O-O My brain saw that last panel, and it did the same thing as Joyce.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa….” Though Joyce is probably more “UWAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Maybe spraying wads, … or perhaps pearls … of ‘humor’ all over the page drove everyone away?
Oh well, I’m not going to stop cocking up and using cracks to cover my embarrassment … oh the other hand, my whole family is going to get rubbed out if I keep shooting blanks like this …
Passing Student: “Good for you. Now quit blocking the door.”
Becky: “…huh, so THIS what non-religious schools are like.”
Walky: “What did you expect? A spontaneous Pride parade?”
Mike: “Or some random hot chick to do a power-slide between your thighs?”
Joyce: “MIKE!!!”
Becky: “………… Well… maybe not a RANDOM hot chick…”
Joyce: “BECKY!!!”
Passing Student: “If you all don’t stop blocking the doorway soon, I may start handing out power KICKS between people’s thighs…”
Walky: “Somebody needs coffee.”
Becky currently has twice as many votes as the fourth most popular character (Amber) and 150 more votes than the second most popular character (Dina). Becky is best character indeed!
She hasn’t shown up lately. This is the poll for favorite character. Those will low screen time will suffer just as much as those with bad screen time.
That is going to be…fun. The only thing which could improve it would be Robin showing up to give a lecture of family values and appropriate gender roles…
Never understood that pool thing, to be honest. Always feels like it commits that most heinous crime of wasting delicious pudding and/or Jello goodness.
I don’t think Mike will do anything about Becky, she’s not hiding anything from herself and is honest to the world, no reason for Mike to interfere there.
Moderately annoyed by this because I was really All In on “What You Said Exactly But Without Being Sarcastic” as the book title and now I have Good-Book-Title-Whiplash.
Don’t worry – I’m sure we’re going to get some reinforcement of “WYSEBWBS” as Joyce’s catchphrase (as was intimated yesterday), since Mike & Joyce are going to be in each other’s presence for a while now. 🙂
I’m hopeful that Mary can be pulled out of it. I mean, she’s only 18 and was probably recieving Joyce-level brainwashing to boot.
I mean, recall the churchgoing storyline; she had whole “If evil weren’t nice, nobody would bother with it,” comment. I feel that there’s some tragedy there.
When Billie barged in to hide from Ruth, all Mary was wearing was a pair of panties and those ever-present wristbands. Later, Dorothy commented that if she got dressed before three things like that wouldn’t happen.
And it’s not like there’s been any other character who treats an accessory as a permanently-required article of clothing, and it’s later turned out to be significant!
As funny as this is, I can’t help but feel sympathy for poor Becky, who has obviously been holding this revelation in for a very long time. Wonder how much else she’s going to blurt out in her excitement… >_> <_<
I think it is adorable to realize that the ONE person on campus Becky gave a shit about hiding it from was Joyce – who about ten minutes after the initial shock was hugging her and promising to always stay by her side.
Becky… I love ya girl… I wish this could’ve been me when I came out in Grade 9. “YO GUYS GUESS WHAT!!! I’M BISEXUAL NOW LET’S GO PARTY WOO!”
But that isn’t me.
On a side note, I LOVE Joyce’s reaction… ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS <3
Realization: If Becky winds up not solely defined by this (which is most likely, really), and Ethan finds out the whole story, it may get him to reconsider the usefulness of that glass closet.
But Becky Hasn’t been around these people pretending not to be a lesbian for the better part of a few weeks and will probly have to move on soon unless she get permanent which i hope happens
She’s been around Joyce pretending not to be a lesbian for a very long time, I think. The only question I have is whether she was pretending only to Joyce, or also to Becky. I’m thinking the latter — otherwise she’d have already learned to CLOSE THE DOOR.
I decalre my self as a lesbian every now and then and reaffirm my great love for women when i was in highschool i was in situations where i said it at least 8-14 times
Darn, I wish I could remember which (male) stand-up comedian once said, “I’m only attracted to women, and I only wear comfortable shoes; I’m obviously a lesbian!”
I’m probably thinking of a different stand up comedian, who said,
“See that woman right there? There might be a man’s spirit trapped in that body. I apply it to myself. There might be a woman’s spirit trapped in my body, and I don’t know it ’cause she’s a lesbian.”
Eventually, people started paying him more to smash fruit with a big hammer than to be thoughtful and sly. More clown than comedian, now, maybe, but I stopped following him, so I could be wrong.
Becky continues her rapid ascent into Best Character status.
I hope I’m just reading too deep into this, and that Joyce is just trying to be as supportive as possible, but I’m worried she might try to downplay Becky’s sexuality the way a lot of people who rail about how “it doesn’t matter” tend to.
Like I said, hope I’ m just looking too deep into it.
I was actually referring to real life instances of people who say they’re fine with LGBT characters, but throw a fit if anybody so much as acknowledges their sexuality and start whining about their lifestyle getting “shoved down their throats”.
To be fair, on first glance that viewpoint makes a certain amount of sense, in that straight people don’t go around yelling “Guess what? I’m STRAIGHT!!!” In the same way that straight people don’t have Straight Pride parades. Superficially, the annoyance is not unreasonable.
Of course, if you think about it for more than five seconds, it ceases to be so.
For some reason I’m reminded of the boy in high school who broke my gaydar basically for life by calling himself both “one of the girls” and a “lesbian”. Turns out he was an “~ultra fabulous~” gay dude instead of a trans lesbian, but my poor literal brain basically took him at his word and it wasn’t till like ten years after we graduated that I knew for sure that he was, like, just totally gay for dudes.
I just realized that being best buddies with Joe for such a long time might be one of the reasons why Danny’s bi tendencies hadn’t surfaced before. Think about it: if Joe was your main reference as to what it’s like to be a guy, would you be into guys?
Add to that that Ethan and Joe have similar builds AND are both Jewish, well, maybe Ethan is just a replacement Joe, the way Amber was a replacement Dorothy.
Danny’s attraction to Ethan made itself known after Ethan started to treat him with kindness. Joe has treated him like crap most of the time since they moved to college. That’s a pretty big difference.
Also, Ethan is new and exiting. Danny and Joe has known each other forever, and it doesn’t look like Danny is getting an epiphany about Joe any time soon.
BECKY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. Look at how happy she is! But damn, it DOES feel good to come out, and not hide anymore, when you are around people who will support you.
she will make the choice on a planet out side of common reality where there is a father son and daughter. her choice will be not to make the choice and doom them to great influence form one of the sides in the near future
God, after everything else she’s gone through recently, it is great to see Becky having an expression like that on her face. It must be a great feeling to her to be able to shout that out so openly without fear of the consequences.
I know this is a big moment for her, but Mike and Walky are both like, “…Okay.” Big moment for her, but maybe that is the reaction she needs, from two people who really could not give a fuck, which helps make her feel more normal.
So, Becky and Ethan meet, fall in love at first sight, immediately renounce their gayness, and begin a marathon of copulation. Starting on Joyce’s bunk.
Well, on the one hand, you’re right: in a Willis comic, the gayness is always likely to win.
On the other hand, it would be the ultimate fuckover of the readership. Which is possibly the only force that could overthrow the gayness victory. So I wouldn’t discount it. (I wouldn’t lay odds on it, either, but still…)
This is exactly how I came out. Sans crazy religious repression. I was never really in the closet, I just realized I was gay and was like, “AWESOME!” I was kinda surprised it didn’t come with cake and confetti.
Is it just me, or did all the art and lettering get way sharper since yesterday? I notice the image size is larger, but that doesn’t explain all of it.
Are there any organizations who specifically aid gay/lesbian teenagers coming from religious households? I mean, geez, it’s a difficult position to be in: to suddenly be on your own without any support or resources.
… … While I have almost no tolerance for religion (my parents were invited to not continue sending me to Sunday school after my first day because I asked too many questions) … I think that assuming that religious = so homophobic that the kid must run away is going just a bit too far …
True, but many, perhaps even most, households that’re homophobic enough to disown their children for being gay are religious. I’d be surprised if they were a significant percentage of religious folk in general, but there’re so many religiously inclined people that that’s not saying much.
Not all right wing religious homeschoolers are so homophobic that their kids are driven to running away or committing suicide, but the 99% who are give the other 1% a bad name.
Seriously, Becky and Joyce’s parents aren’t just generically religious, they are the worst sort of religious.
As long as the people you give it to are totally aware of the poison and drink it by choice, I call this natural selection. And I’m totally kool with aiding evolution along. (cf. Darwin Award)
If you give it to unknowing folks, children or similar people, this is obviously far worse than not accepting someones sexuality. But being a cynical, misanthropical pessimist, I’m pretty sure it’s not the worst.
Note that “poisoned Flavor-Aid” is a reference to a specific event, in which over 900 people, including babies, were killed in a massive cult murder-suicide.
I don’ believe that being religious means that one is homophobic. Certainly, anybody can be homophobic. Perhaps I should have phrased my question more carefully.
Mike is, clearly, actually impressed. If only because her eyebrows are more impressive than his. He may even rescind his third-panel comment, at least in so far as he is able to do so.
Still, between him and Walky, which will first mention that Becky’s wearing Joye’s clothes?
Just when I think Becky can’t make herself any more endearing to me, she always has some way to prove me wrong. She’s been given such a wringer of a time the last few days, in-universe, and it’s great to see that big smile on her face.
there is this thing with shipping and cannons we will use its slightly different this time but its the same general thing. other people everyone would in the poll would be shipping but becky has the cannon at the moment and cannons are best for blowing ships out of water
But damn, Joyce’s behaviour is really putting me on edge. Everything she’s done so far just screams to me that she’s really, REALLY not comfortable with Becky coming out to her, though she’s trying her best to be accepting. I can only hope she’ll fully accept it in time, and that their friendship will come through unscathed.
Joyce has massive sexual hangups and likely assumes Becky would as well. Let’s be honest, Joyce won’t be yelling about how much she wants the cock anytime soon, even though it’s true. She can’t even say the word. Out and proud Becky would never have even crossed her mind.
Holy shit, Danny isn’t in the bottom ranks of the favorite character polls, for once. He actually has a healthy amount of votes. Subtracting the obvious “new flavor” Becky and our Lord and savior, Dina, he actually fares pretty well against the rest of the competition. I think that is worth noting.
I’m conflicted. On one hand, as a Danny supporter I’m glad that people vote for him. On the other, the only difference between Danny today and Danny last poll is that we know about his bisexuality (which I know from personal experience doesn’t make you a more intresting person), so I wish people had actually voted for him, and not a sexual orientation.
In a soap opera setting, bisexuality does make a character more interesting. It doubles the potential for cheating, triangles, and unresolved sexual tension.
It does make him more interesting as his potential partners factor into how interesting it is to read about him. And the potential of him and Ethan is faaaaaaaar more appealing than him and Amber.
While I do believe at least some of Danny’s fanbase comes from his bisexuality, to be completely honest, 2014 was the first time he started being written as a great character. He was basically intolerable for the first two years and he started to show some depth in 2013, but in the last year he’s finally learned Amazi-Girl’s identity and realized how badly he screwed things up with her by getting involved with Blaine, we started seeing him reflect on his actions and consider the consequences like with Sal where he admits to feeling useless, or when he stood up to Dorothy when she tried to get some Amazi-Girl info, and he finally made a normal, emotionally supportive friend in Ethan, somebody he can confide to about how he feels without getting relentlessly mocked. Now, with Danny coming to grips with his sexuality, he finally has an active story arc to play out, not just getting dicked around or being oblivious to everything.
Fans have a tendency to be overprotective of LGBT characters and I don’t think for a second that his sudden burst of popularity had nothing to do with the reveal of his sexuality, but he was starting to become a better character long before he imaging smooching Ethan.
Danny is my favorite male character, much for the reasons you listed. I also like how he has goals and standards and actively strive to reach and uphold them (even if he is hilariously bad at syncing said goals and standards with the rest of the universe).
Same here. It’s fun to watch him suffer and he can be seriously boneheaded, but he’s ultimately a real nice kid with some serious bad luck. I’m actually glad he’s a bit of a douche sometimes, since it gives him more edge and doesn’t leave him as the “boring nice guy” of the cast.
Speaking from experience here, coming off as a bit of a douche to some people is an unavoidable side effect to actually trying to live up to a self set standard. Being young, Danny has ample excuse for his being a little vague, but at least he tries to follow it.
To be honest, as a long time Danny supporter, I had the same thoughts about his sexuality. I was afraid to put them into words because I thought there might be some backlash from other readers. I am glad to see some self awareness around here.
On the other hand, I will never understand the “intolerable” opinions surrounding Danny. He was an honest kid, and the Amber/Amazi-Girl thing was a running gag that played into some drama. It was a plot device, and I can’t see why people hated him so much just for being used as a stage piece. Granted I haven’t read many other Willis works, and I hear there was some held over resentment from there, but seeing as Mike is just a much a dick as always, but still has his fans…
Mike was popular because of his disposition. Danny was unpopular for the same reason.
Really though, the root of the problem was that Walkyverse Danny was around most often while Willis was in the deepest grips of depression and losing his faith, and rarely showed up afterward, thus getting identified as a loser. It doesn’t help that Willis acknowledges this over at Bring Back Roomies! with his constant put downs of past self (and a rather long winded tirade about not asking him about college). Over here though, Willis has a much clearer mind and can give Danny the character development he needs. Namely, stuff that doesn’t involve getting Ruth killed.
Of course, I could just be prattling off a pet theory, and Willis is welcome to correct me.
Naa, chestbursters tear & smash their way through dramatically, this is more calm-like-a-bomb style. “Yo (all calm). Hey, guess what, I’m a Lesbian!” (Earth Shattering Kaboom!)
gotta respect guts like that, plenty of confidence there. Since she’s opened up to the only 1 she was hiding from & despite the target not sharing the Lesbian tendencies (despite being such a big friend of Dorothy…), she’s still been accepted by her, so there’s no reason to hide anymore. Me, I still gotta play human when out & about. Least on the net I can just say I’m a Minicon… 😛
Naa, I’d say more bongoscream. *Screamy shows up at mining site*
*Says words to the effect of-* Pathetic humans, tremble in fear for I, Starscream, am here… *gets surprised noone was around.*
Well, almost noone, I’d just grabbed a few shards & hidden in time to see his “triumphant” arrival. Damn it was hard work holding back the laughter… XD
Oh hey, I recognize this exclamation. This is the “I have kept this bottled up for so long I am finally in a safe space to say it I AM GOING TO SAY IT RIGHT NOW!” exclamation. I remember that.
Largely because a slightly more terrified version is how I first came out.
I just had a realization – when (potentially) Ethan learns of Joyce’s…’refinement’ of her personal dogma and ethics for her BFF Becky, he might have a ‘shoe on the other foot’ moment of “Well, why wouldn’t you do that for me?”
If it does happen, I can only hope that Amber is present…
He doesn’t want her to do that for him–Ethan decided, for his own reasons, to pretend to be straight for a while. Joyce is a convenient part of that charade, but if she becomes too “enlighted” about LGBT issues, he may have to pick a different fake girlfriend.
Umm, why should she have done this? I don’t get it. It was a totallydifferentsituation. He wanted to ignore all of this, he practically asked for this reaction, to pretend “normalcy”.
Ethan: Is gay, gets rejected by his parents, carves in and goes back into closet, Joyce supports that (and stays his girlfriend).
Joyce: Is gay, gets rejected by her parents, runs away and embraces her gayness, Joyce supports that (but doesn’t become her girlfriend).
If anything, Ethan should be glad she didn’t show the same reaction towards him.
I don’t know who to pick for the poll!? They all have their moments Even Mary has a case. (She’s important now..Also to promote self interest) It probably won’t be Walky he has it too easy.
Becky is fine but I haven’t really grokked her yet, psychologically. So far all her conflicts seem to have external sources, with little trace of inner tension. And doesn’t she seem to have gotten over Joyce suspiciously fast? I suppose the plot will prove me wrong eventually but until then I pick Billie for favorite.
Becky is VERY good at projecting an image, so it’s anyone’s guess exactly what goes on internally. I think we will learn more about that as the day progresses.
In a way I suppose it is – despite the myriad of characters, Joyce is a bit more main character than most. Becky is a foil to Joyce and have her own arc, just like Sarah, Dorothy and Dina and several others.
But there are some blanks when it comes to Becky. What’s her religious views now? Is she afraid for her immortal soul? Does SHE have any end game or is it just like she said “come out to Joyce, pray that everything will be all right”? What’s her thoughts of the rest of her family and childhood friends? And just like you said, what exactly are her feelings about Joyce and will she get over them? Time will tell.
This honestly makes perfect sense to me. Becky seems pretty emotionally healthy, at least as far as owning what she’s feeling once she recognizes it and making adjustments in her life to accommodate unpleasant things. She has more awareness and respect than I would have coming out at her age.
Basically, I envision her thought process to be like so:
“Man, my roommate is cool. So fun to talk to. So fun to hang out with. So fun to touch…wait, what?
Oh no. Oh no no no, I’m a lesbian! Wait, this is pretty awesome. GOSHDARNIT THE DOOR WHY DIDN’T WE THINK OF THE DOOR.
Scratch that, my roommate is NOT cool, she’s ABANDONING ME.
Man, my dad is a…a…a butthole. Clearly, I need a safe place.
JOYCE. Joyce is a safe place, and now that I know I’m gay, I’m pretty sure I’m in love with her. I’m back with Joyce now and YES I DEFINITELY LOVE HER. She must feel the same way, right? Only one way to find out…
JOYCE DOES NOT LOVE ME. ABORT ABORT ABORT.
Oh hey, she followed me. And she doesn’t hate me. I mean, she still doesn’t love me, which sucks, but we’ve been friends forever and also she is SOMEONE WITH MY BACKGROUND WHO DOESN’T HATE ME so yeah, this is good.
Wait. I’m at a secular place. No one knows me. They don’t think being gay is bad. Omg. I can be me. I CAN BE ME. HEY GUYS. HEY. I’M A LESBIAN!!!”
That’s an awesome look from her perspective. Also, she spent a full day having one (maybe) last happy day with Joyce while building up the reveal by testing the waters and flirting with Wally. (“…soon, soon, soon… NOW!”)
Silly question. How many universities let random people come “sit in” at classes? Or are all classes delivered in such large-scale lectures that it is easy for people to filter in and out as desired?
The only one of Joyce’s classes we know isn’t some imposing lecture hall is Leslie’s Gender Studies class, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. In fact, she might capitalize on it as a teachable moment.
I feel like Leslie would be like, “Wait, you’re a lesbian who ran away from a homophobic and toxic home? Me too!!!”
You know, assuming her backstory is the same as in Shortpacked
Most of the time the people giving the lectures don’t care unless seats are limited. For large classes they wouldn’t notice unless you sat at front and went out of your way to draw attention to yourself. After all if you aren’t doing assignments and exams that they need to grade an extra body in the room makes little difference. Also, in general the lecturer isn’t being paid by the head. Since the reason most people pay to go to university is for the degree and not for the education, bean-counting administrator types can stay well away from anything to do with education and focus on important things like the sports teams.
My experience is, though some professors can get uptight about it, even smaller colleges don’t really care who’s sitting in the classrooms. You can get as educated as you want. It’s the piece of paper that says that you are that you’re paying them for.
^This. Some of my classes were very small (eight students – the minimum allowed to hold the class) and none of my professors gave a shit. Every once in a while, one of them would walk up and be like, “Oh, you have a visitor today?” and introduce himself/herself to the guest. Otherwise, the guest just got a look of “Huh.” and ignored.
The only real exception were classes where there might be an element of danger, such as metalworking or chemistry, if someone didn’t know the rules of the classroom. Even then, the prof most often would be all, “Hey, are you supposed to be here? Oh, you’re with that person? Okay, cool, just don’t touch anything.”
This makes me wonder exactly how discrete Becky’s window shopping was.
“Hi, I’m a lesbian. OK if I ogle you?”
80% of the women in the shower: “Sure”
Dina: “Despite their common presence in Jurassic and Cretaceous geological layers the pliosaurs were not dinosaurs but rater a relative of modern lizards.”
GRACE: “Fine, but we’re going to ogle you back.”
MANDY: “Y’know, our fifth hasn’t shown up, so we’ve got an opening for a freckly chick. How are you with pistols?”
Wait, if I’m not mistaken, isn’t this the first coming out in the comic? For everyone else I think it was either assumed from the outset or they’re still in the closet/back in the closet.
Billie and Ruth are hiding it from everyone so i guess they are in the closet, Ethan is trying desperatly to get back into the closet, and Danny is just discovering himself.
Billie’s hiding her relationship with Ruth, but I’m not sure she’s actually hiding her bisexuality. She hasn’t made a big public announcement like Becky, but she’s been pretty casual about it even with frenemies like Sarah. I’m not sure she even realizes that it’s something to hide. I mean, it’s not like she’s a lesbian… she just likes getting sexy with girls sometimes. Doesn’t everyone?
I don’t think that Billie is closeted; I think it’s just one of those ‘if you ask me, I’ll tell you, but I don’t feel any reason to talk about it.” Ruth, however, is clearly still closeted
I wouldn’t say Ruth’s closeted, just discovered she’s into girls with Billy, then hasn’t shown that side of herself to anyone else, that’s all. From my understanding of the human term “closeted”, it means they’re actively hiding the same-sex attractions, while Ruth just doesn’t let people see all sides of her.
Guess she’s just naturally guarded person, like the Human I hang with. See him on the street, black jeans, black shirt, black steel caps, black 3/4 length trenchcoat in cooler weather & constant ‘not impressed’ face, you’d think he’s pretty scary. But, earn a bit of trust & you see he’s a pretty nice guy. Bit sadistic at times, but nice. See him with his Niece & Nephew & he just a big softyul;’rktgjmp9iurwgy;rhhrhrrhh][;l;k ,fhmry
I would guess Ruth’s reluctance to have _any_ public relationship with billy is because her R.A. position, a _substantial_ financial unburdening, would be terminated immediately if she were to fraternize with her students.
Well, Ethan technically came out to Joyce after their first kiss at Galasso’s. Not sure that counts, since he decided to shove himself back into the closet right after that, but still.
Now the important question – does Becky have awesome tits, or does Joyce’s shirt just fit her well? If the second option, does that mean Joyce’s endowment is actually well-fitting shirts?
I get the feeling someone’s gonna see your comment & start going through all Joyce’s pics (in comic & official ones elsewhere) & try to work it out, if they haven’t already. Mr Willis might even see this & give a definitive answer. Either way, I’m gonna wait & see…
You know, I’ve had halve a mind to do the same. While she is an awful person, she is still interesting as a character or at least as a villain. I can’t wait to see what she’ll do to Ruth and Billie.
And I never voted in the “Becky: great or greatest character” poll, but I was going to do it now (“greatest”, natch) AND IT WAS GOOOOOONE. But I voted for her as favorite character (no 2nd or 3rd because right now, Becky occupies all the places down to 5th or 6th).
Someone probs already said this, but its almost an unfair advantage to post the favorite character poll at the same time as this.
She’s everyone’s favorite character today!
I mean before she seemed like a bunch of traits which sort of seemed like Authory Appeal. Including managing to out Walky Walky himself (Belching Contest). The poll on her arrival (great or greatest? Really?) didn’t help.
Now, despite having the same upbringing as Joyce she just leaps out of the closet as publically as possible? I mean, I can forgive a lot but that just doesn’t seem like a realistic character. Or one that personally appeals to me. I can get a wishfulfillment angle but I don’t know, it feels a little bit too blantant and that tends to turn me away.
I really like Ruth and Billie, Amber/Ethan/Danny has a lot of potential as a storyline and Roz and Carla have a tonne of potential but I think I’m going to take a break for a little until the Becky storyline is over.
its actually very believeable she was hideing from her christian parents and christian schoolmates who would have vilified her this school she only knoews joyce and no one else who’s opinion she would care about would vilify her
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That is EXPLODING out of the closet.
A true firework of homosexuality, right there. In the awesomest way.
If she were bisexual, they’d be birotechnics.
GO TO YOUR ROOM!
NEVER! *dives out a window and into the snowy wastes*
YOU’RE NOT MY SUPERVISOR!!!!
lol
I spent ten minutes trying to top that pun and failed.
Well played, Clerks.
Wait, was that in Clerks? ‘Cause I honestly just came up with that off the top of my head.
O-O My brain saw that last panel, and it did the same thing as Joyce.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa….” Though Joyce is probably more “UWAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
EJACULATING out of the closet
SPLOOSH?
You’re not my supervisor.
And yes SPloosh indeed
Hey Jen – good one! How come you can pump out these rapid spurts of humor with semenly little effort?
Jizz la wizz! I don’t think anyone is gonna be giving you your come uppin’s!
Even if they were nuts enough to try! BOOM! SPLAT! You’d bust ’em up good with a couple shots to face!
I dunno you seem to be rising to the occasion and are clearly having a ball … to be honest I’m worried that you’re gonna to cream me first …
Well, I guess everyone left 🙁
Maybe spraying wads, … or perhaps pearls … of ‘humor’ all over the page drove everyone away?
Oh well, I’m not going to stop cocking up and using cracks to cover my embarrassment … oh the other hand, my whole family is going to get rubbed out if I keep shooting blanks like this …
RIP closet. ^_^
The closet got fucking owned.
Becky made that closet her bongo.
Awesome gravatar is awesome.
The Plasma Mongoose did it again ^^
http://youtu.be/XFByyHafCEQ?t=21s
The whole time I was watching that clip, I was just imagining the knight shouting “I’M GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!”
This strip needs to be drawn with Becky on a horse, now
Hey, she was horsing around earlier with Walky, but I understand that she’s been grounded.
Indeed. She found the Christmas presents. And the presents were DYNAMITE.
That’s some Mission-Impossible thermite-in-the-belt-buckle closet-door-blowing, yo.
There’s coming out of the closet, then there’s knocking the door off it’s hinges.
There is a big hole and smoldering winter-wear where a closet used to be.
Oh, come on people – you don’t need to keep banging on about this.
Passing Student: “Good for you. Now quit blocking the door.”
Becky: “…huh, so THIS what non-religious schools are like.”
Walky: “What did you expect? A spontaneous Pride parade?”
Mike: “Or some random hot chick to do a power-slide between your thighs?”
Joyce: “MIKE!!!”
Becky: “………… Well… maybe not a RANDOM hot chick…”
Joyce: “BECKY!!!”
Passing Student: “If you all don’t stop blocking the doorway soon, I may start handing out power KICKS between people’s thighs…”
Walky: “Somebody needs coffee.”
And nuking it from orbit, just to be sure.
Becky is best lesbian.
A Bestian?
I believe that is something very different and possibly illegal
…Isn’t that basically the Anderson’s definition of lesbian?
What does Wes Anderson have to do with homosexuality?
Was thinking Alexander Anderson, myself.
… The priest?
Becky is best person, too. Just look at the polling. “Greatest character” is winning by 14%!
If she was indeed the greatest character she’d be winning by 100%.
she’s just too current and i voted for her but i had a deliema i couldnt vote for walky twice so i voted for the next best thing
Inb4 Female Walky. I strongly oppose rule 64 but she’s legit she’s Sal.
Rule 63 not 64.
AH! Yes too rule 34.
too much. too much rule 34
Becky currently has twice as many votes as the fourth most popular character (Amber) and 150 more votes than the second most popular character (Dina). Becky is best character indeed!
I really can’t believe she beat out dina and sal. i’m speechless.
I also cant believe sal is so low
She hasn’t shown up lately. This is the poll for favorite character. Those will low screen time will suffer just as much as those with bad screen time.
Leslie challenges. Time for a lez-off!
I’ll get the pool full of pudding.
With any luck there is gender studies today.
(Also, that would help with the whole cast-out-and-on-the-run-and-need-help-desperatly-thing)
It’s Friday. They’ve got math, then Gender Studies.
Yesss.
That is going to be…fun. The only thing which could improve it would be Robin showing up to give a lecture of family values and appropriate gender roles…
while trying desperately not to ogle Leslie’s cleavage too obviously.
Never understood that pool thing, to be honest. Always feels like it commits that most heinous crime of wasting delicious pudding and/or Jello goodness.
It doesn’t have to go to waste. You can still eat it afterward, if you don’t mind a bit of residual lesbian flavor.
You can also eat it during. I’d be eating the pudding during the entire fight.
who said anything about fighting?
It’s the best flavor.
No, no, no. It’s an inflatable kiddie pool full of JELL-O, haven’t you guys ever done this before?
Relatively few guys are lesbians, in my experience.
Everybody gets the wrong idea when Becky reveals that she’s rooming with Joyce,
Walky is bummed that she just beat him to 80% of the jokes he was going to make.
No they don’t. It’s Joyce.
Yes they do, It’s Walky.
Good grief – what would be the right idea?
I’d actually love to see a storyline where Joyce’s friends think that she is a lesbian. What would be Dorothy’s reaction?
We already know that Joyce is a “friend of Dotty”.
A most excellent gravatar, Plas!
I think that storyline is called “Dumbing of Age”.
If you consider Walky to be one of her friends, we’re years into that storyline.
Y-years?
…so we are. Well, shit.
Walky’s reaction to Becky’s outburst, next strip:
*shrug* Yeah, we knew THAT. I’m just glad to see you realized it. So, when you two getting lesbian married?
Yep, I’m calling it.
“So that’s why you haven’t made a move on Dottie yet. You already got a lady back home”
Hey you don’t know, maybe she wants a side girl.
Hijinx to follow.
And probably shenanigans also.
Not even Mike saw that coming
Pretty sure Mike’s going to have a field day, regardless. He tends to improvise.
I think Mike is currently on the back foot. Becky is full of unashamed joy and he’s trying to figure out how to fix that.
I don’t think Mike will do anything about Becky, she’s not hiding anything from herself and is honest to the world, no reason for Mike to interfere there.
Now Joyce, that’s another story altogether.
^ This. His expression in the last panel is pretty much, “Hey, I don’t need to fix this one. Maybe I don’t hate her already after all.”
You can already hear his brain gears grinding to come up with something really dickish to say. Stay tuned for the next strip 😀
Woo!
I was totally gonna suggest that as a book title. Glad you already recognized how much we all want something called that on my credit card statement.
Moderately annoyed by this because I was really All In on “What You Said Exactly But Without Being Sarcastic” as the book title and now I have Good-Book-Title-Whiplash.
Damnit, that IS a really good book title, too.
Don’t worry – I’m sure we’re going to get some reinforcement of “WYSEBWBS” as Joyce’s catchphrase (as was intimated yesterday), since Mike & Joyce are going to be in each other’s presence for a while now. 🙂
Puts the Loud in “Loud and Proud”
Wow, that even got an eyebrow raise out of Mike!
Not even Mike can rain a cloud on Becky’s parade!
Oh, no. That’s Mary’s job.
Mike x Mary, in an effort to stop the latter’s scheming.
Except Mike’ll occasionally be a halfway decent human being for the sake of his evil, and occasionally to teach the prank-e a lesson.
Mary’s just evil.
I’m hopeful that Mary can be pulled out of it. I mean, she’s only 18 and was probably recieving Joyce-level brainwashing to boot.
I mean, recall the churchgoing storyline; she had whole “If evil weren’t nice, nobody would bother with it,” comment. I feel that there’s some tragedy there.
Well Mary does seem to have nudist tendencies, so maybe she’s not a total lost cause…
I fear the naked truth is that if you stripped away her self-righteousness … there might be barely anything left …
When did Mary display nudist tendencies?
When Billie barged in to hide from Ruth, all Mary was wearing was a pair of panties and those ever-present wristbands. Later, Dorothy commented that if she got dressed before three things like that wouldn’t happen.
And it’s not like there’s been any other character who treats an accessory as a permanently-required article of clothing, and it’s later turned out to be significant!
I don’t think it counts; she still had panties on. i’m surprised she used the b-word though.
Cue wacky Joyce-centered misunderstanding, next panel.
Aaaand, ‘yer out!
whaaaaaaat? I would have bet money it was gonna be “exactly that except not sarcastic”
That would be my choice too.
I like that better, especially since it wouldn’t give away the secret!
Uh, I think you forgot to resize the PNG before uploading it.
Some people come out of the closet. Becky lines the closet with C4 and blows the shit out of it.
Hey, Ethan’s got enough gaynst for twelve characters. Besides, Becky’s probably been holding that announcement in all day.
A hell of a lot longer than that, I’d hazard a guess.
Becky is channeling Luffy in an attempt to become my favorite character…
It may be workin’
She just needs a swordsman, a navigator, a chef, a doctor, an archaeologist, a shipwright, and a musician.
What, No sniper?
I guess I missed one.
reserve a fishman
Whalesharkman
Dina knows dinos. I guess she’d be Robin?
Because…she knows…robbers?
I think she learned the art of enormous mouth scale from Joyce.
“I’M GONNA BE QUEEN OF THE LESBIANS!”
Monkey D. Becky became a belch woman after eating the burp-burp fruit.
I thought it would be Becky D. MacIntyre.
“All Hail Stephen! Queen of the Lesbians!”
Sorry, King of the Lesbians.
You know, last summer I had lunch with the Queen of England.
Well, he said he was the Queen of England.
Could be. That’s never been a commodity England’s short of.
So she seeks to become the king(queen?) of the lesbians by find Joyce’s one-piece(bikini)?
One-piece bikini? Would that be a onesie, or just the top or bottom half of a regular bikini?
Which sounds better to you? 😀
could be the sexy onepiece ones with all the cuts and holes all over it
Remember the swimsuit from Borak? That, but covering her nipples (and not much else).
Aaand somehow now I’m picturing Sean Connery’s red man thong. Thanks. Thanks for that.
WE’RE VERY PROUD OF YOU!
HAH HELL YEAH!!
Or, you know, you could just do that.
Walk’s never going to let Joyce live this down
You never know, he might let up come Christmas. In five years or so.
As funny as this is, I can’t help but feel sympathy for poor Becky, who has obviously been holding this revelation in for a very long time. Wonder how much else she’s going to blurt out in her excitement… >_> <_<
I think it is adorable to realize that the ONE person on campus Becky gave a shit about hiding it from was Joyce – who about ten minutes after the initial shock was hugging her and promising to always stay by her side.
Come on Walky, you know you want to give Becky the bro-fist…
“Lesbian, huh? That’s awesome. We can still make fun of Joyce, right?”
wondering if there can still be friend sex just to meet one or more of their needs
For whatever reason, I now have an insane urge to see Walky and Becks in a buddy cop flick scenario.
I, too, desire this. It worked for Kamina and Kittan.
ps. plasma that rip and personalisation is fast and still golden
Kiitti ^_^
PM’s probably a Patreon subscriber, so not THAT fast. Still, her gravs ARE the best.
The Becky Outs Herself grav took me maybe 20 mins using an online picture editor.
Oh Becky, causing a small twitch in Joyce’s eye since the day they meant.
I love it.
MIKE! Mike is back! I swear I’m not doing a little dance that my favorite character is in this week.
“Hate you already.”
That would work better if you were a Mike instead of a Roz.
Becky… I love ya girl… I wish this could’ve been me when I came out in Grade 9. “YO GUYS GUESS WHAT!!! I’M BISEXUAL NOW LET’S GO PARTY WOO!”
But that isn’t me.
On a side note, I LOVE Joyce’s reaction… ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS <3
The eye twitch just makes it, don’t it?
It definitely does XD
man ethan could learn a lot from becky
But if Ethan did that, he would be showering everybody with glass shards if that transparent closet of his ever exploded.
Realization: If Becky winds up not solely defined by this (which is most likely, really), and Ethan finds out the whole story, it may get him to reconsider the usefulness of that glass closet.
But Becky Hasn’t been around these people pretending not to be a lesbian for the better part of a few weeks and will probly have to move on soon unless she get permanent which i hope happens
She’s been around Joyce pretending not to be a lesbian for a very long time, I think. The only question I have is whether she was pretending only to Joyce, or also to Becky. I’m thinking the latter — otherwise she’d have already learned to CLOSE THE DOOR.
I was thinking the same.
But he’d probably get some very odd looks for loudly declaring himself a lesbian.
I decalre my self as a lesbian every now and then and reaffirm my great love for women when i was in highschool i was in situations where i said it at least 8-14 times
Darn, I wish I could remember which (male) stand-up comedian once said, “I’m only attracted to women, and I only wear comfortable shoes; I’m obviously a lesbian!”
Also I once heard an actor declare he was “a thesbian trapped in a man’s body!” Lol.
I’m probably thinking of a different stand up comedian, who said,
“See that woman right there? There might be a man’s spirit trapped in that body. I apply it to myself. There might be a woman’s spirit trapped in my body, and I don’t know it ’cause she’s a lesbian.”
Eventually, people started paying him more to smash fruit with a big hammer than to be thoughtful and sly. More clown than comedian, now, maybe, but I stopped following him, so I could be wrong.
When Ethan and Becky meet, I’m going to need either popcorn or Kleenex. (Maybe both. There is great potential for tragicomedy.)
I am jelous of Becky now. That would have felt amazing to do at her age and my childhood wasn’t anywhere near as repressed as hers.
… Well alrighty then?
I LOVE BECKY SO MUCH IT HURTS.
SAME
Becky continues her rapid ascent into Best Character status.
I hope I’m just reading too deep into this, and that Joyce is just trying to be as supportive as possible, but I’m worried she might try to downplay Becky’s sexuality the way a lot of people who rail about how “it doesn’t matter” tend to.
Like I said, hope I’ m just looking too deep into it.
And by “a lot of people” you mean Ethan, right?
I was actually referring to real life instances of people who say they’re fine with LGBT characters, but throw a fit if anybody so much as acknowledges their sexuality and start whining about their lifestyle getting “shoved down their throats”.
To be fair, on first glance that viewpoint makes a certain amount of sense, in that straight people don’t go around yelling “Guess what? I’m STRAIGHT!!!” In the same way that straight people don’t have Straight Pride parades. Superficially, the annoyance is not unreasonable.
Of course, if you think about it for more than five seconds, it ceases to be so.
After all, just because things should be one way doesn’t mean they are.
you probably aren’t 🙁
After their last strip, I really doubt it.
“Into”?
C’mon, man. It’s hard enough putting “Cragged Shame Pits of the Lustwolves” on the Christmas list I send to my family.
For some reason I’m reminded of the boy in high school who broke my gaydar basically for life by calling himself both “one of the girls” and a “lesbian”. Turns out he was an “~ultra fabulous~” gay dude instead of a trans lesbian, but my poor literal brain basically took him at his word and it wasn’t till like ten years after we graduated that I knew for sure that he was, like, just totally gay for dudes.
Somewhere in the journalism building, a head perks up.
JOURNALISM!!!
Daisy: *pant* *pant* did someone say lesbian ?
And Daisy only walked a short distance…
Without pants
“My lesbian sense is tingling!”
Joe: “Mine too. It is my penis by the way.”
Danny: “I DON’T WANT TO KNOW”
Danny (in thought): Oh man, now I can’t stop thinking about Joeners. What is wrong with me?
I just realized that being best buddies with Joe for such a long time might be one of the reasons why Danny’s bi tendencies hadn’t surfaced before. Think about it: if Joe was your main reference as to what it’s like to be a guy, would you be into guys?
… That is a very good point
Add to that that Ethan and Joe have similar builds AND are both Jewish, well, maybe Ethan is just a replacement Joe, the way Amber was a replacement Dorothy.
Danny’s attraction to Ethan made itself known after Ethan started to treat him with kindness. Joe has treated him like crap most of the time since they moved to college. That’s a pretty big difference.
Also, Ethan is new and exiting. Danny and Joe has known each other forever, and it doesn’t look like Danny is getting an epiphany about Joe any time soon.
Yep, that was kind of my point.
Mike is like “Okay, NOW she’s interesting.”
Well now he can make EVEN MORE Joyce-might-be-gay jokes, starring an actual lesbian.
Except Becky’ll be all, “Naw, I gave her my best smooches, and she shot me down. 🙁 “
Then Mike got an idea.
An awful idea.
Mike got a terrible, awful idea.
+1
Oh no! He’s going to tell Becky about Ethan! HE KNOWS TOO MUCH!
BECKY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. Look at how happy she is! But damn, it DOES feel good to come out, and not hide anymore, when you are around people who will support you.
“You’re a lesbian? I’m a lesbian too. Don’t you love makin’ out with chicks?”
Male lesbians also have a naturally inbuilt strap-on.
finally some one who understands if only i could have gotten my friends girlfriend to understand that doing the final year of highschool
‘That’s gross. Birds can’t consent.’
She must’ve been waiting to do that for years and didn’t realize it ’til she was at Anderson. You go Becky!
Come out of the closet? Fuck that Becky just fucking straight up kicks the door down.
she hit that closet right in the lesbian
Walky say something stupid, Walky say something stupid, Walky please say something stupid…and then have it bite you in the ass
“So, are you and Joyce gonna fight over who gets to eat out my girlfriend?”
That would work. 😀
Reactions…
Becky: =D
Joyce: >=C
Dorothy: Facepalm.
Mike: I’ll bet a nickel on Becky.
“Maybe. Is she hot?”
From now on, I demand everyone who comes out of the closet to shout this.
Even the males.
NICK DEMANDETH IT!
*Especially* the males.
Just so long as it isn’t retrospective. Coming out was hard enough in the first place…
Suddenly my headcanon is open to the possibility of the Walkyverse continuing under the title “OPENLY BECKY!”
I’d buy that for 20 nickels!
some people dont have that many moms
You don’t want to know how many moms Mike has had.
Sounds like a sitcom. “Openly Becky is filmed in front of a live studio lesbian.”
Can I just say that Becky is my new favorite?
Seconded
lets see if you can catch up to the train run those tracks faster cause the train has already left the station
she has startled Mike into a non-hostile face in less than two panels.
She is the chosen one
Will she betray us all and go over to the dark side?
she will make the choice on a planet out side of common reality where there is a father son and daughter. her choice will be not to make the choice and doom them to great influence form one of the sides in the near future
She’s going to lead us to thePromised Land!
I can’t wait to see what horrors Mike weaves out of this
*Hands TrueVCU the popcorn*.
*hands empty cups* Trust me guys, these are Not for drinking.
remember the good old day when Dina was everyone’s favorite character. Sometime I miss the good old days
Not that becky isn’t great but seriously i cant remember the last time i saw dina
She’s probably stuck behind a door somewhere.
She’s actually been just off panel in every scene.
Bob was there, too.
I got that reference!
That is the beauty of Dina, you never see her until it’s too late.
Looks like the last time we saw Dina was on November 4th.
Yea, nostalgia can be pretty nostalgic sometimes.
And Becky got a reaction out of Mike! Nice going!
same tbh
did anyone just hear a “glerb” sound coming from the pit of Joyce’s stomach?
In fact, WE’RE ALL LESBIANS NOW!
Except you, Mike. You’re still an asshole.
GOOBLE GOBBLE GOOBLE GOBBLE
Walky: wow I was expected this from Joyce, more than I was expecting it from you.
Hey Lesbian, I’m a Artist; how ya doing?
OK, so who’s going to use last-panel Becky as their new avatar?
I’m dearly tempted, but I’m not giving up my happy-blue-panel-Becky yet.
In that case, I will do it. ^_^
This Becky shall forever live on in the comments.
Not as Plasmas avatar, she shall not. After all, Plasma changes its avatar about three times a day.
I’m extremely jealous! Awesome gravatar.
Thanks, that online picture editor while not as good as Adobe PS, is still way better than MS Paint.
Paint.net is the way to go, if you don’t need full PS or Gimp
I’ll stick with this, least until I find something more suitable…
*Theme song starts playing*
JUST BECKY!
Joyce’s friend Becky!
A bundle of fun!
Who happens to be
A lesbian!
That causes Joyce
To have a crisis of faith
Who’s the cause?
IT’S BECKY!
*cut to Becky in last panel*
“I’M A LESBIAN”
*cut back to theme song intro*
IT’S BECKY!
no matter how many times i read though these lyrics i’m hearing to the tune of too many cooks
Try this. It’s what I had in mind when I wrote it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaT1_-VtkaQ
I’ve been hearing this song every time i’ve got an idle moment for the last month.
“Just Becky” works pretty well with it, i gotta admit.
God, after everything else she’s gone through recently, it is great to see Becky having an expression like that on her face. It must be a great feeling to her to be able to shout that out so openly without fear of the consequences.
Oh there will be consequences.
Sexy consequences.
Especially when Daisy will hear about it and will want to meet Becky for “Journalism”.
Well, perhaps I should have specified a lack of negative consequences…
Nice job you joker … we now have someone to blaine for the horrible things that are going to happen …
Gosh, Becky, spoilers!
I know this is a big moment for her, but Mike and Walky are both like, “…Okay.” Big moment for her, but maybe that is the reaction she needs, from two people who really could not give a fuck, which helps make her feel more normal.
So, Becky and Ethan meet, fall in love at first sight, immediately renounce their gayness, and begin a marathon of copulation. Starting on Joyce’s bunk.
Hey, it could happen.
In a Willis comic, you must be dreaming.
Well, on the one hand, you’re right: in a Willis comic, the gayness is always likely to win.
On the other hand, it would be the ultimate fuckover of the readership. Which is possibly the only force that could overthrow the gayness victory. So I wouldn’t discount it. (I wouldn’t lay odds on it, either, but still…)
On the third hand, Becky and Etan could double date other gay/lesbian couples until they find a couple with matching beards.
Yeaaaah, Becky!
This is exactly how I came out. Sans crazy religious repression. I was never really in the closet, I just realized I was gay and was like, “AWESOME!” I was kinda surprised it didn’t come with cake and confetti.
A bit late, but have some cake.
I can bake one for you too, so long as you don’t mind me eating it for you to avoid shipping hassle. 😛
Is it just me, or did all the art and lettering get way sharper since yesterday? I notice the image size is larger, but that doesn’t explain all of it.
I ship Becky (who’s now been added to the cast list I see) and Daisy (the newspaper editor).
Dina.
Dina is already destined for a pragmatic woman who works at an aviary.
The local three-year-old took one look at your gravatar and said “He’s angry” in a concerned voice. Pretty good description of Mike.
Also Dina looked scared and Roz looked happy.
Dina’s an Aspie, and probably is Asexual. This is true of many Aspies.
Becky does not have the damn time for sad angsting about her sexuality.
Ellen DeGeneres did the same sing on her prime time comedy show years ago. And then, it imploded on her.
Considering it was a different world 18 years ago, this isn’t surprising.
It didn’t implode. Rightwing religious groups threatened to boycott all of Disney (good luck with that) and the network that Ellen was on caved.
Then, just to tick those people off, Will and Grace happened.
Becky is awesome.
BRING ME UR WIMMINZ
Are there any organizations who specifically aid gay/lesbian teenagers coming from religious households? I mean, geez, it’s a difficult position to be in: to suddenly be on your own without any support or resources.
… … While I have almost no tolerance for religion (my parents were invited to not continue sending me to Sunday school after my first day because I asked too many questions) … I think that assuming that religious = so homophobic that the kid must run away is going just a bit too far …
True, but many, perhaps even most, households that’re homophobic enough to disown their children for being gay are religious. I’d be surprised if they were a significant percentage of religious folk in general, but there’re so many religiously inclined people that that’s not saying much.
You’d be wrong about most. You’d even be wrong about disproportionately many.
Evil parents come in all beliefs, forms and sizes.
Not all right wing religious homeschoolers are so homophobic that their kids are driven to running away or committing suicide, but the 99% who are give the other 1% a bad name.
Seriously, Becky and Joyce’s parents aren’t just generically religious, they are the worst sort of religious.
It’s not the worst sort until you start passing out the poisoned Flavor-Aid.
As long as the people you give it to are totally aware of the poison and drink it by choice, I call this natural selection. And I’m totally kool with aiding evolution along. (cf. Darwin Award)
If you give it to unknowing folks, children or similar people, this is obviously far worse than not accepting someones sexuality. But being a cynical, misanthropical pessimist, I’m pretty sure it’s not the worst.
Note that “poisoned Flavor-Aid” is a reference to a specific event, in which over 900 people, including babies, were killed in a massive cult murder-suicide.
I am aware of this. In retrospect I should have stressed the
more. I’m still of the opinion that even worse tragedies can happen. The world, as I see it, is (sometimes) a very sad place.
I don’ believe that being religious means that one is homophobic. Certainly, anybody can be homophobic. Perhaps I should have phrased my question more carefully.
Liberating, isn’t it?
Becky managed to surprise Mike…
Joyce is thinking: “AW, SH… I mean POOP!!!!”
I can’t believe how long it took me to realize the title of this comic is a pun.
Also, Mike isn’t scowling in the last panel.
This is the equivalent of the average man getting a heart attack.
Mike is, clearly, actually impressed. If only because her eyebrows are more impressive than his. He may even rescind his third-panel comment, at least in so far as he is able to do so.
Still, between him and Walky, which will first mention that Becky’s wearing Joye’s clothes?
And from that, draw the wrong conclusions…..
For some reason, I will be expecting Becky to busting out of closets on a regular basis like the Kool-Aid Man from now on.
Oh yeah!!
Subtle…
My god; she’s the third apprentice!
next question: is that Joyce or Mike’s eyebrow
Just when I think Becky can’t make herself any more endearing to me, she always has some way to prove me wrong. She’s been given such a wringer of a time the last few days, in-universe, and it’s great to see that big smile on her face.
Oh, Becky, never change. 😀
that’s the way to do it
money for nothing and your chicks for free
Y’know, Willis, it’s really not fair to all the lesser characters to put up that poll with this as the current strip.
there is this thing with shipping and cannons we will use its slightly different this time but its the same general thing. other people everyone would in the poll would be shipping but becky has the cannon at the moment and cannons are best for blowing ships out of water
other people everyone would in poll(stike from record)- (replace with )> everyone in the poll
I get the feeling that Becky has been wanting to say that for a long, long time.
As much as I like your Faust gravatar, it’s making it uncomfortably difficult to forget the animation from whence it came.
Dynamite that closet door, wtg Becky. Too bad Ethan wasn’t there.
Good ‘ol non-judgemental Mike: he hates everybody equally, gay on not. She did get his attention though, didn’t she ;).
Give up Joyce. You can help but you can’t dictate.
I like you, Becky. I do. 😀
But damn, Joyce’s behaviour is really putting me on edge. Everything she’s done so far just screams to me that she’s really, REALLY not comfortable with Becky coming out to her, though she’s trying her best to be accepting. I can only hope she’ll fully accept it in time, and that their friendship will come through unscathed.
Give Joyce a break. She is providing Becky with shelter, food supply with her, and the clothes off of her own back.
Ack! Meant to say she was splitting her food supply with her, giving meals so that Becky can eat.
Joyce has massive sexual hangups and likely assumes Becky would as well. Let’s be honest, Joyce won’t be yelling about how much she wants the cock anytime soon, even though it’s true. She can’t even say the word. Out and proud Becky would never have even crossed her mind.
She is not used to diversity, but darn it to gosh – she is trying. She supports Becky 100%, she’s not just sure how to do it.
It’s darn it to HECK, Bagge, Gosh darn it.
Holy shit, Danny isn’t in the bottom ranks of the favorite character polls, for once. He actually has a healthy amount of votes. Subtracting the obvious “new flavor” Becky and our Lord and savior, Dina, he actually fares pretty well against the rest of the competition. I think that is worth noting.
Danny is only beating out top tier Walkys cause of the forbidden passion on top of the chain reaction drama riding on it
the injustice that was walky’s votes has been undone. *cries of victory*
I’m conflicted. On one hand, as a Danny supporter I’m glad that people vote for him. On the other, the only difference between Danny today and Danny last poll is that we know about his bisexuality (which I know from personal experience doesn’t make you a more intresting person), so I wish people had actually voted for him, and not a sexual orientation.
In a soap opera setting, bisexuality does make a character more interesting. It doubles the potential for cheating, triangles, and unresolved sexual tension.
It does make him more interesting as his potential partners factor into how interesting it is to read about him. And the potential of him and Ethan is faaaaaaaar more appealing than him and Amber.
While I do believe at least some of Danny’s fanbase comes from his bisexuality, to be completely honest, 2014 was the first time he started being written as a great character. He was basically intolerable for the first two years and he started to show some depth in 2013, but in the last year he’s finally learned Amazi-Girl’s identity and realized how badly he screwed things up with her by getting involved with Blaine, we started seeing him reflect on his actions and consider the consequences like with Sal where he admits to feeling useless, or when he stood up to Dorothy when she tried to get some Amazi-Girl info, and he finally made a normal, emotionally supportive friend in Ethan, somebody he can confide to about how he feels without getting relentlessly mocked. Now, with Danny coming to grips with his sexuality, he finally has an active story arc to play out, not just getting dicked around or being oblivious to everything.
Fans have a tendency to be overprotective of LGBT characters and I don’t think for a second that his sudden burst of popularity had nothing to do with the reveal of his sexuality, but he was starting to become a better character long before he imaging smooching Ethan.
Danny is my favorite male character, much for the reasons you listed. I also like how he has goals and standards and actively strive to reach and uphold them (even if he is hilariously bad at syncing said goals and standards with the rest of the universe).
Same here. It’s fun to watch him suffer and he can be seriously boneheaded, but he’s ultimately a real nice kid with some serious bad luck. I’m actually glad he’s a bit of a douche sometimes, since it gives him more edge and doesn’t leave him as the “boring nice guy” of the cast.
Speaking from experience here, coming off as a bit of a douche to some people is an unavoidable side effect to actually trying to live up to a self set standard. Being young, Danny has ample excuse for his being a little vague, but at least he tries to follow it.
To be honest, as a long time Danny supporter, I had the same thoughts about his sexuality. I was afraid to put them into words because I thought there might be some backlash from other readers. I am glad to see some self awareness around here.
On the other hand, I will never understand the “intolerable” opinions surrounding Danny. He was an honest kid, and the Amber/Amazi-Girl thing was a running gag that played into some drama. It was a plot device, and I can’t see why people hated him so much just for being used as a stage piece. Granted I haven’t read many other Willis works, and I hear there was some held over resentment from there, but seeing as Mike is just a much a dick as always, but still has his fans…
Mike was popular because of his disposition. Danny was unpopular for the same reason.
Really though, the root of the problem was that Walkyverse Danny was around most often while Willis was in the deepest grips of depression and losing his faith, and rarely showed up afterward, thus getting identified as a loser. It doesn’t help that Willis acknowledges this over at Bring Back Roomies! with his constant put downs of past self (and a rather long winded tirade about not asking him about college). Over here though, Willis has a much clearer mind and can give Danny the character development he needs. Namely, stuff that doesn’t involve getting Ruth killed.
Of course, I could just be prattling off a pet theory, and Willis is welcome to correct me.
That’s coming out of the closet like a chestburster.
Naa, chestbursters tear & smash their way through dramatically, this is more calm-like-a-bomb style. “Yo (all calm). Hey, guess what, I’m a Lesbian!” (Earth Shattering Kaboom!)
gotta respect guts like that, plenty of confidence there. Since she’s opened up to the only 1 she was hiding from & despite the target not sharing the Lesbian tendencies (despite being such a big friend of Dorothy…), she’s still been accepted by her, so there’s no reason to hide anymore. Me, I still gotta play human when out & about. Least on the net I can just say I’m a Minicon… 😛
And with that shout of fragile self-confidence, Mike’s next target is chosen.
I doubt that. Not Mike’s style at all. Also not sure it is that fragile.
Becky has all the discretion of an Autobot.
Naa, I’d say more bongoscream. *Screamy shows up at mining site*
*Says words to the effect of-* Pathetic humans, tremble in fear for I, Starscream, am here… *gets surprised noone was around.*
Well, almost noone, I’d just grabbed a few shards & hidden in time to see his “triumphant” arrival. Damn it was hard work holding back the laughter… XD
Dat Joyce face in the last panel.
How many times does this make that someone has said — or done — something that knocks the blue right out of her eyes?
WOW
The only thing that would make this even more epic is if she sang along to
this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5wfLcJd3LE
I just read the entire series up to now. It was amazing. It’s been a while since a comic strip has made me cry.
She’s so far out of the closet that Aslan has declared her no longer a friend of Narnia.
Heh, nice take on the “problem with Susan”
You know, everyone thinks this is so great, but I think she’s probably just acting out.
Said to the two people in the place least likely to give even a simulation of a shit.
Walky cares, he’ll think it is hot.
And funny. That’s an EPIC Joyce face right there.
Sounds like someone had a good shower
She did say shee was going to sample their finest wimmens. Perhaps she met up with the newspaper editor…
Because Becky has zero interest in being “same as always”.
Voracious Lesbite!
no it’s becky
Becky should work at Gallasso’s
Yuck, the pointy chins are really getting to me in this particular strip for some reason.
Becky’s theme song: Let it Go.
Oh hey, I recognize this exclamation. This is the “I have kept this bottled up for so long I am finally in a safe space to say it I AM GOING TO SAY IT RIGHT NOW!” exclamation. I remember that.
Largely because a slightly more terrified version is how I first came out.
Reeeal subtle Becky, real subtle.
Now I wonder, can Walky try to talk Joyce, Becky and Dorothy into a 4-some? Then, they all make out and live happily ever after, and the comic ends.
Aw, forget it, it’s Willis we are talking about, he will make an asteroid strike and kill everyone in the next strip, just to troll us.
Subtlety, thy name is Becky…
I just had a realization – when (potentially) Ethan learns of Joyce’s…’refinement’ of her personal dogma and ethics for her BFF Becky, he might have a ‘shoe on the other foot’ moment of “Well, why wouldn’t you do that for me?”
If it does happen, I can only hope that Amber is present…
He doesn’t want her to do that for him–Ethan decided, for his own reasons, to pretend to be straight for a while. Joyce is a convenient part of that charade, but if she becomes too “enlighted” about LGBT issues, he may have to pick a different fake girlfriend.
Umm, why should she have done this? I don’t get it. It was a totally different situation. He wanted to ignore all of this, he practically asked for this reaction, to pretend “normalcy”.
Ethan: Is gay, gets rejected by his parents, carves in and goes back into closet, Joyce supports that (and stays his girlfriend).
Joyce: Is gay, gets rejected by her parents, runs away and embraces her gayness, Joyce supports that (but doesn’t become her girlfriend).
If anything, Ethan should be glad she didn’t show the same reaction towards him.
*Becky: Is gay, […]
Also, I forgot a closing paranthesis in the last titletext, damn.
I don’t know who to pick for the poll!? They all have their moments Even Mary has a case. (She’s important now..Also to promote self interest) It probably won’t be Walky he has it too easy.
Just remember, you don’t HAVE to pick three, but it is recommended.
Becky reminds me of me for the first year after I came out of the closet. Yay Becky!
Becky is fine but I haven’t really grokked her yet, psychologically. So far all her conflicts seem to have external sources, with little trace of inner tension. And doesn’t she seem to have gotten over Joyce suspiciously fast? I suppose the plot will prove me wrong eventually but until then I pick Billie for favorite.
She certainly appears so, yes, but the whole “lesbian” thing was a bit of a bombshell (at least for me). If any thing, she’s very good at hiding.
Becky is VERY good at projecting an image, so it’s anyone’s guess exactly what goes on internally. I think we will learn more about that as the day progresses.
Yes. Or perhaps she just is that way and her narrative function is largely as a foil for Joyce.
In a way I suppose it is – despite the myriad of characters, Joyce is a bit more main character than most. Becky is a foil to Joyce and have her own arc, just like Sarah, Dorothy and Dina and several others.
But there are some blanks when it comes to Becky. What’s her religious views now? Is she afraid for her immortal soul? Does SHE have any end game or is it just like she said “come out to Joyce, pray that everything will be all right”? What’s her thoughts of the rest of her family and childhood friends? And just like you said, what exactly are her feelings about Joyce and will she get over them? Time will tell.
This honestly makes perfect sense to me. Becky seems pretty emotionally healthy, at least as far as owning what she’s feeling once she recognizes it and making adjustments in her life to accommodate unpleasant things. She has more awareness and respect than I would have coming out at her age.
Basically, I envision her thought process to be like so:
“Man, my roommate is cool. So fun to talk to. So fun to hang out with. So fun to touch…wait, what?
Oh no. Oh no no no, I’m a lesbian! Wait, this is pretty awesome. GOSHDARNIT THE DOOR WHY DIDN’T WE THINK OF THE DOOR.
Scratch that, my roommate is NOT cool, she’s ABANDONING ME.
Man, my dad is a…a…a butthole. Clearly, I need a safe place.
JOYCE. Joyce is a safe place, and now that I know I’m gay, I’m pretty sure I’m in love with her. I’m back with Joyce now and YES I DEFINITELY LOVE HER. She must feel the same way, right? Only one way to find out…
JOYCE DOES NOT LOVE ME. ABORT ABORT ABORT.
Oh hey, she followed me. And she doesn’t hate me. I mean, she still doesn’t love me, which sucks, but we’ve been friends forever and also she is SOMEONE WITH MY BACKGROUND WHO DOESN’T HATE ME so yeah, this is good.
Wait. I’m at a secular place. No one knows me. They don’t think being gay is bad. Omg. I can be me. I CAN BE ME. HEY GUYS. HEY. I’M A LESBIAN!!!”
That’s an awesome look from her perspective. Also, she spent a full day having one (maybe) last happy day with Joyce while building up the reveal by testing the waters and flirting with Wally. (“…soon, soon, soon… NOW!”)
There are not enough words to describe how much I love this
Sounds about right, yeah.
It’s like But I’m a Cheerleader
Please let newspaper girl hear this confession.
SHE’S FINALLY FREE HERE AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Silly question. How many universities let random people come “sit in” at classes? Or are all classes delivered in such large-scale lectures that it is easy for people to filter in and out as desired?
It’s pretty common for classes to be large enough that one extra person can slip in unnoticed, especially for freshman classes.
The only one of Joyce’s classes we know isn’t some imposing lecture hall is Leslie’s Gender Studies class, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. In fact, she might capitalize on it as a teachable moment.
Leslie did let Mike sit in once before – until he started to be an asshole to people. She seems to be cool like that.
I feel like Leslie would be like, “Wait, you’re a lesbian who ran away from a homophobic and toxic home? Me too!!!”
You know, assuming her backstory is the same as in Shortpacked
Most of the time the people giving the lectures don’t care unless seats are limited. For large classes they wouldn’t notice unless you sat at front and went out of your way to draw attention to yourself. After all if you aren’t doing assignments and exams that they need to grade an extra body in the room makes little difference. Also, in general the lecturer isn’t being paid by the head. Since the reason most people pay to go to university is for the degree and not for the education, bean-counting administrator types can stay well away from anything to do with education and focus on important things like the sports teams.
My experience is, though some professors can get uptight about it, even smaller colleges don’t really care who’s sitting in the classrooms. You can get as educated as you want. It’s the piece of paper that says that you are that you’re paying them for.
In general as a college teacher your problem is not to keep people OUT of classrooms…
^This. Some of my classes were very small (eight students – the minimum allowed to hold the class) and none of my professors gave a shit. Every once in a while, one of them would walk up and be like, “Oh, you have a visitor today?” and introduce himself/herself to the guest. Otherwise, the guest just got a look of “Huh.” and ignored.
The only real exception were classes where there might be an element of danger, such as metalworking or chemistry, if someone didn’t know the rules of the classroom. Even then, the prof most often would be all, “Hey, are you supposed to be here? Oh, you’re with that person? Okay, cool, just don’t touch anything.”
I’ve never had a class that minded, unless there was a lack of space
This makes me wonder exactly how discrete Becky’s window shopping was.
“Hi, I’m a lesbian. OK if I ogle you?”
80% of the women in the shower: “Sure”
Dina: “Despite their common presence in Jurassic and Cretaceous geological layers the pliosaurs were not dinosaurs but rater a relative of modern lizards.”
Becky : “Soooo … that’s a yes ?”
GRACE: “Fine, but we’re going to ogle you back.”
MANDY: “Y’know, our fifth hasn’t shown up, so we’ve got an opening for a freckly chick. How are you with pistols?”
Y’know, Guns’ real first name WAS Becky…
Wait what
Worst character is secretly best character?
We were so worried about Becky getting kicked out of the Dorms.
I figured it out: it was so easy. All the girls of the floor, can host Becky for a week.
I bet Daisy would like her too. Billie and Joyce can even sign up for doubles.
She can couchsurf the entire semester.
There’s an exception though. You know the one…
We dare not speak that one’s name…
She is the Scottish play of DoA. Say her name and tragedy will befall you.
Walky is like, “…Am I suppose to react?”
Well to be fair, he probably already knows Billie’s bi. He seems cool with that, so I doubt he’d have any objections to Becky.
I dunno, I sense disappointment.
Perfect. Good for her.
Heheheheh – Becky reminds me of when I first came out! 😀
Wait, if I’m not mistaken, isn’t this the first coming out in the comic? For everyone else I think it was either assumed from the outset or they’re still in the closet/back in the closet.
actually… Yeah i think you’re right.
Billie and Ruth are hiding it from everyone so i guess they are in the closet, Ethan is trying desperatly to get back into the closet, and Danny is just discovering himself.
Billie’s hiding her relationship with Ruth, but I’m not sure she’s actually hiding her bisexuality. She hasn’t made a big public announcement like Becky, but she’s been pretty casual about it even with frenemies like Sarah. I’m not sure she even realizes that it’s something to hide. I mean, it’s not like she’s a lesbian… she just likes getting sexy with girls sometimes. Doesn’t everyone?
I don’t think that Billie is closeted; I think it’s just one of those ‘if you ask me, I’ll tell you, but I don’t feel any reason to talk about it.” Ruth, however, is clearly still closeted
I wouldn’t say Ruth’s closeted, just discovered she’s into girls with Billy, then hasn’t shown that side of herself to anyone else, that’s all. From my understanding of the human term “closeted”, it means they’re actively hiding the same-sex attractions, while Ruth just doesn’t let people see all sides of her.
Guess she’s just naturally guarded person, like the Human I hang with. See him on the street, black jeans, black shirt, black steel caps, black 3/4 length trenchcoat in cooler weather & constant ‘not impressed’ face, you’d think he’s pretty scary. But, earn a bit of trust & you see he’s a pretty nice guy. Bit sadistic at times, but nice. See him with his Niece & Nephew & he just a big softyul;’rktgjmp9iurwgy;rhhrhrrhh][;l;k ,fhmry
XD he tried erasing my message & posted it instead XD
I would guess Ruth’s reluctance to have _any_ public relationship with billy is because her R.A. position, a _substantial_ financial unburdening, would be terminated immediately if she were to fraternize with her students.
Well, Ethan technically came out to Joyce after their first kiss at Galasso’s. Not sure that counts, since he decided to shove himself back into the closet right after that, but still.
You know you have well written female characters when they are on the top 8 spots of the favs poll. Good Job Willy.
Can this be the subtitle of all Dumbing of Age strips henceforth?
No. That subtitle won’t fly after book 5 comes out, it’ll have to change to book 6 then.
Now the important question – does Becky have awesome tits, or does Joyce’s shirt just fit her well? If the second option, does that mean Joyce’s endowment is actually well-fitting shirts?
I get the feeling someone’s gonna see your comment & start going through all Joyce’s pics (in comic & official ones elsewhere) & try to work it out, if they haven’t already. Mr Willis might even see this & give a definitive answer. Either way, I’m gonna wait & see…
12 people voted for Mary.
I…
I don’t know what’s real any more.
You know, I’ve had halve a mind to do the same. While she is an awful person, she is still interesting as a character or at least as a villain. I can’t wait to see what she’ll do to Ruth and Billie.
“Guess who has two thumbs and is a lesbian? This gal!”
*nosebleed*
I did not know I could love Becky more than I already did. 😀
(I do know that “nosebleed” usually signals arousal, but I’m appropriating it for OMG-that-is-so-awesome-ness.)
And I never voted in the “Becky: great or greatest character” poll, but I was going to do it now (“greatest”, natch) AND IT WAS GOOOOOONE. But I voted for her as favorite character (no 2nd or 3rd because right now, Becky occupies all the places down to 5th or 6th).
Go Becky!!
Someone probs already said this, but its almost an unfair advantage to post the favorite character poll at the same time as this.
She’s everyone’s favorite character today!
Eeeeehn, I’m officially tried of Becky.
I mean before she seemed like a bunch of traits which sort of seemed like Authory Appeal. Including managing to out Walky Walky himself (Belching Contest). The poll on her arrival (great or greatest? Really?) didn’t help.
Now, despite having the same upbringing as Joyce she just leaps out of the closet as publically as possible? I mean, I can forgive a lot but that just doesn’t seem like a realistic character. Or one that personally appeals to me. I can get a wishfulfillment angle but I don’t know, it feels a little bit too blantant and that tends to turn me away.
I really like Ruth and Billie, Amber/Ethan/Danny has a lot of potential as a storyline and Roz and Carla have a tonne of potential but I think I’m going to take a break for a little until the Becky storyline is over.
Cheers mates, I’ll catch you lot in a bit.
Looks at post below comment.
Irony.
But yeah, she is clearly meant to be a crowd pleaser.
Shrug.
its actually very believeable she was hideing from her christian parents and christian schoolmates who would have vilified her this school she only knoews joyce and no one else who’s opinion she would care about would vilify her
“Now, despite having the same upbringing as Joyce she just leaps out of the closet as publically as possible?”
I know I would if I ran away from home and a stifling college after realizing my sexuality.
Shit, I did some shouting of my own when I realized I was pansexual. It was just on more Fluttershy’s level.
And how long was Becky hiding it? She was probably shouting with relief on top of that.
Gay Pride is scary ?
She’s a permanent character. Looks like you will gone for a while.
and the Author has three years of characterization with her to catch up on.
She is has a lot of characters to meet and interact with.
You know I was a bit worried at first that Becky would be a bit of a downer after what happened…. Good to know that she’s still the best character
Becky is the best!
And she has 41% of the vote for favorite character, nice!
The only reason it’s not more than that is that you can only vote for her once.
If everyone voted for Becky, and used all three votes she should have 33% of the votes, right? So… Becky is too awesome for math
This should be followed by a big musical number, based on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdbs3lKEeBE
LOLed big time at the ending… XD
Guessing sutley isn’t her strong suit
Well, that’s the SWAT team knocking down the closet door.
I can’t help but hear Becky yell that out in a GIR voice.
She’s just so hype about lovin’ ladies.
Wow, I have heard of people coming out of the closet in style, but that was
.
.
.
FAAABULOUUUUSSSS!
About as subtle as the sound of a battleship cannon.
That look on Becky’s face perfectly captures how good it feels to be able to come out.
I was partly right, then.
…I get that urge. Sometimes, I just want to shout it out and let everyone around me know. “LESBIAN OVER HERE. ANY OTHER LESBIANS IN THE AREA?”
Some things I keep secret, at least from random strangers. But liking girls will not be one of them. ^^
Why yes, alt text. It is.