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So much for this decade I guess
Captain Julia, please send the Space Force to save us!!
*Kenny Loggins intensifies*
Time for the Twenties to ROAR
Decade isn’t over until next year. There is no year 0.
But… but it STARTS WITH A TWO now!!! 😢
Decades don’t have to fit neatly into centuries. “The Twenties” plainly run from ’20 to ’29. Otherwise you have to figure out what to call ’21—’30, without some pedant asking why 2030 gets to be part of the Twenties.
Besides, the First Century only had 99 years, thanks to some monk forgetting to put in Year Zero.
I’m…pretty sure 100 CE is regarded as part of the first century.
(how I like to remember it: the number at the beginning of the last year of the century is the “number” of that century. So 100 was the last year of the first century, 1700 was the last year of the seventeenth century, 2000 was the last year of the twentieth century…)
It is. Has to be, or otherwise the First Century consists of only 99 years. But AD 100 isn’t one of the Nineties.
Well, 1582 calendar was short 10 days thanks to the change to Gregorian from Julian, so why not have a 99-year century? 😉
It’s okay, guys. I’ve got a plan. I call it: Reverse Leap Year.
Quantum Leap Year. We just keep teleporting around to different time periods, and it’s directed by Donald P. Bellisario.
doesnt matter since there never was a “1st century” . NO year 0, no year 1.
The current calendar began in the 4 century.
Alright then. So in what century then would you say that, for instance, Mount Vesuvius saw its most infamous eruption? Or the Roman conquest of Britain began? In what century did the Han Dynasty collapse? Or a myriad of other examples?
(Also, the calendar you’re probably referring to was devised in the sixth century.)
Decades don’t fit neatly into decades, either. What most people remember as ‘the sixties’ (miniskirts, swinging London, free love, Beatlemania) only really lasted from about 1962-67, while the fashion disaster of the ‘seventies’ actually kicks off in about 1965 and is more or less over by 1976-7 when post-punk and New Wave start to appear. Human culture tends not to fit into neat boxes, however much we want it to, and dates are ultimately arbitrary anyway. We owe our current calendar to St Dionysius Exiguus in 525AD, who made a massive mistake on it which wasn’t discovered until about a century ago… so all those of you who think that the new decade begins tomorrow ARE wrong, but all those of you who think it begins in a year’s time are wrong too, because it should actually really be 2026 right now.
Time is weird, dates even more so. Let people enjoy their celebrations of arbitrary milestones of arbitrary years. 😛
The 20s are not one of the numbered decades: they are just a name for a particular span of 10 years. 2021 to 2030 are the 203rd decade since 1 to 10 was the 1st decade. The numbers with lots of zeros at the end end decades, centuries, millennia, they don’t start them.
A dollar is spent when you spent the 100th cent, not when you spent the 99th cent. Zeros are overrated.
I am outing myself as a fogey for saying this, but this conversation was had in 1999 and it was agreed that 2000 was still part of the 20th century, but that psychologically the flip from 1999 to 2000 was more important.
Give it up, LibertyRazor. You’re bucking a non-math-literate culture.
It’s actually not math as much as it’s a different definition issue:
The nineteen hundreds started January 1900 and ended December 31st 1999.
The twentieth century started in January 1st 1901 and ended the 3st of December 2000.
Since decades are always defined in the first way (we never say it’s the 211th decade, but we like to refer to decades as “the sixties, the seventies, etc.), it is therefore correct to say that a new decade is starting.
Nothing says “non-math-literate” so much as someone who claims math literacy has anything to do witht his.
And this discussion is now a xkcd comic:
https://xkcd.com/2249/
There’s a case to be made for centuries beginning with “01” and ending with “00”, because of the way we name centuries- “the 21st century”, etc. They specifically count from the year 1. However, we don’t name decades that way, we call them “the ’80s” or “the ’20s”. Since any 10 years is a decade, it’s pretty clear that when people say, for example, “the 50s”, they’re talking about the ten year period (or decade) when the penultimate number is a five. So, 2020 would be the beginning of the decade called “the ’20s”.
A decade is any 10 year period. The 202nd decade begins in 2021 but the 2020’s begins in 2020. So the ’20s are back. Roar!!
Exactly.
The 202nd decade began in 2011 and will end when year 2020 is finished. It’s the 203rd decade that begins in 2021. The first decade began in 01 and finished after 10. Just remember that it is the finishing year of a decade/century/millennium where its number is clearly apparent. We are in the twenty-first century that will end after 2100.
Yeah, only one year left to go.
“Time to commit some mur-diddly-urder!”
And this time it won’t be Maude’s ficus tree.
“Ross wouldn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.
FICUS–his ass IS a hole in the ground!” (after Michael Moore)
“If that’s not Flanders, he’s done his homework.”
…what ? why ?!
He became even larger by eating the other five.
JOEY DOESN’T SHARE FOOD!
of course, being a super-whatever is totally uncool once your dad starts doing it
well-played, Blaine!
You know, that’s a pretty common reason for people to become super-somethings.
Hmm, nice, I’ll add that to my little book of things to remember for if/when I have kids.
I never expected Mike to be Amazi-girls sidekick.
Tbh, he actually looks more like a citizen who is relieved their local superhero has shown up to save them. He doesn’t look like he’s expecting to have to back her up
After seeing Mike fight along side her Amazi-girl mistakenly thinks she can’t train him, mold him into a hero. But the darkness of his assholishness overwelms him ans mike beings his career as an antihero.
His alter ego. The Mother Fucker!
Isn’t that just his regular ego? Might not grant him much anonymity…
… But his shield could be made out of nickels. Cool. 👍
If he uses them in place of a cape, he could be NickelBack.
I’ll leave now.
His signature move is to throw pictures of him and his enemy’s Mom in a private and intimate moment, shouting, “Look at these photographs!”
Would be pretty heavy, however.
Speaking of concerned onlookers, we’ve seen some people in the background. Each action taken increases the odds of a 911 call. Seeing a dude ram a student on a scooter with a a car, some dudes threaten the scooter kid while he’s down and then someone jumpkicking someone else all roll the dice for someone getting on the phone with the authorities.
Which is weird, because AG is Sal’s sidekick.
It’s only fair. Sidekicks can have sidekicks too
This is a headfight, not a fistfight. Blaine thinks he is putting on a mask but he is losing it. And he is wearing an armor in front when his rearguard is falling apart.
Mike is not pulling his puns.
Wait does Mike actually not know who AG is? Or is he just name-dropping her to preserve her identity? Also… He apparently *doesn’t* recognize Ross…
Mike doesn’t know who AG is. Also, he’s never met Ross before.
Right but they showed that Ross’s campus stunt was all over the news, and I was figuring that Mike would have seen it, plus heard people talking about it.
Depends on if they showed his picture on screen. It’s possible, but also possible they hid his face to protect Becky. Or Mike only heard his name, never actually watched the news on screen, because who even watches the news these days, am I right?
Haha yes, yes you are. If he’s like me, he skimmed the article on his phone but skipped the video. Like you said, he might recognize the name but not the face. I think Blaine referred to him as Ross at least once, but without the last name that might not have caught Mike’s attention unless he heard them specifically reference Becky… And i think they’ve only said “my/your daughter” since Mike showed up.
Mike doesn’t know Ross. He has a pretty good idea of who Amazigirl is or he wouldn’t have known who to call. On his knife.
That raises another question here: what the devil does Blaine think he’s about that he can kill two people in five minutes with that shitty little hammer?
I mean, yeah, respect the weapon and all, and he’s doing better here than ol’ Gashface, but come on.
Talking when he could be killing? Yep, he’s a legit supervillain, alright.
A 24oz ball-peen is basically a warhammer. (Contrary to Hollywood’s common depiction of them as post mauls.) Killing two people with one in under a second is quite plausible, if you know what you’re doing.
However, by becoming the Belligerent Ball-Peen, Blaine has stepped into Amazi-Girl’s world, where he’s required to monologue first.
He says right here that he just led them to Dunn Woods where she’s commonly seen. Which is why he was yelling for her. No reason to think he called her.
Which means his talking sounds more and more like a 911 call. If he wasn’t calling AG, it looks like he was on the phone to someone. And heading to where AG hangs out is a very iffy plan. She could be elsewhere or take the night off.
Didn’t say it wasn’t an iffy one, just that it seems to have been his plan. He pretty clearly wasn’t calling Amazi-Girl, at least.
That he’s on the phone to the police is possible, but I’m not sure I buy it. Feels too mundane for Mike. Regardless, the cops aren’t going to come sweeping in an solve this. Pick up the pieces after it’s over, perhaps.
Also Mike’s pretty observant about people’s weak points, and AG is definitely Amber’s. I mean, they don’t remember what they do as their alter, that’s getting pretty seriously dysfunctional in terms of daily life. I guess Mike *has* been pretty preoccupied for the last few “days” though… Maybe he’s off his game. He’s only human and all
A lot of people were stunned that people didn’t recognize Amber was Amazi-Girl. I think people really need to accept it is actually hard to identify her in-universe.
We tend to view Mike’s level of awareness as significantly higher than everyone else’s though. I figure if Dina is able to figure it out at a glance then Mike definitely should. It’s kind of a nice little twist to know that even Mike can be fooled.
I’m still working on the theory that Dina was just in the room when Amber was changing clothes and Amber didn’t notice. That’s Dina’s super power, after all.
Of course he knows AG and Amber share a body but he read the tags and saw the blue voice, so he knows it’s AG.
If he knows, he’s never even hinted at it. No snide comments about her night work or anything like that.
I mean he *can* hear us laughing at him from the comments section, so… That could be the true explanation. 😉
I assumed he knows because he always knows. He’s giving her an alibi for the moment so Blaine doesn’t think about it. I assume despite what he said he wants Amber to have a chance to beat her father as a hero and complete her Amazi-girl ark and move on.
That’s what I’m hoping, too. On the other hand, Amber specifically said she was trying to leave the party without saying goodbye to Mike, and he was pretty distracted scowling furiously at Ethan, Eric, and/or Danny at the time, so he may have genuinely not seen her leave.
Also loving how he just reluctantly dropped Walky in there among the people he was worried about protecting. ❤️ Awww, your roomie’s growing on you, Mike?!!
I mean he could just be concerned because he knows Amber likes Walky, but… I’d like to think it’s more than that at least
Hmmm, she knows Mike by name though and he doesn’t seem to think that’s weird
He did enjoy being on the receiving end of her interrogation technique when she was determining who the Ding Dong Bandit was? So he and AG have met before and he knows she’s reasonably familiar with their floor?
But yeah, I thought he knew AG was Amber (although I think only Walky is aware of the dissociative split going on, and he doesn’t necessarily understand it or its seriousness yet)… P
Ahhh, the ding dong bandit. They HAVE met; I had forgotten, thanks.
I would presume he knows for the same reason Ethan would, but yeah, confirmation he doesn’t know who Ross is, seemingly. Makes sense, I guess, he wasn’t present for those events.
Frankly I’ve now realized I’m a little more concerned that AMAZI-GIRL doesn’t seem to recognize Ross. I know she was like… Climbing all over his car in a high speed chase when they met, but… He’s pretty distinctive looking??
She certainly seemed to recognize him as a bad dad in the previous strip.
That’s right! I forgot, good catch.
She absolutely recognizes him. She says he’s supposed to be in jail (as she is not aware he is out on bail).
Though theoretically he doesn’t know who AG is (I think Willis has said something like that), it’s interesting that he only lists people (Ethan, Walky) that Amber would be particularly attached to. Otherwise what’s the point of mentioning Walky?
On second thought maybe he’s just listing people that HE actually cares about…?
That was my reading. Walky is his roommate, after all. If he was trying to appeal to Amber specifically, why not mention Danny or Dina? Which makes it extra sweet that he mentions Walky.
Oh yeah, I forgot Dina. I didn’t forget Danny, but I figured both of them have mixed feelings about Danny.
I wish Sal were here just so I could vicariously experience this through someone else who would absolutely just go home once everyone started putting latex masks and bodysuits on
Who said she wasn’t here?
Yeah, she saw the costumes and masks from down the block and just went “Nope” and went the other way
Wait so Mike doesn’t know who Ross is?
Stupid neckless Flanders!
*shakes fist in the air*
Wouldn’t whoever owns the scooter company have Blaine’s card details anyway? Not like keeping his secret identity is even going to be worth it at this point.
Has Mike ever interacted with Becky?
Him not knowing about Toedad makes me think that he might not know much about the incident.
Becky invited him to Joyce’s party. There was an inaudible laugh track.
That wasn’t a laugh track. That was the comment section.
“Do you not hear the laughing?” or something along those lines, in the strip where Becky told Mike he could go to the dorm party “if he could be nice.”
At least, I think that’s what Nono is referencing.
As Deanatay said: that wasn’t a laugh track, it was the comment section.
Tag Search is your friend:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/mike+becky/
So, is this where Toedad will put the limit ?
Well, he’s not wrong, Ross was just a moping whinger with a few redeeming moments.
He was fine til mid-season 3. Kind of… crashed and burned after the break up.
I wonder how much fanhate David Schwimmer had to deal with.
Internet was only starting to become mainstream when Friends ended. I don’t imagine Ross got TOO much fan hate back then. Maybe towards the end of the Aughts? And whenever that Friends revival was in the 10s?
My niece (who didn’t exist in 2004) got Friends merch for Christmas. Apparently it’s a thing again. Fuck knows why.
I think it was the 15 year anniversary of the end? Or 25 years from the beginning? Not sure, but I did see it advertised here and there.
Seriously, Ross, there are just… so many things in the Bible about not doing what Blaine’s threatening to do right now.
At least pretend to actually be a Christian.
Ross has the morality of a pair of flip-flops.
And the intelligence of a guppy.
Amazing how little Ross’ brand of Christianity has to do with the Bible, isn’t it?
Yeah, I’m having trouble understanding why Ross is still on board with with Blaine advocating murder. Although he discharged a gun on campus, my impression that was to make a (stupid) point, not that he was actually willing to use it on a human being.
She shot at AG on a busy road. It’s luck and authorial fiat that he didn’t shoot somebody.
Ross (and several real-life fundie types who believe like him) is an example of the fact that being a Christian doesn’t automatically make you a good person.
I’m not even suggesting that he’s a good person. Only that he supposedly dedicated himself to a thing that really has some negative things to say about murder.
To be fair, the god of the bible seems pretty gung-ho on murder and genocide when it’s on his terms.
Then again, maybe those Amalekites and First Born Egyptians really had it coming ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In particular, those instances are literally “When God said so.”
Jews are pretty big on obeying God because he’s God.
And that’s all old testament. Jesus explicitly changed the rules.
Yes yes, I know, he didn’t “invalidate” the Law. But he did fulfill it, and that changes the criteria.
I hope Blaine does not survive this, or at least is permanently maimed and crippled.
He’s evil in a way Toedad isn’t.
Toedad’s evilness comes from mistakes about what’s right and what’s wrong.
Blaine’s comes from not caring what’s right and what’s wrong.
Ross doesn’t consider his actions evil. You could probably get Ross to leave you alone, even if it’s just by agreeing to never speak to him again.
Blaine knows what he’s doing is evil but doesn’t care. Blaine wants to hurt you because he enjoys hurting people.
immoral vs. amoral
I’m not sure that Amazi-Girl is going to use excess force on Blaine. The beat-down that put him in the hospital was doled out by Amber wearing the costume and indulging in rage, which is forbidden to Amazi-Girl. Compare Amber’s remark to Ryan that it’s too bad for him that she’s not Amazi-Girl, so he was exposed to her violent rage.
Mike you rotter, that’s Flanders libel! Ned would never murder anyone.
Well there was that one time he helped Homer as a Bounty Hunter.
“I’m a murderer! I’m a mur-diddly-urdeler!”
Ross isn’t the worst friend. People deliberately ignore the flaws of the others and ignore Ross’ good points. The worst friend is probably Rachel or Joey.
Ross isn’t the worst friend. Everyone was the worst friend. Not a single main character was truly a good person.
Chandler is probably the best of that sorry bunch, but that’s only if we forget that the first time he hooked up with Monica she was drunk and looking for a tryst with Joey, and not completely in the right state of mind. Or the time that he slept with Joey’s sister behind his back, but then couldn’t remember which sister he slept with.
Going back and watching this show nowadays is not as pleasant as I thought it would be.
Pretty sure all the male friends also had flings while they themselves were drunk but no one comments on the women taking advantage of their drunkenness.
Joey was basically never drunk around a woman, but was around drunk women. There’s even jokes made about that.
From what I remember, each time Ross and Chandler were drunk and hooked up with a woman, the woman also appeared to be inebriated.
What about all the times Chandler’s horribly homophobic/transphobic about his parent
A) sign of the times and b) if you take everything said about Chandler’s dad as canon, there was some serious abuse or at least neglect going on in his childhood, with Chandler being exposed to orgies as a child. So its understandable he has negative associations with his dad.
Part of me think hiding his identity isn’t really the point of all this and that Blaine just has a secret love of costumed theatrics! Like it’s one the things he and Amber have in common that’s just never come up until now. Rage issues and super antics. Runs in the family!
Right now, I’m rooting for Amazi-Girl to swipe the hammer from Blaine and bash his brains out…or at least his teeth out.
I would never compare Ross to Flanders. No diddly way.
Supervillain? He’s a villain, all right, but…
No, he put a mask on and revealed his real outfit from under his street clothes, in addition to his dumb sounding weapon and evil threats. Therefore, he’s super now, that’s how it works
I think Raen’s going for a Megamind quote here. At least, I sorely hope so.
You wanna know the difference between a villain and a super villain?
PRESENTATION
That’s a good line. God, Hal’s such a creeper.
So we’re calling him Abusi-Dad now, right? Can we make that a thing?
Oof, what it lacks in comedic edge it gains in morbid and sobering accuracy
Still liking ‘The Dad-Joker’.
Wish Yatsuyan still posted here, his Blaine-Joker av would be ideal just now.
I prefer The Abuser.
Oh yeah Walky and Mike don’t hate each other in this universe.
Or..well any more than Mike hates and is hated by anyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmZZG80TmME
A bit late but
I like that Mike doesn’t know who ToeDad is and hasn’t seen him do or say anything religious, yet knows to call him “Flanders”. He’s just a Flanders-looking guy
I mean, Mike also almost certainly is recording all this and trying to get Blaine to say Toedad’s name, but I prefer to think it’s a real question and Mike can just sense Flandersity
Mike almost certainly heard Blaine tell Ross to ‘pray about it’ at the start of the scooter chase
Ross also brought up putting the ‘fear of God’ in him
And then there’s the ‘deliver her to us’ here, which on its own could just be an odd turn of phrase, but in context certainly rings a certain religious tone
I’m about 80% sure Mike honestly doesn’t know who he is beyond apparently Blaine’s not-quite-as-down-for-murdering-bystanders lackey. If he did know, he could just say the name himself for the recording (if he is recording) the first time Ross spoke, same way he said Blaine’s full name.
Bold of you to assume you’re leaving with your ribs intact, Blaine.
It’s a bold plan, Cotton. Let’s see if it works out for him.
Took me a while to realise the hovertext was referring to the 90s sitcom and not the author’s actual social circle.
This makes me feel LESS worried, actually – It means Amber isn’t unable to act, was just surprised Blaine has a super villain getup
Toedad maybe an asshole and a biggot, but I didn’t think him a cold blooded killer
Does this mean Mike thinks TeeDee is stupid and sexy, wearing nothing at aaall?
UN-HOOOOLY NIIIIGHT, the fools are brightly fooling….
Ey, I know that sucker from anywhere!
Blaine, there is a server somewhere that can prove your credit card and Mike’s moved in the same direction shortly before this. Murdering Mike probably is not the best idea. Murder investigators most likely are able to find out you used that roller thingy.
Not to mention that Mike was yelling about what he was doing all the way to the woods, in front of at least two witnesses who were looking right at him as he screamed he was being chased by a ‘mob stooge’. It wouldn’t be a difficult line to connect!
It feels like Blaine either must have murdered a lot of people and so is confident he can avoid consequences, or doesn’t know much about it but read some kind of Yahoo! answers page that makes him think it’ll be really easy.
“Google: How do I get rid of two people in 5 minutes?”
Blain had Rods swipe his card I think.
No, they were swiping at the same time with 2 separate cards
Cut him some slack. That “Oh amazi-girl. This time I’ve come prepared”-line was worth at least an 8. Not quite Hans-material, but good for a first try.
Willis is right. Ross is fucking annoying! He makes nerds and paleontologists look bad!
Also, Blaine really sucks at being a super villain.
From the look on his face, I think that Ross would like several ‘what?’ questions answered too.
Given how public Mike was about being chased by a mob stooge with a hammer through campus and they are now having a brawl in the middle of a street after a car crash…
Blaine, you suck at this, there are a dozens of witnesses here.
Comparing Ross to Flanders is an insult to Flanders.
I’ve been attacked by a guy with a ball-peen hammer. The fight lasted about two seconds, and I’m still here, aren’t I?
Well, clearly you’re a Time Lord and you just regenerated after the hammer assassin killed you. Ball-peen hammers are instant-kill weapons, didn’t you read the comments these past few days?
Blaine you look ridiculous.
He IS ridiculous
Hey, I see your Patreon wish for Julia Gray: Space Ace was granted!
and it was everything I could ever have hoped for <3
Theory. Asher finds out, tells his grandfather or uncle or whoever leads the local mob chapter, mob chapter boss sighs and decides Blaine has worn out his use, Blaine vanishes via Deus ex shortpacked offscreen justice, and…and I might be in minority here…but Faz is able to grow up not fearing abuse from father who doesn’t deserve a son as loyal as Faz.
I mean just cuz he’s a little shit doesn’t mean he deserves to grow up abused. No one deserves that.
Full agreement
I know there’s a lot else going on, but part of me wishes Blaine and/or Toedad would notice that Mike said Amber is at the party, directly contradicting Blaine’s assumptions that his daughter wouldn’t be at a party.
Not that I particularly want Blaine to wise up regarding his blind spots about Amber, but.
Good point!
Mike is a heroe.
I’m hoping someone spiked the party drinks with psilocybin, cuz dis stuff not be makin’ no sense.
Hm , Mike wants a verbal statement who toedad is. Is there still someone listening in?
Everyone: Have fun on your new year‘s eve, stay safe and all the best for 2020.
Rare mental disorder causes individual to dress as superhero or villain. Genetics a factor.
Mike wanting the villains to talk make sense if he is recording this and even more sense if he is on 911. Delay works in his favor.
Police find a nutter in a mask and tactical gear swinging a hammer at a teen? Only whiteness will keep him alive.
So is Blaine’s supervillain name going to have something to do with that ball-peen hammer? ‘Cause that’d be hilarious
Huh. I don’t know how many others have noticed this yet, but apparently Willis completely redrew the first panel of the previous strip – the one where it seemed like half the comments section was pointing out in the original version of that panel that body armor or no, Amazi-Girl’s kick would have knocked Blaine down.
Huh, so he did. Now he generated another problem, which is that Blaine drops the hammer in the new first panel but is holding it again at the end of the strip.
Eh, maybe he just picked it back up while he was jabbering.
Nah he was never holding it in the second panel anyway.
Hard to change clothes without both hands.
Wait, how did he get the hammer back? In the last page, we see it being dropped near Mike.