Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for May 02, 2017

“Illogical. Illogical.”

Bingo, Bernice.

oy, vey

So if a little knowledge is a dangerous thing – I guess a lot of knowledge is even more dangerous.

so is Bernice in love with Piro or not?

Just let the feeling wash over you Bernice. All that crap does not help you experience real passion. Passion is not based on reason. It’s based on endorphins, and even more heart, and desire. You got all of that. Just let it happen. Anyone think she can.

As has been said before, Bernice should just go ahead and buy those 15 cats already.

You ruined it with overthinking, Bernice!

Isn’t this how fictional characters find out that they’re gay? (e.g. the Harry character in Mike and Molly.)

Sometimes it just isn’t there. Not at all abnormal, so Bernice is not ready for an emergency sit down with Pru just yet.

Poor Bernice hasn’t figured out that if you spend all your time analysing your life, you don’t get a chance to live it…

Oh goody, Bernice has learned yet another life lesson that she will forget all about before the next time we see her.

Been reading Luann for decades. Love the growth of Greg’s characters, stories and artwork!

If there is a next time, you need to participate and not stand there like a statue. Perhaps if you had just pressed your lips into his and ignored everything around you. Dez could have waited.

Bernice’s Love Test (and her responses)

The first time you saw your man, you:

Wanted Piro to notice me and not think of me just as Dez’ super uncool nerdy roommate.

How long have you been hanging out with your man?

One time, but it lasted several hours.

If your man isn’t at school, you:

Would never know because I don’t have any classes with him and I don’t know where he lives and I don’t know his last name and I don’t know what he is majoring in and I don’t know year in school he is. I really would never notice.

Why do you want to date your man?

Def his looks and those smoldering eyes and his scarf and that star-shaped thing chopped out of his hair.

When your man does something that’s not cool, you:

Piro never does anything that’s not cool. He is the very definition of cool.

Since you met, how has your relationship progressed?

We went from barely talking to each other or seeing each other to a night where I read him lecture notes for hours, I broke a curfew rule with him and he confessed to robbing a vending machine to save me from getting caught breaking the curfew and we kissed or rather he kissed me. We are making real progress.

How does your man act toward you?

He tries to get put in jail to save me and then he kisses me when I don’t expect it.

Sometimes I secretly feel like:

I didn’t feel anything special the one time he kissed me.

When you get a text from him, you:

I would freak out because he’s never texted me.

For Valentine’s Day, you hope your man:

Plans a romantic dinner for two, someplace that’s not on the streets with the homeless people but indoors with clean dishes.

You hope your man:

Will do a better job of kissing me next time.

Perhaps Piro is as inexperienced as Bernice. He could have been on the wrong end of the magnet with that kiss.

First smart thing you’ve said, Bernice.

I personally find this whole thing weird. And it kind of leaves readers up in the air instead of bringing this long arc to resolution. I have no idea where the Evanses are planning to take this.

I don’t think that Bernice is going to turn out to be gay, as some have speculated.

I think that “feeling nothing” under the circumstances is nothing usual or normal at all. It’s highly unusual.

Except if Piro is gay or asexual, and had no passion, it might explain it.

“swoon”. Is that what the kids these days are saying?

Old joke, often told as a true anecdote. A Mick Jagger fan becomes obsessed with the idea of an intimate relationship, or even a single night with him. She follows the band’s concert tours and does everything to attract his attention, without success. Over time in that milieu she meets and even has brief flings with several other rock stars. They are always unsatisfying, always short lived, because all she can think of is “He’s great, but he’s no Mick Jagger.” Finally he notices her, takes her out, spends an evening with her. Unfortunately, all she can think is, “He’s great, but he’s no Mick Jagger.”

If Bernice’s and Luann’s roles were reversed in this arc, I wonder how much eye-rolling and general snarkiness Bernice would be engaging in.

Again, I question her.

I only want to know about the TV. This seems to be starting a new arc….

Maybe Bernice and Piro are somehow related…

wow

@Dog: I know that Bernice is really ‘simple in taste’, but I was saying that ‘long list of ingredients’, in harmony with her saying “everything, etc, etc… Oh, yeah, and this simple-kernel-at-the-heart-of-it, too”.

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And, when you think about it, also in harmony with today’s strip, even something as ‘plain and simple appearing’ as Corn Flakes will list a few complex sounding ingredients….

Seems Bernoce is trying to see if she and Piro have any chemistry…

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…by using The Periodic Table ….

Honestly, I think Bernice should just come out of the closet. I’ve always felt that she and Delta would make a cute couple.

“A Vulcan Do Attitude”

“Simply Complex”

“Piro’s Lips, Under A Microscope”

“Vacation For A Brain”

“Rest Is Like A Library Book…It’s Overdue”

“Twisted Analy-sister” (♩)

“24 Hours To Go… I Want A Piece Of Data!” (♪)

“Easy To Be Hard” (♬)

“She Blinded Me With Science” (♬)

“Crazy Little Thing Called Love” (♬)

“Chaotically Miniscule Item Labeled As Love” (♬♩)

“See Ya Later, Calculator!” (♬)

or

“Blind As A Battery Of Tests”

Wonder if there’s a joke floating around somewhere, starting off with:

“Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, the Borg, Data, Tuvok, Spock, Zebo and Bernice all walk into a bar…"

In the last panel, Bernice gave herself the best advice, “she needs to stop thinking about it for a while”. What’s Luann up to? Where are we going from her?

A brilliant deduction, Sherlock Bern.

“Did you swoon?”

Asked no 21st century kid, ever. Except maybe ironically, with a few emojis attached.

So, this extremely long, drawn-out buildup leads to a big flat nothing? Is that the way that this is going to go? That seems to be the way a lot of these “potential love connection” storylines end up. I’m getting plenty tired of that, to be honest, so I hope that is not the case here.

Are we all overthinking this just like Bernice? Neurosis as a condition is normal, we all have them. People work through them or not. This is a comedic development of a neurotic character, a basically normal avatar. Lets hope she is not a “not”.

I’m so tired of hearing about Piro, can we please move on to somebody else? Heck, I’ll even take Gunther if it means no more Piro for a while.

@Greg E: For about the fifth time! Is this joke going somewhere?

Experiment, try kissing many and see how it feels and what all diseases are passed orally.

Shouldn’t it say:“Special Guest Star, Luann” like on a spin off series since Luann hasn’t been in HER comic strip for so long???

6

I find Bernice’s angst simultaneously endearing and annoying.

The endearing aspects are that she is concerned and trying to figure out her feelings. I think her trying to figure out her feelings is a good thing. But, in the greater scheme of things I would hope that she would know enough about relationships that she would already be aware that a single, unexpected kiss, especially during a time of high tension is not going to be the real indicator of whether a relationship is worthwhile or not worthwhile. She should simply take a wait-and-see attitude and if she an Piro go out on an actual date or two or three, and she ends up having fun and enjoying herself, that would be a far better indication of the potential merits of a relationship with Piro. If after a date or two or three she finds herself feeling “blah” then that is also a good indication of the potential merits. But, a fleeting kiss in the midst of high drama and stress…. not so much.

The annoying aspects for me are that she is looking for answers in “love tests” on-line and “passion diagnostics” tests on-line because of one single, momentary kiss in a time of high stress. I think if she wants to examine the events further, she should either a) think about it in her own mind, and come to the realization that the timing of the kiss was not such that it would “inevitably” lead to feelings of passion, so she could realize she needs more data, or b) talk with her friends (which she is doing with Luann, fortunately) to just work through the events.

Maybe Piro is just a bad kisser?

FROM YESTERDAY: never let it be said that I can’t admit when I am wrong:31768 1 DAY AGOand then the good news are left for long last! and Luann is speechless.TRILOGY GC INSIDER ABOUT 22 HOURS AGO@31768 So as usual, you NEED to com,plain. She was absent for a long time. YOU were on of the main gripers of this. Now she ios here and you want her to shut up. PLEASE STOP posting inane comments.JPUZZLEWHIZ ABOUT 12 HOURS AGO@TrilogyWhere did he say he wanted Luann to shut up? All I saw was that he said Luann was “speechless”.TRILOGY GC INSIDER LESS THAN A MINUTE AGOI misread it. I thought he said the good news is Luan is speechless.

My apologies to 31768

I wonder how many hours Piro has spent analyzing and agonizing over the kiss?

The comments are more interesting today. I think the Evanses are exploring all kinds of relationships. (1) Luann and Quill just not meeting each other’s needs, despite the attraction. (2) Les not getting Pru’s attraction to women. (3) Gunther and Rosa with very different long range goals. (4) And now, Bernice definitely having considerable attraction to Piro, but seemingly devoid of a physical component. Some younger readers are frustrated by this, but it is the norm, until a healthier relationship that fires on all cylinders begins to flourish. Or, as is the case for some, being single is the answer. Finally, for this strip, it is not very important how Luann and Bernice are doing in their classes. That’s all peripheral, and not the focus for Greg.

Ugh tell us who the thief was already :P

Usually a few moments of really good flirtation leads to a good kiss. This one came too much out of nowhere.

Why does Bern have to be in love with anyone? Quit thinking about boys, work on your education and start a career so you can get out of this one-horse town and do something meaningful.

Also….. why aren’t Bern and Luann drinking wine yet? THey’re like 35 years old

It’s Tuesday. Looks like these two are going to be talking about this for the rest of the week. Reminds me of the old Fletcher’s Castoria commercial and its jibe at prunes: “Three enough? Six too many?” I’d say three days of this is plenty. Two would be enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaD4qT_wNIk

Bern needs a few of those brownies or a scotch on the rocks. I am reminded of this time last year when she was agonizing over her desire to apologize to Gunther and she had written a letter the size a tax package.

This may be the beginning of Bernice’s sexual discovery with girls.

Bern didn’t used to be this repressed. So what happened?

The tables are turned between Bernice and Luann. Before, it was always Luann who seemed confused and unsure about life and relationships; Bern would always give her the logical analytical answer, and in a demeaning way sometimes. Now it is the other way around. Bern’s controlling detail-oriented approach to everything is not serving her well; a kiss is not something you analyze in that way. Now, Luann is the more self-assured of the two while Bern is confused and neurotic.

Could we have our second gay character?

pounds on table ACE/ARO BERNICE, ACE/ARO BERNICE.

Even in realtime, overanalyzing will mess up the moment..

How exactly does one know ahead of time what the “right amount” of analyzing is?

Hey Bernice? Maybe, Just Maybe, the “problem” is that You Insist on “Falling” for Unshaven Vagabonds.

PS: I’ll Wager Star-Head has spent time with and KNOWS the Gal in Room #213, and WHY She did it…..,

This has always been a problem for Bee. I prescribe a heavy-duty tranquilizer (“chill pill”) for her….

I think if Pru laid a big wet one on Bern – she’d feel something – at least shock…

Not like the old days. See Bern, Gunth & Zane at http://www.gocomics.com/luann/2003/07/25 & before and after.