Joey kind of was. In one of the Vegas episodes, he used that line on Rachel, and when she responded positively, rather than take advantage, he took it as a sign that she should stop drinking
Captain Doctor is a sweet title, but I believe the military counts Doctor as a rank equivalent to Major, so you’ll never see anything below a Major Doctor.
Shouldn’t it be Doctor Captain Sir? Or Major Doctor Sir.
— also, at least during Korea, the rank of a standard surgeon was initially Captain. My knowledge of American military rank kind of peters out after 1955.
That’s very possible. And if my half-remembered trivia facts are correct I guess that indicates some rank inflation over the decades. How annoying. It’s like I want to dig into this and set the story straight, but at the same time I can’t bring myself to care that much.
We are the Joe. Lower your shields and surrender your girls. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own, if you know what we mean. Resistance is futile.
He needs to shave his beard and then they can switch out with each other. Then he will be pretending to be Joe, even though he is the father of Joe who is Joe. JOECEPTION.
“Hello, Sarah! Yes, I know your name. You see, I’m from another universe and I know a different version of you from back home. Actually, I know all sorts of stuff, like all your favorite pleasure points, favorite positions…”
It didn’t, though. I mean, Trillian — aka Trisha McMillan — went with Zaphod because she was bored with her life on Earth and wanted more. Frankly lots of us would probably jump at the chance just like she did. You can’t really give the pickup line too much credit.
Of course I’m talking about the radio play or the books, where Trillian does indeed fall in love with Zaphod, who is interesting and charming and layered even in his seeming shallowness; I’m definitely not talking about the big budget movie, where Trillian was in fact seduced away from her true soul mate Arthur by Zaphod’s coolness and later regrets everything. In that case, yes: clearly the pickup line had its intended effect.
I remember David’s tumblr post about Joyce’s parents and his technique for parents in general, and the little part about how some will only look like older version of their kids for effect…
I think that’s why the Rosenthal’s divorced before Joe hit college in DoA. Willis didn’t want to have the same sort of story going on in both simultaneously.
Careful, Sarah. If there was some all-powerful creator listening to you, he might not be too happy suggesting he’s lazy. Don’t want him putting you in traumatic situations that would cause others to yell out ‘Damn you!’
This sort of logic makes sexual harassment and assault out to be natural disasters. “Situations you might find yourself in.” Rather than conscious decisions made by other people to be pieces of shit. And since God is all about free will, inflicting other people’s free choices on Sarah makes not even the tiniest bit of sense, nor should it be something God can arrange for punishment.
All of this without even pointing out what a gross, stupid, and unworthy god God would be to think rape is an a proportionate response to being called “lazy”.
Or, y’know, it could just be a reference to the fact that this universe does, in fact, have a creator that is all-powerful in determining actions and whatnot due to the fact that it’s fictional. I have no clue what Willis’ position on free will is, but I imagine that if he let the characters exercise theirs, we wouldn’t have a comic. Because they’re not real and can’t decide what to do.
a) Still super disproportionate, if OP was talking about the sexual harassment.
b) Seems even LESS like something Willis would do, not only because he already made this joke himself?
c) If Wills controls everything his characters do, then he made her call him lazy, so punishing her for that is now also extra special stupid.
The joke makes even less sense by your interpretation of it, is what I’m saying.
Sorry for snapping but this view of sexual assault / harassment as “event that happens” (rather than “act committed”) really is problematic and pernicious. It should be corrected until it stops happening.
I think you’re being a TAD overdefensive. The OP probably meant another traumatic event aside from sexual harassment, as Willis is known for such things. I can see why you would assume he means sexual harassment, but attacking someone based on a hunch is why we had Witch Hunts. Clarify before you Persecute.
Can I ask what part of my comment was an attack? Let alone a persecution? Those are such loaded words…
I thought the comment was thoughtless, not malicious. The things it brought to mind were awful, but… where did I insult AgentKen or accuse him of anything? I was more annoyed with Andy’s glib response but I still wasnt insulting and I apologized for my tone just to be safe.
Between this and the comment I got back from Andy, it makes me feel like my pissy avatar is coloring my words.
I mean, I get it. I think you’re a smart verbose well spoken individual. But the way you come across seems to be dragging this into something it doesn’t need to go. I am sure the OP was just telling a joke and now the joke is gone. Because of the way you took it, it won’t be funny unless one chooses not to read your post. It’d be like if someone said.
“Sarah just wants to go home and be lazy”
and then I start on a tangent about how it’s a negative stereotype that all black people are lazy. Look, I’m not saying you don’t make good points. I respect or opinions more than quite a few others on this site, but sometimes you gotta pick how when you bring something of this nature up. I understand there are world problems that are often looked over and joked about that people don’t take seriousely, but to be honest it feels like youre grasping at straws here. If that joke isn’t safe then I don’t know what joke WOULD be. Look, I respect you a lot, I’m just sayin’ maybe tone it down sometimes.
Okay, part of that is falling into the “calling me a bigot is as mean as bigotry” trap — but I really didn’t even call OP anything. I just pointed out what the logic, behind what I thought OP’s joke was, meant.
I want to stress that I am sorry for misinterpreting the joke. Because I misinterpreted it, of course my response to it was wrong. I’m definitely sorry I made AgentKeen feel bad, if I did.
But. Unless I’m misunderstanding you, you’re asking for more than that — for me to feel guilty that I spoiled a joke, and to next time think twice about speaking up lest I spoil another innocent joke.
And that’s — a little bit silly. Because there are so many many many jokes out there that, both innocently and maliciously, really do reinforce rape culture — jokes that come from ways of thinking that just haven’t been challenged. A lot of good would be done if everyone did everything they could to cut those jokes off at the knees, to remind people that well-intentioned stuff like “rape prevention tips for women” actually do the opposite of helping.
Meanwhile, a few innocent jokes will suffer — and when they do, the joke-teller will be appalled, and the person who misinterpreted the joke will be sorry. But nothing else bad will happen, to anyone. Certainly nothing remotely as bad as the, you know, day-to-day consequences of rape culture.
This also goes for making people re-examine racist jokes and homophobic jokes and generally sexist jokes.
You worry about people reading AgentKeen’s joke and not being able to laugh because I killed the mood. I think what they get instead of a joke now is some lovely human decency; his response to my comment is very kind, and my wrongness refreshes me at least even if no one else.
So while I’m still sorry I made him feel bad, I can’t be too sorry I took the risk of saying something.
Yeah and I guess I can understand that. Rape culture is a big deal. And maybe I’m wrong. I just feel that sometimes we seek out problems and make them more than they are because if we didn’t noone would learn…and there’s nothing wrong with that. I just feel….like you’re always on guard, waiting for something sexist , something mysoginistic, something rape culture to be said so that you can slap it down.You’re very intelligent and for the most part, your opinions are always righteous. But, the battlefield you have chosen is a webcomic comments section. That’s not to say mysoginistic, sexist people don’t comment here, FAR FROM IT IN FACT. However, I just feel like when you always try to make people see your point of view, at every opportunity, it seems…constricting. “You’d better watch what you say because you don’t want to be advocating rape culture”. Granted, if you’re saying something that DOES do that, it’s not good and you probably should be corrected…I dunno. Maybe I’m just really lax. I want to correct those who are ignorant and help them understand other points of view, but I feel no desire to constrict people. I may be nice but I am also awful. I love awful jokes and I have a terrible sense of humor. But at the same time, I guess I don’t take anything seriousely. I’m at a point in my life where most things bounce off on me and it just…stresses me out seeing someone always on guard. I know you have your reasons to do what you do so I guess I can’t stop you. Perhaps it’s not place. I just don’t feel like it’s worth it to always correct something that’s not politically correct. (If AgentKeen’s comment HAD been about Joe’s dad harassin’ Sarah maybe I would be more on your side, but the fact that I didn’t read it that way and you did is more what I’m about. You can correct dumb stuff, I just think you should lower your sensitivity so you don’t begin to become preachy).
If… if we must have giant walls of text that scroll down for pages in response to these comics, can they be about the comics themselves and not the other commenters?
I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean it like that at all. I never meant for there to be a connection to the harassment Sarah’s receiving in the last panel.
To be honest, the ‘character says something which makes the writer/artist upset and put them in bad/hilarious situations’ is a fairly common trope. I was mostly making a comment in that vein. In that situation, part of the comedy is that the writer is getting upset over something they made the character say, or the implication that the character is acting of their own volition, which is impossible. I also know that Willis wouldn’t really break the 4th wall for that joke, but he does have a tendency for characters to end up in tragic/difficult situations, so I was just playing off of that.
Thank you for saying so, and I’m sorry I misinterpreted your intended punishment. Joe’s dad is seriously creeping me out so I thought the connection was clear, but yeah. As a general “or else Willis will inflict draaaaama on you!!” it’s all good.
/in my head that voice is 100% Venture Bros Dr Morpheus so now I want to rewatch!
You’re right. Joe’s Dad does look like Jonathan Frakes. “Want to study the Captain’s Log?” (Yes, I know he was just a Commander in ST:NG but the line works better at the rank of Captain.)
And speaking of lecherous starship captains … You know how Luke had Obi Wan as a Force ghost to give him advice. Captain James T. Kirk had the ghost of Hugh Hefner as his Force Ghost. “Bust a move, Jim baby, bust a move!” “The Mack will be with you … always.”
You guys sure are picking cool guys to voice a divorced forty-something hitting on a college student to her visible displeasure.
I hear pathetic skeezy insecurity. A Hollywood guy to represent that effectively isn’t really springing to mind, but maybe modern-day Jack Nicholson, or Mel Gibson while drunk. Both still too cool, but closer.
People like this aren’t pathetic or Skeezy, though. At least not in tone. They never are. He’s confident and full of himself. He’s lived his whole life like this and seems to have no desire to change so it’s not uncanny for him to not sound insecure, at least in voice.
But he IS insecure; otherwise he wouldn’t feel the need to target barely-legal women. 😉 Which also makes him skeezy by definition, even when he’s not literally cornering them with his body. The whole hyper masculine overcompensation of it all springs from a well of insecurity even if it’s buried deep down.
I picked Jack Nicholson because he’s capable of an older-guy charisma but is also kind of skeezy and fully capable of being creepy too. Meanwhile the other people are saying “George Clooney” “Jonathan Frakes” “Sean Connery”. Heart throbs who have spent their careers playing pretty much nothing but smart handsome desirable leading men. Sean Connery getting on in years doesn’t negate the fact that the dude played James Bond. And Frakes’ occasional villain role certainly never made him any less appealing.
(Zap Branagan is PERFECT, though. Props for that.)
I mean, everyone is kind of acting like Joe’s dad is a successful playa, and we don’t have any evidence of that — Sarah looks grossed out and Joe is sorry for his dad’s over-the-line behavior.
Nah, I don’t want titles to spoil punchlines. If you click through from Twitter, you shouldn’t get to the last panel and find that distinctive word or phrase that took you there.
Unless this is about hover text instead of the post that talked about his design, which I only fuzzily remember to begin with really. :|a I can’t read the hover text on my phone and that has burned me before in comment sections 😉
Y’know, for winning the “who do you want to see” poll by such a large margin, we sure haven’t seen much of Dina’s family yet. Is this a best-for-last thing?
I again direct folks to the BUFFER WATCH on the left-hand side of the page. I was already nearly done drawing this story by the time that poll went live. The poll exists for my curiosity (and everyone’s fun).
“I don’t have to listen to this; do you know who my great great great great great great great great great great great great great great (repeat several million times) grandfather was? I’ll tell you, he was a Tyrannosaurus rex!”
“That’s not how evolution works, dad.”
“Don’t tell me how it works!”
By the way, while I’m thinking of it, I saw someone today that seriously reminded me of Sarah. She wore purple and green, had a headscarf, and wore her hair in a similar style. Strange coincidence, huh?
And with this comic I realize that I–despite all my best intentions–have turned into my father. A better version of my father, no doubt, but he was still something I was hoping to be completely NOT like…
DAMN YOU, WILLIS! So good at character writin’ that he incite character development in the real world…
Sympathy you have. Glad not like my father I am.
Well except for the socially awkward bit and the … oh my …..
…. what a revolting development this is…..
You know guys I just remembered a song of ice and fire/GoT when they comment some bloodlines being really resilient more in specific king Robert and his bastards XD
No alternate timelines involved. Tom Riker was created in a freak transporter accident.
Well, actually, the argument is slightly stronger for Will Riker having been created in a freak transporter accident, while the “original” was inadvertently left behind and eventually became Tom Riker. But then you start getting into weird philosophical questions.
Seeing Joe and his dad I’m reminded of that Beavis and Butt-Head episode “Sporting goods” where they have to buy Athletic supporters but the ones they are handed are too big for them, so they get eye patches instead. They try them on just as Daria walks in with a camera inquiring about active wear. B&B emerge from the dressing room with their Johnsons stuffed into the eye patches.
At which Daria goes “WHOA! EVEN SMALLER THAN I THOUGHT!”
And shoots a picture of the two.
Oh god, if Joe’s dad is Vandal Savage, that means Joe’s dad had done women since cavemen times. I guess, the meteor radiation gave him more than just immortality, if you catch my drift.
Guess the only way Joe could have a kid that didn’t look like him was to build her out of automotive parts. Don’t worry though, Ultra-Car, they say it’ll catch up to you in middle-age.
Dang, look at Joe’s face in the fourth panel. “I wish I could say that. I wish. So many women. So, so many prostitutes.” Then his face lights up with a huge grin. “Awesome!”
Here we observe Sarah’s two moods: Skepticism and disgust. (The ‘caring’ setting hasn’t been used frequently enough to deserve inclusion.)
Richard, I’m struggling to parse what you think is appealing about that sentence. Nobody likes persistent genetic material. It makes your sperm sound like Rambo.
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Joe’s dad is part zebra.
Part zebra, all beard
I think he’s probably hung like a horse, though.
He doesn’t get a lot of NEIGH sayers when it comes to the bedroom.
These puns are giving me the TROTS.
And some saddle sores.
I’m laughing myself horse.
Recent Gallop polls put Joe’s dad as the second most fancy in a tie, right behind Dina, although Jason seems to be pulling ahead.
He still has no name, but he was quite pleased about getting in out of the rain.
They all ride him pretty hard.
And they ride him all night.
And they ride him all day.
And they ride him all throughout the seasons.
And they ride him into the sunset.
And they ride him all throughout the year.
Something about horse doctors and solving all problems with his “gun”.
They also ride him out of the sunset, on your colour tv screen.
Is it wrong I immediately thought to myself, “are his pubes striped too?”
No. The thing you did that was wrong is to pass that mental image on to the rest of us.
Joe’s dad voted for best dad.
Voted by the ladies?
And also Ethan.
“Boom. Helped your friend their embrace his sexuality. I’m good.”
“Daaaaad, you’re embarrassing me.”
“Aw, come on, Joe. What did you expect?”
“For you to let me start the gun show, damn it.”
So…do they deliberately practice doing the same expression for greetings? Because that is just the best.
Joe’s dad made Joe learn it at a young age.
The “How you doin?” look is genetic as well.
Joe’s dad makes Joey look chivalrous.
Joey kind of was. In one of the Vegas episodes, he used that line on Rachel, and when she responded positively, rather than take advantage, he took it as a sign that she should stop drinking
sexual harassment much?
Not as much as Mr. Rosenthal would like…
Ahh, the avatar matching. It’s perfect.
I like to think his dad is wearing a tie so that he has something to hang on doors when he enters rooms. He’s just -that- confident.
Joe’s dad isn’t going to not get action on this trip.
Joe’s Dad, Action Star!
That’s Dr Action Star.
Captain Doctor Action Star III Rosenthal of the Five Inversions
Don’t you mean ‘Five Insertions’? As in that’s how much tail he gets in one day.
Captain Doctor is a sweet title, but I believe the military counts Doctor as a rank equivalent to Major, so you’ll never see anything below a Major Doctor.
Accuracy in a throwaway joke is very important.
Shouldn’t it be Doctor Captain Sir? Or Major Doctor Sir.
— also, at least during Korea, the rank of a standard surgeon was initially Captain. My knowledge of American military rank kind of peters out after 1955.
That’s very possible. And if my half-remembered trivia facts are correct I guess that indicates some rank inflation over the decades. How annoying. It’s like I want to dig into this and set the story straight, but at the same time I can’t bring myself to care that much.
So Joe’s dad is Alan Alda, then.
Nah, he’s gonna hook up with Roz, just to seriously creep Joe out.
And their video will get more views.
That could potentially be the most awkward threesome of Joe’s life.
Satah you are forgetting an important fact! He also has a tie!
Joe’s dad is Joe from the other universe! He canonically has a dimensional portal! He uses it to father other Joes across the multiverse!
IT ALL MAKES SENSE!
So, Joe is his own father? And quite possibly his own grandfather and his great-great-great grandfather?
It’s the Joegularity
The Joeniversal constant.
The Joelpha and the Joemega.
He’s got generational Joementum.
We are the Joe. Lower your shields and surrender your girls. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own, if you know what we mean. Resistance is futile.
Especially adding biological distinctiveness.
Or maybe fertile.
It’s Joe’s fault for having hot mom’s, otherwise he wouldn’t keep doing this.
David Lister did it first.
That’ll happen when you Joe every fertile woman you meet.
He needs to shave his beard and then they can switch out with each other. Then he will be pretending to be Joe, even though he is the father of Joe who is Joe. JOECEPTION.
“Hello, Sarah! Yes, I know your name. You see, I’m from another universe and I know a different version of you from back home. Actually, I know all sorts of stuff, like all your favorite pleasure points, favorite positions…”
I can actually see “I’m from another universe” working as a pickup line. Sort of like how “I’m from another planet” worked in Hitchhiker’s Guide.
It didn’t, though. I mean, Trillian — aka Trisha McMillan — went with Zaphod because she was bored with her life on Earth and wanted more. Frankly lots of us would probably jump at the chance just like she did. You can’t really give the pickup line too much credit.
Of course I’m talking about the radio play or the books, where Trillian does indeed fall in love with Zaphod, who is interesting and charming and layered even in his seeming shallowness; I’m definitely not talking about the big budget movie, where Trillian was in fact seduced away from her true soul mate Arthur by Zaphod’s coolness and later regrets everything. In that case, yes: clearly the pickup line had its intended effect.
Joe did the nasty in the pasty.
So, Joe’s dad is basically Joe with a beard? Well, at least he sorta looked like Riker with that beard.
Thank God I’m not the only one who thought that!
Joe looks actually apologetic in the last panel.
Probably cuz he remembered his dad hitting on women when he and his mom were together. Kind of a buzz kill realization.
Also, he knows Sarah will remember this moment every time he tries to hit on her in future.
Joe, remember how your dad had more game than you?
Joe’s dad’s been gamin’ since before the Famicom.
Famicom? Hell, Joe’s dad’s been gamin’ since before PONG, and the Rosenthal men have been gaming since before games were a thing!
First there was the big bang. Then 5 minutes later, there was the second biggest bang. And that was the first Joeing in history.
Why do you think they called it the Big Bang in the first place?
Deuterium: “Hey, Joe, are you bu–Oh. Ooooh. I’ll see you later then.
I ship this now, Joe can start calling Sarah “Mom”
Does that mean that Mike will show up anytime now with a nickel?
No, the Mike x Sarah Hate-Fuck would destroy the Earth
And most of Mars.
Strangely, the moon will remain intact, though.
And Pluto will be the new planet for humanity. And yes, I still say Pluto is a planet.
Pluto and Charon are a binary planet in my view.
Watch out for the men in black. They’re cracking down on poorly defined words.
Because no nickel was given, Mike does not destroy Uranus
Your mom’s anus, though……
I hear there are certain fungal gentlemen who would object to that.
Until Joe makes first contact.
I remember David’s tumblr post about Joyce’s parents and his technique for parents in general, and the little part about how some will only look like older version of their kids for effect…
I’m starting to think Joe doesn’t actually have a mom and he’s just a clone of his dad.
I like to think Joe’s mom looks exactly like Joe’s dad.
…including the beard.
And Joe needed therapy to forget that image.
And unfortunately for Joe, his dad is doing the therapist.
During the session.
While One Direction is being played out the window.
Why One Direction? I would’ve gone with Ethereal Icelandic Moaning.
Or Barry White.
Oh there’ll be moaning, alright.
Parthenogenesis!
And again Roomies and DOA sync up.
I think that’s why the Rosenthal’s divorced before Joe hit college in DoA. Willis didn’t want to have the same sort of story going on in both simultaneously.
the sync up is just a coincidence, Willis said that certain stories like Ethan’s coming out and in this case the divorce have already happened
Joe’s dad is more Joe than Joe O_o
Joe’s mom is also Joe.
Which means, Joe’s dad Joe’d Joe’s mom, and due to the transitive property, that can be simplified to Joe Joe’d Joe.
and when Joe joe’d joe, joe made joe to joe other joes until they too, make joes.
Joe joed Joe to make Joe who joes all the hos to make more Joes to joe more hos to make more Joes.
Planet of the Joes in the making
“Only two things come from the Rosenthals, Joes and hos, and you ain’t lookin’ horny.”
BULLSHIT, I bet you could Joe a joe through a garden hose! Are you a Joe Joer!!?
Are you a Joe enough Joe to Joe the Joe?
I haven’t even seen a biological female Rosenthal.
YOU MANIACS! YOU JOED IT UP! AH, JOE YOU ALL! JOE YOU ALL TO JOE!
Very good! Can you say, “Titus the tailor told ten tall tales to Titania the titmouse”?
Not without giggling at ‘titmouse’.
Heh.
Talk about JoeJoes Bizarre Adventure! That hurt to type…
So is his future spouse.
Well, where do you think Joe learn being Joe from?
Hormones and bad 80s movies?
That, too.
Yo, Joe!
Now you know (carnally), and knowing is half the battle.
The beard is strong with this one.
AAAAAAAA so this means the divorce happened before college in doaverse?
Joe talked about the divorce during his date with Joyce during the first year of the strip, so yes.
Careful, Sarah. If there was some all-powerful creator listening to you, he might not be too happy suggesting he’s lazy. Don’t want him putting you in traumatic situations that would cause others to yell out ‘Damn you!’
Nah, that was just Willis lampshading his design choices through his characters.
This sort of logic makes sexual harassment and assault out to be natural disasters. “Situations you might find yourself in.” Rather than conscious decisions made by other people to be pieces of shit. And since God is all about free will, inflicting other people’s free choices on Sarah makes not even the tiniest bit of sense, nor should it be something God can arrange for punishment.
All of this without even pointing out what a gross, stupid, and unworthy god God would be to think rape is an a proportionate response to being called “lazy”.
Or, y’know, it could just be a reference to the fact that this universe does, in fact, have a creator that is all-powerful in determining actions and whatnot due to the fact that it’s fictional. I have no clue what Willis’ position on free will is, but I imagine that if he let the characters exercise theirs, we wouldn’t have a comic. Because they’re not real and can’t decide what to do.
a) Still super disproportionate, if OP was talking about the sexual harassment.
b) Seems even LESS like something Willis would do, not only because he already made this joke himself?
c) If Wills controls everything his characters do, then he made her call him lazy, so punishing her for that is now also extra special stupid.
The joke makes even less sense by your interpretation of it, is what I’m saying.
Sorry for snapping but this view of sexual assault / harassment as “event that happens” (rather than “act committed”) really is problematic and pernicious. It should be corrected until it stops happening.
I think you’re being a TAD overdefensive. The OP probably meant another traumatic event aside from sexual harassment, as Willis is known for such things. I can see why you would assume he means sexual harassment, but attacking someone based on a hunch is why we had Witch Hunts. Clarify before you Persecute.
Can I ask what part of my comment was an attack? Let alone a persecution? Those are such loaded words…
I thought the comment was thoughtless, not malicious. The things it brought to mind were awful, but… where did I insult AgentKen or accuse him of anything? I was more annoyed with Andy’s glib response but I still wasnt insulting and I apologized for my tone just to be safe.
Between this and the comment I got back from Andy, it makes me feel like my pissy avatar is coloring my words.
I mean, I get it. I think you’re a smart verbose well spoken individual. But the way you come across seems to be dragging this into something it doesn’t need to go. I am sure the OP was just telling a joke and now the joke is gone. Because of the way you took it, it won’t be funny unless one chooses not to read your post. It’d be like if someone said.
“Sarah just wants to go home and be lazy”
and then I start on a tangent about how it’s a negative stereotype that all black people are lazy. Look, I’m not saying you don’t make good points. I respect or opinions more than quite a few others on this site, but sometimes you gotta pick how when you bring something of this nature up. I understand there are world problems that are often looked over and joked about that people don’t take seriousely, but to be honest it feels like youre grasping at straws here. If that joke isn’t safe then I don’t know what joke WOULD be. Look, I respect you a lot, I’m just sayin’ maybe tone it down sometimes.
Okay, part of that is falling into the “calling me a bigot is as mean as bigotry” trap — but I really didn’t even call OP anything. I just pointed out what the logic, behind what I thought OP’s joke was, meant.
I want to stress that I am sorry for misinterpreting the joke. Because I misinterpreted it, of course my response to it was wrong. I’m definitely sorry I made AgentKeen feel bad, if I did.
But. Unless I’m misunderstanding you, you’re asking for more than that — for me to feel guilty that I spoiled a joke, and to next time think twice about speaking up lest I spoil another innocent joke.
And that’s — a little bit silly. Because there are so many many many jokes out there that, both innocently and maliciously, really do reinforce rape culture — jokes that come from ways of thinking that just haven’t been challenged. A lot of good would be done if everyone did everything they could to cut those jokes off at the knees, to remind people that well-intentioned stuff like “rape prevention tips for women” actually do the opposite of helping.
Meanwhile, a few innocent jokes will suffer — and when they do, the joke-teller will be appalled, and the person who misinterpreted the joke will be sorry. But nothing else bad will happen, to anyone. Certainly nothing remotely as bad as the, you know, day-to-day consequences of rape culture.
This also goes for making people re-examine racist jokes and homophobic jokes and generally sexist jokes.
You worry about people reading AgentKeen’s joke and not being able to laugh because I killed the mood. I think what they get instead of a joke now is some lovely human decency; his response to my comment is very kind, and my wrongness refreshes me at least even if no one else.
So while I’m still sorry I made him feel bad, I can’t be too sorry I took the risk of saying something.
Yeah and I guess I can understand that. Rape culture is a big deal. And maybe I’m wrong. I just feel that sometimes we seek out problems and make them more than they are because if we didn’t noone would learn…and there’s nothing wrong with that. I just feel….like you’re always on guard, waiting for something sexist , something mysoginistic, something rape culture to be said so that you can slap it down.You’re very intelligent and for the most part, your opinions are always righteous. But, the battlefield you have chosen is a webcomic comments section. That’s not to say mysoginistic, sexist people don’t comment here, FAR FROM IT IN FACT. However, I just feel like when you always try to make people see your point of view, at every opportunity, it seems…constricting. “You’d better watch what you say because you don’t want to be advocating rape culture”. Granted, if you’re saying something that DOES do that, it’s not good and you probably should be corrected…I dunno. Maybe I’m just really lax. I want to correct those who are ignorant and help them understand other points of view, but I feel no desire to constrict people. I may be nice but I am also awful. I love awful jokes and I have a terrible sense of humor. But at the same time, I guess I don’t take anything seriousely. I’m at a point in my life where most things bounce off on me and it just…stresses me out seeing someone always on guard. I know you have your reasons to do what you do so I guess I can’t stop you. Perhaps it’s not place. I just don’t feel like it’s worth it to always correct something that’s not politically correct. (If AgentKeen’s comment HAD been about Joe’s dad harassin’ Sarah maybe I would be more on your side, but the fact that I didn’t read it that way and you did is more what I’m about. You can correct dumb stuff, I just think you should lower your sensitivity so you don’t begin to become preachy).
If… if we must have giant walls of text that scroll down for pages in response to these comics, can they be about the comics themselves and not the other commenters?
I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean it like that at all. I never meant for there to be a connection to the harassment Sarah’s receiving in the last panel.
To be honest, the ‘character says something which makes the writer/artist upset and put them in bad/hilarious situations’ is a fairly common trope. I was mostly making a comment in that vein. In that situation, part of the comedy is that the writer is getting upset over something they made the character say, or the implication that the character is acting of their own volition, which is impossible. I also know that Willis wouldn’t really break the 4th wall for that joke, but he does have a tendency for characters to end up in tragic/difficult situations, so I was just playing off of that.
Thank you for saying so, and I’m sorry I misinterpreted your intended punishment. Joe’s dad is seriously creeping me out so I thought the connection was clear, but yeah. As a general “or else Willis will inflict draaaaama on you!!” it’s all good.
/in my head that voice is 100% Venture Bros Dr Morpheus so now I want to rewatch!
What does this look like, Funky Winkerbean?
… Wait. No. This has more facial expressions than “Smug smirk of insufferableness” and “Dulled to the despair that is living in this universe.”
Richard is a sexy badger.
(A NoPrize for guessing the reference!)
But there were many fucks given.
Explains so much.
Joe’s dad is voiced by George Clooney in my head.
Jonathan Frakes for me.
I always imagine Billy West as Zap Branigan
Oh, God. Cannot unhear.
Don’t want to unhear.
Yes. The Frakes for me at first sight. It’s the beard…
You’re right. Joe’s Dad does look like Jonathan Frakes. “Want to study the Captain’s Log?” (Yes, I know he was just a Commander in ST:NG but the line works better at the rank of Captain.)
And speaking of lecherous starship captains … You know how Luke had Obi Wan as a Force ghost to give him advice. Captain James T. Kirk had the ghost of Hugh Hefner as his Force Ghost. “Bust a move, Jim baby, bust a move!” “The Mack will be with you … always.”
And the grey wouldn’t have really started growing in until Riker becomes Captain (post-Nemesis) anyway.
Definitely Jonathan Frakes.
Joe’s dad’s voice instantly came across as a smug Sean Connery for me.
“Oh, I think yew’ll find my genetic material is quite pershishtant.”
You guys sure are picking cool guys to voice a divorced forty-something hitting on a college student to her visible displeasure.
I hear pathetic skeezy insecurity. A Hollywood guy to represent that effectively isn’t really springing to mind, but maybe modern-day Jack Nicholson, or Mel Gibson while drunk. Both still too cool, but closer.
People like this aren’t pathetic or Skeezy, though. At least not in tone. They never are. He’s confident and full of himself. He’s lived his whole life like this and seems to have no desire to change so it’s not uncanny for him to not sound insecure, at least in voice.
But he IS insecure; otherwise he wouldn’t feel the need to target barely-legal women. 😉 Which also makes him skeezy by definition, even when he’s not literally cornering them with his body. The whole hyper masculine overcompensation of it all springs from a well of insecurity even if it’s buried deep down.
I picked Jack Nicholson because he’s capable of an older-guy charisma but is also kind of skeezy and fully capable of being creepy too. Meanwhile the other people are saying “George Clooney” “Jonathan Frakes” “Sean Connery”. Heart throbs who have spent their careers playing pretty much nothing but smart handsome desirable leading men. Sean Connery getting on in years doesn’t negate the fact that the dude played James Bond. And Frakes’ occasional villain role certainly never made him any less appealing.
(Zap Branagan is PERFECT, though. Props for that.)
I mean, everyone is kind of acting like Joe’s dad is a successful playa, and we don’t have any evidence of that — Sarah looks grossed out and Joe is sorry for his dad’s over-the-line behavior.
How about Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery?
*snork*
That’d probably work.
I hear BRIAN BLESSED!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWSnxzoVfoY
Am I gonna be the first person to say how friggin’ Creepy panel 2 is?
It’ll be a lot creepier if they both said the same thing.
Suddenly I’m imagining them saying “Hello nurse!” in unison now, a la Animaniacs.
I think that was already implied by some of our fellow commenters.
It’s like they’re thinking the same thoughts, likely PSL in nature.
Of course, the last panel is about as creepy, with Joe-Dad all up in Sarah’s space.
I was really hoping after reading the comic that the title would be “Testicular Torsion.” Or maybe just Torsion. Either way.
Nah, I don’t want titles to spoil punchlines. If you click through from Twitter, you shouldn’t get to the last panel and find that distinctive word or phrase that took you there.
If Joe’s dad is Roomies!-era Joe, is Sarah about to make out with him?
Obviousely.
Joebviously!
Testicular Torsion is just one of her kinks.
You misread Willis’s comments — it’s not that Joe’s dad is Roomies!Joe, but that Joe is Roomies!Joe’s dad.
No one is Roomies!Joe in this scenario, so there’s no one for Sarah to make out with.
Unless this is about hover text instead of the post that talked about his design, which I only fuzzily remember to begin with really. :|a I can’t read the hover text on my phone and that has burned me before in comment sections 😉
Sorry, it was Hovertext
Burned by hover text again!
Nooooo!
/falls to knees
/weeps
I’m kind of curious if we get to see Amber’s parents in this universe
Well, we know her Dad left when she was a child, so it’s unlikely we’ll see her. But there’s every chance we’ll see her Mum.
What about Faz?
Y’know, for winning the “who do you want to see” poll by such a large margin, we sure haven’t seen much of Dina’s family yet. Is this a best-for-last thing?
Or like Dina, they are behind the door?
Dinosaurs won’t fit inside the building, Silly.
I again direct folks to the BUFFER WATCH on the left-hand side of the page. I was already nearly done drawing this story by the time that poll went live. The poll exists for my curiosity (and everyone’s fun).
Buffer watch? It’s surrounded by ads that I am so used to ignoring
Sorry, I never noticed that amongst all the ad space.
Willis has already said that this storyline is going to be hard on our favorite dino-lover. I’m not sure that “best” is the right word.
I was going to comment about how the community enjoys schadenfreude, but then I remembered that it likes Dina far, far more.
Or that they are freaking ninjas?
Well they are asian.
Nah, Dina was raised by turkeys.
“I don’t have to listen to this; do you know who my great great great great great great great great great great great great great great (repeat several million times) grandfather was? I’ll tell you, he was a Tyrannosaurus rex!”
“That’s not how evolution works, dad.”
“Don’t tell me how it works!”
I’m not surprised if Joe’s sister(if he had one) looked like Joe’s dad.
With a beard?
All those green shirts made me think I was reading Shortpacked! for a second.
Dat eyebrow
^These comments.^
ALL OF THEM. They make my day.
Thank you. We all aim to please.
I actually and trying to ruin your day. I just have very bad aim…
Just clean the seat when you miss, OK?!
By the way, while I’m thinking of it, I saw someone today that seriously reminded me of Sarah. She wore purple and green, had a headscarf, and wore her hair in a similar style. Strange coincidence, huh?
And with this comic I realize that I–despite all my best intentions–have turned into my father. A better version of my father, no doubt, but he was still something I was hoping to be completely NOT like…
DAMN YOU, WILLIS! So good at character writin’ that he incite character development in the real world…
Sympathy you have. Glad not like my father I am.
Well except for the socially awkward bit and the … oh my …..
…. what a revolting development this is…..
This comic is WAY more hilarious than it has any right to be. It’s just Joe’s dad being Joe with a beard and yet I find it just so FUNNY!
Joe’s dad should officially be known as ‘Joe with Beard’.
Sarah’s handling it better than I would if he got in my personal space talking like that.
Aww… it’s cute that Joe seems to feel awkward about his dad. We can say, see, Joe? That’s how everyone else tends to feel about you.
I’m betting we know what led to the divorce too…
You know guys I just remembered a song of ice and fire/GoT when they comment some bloodlines being really resilient more in specific king Robert and his bastards XD
Is Joe’s dad Will Riker?
or possibly Tom Riker.
Aren’t they the same guy? It’s just that Tom is alternate timeline version of Will.
No alternate timelines involved. Tom Riker was created in a freak transporter accident.
Well, actually, the argument is slightly stronger for Will Riker having been created in a freak transporter accident, while the “original” was inadvertently left behind and eventually became Tom Riker. But then you start getting into weird philosophical questions.
Nah, he’s Will Riker. Tom Riker doesn’t have sideburns.
Bet the Shortpacked! Joe got into dimension hopping shenanigans again and that is him
Seeing Joe and his dad I’m reminded of that Beavis and Butt-Head episode “Sporting goods” where they have to buy Athletic supporters but the ones they are handed are too big for them, so they get eye patches instead. They try them on just as Daria walks in with a camera inquiring about active wear. B&B emerge from the dressing room with their Johnsons stuffed into the eye patches.
At which Daria goes “WHOA! EVEN SMALLER THAN I THOUGHT!”
And shoots a picture of the two.
Joe’s father is named Richard.
It’s funny because that’s longhand for “Dick.”
And sure is acting like one! o-hooooo!
Him and old-verse Ruth’s dad.
All I can think is that Joe’s dad is Vandal Savage.
Oh god, if Joe’s dad is Vandal Savage, that means Joe’s dad had done women since cavemen times. I guess, the meteor radiation gave him more than just immortality, if you catch my drift.
What a super-creep.
The seed is strong….
Biting my finger SO hard trying to to burst out laughing at this.
So wrong, but still funny.
Guess the only way Joe could have a kid that didn’t look like him was to build her out of automotive parts. Don’t worry though, Ultra-Car, they say it’ll catch up to you in middle-age.
Does this mean UltraCar will randomly transform into a copy of Joe?
Towards a future where all men on Earth are Joe, one woman at a time.
Dang, look at Joe’s face in the fourth panel. “I wish I could say that. I wish. So many women. So, so many prostitutes.” Then his face lights up with a huge grin. “Awesome!”
Here we observe Sarah’s two moods: Skepticism and disgust. (The ‘caring’ setting hasn’t been used frequently enough to deserve inclusion.)
Joe is so shocked at his father’s actions his eyebrows shot off his head!
When Joe talks about his parents’ divorce, his eyebrows disappear. This is scientific fact.
Is it just me but reading the word Torsion instantly made me think of Einstein–Cartan theory.
But how does that relate to Joe’s testicles?
Having had one in my youth, it just made me cringe. A lot.
Richard, I’m struggling to parse what you think is appealing about that sentence. Nobody likes persistent genetic material. It makes your sperm sound like Rambo.
It also gives off a vibe of “I’m going to get you pregnant”, which isn’t very appealing in itself.
who thinks hes gonna get punched in the face
What if joes dad is the Joe from the Walkyverse who traveled to this dimension and fathered this universes version of himself?
…Joe and Sarah match
I like Sarah. She and Joe should hook up.
Well, they more or less did in roomies.
After reading the comments, the word “Joe” no longer holds meaning for me.
Starteing to see where joe gets his dickhead personaliy from
This is the first time I’ve ever seen Joe emabarrased
I have to say it: TIME PARADOX!
Oh man, I laughed TOO hard at this XD
I love how Joe is the one saying that not his mother
Just now realized how… appropriate Joe’s dad’s name is from the tags.
I love Joe’s dad xD
The alt text makes me wonder if DoA era Joe was Roomies era Joe’s father.