His Rimes Are Sick
say hello to everyone's new favorite character
Comments (92)
Time is relative. Lunchtime, doubly so.
Maybe it's Spaceship's side hussle?
Oh look, its the Ship who Sailed
If this were "Red Scholar's Wake", which everyone should read, it would be " The Ship Who Snogged". Lesbian space pirate romance with sentient spaceships is highly underrated
Oh she would call her mom but not her brother? Or would she tell her mom to be sassy to him one more time so he can’t get the last word in?
It is awkward how much I want to squish her.
Wait wait wait wait wait.... how old is Moray then?
Old enough to know better.
water water everywhere, and all his boards did blink.
Station to Boaty: "A word in your shell-like, old thing...treat the cargo gently."
In the last panel, Marten should've started singing "'39"
Not that it's relevant, but the bass line to "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is the only bass line I ever mastered. Totally came back to me here.
Meh. AI age is ... not well correlated to human age. Yay is, what, 2 years old? Also, would AI (artificial intelligence) be derogatory? If they are self-forming sentient beings, they are no more "artificial" than humans at that point. Whether it's made in a multi-node supercomputer creche or the backseat of a Honda Civic, life's life.
And Momo is four, but is old enough to work at the library. Plus there is mention about job applicants being 18 (if human), or an AI equivalent to that based on a Turing-(someone) algorithm.
Please, mothers, don't name your boats Suez. "That went to a dark place," says the guy who yammered on about cults. Uh-huh.
I honestly had been hoping that Ol' Boaty was gonna be the Theodore Tugboat we used to have here, uplifted with AI.
At least it's name is not Evergreen, that would be a one way ticket to getting stuck someway somewhere.
Or The Minnow...
What are the odds that Boaty is actually Pintsize's Canadian friend with benefits?
No, Pintsize's nautical lover is a tug boat.
I'm trying to figure out Martin's expression in panel 2. He seems to be extremely non-plused when faced with a standard lifejacket. Does he have some sort of lifejacket-related trauma in his past? Is there a suspicious stain or tear in the lifejacket? Perhaps the lifejacket is a key element of The Ritual?
I think he's just completely blanking on how to put it on. Seems to have worked it out by panel 3 though :)
I’m thinking of Tugger, Russell Crowe’s tugboat in South Park. Less suicidal of course.
His full name is Ol' Boaty McBoatface.
I saw that coming so very very far away...
So Moray can wear a life jacket. So she could have put on clothes to go pick them up at the Airport... but didn't. ... Relatable. So she's some sort of Naturist, then? Canada's way more open minded than us Yankees, it seems!
That’s the real reason behind that “No sitting” sign. Seriously girl, carry a towel, at least!
but we've already met Moray
Moray's smug smile in the last panel is gold
And Moray is how old?
I think you made Moray cuter.
The little deadpan goblin mode smirk in the last panel gives her quite a bit more personality than before.
I need to know how buoyant Moray is.
if it's anything like tossing a water balloon into a pool, probably as buoyant as any human. unless that computer gel is hella dense
I came here looking for puns about shipping Boaty. I’m quite shocked by their absence.
the thing about shipping puns is they can take a while to come in
a good boy, a floaty boy, a maybe-he's-fucked-a-tugboat boy
How do you hump a tugboat?
🎶 how he glides round the mariiiina So serene and sublime He had been Ol’ Boaty For a long, long time 🎶
He's actually not named Boaty - his full name is John BigboaTAY.
Sure it's not John Bigbooty? At least his name isn't John Smallberries.
Is Boaty related to Dangerboat? Because that’s the voice in my head when I read this.
There's a boat who leads a life of danger... To everyone he meets he stays a stranger...
Is anyone else singing 39 by Queen right now? Cause that's where I learned about relativistic speed....
Wow. Two references to 39 on the same day, which is two more than I have ever encountered, online or in my personal life. (And I have sung this song to myself on and off for the past 30+ years)
Fact. All boats are time machines. They travel forward in time at the same rate as the rest of the universe. Also on water
this is especially true of kayaks!
"Here the ship sailed out into the blue and sunny morn. The sweetest sight ever seen."
I love "39"
The song goes well with the comic!
Not to brag, but I don't need a boat to experience relativistic time dilation.
Ol' Boaty is voiced by Maurice LaMarche in my mind, somehow
I wonder how many people are going to comment that Rime is misspelled, not getting the reference.
I once wrote that thing out by hand. I will NEVER forget the reference.
Ol' Boaty McBoatface. I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before...
You have. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface
I await the tshirt, hats, mugs, and Lego tie ins.
You can't tell us what to do.
That didn't go to as dark a place as "The Ritual", Martin.
It seems like Moray should consist of naturally bouyant materials (since she's not dense enough to resist a child's hand). A life jacket seems like a hat on a hat. On the other hand, regulatory compliance does be warm my tiny bureaucratic heart...
Perhaps Moray is wearing the lifejacket to set a good example. She's hardly at risk of drowning...
If Ol Boaty doesn't say yarr or sing a mandatory sea shanty I will be disappointed.
…and now I’m envisioning songs like Mr. Ray in Finding Nemo…
Love the Iron Maiden reference!
Panel 2: O’l
I wonder what he'd sound like if this were voiced.
My headcanon is that he should be voiced by Alan Tudyk.
Albatross!
What flavor is it?
Coffee, coffee everywhere, nor any drop to drink
Smug Moray tho 🥺
That's because she is four and a half.
Ol' Boaty! Come back Boaty! Best boating boat in the north!
That’s in *nautical* years
15% longer than regular years!
Marten is talking about dark places after all that about "The Ritual"?
The Ritual isn't dark! Mayhaps it involves lots of fire and wind?
Im not sold on him liking him better then Morey. Between the princess leg lift, and that eyebrow... 🥰👩❤️👩🥵
Jeph please retcon this so Boaty speaks only in Iron Maiden references.
Is he related to Boaty McBoatface?
Yes. He's Mr. McBoatface's son.
Claire, what the fuck are you talking about
If boat years are so different that four is a lot, realistic time dilation is the most plausible way for that to work (other than metaphor, obviously)
It doesn't map the same!
I was a sailor, I can confirm time works different on the water. By the time I was 19 I smoked a pipe and walked with a cane
Hey to some 4 is a big number, not very many but to some.
Four Is Death https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourIsDeath
Aw, I wanna be on a talking boat
this boat seems like such a goober I love him already
After "Station" and "Spaceship", it's hard to believe Hanners didn't have a hand in naming "Ol' Boaty".
It is now my headcanon that Boaty was once driver of one of Stations ships but had to leave for a water based life after discovering that he got spacesick. Hanners named him just before he left to return to earth.
BOATY