. Graduated long ago, still have this nightmare from time to time. (not the "green monster" though) Why? Are we really part of a computer game? 162.158.63.4 03:48, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

Yep, I have the same dream, graduated 8 years ago. I've self-diagnosed thi

I have this dream where I'm stranded on a random planet and start counting rocks and placing them in neat little piles. By the time I wake up, I've normally got over half a million rocks.

How long do you sleep? --Jlc (talk) 02:54, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

Most likely their brain skips placing most of the rocks, but they don't realise because it's a dream and dreams are weird^{[citation needed]}. Beanie (talk) 14:04, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

Yep, I have the same dream, at least 4-5 times a year, graduated 8 years ago. I've thought this has something to do with procrastinating and not dealing with something I feel like I should be dealing with (comes up more often when this is the case).--Iyhuvgug61 (talk) 08:56, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Such dreams have been bothering me for years, keeping reminding me the days I painfully struggled for graduation in university. 799571388 (talk) 07:24, 2 July 2024 (UTC)