June 25th, 2008
Interpretive Dance
Too obscure?
I’ve been beating myself up over this strip because the whole joke hinges on the reader knowing that bees do a ‘waggle dance’ at the hive to give the other bees directions to nectar sources they’ve discovered. My girlfriend didn’t know this but still found the dancing bee funny, so maybe it still works.
…I’m giving this way too much thought.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
But it’s not as much FUN! *Shake shake shake*
Congrats on one year, Karl.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Gorgeous. :^_^:
June 25th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I love that second panel! The bee’s face is so cute!! :D
June 25th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Ha! :D
June 25th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
That’s priceless <3
June 25th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Hooray waggle dance! XD Bees are funny, and you make them even funnier, Karl. Congrats on a year of Charles Christopher, and here’s to hoping many, many more follow.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Oh my god.
I would buy a shirt with this strip on. I think it’s my favourite.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:27 am
It’s already been said, but I’ll say it again. Ha! :D
June 26th, 2008 at 12:47 am
I love how you move effortlessly (or so it seems to me) between the funny bone & the heart strings. I cannot praise this work enough. IMO, you are a master storyteller.
Now, when can I buy this?
June 26th, 2008 at 1:36 am
Why are the bees all amputated? Or is ripping off your central limbs a trend amongst bees, like piercing?
June 26th, 2008 at 1:42 am
cool dance, cha!
June 26th, 2008 at 1:45 am
artistic freedom, lyon. ANd, honestly, it doesna matter, eh?
That strip gave me one big wide grin. *gg*
June 26th, 2008 at 4:10 am
Cute :^)
As I’ve been studying bee communication a bit, I’d say that really you’d expect the bee to try to tell her sisters verbally where to go, only to be told off, “Maybe if you just *danced*?” … :p
And yeah, 6 legs gives you that many more dance moves!
June 26th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Lyon…let me get this straight…you’re reading a comic about sasquatch named Charles sent on a world-saving mission by an über-powerful cosmic lion……and you harp on an artistic change in bee anatomy!!?????
June 26th, 2008 at 10:20 am
See THIS little piece of delight is what makes the Abominable even greater – i love it! :D
June 26th, 2008 at 11:19 am
master storyteller indeed.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
AWESOME, and no worries I got it
June 26th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
maybe it’s because i watch too much discovery channel (if there can even BE such a thing), but i thought bee dancing was pretty common knowledge!
June 26th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I freaking love this strip! I especially laughed at the look on the dancing bee’s face in panel 5 followed by the “we are not amused” faces in panel 6- priceless. :) Oh and the rump-shaka in panel 3 makes me smile every time. :) Ha!
June 26th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
That oughta bee a t-shirt!
Or would that be a b-shirt?
bee-shirt?
b-t-shirt?
June 26th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Amazing… this is why i am a loyal reader, i check every day just in case there are new updates or commentary.
Shake shake shake, shake your bee-tay…
Would love this on a T-Shirt, first 5 panels on the front, punchline on the back, or whole thing on the front… either way… its totally rad!
June 26th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Nice! Totally got the wiggle dance right off. Congratulations on one year, Karl. Can’t wait to see what this year holds! I totally agree this needs to be a shirt/poster.
Thanks again for the great comic!
June 26th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
if anyone at my graduation party asks me where anything is, that’s how I’m going to direct them.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Lovin’ the bee-dance! Young’s brewery in London does a summer beer called Waggle Dance. I could SO see this strip on a special 4-pack!
June 26th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
I absolutely got the bee-dance. This is a superb strip, Karl, and a worthy interruption to the serious business Charles is about to undertake.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
I liked it. I still do like it. But I liked it better when you left the dancing bee’s comments in
June 26th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Thanks, ollie. I felt like the extra dialogue was a bit heavy, and it was bothering me so much that I kept waking up last night thinking about it. So I removed it. I’m still not sure if there shouldn’t be *some* comment in panel five, but until I figure out what that is, I’m going to leave it silent.
-karl
June 26th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
I didn’t see it before, but his expression at the end reeks of, “So, whatdoyathink?” and I can just hear him panting under his breath “1 and 2, and, this, ha and, a little this, ho, and 1 and 2, step here!”
Oh, and seeing the kitty on your stuff, I was wondering if you’ve seen stuffonmycat.com? however, this is more like,” catonmystuff.com” (which doesn’t exist but shooould.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I LOVE stuffonmycat.com. And I especially love Oolong and his head performances.
:)
June 27th, 2008 at 2:01 am
I got it because I did actually know bees did a pollen-finding “waggle dance” as you call it (though, my late boss/pastor was a beekeeper in his spare time and told me enough stories I could probably fake my way through a beekeeping class). My wife didn’t know this fact, but laughed just because of the dancing bee. So, I think you’re covered either way.
Nice job by the way!
June 27th, 2008 at 6:19 am
I feel bad for the little guy. Giving it all he’s got and shot down by the brotherhood.
I’m torn between “Awwing”, crying, or starting up a bee union.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:53 am
I love Simon, Randy and Paula in the last panel. Ha!
June 27th, 2008 at 10:59 am
The waggle dance was my first thought when I saw this strip (before reading the explanation). Then again, I did take an Entomology class in college. :)
June 27th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I thought it was hilarious, no exposition required.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Works for me! (And yes, I already knew about the waggle dance.) I saw it before you cut the dialog in the fifth panel — I liked it that way too; however, I think the last panel has more impact without the additional dialog.
June 28th, 2008 at 5:27 am
I thought the bee was high on some bad pollen and the other bees were asking where he got it because they were concerned for his health. It worked.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Lovely. You draw a fine, funny bee, Karl. Are those ‘jazz-hands’ I see?
June 28th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I really can’t even articulate how purely awesome this whole comic is. Amazing work, Karl.
June 28th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
LOL, great comic, I think a lot of ppl DO know of bee dances as comunication.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:56 am
great strip! great idea!
June 29th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Wow. Just found this comic, love it.
Keep up the good work man!
June 30th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Karl: I see your point, taking out the dancer’s dialogue does put more focus on the other bee’s question. For me, the dancer’s lines highlighted HIS disconnect, that he is worried about the aesthetics of his dance, and wanting to be judged on the dance, while the hive, well, it just wants to know where the pollen is (or at least it should). (makes me think of TV like “Idol” or whatever; no focus on what is important). The way it reads now, it could just be that the bee is a bad dancer, and the hive is nicely asking him to give up and do it the less embarassing way.
Both are good, though.
June 30th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Yay beedance!
I do not know if the “average” reader knows of the waggling of bees. But I know of the waggling of bees and I found this hilarious :)
On a really odd note, the idea that bees do or do not convey any actual information in the process of their waggling is actually one of the more polarized and hostile of scientific debates.
June 30th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Cool, I often thought the bee dance was a tad uncalled for!
June 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
But people SHOULD know that bees dance to give directions because it’s awesome.
Also, people who already know this awesome fact about bees feel special when they get the joke.
June 30th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
You’re doing a nature-based comic, there’s going to be a minimum entry point, and not everyone’s going to get every single strip. If you make it so completely general that everybody gets every line, you’re going to have to shave off all the hooks and edges, buff out all the burrs and end up with… saturday morning tv.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:11 am
I got the waggle dance thing :)
I just found out about this comic today (with thanks to a certain Mr. Perez) and blasted through the archives. Your art and the personality that comes through your characters with little to no dialog hooked me right away. Congrats on a whole year, and I hope it goes on for many more!
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:03 am
WARNING: PEDANTRY AHEAD
Bee fact: bees actually couldn’t care less about pollen. Pollen dispersal is what flowering plants get out of the whole co-evolutionary dealie. The payoff for the bees is _nectar_, not pollen
pollen = hard-shelled grains containing male gametes
nectar = sugar-rich liquid
/pedantry
Still bloody funny though :-D
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:36 am
Ha!
I’ve now just wasted an hour watching bees on YouTube…
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:36 am
Pedantry noted and appreciated, Dave!
All fixed.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Dave, check into it. Bees collect pollen to feed larve, as a protine source.
http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/insects/ahb/inf4.html
of course, they also collect nectar to make honey
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
and of course, I go and spell ‘protein’ wrong.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:13 am
Thank you Ollie – I stand corrected :-)
July 9th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
As a biology-nerd (and an art-nerd), I always love this comic, but this one is particularly special for me. If anyone would like to see a very brief video that demonstrates the brilliance of the waggle dance, check out Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ijI-g4jHg (there’s plenty of other bee-dance videos there too). I imagine that this comic will be printed and posted–in a hallowed space next to all those Farside panels–on the office doors and cubicles of entomologists throughout the world for years to come…. Well done!
July 10th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Eddie Izzard mentions about how bees do “An intricate dance…” while the others just sit around and go “Brian, where’s the pollen? (still dancing) Where’s the bloody pollen, Brian!?”
argo. (mtc)
July 15th, 2008 at 1:00 am
Hey Karl….
Can I capture the dancing bee as an icon for blogging? Can I huh please?
July 15th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Go for it! The more bees on blogs, the better.
July 20th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
i knew, and i LOLed.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Also got a print this one as part of my b-day present! Much appreesh, Karl.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Not too obscure- actually very clever. Reminiscent of a Far Side topic but superiorly adorable bees!
September 4th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Oh eddie Izzard, how funny you are
September 25th, 2008 at 3:27 am
XD i got it!
September 30th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
This one is too funny. And the real life reference is too cool!
March 29th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Hahaha this is a classic! Rofl rofl rofl
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:35 am
i knew that, and that was why i liked this strip
April 6th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
I just forwarded this to all of my classmates in the course ‘Behaviour of Insects’. We have our final exam this week, so I think they’ll appreciate the humour :)
Also, I JUST stumbled across your work, bulldozed my way through, and cannot WAIT for the next update! Just wonderful!
April 20th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Loving this comic, and this strip in particular encouraged me to comment. I’ve always wondered if some bees have a little more flare in their waggle dance than others
May 29th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Love it. At first in panel 5 I thought he was opening his eyes in surprise to discover that his dance was being watched… he had thought he was dancing in private.
That would have been funny, but it was funnier to discover that he had been trying to tell his fellow bees where the flower was, and it totally falls flat. “Maybe if you just *told* us where you found the nectar…” Hilarious.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:15 am
[...] exquisite artwork as well as running the entire dramatic gamut from suspense to eye-watering humor. Fair warning: be ready for at least one ‘Bambi’ [...]
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:37 am
Love your cartoon!
Quite a few years ago British comedian Eddie Izzard did a bit on bees on his “Unrepeatable” tour:
…bees look for pollen; they find pollen, and when they do, they come back to the hive.
“I’ve found pollen.”
“Where did you find pollen?”
And instead of telling the other bees, they do an intricate dance in front of them.
(singing and dancing)
“Brian, where’s the pollen?”
(resumes singing and dancing)
“Where’s the bloody pollen, Brian?! All this leaping about can wait until later!”
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:46 pm
[...] exquisite artwork as well as running the entire dramatic gamut from suspense to eye-watering humor. Fair warning: be ready for at least one ‘Bambi’ [...]
July 17th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
One of the few comics I’ve read (anywhere, not just in this archive) that actually made me laugh out loud.
Wonderful.
July 27th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Oh, this is brilliant!! Even the comment by the author is funny! Keep up the good work.
November 7th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
rofl rofl wofl rofl wofl rofl
December 22nd, 2009 at 10:05 am
Oh gawd. I knew exactly what the bee was doing as soon as I saw it because I watched an episode of The Magic Schoolbus in third grade that described just this.
And since this is my first time commenting, I’ll just say that you do phenomenal work and I look forward to catching up and reading future pages! Thank you so much!
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:41 am
I’ve gotta say, even looking back on this, I can still say that this is probably my favourite comic you’ve done =)
nothing against the rest, I’ve just loved this one since I first read it, and enjoy every week
Sylan
June 6th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Oh my gosh, this is my favourite strip so far xD
July 21st, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Discovered this webcomic today and haven’t been able to stop reading so far. This strip is absolutelly brilliant and so, so funny…