page 913 – colorscolorscolors
Oh man, this feels kind of weird. It’s the first time in AGES that I’ve actually gotten a page finished and posted BEFORE it’s due! No, I’m not at a convention this weekend… but I AM driving up to Washington DC for other reasons, so it kind of feels like I might as well be. But yeah, I’m cranking extra material out in advance right now, so I don’t really have a lot to say right now…
…EXCEPT to point out that Saturday is April 1st, so people juuuuuust miiiiiiiight want to check back here again in a day. You know, just in case ;D
(Oh, and also there SHOULD be a new Voting Incentive up by the time you read this. I confess I don’t have it drawn as I write this, but I’m PRETTY sure I can get one drawn before we leave)
(Historical Notes: Oh look! More stuff I really honestly thought we’d have gotten around to learning more about by now!)
The real answer is “No, the live experimentation isn’t AS BAD as everyone thinks. It is FAR, FAR WORSE, in most cases involving sentients. In non-sentients, it is actually normally benign, however, relating to keeping the animals pacified so that their mental energies can be utilised as energy sources or mediums for a result. The sentient cases are also incredibly rare, as it requires a Mad Scientist to interact with a, typically “sane” person for an extended period without their consent or being caught by the local police. The flip side of that is just how horrific these live experiments on sane sentients end up becoming make some of the most experienced murder scene police officers & disaster site deep-clean up crews horrified & disgusted.
…but since it’s a round table of just Mad Scientists, they’re just going to play up the fluffy, fun, cute positive side of horrific experimentation on live subjects and creating abominable travesties of nature and so forth and whitewash all that other stuff. Especially inventions powered by kitten brains.
TV never ever presents both sides of an issue.
At least not at the same time.
That might force viewers to THINK. *gasp!*
Which would really, really be horrific.
Remember, Ed8, it’s a Round Table of MAD SCIENTISTS. Their opinion of what the fluffy, fun, cute & positive side of experimentation on live subjects is highly likely to be different from that of the average viewer. Unless, of course, they hired one-off actors in a bunch of makeup to present the Round Table of Mad Scientist’s Viewpoints in a more friendly manner… Though that would take work, and a News Program presenting a report like this would want something to fill in time while they search for something actually considered news worthy, not additional work.
That, or they only call up the handful of Mad Scientists the show’s producer personally knows, in which case there’s no telling HOW well their opinions reflect the greater Mad Scientific community at large.
It being TV, that latter plan with the actors faking Mad Scientist is probably by far the most likely result. In which case, the actors, not actually knowing any Mad Scientists or knowing anything about them, would just act like the common stereotype of Mad Scientists, and the viewers would think “see, I know all Mad Scientists were like that, this proves the stereotype was right because these are totally real Mad Scientists.” Which is pretty much the way most TV works in general. People like having their stereotypes confirmed, so doing so produces good ratings. The only part I’m skeptical of is that the News Program would actually spend any time at all searching for something actually considered newsworthy. Who has time for that? Making up news is waaaay easier than actually searching for it.
Maybe they’re Mad Scientist “influencers” who put on the act of being Mad Scientists in order to push various companies’ products to ACTUAL Mad Scientists, and they’re appearing on TV as a bit of branding synergy?
This is 100% the correct answer. Now all this comic needs is a character who is a Mad Science Influencer, who doesn’t really know much if any Mad Science, but who all the other Mad Scientists consider a Huuuuuge Awesome Celebrity (except Tabitha, probably, who keeps trying to point out their lack of actual knowledge, but all the other Mad Scientists ignore her objections, because of how AWESOME the CMSI (Celeb Mad Science Influencer) is!)