For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 04, 2024

My favorite part s the unnamed woman’s response to Weed saying, “So, we know that cranial capacity is not related to intellectual capability.”

The old argument used to be that men or whites were smarter than women or other races because of their bigger heads. It seems very appropriate to me that this woman is the one saying, “That’s a given.”

As my sociology teacher in college used to say, “If you can’t dazzle ’em with brilliance, blow ’em away with BS.” ;D

Josef Weeder’s statement just before Mike’s also makes no sense and maybe he should have had “the last word.” Perceived and actual intellect are not the same, and perception does not define potential.

Nice to get away from Elly and her neuroses—even for just one day.

Reminds me of a scene from THE GOLDEN GIRLS, where a couple of Miles’ fellow English professors are discussing the “symbolic” meanings of “Moby Dick” between themselves at a social gathering. Couldn’t they have left the “shop talk” at home??

Of course, it all went WAY over Rose’s head!

“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” — Bilbo Baggins

It seems none of them have a high enough intellect to admit that they have no idea what he said.

Save it for your Ph.D. dissertation.

Eschew Obfuscation!

Very “Good Will Hunting” of him.

So educated, they’re stupid……..

As the great Tyrone Power said in his Bio. “The secret to charm is bull”. That’s what “University” language is to me – Bull.

Morning Lynn, great toon! I really enjoy and appreciate your work, love you, Jim

Reminiscent of far too many dinners during college. With only a few exceptions it is one of the most pretentious periods of a person’s life.

Baffle ’em with bullsh!t. :D

These thought balloons wouldn’t fit into the penultimate panel:

Weed: “Dangit, Mike! Why must you always embarrass my in front of my friends?”

Woman of Indeterminate Ethnicity: “Why is this idiot #@%ing around with us?”

Middle Aged Guy: “Can anybody possibly be this stoopid?”

We can know more than we understand. Now, a piece of pie.

Sesquipedalian language is not indicative of advanced education!

The self actualized development of bafflegab.

That last look on the woman’s face is GOLD. Also, points to Lynn for writing a discussion that actually hits on what people in the field have been debating for years – up until Mike pulls his comments out of his butt of course.

Mike’s been drinking too much coffee…

And THAT is exactly why in 1973 that Bob Seger recorded Back In ’72.

As we used to joke" PhD means Piled higher & Deeper.

There was a time when Abraham Lincoln was in a debate with an opponent. The opponent had given a long blustery speech. Lincoln took a different approach.

Lincoln: How many legs would a horse have if everyone considered his tail a leg?

Audience member: Five?

Lincoln: Four. Calling a tail a leg does not make it so.

Lots of big words.

I believe Mike has misspelled ganglionic as “gangleonic”. Nevertheless, to his point, if you were to pick something to be inversely proportional to Mike’s giant, bloated ego; it would need to be something very small like a good, old ganglionic mass.

If you can’t sing, tap dance. If they’re watching your feet they can’t watch your hands.

Harvard?

Priceless

I’m not sure human intelligence is the correct tool with which to try to comprehend human intelligence.

Mike should go into Medicine…

Sounds like today’s young debaters when they show up to meet with the American congress.

“And everyone will say

As you walk your mystic way

’If this young man expresses himself

in words too deep for me,

Why, what a most particularly deep young man

This deep young man must be!’" – W.S. Gilbert

Mike’s drivel is what caused Eno to…..aw, just see today’s The Duplex.

Brilliant! Wish I could do that! Blow ’em away with BS!

This s another from of techno-babble.

That’s why PhD is an abbreviation for Piled High and Deep.

Ah, Michael: Once an azzole, always an azzole.

No worries. Pretty soon , AI will do our thinking for us.

Last 2 panels the other 3 are thinking “Mike, you are an idiot.”

He lost me at “Gangleonic”.

I think he just said that if the ego is far larger than the brain, one is more prone to being full of shite.

Well Mike, seeing as you suffered under that Nazi Elly for eighteen years, you would know about a gangleon-sized ego!

Well, it leaves them with something to chew on besides lunch.

Michael has diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain.

Ah, I remember meals in the dining hall where my classmates and I were intellectually posturing for no good reason. Those were the days.

I think what he said means his head is up his a*s.

You know someone is full of [spit] when he leaves the ghosts of Derrida and Foucault scratching their heads and asking “What?”

I had a professor who taught at both MIT and Harvard over the course of his career. He said that the fundamental difference between Harvard and MIT students was that when MIT students ran out of things to say they would stop.

No, Lynn. Michael is not an intellectual, no matter how hard you try to make him seem that way.

Mike….either lose the beard of become “The Fifth Beatle”