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No. 80: Flipping out

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Flipping out

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Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/pomh/?comic=80

Strip by: Ian Boreham

{A hand flicks a power switch.}
Professor Philippos: I wonder what wisdom from the depths this sleek Poseidon can impart to me?

caption: Professor Philippos finally succeeded in establishing a communication link with the test subject. Unfortunately, his expectations of talking to a gentle aquaman were disappointed.

{An angry, aggressive dolphin is suspended in a framework in a narrow pool, with electrodes and wires attached to its head. A speaker in the foreground is playing a synthesised voice translation of what the dolphin is saying.}

dolphin: Squeeeee! Click! Eeeeee! Click click! Squeeeeeeee!

speaker: Oi! Get this fishing line off me, ya little pink squid! I'm gonna ram it down ya blowhole!

The author writes:

In spite of all the New Age alternative ideas about dolphins being intelligent, loving, peaceful creatures, and nature's rescue squad in the sea, they don't actually seem particularly nice.

They are intelligent as animals go, but I don't think they have shown themselves to be any smarter than, say, pigs or chimps.

They are wild animals, and can actually get quite aggressive towards humans. They can be violent to other members of their own pods, and the males are sexually aggressive towards the females. Larger species of dolphins frequently bully and sometimes kill smaller species, and dolphins will kill the young of other dolphins of the same species.

I basically view them as gangsters of the sea.

Drawn in Krita and Inkscape. Originally I had the dolphin swearing a lot, but I changed it to using oceanic-flavoured aggression to bring out the fact that just because you can translate its thoughts doesn't mean it will think in a human way.