Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for January 06, 2020

whether “po-tay-to” or “po-tah-to”, call the whole thing off

Fair reading. ✨

Bingo!

Bernice nailed it.

exactly. ya know she may deny it but i can so see Luann actually say that

Pretty good at interpreting. I’m impressed.

Everyone who called it gets a free scoop of virtual ice cream. Yep, envy.

Well I was right. She is jealous because she doesn’t have a boyfriend and that Gunther is the one who is in a relationship. In high school, she always had boyfriends while Gunther pined for her. In the adult world, she is not all that desirable, she realizes. Now she is wondering what it is about Gunther that girls find attractive? First Tiffany – the one who had a whole football team for fans – and now Bets. Must be bugging her so much. She is probably annoyed that she was not attracted to Jack who is a nice guy. Luann? I think I’ve got you. You’re just not attracted to nice guys. All your boyfriends were jerks – Quill was mild but he did choose his career over you. Gunther pined for you and he’s a nice guy but you were never interested. Now Jack. I have girlfriends like that – they are only attracted to bad boys. Either you’re destined to always go heart-thumping for the jerks or you can change. Get to know Jack better, go out on dates with him, DATE, not a friendly outing, and if it still doesn’t work out with Jack, accept a date with another nice guy. Here’s my Berniceism.

It’s like Luann is talking to her author with this one. Sorry Luann, but Evans just doesn’t seem to have the time to write a romantic life for you when he is so busy setting up Gunther with one hot girl after another.

I sure hope the rest of this week is not set in Luann’s room, with Luann and Bernice simply commenting on the action while looking at their phones. I’m sure it’s easier for Greg to draw those 2 in one room, instead of drawing Gunth and Bets at a convention, with all those other convention goers, but it would be incredibly boring for all of the relevant action to not play out before us… we’d only tell what’s going on by Luann and Bernice’s commentary. Ewwwww.

Just imagine, “the confrontation” and/or “the breakup” happening off-strip, and all we’d see is Luann’s reaction. “OMG! Gunth is laying it on the line!” “Ai Carumba! Bets is dishing it right back!” “Oh Noooooo! She just threw the pot of salsa at him!”

Bern is not missing a beat…

Borenice may be Borenice, but even she’s calling you out.

Luann, you need a better perfume to wear, the scent of jealousy doesn’t do a thing for ya. If anything “jealousy” tends to turn people off.

Wow Luann, that’s kinda harsh. Unlike “nerd” or “geek” which have been embraced as positive things lately, “dweeb” is still completely negative. I know I wouldn’t like to be referred to that way. It just indicates that Luann still doesn’t view Gunther with much respect. It’s the inevitable result of him throwing himself at her in high school, and it’s tough to break free of a long-held mindset like that.

Guess I get to eat crow. I really thought that, when Lu and Bern showed up Saturday, they were going to drop this potato.

Or, was it, poh-TAH-toe!

Is that a little envy I’m seeing?

Bernice knows how to twist a conversation around. These two are getting this new year off to a good start.

Ads Bern. “Well, that’s what I heard!”

Bern, the great translator.

In the Luann’s Universe, Bernice is the spoiler. Gunther & Tiffany are the contradictions. So, Luann, who are you?

Actually Bernice, Gunny has had TWO hot girlfriends. Two and counting, because if Bets messes up (And she’s well on her way to) one of the female Instagram followers is bound to make a “Awww, poor Gunthie!” Contact when Bets announces their break-up on social media!

But I Digress.

Why did Gunny succeed on Date-Pics where Luann failed? TWICE. What did Gunny do different, that Luann didn’t do? Hmmmmm……,

I GOT IT! Gunther wore those Captain Picard PJs! THAT put him over the Top and drove Bets WILD!

So Luann? You should upload a pic of yourself wearing pajamas, to Date Pics! Better Still, YOU should upload a picture of you wearing that “sexy witch” outfit Gunny made for you years ago! That should improve “traffic” considerably!

Now, to enjoy My first cup of COFFEE and wait for the anticipated “Oh Golly Gee Wiz, Luann should date Jack,” posts.

PS: By the way Luann. Where do get off calling Gunther a “Dweeb?” Especially after he’s bailed you out of numerous tight spots in the past, and kinda sorta saved your life once.I mean. “Who” do you think you are, anyway? “Les?” :)

SHUT UP, BerNOTnice.

Luann seems a bit on the envious side. Also recall that it was never ending texting of Gunther that almost derailed his new romance on that first date when the nimrod did not have the courtesy to either mute or turn of his phone. Perhaps Luann still has feeling for the kid or maybe she is just feeling sorry for herself, a new year and the last date she tried via the online app did not turn out well in addition to another potential suitor, Jack now probably involved with a fellow dog lover. Well at least Luann has Bernice and that goth kid in her art class is probably available!

I’m obviously the only one in the universe who thinks this, but I believe Bernice is actually saying what she herself is thinking, not what Luann is thinking. After all, at one point (not long ago), Gunther decided that he and Bernice should be a couple, since both were ‘bookish’. I also guess I’m the only one in the universe who thinks Bernice is not Luann’s friend…

She’s a good listener.

You have been rejecting anyone who has shown any interest in you, including the dweeb.

Your not hot Bernice

What they don’t know is that Bets is completely pushing Gunther around and is in control of their “relationship”, which is nothing more than an ego trip for Bets. Gunther is just a prop she’s using.

Touchè Bernice. I know she has always been good at making critical comments about Luann. But first the help she gave Tiffany, then this really accurate analysis. Looks like all of her psychology studies starts paying off. FINALLY!

Does anyone else see the irony of Luann (The namesake of the strip, who is followed by millions) complaining about Bets getting attention?

Bernice seems to be learning well and practicing her major.

jealous I think

Translate.bernice.com (^_^)

Quit staring into your smartphone and get a life, Lu (easier said than done)!

It’s been over a month, was there any repercussions from Tiff blowing off Thanksgiving with daddy?

Once again, Bernice nails it.

Well I was wrong and right! Mebbe. I thought we’d be off to a new arc today. Saturday’s strip may still be a segue into a new arc involving Luann and her love(less) life. If so, it was a pretty clever transition by Greg.

If you put blanks in those comment balloons, you’d see a sequence of panel art that Greg has used successfully for decades. :o)

Apparently, being a geek gets you a bunch of chicks these days.

The Evans have settled into artistic stasis and decided that nothing about their main character can be allowed to change or develop. It’s as if they want to reassure casual fans who drop in every twenty years that this is still the same Luann that they remember. She has a play job and a play boyfriend, she goes to a play college, and she still hangs out in her room with Bernice. It’s perpetual junior high.

The Evans will occasionally try to shake this up by taking a run at something provocative (She’s in New York! She’s at a party where there’s drinking! There’s a naked man in art class! She’s dating online!), but Luann always just ducks out and nothing happens. It’s like the Evans think there are only two choices: go crazy or go nowhere.

It doesn’t have to be that way. There could be a middle ground where Luann develops interests and wholesome relationships without edginess or implied danger. Where she does something with her time besides just lying on her bed watching other people.

Good call,Buuuurnice.

GnK has matured most of their characters but not Luann.

Nailed it

Yep. She’s envious all right.

Since when does age 18+ young ladies hang out in a bedroom doing nothing?

Someone is Green with Envy

What, dweebs don’t deserve hot girlfriends? Nice judgement call, Luann.

“How come” is not a word.

Envy, Greg should have colorized the background green. Luann is clearly showing envy of her high school friend, I want to comment on the term dweeb though. Actually being from an urban (read highly African-American) background that is not a word that Black kids would likely use or understand, at first, although once they did they might want to fight (lol). It means a socially inept person, one who likes to study, does not hang with the fellas, and the girls would not be attracted to, other than other dweeb girls, who are too shy themselves. Funny that dweebs end up bossing all the other kids later in life. Bernice is right on point though Luann can’t figure out how she, truly a hot girl, does not have boys dropping out of the sky, either in person, or in social media, why? My answer is that a shy hunk, a decent hunk is clearly dangling out there waiting for her, Jack. For those who say he is not shy I answer irony. He is shy around the girl he really, really wants seriously. Greg can draw things out for a long time, but even he can’t justify an arc where Luann does not realize that the love of her life she already saw naked, in an art class. If she waits too long with those blinders that answers the question she poses. Beautiful girls often are unhappy with their social lives, they are unapproachable, or won’t open up to see the world in a better more clear sense., Whether Bernice will help remains to be seen, but this is a clear beginning of the year sign to me.

It seems to me that Luann, or any girl, ought to be able to talk openly with her “best friend” about her feelings without being “analyzed” or having to listen to a smart aleck reply. Bernasty is essentially saying, “I know more about you and what you are thinking than you do yourself because I’m smarter than you and majoring in psychology.” I believe a real friend would be more empathetic and less analytical. With a “friend” like Bernasty, who needs enemies?

5

I like that Bernice is being, IMO, a real friend here….. and is trying to get Luann to see some of the probable meanings behind what she is saying. A lot of folks here are suggesting Bernice is being “mean”. But, I do not see it that way. In the greater scheme of things…. Bernice and Luann go back farther than just about anyone outside of family for Luann. Bernice has been through an almost infinite array of different “romance” talks with Luann and and knows how Luann’s mind operates. Luann’s rancor is, IMO, due to her not wanting to examine the possibilities that Bernice is suggesting.

I am not particularly happy with Luann referring to Gunther as a “dweeb”. In my manner of thinking, this is the exact problem that Gunther faces when he interacts with the “old crowd”. Luann has consistently been viewing him as beneath her for quite a long while.

As an aside…. in my manner of thinking… last weeks “media expose” by Bets…. while a bit “over-the-top” in my opinion as a minimalist as far as those things go…. I do have to say that I feel that Bets has compromised to an extent as has Gunther….. Gunther may not be super comfortable with being the “social media couple” but he was being accepting of it last week….. AND Bets for her part… was posting things that were generally relatively common things for kids that age to post…. AND none of them was in the slightest demeaning or poking fun at Gunther…. in fact… most all of them ended up being positive for him (unlike the lingerie post from before, which was not appropriate or kind for Bets to do). So, I tend to think both of them have compromised a bit.

There is much criticism of Luann and Bernice as actually BFFs. Their friendship is cemented by their common self image of not being attractive to boys. They retreat and find solace in Luann’s room.

Sometimes Bernice is pulled out of her shell by Luann’s energy. Sometimes Luann is brought to contemplation by Bernice’s insightfulness.

It works for them.

My answers to Luann are twofold: Gunther has a “hot” girlfriend because the writer gave him one. (I’m not sure that in real life an online date would have been so patient or stuck around after his initial extreme social awkwardness.) Two, and most important Gunther has a large online following because this same girlfriend is a whiz at media promotion. If Luann hung around with and/or dated someone with Bets’s media savvy Luann would have a huge online following as well, whether she asked for it or not.

I put this as a reply to a persons comment about Bernice being ugly or something similar above…. but I thought it was actually a valid general point:

* * *

Hmm. When I was their age…. I tended to find the girls like Bernice to be pretty darn attractive. She keeps her look casual-classy, is not all fussy-gussied up… and is focused on goals and aspirations. She is a thinker as well. And, she is cute.

I probably would have been a bit too gun-shy to ask a girl like Bernice out back when I was their ages…. but I would have definitely been attracted to her. In some ways, she reminds me of the character “Katie Morosky” as played by Barbra Streisand in the movie, “The Way We Were”. When that film came out…. I found Streisand’s portrayal to be wonderful and her character quite romantically attractive.

I have the hots for Bernice type girls too Pipe,. Experience has proven that they are like molten blast furnaces when one gets to the intimate stages, while the ones who might seem to be hot can be like the Antarctic.

Bern is right.

Looks like those psych classes are finally paying off.

“Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream. Make him the cutest that I’ve ever seen. Please turn on your magic beam. Mr. Sandman bring me, please please bring me, Mr. Sandman bring me a dream.” (Where “me” = Luanne….)

F N psychologist…

Ahhh..here’s a thought…Lu doesn’t have a boyfriend because Greg hasn’t written one for her. Boom.

Bernice is wise beyond her years. It’s too bad all the residents of the dorm see her as just a spoil sport who wants to stop them from having fun.

I’d say sitting around on social media, whining about your friends being happy, probably has something to do with your problem, Luann.

Good ole Bernie – always ready to put her down.

Had to look up dweeb, thinking it was a nerd. Sort of is and Gunther sort of is, but he is trying to be more adventuresome. Luann, with her half-closed eyes, doesn’t seem to be very upset or interested, just commenting. Bernice though, seems to be defensive, even though no negative comment was directed at her.

Bernice is so toxic. Luann needs to kick her to the curb.

I have never understood why Luann continues this “friendship.”

Okay.

If Luann wants attention and a perspective boyfriend, then why doesn’t she attend one of those Cosplay events in costume like Bets and Gunther?

BOTH Bernice and Gunther have done it before.

Exhibit A:

https://www.gocomics.com/luann/2005/07/09

https://www.gocomics.com/luann/2005/07/12

And Luann once went to a Comics Con dressed as Zeye and drew an admiring crowd, (Including Quill) comparable to the one Bets and Gun drew.

Exhibit B:

https://www.gocomics.com/luann/2009/07/30

And then there’s the Beautiful Witch outfit. Lu could wear THAT to a Comics Con or upload it to her Date Pics profile:

Exhibit C:

https://www.gocomics.com/luann/2008/10/31

Of course, Luann doesn’t have to dress “provocatively” to get attention. (Although it won’t hurt). Case in point, the bridesmaid outfit:

https://www.gocomics.com/luann/2016/09/29

https://www.gocomics.com/luann/2016/10/24

So. Luann’s choices are simple. She can either stay in in her room, sulk, and be envious of her “friend” Gunther. Or she can get off her cute little butt, go out in the World and see what it has to offer.

She should start with attending a Cosplay event.

Really, I wonder, for the zillionth time, why Luann and Bernice are friends.

I’m as shocked as you are, Luann. I figured people would recognize your Inner Beauty and just throw themselves at your feet.

Yes Bernice nails it and yes I too thought at first she was talking about herself which just makes it funnier. Hey Luann you didn’t take my advice yesterday to “resolve” not to spend your time following your friends’ lives on social media.

You had your chance with Gunther but you turned him down now the shoe is on the other foot. Don’t be so jealous, he is still your friend and you should be happy for him.

Wow. The way a number of you think that Bernice is acting “cold,” maybe her name should be spelled, “Br-r-r-rnice”?

To paraphrase Mr Sulu, “cross brains with Bernice—-she’ll cut you to pieces every time,” in relation to Luann.

Trust Bern to tell the Truth, no matter how much it hurts.

Take a moment to stand back from the immediacy of today’s strip and note that this is two days (almost in a row) that Luann and Bernice are talking about Gunther and his dating life. And it may continue. Does that simple fact tell us something about what this arc is really about?

There’s more here than initially meets the eye.

Bernie is still unpleasantly acerbic, but I have to grant that she is right about her so-called friend, Luann!

Being a nice guy respecting girls doesn’t always pay off. There are some young women who just like the edgy, raunchy guys who will get what they want. This all holds in high school and the first years out of college. However, get a really good paying job and see what happens. Mr. Nice Guy is now a hot ticket in that he can support himself and maybe, just maybe a family. Who knew? Happened to me. Got a great career and pay at 21 and by magic, no longer uninteresting.Life ain’t fair but nice guys are really hard to find after age 25. Raunchy guys? There’s plenty to be picked from 25 on…

It would be interesting if this is an entree into how Luann really feels about Gunther, and why. It wouldn’t be interesting visually, but it could lead to some breakthroughs for Luann… and for those Luann fans who remain convinced that Gunther and Luann are destined to be a couple.

Check out tomorrow’s strip over at Arcamax.com. The snark and anger go up one degree. It doesn’t get any better.

In reading these comments today, I’ve noticed a pattern of people saying that Luann should have gone for Gunther when she had a chance. Yes, she did have a chance, but what most people seem to be missing here is that Luann has never been interested in Gunther. She likes him, yes, but she’s not interested in him romantically. The question is, why should she be interested in him that way? She’s not obligated to go for him or any other guy she’s not interested in. No one is obligated to be with someone they’re not interested in. Like it or not, we like who we like—and no one can make us like who we don’t.

She had more than ample opportunity to be his girlfriend and she knows it. Part of her can’t get over the fact that it could have been her where Bets is. Of course that’s no one’s fault but hers. She’s got plenty of dating potential, but she keeps chasing after the (emotionally or physically) unavailable ones and pushing off the ones that are actually present and would have been interested in a relationship. She’s in the same old situation while others are growing and advancing.

Luann just got “Berned”!

Waiting for her to start a lesbian relationship with the housemate