O Captain, My Captain
January 26, 2014
5:35 am
Fun game; go back through the archive and find all the “Lobster” references relating to Commander.
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things
Updated Mondays or whenever I feel like it
Fun game; go back through the archive and find all the “Lobster” references relating to Commander.
I… I don’t know what to make of this new knowledge…
I certainly did not see this coming wow the commander’s real name is rock lobster!
No, it isn’t. But in the same way that Bill Clinton’s real name isn’t “Bill” and is in fact “William”
Legally, his name is Commander Badass.
He considers his name to be Rock Lobster.
I think Private Idaho would be better though maybe not cause private is such a low rank
I’d prefer “Rock Baby-Mr-Fish”
But a baby-Mr-Fish is a Magicarp, not a Crawdaunt. -.-
I was refering to this strip http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/next-week-youll-get-the-sucker-punch-comic-i-was-going-to-do-for-today
The blue lobster is “Baby Mr. Fish”, I believe that refers to the girl believing the blue lobster is baby gyarados.
Well, more that she was told by the guy with the Gyaradose (Whos name escapes me at the moment) THat lobsters were baby mister fish, I think. Anyway…. yeah, that’s the idea. And I stand by R on this one. “Rock Baby Mr Fish.” would be funnier.
I’ve been reading this comic for a long time now, but I felt that I had to comment on this specific strip, because damn, this Captain looks fiiiiine. I mean, the extra kind of fine.
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/great-power-great-responsibility-comes-with-ect
^ That’s my guess. And no, I don’t really understand the HTML tags.
nice car plate.
He’s also using a coffee mug with a lobster on it when Jared’s screwing around with a portal gun.
Man, his last three were B52 and you didn’t use the common nickname for that plane?
Come on, how would BUFF not be appropriate for this circumstance?
Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame
Problem with that being that the BUFF for the bomber planes stands for “Big Ugly Fat Fucker”. Commander’s not fat.
Neither is the B-52. It’s profile is actually relatively low and narrow. It’s just a heavy jet aircraft that has a huge wingspan. The name BUFF would make sense on the surface as the Commander is buff as all get out, but the acronym would be a good jab at the whole B52 serial number and serve as a funny twist. Kind of like the endearing insulting nickname we give friends and all.
I would go out on a limb and say that WAY more people are likely to get the B52’s reference than the airplane one. My husband’s a pilot and I didn’t even get that. Who knows if Kelly even knew that in the first place?
Waitaminit. If he’s a genetically engineered super-soldier of the Space-Future Navy TIALS… What exactly does this mean for his kids?
Obviously, they’ve inherited it; how else do you think they could get along with Mr Fish without being eaten?
probably that they get some really good genes at least from his side of the family.
And then let’s add that his ex-wife is also from the future and ponder what spacefuture genetics her side of the family may have to offer…
Is she from the future? I don’t think that was ever mentioned was it?
I seem to recall unexplained time travel-related problems being one of the reasons behind the divorce.
Yeah but I think all of the reasons were on the commanders side of things, like, something would happen and it would be becuase of him, related to time travel. And eventually she was just like “Forget this mess.” I’d have to go back and check it out to make sure, like absolutely sure, but I’m pretty sure when the commander goes back in time to steal his coffee back, that’s when he says something about it.
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/he-just-doesnt-like-talking-about-himself
100% sure Coelasquid said that Maddie is from the future too. It was either somewhere on this site’s comment section or her tumblr blog. The Word of Colea!
Is it my imagination, or does there seem to be a surplus of readers here who are focusing on what’s in CB’s jeans…er, genes?
The more important question is what happened to the recessive genes…I’ve uh…been playing a lot of Metal Gear the last few weeks.
Nanomachines, son!
It means they can get USAA insurance… of the future.
You forget, Commander isnt ACTUALLY genetically engineered, they revealed a while back that he’s just a soldier who got picked for a particular image. The thing about him being made from American soil and steak was just something he told Jonesy to screw with her.
Genetically engineered does not mean synthetic manufacture. I highly doubt a future advanced enough to have time travel wouldn’t have genetic manipulation down like the alphabet. Rearrange a few strands of DNA, insert some extra stuff for enhanced healing and thicker skin and better homeostatic mechanisms so as to allow him to be comfortable in a wider range of climates… “Soldier Boosts” as sometimes referred to in more conventional sci-fi. Obviously in the future they have medical screening processes to prevent these ‘boosts’ from being inherited naturally, but if his wife is a 20th/21st-century woman and the kids were born in ‘modern’ times, such technology would not exist… though going into Labor would be a -GREAT- distraction from Time Travel, so I think I just answered my own question.
Actually, any soldier-boosts probably wouldn’t be possible to inherit, since they’d be on the somatic level—i.e., the cells of his body. Changes made to the genes of his body cells wouldn’t affect his germ-line cells (the spermatozoa), so they wouldn’t be passed onto his kids. On the flip side, though, somatic genetic manipulation is much easier to use and fix than germ-line manipulation, mainly because you won’t get glitches showing up further down the line.
You make a good point. If they’re going to use genetic modifications, make them ‘safe’. I admit to having next to zero knowledge when it comes to molecular biochemistry, specifically genetics…
But if his boosts were granted by nanomachines, that’s something I can chat all day about.
I have to admit that I’m a guy & have never had to go through it, but from what I understand, they don’t call it “going through Labor” for nothing.
pretty sure at some point Commander badass said him and his fellow soldiers were made out of dirt and AAA steaks. and that because of stupid reason to go to war his immage got changed form one of a generic soldier to the look he has right now.
I do love me some Rock Lobster.
…Now i’m cravin’ for sea food…
We were out in space,
Everybody had paper cranes!
Somebody went into the barracks,
And there they found a rock.
But it wasn’t a rock…
It was COMMANDER BADASS!
*slow clap*
Sultana, you have earned my respect this day.
This is in the single greatest thing I’ve ever read.
See the license plate in Great Power, Great Responsibility, Comes With, Etc. ‘RKLBSTR’
Oh, I love this new lady’s design!
How about Riddick? I’d like to continue my campaign to get a guest appearance by Vin Diesel in general &/or Riddick :D
… wait, I thought Vin Diesel WAS the Commander.
vin diesel isn’t manly enough ^-^
That is one tough lookin’ super futuristic soldier lady. And daddy likey.
I feel I must quote the Lorax here… That’s a woman!? O_O
Took me a minute, too. I think she might be a born-male transgendent, but don’t quote me on that.
~FACE-PALM~
When in doubt, ask politely what’s their preffered pronoun.
Agreed. I’d preffffffffer it if everyone catered to the whiniest 0.1% of the population, please.
Wow you are a closed-minded, bigoted, prejudice motherfucker aren’t you?
Last I checked, the whiniest percentage of the population was cisgender, white, heterosexual people that feel entitled to their ‘right’ to shit on others because they’re scared of anything they don’t know about.
Newsflash, giving a minority the same level of respect you would give anyone else isn’t catering, it’s being a decent person. Which you, by the way, are not.
Cis men don’t have hips like that.
Is this a reference I’m missing, or is it just his name?
Come on guys! B25′s Rock Lobster! One of the best songs of the 80s!
You’re not the only one, so don’t worry about it.
The “B52” mentioned in panel 6 is referring to an 80s band called The B-52s (yes, after the bomber [specifically, a hair style that resembles the aircraft’s nose cone]). “Rock Lobster” and “Love Shack” are two of the songs they did (former their debut single, the latter probably one of their better known songs among those who know anything of them at all).
Ah. Makes sense! Thanx for the info.
And now the author suddenly feels very old. xD
Thought the hairstle was a ‘Bee-hive’, because it, you know, looks like a beehive (hey, don’t look at me like that, our government building is called the Beehive as well)
It’s a beehive variant. I just cut the corner a bit out of laziness. :P
All you kids get off my lawn.
Sounds like old man Jenkins.
I will admit that I totally missed the band reference… I instantly thought of The B52 bomber instead.
I still say, when Gackt and his wife called him “B”, it’s fairly simple:
His name is Badass.
Waaaaaiiiiiiiit. When he’s called B. It’s not B for Badass, it’s B for B52. *mind blown*
Nope. His name is Badass. :D
That’s my headcanon.
Okay, I see it as Gackt meaning “B” for “B52”, and his ex meaning “B” for “Badass”.
Gackt didn’t call him B, he actually referred to him by the last 10 digits of his “seventy five digit serial number ending in ‘B-52’.”
As far as his wife and the one other time one of the guys called him ‘B’ pretty sure it does just stand for Badass
Source:I just read the entire archive for lobster archives, only found one comic where Jared has convinced his kids lbsters are “baby Mr. Fish”
Actually, he also has a vanity plate on his car (when Jared is washing it) that says “RKLBSTR”
Uuuurgh… Because you mentioned references in the archives I had to go back through them and look. My answer: none. I couldn’t find any. Well done for getting me to read through the entire comic again though. Well played.
Check the vanity plate on his car.
Aaaaah! Ha ha! Awesome. I was just looking for references in speech.
Resisting… urge… to go through… archives… again…
IIRC he also had a lobster mug.
Why is his nickname not Stratofortress?
Well I do remember his mug had a lobster on it in that comic about why the comic was late, which then caused me to procrastinate on my homework for a while with that burrito bison thing. Other than that none popped to mind immediately, though someone mentioned baby mister fish and that was a lobster so I guess that’s one. Now I’m gonna have to go back and look for stuff.
Baby Mr Fish was a Magikarp
Yeah, but as people have pointed out before when it’s been pointed out technically a baby mr. fish would be a magikarp, I was referring to the strip described below. I don’t care if the lobster was blue, I still think it counts, but I’d need Coelasquid to verify before I 100% trust one view or the other.
It was the Commander’s daughter who thought lobsters were “baby Mr. Fish” because Jared fooled her into thinking so. So she tried to wrestle a lobster to freedom, one that was supposed to be dinner for the family. Mr Fish was a Magikarp when he was a baby, not a lobster.
And with this I realize I’ve read this comic too many times!
The baby mr fish was probably because the lobster was blue… I doubt that’s a connection.
His coffee mug sometimes has a lobster on it, the vanity plate on his car… pretty sure there was a metal lobster claw like nutcracker or something on his desk at one point. Don’t remember exactly.
You’d think the kids would like lobster even less if they knew their dad went by that name. It’s his name in the spacefuture and nowhere else I’m thinking.
I actually prefer that name to Commander Badass.
Pretty sure Rock lobster is his first name, so it would be Commander Rock-Lobster Badass…
my brain keeps trying to insert a Mc into that to make it McBadass dunno why?
It’s the accent.
Pretty sure that names up there with Mr Torgue High-Five Flexington
It’s a shame Mr. Torgue has no need for the agency as the head of a successful megacorp. Because he’d fit right in.
EXPLOOOOOOOOSIOOOONS!!
He’s probably not the head of Torgue Corporation anymore considering that the canonical ending of the Badass Crater of Badassitude plotline had him being arrested because ‘HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT ILLEGALLY ORGANIZING AN ILLEGAL OFFWORLD FIGHTING RING WAS ILLEGAL.’
Oh hey, the captain guy, is he the captain guy? Anyway, he looks familiar. Was he part of the little team in those flashbacks? Like the centipede planet?
Pretty sure that’s a very muscular woman. Look at the hip-to-waist ratio.
Who knows what Nomura Syndrome does when it’s left untreated for extended periods…
Nope, that’s pretty obviously a woman.
Just look at the hips and waist…oh and then there’s the fact that she has boobs.
Nope I still don’t see it….
I’m also still in favor of killing him with fire before he can spread the pretty-bug.
What the? I’m posting here for the first time in months, if not years and it tells me that I’m posting too quickly?
There’s some weird wordpress error that makes the site think everyone is posting from the same IP.
Maybe they are. Maybe the serial killer is in this very room!
And stealing your bandwidth!
That explains so much. I don’t suppose there’s a possibility of that being remedied? Or if anyone knows what too fast actually is so I can space my comments out appropriately? I’m pretty sure once or twice it wasn’t a glitch that I got that page ^_^;
Millipede planet. And I’m pretty sure he was. I remember him being the guy stuck taking the “nonchalantly walking away from an explosion” photo.
Aha, thank you, that’s what I thought.
Never mind. Coelasquid says it’s two different people.
Yeah, I noticed >.<;
So gone through the first two years of archives, so far the only reference to Lobster I’ve noticed is the kids playing with a lobster and Commander B talking to his wife on the phone asking if this was her idea.
In retrospect, that is a pretty mean joke.
He has a lobster coffee cup in a few comics too.
How fitting that he took the name of an immortal, shelled creature that can bend steel with its claws.
You forgot to mention that they’re both genetically engineered super soldiers from the future. This isn’t the last we’ve heard from the Arthropod Uprising…
An uprising I can quell with melted butter is an uprising I can get behind…or stop…this metaphor has fallen apart on me.
You are an evil person Coel…
Everyone who does attempt to find them all, you have my pity.
Sergeant Rex “Power” Colt, is now a Secretary? That just goes to show, you can’t always be a badass cyborg super soldier. Or can you?
Jesus Christ, you drop a mystery about the commander’s name, and everyone becomes blind to Kano-secretary sitting right there.
He’s so hot, whatever his name is. It’s also cool seeing him so happy! We’ve got like three smile moments in this very strip!! <3 <3 <3
Hay! It’s the guy who took the Walking away from explosion picture!
Is it just me, or is that the same guy from these strips?
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/cherry-cherry-sweet-caroliiiiine
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/of-course-the-millipede-planet-has-an-oxygen-rich-atmosphere-how-else-would-the-millipedes-survive
It’d fit, I mean. . .
Naw, that’s Ace, this is Angel Eyes. Ace is supposed to look more like a squirrely Daniel Dae Kim and Angel Eyes like Lady!Lee van Cleef but I haven’t had a chance to really sit down and get their designs right so they drift back and forth a lot. Ace is smaller, Angel’s like female bodybuilder hueg.
Ahh, okay. Sorry, I can see it.
Aw dang. I totally thought it was and I squeed because recognizing continuity makes me squee…
Looking back now, I did wonder why Camera Dude (didn’t remember his name) had more womanly hips than I remembered, but I just attributed that to the belt.
I dunno about humble. Crustaceans are pretty tough!
This revelation puts his signature colors in a new context, too. Sweet…
I thought that was just his uniform?
Do they have uniforms? I thought they marketed individuals, like living GI Joes with their own action figures.
Anyway, rock lobsters can be red. Before cooking, I mean. And we do associate lobsters (both spiny and true) with the color red. Yeah, the reference is a song, but why not weave the song, the rock lobster family, the color and the serial number together?
It is a dark future indeed.
If I was the Commander I’d have held out for “Stratofortress”.
I remember catching the “B52” thing a long time ago. Didn’t think much of it. But god bless it. Thank you so much!
Everyone is so caught up in the “Rock Lobster’s” name that noone seemed to notice that between the first 2 panels he folded an origami crane behind his head, mid conversation. Straight not giving a damn.
Part of his name is D37-9E-B52. Revealed here: http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/the-one-in-which-there-is-plot
Did he just make that paper crane behind his head?
He’s really good at it.
I love that
I will not archive binge for Lobster references.
I will not archive binge for Lobster references.
I will not ar-fuck it, I have the required free time.
Ah, man. I trawled through the archives and got to the page
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/the-one-in-which-there-is-plot
Talk about recontextualizing the comments for that page. :D
Skip to the bottom for a shorter list, and a breakdown of obvious/possible/kind of a stretch references to the song.
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/05312010 (Last panel, shadow roughly shaped like a lobster)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/06072010 (panel 3 and 4 shark picture, possible reference, although sharks are not mentioned in the song)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/the-best-kind-of-father-obviously (Sammy has a shark plushy, possible reference although sharks are not mentioned in the song)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/that-cant-be-good-for-anyones-back (Shark plushy reappears)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/proper-form-for-riding-a-sea-monster (Shark plushy again)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/next-week-youll-get-the-sucker-punch-comic-i-was-going-to-do-for-today (Shark Plushy again, and the obvious actual lobster)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/he-wants-that-more-than-any-fish-has-ever-wanted-a-cupcake (roughly lobster shaped silouhette on coffee mug panels 1,2, 4,5,6,& 7)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/that-pillar-was-the-closest-approximation-i-could-think-of-to-what-am-is-supposed-to-look-like (Lobster mug again, panels 1 & 7)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/cant-knock-it-until-you-try (Shark plushy)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/seriously-those-things-are-the-best (pictures of sharks)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/wakka-wakka (Shark plush again)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/oh-hey-i-think-its-the-two-year-anniversary (Sammy really likes that shark)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/loose-ends (The shark would wind I think)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/small-victories (The shark thing is probably stretching it, but its the only thing that keeps popping up)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/this-weeks-comic-is-about-why-this-weeks-comic-is-late (Return of the lobster mug)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/its-not-always-about-you-jared (I should just stop mentioning the sharks…)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/of-course-the-millipede-planet-has-an-oxygen-rich-atmosphere-how-else-would-the-millipedes-survive (Shark toy again)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/i-think-this-page-sumarizes-a-lot-of-what-i-like-about-commander (Sam really loves that thing)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/the-joke-is-pokemon-comes-out-in-october (different lobster mug but a lobster mug)
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/always-contextualize (almost forgot this, but its probably a stretch…lyrics mention “boys in bikinis”…and well…yeah)
And thats All I can find…so thats 5 obvious lobsters, 1 possibly lobster shaped shadow, and 13 shark cameos that have only the fact that they are also a sea creature as possible evidence for being part of the Rock Lobster Reference, and one probably reference to the lyrics of the song that does not per se have any direct connection to the commander other than it was his idea.
I thought the shark toy was just Sammy’s shark toy, he always has it, I don’t think there’s a single comic that involves him but not the shark toy. *shrug* But you missed his vanity plate and his mug from the burrito bison strip.
Different lobster, but definitely a lobster http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/this-weeks-comic-is-about-why-this-weeks-comic-is-late
Yeah I realized later when she posted on tumblr about the vanity plate that I had missed it, but I did get the burrito bison strip mug, its 6th from the bottom.
As for the shark toy, like I said, its a stretch to try and consider them part of the reference when the only link is that both creatures live in the sea, and Sammy is the Commander’s son. I only included them since its not an impossibility that they are part of the reference.
Ah ok I missed it cuz I didn’t click the link, or even properly look at it, and thought by “return of the lobster mug” you meant it was the same one as before. My mistake.
I’ll just add 3 of the clearest references to the name early on:
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/he-wants-that-more-than-any-fish-has-ever-wanted-a-cupcake
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/that-pillar-was-the-closest-approximation-i-could-think-of-to-what-am-is-supposed-to-look-like
The lobster cup.
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/every-rose-has-its-thornhttp://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/every-rose-has-its-thorn
This one is with his red car with the RKLBSTR on :)
There might be more, but this was all the searching I had time for, as I am supposed to be working.
I prefer to think of him as Brock Lobster…
Nice.
A
Maz
Ing
Everyone focused on Rock Lobster, which is cool, but is that a Deathlok Secretary???
Who would have thought they knew about the B-52’s so far in the future? I mean most of the thread doesn’t get the reference in the present. Gotta love time travel.
Well, they know about Marlon Brando so why not?
It’s quite simple really, trends tend to loop, so eventually they looped so much that the bands started playing the old songs under the exact same name as the original bands, thinking that they had come up with the song themselves. Well that and the whole time travel thing.
B-52 : the best knowen composers of “classic music” in the far space future.
I am extremely worried that that is the case.
Aaaaa! Now i have that song in my head! Rock looooo-obster, rock loooo-obster…
What about Private Idaho?
Wow, the hips on that Captain! I’d let her kick me through a wall any day.
The question is not about Rock Lobster. The question is whether the Commander is from Planet Claire.
I thought they legally changed his name to Commander Badass?
They did, but his serial number would be equivalent to his birthname I suppose.
It may just be a style thing, but Jonesy’s eyes are slowly taking over her face. They keep getting bigger compared to her original appearance.
I’ll admit I had to go back and find her name, ’cause all I could remember her as was “cookie girl.”
Or maybe her eyes are getting so used to bugging out all the time from seeing all this weird **** going down, that they’re just starting to get naturally bigger.
She went from being a bystander to someone who needed expressive face space.
Wait a minute, that means his first name is “Rock”…
…We gotta get him dressed up as Mega Man now!
Screw that, he is the new Mega Man.
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/the-one-in-which-there-is-plot
now i understand this.
Nice find! Even the title makes perfect sense now!
I must have reread this entire comic from page one to now(ish) about five or six times since I found it a month or so ago, and every time it gets deeper and more involved. How far down does the rabbit hole go?
Either way, this is definitely one of my favorite comics ever- and I’m a compulsive welcoming reader.
*cough* webcomic, not welcoming. Thank you, phone.
Can you be a compulsive welcoming webcomic reader?
That actually sounds pretty friendly.
I just had a weird thought. Commander can meet his own Great-Great-Great-Great-Great…and-so-on-Grand-Childs sinde he has kids in the past…isn’t that weird ? Considering they can be the same age as him? I mean you are born into the future and grow up with your own offspring….thats really a fucked up thought. Even more fucked up if he kinda got into a relationship with a girl from that offspring.
Honestly, with that many “greats” it kinda ceases to be an issue. Like, everybody in europe are cousins less than ten generations removed.
You know, even if Rock Lobster is more humble than Love Shack. I could still think of many innuendos to go with Rock Lobster. Not posting them. But geez, manor front property in the gutter is looking awfully nice about now.
Oh wow, they incorporated the DNA from Grace Jones into the future space marine woman. That is a very scary thought.
Grace Jones is probably a Space Marine sent back into time for her own mission of fierce fabulousness.
Woah, am I the only person tripping on the fact that he can accurately fold a freaking paper crane with gloves on? I mean holy cow! That is dexterity if I ever saw it. Also, the androgynous-looking uniform is a man, as per the comic, so a man it shall be. Geez…
You mean the captain? Coelasquid verified multiple times that she’s a woman, and if you stare at her for long enough you do eventually start to see the hips, apparently her name is Angel Eyes.
Whenever I hear “Rock Lobster”
it somehow sounds like this in my head –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f31mB6apCoE
I think it’s cool you’re working in the Commander’s original backstory which you originally planned with his old crew O:-).
Didn’t the Captain die in that one?
So, one thing that hasn’t been clarified yet: in the comic in which part of Commander’s serial number is first revealed, the only letters we see are D, E, and B. Are serial numbers hex dumps (base 16), or any alphanumeric characters (base 36)?
You might be thinking too hard about this.
A short story I’m working on has an AI drone designated as 5309-B. It looks like a miniature stealth bomber, talks like Ed-209, and tends to lump everything into one of two categories: helps with objective and interferes with objectives. So naturally, it gets the nickname Jenny B.
HAHAHAHAHA I thought the B52 bit was the plane!