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I’ve known many occasions where guys would not only have conversations in the public toilets, but even have conversations on their mobile. Yep, they’re on THEIR PHONE. IN THE TOILETS.
Dude….nobody wants to be on the other end of a conversation knowing that the person they’re talking to is doing THAT. >_<;;
I mean, I’ll put it this way: I very much do not care if you talk to me while on the toilet without ever letting me know you’re on the toilet. I can’t care about something I don’t know.
I’ve seen plenty of stall walls that are at about my standing chin height without stretching, or standing on anything. Now, I’m tall (6’5), but the average toilet would add nearly a foot and a half so standing on the seat would get anyone who is at least in the 5′ range to easily be able to look over those stalls.
There was enough wiggle room in what she said that I could have interpreted it also as her caring a bit about Walky in the breakup; it didn’t come off so cut and dry to me, but it still seemed unlikely her opinion of Walky improved.
I hated using the washrooms in elementary school, because girls would regularly climb over/under the stall walls just to mess with people or for other bizarre kid-reasons. If I heard someone coming in while I was there, I’d hide and wait for them to leave before I’d even come out of the stall :/
“don’t freak out” is exactly what you say to someone who presumably ran across a good part of campus and was somehow able to find you in a specific bathroom stall.
I get the sense Joyce’s family really never taught her these boundaries, to be honest.
Her priorities, though, are a bit troubling. She’s mad that Dorothy didn’t immediately go to clue Joyce in on her problems—a bit controlling, isn’t it?
There is that definitely, like does Joyce think that she (Joyce) is the most important thing in Dorothy’s life?
But really, to me, watching someone in the toilet is just…wrong and shouldn’t need explaining as to why its private and as for boundaries I don’t buy it unless the toilet door at the Brown household was never closed
oh god, I just remembered another shitty (ha) toilet story: one time I got sent off to essentially babysit some cousins for the summer, and their bathroom had two doors – one opening onto the kitchen, and the other onto the hallway iirc. I can’t remember whether the locks were broken or nonexistent or I just forgot about them, but I clearly remember sitting on the toilet trying not to cry as my cousins chased each other in circles through the bathroom >.<
I mean, she clearly hasn’t registered what she’s doing as… what she’s doing, since she didn’t even begin to interpret Dorothy’s discomfort as being about that. It’s less that she’s “watching her on the toilet,” and more that she’s single-minded and hard-headed to a fault.
Some families just have less issues when it comes to bathroom use. If you have a big family and only one bathroom then walking in while someone is using the toilet just becomes normal.
It occurs to me that the toilet door in the Brown household may have always been, at the very least, unlocked. Given their fundamental christian beliefs, the parents were probably strongly trying to discourage their children from exploring their genitals in any way more than necessary.
A locked bathroom door, when the pants are already down, is definitely not DIScouraging.
We happen to know that Joyce got her own bathroom (http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/hair/), explaining her difficult relationship with shared ones, but I wouldn’t count on it having had a lock. Just her brothers (and sister) being very firmly warned what would happen to them if they went inside.
worse than that, I expect her family taught her that these things (which would never have been called boundaries by them) are selfish and unfair and such. they’ve raised her to be actively anti-boundaries. it’s a shitty culture – and yes, it is controlling too.
Boundaries are a way for the devil to infiltrate those you care about. After all, if they have privacy, how can you be sure they’re not sinning? And if you don’t know if they’re sinning, you can’t keep them out of hell.
I don’t think it might stem from her family’s (lack of) teaching her boundaries alone. It might also be that with Becky (so far as we know maybe only close female friend prior to college) as a childhood friend they established talking in and over the stall (maybe even like that) as okay to do.
Maybe they did teach her boundaries (I doubt she’d do that with her mother), but she just pools “best friends”-behaviour in her head and thus the result is not individualising want for personal space/behaviour.
(Like, I usually greet my very good friends with hugs, but one of them doesn’t like hugs and isn’t that keen about touching other people anyway, so she of course doesn’t get a hug – only on special occasions, when wanted).
But yeah, she definitely needs to change that, no matter the cause…
This is why I use the public restrooms instead of the staff restrooms at work. In the staff restrooms, I run the risk of having to make small talk with a co-worker while I’m peeing, and I’m not good at small talk even under the best of circumstances.
This feels like a conversation chandler would be having with ross while ross is on the tolet. Either that or Monica having it with rachel while rachel is on the tolet.
Joyce would be the kind of person who’d not be okay if her significant other was all ‘I need some things or hobbies I just have to do with other people’, huh.
Well, I knew Joyce would cross boundaries to have this conversation but I didn’t realize how many boundaries. Also, Joyce while I know you don’t have the best awareness of relationships, maybe saying that Dotty broke up with Walky because he wasn’t good enough isn’t the appropriate tact. You should know by now that she was happy at least and/or have been able to tell when she was unhappy not dating him.
I’m waitin for someone to make a cardboard cut-out of Harvey Weinstein that can be placed above bathroom stalls. I’m sure some horrible person will do it.
Actually, Joyce refuses to acknowledge the existence of boundaries. Therefore, she passes right through them. And, technically, they her, but as a good boundary never moves, it’s moot.
As much as I thought Dorothy and Walky are a very unlikely match I do have to say that Dorothys current facial expressions probably have something to do with the complete weirdo watching her
I know for men it’s almost impossible to stop once you’ve started. For women I don’t know, but I sympathize with Dorothy all the same.
I really wonder how Joyce could lack such boundaries. She was the only girl in a house full of boys with a strict religious upbringing. I’d be shocked if she ever barged in on her mother while she was on the toilet.
The hovertext reminds me of a student government campaign at my community college. One of the guys running for class president placed “I want YOU” Uncle Sam posters–with his face replacing Uncle Sam’s–on the insides of the bathroom stalls. So whenever you had to use the toilet…Uncle Kurtis the Class President was watching.
Talk about how one friend (who is apparently so distraught you were told he was crying in his sleep) isn’t good enough for another friend, whose boundaries you respect so little that you’ll watch them pee as you lecture them for not telling you some personal news not even a day old.
Being cute and friendly doesn’t absolve people of bad behavior. You’re going to get a rude awakening if you keep his kind of mess up.
I’d say they kind of are friends. Their teasing of each other fits into a friendly pattern, not a mean one.
Neither would admit it publicly, of course.
Joyce’s complete lack of awareness at what is happening to her friends or what they are doing sometimes goes beyond the comedic to the point where you wonder how she even manages to keep them as friends.
She’s cute as a button, sunny as a summer’s day, has her heart in the right place, stand up for her friends when they need her and never, ever give up on them.
She is also sometimes painfully obnoxious.
But it’s not hard to see why you would want her as a friend.
This is all true about Joyce but if anyone did what Joyce is currently doing to me they’d be cut out of my life pretty damn quickly (except for my wife)
I mean…as the friend of someone, one usually doesn’t know all the time what issues they have, especially if they don’t say them directly. Some might have an idea, but Dorothy never talked about this with her (as far as I remember – because Joyce had a bunch of her own issues, though sharing with each other would probably have been one of the BEST ideas for one of their conversations they could have), so how should Joyce have known?
Even if she’s totally disregarding Dorothy’s want and need for personal space, she’s not telepathic. Some people are just really dense.
Though, I guess since even Walky sensed something, you might have a point…
Joyce, I wouldn’t even have the nerve to speak to a person from 10 feet away if I heard them peeing. This is rather excessive, and if you end up with a foot in that toilet you’re standing on it’d be wholly deserved.
I find it interesting that Joyce needed to know that Walky was dumped because he’s unsuitable. She’s got a lot of her own issues with him and I do think that she’s projecting her own issues and opinions on her friends and associates a lot.
Joyce: “What, you can’t talk and pee at the same time? Or does peeing make it harder to think about your break up? Does it remind you of Walky? If so why?
Dorothy: “OH MY GOD PLEASE STOP BEFORE I HAVE TO EXPLAIN A LOT OF NEW THINGS TO YOU”
today on Weirdly Specific Dumbing Of Age-Related Dreams: had a dream that today’s update showed Faz was canonically a trans boy and the comment section kind of exploded
there was something about dragons in there too. No idea what that means.
Forewarning, this is really rambly and I talk about myself a lot. I’m bad at getting my thoughts in order so sorry for that
Tbh I was thinking about it when I someone mention something earlier and I realized Joyce reminds me a lot of myself when I first started highschool (grade 7). While I didn’t have the same fundamentalist Christian and homeschool upbringing as her, I was isolated. I didn’t make a lot of friends because I was “the weird kid”. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Becky was the only real friend Joyce had growing up, right? I made my first few good friends on the first day of high school and… well due to so much isolation and lack of experience with other people, I didn’t really know what boundaries were. I would cross them all the time, I’d get upset when something happened and my friends wouldn’t tell me about it, or when they befriended someone else who didn’t like me. I never went as far as to peep on them in the bathroom (I was still struggling with my sexuality at the time so there’s a slew of other issues that would come with that), but I do understand her here. Someone else mentioned that this was probably a common thing for her and Becky growing up, so she doesn’t understand why it wouldn’t be okay here.
As a result of my lack of respect for boundaries, I did get burned. Bad. And I hope Joyce doesn’t have to go through that but it’s probably the only way she’ll learn.
Luckily I’m older and wiser now (just turned 18 on Sunday, which makes me officially dumbing age. Both terrifying and exciting, given I started reading this comic when I was 13)
Funny thing is, the next year I had a friend who was a dead ringer for Joyce. Upper middle class fundamentalist Christian, light skin, dirty blond hair, blinding smile, super pushy, I think she was homeschooled at one point. Her name even started with Jo. Her boundary issues weren’t as bad as Joyce’s here, but she would slap me and I think other people with a ruler every time we swore around her. I was a new atheist at the time too so uh that caused tension.
Her parents ended up pulling her out of our school because it “wasn’t Christan enough” and sent her off to America for boarding school. For the record, our school was Jewish and non denominational, because it was also and international school. We had a book of hymns in prep school and had to pray before lunch everyday, and pray in every assembly, but I guess that’s not enough Jesus.
I think Joyce did have friends – though of course Becky was the closest. In her trip back home she mentioned a couple of them: Kelly and Melissa and the six Jennifers. And of course Tristan.
How close any of them were, we don’t know. They don’t seem to have stayed in touch, but that’s pretty common for high school friends off to different colleges.
Huh, I thought Joyce was mad because she just figured out what we already know: Dorothy is such a workaholic that she’s been going on a drunken (worken?) bender this whole time, shutting out anyone who gets in her way. Because we all know Joyce loves Dorothy too much to let her hurt herself.
At least, I’m hoping that’s why Joyce is mad. They’re going to have to deal with it eventually.
Also, it’s kind of interesting that Joyce doesn’t give a crap about Walky in DOA, but she befriends him easily at the beginning of It’s Walky. Without aliens, memory erasing technology, and a duplicate that reveals your repressed wants and needs, Joyce development in DOA has been kind of realistic… and sadder.
I’d like to see Dorothy get genuinely angry over this because Joyce doesn’t seem to take notice of anything short of anger so Dorothy getting angry over this might be enough to make her reconsider her boundaries.
Also Dorothy needs to get angry for herself, bottling up emotions does no one good and if the thought of someone who thinks its ok to watch you on the toilet because you didn’t inform them of a highly emotional and stressful decision isn’t enough to get angry over then what is
okay okay -- spider-man reboot idea
the lizard is still dr connors, but he's dr PHIL connors, and he wakes up every day and it's groundhog day and he's a lizard
is this anything
a plague has hit our house
both children singing billie eilish's "what was i made for" but entirely in "meows"
we can't get them to stop
it's been weeks
please send help
The plantation burning reminds me of when the residential school burnt down in Shubenacadie.
I was very young. Not understanding why we were all there watching a scary looking building burning. Cars lined up all over both sides of the road. It seemed like the entire rez population (1)
Someone is citing the MA constitutional provision explicitly allowing the state to impede federal marshals enforcing the fugitive slave act, DAMN the average citizen is radicalized
you’re laughing. the largest antebellum plantation house burned down & there are brides who will not get to spiritually absorb the poisoned spectral energy of the land for their big day, & you’re laughing.
Me if I ever see Tony Hawk: Hey you’re Tony Hawk the famous skateboarder. That’s right I recognise you. Won’t be able to get any content out of this will you, you piece of shit
How to read all 28 issues of my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane run on Marvel Unlimited:
1: The first four issues were published as the miniseries "Mary Jane."
www.marvel.com/comics/serie...
Dana Simpson 
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“also, thanks to you, pooping”
…holy FUCK I hate people who talk in the bathroom
agree
Ugh yes we have some of those at my work and sometimes I fake going and just leave and come back so I can pee in peace. Peece.
I’ve known many occasions where guys would not only have conversations in the public toilets, but even have conversations on their mobile. Yep, they’re on THEIR PHONE. IN THE TOILETS.
Dude….nobody wants to be on the other end of a conversation knowing that the person they’re talking to is doing THAT. >_<;;
As one of those idiots. They wouldn’t stop calling. It was the 4th time that day.
And I didn’t SAY I was on the toilet.
But if they *don’t* know that…
I mean, I’ll put it this way: I very much do not care if you talk to me while on the toilet without ever letting me know you’re on the toilet. I can’t care about something I don’t know.
People who eagerly watch your pee or poop are even worst.
…that’s a thing? Those people exist?
My child does, does that count?
I miss peaceful toilet trips.
Basically Joyce.
so I’m not the only one. good.
What.
joyce leave
please joyce
leave
“so would this be a bad time to mention how urine in big tro–”
“PEEING. NOW.”
Joyce is pissed off, Dorothy is pi- I don’t want to finish that
I’ll do it for you.
Joyce is pissed. And pissing.
I sure as hell hope not, considering the angle its probably going everywhere!
Walky’s not the only one getting dumped right now.
…I’ll see myself out.
Abnd leave the door open.
*somewhat tasteless masturbation joke rooted in the original lolcat and, ‘lol, Joyce loves Dorothy’*
Joyce: “That’s okay I can wait. I’ll just be up here,”
Which, by the way, how? I mean, Joyce is a relatively tiny person, right? I’m picturing some sort of parkour move and strong forearms.
Stand on the toilet in the next stall, stretch and grab the divider, then either dangle or stand on tiptoes.
She’s probably standing on the toilet tank
Probably standing on the TP dispenser.
I’ve seen plenty of stall walls that are at about my standing chin height without stretching, or standing on anything. Now, I’m tall (6’5), but the average toilet would add nearly a foot and a half so standing on the seat would get anyone who is at least in the 5′ range to easily be able to look over those stalls.
You’re forgetting the horizontal distance she also needs to cover.
For some reason all I can imagine is that there is a person in the next stall and she’s just standing on them.
The only reason they haven’t spoken up is because they’re in a stunned silence.
Bloodrose!?! Is that you??
I *knew* that was the reason Joyce was mad.
It’s almost as if she said as such a couple strips ago.
There was enough wiggle room in what she said that I could have interpreted it also as her caring a bit about Walky in the breakup; it didn’t come off so cut and dry to me, but it still seemed unlikely her opinion of Walky improved.
I hate when people talk to me when I am peeing. Peeing does not take long, wait a damn moment.
Talking is one thing but actively watching is quite another
I hated using the washrooms in elementary school, because girls would regularly climb over/under the stall walls just to mess with people or for other bizarre kid-reasons. If I heard someone coming in while I was there, I’d hide and wait for them to leave before I’d even come out of the stall :/
*Roxette continues, although it’s hard to hear because of the acoustics of the tiled washroom*
It must have been love, but OOOOOVER NOW!
It’s where the water floooowwws…
“singing in the rain.” ?
Purple rain, purple rain…
“don’t freak out” is exactly what you say to someone who presumably ran across a good part of campus and was somehow able to find you in a specific bathroom stall.
EVACUATE THE BUILDING, JOYCE
NO NOT LIKE THAT
“Move on now peephole…..nothing to pee here!”
I like Joyce and all and her growth is good to see but this is getting close to friendship breaking for me
I get the sense Joyce’s family really never taught her these boundaries, to be honest.
Her priorities, though, are a bit troubling. She’s mad that Dorothy didn’t immediately go to clue Joyce in on her problems—a bit controlling, isn’t it?
There is that definitely, like does Joyce think that she (Joyce) is the most important thing in Dorothy’s life?
But really, to me, watching someone in the toilet is just…wrong and shouldn’t need explaining as to why its private and as for boundaries I don’t buy it unless the toilet door at the Brown household was never closed
I dunno its just really creepy to me
oh god, I just remembered another shitty (ha) toilet story: one time I got sent off to essentially babysit some cousins for the summer, and their bathroom had two doors – one opening onto the kitchen, and the other onto the hallway iirc. I can’t remember whether the locks were broken or nonexistent or I just forgot about them, but I clearly remember sitting on the toilet trying not to cry as my cousins chased each other in circles through the bathroom >.<
I mean, she clearly hasn’t registered what she’s doing as… what she’s doing, since she didn’t even begin to interpret Dorothy’s discomfort as being about that. It’s less that she’s “watching her on the toilet,” and more that she’s single-minded and hard-headed to a fault.
Well of course the boys weren’t allowed to intrude on her (or her on them), but I’ll bet Carol would just barge in as needed.
Some families just have less issues when it comes to bathroom use. If you have a big family and only one bathroom then walking in while someone is using the toilet just becomes normal.
It occurs to me that the toilet door in the Brown household may have always been, at the very least, unlocked. Given their fundamental christian beliefs, the parents were probably strongly trying to discourage their children from exploring their genitals in any way more than necessary.
A locked bathroom door, when the pants are already down, is definitely not DIScouraging.
OTOH, I can’t see them being okay with the boys walking in Joyce or vice versa.
We happen to know that Joyce got her own bathroom (http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/hair/), explaining her difficult relationship with shared ones, but I wouldn’t count on it having had a lock. Just her brothers (and sister) being very firmly warned what would happen to them if they went inside.
worse than that, I expect her family taught her that these things (which would never have been called boundaries by them) are selfish and unfair and such. they’ve raised her to be actively anti-boundaries. it’s a shitty culture – and yes, it is controlling too.
Boundaries are a way for the devil to infiltrate those you care about. After all, if they have privacy, how can you be sure they’re not sinning? And if you don’t know if they’re sinning, you can’t keep them out of hell.
And if you’re not sinning, why do you want privacy? That’s suspicious.
Just that one line is enough to give me flashbacks to childhood. Ugh…
I don’t think it might stem from her family’s (lack of) teaching her boundaries alone. It might also be that with Becky (so far as we know maybe only close female friend prior to college) as a childhood friend they established talking in and over the stall (maybe even like that) as okay to do.
Maybe they did teach her boundaries (I doubt she’d do that with her mother), but she just pools “best friends”-behaviour in her head and thus the result is not individualising want for personal space/behaviour.
(Like, I usually greet my very good friends with hugs, but one of them doesn’t like hugs and isn’t that keen about touching other people anyway, so she of course doesn’t get a hug – only on special occasions, when wanted).
But yeah, she definitely needs to change that, no matter the cause…
Anyone else thinking of Real Genius right now?
(and no, not the pyramid and little pickles dream.)
“Are you peeing?”
“Uh, I can’t start.”
“Because I’m here?”
“I think so.”
“Weird. Well, I have to go.”
“Me too.”
Someone linked that up above. I love Jordan.
well, I’m glad dorothy’s getting angry. maybe she’ll say something that actually breaks through Joyce’s boundary-obliviousness. :/
It just occurred to me that Joyce must standing on a toilet in the next stall over.
Also, I hope Jeph Jacques improves this Dororthy-Joyce bathroom comic like he did the last one
Were new avatars added? I’ve been Sydney Yus for awhile but now I’m Rachel. I’m, maybe I used the wrong email
That’s probably it, Cerberus has been gone for months but she returned and is still (I still can hardly believe this is a coincidence) Carla.
It seems like a toilet wouldn’t be high enough. She may be standing on a sink!
Toilet paper dispenser. I’m waiting for it to give under her weight.
Stuff like this is why I don’t like public restrooms. I don’t want to talk with someone when I’m peeing or pooping.
This is why I use the public restrooms instead of the staff restrooms at work. In the staff restrooms, I run the risk of having to make small talk with a co-worker while I’m peeing, and I’m not good at small talk even under the best of circumstances.
Ceiling Joyce is General Leia.
This feels like a conversation chandler would be having with ross while ross is on the tolet. Either that or Monica having it with rachel while rachel is on the tolet.
Or Phoebe with any of the others
Last panel part 2…. SOOOO many possibilities. XD
I kinda want Willis to make 2 more endings like this so a whole web comic could be made of just this. XD
Joyce would be the kind of person who’d not be okay if her significant other was all ‘I need some things or hobbies I just have to do with other people’, huh.
Dorothy dumped him for extra time in her life but now Joyce wants that time!
As Dorothy put it, she knew that Joyce would be ecstatic to fill her “recreation quadrant”!
*Barry White plays*
Well, I knew Joyce would cross boundaries to have this conversation but I didn’t realize how many boundaries. Also, Joyce while I know you don’t have the best awareness of relationships, maybe saying that Dotty broke up with Walky because he wasn’t good enough isn’t the appropriate tact. You should know by now that she was happy at least and/or have been able to tell when she was unhappy not dating him.
Joyce is right! Walky is gross, rude, and doesn’t believe in God.
Dot: But I don’t believe in…
Joyce: Tut-tut!
Joyce has a very, very clear bias and opinions.
I’m waitin for someone to make a cardboard cut-out of Harvey Weinstein that can be placed above bathroom stalls. I’m sure some horrible person will do it.
What do girls do together in the bathroom?
Apparently Joyce and Dorothy have different opinions on that matter.
Dorothy’s face in panel 4 is hilarious. It’s like maximized indignity.
BOUNDARIES, Joyce!
You forget that Boundries and Joyce are incompatible.
That’s why she shouldn’t be able to get through them!
Actually, Joyce refuses to acknowledge the existence of boundaries. Therefore, she passes right through them. And, technically, they her, but as a good boundary never moves, it’s moot.
I think this post was to introduce one to another
I will not lie.
I was not super successful.
What would be her reaction if she found out the real reason.
Probably something in the line of you “NOOOOOOO, Dorothy, you are PEEEEERFECT.”
Which will not help Dorothy’s issues about being seen as perfect one bit.
I wonder what exactly will it take to make Joyce respect the concept of boundaries?
Finding some she actually understands?
Time. Lots of it.
Yeah, but it’s FRESH pee.
I. AM. PEEING.
The kind of quote that gets you elected for President.
No, no, you get elected president if you pay OTHER people to pee.
On a bed where the previous incumbent slept.
Somewhere, fanfiction is being written.
Dorothy has a distressingly intense pee face Walky may have dodged a bullet here
As much as I thought Dorothy and Walky are a very unlikely match I do have to say that Dorothys current facial expressions probably have something to do with the complete weirdo watching her
I know for men it’s almost impossible to stop once you’ve started. For women I don’t know, but I sympathize with Dorothy all the same.
I really wonder how Joyce could lack such boundaries. She was the only girl in a house full of boys with a strict religious upbringing. I’d be shocked if she ever barged in on her mother while she was on the toilet.
personally, I find it possible, but distinctly uncomfortable.
You think Carol had any sense if boundaries with her children?
Not their boundaries, but certainly hers.
No it isn’t. It is a matter of exercising the muscle that control it. For both sexes, just do kegel exercises.
So definitely getting a Ceiling Joyce magnet next campaign, right?
Ooh! Put it at the very top of the fridge!
Ceiling Joyce is disappointed in you because you let your leftovers touch.
The hovertext reminds me of a student government campaign at my community college. One of the guys running for class president placed “I want YOU” Uncle Sam posters–with his face replacing Uncle Sam’s–on the insides of the bathroom stalls. So whenever you had to use the toilet…Uncle Kurtis the Class President was watching.
(He won, btw.)
Way to be a pal Joyce.
Talk about how one friend (who is apparently so distraught you were told he was crying in his sleep) isn’t good enough for another friend, whose boundaries you respect so little that you’ll watch them pee as you lecture them for not telling you some personal news not even a day old.
Being cute and friendly doesn’t absolve people of bad behavior. You’re going to get a rude awakening if you keep his kind of mess up.
But they’re best friends. Best friends not telling each other about relationship troubles is a huge violation of the best friend contract.
Walky and Joyce aren’t friends though, they’re more like friends of other friends. They tolerate each other at most
I’d say they kind of are friends. Their teasing of each other fits into a friendly pattern, not a mean one.
Neither would admit it publicly, of course.
To be fair, Joyce has never considered Walkye a friend, but your points still stand
Hi, Peeing.
Joyce’s complete lack of awareness at what is happening to her friends or what they are doing sometimes goes beyond the comedic to the point where you wonder how she even manages to keep them as friends.
She’s cute as a button, sunny as a summer’s day, has her heart in the right place, stand up for her friends when they need her and never, ever give up on them.
She is also sometimes painfully obnoxious.
But it’s not hard to see why you would want her as a friend.
This is all true about Joyce but if anyone did what Joyce is currently doing to me they’d be cut out of my life pretty damn quickly (except for my wife)
Well, Dorothy and Joyce are married so there you go.
OK, fine, pretend married, but I don’t think that will stop Joyce for one beat.
I mean…as the friend of someone, one usually doesn’t know all the time what issues they have, especially if they don’t say them directly. Some might have an idea, but Dorothy never talked about this with her (as far as I remember – because Joyce had a bunch of her own issues, though sharing with each other would probably have been one of the BEST ideas for one of their conversations they could have), so how should Joyce have known?
Even if she’s totally disregarding Dorothy’s want and need for personal space, she’s not telepathic. Some people are just really dense.
Though, I guess since even Walky sensed something, you might have a point…
Well, since even Willis has referenced the meme, I might as well throw this out there: Joyce Brown is watching you pee
Time and place for everything under the sun. As far as Joyce is concerned. Always here and now.
BOUNDARIES
I KNOW, RIGHT!!!
Joyce, I wouldn’t even have the nerve to speak to a person from 10 feet away if I heard them peeing. This is rather excessive, and if you end up with a foot in that toilet you’re standing on it’d be wholly deserved.
Look, if bodily fluids are coming out of me, the last thing I want to do is fucking talk to anyone. Boundaries, people!
I find it interesting that Joyce needed to know that Walky was dumped because he’s unsuitable. She’s got a lot of her own issues with him and I do think that she’s projecting her own issues and opinions on her friends and associates a lot.
Maaaaaaybe just a LITTLE bit.
Thanks for not making a “European” joke
Joyce: “What, you can’t talk and pee at the same time? Or does peeing make it harder to think about your break up? Does it remind you of Walky? If so why?
Dorothy: “OH MY GOD PLEASE STOP BEFORE I HAVE TO EXPLAIN A LOT OF NEW THINGS TO YOU”
Mean Joyce.
today on Weirdly Specific Dumbing Of Age-Related Dreams: had a dream that today’s update showed Faz was canonically a trans boy and the comment section kind of exploded
there was something about dragons in there too. No idea what that means.
Faz is great and so is his dragon.
Is it named Tad Cooper?
Your subconscious may have been thinking of Zaph.
So many people freaking out over something that’s only mildly over the line.
I would say it’s over the top.
As in, the top of the stall.
Heheheh… OK, sorry.
It isn’t the thing itself, it’s Joyce’s total social obliviousness. It isn’t something that is a common characteristic for her!
This particular social blind spot is though.
Not so much of a blind spot. Joyce can see Doty’s thighs and everything else from over there!
Forewarning, this is really rambly and I talk about myself a lot. I’m bad at getting my thoughts in order so sorry for that
Tbh I was thinking about it when I someone mention something earlier and I realized Joyce reminds me a lot of myself when I first started highschool (grade 7). While I didn’t have the same fundamentalist Christian and homeschool upbringing as her, I was isolated. I didn’t make a lot of friends because I was “the weird kid”. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Becky was the only real friend Joyce had growing up, right? I made my first few good friends on the first day of high school and… well due to so much isolation and lack of experience with other people, I didn’t really know what boundaries were. I would cross them all the time, I’d get upset when something happened and my friends wouldn’t tell me about it, or when they befriended someone else who didn’t like me. I never went as far as to peep on them in the bathroom (I was still struggling with my sexuality at the time so there’s a slew of other issues that would come with that), but I do understand her here. Someone else mentioned that this was probably a common thing for her and Becky growing up, so she doesn’t understand why it wouldn’t be okay here.
As a result of my lack of respect for boundaries, I did get burned. Bad. And I hope Joyce doesn’t have to go through that but it’s probably the only way she’ll learn.
Luckily I’m older and wiser now (just turned 18 on Sunday, which makes me officially dumbing age. Both terrifying and exciting, given I started reading this comic when I was 13)
Funny thing is, the next year I had a friend who was a dead ringer for Joyce. Upper middle class fundamentalist Christian, light skin, dirty blond hair, blinding smile, super pushy, I think she was homeschooled at one point. Her name even started with Jo. Her boundary issues weren’t as bad as Joyce’s here, but she would slap me and I think other people with a ruler every time we swore around her. I was a new atheist at the time too so uh that caused tension.
Her parents ended up pulling her out of our school because it “wasn’t Christan enough” and sent her off to America for boarding school. For the record, our school was Jewish and non denominational, because it was also and international school. We had a book of hymns in prep school and had to pray before lunch everyday, and pray in every assembly, but I guess that’s not enough Jesus.
I think Joyce did have friends – though of course Becky was the closest. In her trip back home she mentioned a couple of them: Kelly and Melissa and the six Jennifers. And of course Tristan.
How close any of them were, we don’t know. They don’t seem to have stayed in touch, but that’s pretty common for high school friends off to different colleges.
Huh, I thought Joyce was mad because she just figured out what we already know: Dorothy is such a workaholic that she’s been going on a drunken (worken?) bender this whole time, shutting out anyone who gets in her way. Because we all know Joyce loves Dorothy too much to let her hurt herself.
At least, I’m hoping that’s why Joyce is mad. They’re going to have to deal with it eventually.
I think the third panel says it all: “I’m just p.o.ed cause you didn’t tell me” which is quite a telling statement
Hmm, it appears Dorothy is getting pissed off.
I knew Joyce was going to be pissed because of something stupid… Well, not so much as Dorothy right now! AM I RIGHT GUYS AND GALS?
Also, it’s kind of interesting that Joyce doesn’t give a crap about Walky in DOA, but she befriends him easily at the beginning of It’s Walky. Without aliens, memory erasing technology, and a duplicate that reveals your repressed wants and needs, Joyce development in DOA has been kind of realistic… and sadder.
I’d like to see Dorothy get genuinely angry over this because Joyce doesn’t seem to take notice of anything short of anger so Dorothy getting angry over this might be enough to make her reconsider her boundaries.
Also Dorothy needs to get angry for herself, bottling up emotions does no one good and if the thought of someone who thinks its ok to watch you on the toilet because you didn’t inform them of a highly emotional and stressful decision isn’t enough to get angry over then what is
“It was amicable. He’ll be fine.”
Oh Dorothy, do you REALLY believe that?
If so, you are the dumbest smart person in the comic so far.
Dorothy believes he’ll be as fine as she is with things.
So a lot of illusion with underlying despair.
maybe “amicable” means “did not IMMEDIATELY shoot a place up in revenge”?
“dumbest smart person in the comic so far”
Fierce competition/lot of that going around.
Joyce’s twitch-eye in panel three is hilarious.
But her boundaries are non-existant sometimes.
Hello, Peeing. I am Groot.
Joyce: “Gasp! But you can’t have bodily functions! You’re perfect!”