Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for May 12, 2021

Why didn’t Jack tell Bernice about Nil instead of 3rd hand via Luann!?!? Doesn’t make much sense except to lead to confusion!

At least the scarf will last all week.

This from the woman who is afraid to ask Jack out? Time to look in a mirror, Bernice.

I don’t think Luann meant “touchy” as in "touchy-feely.

I’d get touchy, too, with Luann’s nonchalant attitude here.

Nil is kind of stuck in high school where friends ask friends if they might be interested to date their friends. What Jack should have done is tell Nil to put on big boy panties and call/text Bernice himself. I understand Bernice’s annoyance about being asked via surrogates. This says Nil has no confidence and is terrified of rejection. Wonder if Bernice, left alone to her thoughts, might manage to arrive to this conclusion and gives empathy?

Bernice’s utter lack of self-awareness in panel 2 is mind-boggling. And not just regarding Jack either; has she completely forgotten all the nonsense that happened because she wouldn’t simply ask Piro out?!? Awfully judgmental of her considering she’s guilty of the exact same thing.

It starts with the letter B

Wow! Luann being smart and right. It must be the time of a blue moon

Anybody remember the days when the roles were reversed? When LuAnn would be talking herself in circles over which boy she liked. While Bernie stood back and watched. Offering snarky observational commentary?

Luann it’s not touchy it’s more like she over-reacts.

“Why didn’t Nil ask you directly,” Bernice?

Fear of BRUTAL rejection, following sanctimonious non-stop criticism, maybe? ;)

Bernice autorrefenciándose sin darse cuenta

Run Nil! Run!

“Cause you are a spastic psycho. Wanna go to the mall?”.

Bernice is PSYCHO!

I’m with Bernice, any guy who isn’t brave enough to ask a girl out doesn’t deserve her.

Denial is not just a rive4 in Egypt…

Bernice’s hypocrisy is even less appealing than her little ascot. Even so, I do feel she might just find herself falling for Nil…by some time next year. I predict this will be a love story for the ages. But it will take ages.

Not an original storyline – only dramatic gestures and language.

So what’s Luann’s game here? Is she pretending not to know that Bernice had the hots for Jack so as to not embarrass her friend? Or was she complicit in the setting Bernice up for rejection? She seems to be relishing the moment too much.

Notice how most of the unlikable characters are female, except Les? And he’s improving.

Why would Nil want to ask to see if Bernie wanted to go out? He’s going to an art show on Cubism and he wanted to take a real square?

The disturbing thread in this arc is the implication that nerdy Bernice should go out with anybody she can get. Bern already spent one evening with Nil and nothing clicked. More recently, Nil and Tara were wise guys in Luann’s art class – which is not Bern’s game. But Luann is going, “Bern – here’s a live body – go for it!” Luann, it’s always easier to decide who somebody else should date…

Bernice is going to be the old lady with 15 cats

Okay G&K….. zzzzzzzzzz…..

I had another thought about Jack’s conversation with Bernice. It’s pretty speculative, but here goes: Jack might not even realize that Bern responded to his question about going to the art show with Nil before he was finished asking it.

Last Saturday, we saw Bern saying “Yes!” just after Jack said “… art show with”. Realistically, it would have taken some time for her to process Jack’s words and to respond, while he meanwhile kept talking. The panel shows Bern’s “Yes!” just after Jack’s “with” because that’s how she perceived it. If Greg had moved the “Yes!” to take account of the Bern’s reaction-time delay, the result have made no sense to us readers.

Jack would also require a moment to understand Bernice’s “Yes!”, and their combined processing/reaction-time delays could well add up to more than the time it would have taken Jack to utter the words “my friend Nil” (under one second at a normal conversational pace).

I’m also reminded of a study I read years ago in Scientific American about the psychology of speech processing. In one experiment, researchers took tape recordings of human speech, physically spliced out a small fragment, and replaced it by splicing in the sound of a cough. For example, the word “governor” in a political speech might get turned into “*vernor”, where “*” represents the cough. Often, subjects who listened to the doctored recordings correctly reported the original words (e.g., “governor”) when questioned, but failed to accurately report the time of the cough, placing it earlier or later than it actually occurred. Similarly, Jack may not have correctly perceived the timing of Bern’s enthusiastic “Yes!”

Of course this is pure speculation unless and until the writers indicate otherwise, for example by having Jack tell Nil, “I asked her about going to the art show with you, and she said ‘Yes!’ right away.”

Bernice can’t see how complicated she is. Any average person would be afraid to talk to her because of her touchy personality (which is, pretty much, the opposite of what a psychologist should inspire). Luckily Luann tells her this with great honesty and no jokes. She really knows her very well ♡. Bernice looks less heartbroken now. Maybe, after being so much ignored, knowing that someone is interested in her is good for her ego, even if that someone is Nil.

Bernice, from where I’m sitting you’re just a two-dimensional drawing on a computer screen, and I’m afraid of you.

I am a bit curious to see what Bernice thinks about Prof Zebo, if this arc drags out for a bit I’m guessing he is probably playing a prominent role at the art show and it is also likely Nil has some work on display as well. The evening may not be a total train wreck for Bernice as Nil and Zebo are definitely quite different then the people who Bernice typically associates with such as Luann….. In addition, I am not convinced that Jack deliberately set Bern up with Nil for an official date, this could be Luann just doing her best to fluster her friend as these 2 like to do that to one another quite often. Anyhow, if sparks fly, good for you Bern, set up a dinner for 2 at Tiffs!

I’m wondering why Nil would be interested in Bernice when he already knows she isn’t into what he’s into.

Obviously Bernice still has some maturing to do. How about a new guy for Luann in the mean time?

way too much work…

Wow! Tiresias wasn’t this blind….

Hijinks ????

Yeah, ya harpy.

Nil and Bernice went on a date before. It didn’t go well.

Touchy is a polite way to put it.

You all are putting to much into this. Jack “Nils, I got to go Bernice’s fish is is sick” Nils “Bernice is cute, since you can’t go see if she wants to go to the art show”. Jack “Luann I’m leaving. By the way Nils had me ask Bernice if she wanted to go to the art show with him. She said yes”

Who is nil??

Or because he never sees Bernice. where as Jack often does.

Luann is so incredibly RUDE! Acting all high and mighty toward her friend with no thought at all of how this conspiracy is making Bernice feel. She is actually being supportive of it. What a great friend. Conspires behind her best friends’ back and then acts likes it’s no big thing

But not touchy – feely.

I think the most important part of this is the orientation of the pop cans. To me, it doesn’t make sense that the labelling is backward to each other. I just rotated my pop can, and it looks the same on both sides. BTW, did you know that most pencils are right handed? When a left handed person uses a pencil, the script along the side is upside down.

I think Nil and Bernice would be a good couple. They’re both angsty, each in their own style.

“Hello, Jack? Luann here. Please let your friend Nil know Bernice can’t go to that art show after all. She has tests to study for.”

So. Tired. Of. Bernice.

Bernice may be shy but Nil is shy moreso, I bet.Both are snobby intellectuals though.

touchy?!? Who’s Touchy!!??

I can’t imagine why people would be afraid of Bernice. She’s so charming and ladylike.

HA! At first I thought “HIJINKS” was “HUNKS” Sort of looks like that the way it’s written. :D

It’s a comic. I understand. Still, it’s difficult to like Bern. The facial expressions. The raised voice. Insecure and angry do not go well together.

Late last night I opined, above, Why didn’t Jack tell Bernice about Nil instead of 3rd hand via Luann!?!? Doesn’t make much sense except to lead to confusion!

Then, after a restful night’s sleep I recalled my own axiom. “Greg’s characters always revert to norm.” The “norm” being how they acted somewhere in middle school. So these juvenile behaviors will haunt them throughout their Luanniverse lives. Even Brad & TJ (supposedly adults) go off on a tangent and tear down a house they do not own without permission.

I find these 2 just exhausting when they spend time together. But I swear, there is probably some secretive sinister yin-yang-ness (on G&K’s part) implied betwixt the two personalities. But the family level squabbling and soap opera energy they illicit just makes me gnash my teeth in anticipation of the grand let down we are being setup for….GRRR

Bernice: the prototype of our times.

I thought today’s strip was funny, but it’s nothing compared to some of these comments!

The Courtship of Miles Standish …

Could be the same reason she doesn’t tell Jack how she feels. Fear… of rejection?Dollars to donuts Nil shows up with the same scarf! Although he seems to favor the longer scarves. ;-)

“Why not ask me directly?” she asks. Do we have any reason to believe that Nil even has Bernice’s phone number or email address? And if he tried to “happen to be” someplace where she might happen to be, mightn’t that seem kind of stalkerish?

If Luann gets to cut loose and tell Bernice what her problems are then maybe it’s time for Bernice to finally get all of her complaints about Luann out in the open.

I still can’t get over Jack’s seeming duplicity of telling Bernice one thing and Luann another. A plot device, I suppose. But it goes against everything we’ve seen about Jack thus far. So I’m sticking with the theory that this is Luann’s ploy and Jack is going along because Nil is his friend.

Borenice is intimi-dating. I fear for Nil when they’re dating.

None of these characters will ever get their acts together, but I am pleased to think that the fish will be properly taken care of in the future.

Says the kettle to the pot, Bernice!

Doesn’t Bernice have 3 tests to study for? She should go back in her room for a long time and leave Luann, Jack and Nil alone.

Think I’m going to lay low.

One: It is now crystal clear that Luann was in on Jack’s bait-and-switch all along, even before the fish got sick, meaning that Jack had been planning this, again, before the fish got sick.

That the fish got sick was just an open window of opportunity to execute the plan. In other words, a plot device.

Therefore, I would say that just about all the comments yesterday about Luann’s behavior were deserved. Not to mention, I stand by my remark that this does take Jack down a notch or two because, as many of you noted, to date, Jack has always been the straight shooter. Now, suddenly, he’s a wee bit of a sidewinder…

Two: Those who have always been hoping for Luann to get some snark revenge on Bernice, well, hope you’re all happy.

For what it’s worth, to me at least, this arc is becoming really hard to follow. Not that it’s difficult to follow, just that it’s becoming difficult to like anybody’s behavior thus far in this arc.

I can see why the fish was ill. He lives in the toxic environment of Bernice’s room. Poor fish.

Evidently Nil’s buddy Tara was not a “date.” Or if it was, Tara admitted she does catch & release (AKA “Heartbreaker”).

so what is going to happen when Nil and Bernice do go to the art exhibition. Nothing much? Or a dating breakthrough of some kind? One can only wonder, and they two more days in this arc, so odds are we still in it on Monday. That should take a week to sort out.

If Luann was the actual instigator of the first use of the term “date”, then perhaps both Nil and Bernice will become so enraged that they will announce their engagement just to see Luann’s reaction, and the hijinks that will ensue.

Not just touchy. Judgy too. Of course this set up is from Jack and Luann who keep circling around each other.

It seems that when Luann phrases her observations as questions Bernice doesn’t get annoyed.

Guess she’d actually consider dating Nil. Now that would be interesting or crazy since she really like muscle guys.

Last panel: Lu doing her best Kermit sipping tea…

I foresee that this “date” is not going to go well…

Please let Bernice take a long walk off a short pier!

Maybe Luann hope’s Bern will let Nill touch that button that makes her go WoW, and open her eyes to the fun side of life.

6

Bernice’s own insecurities make it difficult for her to realize that others may feel similarly towards her. Nil apparently finds Bernice rather enticing… and wants to try a date again, even though their first was not a stellar success.

And, I do not fault Nil for having Jack ask for Nil…. it would have been NICE for Nil to do this… but apparently he is more shy and reticent about such things than even his generally “Emo” affect suggests.

Nothing like a friend to tell it like it is!

As Phil Collins in his Genesis career used to say, “tell me why this is a land of confusion.”

He hopes she is.

Luann got that right. She over-reacts. Nil is kind of shy as indicated by how he holds himself and how he hides halfway behind his hair.

Missing largeKeepKeeper less than a minute ago

Boy do you need yo know more about girls

He’s been reading Cyrano and wanted to see if it really works like that.

Bern if fearfully touchy

Some men are bashful, after all…

Touchy is an understatement.

“Touchy” is too polite a word, Luann. To be blunt, Bernie has a repulsive personality….

Maybe Nil’s looking for a fearsome woman, like a dominatrix or some such. Once again—marvelous fanfic fodder!