Discussion (189) ¬
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social ⋅ 15h
Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social ⋅ 17h
April Wolfe @aprilwolfe.bsky.social ⋅ 15h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
LorennaCleary.bsky.social @lorennacleary.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Al Ewing Writes Comics @al-ewing.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Gwen @finalgwen.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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Barb O. Saur 
⚧️
Dina landing the important steps
What kind of sack? Where would you procure it from? Come on Dina, it’s like you’re not even trying!
A burlap sack, procured from a classmate in one of the agricultural courses ought to do it…as for where she’d store it, the you know the better!
But plain, please. A burlap sack with a big dollar sign on it just draws too much curiousity.
If it’s a burlap sack from the ag courses it likely has some CO-OP name on it.
And smells of its previous contents.
Let’s hope it was formerly full of unshelled pecans or peanuts and not,… leavings.
What kind of sack?
A sack with dinosaurs.
Actually, it’s Joe that didn’t specify a particular type of sack. He simply said, “Get Ruth in the sack”. Clearly, the type of sack wasn’t important.
Second: Get other velociraptors to stalk Ruth and drive her in your direction.
Third: Stealthily approach Ruth from the side.
Fourth: Wait for Ruth to notice you, and issue the appropriate “clever girl” remark.
Fifth: Stuff her in the sack. Done.
hmmmm Dina/Becky/Ruth
It’s certainly not any kind of nopet3… it’s not the most likely thing in the world but as a slow burn I could see it, I mean, Becky and Ruth are already bonding over killing Joe, and Dina seems like she’s willing to at least treat it as an interesting problem, sooooo….
Dumbing of Age Book 11: First, I would procure a sack.
Dina had Book 10, so it has to be “Don’t Not Murder How on My Account”
JOE
COME ON PHONE
I bet if you bait the sack with a couple femurs, Ruth would run right into it all on her own. Then you can bring her to the vet or trim her claws or whatever. Problem is that trick’s only going to work once, so make it count.
(Hey it worked on the cat. Once…)
You could try using a large towel. Although you still wanna watch your hands. I’m still nursing a swollen finger from a cat bite from one of my charges at the shelter who was NOT pleased at being recaptured and returned to her kitty condo.
One of the cats we had when I was growing up caught my dad in the wrist pretty good with his hind claws. He was trying to get him in a carrier for a vet appointment, but the poor little guy was just flailing because he was scared out of his mind. The cat may be gone but the scar’s still there.
Well, “little”, he was just over a year old and less than 10 pounds when that happened. It was even harder than that to wrangle him when he was in his prime. He eventually grew up into a 16 pound chonk, but they’re always your kittens. (We never let him get morbidly obese, he was just a big, stocky cat.)
“Second, I would propose a three-legged sack race.”
Joe just..stop…please.
Do you have a new canon that this is all happening in Mike’s head?
Everyone seems slightly more awful in very Mike-ish ways, like how he’d imagine them being. And I’m just waiting for Booster to reveal they’re actually Mike.
I think it’s more Mike’s restless spirit amplifying dickish impluses from beyond the grave
People complain that Mike is gone but he’s not. There’s just a little bit of Mike in everyone now.
I wonder if it was a traditional Martian service, and they grokked him in his fullness.
Sure. That’s a good point. Could you pass me the Ketchup, please?
Talk about your inner Mike.
Valentine Michael Warner?
In the moms, at least.
There is a nickel on his gravestone.
Throw a nickle on the stone, help another sad trombone…
Mike is in the air.
Really? Funeral practices in Indiana are a bit different than in my state, then.
We usually put them in the ground or burn them to ashes. Our funeral dinners contain absolutely no dead-guy.
I wouldn’t have expected Indiana to have borrowed New Guinea funerary practices.
DoA is entirely the product of Amber’s imagination as she stares into a snowglobe of Showalter Fountain in her parents’ living room.
…is this all gonna have a Newhart ending?
Mike wakes up next to Amber who asks him why he was mumbling in his sleep. He mutters something about your mom and a nickle and falls back asleep.
I mean, neither of them are wrong, technically.
Being direct is a good idea when approaching someone.
Joe’s problem wasn’t directness, though – it was insensitivity. His “directness” was done to needle Ruth about her breakup, not to actually start anything with her.
Which is what Joyce picked up on. Joe is smooth – that approach was not smooth. Joe didn’t want to sleep with Ruth, he wanted to annoy her (into leaving?).
Maybe? I’m not sure on the motive as to why he’d want to annoy Ruth or for that matter why he’d even have any interest in her beyond the fact that she’s a woman. Has he ever even talked to Ruth before this moment? Like they have no relationship history good or bad.
Remember when he was hitting on Sarah in the cafeteria? He said something to her along the lines of, “You have an angry energy to you that I like. It’d be stupid not to harness that, y’know?”
Maybe Joe just likes angry ladies. He pisses off enough of them…
Joe only knows angry ladies. After a few minutes with Joe, any lady becomes an angry lady.
And that was after she’d already said no. Telling someone who’s angry at you for hitting on them that you find it hot that they’re angry is not good consent culture.
I suspect (and I think Joyce suspects) that Joe did it to needle Joyce.
Yepppp
In which case Joe missed his cue. Instead of “what?” his response should have been “sure! “
Joe also just kind of does this because of his own insecurity, I think that’s kind of what Joyce is pointing at here?
“Honestly Joe. Step up your sleazebag game if you’re gonna keep doing it.”
She’s right tho’. That was just lazy.
Wouldn’t recommend that honestly. Joe is only a few critical steps away from being this kind of sleazebag.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-11/01-this-bright-millennium/rush-2/
I mean this as a joke but it is also a little close to the truth so I don’t know how to feel about it.
To be clear I’m talking about the creepy sleazebag and not Nightguy. Joe putting on a costume and defending potential rape victims at night might actually improve his character a bit.
The thing is, while a lot of his schtick has been about having as much sex as possible, Joe has also been shown to value consent and view it as an essential component. Street harassers don’t tend to put out that vibe.
That’s like the one major difference. I do think he’s trying to do better since his do list got leaked, but he’s still also the guy saying “now kiss” every time he saw two women fighting. I believe he can be better but I’m also not holding my breath.
Yeah. I am a dyed-in-the-wool Joeyce shipper: it is my fond belief that over a plausible course of time Joyce will recover from her abusive upbringing and Joe will reform his attitudes to women and love, to such an extent that they will then be good for each other.
I just don’t expect to live long enough to see it happen.
Joe at the very least seems to understand the word ‘no’
Always has. Not only has he never mistaken it for “yes”, but also he knows that it doesn’t mean “maybe” and it doesn’t mean “try again later”.
Joe is okay on issues of consent. Just not so good about treating women as people.
That’s not really true. He talks a good game about consent, but it’s taken women yelling at him to get him to acknowledge the “no” and even then he’s come back around to it later.
That’s all pre-change and reversion, of course. We’ve seen little of him hitting on anyone after that, so it’s hard to say.
Oh, agreed, but the look on her face combined with ‘you weren’t even TRYING.’ both suggest to me that she recognizes his heart’s not in it and that’s a bigger issue to her than if he’d been earnestly (but still, given Joe, grossly) hitting on Ruth. If only because if his heart ISN’T in it, then why keep up the Indomitable Sex Monster facade?
(The answer, of course, is that he thinks he’s destined to become his cheating father – and given the lack of ‘it was one time’ sort of minimizations to Joe, and ‘I don’t even notice other attractive women’ of Richard’s assurances,* I’m not at all convinced he only blew up one relationship with cheating or that it won’t be a problem once his and Stacy’s New Relationship Energy wears off – and thinks that superficial relationships with women are the only way he can keep from hurting someone later. Too bad the campus therapists suck.)
* I feel fairly confident Joe’s arc will involve recognizing that he CAN find women attractive without being a scumbag, even if he’s already in a romantic relationship. The vibe I got off that scene with Richard was a lot of magical thinking that THIS time would be different because the problem hasn’t occurred yet, but also that he doesn’t necessarily recognize that he can find someone attractive without ever acting on that. Finding someone hot isn’t really a choice, but hitting on them is. Given Joe’s immediate setting himself up for failure ‘no sex, ever’ as well, I suspect he learned that from his dad. Could always be wrong! But uh. I am not confident.
“Joe i know you have no standards but this is RIDICULOUS”
The Issue here isn’t that he isn’t be pushy enough, the issue is that his flirting had no attempt to be charming or alluring what’s so ever. I know we label Joe as a sleezball but he can have charisma when he wants to.
Look at this and tell me you don’t see a difference in approach despite wanting the same thing- https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/follow/
Watched ‘The Ghost And Mrs. Muir’ last night – been watching a lot of classic movies with my spouse during the lockdown – can confirm that just about every man portrayed in movies during the 30’s and 40’s would be considered irredeemably creepy and stalkerish by modern standards.
I can totally imagine Dina literally capturing someone in a sack. For what purpose, I can only begin to imagine.
She used to capture people with rope traps. Honestly, a sack is a downgrade.
Well, capturing Ruth in a rope trap then putting a sack over her would probably be seen as adding insult to injury…
She captures them in a sack and then talks to them about dinosaurs for a few hours. Then she lets them go.
Lecture them on proper dinosaur naming conventions and biology. Shits important yknow.
Step 1: Acquire a sack
Step 2: Convince Ruth to get into the sack.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit?
I would assume a blunt object and some restraints are involved in step 2.
“Someone in this sack was talking shit about the Leafs.”
“Let me at ’em!”
…and if that doesn’t work, you can use said blunt object to knock her out.
Step 3 is the key: you need help moving the sack so a patsy is needed, preferably someone who can take the blame in case things go south
Your meme is both out of date and does not explain how to convince Ruth to get in the sack, let alone how to make it profitable. Please turn your internet card to your nearest Libarian.
I mean, I think it’s obvious: bait it with femurs.
Step 3 is getting your femurs insured.
I mean, ‘let her wrestle you for dominance’ has clearly been an effective move in the past.
Some people are into that as a fetish. I believe it’s called “primal.” They also prefer their partners unwashed
Exciting new possibilities now that Joyce is removed from religion for her to criticize Joe’s pickups based not on moral grounds but instead their degree of efficiency!
I mean, they can still be criticized on moral grounds–religion doesn’t have a monopoly on morality. Hell, I’d argue that secular humanism is more ethical than the type of Christianity that Joyce grew up in, no contest.
Heck, members of the Satanic Temple are more ethical than people from Joyce’s old church.
(Yeah, if you want to nitpick, members of the Satanic temple are more likely Atheists who are using devil imagery to challenge christianity. But, they do have their own commandments that are better than what’s in the Bible.)
Thou shalt perform child sacrifice and vote democrat
A classic. And of course the previous strip in the last panal has the best Joyce face ever.
Just realized that was written before QAnon and Pizzagate, wasn’t it? Guess the evangelical far right will reliably make even the most ridiculous caricatures of their insane troll rhetoric seem retrospectively prescient given a couple years.
(Also, this Joyce face is even more gratifying for my money)
Actually, I’d think Satanists were believers in God (if they believe in Satan, they must believe God exists), they just don’t LIKE him.
Some satanists might, but that’s probably a small number of people. But I specifically mentioned the ‘Satanic Temple’, the members of which don’t actually believe in god or the devil.
I’m not convinced that that is what is going on. I think that Joyce’s criticism is that Joe’s uncouth performance wasn’t actually a pickup attempt at all, and was never intended to interest Ruth. I think Joyce’s assessment is that Joe did it to tease and provoke her.
I think he feels it’s expected from him, and doesn’t know what else to do instead…
Joyce herself has been going through the motions of being a faithful fundie lately, so i guess it takes one to know one
I do wonder a little if he is just being a cad here due to his “No one changes, I cannot change, I am doomed to become my dad” breakdown, and thus not even especially caring if it worked or not, or if this was just a, “Data insufficient. Attempt blunt approach.”
Pretty sure this is Joe overcompensating and pretending to be who he was at the beginning of last semester – much like Billie, or Sarah for like 2 – 3 strips before Joyce broke that charade.
I have been wondering for a bit if his assholery at this point is at least somewhat performative. If only that would make it less intolerable.
It is totally performative. I am ready for him to knock it the fuck off.
Yeah, I suspect that you’re right, that Joe was not trying to pick up Ruth at all, but playing an “I am a sleazy womaniser” act to continue teasing Joyce about her abandoning religion. Which is pretty bloody rude to both Ruth and Joyce.
from his reaction, i don’t think he did it to tease Joyce, or he would’ve displayed more enjoyment at her putdown. It’s his shtick, to the point where it would feel weird not to do it, but his heart’s not in it.
He’s also doing it to remind Joyce that’s what he is and that she shouldn’t develop any interest in him, because he’s definitely interested in her.
Go on, Dina…
Dumbing of Age Book 10: First, I Would Procure A Sack
We’re on Book 11 now. And unfortunately, Willis has already said that the title of Book 11 won’t be a Dina quote, since she got the Book 10 title (it’s “Renounce Magical Thinking and Embrace Empirical Evidence,” from this strip.
Of the lines we’ve seen I think ‘this meltdown is completely rational’ has the most book title energy
Actually maybe ‘so anyway, back to your irrational meltdown’ might work better.
Don’t think Sarah’s gotten a book title yet
False, “The Euphoria is In My Pants” is still a better title. No, I won’t let this die.
if only you had concentrated on Mike.
This is, in my view, a false step: Dina has all the best lines and ought to supply all the book titles.
I’m still sad book 9 wasn’t a Sal line. Sal MADE that book imo.
On the other hand “Now Let’s Go Commit Something Mildly Subversive Which At Worst Will Serve As A Humanizing Anecdote And Not As Anything Truly Threatening To The Power Structures At Hand” is a very good line
It really is tbh.
Hell, it’s not a line, it’s a paragraph.
Counterpoint: Dina chooses her words carefully, so her lines make for punchy but relatively short titles. I refuse to believe we’ve already hit peak title; Book 11 needs more verbosity.
My money’s on either “this meltdown is completely rational” or something from the book and a half we haven’t seen yet
Book 11: “Hey, Don’t Not Murder Joe On My Account”
DoA Book 11: You’re Single, Wanna Do It Sometime?
I’m not sure if Dina is familiar with that particular double ententre.
In actuality Dina knows this idiom and wasn’t authentically misunderstanding it but instead performing a prank!!! Oh what a mischievious jackanapes, this Dina.
Joyce’s face in the last frame tells me she’s featuring being in Ruth’s bed. She’s getting closer to coming out, at least to herself, as bi.
Either that or the idea of saying a pickup line to a boy, even totally insincerely, is hitting her right in the anxiety
Not sure what you mean by “featuring,” but I hope you’re right about her coming to terms with her own sexuality. There have been way too many hints over the years about Joyce having feelings for Dorothy for me to buy that she’s truly straight. My guess is that part of that denial is down to still feeling bad about having rejected Becky, feeling like she needs an excuse (i.e. being straight) to not feel the same way Becky did about her, and worrying that Becky would be heartbroken if she found this out. She’d also probably feel bad about coming out to Dorothy, who she’s known for a few months, before Becky, who she’s known all her life.
My personal best-case scenario is that Joyce comes out as bi/pan to Jocelyne, Jocelyne sees that Joyce trusts her, and she finally comes out as trans to Joyce.
Willis is then either damned or blessed, depending on what happens next.
“Featuring” is “imagining.” I learned it growing up in West Virginia in the ’50s. Possibly a piece of left-over Northern Midland dialect from my great-grandparent’s days.
Thanks, I appreciate the clarification!
“Visualizing” might be a better translation. If someone suggests how something might be done and it doesn’t sound right, I might say, “I can’t feature it.”
And here I thought it was just autocorrect fail of “picturing” lol.
You cannot sack Ruth. She’ll rip it right off.
Ruth couldn’t even get herself sacked, last semester. She is un-sackable.
She couldn’t get herself sacked because of Clint. Clearly, Dina’s actual plan to get Ruth in the sack is to tie up Clint in the sack, hit him with a truck so he can never hurt Ruth or Howard again, raise college funds by selling all of his vintage 1960s G.I. Joe figures at auction, and… I kinda lost track of where I was going with this, I just really want Clint to die
(Also, considering Becky still seems to be in the “wait until marriage” frame of mind, I’m pretty sure you getting Ruth in the sack is gonna upset her, Dina)
I mean honestly, fair enough. He is by far the worst dad or dad-adjacent figure still alive. That could use some fixin’. *cracks knuckles menacingly*
Irrelevant. The problem is “Getting Ruth in a sack”, not keeping her in there.
A little etymology for ya: “sack,” meaning “bed,” comes from military slang for a bed, to wit, “fart sack.”
I figured it was military slang for “sleeping bag.”
Reasonable guess, but no.
dutch ovens were behind everything?
Joe is bad at conversation and hat-wearing
Yeah, if there’s any game Joe needs to step up, it’s the hat-wearing game.
A bad pick up line, but he was clearly waiting around for Joyce so they could walk together.
Yes. I love reading between panels like this because it’s TRUE.
Second, set up a rope trap.
This comic has a sorta interesting relationship with music, especially since its an audio-free format. We know what some of the characters are into and even some of the specific songs they like, but there’s no sort of soundtrack. Just thinking about this because of that thing I mentioned the other day.
I’m predicting down the road, much to each other’s surprise and reluctance, Joyce will ask Joe to be her first.
I’m really enjoying seeing new parts of campus.
We’ve seen this part of the campus before a few times. Here, for example: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/included/
More practically, what Joe is doing is making a lot of women feel unsafe, even he would probably not do anything without consent. So, would he face any repercussions if someone were to complain about harassment?
I don’t know id constitute it as harassment, creepy? Yes, but we’ve never seen Jo ask anyone more than once.
Even if it’s only once, it’s still gross. To me anyway. There is something to be said for his blunt honesty, though. He’s trying to not beat around the bush, but he’s likely just making women feel objectified.
Yeah, there’s a long distance between what can make women feel unsafe and harassment.
I view it as Joe putting himself out there in a way that’s dependent on how the women he flirts with react.
Ok I’ll give it a shot, I guess it go a little like this…” Hey there, I know you and I haven’t interacted much and your probably more interested in your compulsive desire to rip out my femurs then to talk to me. But I’ve always found the whole terrifying and tough fiery redhead girl thing very sexy, so maybe we can get togeither sometimes and maybe do something crazy if your into it?”
come on you know you wanna write that slash fic
*steeples hands*
Maybe not Ruth, per se..
Dina providing the logical input this conversation deserves.
What is with the look on Joyce’s face in the last panel? I’m not getting it.
Either “I am not taking that obvious bait, Joe.”
Or “Ewww.”
Or “I am not thinking about getting Ruth in the sack. I will not think about getting Ruth in the sack. Not Ruth in the sack. Will not consider Ruth in the sack. Never Ruth in the sack. Ruth in the sack is something I will not think about….”
or “Shit. I’ve been hoisted by my own petard.”
How can anyone not be in love with Dina?
Suppose you dont want to be discussing dinosaurs all the time? (Can’t relate, but i know from experience such people exist, and in actually pretty high numbers I’m sorry to report)
Because she’s not as good as Walkyverse Dina.
*flees*
What I’m intrigued by is Joe’s look in panel 2. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever seen that expression on him before.
He’s happy he came out of this with his femurs intact.
I think he heard Joyce’s comment ignorant of context at first. For a split second, it wasn’t Joyce quoting him, it was Joyce propositioning him. That startled him, cue expression.
Yeah? Let’s see YOU try to get a smooch out of Jacob if you are such hot stuff, Joe.
I mean…at least he’s honest?
Joyce and Joe. I never thought I’d ship them but… in this universe, I can see it happening.
I presume that Dina’s sack comment is meant to be her obliviousness talking, but I like to think that she’s perfectly aware and she’s implying that she would be able to entice someone to bang with her to begin with
She’s pretty confident she could seduce anyone with her really cool sack.
Why do i think she is misunderstanding what it means to “sack a quarterback”?
Even if Joe’s just wearing that hat to keep his head warm, it still looks weird on him to me.
Wait, that looking away . . . expression of curiosity?
I don’t think Ruth is into sacks at all.
Sometimes.
Today’s grav roulette, go!
(y’know, there’s a part of me every time that sees “grav roulette” and pictures some sort of high-tech sci-fi game – grav as short for gravity is probably where I’m getting it)
Already got Roz a few times, let’s try something else
Grav roulette… go!
*Jupiter gravity*
*dies*
If only Mike had been familiar with grav roulette, he might have survived.
The truth is…the game was rigged from the start.
. . . Joyce doesn’t seems adverse to the idea of getting Ruth in the sack~
It would be pretty hilarious if Joyce started rating Joe’s flirting attempts since she clearly has enough of a grasp on them to know when he is half-assing it.
She’s like the Susie to his Mrs Maisel.
You put the bag in the box
put the box in the hole
put the Gleeetch in the bag
and there you are
I dream for the day Carla and Dina will team up for doing the most incredible contraption for put people in a sack ever!
I’ve seen what Joe is doing. He is maintaining his reputation of “always up for sex”. That reputation will land him some sex in the future. Not from Ruth, but Joe doesn’t care about that.
That makes sense. Though he now knows there’s a classier option: print a buttload of cards saying “Indomitable Sex Monster” in copperplate and just smugly hand them out at random.
I could see Ruth appreciating the direct approach when she’s in a better mood. Of course, Ruth will be in a better mood when hell freezes over and the Leafs win the Stanley Cup, so…
Also damn it Joe stop doing the :3 face. It’s too cute for you.
Dammit. One day I’ll see Joyce try to awkwardly flirt with a girl.
Becky sure isn’t liking Joe. I wonder if it’s because she senses the massive sexual tension between him and Joyce and she’s like “oh hell no, if I can’t bang Joyce, I’m not letting the scruffy looking nerfhurder bang Joyce!” Or something like that.
If I had to guess it’s because I think most women would find Joe a deeply unlikeable human being who’s very uncomfortable to be around, and because he and Joyce are good friends Becky has to be subjected to his very uncomfortable behavior.
Nobody likes being objectified, and especially not Becky who has only just escaped being raised to be an image more than a person and be married off to and controlled by a man someday. The way Joe talks gives the impression that he objectifies everyone, and if he doesn’t say it out loud it’s only because it wouldn’t get him anywhere.
And I say this as someone who has him amongst my favorite DoA characters.
Just remember that when Becky rates people based on attraction, it’s apparently adorable and not at all bothersome because she’s queer /s
To be fair, Joe went WAY beyond just rating.
I know. I just find Becky annoying, especially when she says stuff that would upset commenters when other characters would say them.
I don’t think she does this?
She literally told Danny that she had no intention of learning his name, all because she doesn’t find him attractive. It’s the kind of thing that’s gross when Joe says it, but apparently it’s okay when Becky does?
Note that I’m not defending a situation where Joe would do such a thing. Just pointing out that it should be wrong no matter who does it.
I don’t remember that at all but fair enough that’s douchey of Becky because she is kind of a douchebag sometimes, but she’s not rating him on attraction because by those standards she has no capacity to rate any man. Joe’s problem is that he can talk to dudes as long as it’s not about feelings, but all his interactions with women are transactional and attempts at getting into their pants.
Like, Joe created a numerical, itemized list to categorize the women on his campus, while Becky hard leans into her identity and being as loud as possible and tells one guy he’s boring.
It’d be wrong if Becky started looking for potential one night stands and started basing their worth on how how she finds them, but she’s not doing that.
Next you tell her that you have Phil Kessel from before he BETRAYED THE LEAFS for the . . . *glares* penguins, and that he wants to give her his autograph on a jersey but he refuses to leave the sack for safety.
Boom, one Leafs fan in a sack.
I really dig the sibling vibe Joe and Joyce have developed
I concur
The only sibling vibe these two have would be on Game of Thrones.
Huh, Joyce Reads Joe correctly YET AGAIN.
Just goes to show how well she understands him.
I kinda want Joyce and Joe to just hang out all the time.
I also want this.
Set in a quaint little house close enough to the city but away from the noise.
While Joe and Joyce fanangle their three cats.
And they’re married.
Dina has already procured a sack for when Becky is ready. She keeps it in her sock drawer.
Next, cut a hole in the sack.
No, What’s *on* second.