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More Joyce it’s more like shoveling “Scooby Don’t” (Which raises the question, “What would Hanna Barberra have called that damned dog if Frank Sinatra had never released ‘Strangers In The Night’?”).
In the earliest drafts, the dog was called “Too Much.” He was also a sheep dog, because they were trying to cash in on the popularity of The Archie Show.
Thank you Willis, for giving us Dorothy as Velma in a skirt. Forgive us our sins to be committed with this image, as we forgive those whose sins have been committed with others. Lead us thus into temptation, and deliver us some alien head.
Joyce has spent a bunch of time trying to convince people that President Doris isn’t Dorothy because the former has dark hair, so Dorothy dying her hair dark isn’t helping Joyce’s case.
Because of the autism. This one has personally never been a trait of mine, people changing their appearances, but I am a super recognizer. My best friend, however, when I would get a hair cut in middle school, they would keep asking me who I am. Not fully genuinely, they love a good “bit”, but appearance changes don’t fly with them.
I mean, yes, autism, but maybe she’s upset remembering she wasn’t allowed to watch Scooby Doo. That’s the thing about comic panels; about ten seconds of dialogue superimposed on an instantaneous moment.
That’s the face she’s doing while saying the second part of the dialogue. She’s probably a bit annoyed that Dorothy went with a reference that she knew Joyce wouldn’t get.
Well, unless we’re talking about Mystery Incorporated, or The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo, or some of the animated movies that involved actual supernatural elements . . .
Mind you, I always liked the interpretation Velma DOES believe in ghosts and is continually frustrated she’s having her time wasted by all these fraudsters.
Mystery Incorporated, meanwhile, VASTLY oversold the sorts of technological skills you could pick up at the local community college or university annex.
And The Amazing Chan & The Chan Clan vastly oversold the optional features you can have installed on your family car. After that, MASK was a let-down even if you could own toys of the cars.
Could just be the angle or the coloring. Then again Malya may be over feeding him, or giving him something she shouldn’t like donuts and chips – I wouldn’t put it past her (though I’m not sure if a lizard would willing it junk food).
It’s not perspective, I specifically picked out that strip because it (and the one following, to a lesser extent) is the most recent one to have Fuckface and Joyce at the same angles as in today’s strip. Fuckface’s head is roughly about as thick as his body there and his tail’s almost stick-thin in that sequence; compare with today, where his body’s two to three times as thick as his head, and his tail’s likewise tripled.
Like I said, it’s most likely either an art evolution thing or an exceptionally-rapid in-universe weight gain spurt—I’m just wondering which it is.
Like, I get it, haha funny weed in the food, but I also haven’t seen any evidence for it being what Scooby Snacks are “supposed to be”. I’m pretty sure that’s just one of the long-standing memes, like Fred and Daphne sneaking off for a quick fuck or Velma being a straight person.
Pretty sure Shaggy nabbed almost as many Scooby Snacks as Scooby did. At least in the OG series. In some of the sequels there were as many as 4 dogs competing for the Snax.
Even if it would have required supernatural intervention for old man Jenkins to do what we saw the ghost do even with a cheap costume, some pulleys and some glow in the dark paint.
just kidding, I understand Dorothy’s point. Hell even in zombie island while the supernatural exists the gang was basically lovebombed and mislead into thinking the actual threat other guys
Now that you mention it, it was pointed out the other day that she’s dressed up specifically as Mystery Inc Velma. Which makes it ironic that she’s saying the lesson is that the supernatural isn’t real when that’s the version where the supernatural was realist and most disturbing.
The alt text is confusing me.
Is it (and Joyce’s eyes looking towards the left) implying that Joyce is lying when she says her parents wouldn’t allow her to watch Scooby-doo?
Or that’s she’s lying about the reason why she didn’t watch it?
Or am I reading too much into it and there is no implied lie?
That may be what Willis is going for. But in reality, people like that (fundie religious and/or far right) often aren’t intentionally lying or being disingenuous. They just don’t know better – they’ve never seen things themselves, they’ve never investigated – they just heard from someone who heard from someone who…. And since it agrees with their preconceived notions that everything “out there” is bad, that’s good enough for them.
This is the exact reason Willis’ parents didn’t want him to watch Scooby Doo. In reality plenty of fundie religious and/or far right assholes lie all the time IN ADDITION to deeply, truly believed bullshit.
“Does this fit in with what i already believe?” is the test for new information used by the religious right (as inculcated by their preachers, because it makes the sheep easier to manipulate and profit from), and is the main reason why the US political scene is so polarized, and why the right keeps falling for just.the.stupidest things and causing real violence as a result.
If we could get their preachers to start inculcating them with the question “What is the evidence for this? instead, then we might start seeing some backing off and return to rationality. E.g. it’s possible to make rational arguments for right wing social and economic goals, it’s just that we haven’t heard any from them for many decades now.
Mind you, that’ll never happen because a preacher training his flock to ask for evidence is a preacher that’ll soon be without a flock. So they’ll never do it. A con man will never teach his marks to see through the con.
To be fair, “Does this fit in with what i already believe?” is basically the human default. Takes work to get past that at all and even then it’s usually only in isolated fields.
I have to wonder what Mama Brown’s childhood was like. I’m strangely imagining her raised by hippies and deciding she would annihilate all traces of pot, peace, and Eastern spirituality from her children’s lives.
Presumably Carol’s childhood was more-or-less the same as Willis’s mom’s childhood, since that’s who she’s based on, with some concessions to the floating timeline.
As I read it, the implied lie is by Joyce’s parents, lying about the reason they wouldn’t let her watch it. Joyce is looking left because she feels awkward about that realization.
Indeed- I feel like some commenters are being a little too literal. I don’t think Joyce is going “wait, is that the real reason”- I think she’s going “well that is uncomfortably appropriate…”
I’m not sure what’s funnier, Dorothy (and Fuckface) making staring directly through the 4th wall in the last panel, or Joyce pointedly avoiding doing so.
I don’t think Joyce’s mom was that deep I to thought and probably did think it encouraged the occult but maybe on subconscious level. Though Dotty’s point is assuming given the context. Also I wish I knew what fuckface is thinking if they’re like my cat they may be thinking I like this surface i am layong on and why has no one given me treats.
(note — accidental flag when hitting reply … no followup needed)
I wonder about that too. I also wonder if iguanas as a rule are generally that complacent about just standing atop ones’ head like that.
Also, I wonder about Fuckface’s caudal appendage. Most iguanas I’ve seen are about half tail, and they usually let it drag along behind themselves rather than hold it up in the air like a flag.
You better hope they are, because iguanas are either tree climbers or they hold on to rocks while being constantly battered by waves, so if Fuckface ever goes non-complacent it’s going to give somebody a lobotomy.
People obsessed with moral purity don’t put a lot of thought into this shit. They don’t care about how the depiction of a concept or an idea is treated, and what the underlying message is; just featuring that idea in the first place is “promoting” it. It’s putting that idea into someone’s head at ALL, which might lead to them thinking about it, which might lead to them thinking about it *wrong*. Critical thinking and moral purity wanking do not play well with one another.
That’s the thing about Scooby-Doo: the bad guys in every episode aren’t monsters, they’re liars.
I can’t imagine how scandalized those critics who were relieved to have something that was mild enough not to excite their kids would have been if they had stopped for a second and realized what was actually going on. The very first rule of Scooby-Doo, the single premise that sits at the heart of their adventures, is that the world is full of grownups who lie to kids, and that it’s up to those kids to figure out what those lies are and to call them on it, even if there are other adults who believe those lies with every fiber of their being. And the way you win isn’t through supernatural powers, or even through fighting. The way that you win is by doing the most dangerous thing that any person being lied to by someone in power can do: you think.
Very good art, but one thing i dont understand why Shaggy and Scoob “cowardiance” is bad thing. Even if ghost is normal human still its adult criminal who can be pushed to keep masquerade and kidnap or kill. If headless rider on a horse charge on me i run away even if i know its human
This is a big one that a lot of people seem to overlook. The gang gets away because they’re good at running fast and thinking on their feet, but there’s nothing to say that if they got properly caught (and didn’t escape), the “ghost” wouldn’t just kill them and dump the bodies in the nearest river. If anything, the bad guys have incentive to kill the kids so they can say “Look! The monster killed those kids! This place is too dangerous, but I’ll take it off your hands for a low price.” Shaggy and Scooby are still the only ones with their heads on straight, really.
I think that if Shaggy and Scooby were actually espousing ‘it’s not a ghost, but it’s still a dangerous maniac so being scared is still a correct thing’ that would be a different matter. The problem with Shaggy and Scooby’s cowardice is that it’s always a matter of them believing the hype: they’re too scared to even look.
That being the case, they’re genuinely very brave even though they’re constantly terrified of the wrong things. They never actually DO run away from their friends, and their usual role in the trap/final chase is BAIT. So it’s not great that they constantly fall for the lies and tricks, but they’re also consistently a really good example of the ‘you have to stand up even when you’re scared’ brand of courage.
“If you wanna watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo.
That show was so cool because every time there
Was a church with a ghoul or a ghost in a school
They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
The fucking janitor or the dude who ran the waterslide.”
First episode is out on YouTube, iirc the second episode has been funded?
In my opinion it was… okay. There were a couple things I liked, but I am mostly in favor of ‘no actual supernatural in Scooby Doo, thanks’ so it’s starting off well behind with me.
It’s Mystery Inc., so we’re gonna get saddled with supernatural, I guess, even though I also prefer the “always actually an asshole in costume” series.
Cartoon a mystery Inc dud actual supernatural tolerably well, imo, by hooking the supernatural exclusively to the arc and series plot, while all (or nearly all) the cases of the wee, were assholes in costumes.
But yeah. The only thing I genuinely really liked in the Mystery Inc live-action was that they opted to go full steam on Fred and Velma buddying up first. It makes a lot of sense, and their relationship with each other directly is basically never explored anywhere else.
I’m actually a little surprised she couldn’t watch Scooby-doo. I figured it would be grandfathered in under the “We watched this when we were kids and we’re fine” clause.
I wouldn’t even see it that way. More childhood nostalgia overriding any issues she might have had.
Unless she was raised that way and didn’t see them. Or maybe been bothered by seeing them when the older kids were watching them.
Sorry, I may have misunderstood your first comment. I just tend to see Carol as the sort of person who’d stick her hand in a blender because she can’t see the blades clearly while they’re moving so she thinks there’s a shiny gas at the bottom of the pitcher or something, so I can’t really picture her doing anything that makes even a little bit of sense.
Sudden social anxiety on Dorothy’s part. She’s looking for Joyce because she’s the one she’s comfortable with. Recognizable, if a little unexpected. Aftermath of the kidnapping or something that’s always been there?
Would fundamentalist Christians approve of a secular program that says supernatural beings don’t exist? Isn’t everything they believe in filled with supernatural beings, some of whom should be worshiped and others despised?
That was one of the things I always liked about the old Scooby Doo cartoons, that the bad guys of the episodes were not actual ghosts, but usually some old guy pretending to be a ghost to trick people or whatever.
The theme of “When you chase monsters you may find only mostly rich white old men” could be framed as “the adults in your life screwed up by making you believe in made-up things”, but it’s really quite a far reach, Dorothy, even if you’re trying to relate the show to Joyce’s current life troubles. It’s even possible to read that line as Dorothy subtly, manipulatively preaching Atheism, though it doesn’t sound like her style.
it’s especially funny because dorothy is dressed as mystery inc velma, and mystery inc was definitely one of the more authentically supernatural-laden scooby doo series. it’s also funny because the series that these two would’ve grown up seeing the most of/most easily (“what’s new scooby doo,” “mystery incorporated,” “shaggy & scooby get a clue” and “be cool, scooby doo!”) didn’t have the antagonists skew as much towards old men, specifically. they were generally pretty wealthy or opportunistic and greedy, though.
Well, except for the movie where there were actually zombies and witches. And the recent TV show where half the stuff was real, but that show is probably too recent for this strip. The movie wasn’t, though! Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. Blew my mind when the stuff was actually /real/, after all the times where it hasn’t been. And it kinda adds something to the lore; that’d explain why people so readily believe that the whatever is haunted, if things actually ARE sometimes haunted.
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time to Scooby Doo some shit
More Joyce it’s more like shoveling “Scooby Don’t” (Which raises the question, “What would Hanna Barberra have called that damned dog if Frank Sinatra had never released ‘Strangers In The Night’?”).
In the earliest drafts, the dog was called “Too Much.” He was also a sheep dog, because they were trying to cash in on the popularity of The Archie Show.
Thank you Willis, for giving us Dorothy as Velma in a skirt. Forgive us our sins to be committed with this image, as we forgive those whose sins have been committed with others. Lead us thus into temptation, and deliver us some alien head.
God, she makes a cute Velma.
And hmm, wonder if Joyce will check it out now.
They actually put UI Shaggy (albeit in a rather roundabout way) into Multiversus, don’t put it past Willis.
Dorothy may be a cute Velma, but ignoring the subtext, Joyce is the one who looks incredibly cute in that last panel.
I feel like looking cute is a Joyce core competency.
I mean, like, yeah I guess so.
NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE A LESSON
It does if you’re doing everything like you’re being graded on it!
It may not have had to be a lesson, but judging by that last panel, it was an effective one that actually got through.
Everything is a lesson of some sort to our pattern seeking brains. The neural network WILL be trained
Does make me wonder a bit about Dorothy’s parents. Were they perhaps not as wonderful as they seem?
Kids like this are ones where they only get praise when they do well.
Or this is just Dorothy with her own self-grown issues. (I don’t wanna say OCD but idk)
… that partially makes sense, because that brains sure still has to learn about sleep, but at lest it’s very well potty trained?
Why does Joyce look pissed that she dyed her hair?
Because she either looks more or less like President Dorothy.
bc at this rate everyone else is cosplaying her characters except for Joyce?
She’s one to talk, she’s wearing a lizard in hers.
..when has Joyce been happy with -change-?
Joyce has spent a bunch of time trying to convince people that President Doris isn’t Dorothy because the former has dark hair, so Dorothy dying her hair dark isn’t helping Joyce’s case.
I think that it’s the fact Joyce hates any sort of change whatsoever to her routine.
Because she’s mildly faceblind, hasn’t learned that word yet, and only knows that when people change their hair, it’s hard to recognize them.
But it looks like she’s the one that called out to Dorothy in the first panel, so she knows it’s her based on face and not voice. Possibly.
Probably more about Dorothy changing bugging her, or as said above, President Doris.
Because of the autism. This one has personally never been a trait of mine, people changing their appearances, but I am a super recognizer. My best friend, however, when I would get a hair cut in middle school, they would keep asking me who I am. Not fully genuinely, they love a good “bit”, but appearance changes don’t fly with them.
I mean, yes, autism, but maybe she’s upset remembering she wasn’t allowed to watch Scooby Doo. That’s the thing about comic panels; about ten seconds of dialogue superimposed on an instantaneous moment.
That’s the face she’s doing while saying the second part of the dialogue. She’s probably a bit annoyed that Dorothy went with a reference that she knew Joyce wouldn’t get.
I think Joyce’s pissed face is more about the “I wasn’t allowed to watch Scooby-Doo” than the “You changed your hair.”
To be fair, I really liked Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost as a kid, and it did get me trying to do some witchcraft.
The Hex Girls got me into trying to do some wi….AHEM.
Sorry, what was I saying.
That was my favorite of the “new” Scooby movies.
Because… reasons.
–and Flippin’ out with Great Danes…
She’s about all I can handle
It’s too much for my brain
She’s got me Under Pressure!
“Let’s see who you really are, ‘Jehovah’!”
*GASP* “It was the Patriarchy all along!”
“And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids, and your critical thinking skills!”
“Rooby-Rooby-Roo!”
Thank you humans. This demon energy I’m getting off this is fantastic!!!
*rips face off*
“OH CRAP”
Looks like the lizard has pretty good grip on Joyces head. I hope that doesn’t hurt.
Well, unless we’re talking about Mystery Incorporated, or The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo, or some of the animated movies that involved actual supernatural elements . . .
I loved Ghoul School.
Velma always does the acredited research.
Mind you, I always liked the interpretation Velma DOES believe in ghosts and is continually frustrated she’s having her time wasted by all these fraudsters.
Look sometimes Scooby’s just gotta fight an eldritch horror from beyond the colours of time
The Thirteen Ghosts was peak Scooby Doo. Not even Scrappy could bring it down, hard as he tried.
Mystery Incorporated, meanwhile, VASTLY oversold the sorts of technological skills you could pick up at the local community college or university annex.
And A Pup Named Scooby-Doo vastly oversold how much technology you could cram into a briefcase in the late 80s.
Well sci-fi has always been pushing the limits of technology.
And The Amazing Chan & The Chan Clan vastly oversold the optional features you can have installed on your family car. After that, MASK was a let-down even if you could own toys of the cars.
Well, until the movies came out in the late 90’s/early 2000’s, where it turned out that the supernatural DID exist!
Wasn’t ghoul school from the 80s?
…is it just an art evolution thing, or did Fuckface nearly double his body mass in the span of less than three in-universe weeks?
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/teleport/
And then Fuckface exploded and Halloween went to shit.
Willis has killed off a lot of fan-favorite characters over the years, but Fuckface exploding…that’d be pretty gutsy.
Yup, they would be everywhere.
Could just be the angle or the coloring. Then again Malya may be over feeding him, or giving him something she shouldn’t like donuts and chips – I wouldn’t put it past her (though I’m not sure if a lizard would willing it junk food).
He seems to have doubled his mass right then. Check out the next day’s strip.
He doesn’t like Mondays, either.
perspective, I think
It’s not perspective, I specifically picked out that strip because it (and the one following, to a lesser extent) is the most recent one to have Fuckface and Joyce at the same angles as in today’s strip. Fuckface’s head is roughly about as thick as his body there and his tail’s almost stick-thin in that sequence; compare with today, where his body’s two to three times as thick as his head, and his tail’s likewise tripled.
Like I said, it’s most likely either an art evolution thing or an exceptionally-rapid in-universe weight gain spurt—I’m just wondering which it is.
Sometimes it was even kids, tweens or teens. Rare sight, being scared by someone half yer age.
Who here liked the Scooby Doo games?
I loved replaying the snes game over and over back then lol
i loved the ones on cartoon network’s website
Huh
THIS might be the best strip Willis had made all year, atleast to me. It’s simple but when you think about it more it really speaks to you.
100% agree. Very good.
Vincent Price is angry because he fought the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo. As in, he fought the occult after some fool messed with witchcraft.
And later on Velma helped kill (?) two literal salem witches.
This is also incorrect because SOME elders are lying to people, usually real estate criminals or fraudsters.
Other elders are cool like the Blue Falcon, Batman, Sandy Duncan, and the Harlem Globetrotters.
Huh. I thought Scooby Doo was about making dog treats look appetizing.
(Seriously. Why did a kids animated show have to make a treat for dogs look so good?)
Oh, you thought scooby snacks were supposed to be dog treats?
I’m pretty sure they’re called dog treats several times.
“Dog treats”, just like my buddy sells “gummies” and “candy”, right?
Like, I get it, haha funny weed in the food, but I also haven’t seen any evidence for it being what Scooby Snacks are “supposed to be”. I’m pretty sure that’s just one of the long-standing memes, like Fred and Daphne sneaking off for a quick fuck or Velma being a straight person.
Pretty sure Shaggy nabbed almost as many Scooby Snacks as Scooby did. At least in the OG series. In some of the sequels there were as many as 4 dogs competing for the Snax.
Honestly, only the movies ever really had something supernatural happen.
The rest of the time, it was always just… people.
No, there was also 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo and the Scrappy Doo latter seasons where the monsters just show up and chase them.
To be fair, it’s possible they were frauds too but without the rest of the cast, Shaggy and Scooby never figured that out.
Mystery Inc is also an exception, with it’s ghosts and it’s evil nazi parrot and the lovecraftian deity that wants to devour the universe
Scooby’s Razor: never assume supernatural causes for events that can adequately be explained by yet another greedy old white dude.
Even if it would have required supernatural intervention for old man Jenkins to do what we saw the ghost do even with a cheap costume, some pulleys and some glow in the dark paint.
I assume the villains are always caught in the end due to how exhausted they are by the chases.
This is zombie island erasure (huffs and puffs)
just kidding, I understand Dorothy’s point. Hell even in zombie island while the supernatural exists the gang was basically lovebombed and mislead into thinking the actual threat other guys
It’s been a while since I’ve seen any of the animated movies but I recall most of them having similar misdirects
Mystery Inc was a really good show. Best Velma.
Now that you mention it, it was pointed out the other day that she’s dressed up specifically as Mystery Inc Velma. Which makes it ironic that she’s saying the lesson is that the supernatural isn’t real when that’s the version where the supernatural was realist and most disturbing.
Wait if the supernatural doesn’t exist how do you explain the talking dogs?
Mad science, duh
Aliens.
Sci-fi exists. Supernatural doesn’t.
They did cross over with Supernatural, though, which was a pretty good time
The explanation is that it’s a cartoon, and sometimes cartoons are not beholden to the laws of reality.
[surprisedpikachu.jpg]
Scooby-snacks are REALLY good incentives during obedience camp.
They were teenagers in the 60s; connect the dots.
The alt text is confusing me.
Is it (and Joyce’s eyes looking towards the left) implying that Joyce is lying when she says her parents wouldn’t allow her to watch Scooby-doo?
Or that’s she’s lying about the reason why she didn’t watch it?
Or am I reading too much into it and there is no implied lie?
The implication is her mother was lying about why she banned Joyce from watching it
That may be what Willis is going for. But in reality, people like that (fundie religious and/or far right) often aren’t intentionally lying or being disingenuous. They just don’t know better – they’ve never seen things themselves, they’ve never investigated – they just heard from someone who heard from someone who…. And since it agrees with their preconceived notions that everything “out there” is bad, that’s good enough for them.
This is the exact reason Willis’ parents didn’t want him to watch Scooby Doo. In reality plenty of fundie religious and/or far right assholes lie all the time IN ADDITION to deeply, truly believed bullshit.
“Does this fit in with what i already believe?” is the test for new information used by the religious right (as inculcated by their preachers, because it makes the sheep easier to manipulate and profit from), and is the main reason why the US political scene is so polarized, and why the right keeps falling for just.the.stupidest things and causing real violence as a result.
If we could get their preachers to start inculcating them with the question “What is the evidence for this? instead, then we might start seeing some backing off and return to rationality. E.g. it’s possible to make rational arguments for right wing social and economic goals, it’s just that we haven’t heard any from them for many decades now.
Mind you, that’ll never happen because a preacher training his flock to ask for evidence is a preacher that’ll soon be without a flock. So they’ll never do it. A con man will never teach his marks to see through the con.
To be fair, “Does this fit in with what i already believe?” is basically the human default. Takes work to get past that at all and even then it’s usually only in isolated fields.
Sure, just like “eat fatty foods” is our natural default. We’re just seeing its consequences now is my point.
I have to wonder what Mama Brown’s childhood was like. I’m strangely imagining her raised by hippies and deciding she would annihilate all traces of pot, peace, and Eastern spirituality from her children’s lives.
Presumably Carol’s childhood was more-or-less the same as Willis’s mom’s childhood, since that’s who she’s based on, with some concessions to the floating timeline.
As I read it, the implied lie is by Joyce’s parents, lying about the reason they wouldn’t let her watch it. Joyce is looking left because she feels awkward about that realization.
Just that being misled by her elders all along, and losing faith in religion so it’s looking more like superstition.
Indeed- I feel like some commenters are being a little too literal. I don’t think Joyce is going “wait, is that the real reason”- I think she’s going “well that is uncomfortably appropriate…”
I’m not sure what’s funnier, Dorothy (and Fuckface) making staring directly through the 4th wall in the last panel, or Joyce pointedly avoiding doing so.
I don’t think Joyce’s mom was that deep I to thought and probably did think it encouraged the occult but maybe on subconscious level. Though Dotty’s point is assuming given the context. Also I wish I knew what fuckface is thinking if they’re like my cat they may be thinking I like this surface i am layong on and why has no one given me treats.
(note — accidental flag when hitting reply … no followup needed)
I wonder about that too. I also wonder if iguanas as a rule are generally that complacent about just standing atop ones’ head like that.
Also, I wonder about Fuckface’s caudal appendage. Most iguanas I’ve seen are about half tail, and they usually let it drag along behind themselves rather than hold it up in the air like a flag.
You better hope they are, because iguanas are either tree climbers or they hold on to rocks while being constantly battered by waves, so if Fuckface ever goes non-complacent it’s going to give somebody a lobotomy.
People obsessed with moral purity don’t put a lot of thought into this shit. They don’t care about how the depiction of a concept or an idea is treated, and what the underlying message is; just featuring that idea in the first place is “promoting” it. It’s putting that idea into someone’s head at ALL, which might lead to them thinking about it, which might lead to them thinking about it *wrong*. Critical thinking and moral purity wanking do not play well with one another.
Imagine if learning she was mislead about Scooby-Doo is the thing that tipped her over the edge into full blown Atheism
That’s the thing about Scooby-Doo: the bad guys in every episode aren’t monsters, they’re liars.
I can’t imagine how scandalized those critics who were relieved to have something that was mild enough not to excite their kids would have been if they had stopped for a second and realized what was actually going on. The very first rule of Scooby-Doo, the single premise that sits at the heart of their adventures, is that the world is full of grownups who lie to kids, and that it’s up to those kids to figure out what those lies are and to call them on it, even if there are other adults who believe those lies with every fiber of their being. And the way you win isn’t through supernatural powers, or even through fighting. The way that you win is by doing the most dangerous thing that any person being lied to by someone in power can do: you think.
–Ask Chris #81, “Scooby-Doo and Secular Humanism”, ComicsAlliance.com
A+ article, thanks for the link.
Very good art, but one thing i dont understand why Shaggy and Scoob “cowardiance” is bad thing. Even if ghost is normal human still its adult criminal who can be pushed to keep masquerade and kidnap or kill. If headless rider on a horse charge on me i run away even if i know its human
This is a big one that a lot of people seem to overlook. The gang gets away because they’re good at running fast and thinking on their feet, but there’s nothing to say that if they got properly caught (and didn’t escape), the “ghost” wouldn’t just kill them and dump the bodies in the nearest river. If anything, the bad guys have incentive to kill the kids so they can say “Look! The monster killed those kids! This place is too dangerous, but I’ll take it off your hands for a low price.” Shaggy and Scooby are still the only ones with their heads on straight, really.
I think that if Shaggy and Scooby were actually espousing ‘it’s not a ghost, but it’s still a dangerous maniac so being scared is still a correct thing’ that would be a different matter. The problem with Shaggy and Scooby’s cowardice is that it’s always a matter of them believing the hype: they’re too scared to even look.
That being the case, they’re genuinely very brave even though they’re constantly terrified of the wrong things. They never actually DO run away from their friends, and their usual role in the trap/final chase is BAIT. So it’s not great that they constantly fall for the lies and tricks, but they’re also consistently a really good example of the ‘you have to stand up even when you’re scared’ brand of courage.
well my problem with that is that when I watched it as a kiddy, the van’s inhabitant were all grown-ups to me.
See, Carol? You had absolutely nothing to worry about!
See that Joyce face in the last panel?
That’s what they mean by “The penny just dropped.”
Carl Sagan endorsed that view of Scooby Doo.
Shenanigans sisters! Let’s go on a mildly subversive adventure with a lizard.
This probably isn’t strictly relevant, but I feel like it needs to be posted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld7mo_r9PD8
Unless they are the Shaggy and Scooby stand-alone movies where supernatural very much Does exist XD
Poor Dorothy, everyone giving her crap for her costume lol
I think Joyce is more disappointed she dyed her hair.
Its still giving her guff for what she’s wearing
Yeah, a lot of those rules often don’t make sense and sometimes we just realize how relevant something is – like lying adults.
To be fair, in the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, Shag and Scooby unwittingly open a chest of demons, and are helped by a warlock voiced by Vincent Price.
these have a character that doesn’t exists, and sequitur do not exist themselves.
To make this revelation even better, this is only a few minutes after the revelation about the contents of Tangled mirroring her life.
This strip gets deeper and and deeper the more ponder it.
I wonder which Scooby-Doo series/movie Dorothy would pick to introduce Joyce to it.
Maybe there is a Dexter and Monkey Master crossover film.
…oof
“If you wanna watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo.
That show was so cool because every time there
Was a church with a ghoul or a ghost in a school
They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
The fucking janitor or the dude who ran the waterslide.”
Speaking of Scooby-Doo, anybody know the status of the Mystery Incorporated live-action show?
First episode is out on YouTube, iirc the second episode has been funded?
In my opinion it was… okay. There were a couple things I liked, but I am mostly in favor of ‘no actual supernatural in Scooby Doo, thanks’ so it’s starting off well behind with me.
Thanks.
It’s Mystery Inc., so we’re gonna get saddled with supernatural, I guess, even though I also prefer the “always actually an asshole in costume” series.
Cartoon a mystery Inc dud actual supernatural tolerably well, imo, by hooking the supernatural exclusively to the arc and series plot, while all (or nearly all) the cases of the wee, were assholes in costumes.
But yeah. The only thing I genuinely really liked in the Mystery Inc live-action was that they opted to go full steam on Fred and Velma buddying up first. It makes a lot of sense, and their relationship with each other directly is basically never explored anywhere else.
Something tell me that was even worse from Joyce’s mother point of view.
I’m actually a little surprised she couldn’t watch Scooby-doo. I figured it would be grandfathered in under the “We watched this when we were kids and we’re fine” clause.
That might require the application of conscious thought, which hasn’t been shown to be an ability Carol possesses.
I wouldn’t even see it that way. More childhood nostalgia overriding any issues she might have had.
Unless she was raised that way and didn’t see them. Or maybe been bothered by seeing them when the older kids were watching them.
Sorry, I may have misunderstood your first comment. I just tend to see Carol as the sort of person who’d stick her hand in a blender because she can’t see the blades clearly while they’re moving so she thinks there’s a shiny gas at the bottom of the pitcher or something, so I can’t really picture her doing anything that makes even a little bit of sense.
Growing up I always preferred Daphne… but hmmm yeah Dorothy as Velma…
Velma was always my favorite character.
she was cute, kinda hot, and wholesome
My childhood animated crushes Velma, Daria and Sailormoon.
Zoinks, that’s a real big scooby d-OOF
I love everything about this comic.
Sudden social anxiety on Dorothy’s part. She’s looking for Joyce because she’s the one she’s comfortable with. Recognizable, if a little unexpected. Aftermath of the kidnapping or something that’s always been there?
Oh dear. They just keep coming back to this.
Would fundamentalist Christians approve of a secular program that says supernatural beings don’t exist? Isn’t everything they believe in filled with supernatural beings, some of whom should be worshiped and others despised?
There’s absolutely no consistency in what gets a pass or doesn’t, they’re all completely bonkers in that regard.
That’s the joke.
That was one of the things I always liked about the old Scooby Doo cartoons, that the bad guys of the episodes were not actual ghosts, but usually some old guy pretending to be a ghost to trick people or whatever.
The theme of “When you chase monsters you may find only mostly rich white old men” could be framed as “the adults in your life screwed up by making you believe in made-up things”, but it’s really quite a far reach, Dorothy, even if you’re trying to relate the show to Joyce’s current life troubles. It’s even possible to read that line as Dorothy subtly, manipulatively preaching Atheism, though it doesn’t sound like her style.
it’s especially funny because dorothy is dressed as mystery inc velma, and mystery inc was definitely one of the more authentically supernatural-laden scooby doo series. it’s also funny because the series that these two would’ve grown up seeing the most of/most easily (“what’s new scooby doo,” “mystery incorporated,” “shaggy & scooby get a clue” and “be cool, scooby doo!”) didn’t have the antagonists skew as much towards old men, specifically. they were generally pretty wealthy or opportunistic and greedy, though.
It would be a reach if it wasn’t set up by “Mom said it promoted witchcraft and the occult”.
I wonder if we’re going to hear about Joyce’s parents divorce during this flashback. Probably not but I can pretend.
Well, except for the movie where there were actually zombies and witches. And the recent TV show where half the stuff was real, but that show is probably too recent for this strip. The movie wasn’t, though! Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. Blew my mind when the stuff was actually /real/, after all the times where it hasn’t been. And it kinda adds something to the lore; that’d explain why people so readily believe that the whatever is haunted, if things actually ARE sometimes haunted.