Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for December 17, 2020

”Touché.”

Boring, insecure loser ? Bernice is underestimating herself

good job, Bernice… now say all that to your parents, brother, and brother’s kids

The process continues for Bernice. I have a feeling that Luann will be at her best in the coming week. Reconciliation is in the offing.

Bernice may be surprised to see Bro Ben ver. 2 when she meets up with him.

But it sounds like she sees his nomadic, hippy life as exotic.

I’m having difficulty seeing where GnK is taking this arc. They’ve put in a lot of setup to even get to this point so there has to be a goal in their minds to make the arc worth the effort, I just don’t see any good possibilities.

That makes her a PRETENTIOUS, boring, insecure loser…

I saw a sign that once said “Guests welcome, relatives by appointment”(Relatives often are good in small/infrequent doses)

Must be delicious, Luann has already finished her stew for 2.

Yeah, Bernice. Being honest here, you are boring. BUT I like you anyway because you snark! You’re the snark queen of Pittsville. That says to me you have a brilliant mind. For some people, brainy-ness is sexy and/or stimulating which is the opposite of boring. Luann? The girl next to you? She is boring too AND she does not snark very often. Rarely, actually. So she is more boring than you. Why she is popular mystifies me. I imagine it is because she is friendly and nice. These two things bore me. She draws more people because her personality allows her to get along with most people. To her advantage, actually, I gotta admit.

But ergo spelled backwards is ogre. Not that it means anything, I’m just sayin’.

Hopefully this sets up a nice Christmas reconciliation for Bern but next week G&K may be off on a whole other tangent of the Luann universe.

I got the joke at panel 2. “Ergo”, Google wants to sell you a chair.

It has been a low key, domestic, family friendly strip for a few months, now. Maybe next week we’ll see Jack prepare a gourmet dinner for Puddles, and Bets will get pregnant at a Star Trek event with Gunther. Tom Farrell will have a date with a mature Hollywood actress, currently between movies and husbands. Ben will turn out to be a dud, and Bernice will consider enlisting in the Army, Navy, or Air Force National Guard (whichever one has the best rate of males to females.)

Well, with a little work, Bernice, you can be a boring, secure loser!

Careful what you wish for Bern! Sometimes boring is preferable to interesting. I mean, your brother spent years in another country risking his life only to lose his job with 2 little mouths to feed. I mean, can you imagine how bad it must feel for a 20-something independent man to be forced to move in with the parents who gave him up for adoption because he can’t afford to take care of his children. Believe me, Ben is wishing that his life was boring and his biggest problems were feeling insecure right now.

So.

Bernice acknowledges what many have known about her all along.

That she’s Dull, Boring, and Omnipresent.

That might explain why she’s attracted to “edgy,” potentially dangerously exciting guys, like Zane, Piro and now, the “King of the Suburban Jungle,” Jack.

And it’s not like Bern hasn’t had opportunities for a bit of excitement in her life. Unfortunately, she’s blown such opportunities each time. The New York Trip comes to mind. And instead of “enforcing campus rules” and conducting a “Study Ball,” Bern should have attended that Wild Hall A Bash instead of trying to shut it down. But Nooooo.

So. How do We help Bernice? Luann Dragging her kicking and screaming to the next Halper family dinner would be a good start. But I would suggest:

1) Luann recommending that Bern try for Tiff’s old at job at Kidz First. She may get get over her “kiddie insecurities” by being the little tykes. At least the kids would be highly entertained.

2) Bernice should start hanging with and go clubbing with Tara. There’s nothing like corruption to add a bit of “spice” to one’s life. Plus I want to see Bernice knock over a vending machine.

3) As far as “edgy guys?” Jack? Nyet! Paging Les! ;)

[DUCKS] ;)

Well, just as I called, and again contrary to those who don’t have the vision to see or follow the story, Luann has in fact pulled the admission of insecurity that her super smart best friend has; she just won’t measure up. If this goes the way I think it will Ben is the one who will be in awe of her, the kids will like her, and the intense desire to really get to know the lost part of their childhood as absent siblings will finally be met. My bet.

“If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;

for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself." -Max Ehrmann

Bern still has a full bowl. Luann needs to take control again. Luann grabs Bernie’s spoon and scoops up a bite. “OK, Bernie – open up, the choo – choo is going in the tunnel…”

Bern could use a little “pick-me-up” here…but are these girls old enough to (legally) drink alcohol?

This is what friends are for. Once in a while they hit a run.

Awwww…. Poor Bernice. But Luann knows how to make her feel better just with a little sentence ♡. She gave her back her smile, a real smile, not forced ♡. Together they will surely find a solution. They really are best friends for life ♡.

Oh, heres a trick that always works – instead of talking about yourself, ask others to talk about themselves. Everyone has an interesting story to tell (even you, you idiot, if you just realized it) and they come away thinking you’re brilliant and compassionate… Which is something someone who wants to be a counsellor should want.

She said “they’ll”, which is a contraction for “they will”. This indicates that she hasn’t even been to even one family dinner yet. Being the eternal pessimist, she’s taken this insecurity and created this great big scenario in her mind of conflict and embarrassment. Yes, she’s boring and insecure. I wouldn’t call her a loser though… But she was hiding behind a trash can from some guy she assumed was her brother… pathetic..

Bern… you’re, what – 19?

So while I appreciate Luann comforting her pal, the old trope of “if the smart girl will just stop acting smart, she’ll be more popular” is tiresome . . .sigh . . . “ergo” isn’t that high flautin’ a word, after all, to people who read books.

“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS.” WC Fields.

I told you that Bernice has a complex.

She left out self absorbed.

Or it could be that Bernice is just a tad jealous of Ben.

So boring.

She’s a born loser so less move on

Luann is such a great listener and caring friend. Maybe she should go into counseling as a career!

Bernice is kind of boring.

Bernice doesn’t think she would have much in common with Ben, and can’t talk with him. She needs to give both of them a chance to get along.

Self-fulfilling prophecy?

Luann hits it out of the park!! Good job little buddy.

Poor kid. She really needs some professional help. She is desperately trying to be the center of her own universe. I am not trying to be snarky, please do not misunderstand my comment.

I think Luann is being supportive today. It’s sweet and seemingly sincere.

I’m glad she’s admitting her feelings; now let’s see Luann do some supporting.

you feel sorry for yourself, ergo you are boring!

Therefore, you should most definitely go…..

As a college student one is still young and insecure and, children can make you feel even more so (I remember that). They are bold in their questions; you may look like a mature adult but inside you feel nervous and backed into a corner. With two or three kids it can feel like two against one. When you are older and more confident you have the upper hand and can deal with the situation.

Should Luann go with her or is this a “stand on you own two feet” situation?

“No, Bernice! You’re not a boring, insecure loser! You’re just hard-headed, bossy and tone-deaf!”

I can understand Bernice, but if she lists her accomplishments, she will find she is extraordinary.

Bernice is completely self-centered, only thinking about herself. She should learn how to talk to other people and show an interest in them.

Queue “Aunt Bernice is the coolest aunt in the whole world1” in 3… 2…

sheesh, she talks like a 30 year old…

But Bernice, yor ARE a boring, insecure loser!

Bern open up.

Ego misellus ergo sum

Humorist H. Allen Smith worked at a newspaper with an editor who hated the word ‘ergo’ so much that he would fly into a rage when he saw it in a manuscript. So Smith would find a way to wedge ‘ergo’ into a piece he was writing when things got too quiet around the office!

No one else can “make” Bernice feel like a boring insecure loser. That is her own doing. She decided how she feels about herself.

she forgot nerd and dork and bookworm

Cogito, ergo sum joke:

René Descartes walks into a MacDonalds and orders a burger.

“Would you like fries with that?” the counter person asks.

" I think not" René says, and promptly disappears!

:-/

To me, part of what Bernice feels about Ben is neither envy of his ‘exotic’ upbringing, or jealousy. I honestly think that Bernice feels a sense of guilt (which she shouldn’t feel) because their parents gave him up for adoption, but kept her. But that was a choice that the parents made, and not a reflection on either of their children. And sometimes it works out to be the best interest of the child given up, if the parents really couldn’t have taken good care of a kid at the time…

Seriously WOW.

Ergo, if you can’t impress them with substance then dazzle them with semantics! lol Seriously, B. Is putting too much pressure on herself. Ben is older and has had a completely different upbringing and lifestyle. She’s doing just fine in her own right. And the only person who can really make you feel inferior is yourself. If Ben has anything about him, he will explain this to her and tell her he loves her and is impressed by her and ease her fears and expectations of herself. Whether or not he has this in him remains to be seen.

“Children make me feel insecure” is a pretty vague phrase. Does she think being childless at 19 makes her less successful than her brother? Does having to interact with kids just make her uncomfortable and unsure of the right way to communicate with them? It’s a pretty meaningless statement on its own – sort of like a line she read in a psych book with no context.

The older I get the more I appreciate not being younger…

Ah, leave it to Luann to find a bright side to this. Not sure how much affirmations will help. Getting her brother’s approval, or his showing his admiration of her is the only thing I can see helping her. She needs to meet him and soon.

There sure is a lot of Bernice bashing here and total lack of empathy. How a person appears and acts often covers up many insecurities. Many of our late comedians are perfect examples.

She hasn’t even seen Ben lately. He no longer has the “war hero look” and he has “let himself go!” Bernice has nothing to worry about!

He’s had the first grandkids. Nothing she will ever do will measure up to that in the family’s eyes. (speaking from experience) She also runs the rest of ’permanent free babysitter."

I can see how Bernice would feel that way. “Adventure” and “experiences” have been monetized and commodified -paying a fortune for “adventure travel” instead of just going backpacking, etc. That does make it seem like she’s not “living life to the fullest!” per advertising. She is super interesting intellectually, but also unapproachable, so she comes across as “dull” because not a lot of people are going to appreciate a person (and less so a female) interrupting Ben’s amazing dinner party sailing story to ask peoples opinions on psychology, unfortunately. It’s why lawyers and academics don’t get invited to a lot of dinner parties:). As for kids…well, yeah. We are, for better or worse living in a society that still judges women on there reproductive skills, and kids do need a lot. Can’t TELL you the number of times my childless butt has had to sit through a family get together that consisted of my brother interrupting me every 2 minutes to deal with his kids and tell me how great his wife is. Now he wonders why I keep finding creative ways to avoid the holiday dinners….

That isn’t the reason. She is comparing herself to another is her primary mistake. Stop doing that and just be you and go to get a free meal. Wait until something really bad happens not this HS sobfest in waiting.

Boring? Yes. Insecure? Very yes. Loser? No.

The strengths of others stand out if they are not our own. Weaknesses in others might not be as weak as they seem, might not even be evident. We can feel our own and discover there are others we never noticed.

If we don’t feel we are perfect, we can find ways to improve. We who can’t imagine being any better would have a hard time getting there.

Now, if those dinners included a course rich in Ergot …

The thing is, Bernice has ALWAYS felt like that, underneath her snarkiness. Take heart, Bern. The only way out is through, as any good therapist will tell you. But this is a start. Recognize the problem, face the problem, go on with your life.

“Boring insecure loser”? —Yeah, I’d say that about sums you up, Bernie. Pretty decent self-evaluation. Too bad Luann doesn’t have a good follow-up. Ergo, she needs to do a rigorous self-evaluation, too….

I don’t know how old these children are, but I’m sure she can simply ignore them, the way Brad and Toni ignore Shannon. At least their parent will be there to take care of them. Seriously, the little kids in “Luann” are not as cute as they think they are. Neither are the big kids. So ignore them.

For all those who wrote off Luann as an immature loon, I give you this moment she’s having with Bern.