Let's say, hypothetically, that Goats continues in some fashion after Guest Week, even though the Earth was destroyed.

Let's also say, continuing in our hypothetical fashion, that Neil and Bob were to appear in some of the strips going forward.

The Question: Should Neil shave his goatee, or keep it?

It's stuff like this that keeps me awake at night. I'll follow the advice of whomever posts the most convincing argument for or against shaving.

Hmmm... yes, a puzzlement.

The goatee sort of does two things: First, if you're into cliches, it makes him look a little more evil. Also, it provides a way to distunguish Neil from Bob. The question is, is that good or bad.

Up to this point, I've seen Neil and Bob as generally indistinguishable, like Rozencrantz and Guildenstern (I'm not even going to try to spell-check that). Occasionally something shows up that makes the distinct (like the koala), but it goes away soon. (And without some active archive digging, I couldn't say which of them had the koala at this point...)

It seems to me that it works out well, if you want to treat the two as one story element. This, in turn, works out nicely while they're on the periphery of the story, but might not work as well if they were more central to the strip. (It still might work out, but generally when characters that act as a unit become the focus of a story, their differences stand out more and they start to act individually.)

So I don't know; I guess all I'm really doing is rephrasing the question. If the R&G angle is to continue -- and it is a good occasional gag in its own right -- then I'd say shave it. If the two are meant to develop as independent characters (perhaps especially if Neil is to develop as the more devious, plotting, or mastermind-ish of the two), then maybe it should stay.

If Neil shaves his goatee, the terrorists will already have won.

Beeeej

Shave it.

Neil and Bob are iconic aliens (obsessed with sex, true, but iconic aliens nonetheless...besides, aliens have a long history of being anal-probe freaks, so that fits in fine). As soon as a new reader sees them for the first time, they know who these guys are. They are archetypes.

Grays aren't s'posed to have beards.

Have Bob grow a goatee too. That way you could keep the aliens trendy and identical.

Then, in a later comic, anyone from the 'evil' universe who visits will be very confused.

I like the goatee as a temporary prop, and I think you might be able to squeeze another storyline or two out of it. After that, I think you should get rid of it. It just doesn't seem right... It's somehow out of place on Neil. I think that an essential part of Neil & Bob is their indistinguishableness.

Indistinguishableness is not a word, but I don't care. ;)

The most compelling argument eh?

Sirs, I present the argument for Laziness, the most compelling of all activites.

1. Drawing Neil and then adding a goatee is more work for you to draw.

2. If Neil has the goatee you have to remember which is which (and even they can't remember). i.e. more work in your storylines.

3. Looking at the strip and distinguishing between the two involves more neuron calisthenics for us, the readers.

4. The searchable archive data has all references to them as Bob (or Neil) and Neil (or Bob) and if you made them distinguishable on a regular basis some pedant (you know who [goats.com] I'm looking at) would decide we ought to redo all their scenes or something insane like that.

So, in short, maintaining the goatee on Neil is a superlative waste of energy and distinct lack of laziness. I rest my case.

Neil should shave it off, but Bob should grow his own goatee. they should then switch often so that they can keep the coolness/evilness of the goatee, while remaining impossible to diferentiate.

Since the reason he grew it was for increased sex appeal, and it didn't help, he may as well shave it.

Personally, though, I think it was a fluke. I find the goatee to be totally pimp. Besides, all this talk of keeping the characters indistinguishable: i think they've definately developed their own personalities. If they hadn't, then this strip [goats.com] wouldn't have worked so well.

So, uh, yeah. I don't think there was an argument in there, anywhere, but I did use the phrase "totally pimp".

Hmmm. While it does make him look cooler, and gives us a way to differentiate... I dunno. My gut feeling is to let him keep if for a while, maybe a few months or so, and then have him shave it... but there should be an entire storyline based on *why* he decides to shave it.

I vote that the goatee is fake. Removable even. We should see that they swap it at some point in the future, so we never know which one is which. Or they both should get one.
Will
CBE

In Response to Will_CBE (#863):

I say get rid of the goatee, but in the immortal words of John Waters on the Daily Show Five Questions (several years ago):

Craig: "Shave or wax?"
John: "Pluck."

('cause he's got that little thin moustache, see?)

In Response to tor (#854):

I agree with Mr. Larsen. Pedants must be stopped.

If Neil isn't allowed kick-ass marsupial haberdashery, he certainly shouldn't be allowed to have facial hair.

Jon, that you are even considering taking the path of more resistance has me concerned about your mental health...that there has been a fundamental change in what makes you the Jon we all know and love.

Seek help (beer) immediately.

He should shave everything except for the goatee, oh wait, they have no other hair.

This leads me to a question. If Neil decides to grow a goatee does this mean that Neil and Bob regularly shave their entire bodies, and Neil just decided to let the hair on his chin go, or is it some sort of super funky alien power were a hairless species, such as that of Neil and Bob, can mentally make hair grow in random places anywhere on their bodies.

Either way, there is a lot of fun things that can be done after coming to one of these revelations.

We all know that Neil's goatee was just torn out of construction paper and pasted on with Elmer's Glue anyway... it'll fall right off the first time he gets it wet.

-m, won't register! WON'T!

In Response to Lonely Goatherd (#902):

hmmm...

I had not considered that option. But then what about hairy aliens?

Well, I guess based on today's strip this eternal question has been answered....funny, I always thought it would be "42"

In Response to Dynedain (#1052):

I'm not certain, as I don't think I've yet found The Definitive Mannilow Reference[tm] in the archives (rat bastard... no offense... thus far I've only found that Neil took the Mannilow tickets off the bus hijacker's corpse while Bob seemed uninterested in them...), but I think the answer may actually have been revealed on Wednesday.

In Response to mea37 (#1054):

yes it may have been revealed Wednesday...but if Niel 'n Bob are back to having ambiguous interchangeable personalities then we dont know which one was there