Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
BOOKMARK Click "Tag Page" to bookmark a page. When you return to the site, click "Goto Tag" to continue where you left off.
BUFFER WATCH
Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:
Whiskey seems to be Billie’s drink of choice. Billie pregamed, of course, so if we figure Walky’s as lightweight as his sister, Dorothy has never had a drink before, you could probably get them this drunk off of 2-4 shots each. Now, how the 2 lightweights managed to drink that much with minimal mixers is a mystery, but the bottle isn’t the problem.
Never doubt the combination of sufficiently strong booze and lightweights. Seriously, if I had a nickel for everybody I knew who’d passed out from just a shot I’d have more than Mike’s mom budget.
Or even worse becomes a dangerous idiot on only minor alcohol consumption. On one memorable night,I had a fraternity brother who on literally two beers:
1) tried to pick a fight with a group of Marines & got kicked out of the bar;
2) climbed up into a tree (downtown) because he wasn’t ready to go home [we managed to convince a city cop not to arrest him];
3) refused to get into the elevator when we finally got him back to his dorm [trying to stop us by spreading his arms and legs and yelling he wasn’t ready to go home, which attracted the attention of a campus cop];
4) proceeded to say some really stupid things to the campus cop [culminating in “What are you going to do, arrest me?”]; and
5) got arrested [only time in my life I’ve had to arrange to bail someone out of jail].
As a post-script, he has avoided alcohol for years now since he figured out it leads to stupid behavior on his part.
So this is a long-winded way of saying that Dorothy and Walky have an infinite possibility of stupid drunken behavior available, depending on where Willis wants to take them…
Two beers physically can’t make anyone behave like that, unless the person is within the 20-50 pound range. That guy is an example of that psychological effect where you act the way you think drunk people should act without actually being drunk.
If the placebo effect has negative rather than positive consequences, it’s more accurate to call it the nocebo effect. I’m not saying that to be pedantic; I just love that word and wish more people used it.
To be pedantic, Kennedy insisted there were only nocebo reactions, no such thing as a nocebo effect. Medical terminology gets fussy about the differences.
Being slightly less nit-picky, it’s much rarer to get an opportunity to use it properly in conversation unless you’re a professional torturer or something. Even here it’s only appropriate if you think acting drunk is a negative effect, which isn’t always true. A false drunk gains social camouflage, the relaxation that comes with actual inebriation, and avoids the potential aftereffects of getting seriously lit – although I suppose you could convince yourself you’ve got a false hangover as well. Now that would be a clear nocebo reaction.
Hmm. There’s another reason you don’t see nocebo much. Spellchecking programs hate the word. Never seen so many red squigglies.
There’s a big range of beer potency, but not enough to make anyone larger than Verne Troyer flip out on two cans. I’m working in Utah at the moment, and here in Mormon country even the draft and most bottled beers in bars – not restaurants, bars – is 3.2 hosspiss. You can get some slightly tougher stuff in bottles, or you can go to one of the widely scattered State liquor stores and get stouter beers. When I was a young feller, I could go from Iowa up to Minnesota and get “STRONG” (so labeled on the can) beers that ran 7-8%. I think the toughest beers run 11-12%.
Two cans of the toughest beers in the world, if you slammed them as fast as you could, might make your face tingle, but you sure as hell won’t be drunk. More likely, someone that acts like an asshole after two cans is just an asshole.
And yeah, Utah ain’t the greatest place to tie one on – especially if your liver is case-hardened by decades of pickling, like mine.
Well the top ten of this list might disagree with you, but it’s not really up-to-date: the number one was improved in the meantime and now comes with the name “Snake Venom” and 67.5%!
Are those traditional brewed beers? Because I think 12-13% is the strongest you can achieve by fermentation. I’m pretty sure you have to use distillation to get higher than that.
But then, I’m far more expert at drinking beer than brewing it. After all, I’ve never heard of a really great Man-Story(tm), the kind that usually ends in a trip to the local ER, that started with “Yeah, this one time a bunch of us were sitting around eating salad, when…”
But if I only had a buck for every really great story than began, “Then Pete turned to me and said, ‘Hey, hold my beer and watch this!'”
Placebo effect is strong. We got some gals drunk on ice tea on a festival. Came to us and asked for something to drink, so out of fun we poured them icetea. Pure icetea.
Little bit. In hindsight, that last line she said to Billie did have a bit of a “desperate realization that I’m wound way too tight” ring to it. Alcohol isn’t the best way to unwind, but it’ll do as long it doesn’t become a habit.
I don’t mind if she crosses the line, but assuming nobody forced alcohol down her throat, her attitude somehow did a complete 180 from “I’m typing notes on my phone I’m so busy I’m not allowed to relax” to “Fuck it I’m going to drink alcohol”. That just seems weird to me.
It makes sense to me. “Mind racing, so many things I need to do! How am I supposed to relax?
Maybe this will take the edge off… it’s a party, after all.”
Dunno, I think she’s often good at compartmentaling. NOW I study, NOW I have fun. Even if she often frets about her scheduling, when she is in a FUN timeslot she usually socializes.
Also, she’s not the first young person to rationalize reasons to be drunk despite it being a bad idea
Well the slipshine showed her in a completely new light but also didn’t freak out when Walky gets drunk (mostly), gives him space when needed and realises hes a work in progress
Dorothy’s not as dead as the Gwen Stacy I remember best, but that’s a good thing. Hear she’s back amongst the living anyway, or maybe not. Marvel continuity makes my head hurt.
I know quite a few X-Fans who would vigorously dispute that claim. And their books’ continuity makes my head hurt even worse than Spidey. Clone Saga Spidey, even.
Plus, didn’t the editors just blow up the multiverse and most of their characters anyway?
On the one hand I’m laughing my ass off that everyone got drunk without Joyce noticing, on the other hand it’s kind of sad that a major change happened in what was supposed to be her party like this.
Mm. Yeah. I think with Walky and Dorothy they probably don’t know their own limits, and Billie is an alcoholic, so I’m inclined to cut them some slack (a tiny amount! Bringing alcohol into someone’s dorm without their knowledge during a party that’s supposed to be for them is still awful even if you only meant to get discreetly buzzed), but this is really uncool.
Hopefully it can still be salvaged since Joyce is Queen of the Drunks? But even if she ends up having a good time anyway it would still be a jerk move.
Actually, probably Sarah is about to flip shit and kick everyone out. They brought alcohol into her dorm room while she’s there so they could underage drink and then got super drunk. That’s fucked up on multiple levels and she would have the right to be furious even without her personal history with this kind of thing.
I don’t drink heavily and I’ve only seen someone get shitfaced like once, so to me, being visibly drunk is being “super drunk”. My instinct, which I am aware is wrong, is to think of alcohol consumption as coming in three distinct stages: sober -> buzzed -> super drunk. I’ll try to phrase it more clearly next time.
In fact, they clearly aren’t. They’re still forming sentences and standing upright without holding on to anything. That’s a ways off from “super drunk” and miles from the “call 911 for alcohol poisoning” stage.
Joyce has every right to be pissed. I would want Sarah to defer to Joyce on what to do, but it is also Sarah’s room, so if she wants to throw them out, she’s clear to do so with all the excessive violence necessary.
Meh. The Happy Drunk Couple will just go have sex somewhere (where is Sierra, anyway? No party invite for her?) and pass out. Billie didn’t want to be here anyway and has Ruth to go back to. No violence required, and Joyce can have a reality check about inviting a notorious alcoholic (right, Asma?) to a party and expecting it to stay dry. Maybe it’ll cure her of a bit of the Dorothy hero worship thing too, that’s both unrealistic and unhealthy.
It’s also interesting that either Dorothy’s alcohol tolerance is just as bad as the Walkertons, or whatever is in Billie’s flask is enough to bring down an elephant.
And I’m just now realising this could be taken as a reference to her weight, so I’d like to clarify I just meant it in terms of her having a high tolerance to alcohol.
Those are also pretty big so it still holds! *gives you points just because*
Yeah I just wanted to make sure people knew what I meant. Made a similar joke once and got badly reprimanded and when I tried to explain, people didn’t believe me, so now I’m extra cautious, haha.
Btw, I don’t know why but when you said brachiosaurus and I looked it up because I couldn’t remember which one that was, seeing the pictures I had a compulsive desire to have one as a pet. A smaller one of course, like maybe giraffe-sized. Seems like it would be fun to ride it and just, like, travel the land.
Tyrannosaurus rex, Allosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Utahraptor, Velociraptor, Deinoneichus, Stegosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Triceratops, Protoceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, Diplodocus, Parasorolophus, Compsognathus, and Ankylosaurus are my defaults. Sometimes Baryonyx and Spinosaurus slip in too.
Me too She’s the one that wants to go to a prestigious school, go into politics, and has pipe dreams of becoming president, so I would expect that she was trying to keep herself squeaky clean with regard to any indiscretions that could be used against her later on.
But I suppose that if Clinton can make America believe that getting a hummer from Monica wasn’t sex or that he smoked marijuana but “didn’t inhale”, then a little underage drinking isn’t even a blip on the radar.
It really isn’t. Having one drink at a freshman party isn’t going to derail anyone’s political career unless you follow it up with a DWI conviction, and even that might not do it. Plenty of politicos have made “contrition” and “personal struggles” into vote-gathering machines.
She’s used to people being drunk on God, so it can be hard for her to tell if people are God Drunk or Beer Drunk if they dont have the source with them (bibles vs cans)
I guess you’re right, Opus, and I was wrong. But we never saw Dorothy spiking her drink, and I can’t imagine that Billie’s flask was holding more than a half-pint of the hard stuff. At this rate she’s going to have to head back to her room to reload any time now.
And what happened to your other avatar, with the ‘bent?
Opus, before you do that with your gravs you should post a trigger warning for people who might otherwise think that their meds have stopped working … or are working too much ….
(My preceding use of “trigger warning” ina joke was not intended to deride trigger warnings, let alone that which they warn of. I had a vague sense as I wrote it that it might be inappropriate, but my impulsivity pushed it through my filters. Earlier tonight I was reading about new treatments for ‘unlinking’ PTSD triggers, so, yeah….I sometimes make jokes about things which I care about, a lot. A coping mechanism, I suppose. Sometimes I make jokes which I wish I hadn’t.)
I think we see how she reacts to drunk people at ‘her ‘party’.
If Dorothy has never had a drink before tonight, she would get drunk quick most likely-especially on Billie’s flask. And Walky already proved himself a wuss in this region.
(What tension, Dorothy is the least stressed of the Doa crew, her stress is her ambition: as in comparison to Beckys homelessness, Sarah’s mistrust, Joyce’s ‘everything’, et al.) Dorothy has it easier than most imo.
Poor Joyce, this is supposed to be a party with people she trusts, and now look. Can’t trust a soul can you?
It was even hinted that the reason some people are drinking is because of Joyce’s kind of party being not what they agree with. Which is kind of whatever, but doing something like this is kinda dickish.
Joyce might end up drinking. Joyce has said before she objects to underage drinking, not on religious grounds, but on legal grounds. Joyce considers Dorothy to be a role model who has a lot of respect for the law. With those factors considered, I could still see several things stopping Joyce from drinking:
-Willis retcons Joyce’s morals
-Sarah refuses to let Joyce drink
-Joyce decides she doesn’t want to get drunk in her own room
-Billie runs out of alcohol
-Ruth breaks this shit up
I mean, tbh this was kind of shitty of them to do.
They knew Joyce didn’t want to be reminded of that party. That party had drunk people. Drunk people could trigger her PTSD. Remember–it hasn’t been that long since the party where she was drugged and Ryan attempted to rape her.
Little things can set off PTSD. As a person with PTSD, I can say that men trigger mine. More specifically being alone with men. It’s not the individuals I mind, it’s what they make me remember. I still have a hard time being sexually active with anyone. This includes kissing. It makes me remember. I think that this is probably true for Joyce–small things make her remember. Alcohol is probably a big factor for her. Remember, she had been hanging out with a bunch of drunk people before Ryan pulled her away.
Sorry. I’m just annoyed that they would do this. I know they weren’t thinking. I know this wasn’t on their radar. But it strikes me as something that should’ve been. *sigh* I just hope she’s okay.
That’s entirely possible, and I hope it doesn’t happen. Honestly, Joyce having bout of feeling unsafe and seeing Ryan everywhere have almost seemed random though (unless I’ve been blind to certain triggers throughout the comics). If anything, Joyce getting drunk and losing full control of her actions and cognition might be a trigger since she was drugged. But again, I really hope that doesn’t happen since her admission to Becky is what brought this whole party on.
I think you’re right, but realistically, what are the odds that college freshmen know how to handle PTSD or how complicated triggers can be? If they did then why isn’t Joyce being treated(as far as we know) at any rate?
Not only that, but Joyce’s assault took the form of people sneaking things into her drinks without her realizing. And now everyone around her is sneaking things into their drinks without her realizing. It’s really shitty, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the “spiking the soda” aspect of tonight upsets her more than anything else.
I can’t decide if I should be happy for Dorothy that she’s being easier on herself or disappointed that she’s getting drunk at Joyce’s dorm party of all places or worried at how quickly she seems to be changing her standards for herself and where that could be headed.
oddly enough, I feel like this is going to be a moderately important moment for Joyce. Something along the lines of “even these Totally Not Entirely Evil people get drunk. and its… fine?”
I don’t think she would make the connection between drunk and evil. It could trigger PTSD but you have to remember that Ryan was sober. No drunk person has come after her in the strip so far.
That’s exactly why I’m interested in this development. I know I’m in a minority here, but Dorothy’s always been TOO perfect for me. I would probably like her IRL, but as a protagonist she’s only “meh” for me.
This will taint her from Joyce’s POV, but if anything it makes me like her more. Dorothy doing schoolwork on her phone at a party was scary nuts to me. Dorothy realizing that she needs to relax sometimes and taking a drink from Billie or Walky, that’s a lot more human. Not the best choice ever, but drinking a little now and then is not a problem unless it becomes the only way you can relax.
Honestly, in a hypothetical 30 years from now where Dorothy is running for president, it would hurt her image far more if it came out that she never drank in college because she wanted to be president someday. Maybe that’s not fair, but drinking on occasion before hitting 21 would make her “normal”. Obeying a pointless, illogical law nobody respects out of some obsession with a rigid definition of success makes her seem inhumanly ambitious.
I would be put off if it came out during this election that a candidate knew at the age of 18 that they wanted to be the leader of the free world, and was already planning their rise to the top. Of course, the drinking age thing wouldn’t be a scandal right now, since the drinking age wasn’t stupidly raised to 21 until 1984.
Wait… Sal is leaving Marcie and Malaya alone together… meaning she might be coming back. We’re going to have a conflict between Sal and Amber after all, aren’t we?
I really think you’re overestimating how much A-G cares about underage drinking. It was a convenient excuse for jumping Sal and pals in the parking lot, but we’ve never seen her busting other people for it despite the fact that any campus is going to have drunks reeling around pretty regularly. I could see her intervening if it looked like there was an alcohol-induced assault, vandalism, or DWI incident about to take place, but three drunks in a dorm room party where everyone is walking home? Nah.
She reminded someone it’t a dry campus, and be grumbled and dealt with his booze. I don’t recall how, but it was in that series of comics following one of her patrols.
Amber/A-G puts herself in some nasty ethical positions, doesn’t she? As she points out it is a misdemeanor, whereas just being a vigilante superhero is probably a felony, as are the beatings she’s handed out.
Another theory: since their booze is all coming from one source, who is known to be an uber-alcoholic, I suspect the stuff Billie’s got in her flask is super-potent. Like, straight vodka or something. Any lightweight taking even an adulterated drink of that would get drunk FAST.
That is the sort of statement that would only make sense if you are drunk.
Now… For some reason, I think that we’re about to get a revelation about Dorothy that, once again, she’d never let out sober. Was she an emancipated minor or an orphan? I get that from ‘I’m my own Mom’.
No. No, you do not. Although I usually prefer more privacy for that sort of thing. It’s kind of rude when they’re in mid-conversation with someone else.
I’m expecting several strips where Joyce explains to random passerbys that she isn’t talking to Dorothy at the moment whilst Dorothy is standing there.
Seriously, Dorothy has spat on Joyce here: She knows Joyce’s views and to then ignore that in Joyce’s personal space? Not cool, Dotty; not cool.
I don’t think it’s that bad. Joyce doesn’t drink, but she doesn’t seem overly disapproving of those who do. Remember when she was queen of the drunks? She even told he-who-shall-not-be-named that she didn’t have any real problem with drinking, she just didn’t want to do it while she was underaged.
I think the concern is that drunks will be a Ryan flashback trigger for Joyce, not that she’s actively anti-drinking as such. Not sure I accept that as a likely occurrence, but it’s certainly possible.
Just came back to leave a comment on this page, but I completely forgot whatever it was I was going to say when I saw Walky licking dorothy. Goddamn that’s adorable.
Better hope nobody puts this on MyFace, Dotty. I’m thinking underage drinking would be worse for your presidential ambitions than cuddling your boyfriend.
Under the circumstances, Dorothy herself isn’t trustworthy. I’ve seen people do way stupider things when drinking than post pictures of it on the Internet. Especially when they don’t have any experience with alcohol.
I’ve already posted this above, but underage drinking would not be bad for anyone’s presidential campaign. I can’t prove that, of course – it’s not an issue right now because the drinking age wasn’t stupidly raised to 21 until 1984, but once we do get to a time where candidates were under 21 after 1984, it will be the opposite of a scandal that they, like a large majority of Americans, ignored a counterproductive and non-respected law on occasion. And the drinking age might very well have been changed back to 18 by that point – I doubt it, but one would hope.
The whole purpose of friendship is to stretch our social boundaries. Weak friendships can’t handle the stretching, and break. Strong ones survive it, and grow as a result.
This situation makes me feel very uncomfortable, and I’m usually a drinker. It’s like, they can’t enjoy a party thrown for Joyce without being drunk? Given Joyce’s close call at a previous party with alcohol, you’d think they’d be more considerate. I would never drink at a party if I thought the host wouldn’t be comfortable with it.
True, but we’re talking about associative memory here. It’s not about the fact that alcohol was used to drug her but rather the fact that there was alcohol at that party. And I’m pretty sure this was Joyce’s first time attending a party where people were drinking alcohol. So, in her mind, seeing drunk people and being roofied are very closely linked. That could be enough to trigger PTSD.
Possible. If so, it’s a trigger that needs to be identified and dealt with fast. Joyce cannot expect to go through life without encountering social drinking on a fairly regular basis.
I agree. I really hope at some point – hopefully soon – someone is going to suggest Joyce talk to a professional about what happened to her. It’s only been a few weeks and as we’ve seen with Becky she still has a lot of trouble talking about it, or even going anywhere near the subject, so she probably will reject the idea at first, but I’ve never heard of someone getting past their traumatic experiences without at least some professional help.
Well you need to stretch the goal of your hope, because it already happened:
Roz already suggested to Joyce to go to a professional and gave her an address – Joyce thought it was an invitation to a witch coven!
Wait, I must be missing something from my European point of view where the topic of “underage drinking” is concerned. These guys are what, 17? And they are legally not allowed to drink anything? No strong liquor and also no beer or anything else with an alcohol content above 1%?
Not that I wouldn’t be strongly annoyed if I invited people to a party and they got drunk with clandestine alcohol (or really drunk on vine they brought openly). But this would be because of violation of what I like to have in my private space not because some “oh this is underage drinking, this is bad” thingy.
Don’t get me wrong. I prefer people who do not drink. But in a society with strong habits around social drinking what’s the point in such strict rules for young people above the age of, say, 15 or 16? And why is there such a strong moral stigma?
I wondered about Amazi-girl’s attitude to finding Sal and friends on the parking lot with a bit of beer, …. Why should this be super heroine business?
If she wan’t to go after someone for this, it should be the people selling booze to Billie and Ruth.
The drinking age in the US is set at 21. The social stigma against drinking below that age amazes me too. (I am also European.) I mean, here we’re talking about people who must be above 17 if they’re in college. They’re old enough to be considered responsible enough to drive, but not to drink? It’s beyond me. Not that I’m judging, this is just a cultural thing, I just don’t get it.
And I’ve heard the fines you can get even for just carrying some cans of beer are insanely high (depending on the state of course). If I recall correctly from something I saw in a documentary a few years ago, this teenager (he was probably between 16 and 18 IIRC) got a $500 fine because he was helping an older friend carry some cans of beer. To us Europeans who are allowed to drink beer in most countries around the age of 16, that sounds kind of insane.
Personally, I think the reason for the social stigma is because adults and corporations refuse to show responsible drinking habits in media or in primary/secondary school, so kids here are more privvy to underage drinking and then getting seriously hurt or killed/killing someone else.
Could you expand on that first part about how adults and corporations refuse to show responsible drinking habits? I’m not sure what you mean. About corporations, do you mean ads that they make for alcoholic beverages? And about primary / secondary school, do you maybe mean parents & teachers scaring kids into not drinking by telling them it’s bad and they’ll die? I want to make sure I understand what you’re saying.
I have no idea what they’re talking about, as also an American. Beer ads always have some tag line about drinking responsibly and mostly show people having fun at parties. All sorts of TV shows feature alcohol consumption, sometimes but not at all always too much. In fact something that pisses me off is how many TV shows and movies normalize preying on drunk women, even though intentionally having sex with someone too drunk to say no is pretty obviously (as well as legally) rape.
I do think that restricting it until 21 is silly, and increases the forbidden allure, but then my mom gave me wine at Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years, ever since I was tiny. Small amounts initially, then offering me a glass (just one) as I got older.
I never developed a taste for it, and I don’t drink or really like being around drunk people now that I’m in my 30s.
Keep in mind that 18-year old US kids can be drafted (in theory – we’ll never see a draft again). They can volunteer to join the armed services. They can have sex. They can marry. They can vote. And they’re all still underage for drinking, because learning to drink responsibly is harder and more risky than any of those things???
We have really screwy laws about alcohol consumption in this country. Some of it is echoes from the Prohibition Era, some of it is the fear mongering attitudes of vocal minority of puritanical types, and some of it is just legislative inertia.
Have the laws concerning alcohol changed in the last … 35 years? Or is the difference that in the 80ties nobody thought twice about ignoring them? Or is it a media- or students exchange program warning-induced misconception that in the 80ties, high-school students were already busy with getting drunk and making out in the back of cars as a matter of course and anyone who didn’t was the odd one out?
I don’t quite get why it should be essential for a future US president to have been perfect every moment of his or her life (never mind what the current concept of perfect implies in detail). Either you get someone who is really good at hypocrisy or someone who never learned anything new. What’s the benefit?
IIRC the Federal drinking age came into effect on January 1st, 1985 (I was 18 and legal in my state at the time – imagine my joy). As far as I can tell, the change had about zero effect on underage drinking at the time, and minimal impact to this day. Teens still find ways to drink in high school and college, and they always will. Not everyone does so, but it’s certainly widespread and there’s no real stigma attached to it unless you’re clearly an alcoholic or you do something idiotic (DWI, other crimes) while drunk.
Some areas and subcultures are less tolerant – the school in DoA has a dry campus, for example – but overall the drinking age is a nuisance, not a effective barrier.
18 is the standard age for entering your freshman year. They’re probably all 18. Especially the ones who have had Slipshines, because god forbid someone make p*rn of fictional 17 year olds.
And yeah, US drinking age is 21. State law, but the state laws are made uniform by threat of losing their federal highway funding. (I wonder how the current Supreme Court feels about that.) Given the draft and vote it seems pretty stupid, though it may be correlated with fewer deaths to drunk driving. (Recall most of the US has crap public transit.)
A, so the federal government can pressure individual states by the threat of them losing federal funding for stuff that has no direct relation to the matter at hand?
Germany has had drastic campaigns to reduce the number of alcohol poisening and drunk driving incidents in young people (besides getting more strict in prosecuting places that sell hard liquor to youngster under 18).
I found an English blog post about one of them:http://erikimk.blogspot.de/2010/06/social-marketing-campaign-kenn-dein.html
The blogger is not quite accurate in his translations. The texts above the characters is a prediction what will happen for each of them, not of what they currently think they’ll do. This is one of a series which highlighted different aspects of drinking to much.
It’s not like the campaign wasn’t criticized. There are numerous more-or-less humorous rip-offs with politicans or celebrities.
“A, so the federal government can pressure individual states by the threat of them losing federal funding for stuff that has no direct relation to the matter at hand?”
I think so, though I think in this case there was an arguable relation: “increase your minimum drinking age, to reduce highway deaths, or we don’t give you federal highway funding.” So I don’t know if “no direct relation” is true. Also, in the past couple years the Supreme Court balked at Obamacare’s “expand your Medicaid eligibility or lose all Medicaid subsidies”. But that’s a recent decision, drinking age is decades old.
Maybe worth mentioning that the statistical connections between the 21-year old drinking age and DWI fatalities are really shaky, in large part because traffic enforcement made big pushes to catch drunk drivers starting around the same time. Bit earlier in a lot of places, actually – so the downtick in deaths that came right after the age change may be traced to the impact of better policing that had started a while before.
It has helped, obviously, but it’s not clear that it helped as much as was claimed at first.
Thanks for the facts. So basically, the stigma attached to underage drinking differs widely between different groups. And the jury’s still out on the question of provable results of the ban where DWI is concerned.
I’m all for a stigma on DWI because it puts other people at risk.
Back to DoA:
Probably the dry campus rule was one of the reasons Joyce was allowed to attend the college.
Should I assume Amazi-girls has special issues with alcohol, or was her calling out Malaya at the parking lot just a much-needed excuse to start a fight?
Wait – isn’t she at this party, too?
Yeah, but she didn’t attack or apprehend that one drinker. If anything, she may have saved him from a run-in with campus security. She clearly prefers dealing with vandals, car thieves, bullies, attempted rapists, and the odd cat-in-a-tree scenario. Really don’t think A-G is all that down with going around carding drunks to make sure they’re appropriate targets for vigilante justice.
That said, drinking (whether underage or not) doesn’t have a universal stigma attached to it in the US, but criminal actions while under the influence sure does – DWI in particular, since the drunk drivers tend to have a much higher survival rate than sober victims when there’s an accident. Virtually everyone over the age of 30 or so knows someone who’s had their lives affected by drunk driving – I lost three classmates to it in high school alone. DWI penalties are serious enough that there’s an entire breed of lawyers that specialize in getting people off from DWI/DUI charges – those are one of the types of lawyers that I feel okay making “dead attorney” jokes about.
I’m not sure the US is that serious, relatively. Last time I was in Australia,my sib- & cousin- in laws all made it very clear that you Do Not Drive Close to the Alco Limit because The Cops WILL catch you — they do checkpoints: can pull you over and test — and you WILL be in Trouble.
On the other hand the US is way more uptight about drinking than Germany. I often feel “why can’t I drink a beer here, what’s the problem, IN Germany you could”.
There are a couple rational arguments for having a high drinking age, but they’re undermined by the fact that the law isn’t respected and widely subverted.
First, you have the argument of trying to prevent DWI (now rolled into the category of DUI) among an age group that is already considered to be bad drivers when sober. But, DUI is already illegal for everybody, and we’ve had more success cracking down on drivers who are DUI, along with a PR campaign driving home the point that DUI is not okay.
Second, you have brain development, which doesn’t really finish until about age 25. This is also the main reason for marijuana, which was recently legalized in my state, being 21 and older as well. Alcohol and marijuana both have impacts on brain development, and it’s not a positive impact. But, we’ve had very little success dissuading alcohol and pot use among teenagers, even though it’s illegal. So, criminalization, with the occasional drug crackdown, isn’t really working.
Poor Joyce. Becky is turning to the Dark Side of Science and her hero has feet of clay. They always do, mind.
On the up-side, Dotty does seem to be self-aware enough to realise what’s driving her. Some self-driven autodidacts never do, and it can all go a bit wonky eventually.
That is super inconsiderate of them. It’s Joyce’s party and she actively decided to excluded alcohol because she isn’t comfortable with that and the people she trusts most in the world and who should damn well know better just don’t seem to care.
No she didn’t actively exclude it, they’re underage and on a dry campus, she couldn’t have included it if she wanted to. She didn’t bring the subject up until right now.
The way Dorothy is acting? For sure. I was pre-med and hung out with a lot of other students who all of us were very strict studiers and Dorothy in panel 5 reminds me a lot of myself and my college friends when we would get drunk. Which is not necessarily a good thing *cringes*.
Hehe! I like that Walky is licking Dorothy’s finger.
I was always kind of disappointed that alcohol doesn’t affect me in that way. I don’t lose control or do anything stupid for the most part. I am just my usual self with permagrin and blurred vision. Therefore drinking got rather boring after awhile.
My experience was pretty similar. Some people are happy drunks, some are mean drunks, me, I’m a boringly unchanged drunk. Just don’t ask me to juggle chainsaws under the influence, my coordination goes to hell.
Still, it’s better than being the guy who has a few beers and goes looking for a police car to vandalize.
Now a red solo cup is the best receptacle,
For barbecues tailgates fairs and festivals,
And you sir do not have a pair of testicles,
If you prefer drinking from glass.
A red solos cup is cheap and disposable,
And in fourteen years they are decomposable,
And unlike my home they are not fore-closable,
Freddie Mac can kiss my ass woo!
Red solo cup, I fill you up,
Let’s have a party, let’s have a party,
I love you red solo cup, I lift you up,
Proceed to party, proceed to party.
Now I really love how your easy to stack,
But I really hate how your easy to crack,
‘Cause when beer runs down the front of my back,
Well that my friends is quite yucky.
But I have to admit that the ladies get smitten,
Admiring how sharply my first name is written,
On you with a sharpie when I get to hittin’,
On them to help me get lucky.
Red solo cup I fill you up,
Let’s have a party, let’s have a party,
I love you red solo cup, I lift you up,
Proceed to party, proceed to party!
Now I’ve seen you in blue and I’ve seen you in yellow,
But only you red will do for this fellow,
‘Cause you are my Abbot to my Costello,
And you are the fruit to my loom.
Red solo cup you’re more than just plastic,
You’re more than amazing, you’re more than fantastic,
And believe me that I’m not the least bit sarcastic,
When I look at you and say,
Red solo cup, you’re not just a cup. (No, no, God no)
You’re my, you’re my friend. (Friend, friend, friend, life long)
Thank you for being my friend.
Red solo cup, I fill you up,
Let’s have a party, let’s have a party,
I love you red solo cup, I lift you up,
Proceed to party, proceed to party,
Red solo cup, red solo cup (I fill you up, let’s have a party)
Let’s have a party (Let’s have a party) Let’s have a party
(Red solo cup) Oh red solo cup (I lift you up)
Let’s have a party, proceed to party!
It doesn’t? The only characters for whom drinking is a negative are Ruth and Billie, who are alcoholics. Walky and Dorothy are just being wacky dorks drinking for the first time.
Let me rephrase that: This webcomic doesn’t hate alcohol, and neither does Questionable Content, as an example, since most everyone is a casual, social drinker and Faye alone is the one with a serious dependency on it.
Same goes for Girls With Slingshots. I can’t think of any webcomic that does hate alcohol offhand. Most of the time it’s either never addressed as an issue, or it’s mostly positive as a social element with a few characters having to deal with alcoholism or alcohol-related criminal behavior (most often DWI). Being completely positive or negative about drinking is pretty unrealistic either way.
The only ones I’ve seen that are wholly positive in a “wacky hijinks” kind of way are comedy/parody strips like the PixieTrix stuff (especially Sandra On the Rocks) and Skullkickers. Having a grim story about a character fighting with alcoholism would be pretty out of place in any of those.
Ever read Willis’s earlier work? The whole climactic arc of Roomies! is a messed-up anti-drinking and premarital hanky-panky Aesop.
But, yeah, I don’t see how this is supposed to be alcohol-hating. Billie and Ruth obviously have a problem, but Dorothy and Walky seem to be having fun among friends, and Dorothy in particular is probably the closest thing to an entirely positive role-model character that the comic has.
That is not what I took away from Roomies at all. YMMV, of course. There’s a large difference between being down on alcohol abuse and being an outright Prohibitionist.
I don’t remember who I was going to reply to, but regarding Joyce feeling betrayed and stuff- part of the point of dorm party was for Joyce to have a safe party with Becky, and seeing as alcohol (the atmosphere, mainly) and unknown additions to drinks are probably big triggers for her, it’s probably not safe or friendly feeling now. They don’t probably know that about it; I don’t think Becky gave that info out on the invitation, so it’s not entirely their fault (they do know it would make her uncomfortable, but that’s quite smaller on the scale), but I can see Joyce feeling betrayed, regardless of justification.
What did Billie put in that flask, Everclear? Either it’s something really strong or they all have really low alcohol tolerance. In any case, drunk Dorothy is hilarious.
Loading ...
and then Mike fucked both of them for a dime
…nah, not the same ring to it
…
are they srsly ALL drunk off Billie’s one bottle, tho, what proof is that
mike would never overpay. one nickel, they can figure out how to split it.
Good point.
LMAO
jet fuel.
Jet fuel can’t melt Joyce’s dreams, Debra
I think I may love you…
No proof, just circumstantial evidence.
Is the proof in the pudding?
’cause
pudding wrestling
I don’t think they’re quite drunk enough for that yet. Except Billie. And Becky would probably be up for it anyway.
Proof in the pudding? That’s a great idea. Lets do pudding shots.
Wouldn’t just be the same with pudding around the pool.
Ugh …. crap music (the ‘c’ is silent).
There’s four minutes of my life I’m never going to get back.
Oh wow, pretentious people judging an entire music genre on the internet.
There’s 1 second of my life I’m never going to get back.
I like little bits of all kinds of music myself. I tend to judge based on song rather than genre. :V
To be fair, it’s easy to get prejudiced against rap. Coco has the right idea, though.
Spending a prolonged period in a confined space with Billie can result in a state known as ‘contact drunkenness’.
…hopefully they won’t all run for congress.
I have a strange feeling they’d be the best Congress we’ve had in decades.
They certainly wouldn’t be any worse than what we have now.
That one never worked for me. The Oz characters were well intentioned despite their flaws. Congress is not.
he fuck both of ’em for TWO NICKELSSSSS
http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvfs9mLejB1qeo8kqo1_400.gif
Whiskey seems to be Billie’s drink of choice. Billie pregamed, of course, so if we figure Walky’s as lightweight as his sister, Dorothy has never had a drink before, you could probably get them this drunk off of 2-4 shots each. Now, how the 2 lightweights managed to drink that much with minimal mixers is a mystery, but the bottle isn’t the problem.
Never doubt the combination of sufficiently strong booze and lightweights. Seriously, if I had a nickel for everybody I knew who’d passed out from just a shot I’d have more than Mike’s mom budget.
Or even worse becomes a dangerous idiot on only minor alcohol consumption. On one memorable night,I had a fraternity brother who on literally two beers:
1) tried to pick a fight with a group of Marines & got kicked out of the bar;
2) climbed up into a tree (downtown) because he wasn’t ready to go home [we managed to convince a city cop not to arrest him];
3) refused to get into the elevator when we finally got him back to his dorm [trying to stop us by spreading his arms and legs and yelling he wasn’t ready to go home, which attracted the attention of a campus cop];
4) proceeded to say some really stupid things to the campus cop [culminating in “What are you going to do, arrest me?”]; and
5) got arrested [only time in my life I’ve had to arrange to bail someone out of jail].
As a post-script, he has avoided alcohol for years now since he figured out it leads to stupid behavior on his part.
So this is a long-winded way of saying that Dorothy and Walky have an infinite possibility of stupid drunken behavior available, depending on where Willis wants to take them…
Such people simply make me doubt that they actually needed alcohol in their blood to behave like this…
In cervisia veritas.
Two beers physically can’t make anyone behave like that, unless the person is within the 20-50 pound range. That guy is an example of that psychological effect where you act the way you think drunk people should act without actually being drunk.
Now that I think about it, I realize the name for that is just “the placebo effect”. Way to be long-winded, self!
If the placebo effect has negative rather than positive consequences, it’s more accurate to call it the nocebo effect. I’m not saying that to be pedantic; I just love that word and wish more people used it.
To be pedantic, Kennedy insisted there were only nocebo reactions, no such thing as a nocebo effect. Medical terminology gets fussy about the differences.
Being slightly less nit-picky, it’s much rarer to get an opportunity to use it properly in conversation unless you’re a professional torturer or something. Even here it’s only appropriate if you think acting drunk is a negative effect, which isn’t always true. A false drunk gains social camouflage, the relaxation that comes with actual inebriation, and avoids the potential aftereffects of getting seriously lit – although I suppose you could convince yourself you’ve got a false hangover as well. Now that would be a clear nocebo reaction.
Hmm. There’s another reason you don’t see nocebo much. Spellchecking programs hate the word. Never seen so many red squigglies.
You say that but I have a friend who gets drunk WAY too easily and I don’t think he’s a lightweight or anything. He just can’t hold his liquor.
That’s actually pretty much the definition of a lightweight.
Or, you look at a beer bottle and see “INSTANT EXCUSE FOR DOING ANYTHING” on the label.
There’s a big range of beer potency, but not enough to make anyone larger than Verne Troyer flip out on two cans. I’m working in Utah at the moment, and here in Mormon country even the draft and most bottled beers in bars – not restaurants, bars – is 3.2 hosspiss. You can get some slightly tougher stuff in bottles, or you can go to one of the widely scattered State liquor stores and get stouter beers. When I was a young feller, I could go from Iowa up to Minnesota and get “STRONG” (so labeled on the can) beers that ran 7-8%. I think the toughest beers run 11-12%.
Two cans of the toughest beers in the world, if you slammed them as fast as you could, might make your face tingle, but you sure as hell won’t be drunk. More likely, someone that acts like an asshole after two cans is just an asshole.
And yeah, Utah ain’t the greatest place to tie one on – especially if your liver is case-hardened by decades of pickling, like mine.
Well the top ten of this list might disagree with you, but it’s not really up-to-date: the number one was improved in the meantime and now comes with the name “Snake Venom” and 67.5%!
Are those traditional brewed beers? Because I think 12-13% is the strongest you can achieve by fermentation. I’m pretty sure you have to use distillation to get higher than that.
But then, I’m far more expert at drinking beer than brewing it. After all, I’ve never heard of a really great Man-Story(tm), the kind that usually ends in a trip to the local ER, that started with “Yeah, this one time a bunch of us were sitting around eating salad, when…”
But if I only had a buck for every really great story than began, “Then Pete turned to me and said, ‘Hey, hold my beer and watch this!'”
I mean, Walky barely counts if he’s as much of a lightweight as his sister/alternate dimension self. And who knows about Dorothy’s tolerance.
It’s proof is probably about Billie% – you don’t light this stuff on fire; it spontaneously combusts
Hell, I’m always stunned that *Billie* doesn’t spontaneously combust. As it is, I hope she has a warning label “Keep away from heat and open flame.”
On the plus side, her touch is an excellent disinfectant and she thins many paints on contact.
good thing she doesn’t seem much into makeup; doing her nails’s gotta be a nightmare.
Who says Billie only had one bottle?
After Mike destroys an enemy, he leaves a nickel on each eye.
He calls it ‘dropping a dime on them’.
So THAT’S why he always asks for a nickel.
Oh god, though.
Aww yiss. Adell.
Awesome gravitar.
Dorothy’s probably taken half a sip of Walky’s drink and just thinks she’s drunk
Wow then she’s more of a lightweight than walky.
“…and just thinks she’s drunk.”
Don’t doubt placebos.
Eh, then she’s just weird I guess.
Aren’t we all?
True
Placebo effect is strong. We got some gals drunk on ice tea on a festival. Came to us and asked for something to drink, so out of fun we poured them icetea. Pure icetea.
Wow. Guess I was right yesterday. Surprised Dorothy let herself slip.
Little bit. In hindsight, that last line she said to Billie did have a bit of a “desperate realization that I’m wound way too tight” ring to it. Alcohol isn’t the best way to unwind, but it’ll do as long it doesn’t become a habit.
Hahahhaha Dotty WAS drunk
aaand she’s a fun drunk.
I confess to being mildly surprised. Wonder if Billie poured for her or if she’s been sharing with Walky?
C’mon, Joyce, can’t you see the bubbles over their heads?
Would that mean Becky’s drunk as well?
she assumed someone was blowing bubbles. Or brought a bubble machine.
Lawrence Welk strikes me as being the kind of person that would make the invite list for this party. Or maybe Don Ho.
Wonder how many people have to google those two to get the joke.
Dorothy, there is a line between “not letting yourself relax” and “letting yourself relax too much”.
Do try not to cross it.
I don’t mind if she crosses the line, but assuming nobody forced alcohol down her throat, her attitude somehow did a complete 180 from “I’m typing notes on my phone I’m so busy I’m not allowed to relax” to “Fuck it I’m going to drink alcohol”. That just seems weird to me.
Its not neccesarily a 180- being a good student doesnt neccesarily make you a complete teetotaler.
It makes sense to me. “Mind racing, so many things I need to do! How am I supposed to relax?
Maybe this will take the edge off… it’s a party, after all.”
This. Exactly this.
Dunno, I think she’s often good at compartmentaling. NOW I study, NOW I have fun. Even if she often frets about her scheduling, when she is in a FUN timeslot she usually socializes.
Also, she’s not the first young person to rationalize reasons to be drunk despite it being a bad idea
Also, it’s the up-tight, focused ones that party the hardest when they let themselves party. They’re very focused on partying when they party.
Your not her mom, she’s already her own Damon mom anyway.
*DAMN
You said Damon!!
The last time Dorothy was when she was describing the Besties Eternal drawing.
Is that link not working? Sheesh. Try this one.
I’d forgotten that look of diabolic glee she gets when embarrassing Joe. Yet another reason she’ll be getting my vote for President.
wow Dorothy told Joyce to shut up, she really is becoming the best girlfriend ever
Not to mention she’s her own mom…that line was just out of no where but I love it.
Shes the the sort of girlfriend I’d wish I’d had when I was this age
Smart, understanding, responsible, but also wild and fun when she wants to be, Yahoo I can understand what people see in her.
Not to mention she looks like Gwen Stacy.
Well the slipshine showed her in a completely new light but also didn’t freak out when Walky gets drunk (mostly), gives him space when needed and realises hes a work in progress
Ooh, so, we might get…
Spider-Dotty?
(Sorry I <3 Spider-Gwen)
Dorothy’s not as dead as the Gwen Stacy I remember best, but that’s a good thing. Hear she’s back amongst the living anyway, or maybe not. Marvel continuity makes my head hurt.
we call it the Spidyverse dude
I know quite a few X-Fans who would vigorously dispute that claim. And their books’ continuity makes my head hurt even worse than Spidey. Clone Saga Spidey, even.
Plus, didn’t the editors just blow up the multiverse and most of their characters anyway?
On the one hand I’m laughing my ass off that everyone got drunk without Joyce noticing, on the other hand it’s kind of sad that a major change happened in what was supposed to be her party like this.
Well said.
Oh, this party is just begining. When Sal was leaving Marci and her crush, she said she had other places to be. Gee, I wonder where that could be?
Mm. Yeah. I think with Walky and Dorothy they probably don’t know their own limits, and Billie is an alcoholic, so I’m inclined to cut them some slack (a tiny amount! Bringing alcohol into someone’s dorm without their knowledge during a party that’s supposed to be for them is still awful even if you only meant to get discreetly buzzed), but this is really uncool.
Hopefully it can still be salvaged since Joyce is Queen of the Drunks? But even if she ends up having a good time anyway it would still be a jerk move.
Actually, probably Sarah is about to flip shit and kick everyone out. They brought alcohol into her dorm room while she’s there so they could underage drink and then got super drunk. That’s fucked up on multiple levels and she would have the right to be furious even without her personal history with this kind of thing.
We don’t know that they’re “super drunk.”
I don’t drink heavily and I’ve only seen someone get shitfaced like once, so to me, being visibly drunk is being “super drunk”. My instinct, which I am aware is wrong, is to think of alcohol consumption as coming in three distinct stages: sober -> buzzed -> super drunk. I’ll try to phrase it more clearly next time.
But these are people who’ve never drunk before, of course it hit them super hard.
In fact, they clearly aren’t. They’re still forming sentences and standing upright without holding on to anything. That’s a ways off from “super drunk” and miles from the “call 911 for alcohol poisoning” stage.
Joyce has every right to be pissed. I would want Sarah to defer to Joyce on what to do, but it is also Sarah’s room, so if she wants to throw them out, she’s clear to do so with all the excessive violence necessary.
Meh. The Happy Drunk Couple will just go have sex somewhere (where is Sierra, anyway? No party invite for her?) and pass out. Billie didn’t want to be here anyway and has Ruth to go back to. No violence required, and Joyce can have a reality check about inviting a notorious alcoholic (right, Asma?) to a party and expecting it to stay dry. Maybe it’ll cure her of a bit of the Dorothy hero worship thing too, that’s both unrealistic and unhealthy.
Dunno about cutting an alcoholic some slack, though – they’re quite adept at hanging themselves with it.
…Is Walky licking Dorothy’s finger?
…how did I not notice that ?
Let’s hope he’s not trying to bite it.
I… I had not noticed that.
Yes, yes he is. Walkertons become unpredictable when drunk.
I dunno, horniness seems more or less predictable.
Next on Slipshine, Walky Performs A Fetish.
Also, Walky has amazing tongue-eye coordination for a drunk.
Ish a drunkie dunkie party of teenage moms and the guys who do the do with the diddlydoo.
Go home mr random your drunk
The cobbler elves are stealin’ my caramel. I love my camel.
TIL Drunk Dorothy is best Dorothy.
I was going to say something approximately the same.
Oh, God. drunk people! They’re EVERYWHERE! IT’S LIKE A TERRIBLE ZOMBIE MOIVE! THE WALKING DRUNK!
The Drinking Walk(y)?
How about “28 Shots Later?”
FUND IT
Dawn of the drunks
They die when you shoot them in the mouth. With VODKA!
…I’ll work more on the tagline.
How the hell is that a terrible zombie movie? I’d watch the shit outta that.
The webcomic “Geeks Next Door” ran an arc with that basic premise.
Nice to know Dorothy’s a happy drunk. I was worried that with all the stress she deals with, booze would make her weepy.
It’s also interesting that either Dorothy’s alcohol tolerance is just as bad as the Walkertons, or whatever is in Billie’s flask is enough to bring down an elephant.
Hey, it’s not nice to call Billie and elephant XD
Actually, Billie could probably withstand anything that’s not meant to bring down a dinosaur.
And I’m just now realising this could be taken as a reference to her weight, so I’d like to clarify I just meant it in terms of her having a high tolerance to alcohol.
Weren’t there chicken and cat sized dinos?
Sure, but let’s be honest, when anybody says dinosaur, most people think of T-exes, right?
I was thinking brachiosaurus myself
. And I got that you meant her alcohol tolerance, not her size.
Those are also pretty big so it still holds! *gives you points just because*
Yeah I just wanted to make sure people knew what I meant. Made a similar joke once and got badly reprimanded and when I tried to explain, people didn’t believe me, so now I’m extra cautious, haha.
Btw, I don’t know why but when you said brachiosaurus and I looked it up because I couldn’t remember which one that was, seeing the pictures I had a compulsive desire to have one as a pet. A smaller one of course, like maybe giraffe-sized. Seems like it would be fun to ride it and just, like, travel the land.
Tyrannosaurus rex, Allosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Utahraptor, Velociraptor, Deinoneichus, Stegosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Triceratops, Protoceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, Diplodocus, Parasorolophus, Compsognathus, and Ankylosaurus are my defaults. Sometimes Baryonyx and Spinosaurus slip in too.
Currently, for me, dino = bird, and vice verse, because XKCD.
I kinda want to see Billie suplex an elephant now. Or punch it out, at least.
Well, consider the fact that Billie managed to get herself drunk off of whatever’s in that flask.
I am shocked, Shocked! To find drinking at a college party!
What’s next, premarital hanky Panky?
Won’t anyone think of the college kids!
They are, they think they are drunk.
Your booze, sir.
Comedy owes so much to Casablanca.
I love Dorothy’s expression in panel 4. But that “smile” of hers in the last panel… creepy.
You have a problem with sheepish grins?
Actually, it’s exactly the other way around for me, I like her panel 5 grin, but panel 4 is creepy.
… Wow. Dorothy IS drunk. That’s…quite a shock.
then they all kneel
Dorothy: Praise be you Joyce: Queen of the Drunks!
I stand corrected. Dorothy did get drunk. Remarkably quickly in fact.
Oh shit.
Joyce threatens to tell Ruth.
Then Billie, in a drunken stupor, loudly threatens to tell everyone about Becky.
Not before letting out her own secret.
And Sal returns to the party, because a drama singularity had been formed, drawing in all nearby drama sources.
And where is Sal headed now?
I suppose it’s only a matter of time when Billie’s involved…
All the same, color me surprised that Dorothy’s among the intoxicated.
Me too She’s the one that wants to go to a prestigious school, go into politics, and has pipe dreams of becoming president, so I would expect that she was trying to keep herself squeaky clean with regard to any indiscretions that could be used against her later on.
But I suppose that if Clinton can make America believe that getting a hummer from Monica wasn’t sex or that he smoked marijuana but “didn’t inhale”, then a little underage drinking isn’t even a blip on the radar.
Depends on the definition of”is”…
It really isn’t. Having one drink at a freshman party isn’t going to derail anyone’s political career unless you follow it up with a DWI conviction, and even that might not do it. Plenty of politicos have made “contrition” and “personal struggles” into vote-gathering machines.
Also, Dotty’s drunk at Joyce’s party in her and Sarah’s room. Is there a better example of a safe space in the entire dorm?
“And we Drank Alone/Yeah, with nobody else/’Cause you know when I Drink Alone/I prefer to be by myself!”…
Oh my God, she really didn’t notice it this whole time.
She’s used to people being drunk on God, so it can be hard for her to tell if people are God Drunk or Beer Drunk if they dont have the source with them (bibles vs cans)
So I was right that Dorothy also got drunk. I’m not sure how Joyce will react to learning how many people there are drunk.
I guess those boozles were shared in yesterday’s strip…
I guess you’re right, Opus, and I was wrong. But we never saw Dorothy spiking her drink, and I can’t imagine that Billie’s flask was holding more than a half-pint of the hard stuff. At this rate she’s going to have to head back to her room to reload any time now.
And what happened to your other avatar, with the ‘bent?
I rotate them regularly.
There’s the original, this is the first replacement…
This one is usually Joyce…
And this one used to be Mike, but I don’t remember who it is now.
Opus, before you do that with your gravs you should post a trigger warning for people who might otherwise think that their meds have stopped working … or are working too much ….
(My preceding use of “trigger warning” ina joke was not intended to deride trigger warnings, let alone that which they warn of. I had a vague sense as I wrote it that it might be inappropriate, but my impulsivity pushed it through my filters. Earlier tonight I was reading about new treatments for ‘unlinking’ PTSD triggers, so, yeah….I sometimes make jokes about things which I care about, a lot. A coping mechanism, I suppose. Sometimes I make jokes which I wish I hadn’t.)
This will forever be Dorothy’sgreatest shame.
They’re college freshmen, they got at least 4 more years for way worse shame.
Too right.
(scandal!)
lmao I love Dorothy so much
Dorothy is Steven Universe?
No, Steven has 3 to 5 moms. Dorothy is just lesbians with herself.
So she’s Garnet then.
“On the next slipshine….”
Steven has a bunch of moms, one of whom is him.
Poor Joyce. She tries so hard…
Yeah more mommies
Considering Sarah’s last statement yesterday, she really is the World’s Greatest Detective.
I think we see how she reacts to drunk people at ‘her ‘party’.
If Dorothy has never had a drink before tonight, she would get drunk quick most likely-especially on Billie’s flask. And Walky already proved himself a wuss in this region.
(What tension, Dorothy is the least stressed of the Doa crew, her stress is her ambition: as in comparison to Beckys homelessness, Sarah’s mistrust, Joyce’s ‘everything’, et al.) Dorothy has it easier than most imo.
Poor Joyce, this is supposed to be a party with people she trusts, and now look. Can’t trust a soul can you?
It was even hinted that the reason some people are drinking is because of Joyce’s kind of party being not what they agree with. Which is kind of whatever, but doing something like this is kinda dickish.
Joyce might end up drinking. Joyce has said before she objects to underage drinking, not on religious grounds, but on legal grounds. Joyce considers Dorothy to be a role model who has a lot of respect for the law. With those factors considered, I could still see several things stopping Joyce from drinking:
-Willis retcons Joyce’s morals
-Sarah refuses to let Joyce drink
-Joyce decides she doesn’t want to get drunk in her own room
-Billie runs out of alcohol
-Ruth breaks this shit up
I think you misspelled ‘femurs’ in that last one.
I can’t imagine she would. It goes against her everything.
Not to my recollection.
Why would she want to, though? Deciding there’s nothing wrong with something is a far cry from deciding you want to try it.
Yeah, now that Sarah has returned, she ain’t about to let Billie get Joyce drunk.
That. A good chunk of Sarah’s Billie-hate comes from her being a substance abuser, which must ring back to her former roomie troubles.
Is… is Walky licking Dorothy’s finger?
Yes. Yes he is…
The world owes Phineas and Ferb so much…
I mean, tbh this was kind of shitty of them to do.
They knew Joyce didn’t want to be reminded of that party. That party had drunk people. Drunk people could trigger her PTSD. Remember–it hasn’t been that long since the party where she was drugged and Ryan attempted to rape her.
Little things can set off PTSD. As a person with PTSD, I can say that men trigger mine. More specifically being alone with men. It’s not the individuals I mind, it’s what they make me remember. I still have a hard time being sexually active with anyone. This includes kissing. It makes me remember. I think that this is probably true for Joyce–small things make her remember. Alcohol is probably a big factor for her. Remember, she had been hanging out with a bunch of drunk people before Ryan pulled her away.
Sorry. I’m just annoyed that they would do this. I know they weren’t thinking. I know this wasn’t on their radar. But it strikes me as something that should’ve been. *sigh* I just hope she’s okay.
I agree. I’m just hoping the surprise of seeing Dotty drunk of all people will cancel out any PTSD from being triggered. : /
That’s entirely possible, and I hope it doesn’t happen. Honestly, Joyce having bout of feeling unsafe and seeing Ryan everywhere have almost seemed random though (unless I’ve been blind to certain triggers throughout the comics). If anything, Joyce getting drunk and losing full control of her actions and cognition might be a trigger since she was drugged. But again, I really hope that doesn’t happen since her admission to Becky is what brought this whole party on.
As far as I recall, her seeing Ryan everywhere was usually triggered by her being alone outside.
I was thinking much the same re triggering. Please Dotty, don’t be drunk-oblivious enough to try to push a drink on Joyce. Please don’t.
That would be bad, yes.
I think you’re right, but realistically, what are the odds that college freshmen know how to handle PTSD or how complicated triggers can be? If they did then why isn’t Joyce being treated(as far as we know) at any rate?
We have internet, so I’d expect them to be better at it than most older demographics. Of course, specialists would be best.
Not only that, but Joyce’s assault took the form of people sneaking things into her drinks without her realizing. And now everyone around her is sneaking things into their drinks without her realizing. It’s really shitty, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the “spiking the soda” aspect of tonight upsets her more than anything else.
[SPOILERS]
Dorothy have you been watching Steven Universe?
I can’t decide if I should be happy for Dorothy that she’s being easier on herself or disappointed that she’s getting drunk at Joyce’s dorm party of all places or worried at how quickly she seems to be changing her standards for herself and where that could be headed.
She’ll freak out about it the moment she sobers up
And how is that a good thing?
oddly enough, I feel like this is going to be a moderately important moment for Joyce. Something along the lines of “even these Totally Not Entirely Evil people get drunk. and its… fine?”
She was actually enjoying the drunk people at the first party she went to, when they were playing Settlers of Canaan (and she knew they were drunk).
See here: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/queen/
Of course, that was before being drugged.
I had forgotten this! Maybe Joyce has, too.
That’s part of the problem. Everything was fun at that other party until Ryan happened. This starts to be to similar for her comfort
Settlers of Catan. It’s the secular version of Settlers of Canaan.
I don’t think she would make the connection between drunk and evil. It could trigger PTSD but you have to remember that Ryan was sober. No drunk person has come after her in the strip so far.
Can’t wait for the shenanigans to start.
But, but, but, Dorothy is supposed to be perfect and stuff
That’s exactly why I’m interested in this development. I know I’m in a minority here, but Dorothy’s always been TOO perfect for me. I would probably like her IRL, but as a protagonist she’s only “meh” for me.
This will taint her from Joyce’s POV, but if anything it makes me like her more. Dorothy doing schoolwork on her phone at a party was scary nuts to me. Dorothy realizing that she needs to relax sometimes and taking a drink from Billie or Walky, that’s a lot more human. Not the best choice ever, but drinking a little now and then is not a problem unless it becomes the only way you can relax.
Honestly, in a hypothetical 30 years from now where Dorothy is running for president, it would hurt her image far more if it came out that she never drank in college because she wanted to be president someday. Maybe that’s not fair, but drinking on occasion before hitting 21 would make her “normal”. Obeying a pointless, illogical law nobody respects out of some obsession with a rigid definition of success makes her seem inhumanly ambitious.
I would be put off if it came out during this election that a candidate knew at the age of 18 that they wanted to be the leader of the free world, and was already planning their rise to the top. Of course, the drinking age thing wouldn’t be a scandal right now, since the drinking age wasn’t stupidly raised to 21 until 1984.
Wait… Sal is leaving Marcie and Malaya alone together… meaning she might be coming back. We’re going to have a conflict between Sal and Amber after all, aren’t we?
Well, no, because of the underaged drinking Amber leaves just before Sal returns.
Amber leaves, but comes back as Amazi-Girl to bust the party.
I really think you’re overestimating how much A-G cares about underage drinking. It was a convenient excuse for jumping Sal and pals in the parking lot, but we’ve never seen her busting other people for it despite the fact that any campus is going to have drunks reeling around pretty regularly. I could see her intervening if it looked like there was an alcohol-induced assault, vandalism, or DWI incident about to take place, but three drunks in a dorm room party where everyone is walking home? Nah.
She reminded someone it’t a dry campus, and be grumbled and dealt with his booze. I don’t recall how, but it was in that series of comics following one of her patrols.
I really think you’re overestimating how serious I was about that comment.
She was contemplating it here:
“Amazi-Girl should respond consistently to the exact same mis-
demeanor, shouldn’t she?”
Amber/A-G puts herself in some nasty ethical positions, doesn’t she? As she points out it is a misdemeanor, whereas just being a vigilante superhero is probably a felony, as are the beatings she’s handed out.
Ah yes, the classic ’80s sitcom “My Two Damn Moms.”
Is it just me… or did they all seem to get fershnickered REALLY fast? Clearly, none can handle their hooch.
Except Billie, but I bet she’s finished off the rest of the flask by now.
Billy has much higher tolerance to booze than the rest of the gang.
Combined.
Walky and Sal have a very low alcohol tolerance. And non-drinkers have no resistance.
And Dorothy is an inexperienced drinker and lightly built, which doesn’t help your tolerance any.
Another theory: since their booze is all coming from one source, who is known to be an uber-alcoholic, I suspect the stuff Billie’s got in her flask is super-potent. Like, straight vodka or something. Any lightweight taking even an adulterated drink of that would get drunk FAST.
I owe Benjy an apology when he/she shows up here again.
You were right in yesterday’s comments thread.
That is the sort of statement that would only make sense if you are drunk.
Now… For some reason, I think that we’re about to get a revelation about Dorothy that, once again, she’d never let out sober. Was she an emancipated minor or an orphan? I get that from ‘I’m my own Mom’.
We’ve met her parents.
But if I recall correctly, wasn’t Dorothy adopted in the Walkyverse? We’ve met her parents, but do we know if they’re her *birth* parents?
I asked Willis on his tumblr. The Keeners are her birth parents in this continuity.
Don’t get too close, Joyce – Waly might lick you next!
In her dreams… no. In his dreams… no, it just didn’t work
In another universe
Nailed it
Also, it’s kind of weird that Dorothy seems to be drunker of the two between her and Walky.
Walky is licking her finger. She’s just cracking jokes about her own uptightness. I don’t think the evidence points toward Dorothy being drunker.
You need to be drunk to lick your girlfriend’s finger?
Man, I’ve been doing it all wrong.
No. No, you do not. Although I usually prefer more privacy for that sort of thing. It’s kind of rude when they’re in mid-conversation with someone else.
Well, crap ^^u
Dorothy has been WAITING for Joyce to notice. Look at that grin. omanomanoman she’s gonnna be SO DISAPPROVING this is GREAT.
This is gonna go so downhill, so soon
I’m expecting several strips where Joyce explains to random passerbys that she isn’t talking to Dorothy at the moment whilst Dorothy is standing there.
Seriously, Dorothy has spat on Joyce here: She knows Joyce’s views and to then ignore that in Joyce’s personal space? Not cool, Dotty; not cool.
I don’t think it’s that bad. Joyce doesn’t drink, but she doesn’t seem overly disapproving of those who do. Remember when she was queen of the drunks? She even told he-who-shall-not-be-named that she didn’t have any real problem with drinking, she just didn’t want to do it while she was underaged.
Joyce hasn’t expressed her views on this subject before, aside from being underage.
I think the concern is that drunks will be a Ryan flashback trigger for Joyce, not that she’s actively anti-drinking as such. Not sure I accept that as a likely occurrence, but it’s certainly possible.
Dotty is her own mother? Is that anything like Fry being his own grandfather?
Can Dorothy defeat the brains?
If she can, that would make becoming POTUS that much easier.
Just came back to leave a comment on this page, but I completely forgot whatever it was I was going to say when I saw Walky licking dorothy. Goddamn that’s adorable.
Better hope nobody puts this on MyFace, Dotty. I’m thinking underage drinking would be worse for your presidential ambitions than cuddling your boyfriend.
The whole point of the party is that everybody there is trustworthy.
*coughBilliecough*
I believe you’ve identified the flaw in Joyce & Becky’s plan.
Bronchitis?
Under the circumstances, Dorothy herself isn’t trustworthy. I’ve seen people do way stupider things when drinking than post pictures of it on the Internet. Especially when they don’t have any experience with alcohol.
Also, Mike was invited to this party.
I’ve already posted this above, but underage drinking would not be bad for anyone’s presidential campaign. I can’t prove that, of course – it’s not an issue right now because the drinking age wasn’t stupidly raised to 21 until 1984, but once we do get to a time where candidates were under 21 after 1984, it will be the opposite of a scandal that they, like a large majority of Americans, ignored a counterproductive and non-respected law on occasion. And the drinking age might very well have been changed back to 18 by that point – I doubt it, but one would hope.
Poor Joyce. It’s like they’re trying to break her.
The whole purpose of friendship is to stretch our social boundaries. Weak friendships can’t handle the stretching, and break. Strong ones survive it, and grow as a result.
This situation makes me feel very uncomfortable, and I’m usually a drinker. It’s like, they can’t enjoy a party thrown for Joyce without being drunk? Given Joyce’s close call at a previous party with alcohol, you’d think they’d be more considerate. I would never drink at a party if I thought the host wouldn’t be comfortable with it.
She was roofied at the last party while drinking pop, alcohol had nothing to do with her trauma.
True, but we’re talking about associative memory here. It’s not about the fact that alcohol was used to drug her but rather the fact that there was alcohol at that party. And I’m pretty sure this was Joyce’s first time attending a party where people were drinking alcohol. So, in her mind, seeing drunk people and being roofied are very closely linked. That could be enough to trigger PTSD.
Possible. If so, it’s a trigger that needs to be identified and dealt with fast. Joyce cannot expect to go through life without encountering social drinking on a fairly regular basis.
I agree. I really hope at some point – hopefully soon – someone is going to suggest Joyce talk to a professional about what happened to her. It’s only been a few weeks and as we’ve seen with Becky she still has a lot of trouble talking about it, or even going anywhere near the subject, so she probably will reject the idea at first, but I’ve never heard of someone getting past their traumatic experiences without at least some professional help.
Well you need to stretch the goal of your hope, because it already happened:
Roz already suggested to Joyce to go to a professional and gave her an address – Joyce thought it was an invitation to a witch coven!
Three Moms, actually. If Dorothy is two moms, her ACTUAL mom would make that three. Unless there are more moms we don’t know about…
I’m surprised Walky and Dotty aren’t making out in the corner … next to Dina and Becky …
I can dream.
Wait, I must be missing something from my European point of view where the topic of “underage drinking” is concerned. These guys are what, 17? And they are legally not allowed to drink anything? No strong liquor and also no beer or anything else with an alcohol content above 1%?
Not that I wouldn’t be strongly annoyed if I invited people to a party and they got drunk with clandestine alcohol (or really drunk on vine they brought openly). But this would be because of violation of what I like to have in my private space not because some “oh this is underage drinking, this is bad” thingy.
Don’t get me wrong. I prefer people who do not drink. But in a society with strong habits around social drinking what’s the point in such strict rules for young people above the age of, say, 15 or 16? And why is there such a strong moral stigma?
I wondered about Amazi-girl’s attitude to finding Sal and friends on the parking lot with a bit of beer, …. Why should this be super heroine business?
If she wan’t to go after someone for this, it should be the people selling booze to Billie and Ruth.
The drinking age in the US is set at 21. The social stigma against drinking below that age amazes me too. (I am also European.) I mean, here we’re talking about people who must be above 17 if they’re in college. They’re old enough to be considered responsible enough to drive, but not to drink? It’s beyond me. Not that I’m judging, this is just a cultural thing, I just don’t get it.
And I’ve heard the fines you can get even for just carrying some cans of beer are insanely high (depending on the state of course). If I recall correctly from something I saw in a documentary a few years ago, this teenager (he was probably between 16 and 18 IIRC) got a $500 fine because he was helping an older friend carry some cans of beer. To us Europeans who are allowed to drink beer in most countries around the age of 16, that sounds kind of insane.
Personally, I think the reason for the social stigma is because adults and corporations refuse to show responsible drinking habits in media or in primary/secondary school, so kids here are more privvy to underage drinking and then getting seriously hurt or killed/killing someone else.
Could you expand on that first part about how adults and corporations refuse to show responsible drinking habits? I’m not sure what you mean. About corporations, do you mean ads that they make for alcoholic beverages? And about primary / secondary school, do you maybe mean parents & teachers scaring kids into not drinking by telling them it’s bad and they’ll die? I want to make sure I understand what you’re saying.
I have no idea what they’re talking about, as also an American. Beer ads always have some tag line about drinking responsibly and mostly show people having fun at parties. All sorts of TV shows feature alcohol consumption, sometimes but not at all always too much. In fact something that pisses me off is how many TV shows and movies normalize preying on drunk women, even though intentionally having sex with someone too drunk to say no is pretty obviously (as well as legally) rape.
I do think that restricting it until 21 is silly, and increases the forbidden allure, but then my mom gave me wine at Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years, ever since I was tiny. Small amounts initially, then offering me a glass (just one) as I got older.
I never developed a taste for it, and I don’t drink or really like being around drunk people now that I’m in my 30s.
Keep in mind that 18-year old US kids can be drafted (in theory – we’ll never see a draft again). They can volunteer to join the armed services. They can have sex. They can marry. They can vote. And they’re all still underage for drinking, because learning to drink responsibly is harder and more risky than any of those things???
We have really screwy laws about alcohol consumption in this country. Some of it is echoes from the Prohibition Era, some of it is the fear mongering attitudes of vocal minority of puritanical types, and some of it is just legislative inertia.
Have the laws concerning alcohol changed in the last … 35 years? Or is the difference that in the 80ties nobody thought twice about ignoring them? Or is it a media- or students exchange program warning-induced misconception that in the 80ties, high-school students were already busy with getting drunk and making out in the back of cars as a matter of course and anyone who didn’t was the odd one out?
I don’t quite get why it should be essential for a future US president to have been perfect every moment of his or her life (never mind what the current concept of perfect implies in detail). Either you get someone who is really good at hypocrisy or someone who never learned anything new. What’s the benefit?
IIRC the Federal drinking age came into effect on January 1st, 1985 (I was 18 and legal in my state at the time – imagine my joy). As far as I can tell, the change had about zero effect on underage drinking at the time, and minimal impact to this day. Teens still find ways to drink in high school and college, and they always will. Not everyone does so, but it’s certainly widespread and there’s no real stigma attached to it unless you’re clearly an alcoholic or you do something idiotic (DWI, other crimes) while drunk.
Some areas and subcultures are less tolerant – the school in DoA has a dry campus, for example – but overall the drinking age is a nuisance, not a effective barrier.
18 is the standard age for entering your freshman year. They’re probably all 18. Especially the ones who have had Slipshines, because god forbid someone make p*rn of fictional 17 year olds.
And yeah, US drinking age is 21. State law, but the state laws are made uniform by threat of losing their federal highway funding. (I wonder how the current Supreme Court feels about that.) Given the draft and vote it seems pretty stupid, though it may be correlated with fewer deaths to drunk driving. (Recall most of the US has crap public transit.)
A, so the federal government can pressure individual states by the threat of them losing federal funding for stuff that has no direct relation to the matter at hand?
Germany has had drastic campaigns to reduce the number of alcohol poisening and drunk driving incidents in young people (besides getting more strict in prosecuting places that sell hard liquor to youngster under 18).
I found an English blog post about one of them:http://erikimk.blogspot.de/2010/06/social-marketing-campaign-kenn-dein.html
The blogger is not quite accurate in his translations. The texts above the characters is a prediction what will happen for each of them, not of what they currently think they’ll do. This is one of a series which highlighted different aspects of drinking to much.
It’s not like the campaign wasn’t criticized. There are numerous more-or-less humorous rip-offs with politicans or celebrities.
“A, so the federal government can pressure individual states by the threat of them losing federal funding for stuff that has no direct relation to the matter at hand?”
I think so, though I think in this case there was an arguable relation: “increase your minimum drinking age, to reduce highway deaths, or we don’t give you federal highway funding.” So I don’t know if “no direct relation” is true. Also, in the past couple years the Supreme Court balked at Obamacare’s “expand your Medicaid eligibility or lose all Medicaid subsidies”. But that’s a recent decision, drinking age is decades old.
Maybe worth mentioning that the statistical connections between the 21-year old drinking age and DWI fatalities are really shaky, in large part because traffic enforcement made big pushes to catch drunk drivers starting around the same time. Bit earlier in a lot of places, actually – so the downtick in deaths that came right after the age change may be traced to the impact of better policing that had started a while before.
It has helped, obviously, but it’s not clear that it helped as much as was claimed at first.
Thanks for the facts. So basically, the stigma attached to underage drinking differs widely between different groups. And the jury’s still out on the question of provable results of the ban where DWI is concerned.
I’m all for a stigma on DWI because it puts other people at risk.
Back to DoA:
Probably the dry campus rule was one of the reasons Joyce was allowed to attend the college.
Should I assume Amazi-girls has special issues with alcohol, or was her calling out Malaya at the parking lot just a much-needed excuse to start a fight?
Wait – isn’t she at this party, too?
Amazi-Girl has once told someone to take his alcohol somewhere else.
She also attacked Sal and her friends with the justification that they were drinking, but that was mostly about finding an excuse to beat Sal up.
Yeah, but she didn’t attack or apprehend that one drinker. If anything, she may have saved him from a run-in with campus security. She clearly prefers dealing with vandals, car thieves, bullies, attempted rapists, and the odd cat-in-a-tree scenario. Really don’t think A-G is all that down with going around carding drunks to make sure they’re appropriate targets for vigilante justice.
That said, drinking (whether underage or not) doesn’t have a universal stigma attached to it in the US, but criminal actions while under the influence sure does – DWI in particular, since the drunk drivers tend to have a much higher survival rate than sober victims when there’s an accident. Virtually everyone over the age of 30 or so knows someone who’s had their lives affected by drunk driving – I lost three classmates to it in high school alone. DWI penalties are serious enough that there’s an entire breed of lawyers that specialize in getting people off from DWI/DUI charges – those are one of the types of lawyers that I feel okay making “dead attorney” jokes about.
I’m not sure the US is that serious, relatively. Last time I was in Australia,my sib- & cousin- in laws all made it very clear that you Do Not Drive Close to the Alco Limit because The Cops WILL catch you — they do checkpoints: can pull you over and test — and you WILL be in Trouble.
On the other hand the US is way more uptight about drinking than Germany. I often feel “why can’t I drink a beer here, what’s the problem, IN Germany you could”.
There are a couple rational arguments for having a high drinking age, but they’re undermined by the fact that the law isn’t respected and widely subverted.
First, you have the argument of trying to prevent DWI (now rolled into the category of DUI) among an age group that is already considered to be bad drivers when sober. But, DUI is already illegal for everybody, and we’ve had more success cracking down on drivers who are DUI, along with a PR campaign driving home the point that DUI is not okay.
Second, you have brain development, which doesn’t really finish until about age 25. This is also the main reason for marijuana, which was recently legalized in my state, being 21 and older as well. Alcohol and marijuana both have impacts on brain development, and it’s not a positive impact. But, we’ve had very little success dissuading alcohol and pot use among teenagers, even though it’s illegal. So, criminalization, with the occasional drug crackdown, isn’t really working.
Poor Joyce. Becky is turning to the Dark Side of Science and her hero has feet of clay. They always do, mind.
On the up-side, Dotty does seem to be self-aware enough to realise what’s driving her. Some self-driven autodidacts never do, and it can all go a bit wonky eventually.
3rd and 4th panel Joyce looks kind of adorable. Must be the sleeves-covering-the-hands thing. Gets me every time. *fangirls*
That is super inconsiderate of them. It’s Joyce’s party and she actively decided to excluded alcohol because she isn’t comfortable with that and the people she trusts most in the world and who should damn well know better just don’t seem to care.
It takes at least that to bear with the playlist.
But Dorothy likes the playlist.
Does she? The only comment she’s made on it is wondering why a Boyz II Men song was on it.
No she didn’t actively exclude it, they’re underage and on a dry campus, she couldn’t have included it if she wanted to. She didn’t bring the subject up until right now.
Do people really act this out of character when they’re drunk?
The way Dorothy is acting? For sure. I was pre-med and hung out with a lot of other students who all of us were very strict studiers and Dorothy in panel 5 reminds me a lot of myself and my college friends when we would get drunk. Which is not necessarily a good thing *cringes*.
Yeah, the tighter wound a person is the more the tend to go off script when they’re lit or high.
I was half expecting Walky to say ‘I AM A WABBIT’ in the third panel.
Ruth : “So, how did that party I sent you to chaperone go”
Billie : “I got them all drunk”
Ruth : “…damnit Billie”
All according to plan.
That’s it, Dorothy can never be president. She’ll have to settle for being a Senator of Massachusetts.
Please. She’s just practicing her Nixon imitation. The guy used to make drunk calls on the Kremlin hotline just to intimidate them.
Bush Jr. Was an actual (sober) alcoholic, I think her career can handle getting drunk once in college.
She’s being compared to Nixon and George W Bush…those are two political kisses of death.
If LBJ can drunk dial a tailor to tell him about his balls, I think Dorothy will be okay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zNMo8kl7Ac
Everyone commenting: *ignores the huge double standard women and people of color are subjected to in politics*
This partying is out of control!
Drunk Dotty is best Dotty. We should find a way to keep her like this all the time.
Also, the facial expressions on that 4th panel are hilarious – I literally cannot look at it without a fit of giggles.
Same
Hehe! I like that Walky is licking Dorothy’s finger.
I was always kind of disappointed that alcohol doesn’t affect me in that way. I don’t lose control or do anything stupid for the most part. I am just my usual self with permagrin and blurred vision. Therefore drinking got rather boring after awhile.
My experience was pretty similar. Some people are happy drunks, some are mean drunks, me, I’m a boringly unchanged drunk. Just don’t ask me to juggle chainsaws under the influence, my coordination goes to hell.
Still, it’s better than being the guy who has a few beers and goes looking for a police car to vandalize.
Does that mean we can ask you to juggle chain saws when you’re sober?
Sure, but when I’m sober I know better than to even try something like that.
Now a red solo cup is the best receptacle,
For barbecues tailgates fairs and festivals,
And you sir do not have a pair of testicles,
If you prefer drinking from glass.
A red solos cup is cheap and disposable,
And in fourteen years they are decomposable,
And unlike my home they are not fore-closable,
Freddie Mac can kiss my ass woo!
Red solo cup, I fill you up,
Let’s have a party, let’s have a party,
I love you red solo cup, I lift you up,
Proceed to party, proceed to party.
Now I really love how your easy to stack,
But I really hate how your easy to crack,
‘Cause when beer runs down the front of my back,
Well that my friends is quite yucky.
But I have to admit that the ladies get smitten,
Admiring how sharply my first name is written,
On you with a sharpie when I get to hittin’,
On them to help me get lucky.
Red solo cup I fill you up,
Let’s have a party, let’s have a party,
I love you red solo cup, I lift you up,
Proceed to party, proceed to party!
Now I’ve seen you in blue and I’ve seen you in yellow,
But only you red will do for this fellow,
‘Cause you are my Abbot to my Costello,
And you are the fruit to my loom.
Red solo cup you’re more than just plastic,
You’re more than amazing, you’re more than fantastic,
And believe me that I’m not the least bit sarcastic,
When I look at you and say,
Red solo cup, you’re not just a cup. (No, no, God no)
You’re my, you’re my friend. (Friend, friend, friend, life long)
Thank you for being my friend.
Red solo cup, I fill you up,
Let’s have a party, let’s have a party,
I love you red solo cup, I lift you up,
Proceed to party, proceed to party,
Red solo cup, red solo cup (I fill you up, let’s have a party)
Let’s have a party (Let’s have a party) Let’s have a party
(Red solo cup) Oh red solo cup (I lift you up)
Let’s have a party, proceed to party!
Ugh, why does every webcomic hate alcohol? It’s good stuff, and like 90% of the time doesn’t ruin a good time.
It doesn’t? The only characters for whom drinking is a negative are Ruth and Billie, who are alcoholics. Walky and Dorothy are just being wacky dorks drinking for the first time.
Let me rephrase that: This webcomic doesn’t hate alcohol, and neither does Questionable Content, as an example, since most everyone is a casual, social drinker and Faye alone is the one with a serious dependency on it.
Same goes for Girls With Slingshots. I can’t think of any webcomic that does hate alcohol offhand. Most of the time it’s either never addressed as an issue, or it’s mostly positive as a social element with a few characters having to deal with alcoholism or alcohol-related criminal behavior (most often DWI). Being completely positive or negative about drinking is pretty unrealistic either way.
The only ones I’ve seen that are wholly positive in a “wacky hijinks” kind of way are comedy/parody strips like the PixieTrix stuff (especially Sandra On the Rocks) and Skullkickers. Having a grim story about a character fighting with alcoholism would be pretty out of place in any of those.
Ever read Willis’s earlier work? The whole climactic arc of Roomies! is a messed-up anti-drinking and premarital hanky-panky Aesop.
But, yeah, I don’t see how this is supposed to be alcohol-hating. Billie and Ruth obviously have a problem, but Dorothy and Walky seem to be having fun among friends, and Dorothy in particular is probably the closest thing to an entirely positive role-model character that the comic has.
That is not what I took away from Roomies at all. YMMV, of course. There’s a large difference between being down on alcohol abuse and being an outright Prohibitionist.
It was Willis’s original intent. He got better, but still.
But even Willis doesn’t like that anymore.
I don’t remember who I was going to reply to, but regarding Joyce feeling betrayed and stuff- part of the point of dorm party was for Joyce to have a safe party with Becky, and seeing as alcohol (the atmosphere, mainly) and unknown additions to drinks are probably big triggers for her, it’s probably not safe or friendly feeling now. They don’t probably know that about it; I don’t think Becky gave that info out on the invitation, so it’s not entirely their fault (they do know it would make her uncomfortable, but that’s quite smaller on the scale), but I can see Joyce feeling betrayed, regardless of justification.
Love the grin in the fourth panel. Looks like Dorothy is a fun drunk.
What did Billie put in that flask, Everclear? Either it’s something really strong or they all have really low alcohol tolerance. In any case, drunk Dorothy is hilarious.
It appeared to be brown when she was pouring it into the Solo cups, so it couldn’t be Everclear or high-proof vodka. Maybe Bacardi 151 rum?
Mum’s the word. ^_^
……Good point, Dorothy. Well made.
Looking forward to drunk Danny, drunk Ethan, and drunk Amber hooking up for some MMF action. I’d subscribe to slip shine for that.
So, Dorothy is a Paradox Space clone?
I won’t believe President Dorothy is her own mom unless I see her long form birth certificate.
Walky licking Dorothy’s finger? Totally drunk me, lol
Your flaw is logicless
Wow. Took me almost a year to realize that Walky was licking Dorothy’s finger in the last panel.