As a moments page, spoilers will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Truly the lowest form of humor.
Here's a good question: since Smile and Sisters are chock-full of laughable bits, why can't this third memoir follow such a trend, either?- Given how immature it is, you can't help but chuckle at some of Raina's friends treating her life as a big ol' gross-out session... well, unless it grosses you out too much.
- Michelle's first scene in the book:
Michelle (pointing at water fountains): Coffee... tea... milkshake...(pointing at Raina's fountain)Michelle: PEE!!(Raina immediately spits the water into Michelle's face) - The Telgemeiers have rather... odd eating habits, to say the least.
- Will (the baby) only eats baby carrots, taco shells, grated cheddar cheese and raw spaghetti noodles.
- Amara (5 years old) likes salad, French fries, an overabundance of ketchup, and pizza with the cheese ripped off.
- Denis (the father) likes cheese straight from the package.
- Sue (the mother) thinks a steamed artichoke, a glass of milk and mayonnaise is a perfect meal.
- Despite being younger than in Smile, Raina still has her snarky sense of humor. When doing a math test, she comes across a question that basically goes "A pizza has 5 out of 8 slices. Your sister eats 2 slices. What fraction is left?"
- The facial exchange between Raina and her math teacher after that scene (see the bottom of pg. 28, first edition).
- Narrator!Raina remarks on how - because her family lived in a small apartment - all five of them had to share the same bathroom. One of the panels has them eating bean tacos. Take a wild guess what happens next.
- The face Michelle makes before she asks if Raina is a "poopy diaper baby."
- Between chapters, Raina has an in-universe comic: she's upset because she thinks her mom is cooking tacos, only to find that they're having artichokes for dinner. She now wants tacos...
- After giving up much of lunch because she's afraid of getting sick, Raina decides to drink water, but finds the only fountain available is the "pee" one from earlier. She ignores this, until...Michelle (pointing at water fountains): Coffee... Mountain Dew... milkshake...Michelle: (Shouts at the top of her lungs) POO!!!
- Raina tries kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage from Korean cuisine) for the first time at Jane's house, and absolutely loves it. Then she has gas (see the page image).
- Also Jane says that she never has gas:
- Raina tells Lauren about the foods that don't make her sick. First she names pizza:Raina: No, but it makes Amara sick! That's why she doesn't eat the cheese. One time, when she was three, we were at our neighbor's house, and she was eating some pizza, and she choked, and—Lauren: Okay. So pizza doesn't make you sick. What else?
- Raina tries to get rid of her fear of eating artichokes. When she wakes up not sick after eating one, she shouts "VICTORY!" If you look closely, you'll see Amara with a confused look on her face.
- The one panel where Tai is doing an LDI on The Anatomy of a Fart.
- Raina's parents bring up that they met with Lauren (Raina panics, thinking she did something wrong, then irritably tells rebuffs her mother when she calls her a "child" instead of a "minor") and she convinced them to move Raina out of her room with Wil and Amara. Unfortunately, they live in a tiny apartment with no other rooms and Grandma is moving in on the couch, so they cut their bedroom in half with a curtain.Raina: What young person shares a room with her parents?!Sue: Listen, if you'd rather we give this space to your sister or brother...Raina: No no no no...
- Raina can't sleep because of her freight train of a father's snoring. Apparently Sue became numb to it...
- Literally any time Grandma starts rambling is comedy gold.
- Jane tells Raina that she's moving away. Raina is more concerned with how lucky Jane is for getting her own room. Jane doesn't find it funny though...
- When Michelle is doing her LDI on waldorf salad, Raina screams "EW!" in front of the entire class. Cue the Oh, Crap! face and Mr. Abrams staring her down.Raina: I'm sorry... it's just... apples and mayonnaise?!!
- Raina tells Lauren how some of the other kids at school tease her and how it makes her go up to a five on a scale of 1 to 10 on how uncomfortable she feels, then her stomach hurts and she goes up to an 8 or 9. After teaching Raina some breathing exercises, Raina says she'd stopped at five, prompting this adorable exchange:Lauren: You never made it all the way to a ten!
- Raina gets another stomachache after Jane becomes good friends with Michelle, leading the doctors to diagnose her with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), or upset stomach with no cause. The doctors prescribe plenty of rest, exercise, water, avoiding foods that upset your stomach, and (most importantly) not stressing out. At that last suggestion, Raina and her mother burst out laughing.
- When Raina sees that Jane has invited Michelle to her party, Jane says that maybe puberty made Michelle nice.Smash Cut to therapist officeRaina: Can puberty make you nice?!
- The deadpan face Raina makes when she pops the thought bubble of her dancing and celebrating that Michelle won't be around for the rest of the school year. Also counts as a as a rather touching character development.
- While also heartwarming, the scene where Raina tells Dina, Nicole and Jane that she goes to therapy is funny because of their nonchalance. Kinda mirrors the scene in Smile where Raina's friends don't find her teeth funny looking even though she (initially) does.
- Additional bit of heartwarming: Nicole is, for the most part, much nicer here than in Smile. Shows how there was a time where she wasn't a bully to Raina, and developed into one more from ignorance than malice.
- The very, very end, where Raina farts at the sleepover.
MORE COMING SOON
