Check Displeased

In 2.5 we meet Georgia Martin, assistant general manager for the Providence Falconers, a fake hockey team Ngozi made up for Jack to play on. How do we know that? It says so in the blog post. Also in this blog post: a discussion of "hooplah," and the characters who aren't in the comic yet that generate it. What does an NHL GM do, and what would it mean for a woman of color to be in the front office...

This one's a doozy, and I don't say that just because Bitty's wearing jean cutoffs––it's Hazeapalooza, formerly known as Hazestock, a time-honored SMH tradition in which frogs and Zimmermanns are, and I quote from Massachusetts General Law, Part IV, Title I, Chapter 269, Section 17, subjected to "brutal treatment or forced physical activity which is likely to adversely affect the physical health o...

HEY GUYS, we're hosting a Mighty Ducks viewing party on Saturday, October 3 to raise money for Democrats and other left-leaning causes, especially for the US general election in November. Want to join? E-mail proof of your $10+ contribution to sekritomg@gmail.com! More details here , hope you can make it! ~ Samwell Men's Hockey has three rookies, or "frogs," which is a colloquialism for "freshmen,...

HEY GUYS, we're hosting a Mighty Ducks viewing party on Saturday, October 3 to raise money for Democrats and other left-leaning causes, especially for the US general election in November. Want to join? E-mail proof of your $10+ contribution to sekritomg@gmail.com! More details here , hope you can make it! - There was so little to say about Celly that Tomato and Sekrit decided it was a better use o...

HEY GUYS, we're hosting a Mighty Ducks viewing party on Saturday, October 3 to raise money for Democrats and other left-leaning causes, especially for the US general election in November. Want to join? E-mail proof of your $10+ contribution to sekritomg@gmail.com! More details here , hope you can make it! ~ Kewpie-eyed naif Eric Bittle faints on the ice again, and might lose his place on the roste...

Much like the Haus kitchen before it succumbs to Bitty's tender ministrations, this episode is a g.d. mess! We veer in many directions––from our, uhhh, typically incisive analysis of Bitty's passive aggressive instincts to a discussion of Ngozi's role in encouraging the fandom to a surprisingly long conversation about foreskins––but the pièce-de-resistance is Sekrit's observation that Jack spends...

Continuing a discussion of "weirdest" fandom discourse, Tomato and Sekrit cycle back around to the social and cultural reasons why things in fandom get contentious, and how these particular motivations bear down on Check, Please fandom. Plus: some stuff about real-life NHL players and how their fanfic analogs are configured in the comic, and how the topics hit on in this two-parter could make for...

Here we goddamn go. Having finished covering all of Year One, Tomato and Sekrit step away from the comic for a minute to talk about the topic that won a recent special-episode poll: Wankorama: FFA/Weirdest Fandom Discourse . Ranging somehow from Michel Foucault's concept of discourse to whether or not it's possible or recommended to knead pie dough, this deep-dive was so long it'll be continued in...

Deus ex machina? Don't mind if we do––Sekrit and Tomato tackle this tacked-on final strip of Year One, in which the comic's main characters finally hang out in the same panel! We meander past SJWs and Check, Please!'s on-again-off-again critique of toxic hockey culture before discussing the comic's first year in total. What did we like? What would we change? Most importantly: can you believe A Cer...

Men never have to do any emotional labor or apologize for anything -- and because Jack Zimmermann wants to be one of those, he decides not to, either. Bitty's metaphorical boner for him is radically apparent. (Check out the real deal in Huddle 3, available here .) Plus: Can an author be a fan of their own comic? How much of the rest of this story is being telegraphed here? Who the eff else was goi...

Three cheers for Eric Bittle! Three cheers for Jack Zimmermann! Here, here! Oh, wait, is it hear, hear? Anyway, we love these award-winning gay hockey players, and they secretly love each other, or at least that's what this strip really wants us to think. Sekrit provides a close reading of Jack's spectacularly inane acceptance speech, and Tomato makes the brave suggestion that Jack's haircut kind...

In one of OMGCP's most iconic set pieces, Bitty has an assist on Jack's GWG -- and is checked into the air, where he gives a sassy little monologue before losing his helmet. Then Jack looks on horror and mutters his nickname for the first time, so, like, true love. Holy shit, this sport is incredibly violent! Maybe none of these characters should be playing it. Read along with us:  1.20 Playoffs -...

Is Check, Please! a soap opera? (No.) Is Check, Please! a slash fic? (Kind of?) Will Jack and Bitty ever do more than bonk their helmets together in front of a romantically hazy yellow background? (Please, that ship has sailed - they've bonked a lot more than that!). Tomato and Sekrit dip their collective toe into the turbulent waters of Jack and Bitty's power dynamics and the necessity of accepti...

There are a few installments of Check, Please! that are like, oh, it's this strip. Join us as we talk about the widening gulf between the reality of hockey and the "reality" of OMGCP, personified by two sportscasters everyone in the universe of the comic hates because they dare to evaluate Jack Zimmermann on the basis of how the NHL actually, like, is. Don't they know Bitty wins this comic? Also,...

Who are these amphibians? Why do we care about them? What do they add to the universe-changing love story between Bitty and that other guy? We dive into these very important questions, and more, like what in deep-fried hell this strip's dancing cookies are doing to productively destabilize Check, Please!'s formal conventions. (Nothing.) Plus: Tomato brings up Homestuck again...sorry about that, ev...

In 1.16 Bitty gets put on the first line with Jack, and Sekrit and Tomato break down why Jack has such a problem with it -- he wants to fuck his dad, is that what the blog post is suggesting? -- and why Bitty should even care. Join in for a scintillating breakdown of how this strip is structured and what the vlog element is even doing here. We also get back to the comic's foundation myth via refer...

Summer's hottest podcast is Check Displeased, and this episode has everything: truly incredible episode guest  jovishark , a deep and fascinating dive into fandom ethics and the personal joys and costs of participating in fandom, at least three references to Bill Hader, South Park hockey classic "Stanley's Cup," and Sekrit's so-controversial-and-yet-so-brave suggestion that what really brings Chec...

One comic into the new semester, were you already getting sick of the plot of Check, Please? Come on down to the bottom separatist commune, where Sekrit and Tomato dig into how the pacing of this comic makes no sense, and why the comedy-writing structure is solid but the jokes, not so much. Why are hockey asses so huge? Why are we told over and over again that Jack's ass specifically is very huge...

Kicking off Bitty's second semester at Samwell, Sekrit and Tomato meet one of Check Please's most important and allegedly bro-iest characters! A rousing discussion about fine art, dicks, identity, Lardo's lack of on-page burping, the comic's use of a notable queer women's haircut ritual in service of gender conformity, and the ironic detachment of hipster fashion (such as it is) follows. Plus, we...

It’s Check Displeased, but--! Nearly 60 percent of voters wanted an episode about weird fanfic, so here's our longest episode yet, all about that. Sekrit and Tomato define "weird fanfic" by first defining typical Check, Please! fanfic, then discuss a few of their favorites across the weird Check, Please! fanfic spectrum. Then, even though nobody voted for it at all, they get into some of their own...

Is this strip canon? Who's even read this strip? Does this strip count for anything? Based on the amount of time Tomato and Sekrit spend actually discussing what happens in this slightly lackadaisical strip, the answer to all of these questions appear to be "Who cares?" Luckily, there's plenty of other important stuff to chew on: How much does it matter that Jack cosplays as his dad whenever he we...

In this actual final installment about the first semester of Bitty's freshman year of college -- as opposed to the conceptual last installment, a Kickstarter bonus strip, coming next episode of Check Displeased -- Bitty comes out to Shitty, and Shitty takes it in stride. Shitty, the protagonist of the comic. Three cheers for Shitty! Make love to me, Shitty! How would you like a list of all 10+ Che...

Ransom and Holster want to set Bitty up for the Winter Screw, and they know just who Bitty will love: a lady who bakes! Sekrit and Tomato discuss this strip's visual foreshadowing, Jack's reaction (or lack thereof) to Bitty's obviously gay character design, and the limitations of coming out narratives. Thus begins Check Please's first iconique arc, in which we discover Bitty's greatest secret - th...

Sometimes your internet cuts off for hours and you wander all over your apartment complex begging for a connection like alms just so you can pretend you updated your podcast on time. Anyway, that's nothing compared to Bitty and Jack's simultaneous suffering in this episode! We also meet Bad Bob in the flesh, dive into cruelty and luck, and discuss the best ways to deal with Jack's sulky baby perso...

WELCOME BACK After a brief hiatus while winding down the 2019-2020 school year, Tomato and Sekrit are back with an all-new episode, in which Bitty scores a goal in a hockey game, and ... actually, that's pretty much everything that happens. Some nice visuals here, which we get into, along with the background info on the 2013 Yale men's hockey team you've been eagerly anticipating all podcast. Also...