Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce for January 20, 2012

Yeah, giving the principal delicious mini chocolate cakes looks like bribing. How much longer can gina take the pressure of this bet?

Gina has not come to terms she is a suck up and it bugs her it works for other people.

Looks like Gina is headed for detention herself!

Please let this twist tomorrow. It wouldn’t be funny at all if Nate wins this bet.

I agree Sreejay. It does become too predictable and repetitive. An occasional “Nate actually wins” would be a breath of fresh air and could lead to some funny personal growth and changes for him. We all know Lucy pulls the ball away, Lincoln, throw us a curve!

GO NATE, GO!

Allow me to analyze the situation.

Gina has 10 bucks at stake. 10 bucks – to a kid, at least – is like a year’s salary.

Nate has a day of being Gina’s personal servant for a day. To Nate, this is like a year of imprisonment at Guatanimo Bay in Cuba.

But both have their pride at stake – and I think Nate is going to win. Both Gina’s and Nate’s pride are about the exact same size – only one is pink and the other is blue.

As the saying goes, pride goeth before a fall. Which will suffer hubris? Nate – or Gina?

I think Nate is putting his pride aside in order to win the bet. Gina, however, is not, and her pride will fall and Gina will eat crow. Hubris is a big, scratchy, weird-tasting pill to swallow.

The teaching staff have all the power in the world to send Nate to detention. They can only send Nate to detention if they have only the slightest reason – case in point, Mrs. Godfrey gave Nate detention for being 15 seconds late to class. But they can’t send Nate to detention for no reason whatsoever, unless he is being blamed for something else.

The thing is – Nate is being on his best behaviour – he is being respectful to authority (the teachers), the school property (the soda machine) and its rules (not being absent or tardy, handing in homework on time, etc.)

If he makes an honest mistake, he admits to it, apologizes and offers a reasonable solution – exactly when he left his homework on the kitchen table.

And he is being nice to authority (teachers and principal), showing them that he does indeed respect them, rather than fear or hate them.

And Nate does respect his elders who respects him – such as School Photograph Guy – a bald, fat, bespectacled gentleman who is most likely single and still lives with his Mother – but Nate respects him, all the same.

Not sure how Nate treats Coach John (who harbours nothing but contempt for his students) or the school janitor, but I don’t ever remember seeing Nate’s “Oh, How I Hate Her” rhetoric for Mrs. Godfrey as to Coach John. Nate just usually sucks it up and rolls his eyes, while Coach John is oblivious to the indifference from his students.

And Gina is being at her worst. Gina WANTS Nate to misbehave, to show disrespect, so she tries to hedge her bet by being a tattle-tale. And I have a sneaking suspicion that she will try to sabotage Nate.

I’m really rooting for Nate, here – because he is being good.

Gina, I’m not rooting for – as she, as evident in this strip, turned to the dark side and tried to tattle on Nate, trying to sabotage the bet. Unfortunately for Gina, Nate is too darn clever.

GO NATE GO! GO NATE GO!

I really mean it. No gender bias or anything, but Gina is not a very nice little girl and thinks only for herself. Nate, while he does think a lot about himself, he does consider others and can be a good guy when he wants to be.

Lincoln Pierce is a good author – he’s teaching a lesson to kids – if you can’t be good for goodness sake, at least be good in order to show up your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much.

GO NATE GO! GO NATE GO!

Oh, and Charlie Brown DID indeed get to kick the football. It was on a TV special. YouTube it, and you’ll see what I mean.

Charlie was turned invisible, so Lucy couldn’t see him. And Charlie did indeed kick the football. It was Charlie Brown that had to throw the “curveball” by playing Lucy at her own game.

But the concept of Charlie turning invisible is fantastic. The concept of Nate avoiding detention is very real.

Again, GO NATE GO! BE A FORCE FOR GOOD, AND SHOW THE REWARDS FOR BEING SO.

But. You, Lincoln Pierce, are the author and your moral rights are preserved.

But keep in mind, this is the strip that I read first, and is my sole reason to get up early in the morning.

GO NATE, GO!

Go to 8:30 on this YouTube video. Charlie does indeed kick the football. It took some magic to do it, but it indeed happen in the Peanuts canon.

http://youtu.be/zkSqy4ZVpeI

GO NATE GO!

Nate is smarter than u think gins.

This is indeed a long arc for Lincoln, but one of my favorite strips, 9 Chickweed Lane, did an arc covering every weekday between 11/16/2009 and 9/25/2010 to tell a flashback story to World War 2 and its aftermath. There were a few extra strips in Oct. ’09 and a followup on in Oct ’10, but the story was a long (and truly excellent ) one. Linc, take note – with the right story to tell, our attention spans CAN last longer than a week!

This is by far the funniest storyline for Nate in a long time. Thanks, Lincoln!

looks like the Principal’s in his pocket too!

anyone up for brownies

If those brownies are poisoned it’s all over!

Speaking of “brrrrrrroooooooooowwwwn”………..Nate’s maybe “in a class of his own”, once again: King Brown Nose Of P.S 38!! Haw! HAW!!

I’d also call it a win when Nate wised up and dumped the Marcus posse. Got roughed up but he was the moral winner in that one.

I’m pulling for you, kid—if you’re not going to chicken-pox it, then go all out.

If nothing else, perhaps Nate will learn the lesson about catching more flies with honey than vinegar.

Perfect ending to this: Gina snaps and gets detention.

Gina looks distraught…and I suspect she is about to take maters into her own hands and go on the offensive.

Duck Nate! Duck!

I enjoy this story line, I kind of hope Nate wins, and Gina loses, it’d be fun to actually see Gina get detention herself during her attempts to get Nate busted and win the bet. We’ll see what Mr. Pierce has in store for us though.

I don’t think the strips are repetitive. They are definitely balanced!

If you think THIS storyline has been going on a long time, you should head over to “Alley Oop” here on GoComics. It’s been following the same story for at least two months now … very slowwwwly.

Ginas Had enough fun. Now its time for revenge

Brownies? Really, Nate?

NOW IM HUNGRY!!!

Gina’s just jealous because she’s not the only World’s Biggest Suck-Up. I hate people like that. (Who beg and suck-up or whines all the time. It’s so annoying)

Etta James died on that date! 5 days until she was 74!

Etta James died on that day

I would just like to appreciate Francis for always be by Nate’s side. Even if not, I appreciate how Francis team up with Gina or at least betray him, even though Gina and Francis are both geniuses

gina chill. u been sucking up to the teachers ever since u were born. u r just scared that nate will win the bet. take a chill pill gina. also, i hate gina so much. she is such a tattle tale and a hypocrite

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!