This week’s strip is dedicated to anyone who’s ever tried to get a job. It is also anti-dedicated to the dirty fucker who stole my bike on friday (that’s Toronto for you). I rudely gesture in your general direction, asshole. Anyway, this week’s comic is also dedicated to my friend Johnny “the Flying Pirahna” Fontaine (he knows who he is), who is going under the knife to repair some damage from a minor tiger attack. Well, not really, but he knows what I’m talkin’ about, so this one’s fer you, J. As for me, uh…well, that’s it for me. I’m off to the bike shop.
–Rowntree
July 14, 2008 at 4:37 am
Thanks. Looking for a job myself…I’m thinking something with less tiger attacks.
July 14, 2008 at 4:45 am
Aw, poor Pink Hair. Am also job-hunting but my field is so competitive I can only dream of landing an interview even with a hideous beast that turns women into parking meters.
Sorry about your bike.
July 14, 2008 at 4:46 am
Oh man…bike thieves deserve their own special level of hell. My first real bike was stolen after my cross-country bike trip. Fuckers.
I just celebrated one year of unemployment!
July 14, 2008 at 4:54 am
Thanks, jerk. Now I’m gonna have nightmares about the H.R. lady.
July 14, 2008 at 6:41 am
We’ve all been here, drawn the doodles, fallen into place to get a paycheque. This seems to personify the whole back and forth beyond my mortal comprehension, but at the same time this is nuts! You’re nuts.
I love it.
July 14, 2008 at 7:07 am
subnormality is the best webcomic i’ve ever seen, please keep up the insanity so that I at least know that one other person is as crazy as me.
July 14, 2008 at 7:11 am
thanks god i am natural!
July 14, 2008 at 8:48 am
Aww… poor Pink Haired Girl. She really doesn’t deserve this.
July 14, 2008 at 10:20 am
BWAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!
That last panel I soure gold!
Well done, indeed!
oh and P.s.
don’t you DARE steal my ‘dome’ (it’s the only good gag I have, dammit! I’m not like you american funny people! I suck!)
Consequences of said deed are presently illustrated on my blog.
have a nice day!
July 14, 2008 at 10:21 am
by soure, of course, due to fat ifngers, I ment PURE.
Tom
July 14, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Damn. Now I feel bad because I have brown hair.
July 14, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I LOVE THIS COMIC! i followed from DD
July 14, 2008 at 9:26 pm
panel 3 – Motivation. ha… reminds me of the KFC/A&W days…
July 14, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Gotta love that extra hand in panel number 5…
np: Jamie Lidell – Little Bit Of Feel Good (Jim)
July 14, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Romeo: Come for the crazy, stay for the, uh… the crazy! Actually it all seems really normal to me, which must mean I am in fact mega-crazy.
Fenn: No, she doesn’t.
Tom: That’s CANADIAN funny people! Don’t make me set chad kroeger on YOU!
Camille: My hair is brown as well. BROWN!!!
Joe: Thanks for making the jump! Stick around for a rich future of baffling weirdness and snarky mythological creatures.
July 15, 2008 at 2:40 am
BIKE THIEVES SUCK!
I always kept a photocopy of my license and a note (“if the name on the work ticket does not match this this bike is stolen”) in a baggie hidden in my bottom bracket shell. You need a special tool to remove it and if the bike ever showed up at a shop, I could prove it was mine. Seat post or up the steerer tube could work as well.
BTW, don’t know the circumstances of your theft, but I’d just like to remind everybody that cable locks, no matter how expensive, can be cut with a pair of standard wire cutters in a matter of a few minutes. Learned that little trick at the crazy people bike shop.
July 15, 2008 at 3:03 am
I was thinking of doing something like that for my next bike. Good advice! Gonna go crazy with like five u-locks and homing devices and one of those auto-turrets from “Aliens” too. Well, maybe. And yeah, cable locks are about as resilient as dental floss. Fucking bike thieves.
July 15, 2008 at 4:34 am
your comic strips suck. they have the worst fucking humor i have ever read on the net. it’s worse than watching seinfeld
July 15, 2008 at 6:38 am
Man, your bike got stolen at an Applebee’s, didn’t it?
I loved the non-sequitur interjections of truth in each panel. But I have to admit, that extra arm kinda threw me….couldn’t figger out if you were trying to indicate motion of a single arm or the actual existence of an extra arm. Oh, well. Thanks for reminding me why I never, ever wanna have an interview inflicted upon me again.
July 15, 2008 at 6:41 am
Hey, it just occurred to me: Pink Hair oughta go work at the restaurant with that totally cool waitress who makes up shit to scare the customers (and the tables have legs of frozen rats). Seems like a much healthier place to work than this pit.
July 15, 2008 at 6:48 am
*whips himself repeatedly for making such a mistake*
sorry.
and I can take on Chad Kroeger.
Hell I’ve had to fight off Jimmy Buffet!
cheeseburgers… cheeseburgers…
July 15, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Don’t you just love trolls? If ya don’t like the type of humor on display here then don’t visit the site, it’s not a hard concept.
No one’s forcing you to watch Seinfeld either ya jerk.
Just had to put in my two cents, this site is great!
July 15, 2008 at 5:49 pm
yeah, this reminds me of walmart… where i currnetly work, hurray for having peices of me chipped away as a slowly chafe to my death in a corporate hell-hpole just to pay for university.
July 15, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I just dyed my hair back to brown (from electric blue) to get a job… now I, too, look like everyone else. I think if more people dyed their hair crazy colors, it would become more accepted.
July 15, 2008 at 11:13 pm
In the Bizarro World that’s, like, a HUGE compliment.
July 15, 2008 at 11:35 pm
I myself am currently looking for a job. This week I was asked “what is your opinion of customer service?” Just. In general, I guess?
Actually, the appearance of the worm-thing in the final panel felt almost unnecessary, since the HR woman was only *marginally* more bizarre than most actual interviewers. Still, a fabulous comic all-around.
July 16, 2008 at 12:41 pm
All the background gags really made the comic for me.
Fire is the cleanser, it’s funny, because it’s true.
July 16, 2008 at 9:44 pm
thank you! you made my effing night
I just came home from a crummy restaurant-based employment situation — remarkably similar to this one — when I read this, and it was perfect.
July 17, 2008 at 8:26 pm
This was a really funny comic. I liked it.
July 18, 2008 at 5:24 am
I tell myself that my job is cool enough to make up for having to dye my purple hair something boring and take out/hide my facial piercings. And I guess it is, but damn, I had the most awesome purple/pink/green hair ever. I was like a My Little Pony and it was great.
July 18, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Now I’m picturing a My Little Pony with facial piercings…
July 19, 2008 at 7:32 am
This reminds me of a story about my friend who went in for a job interview.
Her hair was a combo of Green/Blue/Red/Blonde. And the person interviewing her said that she needed to take out the colors before she could work.
Anyway, her natural hair color is actually bleach blonde, so when she went in on Monday, she was immediately fired for dyeing her hair, and then, quote, “Lyeing about her natural hair color.”
Gret Comic too!
July 19, 2008 at 7:33 am
Edit: *Lieing*
July 19, 2008 at 9:28 am
Loved this one, but for some reason I was really freaked out by the HR lady. Bizzare, as ever <3
July 20, 2008 at 1:28 am
Great comic.
Reminds us that everyone’s boss is really a monster.
July 20, 2008 at 4:50 am
@Clark – it’s lying, not lieing or lyeing.
July 20, 2008 at 7:56 am
Fire is the cleanser… Denial is paramount…
I think I’ve just found a new motto!
July 20, 2008 at 1:30 pm
This is why I am glad I retired. If I were still seeking employment, there would be inevitable assault charges and restraining orders! I really dislike HR people.
July 27, 2008 at 7:41 am
Wow. This is my first visit to this website and these comics are both intellectually stimulating AND successfully comedic. Bookmarked.
July 27, 2008 at 2:12 pm
I just read every one of your comics. I lost 2 hours of work… thanks a lot.
August 15, 2008 at 8:35 pm
i before e except after c
receive
August 27, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Du sollst ruhig sein! Arbeiten! Wonderful comic!! Visually appealing, intelligent commentary and beautiful replication of this insane corporate doublespeak I’ve luckily never encountered. Never worked a day in retail. Go me.
I also love the expression of the girl in the penultimate panel.
Bookmark’d!
As a general aside, you draw cute girls.
August 31, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I loved the post. I think your thinking is nearly matching the great sukrat’s cocept.
September 6, 2008 at 11:54 am
brilliant. you are also so good with words! nice job man!
September 7, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Brilliant! I connect with this character…just substitute hair color for nose piercing and you pretty much summed up every interview i had during college.
September 7, 2008 at 11:23 pm
The ten thousand wage junkies that I’ve worked with would salute you if they were not so tired and soulless. These poor bastards still submit to Cineplexs, for goddess sake.
I’ve worked my way up and down the retail and management chain ladder. I’ve been fired for blinking. I’ve been promoted for accidentally and indirectly fingering [and wrongly] a fellow employee. Your comic is so spectacularly representative of the wage slave state, that it is hard to look at it.
I don’t know whether to applaud or cry. You nailed it.
~D
September 14, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Happens every time to me…
September 16, 2008 at 4:50 am
I wish I’d read this comic BEFORE I got some of the jobs that I’ve had…
November 30, 2008 at 5:35 am
I see your point with the comic.
December 2, 2008 at 11:17 pm
seriously, why DOES she keep leaving the house?
February 5, 2009 at 3:31 am
Fuck I wish all interviews went logically straightforwards like this.
March 6, 2009 at 3:57 am
I’m having a somewhat similar situation right now, except that I already have a job. I work as a bookseller for a popular independent book chain in Portland. My company is awesome. It has no policies against piercings, visible tattoos or brightly dyed hair that is an “unnatural color”. However, I was recently told that I would have to change my hair because the landlord doesn’t like it and my company could be fined if I keep my hair pink.
I’ve been told by my manager that there is no specific policy in the contract between my company and the landlord either. It only says that “hair must be neat, clean and professional.” My hair is neat and clean, but the professional part of the equation is pretty arbitrary. I’m a bookseller for an independent chain. As far as I’m concerned, my hair *is* professional FOR MY PROFESSION.
I don’t see what the big deal is. My hair doesn’t hurt anyone. It isn’t unsanitary, and most of my customers seem to love it. Many have commented on how progressive and open-minded it is (was) for my company and the landlord to allow me to have pink hair. This situation has opened my eyes to the need for body modification rights activism. And it is so important to me that I’ve joined the Church of Body Modification (uscobm.com)
I’m going to put up this comic near my desk in protest. Thank you!
March 16, 2009 at 11:11 am
Hi — like the paintings of the strips but some of them have just far too much text and are more like a coloured script than a comic. Thanks for publishing!
March 16, 2009 at 11:49 pm
awesome
April 26, 2009 at 8:38 pm
dude. this is my life. I eventually gave up on trying to be myself with my pink hair and just went to blonde. I cant even tell you how many places told me they couldn’t hire me with my pink hair…pain in the ass..
May 6, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Sir Winston, I wish to congratulate you on singlehandedly keeping the English language alive!
You had me at “frictionless operating potential of this edible product dispensary”.
*raucous applause*
June 24, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Great stuff as always
Never had to go through a job interview, I just learned to play the mandolin instead
(maybe not such a good life-plan, but what the heck…)
To BeautifulPyre:
check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBldB9K8Um0
Maybe you ll relate
p.s: should try a pink mandolin, maybe…
July 24, 2009 at 6:05 am
It’s been a long time since I laughed so hard I cried. I love it, “we turn young women into parking meters”
August 16, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Oh my god….I hope my job interview wont turn out like this…Still hella funny.
October 17, 2009 at 2:40 am
The manager freaked me out more before it changed than afterwards.
November 13, 2009 at 8:32 pm
I love you forever for this… and so does my long purple unemployable hair. <3