The Seven Minute Rule, as Explained by “Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out”

One of the things I noticed at Tom and Michele’s housewarming party (which I covered in this entry and this entry) was that the people there, whether or not they realized it, seemed to be observing the Seven Minute Rule, pictured below:

Click the comic to see the full version on its original page.

As the comic excerpt above puts it:

…if you’re a girl with a boyfriend and you meet a guy at a party, you MUST make a reference to your boyfriend within the first seven minutes of conversation.

Girls with boyfriends are shameless abusers of the long-flirt. Since they already have someone to go home to, they don’t have to float from guy to guy searching for meat. Because of this, the guys they talk to mistakenly believe the girls are interested in them, ESPECIALLY when they talk for hours without mentioning their boyfriends.

The excerpt above comes from Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out, an autobiographical webcomic written by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and illustrated by Lisa Hanawalt. Being a rather relaxed kind of guy, I find neurosis highly amusing and Bob-Waksberg’s ability to tell a funny yarn makes it doubly so (he’s part of a comedy troupe called Olde English). Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out has been finding its stride in its most recent episodes; I’m going to be keeping an eye on this webcomic.