I traded roommates with a pair of besties like that when they found out they were in the same dorm… they ended up hating each other and “breaking up” =p
“You get to share a room with Joyce! And sleep next to her! And share a bathroom with her! And I bet you have access to her hairbrush and can take as much of her hair as you want! Lucky!”
Sarah just wants to brush the hair of her secret Chiyo-chan plushie. This head-canon developed from a comment referencing the similarity between one of the character’s outfits plus wild speculation is now official for me.
Is it GAY to want to hangout with your bestest girlfriend all the time until you form an attachment and sense of propriety over them?…..don’t answer that.
Other than the fact that the experiences his character has on Louie end up being stand up material (mostly for the real life version, sometimes for the fictional version in the show).
Well, it also ruined the life of that one soup shop owner. I’d call that significant. Not to mention the terms and expressions “yadda yadda”, “mansierre” (or the “bro”), “king of the castle”, “master of your domain”, “Festivus”, “serenity now”, “shrinkage”, “man hands”, “close talker”, and, as referenced earlier in this very comment section, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
To pop culture, I’d say that’s pretty significant.
Was proud of the fact I never saw a minute of that show during its original run. (Saw some by accident during its syndication.) Closest I came during the original run was when a co-worker gushed, “Each character on that show is like someone in this office!” I replied, “If you think that’s a selling point, you’re mistaken.”
Having a cast of dislikable people was pretty new at the time. Nowadays there are shows that does what Seinfeld was doing better, but at the time it premiere it was fresh. Its not funny anymore because we’re used to it. Thats my theory anyway.
New to Cable at least. It doesn’t help that many people don’t really enjoy dislikeable casts in the first place (I usually quickly stop caring about them and just wince at awkwardness), so Seinfeld gets double hatred on our part for starting a trend.
a4bi has a point. A lot of what made Married….With Children so watchable for me back then was laughing AT all the wall-to-wall jackasses’ self-inflicted tragedies and mediocrity. Invader ZIM has the same quality, save you actually care about Gaz.
As someone who tends to suffer vicarious embarrassment, OH GOD NO. That show, and shows like it, just make me cringe.
/The american version of “The Office” graduates to “Oh god somehow this is manifesting as physical pain” every time Michael Scott is on screen.
Don’t think so. Becky and Joyce were just BFFs, in a platonic way — and Becky figures that in four weeks (more or less) of sharing a room that Joyce and Sarah would be besties as well.
Remember; she’s a naive, home-schooled fundie herself, attending a Christian college 45 miles northeast of Indy, and probably hasn’t had her world view shaken quite so much as Joyce has in the same time.
Truuuuuuue…but, remember, she’s a naive, hone-schooled fundie herself, and although she MIGHT have had less experience than Joyce has at this point, she’s FINALLY on her own. And it’s college. No matter what school you go to, you’re on your own. And you’re free to find yourself. All aspects of yourself at that.
Just sayin’…I’m keeping that door of possibilities open.
There is actually a play about something similar to this. It’s called “The Children’s Hour” and was written by Lillian Hellman back in the 1930s.
A child spreads the rumor that two of the teachers at an all-girls boarding school are having relations with each other. Both are women. Their reputations are destroyed.
They have a conversation with each other about everything that’s happened, and one of them (Martha) admits her feelings for the other (Karen). Karen does not reciprocate. She tells Martha to go lie down. Martha kills herself. Play ends. (She is Pagliacci. Funny joke.)
I know it would be Becky dying in the situation I’ve just referenced, but that’s what your comment made me think of. I am very tired.
Pretty sure Becky’s chances with Joyce are better than Joyce’s chances with Dorothy. Not sure about Joyce’s chances with Billie or Sal’s hair and/or motorcycle.
Sal’s motorcycle totally has a thing for Joyce. It makes heart-shaped donuts in the Wal-Mart parking lot with ‘JB + SM’ inside while Sal’s getting beer.
Seinfeld had adult humour, drinking, and sex. And Jews. (I hate to add that last part, but you’d be surprised how many born-again evangelists are uncomfortable with Jews, even in a non-religious setting like Seinfeld)
remember when Joyce found out her new best friend was an atheist and she just started hiccuping ? I can already see her repeating this scene except she’ll probably be like foaming at the moth.
Becky seems to be much more aware of the world in a way Joyce isn’t, despite her seemingly even stricter background. (I bet Joyce’s parents monitor her cell phone, but at least she has one) I like her casual take on things though. She definitely knows Joyce is a cloud cuckoolander too.
Maybe… liberal house hold doesn’t mean talks about sex toys. It usually means answering questions as they come. Maybe Joyce would never have asked about sex toys.
I’ll admit, I’d recently found myself wondering if Becky’s opposition to Joyce dating Joe was really because he was a non-Christian, rather than just because he wasn’t Becky.
Nothing definitive, but today’s strip offers a tiny modicum of support for that conjecture.
well in a anime anyone can be part of your harem, like you start with the normal human girl then you have another normal human girl, then a half cat demon girl then a fucking alien then a robot with big boobs and a tsundere fairy.
so the lesson here is japans into some weird shit and there’s probably an actual anime out there like the one I just described
I know there’s at least one fairly well-known one with several normal humans, a half bird demon, at least two Martians, a robot, several tsunderes, and some beings that could be called fairies… does that count?
“Hi, I see you are dating a gay person of incompatible orientation. Might I suggest trying dating a gay person of compatible orientation? A ginger one? Who looks a little like Candycorn? Now, if you’d really like, I could try to help you locate such a person… It may be difficult but these are the sacrifices that I am willing to make for you.”
I can’t the only person on the face of this planet who has honestly never had romantic thoughts for any person of my same sex/gender, but you’d never know it from the comments on this strip.
Never heard of the “Kinsey Scale” so I searched it on Google and took one of the online tests. You are correct; score = 0 = “exclusively heterosexual”.
I read “Dumbing of Age” first of all because I liked the concept of the story line; secondly because I appreciated the artwork; and tertially (is there such a word?) because I thought Joyce was just too fuckin’ cute!!
I am also a fan off and read “Blindsprings”, “Carol” ( by John Troutman) and “xkcd” regularly, and before Rick Smith (another Ohioan) discontinued it, “Yehuda Moon”.
I had never taken the test before, so I did now.
It gave me an F.
Not sure why, I figure myself as a pretty clear 5.
Women usually, men unusually/group sex.
I’m a female on the asexual spectrum. Exclusively heteroromantic. I have never been attracted to nor had feelings for any female I have ever met. I am 24 and about to finish up my Master’s degree and spend much of my free time on the Internet. It’s not for lack of exposure to a variety of types of people!
I’ve read all of Shortpacked! and Dumbing of Age, and I’ve skimmed a bit of the other Walkyverse stuff.
I’d heard about Shortpacked! and decided to give it a try. I found myself checking it regularly, and if I didn’t check it every update, I would go back and get caught up from where I’d left off. Eventually I just got tired of kidding myself and went back and read the whole dang thing. I started on DoA in the first two or three weeks of premiering.
Still not at all gay. I don’t really understand why this is such a weird concept for people. It honestly ticks me off when people start throwing around statements that say most people are actually bisexual. My sexuality exists. T_T I appreciate Ultra-Car for this reason–and presumably Carla in this universe!
Simply put, the primary portion is a number between 0 and 10. Never perfect 0, never perfect 10.
Then there’s the prefix letter- either P (pink, for girls) or B (blue, for boys- no, I don’t understand why it isn’t just F and M), declaring a preference one way or the other.
Then there’s the lovely A, to indicate asexuality.
To use a few people I know as examples . . .
P6A (asexual, but has a middling to strong preference for the company of females)
P9.8 (extremely strong sexual preference for women)
B1.2 (slight sexual preference for men)
The Grayson Scale runs off the assumption that everyone has, at the very minimum, one exception to their usual sexual preference- which is why 10s aren’t accepted format. It also runs off the assumption that even the most equal-opportunity bisexual has the tiniest preference one way or another- making 0 off-limits.
The higher the number, the greater the preference for the given sex. Simple, no?
“The Grayson Scale runs off the assumption that everyone has, at the very minimum, one exception to their usual sexual preference- which is why 10s aren’t accepted format. It also runs off the assumption that even the most equal-opportunity bisexual has the tiniest preference one way or another- making 0 off-limits.”
“Everyone is a little bi” sounds like MA3. http://www.ma3comic.com/strips-ma3/enough_fun_for_a_week
I swear there are only two characters with an on-screen defined sexuality who are either 0 or 6 on the kinsey scale. I will leave deciding which two as an exercise for the reader (part of the fun of the MA3 community are the periodic discussions of who is on the ends of the scale, so far there is one character that everyone agrees is a 6)
Fuck that. “Everyone is bi” pisses me off almost as much as “no one is bi”. Fuck Seinfeld too, but there’s nothing wrong with being bi; I’m just not. I have never in my entire life found another male even the slightest bit attractive. I’m genuinely baffled by the idea that anyone could. I don’t even understand why women find men attractive, though I’m grateful that most of them do (and I’m entirely willing to grant that some don’t at all), and that some have found me specifically attractive. And it pisses me off when people won’t take my word for it.
I don’t know about that; I won’t testify to my own score here but I think Willis writes funny characters and amusing plot. I think Ruth and Carla are enjoyable and somewhat relateable even if you don’t share their respective sexualities.
I imagine a good portion of the readership (if not most) is 0-1 on Kinsley or at least strongly identifying as Heterosexual.
“I think choosing between men and women is like choosing between cake and ice cream. You’d be daft not to try both when there are so many different flavors.”
-Bjork
You’re not. I’m totally straight to the point that I don’t even recognize “attractive guy” even as a dispassionate objective matter. But that doesn’t mean that Becky is! Or Joyce.
Shipping two characters of the same gender doesn’t require that the shipper be gay.
It only requires that the shipper be attracted to the gender of the two characters.
This is why most lesbian porn is targeted at straight men, and most yaoi is targeted at straight women.
I-it doesn’t even require that? Like, you can think a couple is cute or should be together or whatever without it being a sexual attraction- based thing?
Not only that, but shipping isn’t only about same-sex couples at all. Shipping is just thinking two characters (or people in real life that you know, or whoever, really) would make a cute couple, and wanting them to date.
I don’t think that’s a requirement at all. My wife shipped Ruth and Billie, and she’s straight. In fact, I don’t think I know anybody that ships characters in things based solely on their own personal sexuality.
Doesn’t require this either. People who are probably not bi ship guys with girls all the time, and you can want a romance to happen between people even if they both aren’t really on your radar. Just adds a little fun when you *also* think everyone involved is cute.
Shipping doesn’t require attraction at all. It’s all about the romance. Or the story. I’m straight cis male and about as 0 on the Kinsey scale as it gets, but lesbian porn doesn’t interest me any more than solo porn does. That said, when I’m shipping a couple, it’s because they make a cute couple, because they’ve built up the romance and deserve to be together or because the drama, the tragedy, or the triumph of the story demands it.
And allies, too. (Go Marriage Equality!) http://opusthepoet.wordpress.com/the-gay-marriage-challenge/
Still waiting for the first person to convince me that marriage equality will have any effect on my marriage, much less any negative effect. I take that back, same-sex marriage is beneficial to my marriage because when other people are happy together it makes me feel good, and when I feel good I share that with my wife.
now you see there are ones that people seem to take purely seriously and there are some that are purely a joke, then their are one’s that are in between and that’s where this one is.
I’m not so much shipping it as I am just taking a deep breath through my nose, throwing my hands up in the air, and saying, “OKAY. YEAH. WHATEVER. SURE.”
Man, even though I am all about lesbians, she could really just love Joyce in a really strong platonic way. Living a sheltered life with parents constantly on your back as a teenage girl is tough enough, maybe she saw the small window she had into a world she understood in Joyce and really loves being around her because of it.
It could also obviously be unrealized romantic love but my thoughts still stand.
No yeah, you totally have a point. We don’t know, as of yet. It was just my interpretation on a first impression basis. (and also maybe I recognized my (younger) self a little bit in some of the things she’s saying here, maybe I’m projecting^^)
… I can’t tell if Willis is really going to have Becky falling for Joyce, or if he’s just screwing with us. I mean, it’s so obvious that the girl has it bad, therefore it’s going to turn out to be something completely different, right?
“Joyce, I have something to tell you: I’ve secretly been Joe your whole life.”
“Joyce, there’s a bomb in the building, and it’s in your pants.”
“Joyce, I don’t actually like Toto, that’s why I had to break up with Dora.”
“Joyce, my ex killed a demon fridge, now I’m the head of a ninja clan.”
“Joyce, I got absorbed by the Plot Hole, now I’m an ex child star who remakes movies. And also a muppet.”
I think that if Joyce and Becky, being “fundies”, think that sex will send them straight to Hell: just what do they think a homosexual affair will do to them? Send them screaming straight for home, or under the bed or wherever. I seriously doubt she thinks Joyce is a lesbian.
Yeah, Sarah has shown that she does feel protective of Joyce, but she does not make any effort to baby her though-she tells her what’s what. Loved it when she caught Joyce with her vibrator stuck up her nose.
(When people tell me God did something to me, like send me a roomie, I tell them no, the registry office did.)
That’s what pisses me off sbout “God’s works”: “God did (everything good)!” “What about (bad thing)?” “Oh, that was you, you sinned.”
I came to really respect a fictional religious people (the followers of Akhran in the Rose of the Prophet trilogy) because they praised their god for all the good things he did, but ALSO cursed him when he did something bad or neglected them. No “I will keep praising my Lord who punished me just to win a bet” Job bullshit.
Was Becky allowed to do anything fun which didn’t involve Jesus in some way? I have heard of people like that. Like anything remotely fun not related to Jesus is automatically sinful and being a ‘part of the world’
I like Becky. Feel sorry for her. But I guess Anderson affords her some freedom even as a christian college- which can only be a good thing.
Becky seems sweet and like she can actually be fun to me. Her parents on the other hand I don’t think I’d want any where near me. We haven’t seen them so maybe that’s unfair but just from second hand knowledge they seem kind of terrible.
If you haven’t done so already, turn your clocks back by one hour.
And then when you vote on Tuesday, make sure you don’t turn the country back by fifty years.
I mean, props for reminding people to set their clocks back, and can completely understand wanting to discourage political apathy, but maybe this is not the place 🙂
Also, not all of us are in the USA. Or where-ever you be speaking from, just to add a delicious degree of irrelevance.
That said, with added irony, my comment is even more obtuse.
Everyone seems to have missed the fact that Becky has 1. Cut class 2. Gone on an obviously unauthorized road trip of at least 100 miles 3. Has no obvious plan for how or where she is going to live and sleep for at least tonight 4. Immediately started playing a forbidden game and 5. Seems completely at ease with her situation.
I think this means much has already changed with Becky, and these will be surprises for Joyce very soon.
Okay, re-reading the comic should have been done before i posted…Becky’s classes were “cancelled” so that point is not correct, but I stand by the others and the conclusion. Becky has some drama to infuse into the situation.
I don’t know about Anderson, but you can buy hoodies and other logo gear at my alma mater’s bookstore and in just about any color you want, including the “official” colors.
I suspect Becky is gonna be one of those kids-of-fundie-parents who rebel, and rebel spectacularly, possibly with disastrous results. Joyce, on the other hand, is depicted so far a re-examining her basic assumptions while still remaining mostly herself. IIRC, the Joyce-Becky backstory has Joyce seeing Becky as a strong anchor, but the best possible route for the story I imagine is on the way is: Joyce will be Becky’s strength.
That freakout we are all waiting for… I think the trigger might be when Becky understands just how much crap Joyce is going through.
“So, your room-mate is not the bestie she should be, the relationship with your boyfriend is a scam, you are surrounded by people who looks down on you and in some cases harasses you, the one friend you actually do get along fine with is planning to move soon… and you almost got raped. Tell me Joyce, is it worth it? Wouldn’t you be more happy if you came back with me to Anderson university?”
So, in today’s poll I answered “I should click the ‘first strip’ button” for the obvious joke. You know, just placing a comma after “first” and finishing with a finger snap and a “Yeaaaah.” Should I be sued?
Since when did really liking your friend automatically lead to boning?
Despite Walky’s jokes and how much I would enjoy the Slipshine spinoff there’s no sign Joyce is actually into Dorothy or any other girl.
Likewise while Becky may have “come out” in a the two months since she left home I’m finding it a little unlikely from both and in and out of universe level. For starters, she knows that Joyce is both very pious and unlikely to be even a little hetroflexible. Give their upbringing I think Becky would try and hide it from Joyce if they were.
And from the out of universe POV I’m not sure what adding her in as a gay character would introduce. Joyce has already shown she doesn’t reject people for such things. Dorothy is the perfect example since she literally went toe-to-toe with her parents for her, certainly a braver thing than I have ever done.
I have a bad feeling that this is going to lead to Becky copying Joyce’s hairstyle and outfits, then sleeping with Ethan before killing him with a stiletto heel to the eye.
Either that or she starts latching onto Sarah and copying her hairstyle and outfits, much to Joyce’s disappointment, before sleeping with Jacob and killing Ethan with a stiletto heel to the eye.
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I traded roommates with a pair of besties like that when they found out they were in the same dorm… they ended up hating each other and “breaking up” =p
The best way to lose a friend is to work or live with him/her…
Saw this happen *so often*.
I live with one of my BFFs that is ALSO my business partner.
Both of us are aware that we are a huge exception to the norm, considering we’re still alive and talk to each other on a daily basis.
Or date them…that one doesn’t work out so well either…sigh.
This is unfortunatly so true…
WOW she’s gay
Yeah she is
You’re right, she does seem very cheerful. ^_^
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
+1
Is that in internets or likes? I need to know for my records.
Darn it. Now we REALLY need a like button.
So now someone’s going to have to break it to Becky that Joyce has a new “friend of Dorothy”.
…Huh. +1.
+1, as in Facebook-style +1 Friend?
I upvote you all.
Except you.
You know who you are.
Awww, man!
No I don’t!
THIS IS WHY WE NEED UNITS OF CURRENCY.
The unit of currency would be the Ampere.
Seconds, actually. The less seconds from now, the more current the event is.
I see what you did there.
Well, at least she doesn’t have man hands…
“You get to share a room with Joyce! And sleep next to her! And share a bathroom with her! And I bet you have access to her hairbrush and can take as much of her hair as you want! Lucky!”
So you’re saying Becky should actually be jealous of Sal
Becky wants to brush Joyce’s hair who wants to brush Sal’s. Whoms hair does Sal want to brush? How big is the cycle chain of desire?
I don’t think Sal want’s to brush anyone’s hair including her own so…not that far..
Hairbrushes – they’re not just for brushing hair any more.
Sarah just wants to brush the hair of her secret Chiyo-chan plushie. This head-canon developed from a comment referencing the similarity between one of the character’s outfits plus wild speculation is now official for me.
And all of this hair combined and found shelter in the women’s shower.
Rising out of the abyssmal depths of the drains as HAIRTHULHLU!
Jason wants no part in this.
On the other end, is there someone who longs to brush Becky’s hair?
Jesus
Is it GAY to want to hangout with your bestest girlfriend all the time until you form an attachment and sense of propriety over them?…..don’t answer that.
No, but I’m sure it helps.
great another sheltered girl who need to be deconstructed into the real world, who is also probably not aware she’s a lesbian.
I think you’re confusing “lesbian” with “codependent”.
She can be both!
she is both,wait…are we talking about Joyce or Becky?
Yes.
Because emotional attachment and intimacy ALWAYS implies sexual attraction…
That’s what internet fandom tells me.
How RUDE.
Anyone who doesn’t ship it is so far in denial that they’re knee-deep in Lake Victoria.
Nicely geographic! I like it!
Or very clingy. I’m actually quite curious how things have been going over in Beckyville before she finally paid Joyce a visit…
Well Seinfeld is the devil’s comedy after all. 😛
What does that make Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Literally Satan.
Literary Satan?
Alliterating Satan.
A Littering Satan
Re-lettering Satin
Relearning Latin.
Reburning Latin
Re-lettering Satan.
It is now spelled Hercule.
+1 for @Dragon Nataku
Relatin’ Satan.
Analytical statement.
Seinfeld is worth the grounding.
But it’s so boring. They’re just horrible people doing nothing.
Well, it is a show about nothing…sort of.
So is Lucky Star, it’s basically Seinfeld but with anime schoolgirls.
I’ll be honest. Anime schoolgirls are inherently more interesting than bland observations from a dated comedian.
True.
But neither are funny.
They CAN be.
It’s a show about how a comedian gets his material. Louis C. K.’s show is probably closer to being about nothing.
Other than the fact that the experiences his character has on Louie end up being stand up material (mostly for the real life version, sometimes for the fictional version in the show).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ighs0QHK4Tg
True — but they managed to make it last for nine seasons. *That’s* about the only significant thing about that show.
You think that’s the only thing significant about Seinfeld?
Well, it also ruined the life of that one soup shop owner. I’d call that significant. Not to mention the terms and expressions “yadda yadda”, “mansierre” (or the “bro”), “king of the castle”, “master of your domain”, “Festivus”, “serenity now”, “shrinkage”, “man hands”, “close talker”, and, as referenced earlier in this very comment section, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
To pop culture, I’d say that’s pretty significant.
Was proud of the fact I never saw a minute of that show during its original run. (Saw some by accident during its syndication.) Closest I came during the original run was when a co-worker gushed, “Each character on that show is like someone in this office!” I replied, “If you think that’s a selling point, you’re mistaken.”
Seven seasons.
It was the nineties. Hating everything & everyone/being hateable was a thing. (Daria did it better)
There were actually very few hatable characters in Daria. They were all flawed but most had some kind of redeeming qualities.
Yep. They did jaded nineties attitude and stereotypes while still giving characters like the Airheaded Cheerleader (Brittany) moments to shine.
You just wanted to set everyone on Seinfeld on fire.
Man, that would have been the best episode of Seinfeld ever!
“The one where everyone’s on fire”
Well, there was that episode where they set Newman on fire.
That’s kind of the point though?
Having a cast of dislikable people was pretty new at the time. Nowadays there are shows that does what Seinfeld was doing better, but at the time it premiere it was fresh. Its not funny anymore because we’re used to it. Thats my theory anyway.
Ah, the old Seinfeld Isn’t Funny Anymore trope.
Seinfeld wasn’t funny to begin with.
But they had laugh tracks and everything except a live studio audience.
New to Cable at least. It doesn’t help that many people don’t really enjoy dislikeable casts in the first place (I usually quickly stop caring about them and just wince at awkwardness), so Seinfeld gets double hatred on our part for starting a trend.
That was exactly its appeal.
._.
a4bi has a point. A lot of what made Married….With Children so watchable for me back then was laughing AT all the wall-to-wall jackasses’ self-inflicted tragedies and mediocrity. Invader ZIM has the same quality, save you actually care about Gaz.
I’d rather be grounded for watching Dora than Seinfeld.
You *are* talking about Dora the Explorer, right?
Dora the Explorer is amazing and I wouldn’t punish anyone for watching it, especially adults. We adults need to lighten up, yo.
You mean sweating to the oldies?
Yes
I actually have to wonder what constitutes “grounding” to Becky, at this point
Being locked in her room with nothing but the internet?
Not being allowed to see Joyce!
Wow, apparently a lot of people really don’t like Seinfeld.
It must suck growing up without a sense of humour. 😉
Know what? I’m going to give this a like, because I thought I was the only one in the room that enjoyed it lol
I don’t know. Seinfeld seemed to have done well despite that handicap.
As someone who tends to suffer vicarious embarrassment, OH GOD NO. That show, and shows like it, just make me cringe.
/The american version of “The Office” graduates to “Oh god somehow this is manifesting as physical pain” every time Michael Scott is on screen.
Something tells me that we’re in store for some…revelations about Becky.
Don’t think so. Becky and Joyce were just BFFs, in a platonic way — and Becky figures that in four weeks (more or less) of sharing a room that Joyce and Sarah would be besties as well.
Remember; she’s a naive, home-schooled fundie herself, attending a Christian college 45 miles northeast of Indy, and probably hasn’t had her world view shaken quite so much as Joyce has in the same time.
Truuuuuuue…but, remember, she’s a naive, hone-schooled fundie herself, and although she MIGHT have had less experience than Joyce has at this point, she’s FINALLY on her own. And it’s college. No matter what school you go to, you’re on your own. And you’re free to find yourself. All aspects of yourself at that.
Just sayin’…I’m keeping that door of possibilities open.
Truth! I discovered a lot about myself, even at a fundy college(I’m not even religious anymore)!
That’s what we all thought about Danny too.
My god Bill, you read my mind. That’s what I think too.
no no really you can have back.
She’s got a back! It’s what she’s laying on right now!
Becky’s got back!
Oh. My. God. Becky.
Look at her back.
Aw c’mon, Sarah. You love Joyce and you know it.
just like you love living with a annoying ass family member.
Whoa there Beck you sound in love. Too bad it won’t work out.
How can Becky hope to compete with Dotty, Billie’s chest or Sal’s hair and motorbike?
Kill Billie and Sal, stitch their chest and scalp over her own hacked-up body, and become some sort of horrible Fundiestein?
Fundiestein? Hmm, I like it. Not sure what to do with the concept, but I like it.
She tells Joyce about her Crush on her. Joyce dies.
Pretty sure Joyce is already dead as of yesterday
There is actually a play about something similar to this. It’s called “The Children’s Hour” and was written by Lillian Hellman back in the 1930s.
A child spreads the rumor that two of the teachers at an all-girls boarding school are having relations with each other. Both are women. Their reputations are destroyed.
They have a conversation with each other about everything that’s happened, and one of them (Martha) admits her feelings for the other (Karen). Karen does not reciprocate. She tells Martha to go lie down. Martha kills herself. Play ends. (She is Pagliacci. Funny joke.)
I know it would be Becky dying in the situation I’ve just referenced, but that’s what your comment made me think of. I am very tired.
Pretty sure Becky’s chances with Joyce are better than Joyce’s chances with Dorothy. Not sure about Joyce’s chances with Billie or Sal’s hair and/or motorcycle.
Sal’s motorcycle totally has a thing for Joyce. It makes heart-shaped donuts in the Wal-Mart parking lot with ‘JB + SM’ inside while Sal’s getting beer.
So what you’re saying is if Dorothy ever develops Billie’s chest, and starts wearing her hair like Sal and riding her motorcycle…
Joyce will explode?
You say that like it’s a bad thing…
Well if she explodes in the wrong place she might damage something important.
Or obsessed. Those two aren’t always the same thing.
What am I saying? It’ll never work
Ok, now that’s just plain insanity. Its just friggin Seinfeld.
Seinfeld had adult humour, drinking, and sex. And Jews. (I hate to add that last part, but you’d be surprised how many born-again evangelists are uncomfortable with Jews, even in a non-religious setting like Seinfeld)
Also it was terrible.
That too.
My boss at the time refused to watch it because it was “too Jewish”. And he wasn’t even a born-again; just southern.
“I know my place.” Aw, that makes me sad. I wonder how she’ll feel about Dorothy, if she’s jealous of Sarah.
remember when Joyce found out her new best friend was an atheist and she just started hiccuping ? I can already see her repeating this scene except she’ll probably be like foaming at the moth.
mouth
Dorothy is kinda the Mothra of this ensemble. . .
Becky seems to be much more aware of the world in a way Joyce isn’t, despite her seemingly even stricter background. (I bet Joyce’s parents monitor her cell phone, but at least she has one) I like her casual take on things though. She definitely knows Joyce is a cloud cuckoolander too.
See, Joyce isn’t just repressed. She’s also a doof on top of that. You can’t blame EVERYTHING on the lord.
Like, really, even if she’d grown up in the most liberal household, Joyce would still be a naive doof. That’s just who she is.
She might be naive, but if she grew up liberal, at least Sarah wouldn’t have viewed the vibesaber.
Maybe… liberal house hold doesn’t mean talks about sex toys. It usually means answering questions as they come. Maybe Joyce would never have asked about sex toys.
Willis, did you just Yadda Yadda grounding?
I’ll admit, I’d recently found myself wondering if Becky’s opposition to Joyce dating Joe was really because he was a non-Christian, rather than just because he wasn’t Becky.
Nothing definitive, but today’s strip offers a tiny modicum of support for that conjecture.
I don’t think so, because when Joyce called her about holding hands with Ethan, she wasn’t upset.
The grounding would have been worth it. That’s a great episode!
…this is going to all end in tears when either Becky or Joyce realizes that Becky is gay for Joyce, right?
We can hope.
Man, how’s she gonna feel when she sees Joyce’s relationship with Dorothy? Or Sal?
“Joyce can I be a part of your harem too? Like those anime made by the devil?”
well in a anime anyone can be part of your harem, like you start with the normal human girl then you have another normal human girl, then a half cat demon girl then a fucking alien then a robot with big boobs and a tsundere fairy.
so the lesson here is japans into some weird shit and there’s probably an actual anime out there like the one I just described
I know there’s at least one fairly well-known one with several normal humans, a half bird demon, at least two Martians, a robot, several tsunderes, and some beings that could be called fairies… does that count?
There is a manga that has a vampire girl, a werewolf whose gender changes from time to time, an alien girl and a normal human, all as part of a harem.
That sounds awesome. I invoke rule 35!
I just want to see the artwork for the Tsundere Fairy.
It’s Tinkerbell with Black hair to remain legally distinct. From both Peter Pan and the drunk fairy from Dragon’s Crown.
I guess there’s Negima? With magic and robots and vampires… Pani Poni Dash MIGHT be a platonic exemple? Not sure… and there’s… Yumeria? With Neneko!
There’s an AU fanfic in which Joyce ends up the mistress of an all-female harem. And if there isn’t, someone is writing it right now ^^
Not the worst part. What’s gonna happen when Becky meets ETHAN?
Oh man, that would be the worst. Like, “You’re dating a gay person, and it’s not even in the way that makes sense??”
“Hi, I see you are dating a gay person of incompatible orientation. Might I suggest trying dating a gay person of compatible orientation? A ginger one? Who looks a little like Candycorn? Now, if you’d really like, I could try to help you locate such a person… It may be difficult but these are the sacrifices that I am willing to make for you.”
I can’t the only person on the face of this planet who has honestly never had romantic thoughts for any person of my same sex/gender, but you’d never know it from the comments on this strip.
No, I’m with you there. I is a straight fellow, through and through.
Maybe you’re one of those guys who would score a zero on the Kinsey Scale, a tad unusual for someone who reads Willis’ webcomics.
Never heard of the “Kinsey Scale” so I searched it on Google and took one of the online tests. You are correct; score = 0 = “exclusively heterosexual”.
I read “Dumbing of Age” first of all because I liked the concept of the story line; secondly because I appreciated the artwork; and tertially (is there such a word?) because I thought Joyce was just too fuckin’ cute!!
I am also a fan off and read “Blindsprings”, “Carol” ( by John Troutman) and “xkcd” regularly, and before Rick Smith (another Ohioan) discontinued it, “Yehuda Moon”.
After you said there was a test online I googled it myself.
“F The test failed to match you to a Kinsey Type profile. Either you answered some questions wrong, or you are a very unusual person.”
*sigh* ^<__<^;;
I had never taken the test before, so I did now.
It gave me an F.
Not sure why, I figure myself as a pretty clear 5.
Women usually, men unusually/group sex.
I’m a female on the asexual spectrum. Exclusively heteroromantic. I have never been attracted to nor had feelings for any female I have ever met. I am 24 and about to finish up my Master’s degree and spend much of my free time on the Internet. It’s not for lack of exposure to a variety of types of people!
I’ve read all of Shortpacked! and Dumbing of Age, and I’ve skimmed a bit of the other Walkyverse stuff.
I’d heard about Shortpacked! and decided to give it a try. I found myself checking it regularly, and if I didn’t check it every update, I would go back and get caught up from where I’d left off. Eventually I just got tired of kidding myself and went back and read the whole dang thing. I started on DoA in the first two or three weeks of premiering.
Still not at all gay. I don’t really understand why this is such a weird concept for people. It honestly ticks me off when people start throwing around statements that say most people are actually bisexual. My sexuality exists. T_T I appreciate Ultra-Car for this reason–and presumably Carla in this universe!
Bah. Kinsey scale.
What you need is GRAYSON SCALE!
Simply put, the primary portion is a number between 0 and 10. Never perfect 0, never perfect 10.
Then there’s the prefix letter- either P (pink, for girls) or B (blue, for boys- no, I don’t understand why it isn’t just F and M), declaring a preference one way or the other.
Then there’s the lovely A, to indicate asexuality.
To use a few people I know as examples . . .
P6A (asexual, but has a middling to strong preference for the company of females)
P9.8 (extremely strong sexual preference for women)
B1.2 (slight sexual preference for men)
The Grayson Scale runs off the assumption that everyone has, at the very minimum, one exception to their usual sexual preference- which is why 10s aren’t accepted format. It also runs off the assumption that even the most equal-opportunity bisexual has the tiniest preference one way or another- making 0 off-limits.
The higher the number, the greater the preference for the given sex. Simple, no?
“The Grayson Scale runs off the assumption that everyone has, at the very minimum, one exception to their usual sexual preference- which is why 10s aren’t accepted format. It also runs off the assumption that even the most equal-opportunity bisexual has the tiniest preference one way or another- making 0 off-limits.”
Everyone’s a little bit bi — sounds like Avenue Q and “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”.
“Everyone is a little bi” sounds like MA3.
http://www.ma3comic.com/strips-ma3/enough_fun_for_a_week
I swear there are only two characters with an on-screen defined sexuality who are either 0 or 6 on the kinsey scale. I will leave deciding which two as an exercise for the reader (part of the fun of the MA3 community are the periodic discussions of who is on the ends of the scale, so far there is one character that everyone agrees is a 6)
Ugh, I know right. And especially as someone who is bi, I hate when people say the “well, everyone is somewhat bi” thing; it erases bisexuality.
I am interested in more details about this scale, but my google-fu is failing me. Help?
Fuck that. “Everyone is bi” pisses me off almost as much as “no one is bi”. Fuck Seinfeld too, but there’s nothing wrong with being bi; I’m just not. I have never in my entire life found another male even the slightest bit attractive. I’m genuinely baffled by the idea that anyone could. I don’t even understand why women find men attractive, though I’m grateful that most of them do (and I’m entirely willing to grant that some don’t at all), and that some have found me specifically attractive. And it pisses me off when people won’t take my word for it.
Named after Dick “Nightwing” Grayson, who everybody is at least a little bit attracted to.
That was my guess also.
(or, as the motto goes, it’s never just you.)
I don’t know about that; I won’t testify to my own score here but I think Willis writes funny characters and amusing plot. I think Ruth and Carla are enjoyable and somewhat relateable even if you don’t share their respective sexualities.
I imagine a good portion of the readership (if not most) is 0-1 on Kinsley or at least strongly identifying as Heterosexual.
“I think choosing between men and women is like choosing between cake and ice cream. You’d be daft not to try both when there are so many different flavors.”
-Bjork
You’re not. I’m totally straight to the point that I don’t even recognize “attractive guy” even as a dispassionate objective matter. But that doesn’t mean that Becky is! Or Joyce.
Shipping two characters of the same gender doesn’t require that the shipper be gay.
It only requires that the shipper be attracted to the gender of the two characters.
This is why most lesbian porn is targeted at straight men, and most yaoi is targeted at straight women.
I-it doesn’t even require that? Like, you can think a couple is cute or should be together or whatever without it being a sexual attraction- based thing?
I can’t stop talking like this?
Not only that, but shipping isn’t only about same-sex couples at all. Shipping is just thinking two characters (or people in real life that you know, or whoever, really) would make a cute couple, and wanting them to date.
I don’t think that’s a requirement at all. My wife shipped Ruth and Billie, and she’s straight. In fact, I don’t think I know anybody that ships characters in things based solely on their own personal sexuality.
Doesn’t require this either. People who are probably not bi ship guys with girls all the time, and you can want a romance to happen between people even if they both aren’t really on your radar. Just adds a little fun when you *also* think everyone involved is cute.
Shipping doesn’t require attraction at all. It’s all about the romance. Or the story. I’m straight cis male and about as 0 on the Kinsey scale as it gets, but lesbian porn doesn’t interest me any more than solo porn does. That said, when I’m shipping a couple, it’s because they make a cute couple, because they’ve built up the romance and deserve to be together or because the drama, the tragedy, or the triumph of the story demands it.
Wow, media that features queer people attracts a lot of queer people as an audience, what a shocking revelation 😉
And allies, too. (Go Marriage Equality!) http://opusthepoet.wordpress.com/the-gay-marriage-challenge/
Still waiting for the first person to convince me that marriage equality will have any effect on my marriage, much less any negative effect. I take that back, same-sex marriage is beneficial to my marriage because when other people are happy together it makes me feel good, and when I feel good I share that with my wife.
You’ve seriously never had a momentary fleeting sense of attraction for someone of the same sex? Huh.
I bet you also don’t believe asexuals when they tell you they feel no sexual attraction at all.
My gravatar could raise her eyebrow and smile smugly too! She just doesn’t want to, that’s all…
She keeps on squinting one eye to see if the other one will go up. It isn’t working. (but it’s hilarious)
…
….
Part of me is annoyed at people randomly saying they ship something every strip but… fuck Im shipping this very hard right now.
Pretty sure Becky is, too!
Yeah, there is definitely something at least a *wee bit* more than platonic here, at least on Becky’s end. This will be interesting to watch.
As in she wants Joyce and Sarah to get together, or her and Joyce to get together? Or Sarah and her to get together?
Joe would have a choice word for exactly this kind of situation…
“YES!” ?
Pretty sure it’s “Now Kissssss”
Been a while since we saw that line actually.
Actually, I think the word would be “THREESOME!”
now you see there are ones that people seem to take purely seriously and there are some that are purely a joke, then their are one’s that are in between and that’s where this one is.
I’m not so much shipping it as I am just taking a deep breath through my nose, throwing my hands up in the air, and saying, “OKAY. YEAH. WHATEVER. SURE.”
^ This.
I don’t do shipping, it’s a huge waste of time.
If it can’t get there on its own two feet, it wasn’t meant to be there anyway.
I agree, fiction should write itself or it’s just ridiculous.
Sarah in panel three, we all know what that unspoken thought bubble says.
No, no. Tell us please.
😉
Sarah in the third panel looks like she’s thinking “Does she know how gay she sounds?”
Yeahhhh, Becky has it bad for Joyce. This will end in pain.
Man, even though I am all about lesbians, she could really just love Joyce in a really strong platonic way. Living a sheltered life with parents constantly on your back as a teenage girl is tough enough, maybe she saw the small window she had into a world she understood in Joyce and really loves being around her because of it.
It could also obviously be unrealized romantic love but my thoughts still stand.
No yeah, you totally have a point. We don’t know, as of yet. It was just my interpretation on a first impression basis. (and also maybe I recognized my (younger) self a little bit in some of the things she’s saying here, maybe I’m projecting^^)
If only all the ladies who went to religious educational facilities came back like Sal…
… I can’t tell if Willis is really going to have Becky falling for Joyce, or if he’s just screwing with us. I mean, it’s so obvious that the girl has it bad, therefore it’s going to turn out to be something completely different, right?
“Joyce, I have something to tell you: I’ve secretly been Joe your whole life.”
“Joyce, there’s a bomb in the building, and it’s in your pants.”
“Joyce, I don’t actually like Toto, that’s why I had to break up with Dora.”
“Joyce, my ex killed a demon fridge, now I’m the head of a ninja clan.”
“Joyce, I got absorbed by the Plot Hole, now I’m an ex child star who remakes movies. And also a muppet.”
“Joyce, I’m the one who canceled Firefly.”
“Joyce, I am your father. Join me and we will rule the galaxy together.”
Ha, Nostalgia Critic 😀
I hope Sarah is chewing on the back end of a capped pen and not the front.
Ink doesn’t exactly make the best lollipop flavor.
It’s a lollipop with a cap on the end
She is chewing on the front end, actually. Look at the first panel.
So it’s pretty much decided that Becky is definitely playing Angry Birds on that phone, right?
Angry Birds!
Actually, Becky isn’t a lesbian. She just thinks that Joyce is one.
Well, she is a friend of Dorothy…
I think that if Joyce and Becky, being “fundies”, think that sex will send them straight to Hell: just what do they think a homosexual affair will do to them? Send them screaming straight for home, or under the bed or wherever. I seriously doubt she thinks Joyce is a lesbian.
Yeah, Sarah has shown that she does feel protective of Joyce, but she does not make any effort to baby her though-she tells her what’s what. Loved it when she caught Joyce with her vibrator stuck up her nose.
(When people tell me God did something to me, like send me a roomie, I tell them no, the registry office did.)
That’s what pisses me off sbout “God’s works”: “God did (everything good)!” “What about (bad thing)?” “Oh, that was you, you sinned.”
I came to really respect a fictional religious people (the followers of Akhran in the Rose of the Prophet trilogy) because they praised their god for all the good things he did, but ALSO cursed him when he did something bad or neglected them. No “I will keep praising my Lord who punished me just to win a bet” Job bullshit.
Was Becky allowed to do anything fun which didn’t involve Jesus in some way? I have heard of people like that. Like anything remotely fun not related to Jesus is automatically sinful and being a ‘part of the world’
I like Becky. Feel sorry for her. But I guess Anderson affords her some freedom even as a christian college- which can only be a good thing.
Becky seems sweet and like she can actually be fun to me. Her parents on the other hand I don’t think I’d want any where near me. We haven’t seen them so maybe that’s unfair but just from second hand knowledge they seem kind of terrible.
She imagines her and Joyce having a three-way with Jesus, and Jesus mostly staying our of the way.
And this is the correct grav for the previous comment.
If you haven’t done so already, turn your clocks back by one hour.
And then when you vote on Tuesday, make sure you don’t turn the country back by fifty years.
Incredibly relevant to this comic!
I mean, props for reminding people to set their clocks back, and can completely understand wanting to discourage political apathy, but maybe this is not the place 🙂
Also, not all of us are in the USA. Or where-ever you be speaking from, just to add a delicious degree of irrelevance.
That said, with added irony, my comment is even more obtuse.
Also, turning the clock back 50 years and doing it right the second time isn’t the worst option.
I’ve heard rumors of people that aren’t from Texas, but it sounds so unlikely.
“Totes jelly” is the trigger phrase for Sarah’s berserker mode.
Not just Sarahs…
Joyce is so cool! She makes Becky’s knees turn to totes jelly!
Through blunt force trauma?
Becky’s giving off “single white evil roommate” vibes.
Holy shit, I thought I was the only one getting those from her.
Can’t unsee now! O_Ou
Why do I feel so bad for Becky already. I can already tell something is going to go badly for her. Beckyyy
Everyone seems to have missed the fact that Becky has 1. Cut class 2. Gone on an obviously unauthorized road trip of at least 100 miles 3. Has no obvious plan for how or where she is going to live and sleep for at least tonight 4. Immediately started playing a forbidden game and 5. Seems completely at ease with her situation.
I think this means much has already changed with Becky, and these will be surprises for Joyce very soon.
Okay, re-reading the comic should have been done before i posted…Becky’s classes were “cancelled” so that point is not correct, but I stand by the others and the conclusion. Becky has some drama to infuse into the situation.
#2 is also a fallacy. If we are to assume that Becky is 18, she is an adult and is free to take a bus to visit her friend. I will give you the rest.
Some people shed the apron strings later than others.
>_> …not sure if swimming in the Nile or just Overly Attached.
I’m surprised Becky’s hoodie is red; Anderson’s colors are orange and black.
I don’t know about Anderson, but you can buy hoodies and other logo gear at my alma mater’s bookstore and in just about any color you want, including the “official” colors.
Goddamn it! Becky, you’re ruining my crack-pairings!
Sarah’s expression in panel 3: Is this a joke? Am I getting Punked?
I suspect Becky is gonna be one of those kids-of-fundie-parents who rebel, and rebel spectacularly, possibly with disastrous results. Joyce, on the other hand, is depicted so far a re-examining her basic assumptions while still remaining mostly herself. IIRC, the Joyce-Becky backstory has Joyce seeing Becky as a strong anchor, but the best possible route for the story I imagine is on the way is: Joyce will be Becky’s strength.
That freakout we are all waiting for… I think the trigger might be when Becky understands just how much crap Joyce is going through.
“So, your room-mate is not the bestie she should be, the relationship with your boyfriend is a scam, you are surrounded by people who looks down on you and in some cases harasses you, the one friend you actually do get along fine with is planning to move soon… and you almost got raped. Tell me Joyce, is it worth it? Wouldn’t you be more happy if you came back with me to Anderson university?”
That question might hit Joyce in the gut.
So, in today’s poll I answered “I should click the ‘first strip’ button” for the obvious joke. You know, just placing a comma after “first” and finishing with a finger snap and a “Yeaaaah.” Should I be sued?
No matter how much I watched Seinfeld, I just never got into it.
I like to think that Joyce is the Mary Sue of the alternate Christian universe where she comes from.
Except he said “Indian giver” which was very offensive to the Native American woman he was dating.
Since when did really liking your friend automatically lead to boning?
Despite Walky’s jokes and how much I would enjoy the Slipshine spinoff there’s no sign Joyce is actually into Dorothy or any other girl.
Likewise while Becky may have “come out” in a the two months since she left home I’m finding it a little unlikely from both and in and out of universe level. For starters, she knows that Joyce is both very pious and unlikely to be even a little hetroflexible. Give their upbringing I think Becky would try and hide it from Joyce if they were.
And from the out of universe POV I’m not sure what adding her in as a gay character would introduce. Joyce has already shown she doesn’t reject people for such things. Dorothy is the perfect example since she literally went toe-to-toe with her parents for her, certainly a braver thing than I have ever done.
You rule!
I have been trying to say the same thing but it keeps coming out wrong
Except the Slipshines though.
…Uh, okay, look, canon does look like Joyce will stay straight but ‘no evidence’? Seriously? *Seriously*? That’s just burying your head in the sand.
I remember that panel from the previews a few months ago!
I hope she doesn’t check Joyce’s history on her phone browser. lol
Sarah’s face on panel 3… LMAO! XD
What awful parents would ground someone for watching Seinfeld?
Becky’s parents, obviously.
Holy shit, Becky, you need some hugs.
I have a bad feeling that this is going to lead to Becky copying Joyce’s hairstyle and outfits, then sleeping with Ethan before killing him with a stiletto heel to the eye.
Either that or she starts latching onto Sarah and copying her hairstyle and outfits, much to Joyce’s disappointment, before sleeping with Jacob and killing Ethan with a stiletto heel to the eye.
“totes jelly” This lingo and other similar ‘words’ need to be stricken from the English language for all eternity.
Did “totes jelly” even exist at the beginning of DoA?
The lingo is evolving in this constantly shifting timeline!
I had this very same Seinfeld episode running in background while reading this. That’s kind of creepy.