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Or she’s melting down having a surprise reaction at seeing her (what she thought was only) emotional confidant getting felt up by a different hussy. i.e. not herself.
Joyce, internally fuming, “That’s…that’s MY lab partner. You have your own lab partner. How dare you do science with my lab partner! I know I haven’t done science with him yet, but I might!”
We’re really getting mileage out if the lab partner metaphor in this comic. XD
Fume hood to remove dangerous gasses from the area. When I was making computer chips the tubs we used to clean some of the equipment had those, and had to be turned on and working anytime we used the cleaners.
Second hypothesis is they are standing on some kind of balcony on the second or third floor over a lobby of some kind and the railing is supported by a glass wall.
Perhaps the fact he assumed a butt grabbing pose implies consent but yeah Dina probably should’ve waited for verbal confirmation as well. These kids are still learning.
I think that the general rule would be to have explicit consent, obviously, but I kind of assume this is just being expedited for the comedic flow of the strip, and that we can safely assume Joe’s cool with this.
He definitely doesn’t seem bothered by it. Although by this point Dina has literally climbed all over him. They have a surprisingly comfortable physical dynamic despite the platonic friendship.
There are those of us who genuinely have little to no personal space and when two of us platonically collide it can weird everyone else the hell out.
I have a best friend, I’ve known him for 15 years, and both of us appreciate physical affection/cuddles/close touch. We will lay across each other, put our head sin each others laps, snuggle close and even have napped on the same bed before. We’ll walk down the street with his arm around my shoulders and mine around his waist, cuz the sidewalks of our town are narrow. Whenever I tell anyone else this they look at me like I’ve got two heads or ask if we’re fucking/cheating. We also don’t really ask for verbal consent for this as we’re both aware that the other is comfortable with it.
I had to train myself to be aware of others personal bubbles because I can’t apply my own personal bubble to anyone else. Finding someone else who is comfortable being touched/has no personal space who you trust is so relaxing. I guess I’m just saying, even without verbal affirmation, some of us touchy kinds don’t feel the need for it between friends.
I find it’s helpful in a lot of media to simply assume we’re not seeing every single bit of tedium that would happen in a normal conversation. Dina asked to touch Joe’s butt, and then we see her touching Joe’s butt with Joe having no negative reaction, we can intuit from there and our knowledge of these characters that consent was given.
And to be honest, the usual meaning of that is “I was hoping you’d ask, and I approve of it”
Sure, there’s many times it’s been used the other way around but those’re usually to subvert expectations, and those expectations wouldn’t exist without the usual meaning of approval~
Yeah, nonverbal consent is very definitely a thing. Sometimes gets overlooked. Sometimes by people being overzealous about following consent rules. More often by people attacking them.
Dinosaur jesus, who did not die for our sins, but instead died when a large rock collided with the planet showering the earth in a hail of superheated exploding rocks that rose the global temperature to unliveable degrees before the smoke and ash blocked the sun, causing the global temperatures to lower to unliveable degrees, sparing only smaller mammels and lizards that could scavenge and burrow to survive this harsh and unforgiving climate. He did not revive 3 days later.
Dina you homewrecker.
I mean to be fair Joyce hadn’t built that home to wreck yet. It’s more like in the planning stages. They haven’t even put down the foundation yet. They haven’t even started drawing out the architecture. She’s currently in a meeting talking to the investors to get them to consider funding her plans to START utilizing that plot for land development and housing. They’re somewhat interested but not sure about the return on investment so she’ll have to provide proof of concept. But once she does that they’ll start to work on that home.
With sufficient science, you could launch a projectile that eventually would crash into and destroy a house that hadn’t even been built yet. You’d need to know orbital mechanics, probably.
Oh, there is was a response. Just not the one you expected. Joyce has gone into…:
1. Rivalry mode.
2. My man mode.
3. Need private private time mode.
4. Not a permissible ship mode.
That’s more of a tech savvy old person meme, because most of the old people I know are unaware of the meaning of that. Because it has been a long time since the Abort? Retry? Fail? screen has been a thing. I haven’t seen one since Windows stopped being DOS based and moved to NT.
I think this is less about Joe and more about Becky projecting her insecurities. She’s feels like Dina’s asexuality means their physical attraction isn’t mutual. Joe’s just the guy that was around. She’s kind of created this hell for herself. If it wasn’t him it would be someone else or some other reason.
All of this. Everything is a potential threat when you’re specifically looking for one (especially when it’s undefined and could be anyone or anything).
I mean, their physical attraction *isn’t* mutual. Dina just doesn’t need to feel physical attraction to Becky to want to date her and even have sex with her. (And Becky really, really, really does not understand that, because she doesn’t understand asexuality, which makes it easy for her to believe there’s someone out there Dina WILL be sexually attracted to, someone who just isn’t Becky, and that it’ll all be over once Dina finds that person.)
I’m sure there’s baggage here related to the fact that she was in love with her (as far as we know so far) straight best friend. So I’m sure having a girlfriend who isn’t exactly sexually attracted to her calls back to those insecurities. It’s likely difficult for her to accept it’s just Dina’s orientation and not a threat to their relationship, rather than some foreshadowing that deep down Dina doesn’t really want to be with her and will also reject her.
Honestly for someone as insecure and emotional as Becky, Dina is kind of a perfect match. Dina’s just like “look, let’s test this,” instead of dancing around it and letting it fester into a thing that could destroy their relationship. Her openness and straightforwardness is probably a good balance for Becky.
Bonus: Becky has always had a fear of abandonment, but her mom’s suicide made her legit believe that she’ll always get abandoned (especially by those she loves most). Her dad’s death proved it to her.
It’s really just a matter of time.
I think it is mutual just in a different way than Becky understands. Dina has stated many times she wants to have sex with her. They have had sex, Dina has stated she enjoys admiring Becky’s naked body. It’s just not an inherently sexual desire. You can deeply enjoy things without being aroused. I’m not sure what else Dina can do at this point. Maybe this will always be a part of the relationship. I agree with Autogatos, Dina is a great match for Becky in this regard since she’s willing to be very straightforward in reassuring her.
Speaking as a person with often irrational spiraling anxiety married to a very calm, rational, sometimes overly unemotional person, this is often a very helpful dynamic. Dina’s dedication to being upfront and just resolving and testing things is great for diffusing Becky’s anxieties and insecurities.
I think it might just be funnier to have her in-panel with Joe and Dina and have that panic begin to mount, rather than having her isolated and bug-eyed with the red spiral background.
My theory is the fact that she’s not just scandalized, but also likely jealous, but not comfortable admitting to herself that she’s jealous and trying to ignore that feeling, is dampening her reaction somewhat.
Personally I suspect her jealousy is at least somewhat about the fact that Dina just casually requested to touch someone’s butt. Given that it’ll take a long while for Joyce to unpack her baggage (if she ever does) despite recognising how dysfunctional her upbringing is- this is something she has baggage about and everyone is being super casual about it. Like “I want to touch your butt for science” “I am surprised but am fine with this and am not reacting like it’s more than science” are both miles away from what Joyce could do… and I imagine that is not a thing she’s pleased about.
I imagine a monkey’s face could certainly redden from increased capillary blood flow under skin (which might occur due to increased body temperature, for example) but I don’t think they blush in same way we do – as an involuntary response to emotion.
Honestly the funniest part of this is how completely unbothered by this Joe seems to be. Just standing there getting groped with a totally blank face like “Nothing weird going on here, she said it was for science.”
I think Joe crossed some event horizon a while back where he is just incapable of being weirded out by anything anymore. Kidnapping? Sure. Superheroes? Ok. New emotionally-unstable stepsister? Why not. Lesbians groping me for science? Meh.
Honestly I get the impression that he doesn’t really view Dina sexually at all and previous strips have shown that he understands that Dina’s statements should be taken at face value and rarely if ever have hidden meanings. All of which is to say that if she comes up and asks to touch his butt for science, he assumes that science is in fact the only reason she would ask, and he himself gets nothing from it because it’s Dina.
So yeah ok why not, it’s not even arguably the weirdest thing she’s ever done to him before.
It’s hard to properly articulate this thought, but I think this is a combo of “Joe probably *would* go for Dina’s rigorous sexual scientific exploration, if she was serious about it and not in a committed monogamous relationship with someone else” (just based on his reaction to her hypothetical description of it, which was decidedly not negative) with “but he knows she is in a committed monogamous relationship and that she’s serious about the ‘for science’ part and that this is not going to escalate, so it’s low-stakes for him to agree”. Like, they’re not exactly friends, but they seem to be pretty straightforward and comfortable around one another.
Doing-science-with-a-girlfriend is the actual common factor.
I have to assume that after the next comic after the one above
(B: So does science give ya lady boners or not?
D: Needs more data.),
Dina got distracted by something else that kept her from gathering more data at that time.
The faces these last few strips have been par excellence.
Also, I just noticed that in the last panel it looks like Dina’s hat is trying to look into Joyce’s eyes with either verdictive glee or slavish stratification – both of which are deeply disturbing.
Yes, I’m sure you’re right. I note that this apparently instant response requires Joe to be very quick-witted. Implying he is quite intelligent – which is probably how Willis thinks of him, though it is not often clear.
I think it’s absolutely possible Joe did contemplate that Dina, being a) ace and b) in a committed relationship with a woman, would never ask to touch his butt.
Interesting. I mean, funny thing is, Joe would maybe be given more pause if Joyce had been the one to ask, since it’s different when it’s someone he’s actually got feelings for.
Also, Joyce would have entirely different and more complicated reasons than Dina and Joe knows that – even if he doesn’t know exactly what’s going in Joyce’s mind about him.
Praise for Willis!: wow there ius about 10 different things daves doing well, drawing wise last panel.
very Specifcally drawing Joe! the contrast and coloring on the shirt is great. Its the type of deep brilliant linework and color you did around 2010.
The Body mechanics are superb. The angle of the belt, the subtle translucense of the shirt, bith combining to imply the curve of the samll of back and thus his ass.
his subtle leaning forward. trhe turn oif his gaze. the arch if his back, how it combines in the sexiest Joe Picture ever, wearing full clothes.
havent figured out why he’s got landing gear for arms and wrists. This i can only assume is some sort of decepticon visual Pun, the meaning and sexiness I can only surmise is only available to diehardest robots in disguise fan.
It’s often worth looking at Willis’s drawing for things like the way Joe’s head and body move as he decides to present his butt to Dina. The positioning of his body sells his attitude every bit as much as his facial expressions and dialogue.
Look at panel 2 to start. The shoulder and arm on his right (our left). The shading on (under) the shirt follows exactly the outline of his body, implying the shirt itself is slightly translucent. If this was an artist’s error/drawing glitch it wouldn’t likely carry across every panel (or the previous comics) consistently.
The physical sleeve sits proud of the line of his arm yes? Like, you can follow his bicep up from his elbow and see where it enters his sleeve? And then the sleeve itself is wider. But there is shading in the sleeve, but it’s uniform, and it’s **inside** the lines of the shirt. Shading is usually on only one side, and continues to the outer edge, but here, there is a non-shaded area on the shirt, and the boundary between the shaded and non-shaded area of the shirt sleeve lines up **exactly** with his arm where it enters the sleeve.
Its actually sheer Black or deep violet. Clealry a Club shirt meant to glow in Blacklight while showing off the Goods. A hawaiin shirt but remade for nightlife
Its either double sided/ reversible or just double printed. The OTHER Lilac colored Flowers are visible from the opposites side where the shirt gathers at his arm, or their interior side ehere the shirt gathers at the small of his back .
If you blow this up it might help to help to see.
But obv if the shirt wasnt sheet or translucent you wouldnt be able to the its interior or opposite side.
Thats why some of the blossoms are darker, you are looking through it through a sheer black shirt
It’s interesting–in the past, Joe would’ve taken this scenario as carte blanche to hit on Dina, or (since she’s “taken”) at least be kind of puerile and gross in her general direction. It seems like he’s trying very, very hard to be neutral here and consider that that’s not what Dina’s asking for, which is kind of a huge step for him.
On a structural level, I really like the placement of dialogue bubbles around Becky’s head in panel one, eschewing the “…” we might expect from Becky there to instead let her face do the talking.
Also, great Joyce face in the last panel. A real hall-of-famer.
I think part of it is that Joe’s never really shown any attraction to Dina? I know he had a list, but I think that just because he’s attracted to women (and a lot of them) doesn’t mean that he’s going to want to hit on all of them.
And when you’re not attracted to somebody, a lot of your behaviours can change since you’re no longer consciously or subconsciously trying to display a certain level of behaviour.
(It also means Joe’s list was never a fair ranking, since he clearly has a type and that list was made through the biased lens of one person)
The idea that Joe is only purile around women he’s interested in is fairly easily falsifiable: there’s one sort of woman we know is definitively not his type, and that’s those in existing monogamous relationships.
…actually I went and found this link and realized actually, he’s fairly gross in his first two convos with Dina! Dina’s not especially bothered by it, sure, but that just makes it all the more remarkable that he’s consciously altered his behavior here.
In the strip Wack’d linked in fact.
Of course his “Do List” also has women with low ratings – Other Rachel, I believe. And Joyce was only “practically excised”, though the reasons for that were more complicated.
If Dina wasn’t on it at all, that probably does mean something. Not just that he saw her as not attractive, since that’s not a bar, but possibly that he saw her as a child back then? As many other people did. Just didn’t even register as a possibility.
I don’t think anybody ever claimed that Joe’s list was a fair ranking. Also, that is very far from being the biggest problem with it.
I agree that Joe not being attracted to Dina is a factor (although as others have said, he can be gross and sexist to women he’s not attracted to), but I think a bigger factor is that he knows for absolute certain that Dina is not attracted to him. (Yes, she doesn’t, which is why she’s experimenting, but he doesn’t know that.) And the biggest, of course, is what Wack’d said; he’s simply not the same person who wrote The Do List.
So this is how we get Joyce to realize she likes Joe, due to her feeling jealous here. I definitely did not see THIS as the route we’d take to get there, but I like it.
I don’t see it as jealousy, but as a violation of her carefully-constructed ideas of who should be with who. Remember her feelings of total shock when a character (I don’t remember which one, sorry) that she clearly decided was lesbian started getting bi-curious?
I’m not as deep into the lore as most of you, I’m probably mis-remembering this.
It was Ruth, and you’ve got it pretty much right. Well, except she wasn’t getting bi-curious, she’d always identified as bi, and had just failed to keep Joyce informed of this, on the grounds that it was none of Joyce’s business.
But yeah, I interprete this more as a “This thing that Should Not Be Happening is happening” state of shock. Especially since she knew Ruth and Jennifer had split, but this looks very much like Dina cheating on Becky.
The things Dina is ready to do for reassure Becky… so sweet. Luckily Joyce has arrived, now Dina can ask her to repeat the experiment, tell her what she’s feeling and compare the data. It would not be bad to involve Becky as well to get as many datas as possible.
Sometimes is hard to read a reaction of a person; you don’t get a cue about it and don’t know what to do.
Hope this don’t storm Becky and Dina relationship.
Well today marks my last year of being in the pre-Medicare age bracket, I’m turning 64 today. For some reason I have an irrational urge to yell at children on my lawn, irrational because there are no children playing outside in sight or sound.
Also Dina is best at blowing minds, Becky, Joe, and now Joyce are all flabbergasted at her touching Joe’s butt. For science, because as she noted in the last panel it does nothing for her.
Welcome to eligibility for evil socialized medicine. I worked for another three years and now wonder why. It’s confusing at first but less so than my employer provided insurance was. Hint: supplement rather than advantage plan.
Then again, responding “at your age I sure hope so” when someone asks me “can I use your bathroom” is one of my all-time favorite dad jokes. (Even though I’m not a dad, which makes telling it a faux pa.)
I continue to enjoy the relationship that’s developed between Dina and Joe, where they are both absolutely straightforward and face-value with each other, and there’s obvious affection, and even a shared humour there.
I mean, I would be one who would enjoy that – but I still do, regardless.
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AYE AYE AYE…. 🤯
Looks like Joe is in for quite the bizarre adventure!!!!
*plays “Awaken Pillar Men Theme” on hacked muzak*
Perfect comment, no notes.
Dinah may not be getting turned on by this interaction with Joe, but am unsure about Joyce’s reaction… xD
Dina: “Can I touch your butt for science?”
Joe: “Yare yare.”
JoeJo?
I get the feeling “Bloody Stream” would fit better.
Petition for “JoJo’s Bizarre adventure” to become the official name of the Joe/Joyce ship.
*Starts to play “roundabout ” on my music player*
Signature +1.
Signature +1
No reaction so far from Dinah, but is Joe’s man-pillar getting awakened?
so FAR
And yet so close!
As Dina’s lab partner, Becky had better be writing this down.
She’s too busy
jumping to conclusionsinternally exploring a hypothesis.Joyce is just made her science partner is doing science without her.
(Or more realistically, she’s mad her “besties” gf is touching other booty)
Or she’s melting down having a surprise reaction at seeing her (what she thought was only) emotional confidant getting felt up by a different hussy. i.e. not herself.
Joyce, internally fuming, “That’s…that’s MY lab partner. You have your own lab partner. How dare you do science with my lab partner! I know I haven’t done science with him yet, but I might!”
We’re really getting mileage out if the lab partner metaphor in this comic. XD
Dumbing of Age Book 13: Can I Touch Your Butt For Science?
Ding ding ding ding
This is the one.
Perfect
I endorse this idea.
This is the Way.
Every time they’re in the lab I instantly think they’re lining up to order food and those glass panels are the sneeze guard.
Ok so it’s not just me. I legitimately thought they were grabbing lunch before class or something.
Same, I thought they were in the dining hall/cafeteria too.
What is the blue glass/plastic supposed to be exactly anyways?
Some sort of lab safety equipment? I guess to stop people from being splashed by chemicals or something.
Fume hood to remove dangerous gasses from the area. When I was making computer chips the tubs we used to clean some of the equipment had those, and had to be turned on and working anytime we used the cleaners.
Second hypothesis is they are standing on some kind of balcony on the second or third floor over a lobby of some kind and the railing is supported by a glass wall.
I also thought that was a cafeteria.
As did I
oh. Oh! No kidding, I thought they were in the cafeteria too.
Let’s not forget what is important here is that Dina asked first.
Consent is important in both hanky panky and science.
Joe didn’t actually say yes. Technically.
Personally, with a response like that, I’d feel a need to confirm.
He does appear to be sticking out his butt towards Dina, which would be a very strange mixed signal to send following a request to touch said butt.
Yeah, that’s a pretty clear “go ahead and touch my butt” stance right there. Textbook, even
I don’t know what the hell kind of textbooks you’re reading but I would like to sign up for that class.
Perhaps the fact he assumed a butt grabbing pose implies consent but yeah Dina probably should’ve waited for verbal confirmation as well. These kids are still learning.
I think that the general rule would be to have explicit consent, obviously, but I kind of assume this is just being expedited for the comedic flow of the strip, and that we can safely assume Joe’s cool with this.
He definitely doesn’t seem bothered by it. Although by this point Dina has literally climbed all over him. They have a surprisingly comfortable physical dynamic despite the platonic friendship.
There are those of us who genuinely have little to no personal space and when two of us platonically collide it can weird everyone else the hell out.
I have a best friend, I’ve known him for 15 years, and both of us appreciate physical affection/cuddles/close touch. We will lay across each other, put our head sin each others laps, snuggle close and even have napped on the same bed before. We’ll walk down the street with his arm around my shoulders and mine around his waist, cuz the sidewalks of our town are narrow. Whenever I tell anyone else this they look at me like I’ve got two heads or ask if we’re fucking/cheating. We also don’t really ask for verbal consent for this as we’re both aware that the other is comfortable with it.
I had to train myself to be aware of others personal bubbles because I can’t apply my own personal bubble to anyone else. Finding someone else who is comfortable being touched/has no personal space who you trust is so relaxing. I guess I’m just saying, even without verbal affirmation, some of us touchy kinds don’t feel the need for it between friends.
This is a way I’ve heard it put. People are “dogs,” “cats,” or “birds.”
Dogs – Touch me all the time! I love touch! You don’t need to ask! Just come up and touch me!
Birds – Do not touch me. Ever.
Cats – I like touch sometimes, when I want it, in the specific ways I want it. Ask first, and expect the answer to be different each time.
It sounds like you are a dog.
“It sounds like you are a dog.”
Ba-dump tssshhh!
(jk I know you meant, “dog type person”, vice the innuendo of calling them a man-whore)
Ooh, that’s actually a really good way of putting it, I’m definitely going to steal that.
I am a cat by that analogy.
I find it’s helpful in a lot of media to simply assume we’re not seeing every single bit of tedium that would happen in a normal conversation. Dina asked to touch Joe’s butt, and then we see her touching Joe’s butt with Joe having no negative reaction, we can intuit from there and our knowledge of these characters that consent was given.
^
This.
Also, as has been noted, Joe is the one who moved so as to allow the butt-touchery to occur, turning his butt towards Dina and sticking it out
If he wasn’t consenting to it, Dina would’ve had to go behind him to grab it, and Joe would probably have a more startled expression
Thank you. Needed to be said.
Yeah I assume it happened off-panel and the third panel was just for Joyce reaction purposes
That, also maybe he’s saying “I thought you’d never ask” with a confirmatory inflection that we the readers can’t hear through text.
And to be honest, the usual meaning of that is “I was hoping you’d ask, and I approve of it”
Sure, there’s many times it’s been used the other way around but those’re usually to subvert expectations, and those expectations wouldn’t exist without the usual meaning of approval~
he turned and stuck his butt out, i think that’s a pretty clear nonverbal okay
Yeah, nonverbal consent is very definitely a thing. Sometimes gets overlooked. Sometimes by people being overzealous about following consent rules. More often by people attacking them.
Presumably he did off panel and it wasn’t included bc it would disrupt the comedic flow.
oh thank dinosaur jesus
Dinosaur Jesus HOMPKed for our dinosaur sins.
Dinosaur sins, like failing to put feathers on raptors?
Dinosaur jesus, who did not die for our sins, but instead died when a large rock collided with the planet showering the earth in a hail of superheated exploding rocks that rose the global temperature to unliveable degrees before the smoke and ash blocked the sun, causing the global temperatures to lower to unliveable degrees, sparing only smaller mammels and lizards that could scavenge and burrow to survive this harsh and unforgiving climate. He did not revive 3 days later.
OK that seems almost exactly like something Dina would say.
You’re really good!
↑ This ↑
Dinosaurs don’t have souls! Only humans have souls! Jesus didn’t die for dinosaur sin!
Dinosaur Jesus died for dinosaur sin.
Thank you so much for compiling that for poster(ior)ity.
pre-marital tushy grabby
Sudden Joyce!
JOYCE WANTS TO TOUCH JOE’S BUTT.
Can I Touch Your butt For Science? Would be a good title for the next DoA book.
Well maybe not for YOU, Dina. Right, Joyce?
Now from this viewpoint, it almost looks like pegging.
That’s part two of the experiment.
Folks, we’ve found our next Slipshine.
Joyce: “What?! *I* wanted to touch his butt! Roz told me it was … juicy … Whatever that means.”
Could Joe pull off short shorts that say Juicy on them? I mean I know he could put them on but could he pull them off?
I mean if he plays his cards right, he won’t be the one pulling them off.
I dunno, Joe works out a lot and is mostly muscle. I don’t think he’s gonna have a particularly juicy butt.
Dina you homewrecker.
I mean to be fair Joyce hadn’t built that home to wreck yet. It’s more like in the planning stages. They haven’t even put down the foundation yet. They haven’t even started drawing out the architecture. She’s currently in a meeting talking to the investors to get them to consider funding her plans to START utilizing that plot for land development and housing. They’re somewhat interested but not sure about the return on investment so she’ll have to provide proof of concept. But once she does that they’ll start to work on that home.
And Dina’s wrecking it.
With sufficient science, you could launch a projectile that eventually would crash into and destroy a house that hadn’t even been built yet. You’d need to know orbital mechanics, probably.
That’s a plot point several times in The Expanse, and yeah, you do.
It’s almost like Willis is taking a page out of your playbook, Yoto.
Naw. Because if I was doing this everyone here would be kissing and also touching each others butts.
–Tina Belcher
Yoto, do you write or read any of Tina Belcher’s fanfic?
No but I drew her mom fondling her aunt.
Especially since Joyce is *so* interested in butt estate, her own and others’ apparently
I usually zoom in before the page loads so I can be surprised more. This one got me when I finished scrolling, full on laughed out loud.
Also I love Dina and Joyce’s character growth with Joe so this is just… a very fun one.
This whole strip was too funny! Well done, Willis!
Oh, there is was a response. Just not the one you expected. Joyce has gone into…:
1. Rivalry mode.
2. My man mode.
3. Need private private time mode.
4. Not a permissible ship mode.
5. All of the above
Obligatory old person meme:
Joyce.exe has stopped responding.
Abort? Retry? Fail?
Because it had to be said (sad).
That’s more of a tech savvy old person meme, because most of the old people I know are unaware of the meaning of that. Because it has been a long time since the Abort? Retry? Fail? screen has been a thing. I haven’t seen one since Windows stopped being DOS based and moved to NT.
okay, yeah, glad dina’s doing away with this. i really could not understand how becky would reasonably assume dina was somehow attracted to joe.
I mean even Dina herself isn’t denying it’s a possibility.
I think this is less about Joe and more about Becky projecting her insecurities. She’s feels like Dina’s asexuality means their physical attraction isn’t mutual. Joe’s just the guy that was around. She’s kind of created this hell for herself. If it wasn’t him it would be someone else or some other reason.
All of this. Everything is a potential threat when you’re specifically looking for one (especially when it’s undefined and could be anyone or anything).
I mean, their physical attraction *isn’t* mutual. Dina just doesn’t need to feel physical attraction to Becky to want to date her and even have sex with her. (And Becky really, really, really does not understand that, because she doesn’t understand asexuality, which makes it easy for her to believe there’s someone out there Dina WILL be sexually attracted to, someone who just isn’t Becky, and that it’ll all be over once Dina finds that person.)
I’m sure there’s baggage here related to the fact that she was in love with her (as far as we know so far) straight best friend. So I’m sure having a girlfriend who isn’t exactly sexually attracted to her calls back to those insecurities. It’s likely difficult for her to accept it’s just Dina’s orientation and not a threat to their relationship, rather than some foreshadowing that deep down Dina doesn’t really want to be with her and will also reject her.
Honestly for someone as insecure and emotional as Becky, Dina is kind of a perfect match. Dina’s just like “look, let’s test this,” instead of dancing around it and letting it fester into a thing that could destroy their relationship. Her openness and straightforwardness is probably a good balance for Becky.
Bonus: Becky has always had a fear of abandonment, but her mom’s suicide made her legit believe that she’ll always get abandoned (especially by those she loves most). Her dad’s death proved it to her.
It’s really just a matter of time.
I think it is mutual just in a different way than Becky understands. Dina has stated many times she wants to have sex with her. They have had sex, Dina has stated she enjoys admiring Becky’s naked body. It’s just not an inherently sexual desire. You can deeply enjoy things without being aroused. I’m not sure what else Dina can do at this point. Maybe this will always be a part of the relationship. I agree with Autogatos, Dina is a great match for Becky in this regard since she’s willing to be very straightforward in reassuring her.
Playing on the rebuilt hacked Muzak:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI
People have crippling insecurities that don’t make sense. She’s also very young.
Anxiety ain’t never been rational bud
Speaking as a person with often irrational spiraling anxiety married to a very calm, rational, sometimes overly unemotional person, this is often a very helpful dynamic. Dina’s dedication to being upfront and just resolving and testing things is great for diffusing Becky’s anxieties and insecurities.
Somewhat surprised this wasn’t a full freakout panel.
Maybe she’s still unwell and too tired to fully flip her lid.
I think it might just be funnier to have her in-panel with Joe and Dina and have that panic begin to mount, rather than having her isolated and bug-eyed with the red spiral background.
I’m sure this will escalate tomorrow.
My theory is the fact that she’s not just scandalized, but also likely jealous, but not comfortable admitting to herself that she’s jealous and trying to ignore that feeling, is dampening her reaction somewhat.
Or as someone put above: her brain is currently in multiple conflicting states and has crashed. XD
Personally I suspect her jealousy is at least somewhat about the fact that Dina just casually requested to touch someone’s butt. Given that it’ll take a long while for Joyce to unpack her baggage (if she ever does) despite recognising how dysfunctional her upbringing is- this is something she has baggage about and everyone is being super casual about it. Like “I want to touch your butt for science” “I am surprised but am fine with this and am not reacting like it’s more than science” are both miles away from what Joyce could do… and I imagine that is not a thing she’s pleased about.
This is an aspect I had not considered but I think you’re right.
Joyce, jealous that she hasn’t been able to touch the Joe booty.
Why would she be jealous? It’s not like she wants to or anything.
We’re all jealous of that.
well, at least joyce will be distracted from any potential (physical) pain in this moment
Oh now Joyce blushes
I imagine a monkey’s face could certainly redden from increased capillary blood flow under skin (which might occur due to increased body temperature, for example) but I don’t think they blush in same way we do – as an involuntary response to emotion.
Bonobos seem to blush as an emotional response, but they can’t tell us their emotional state so it’s an educated guess at best.
Really? That’s cool.
Honestly the funniest part of this is how completely unbothered by this Joe seems to be. Just standing there getting groped with a totally blank face like “Nothing weird going on here, she said it was for science.”
I think Joe crossed some event horizon a while back where he is just incapable of being weirded out by anything anymore. Kidnapping? Sure. Superheroes? Ok. New emotionally-unstable stepsister? Why not. Lesbians groping me for science? Meh.
Joyce, on the other hand…..
Yeah Joe’s adventure is probably only gonna get more bizarre from this point on.
We can hope.
Maybe Dina can get Joyce to grope Joe’s butt for science, like, as a control group. She might be interested in some excuse to do that!
No longer will Joe refuse to dignify these ridiculous developments.
Honestly I get the impression that he doesn’t really view Dina sexually at all and previous strips have shown that he understands that Dina’s statements should be taken at face value and rarely if ever have hidden meanings. All of which is to say that if she comes up and asks to touch his butt for science, he assumes that science is in fact the only reason she would ask, and he himself gets nothing from it because it’s Dina.
So yeah ok why not, it’s not even arguably the weirdest thing she’s ever done to him before.
That was my thought. My favourite part of this strip is how completely non-chalant Joe is about all of this.
It’s hard to properly articulate this thought, but I think this is a combo of “Joe probably *would* go for Dina’s rigorous sexual scientific exploration, if she was serious about it and not in a committed monogamous relationship with someone else” (just based on his reaction to her hypothetical description of it, which was decidedly not negative) with “but he knows she is in a committed monogamous relationship and that she’s serious about the ‘for science’ part and that this is not going to escalate, so it’s low-stakes for him to agree”. Like, they’re not exactly friends, but they seem to be pretty straightforward and comfortable around one another.
I think Joe actually called it, back here:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/05-as-long-as-its-free/lessonplan/
Doing-science-with-a-girlfriend is the actual common factor.
I have to assume that after the next comic after the one above
(B: So does science give ya lady boners or not?
D: Needs more data.),
Dina got distracted by something else that kept her from gathering more data at that time.
Or in other words: It’s not pherjoemones.
The faces these last few strips have been par excellence.
Also, I just noticed that in the last panel it looks like Dina’s hat is trying to look into Joyce’s eyes with either verdictive glee or slavish stratification – both of which are deeply disturbing.
oh boy, here we go
Oooh the green eyed monster is awake in Joyce
Oscar the Grouch?
I think Cmasta is referring to the one from The Berenstain Bears.
A one eyed green monster? Are you looking for Mike Wazowski?
I read the original comment wrong. Mike Wazowski probably doesn’t fit these criteria, I have no idea what color his eye is.
It’s actually green!
That is a Nancy reaction if I have ever seen one
(and I approve
)
Oh boy, Joyce is gonna have a reaction because she came into this without any context isn’t she
It’s possible, depends on if she’s just been standing there, like they don’t seem to be whispering or anything.
I sort of just assume she might be having a reaction due to her and Joe’s ongoing “complicated feelings”, for lack of a better term.
Well, even then Dina might not tell her she’s testing what sets off her libido since her and becky finally hooking up is still a secret lol
[pedant mode:]
“I thought you’d never ask” is not the same as “I never thought you’d ask”
[/pedant]
One involves thinking, the other does not.
Agreed, though I assume he’s intentionally making a joke here, rather than clarifying after the fact.
Yes, I’m sure you’re right. I note that this apparently instant response requires Joe to be very quick-witted. Implying he is quite intelligent – which is probably how Willis thinks of him, though it is not often clear.
Yes, the inversion of the colloquialism “I thought you’d never ask” is indeed the basis of the joke.
I think it’s absolutely possible Joe did contemplate that Dina, being a) ace and b) in a committed relationship with a woman, would never ask to touch his butt.
Interesting. I mean, funny thing is, Joe would maybe be given more pause if Joyce had been the one to ask, since it’s different when it’s someone he’s actually got feelings for.
Also, Joyce would have entirely different and more complicated reasons than Dina and Joe knows that – even if he doesn’t know exactly what’s going in Joyce’s mind about him.
Dina, you have to wait for the IRB review.
I was expecting an IRB joke in the alt-text. I’m glad to see it in the comments.
I’ve been a lab rat since 2004 and even I had to think about that one. I must have signed off on a couple hundred IRB forms since then.
Bwahaahaahahahahahahah~~!!!
Be Careful What You Wish For Joyce. You want to leave your butt alone, so they got down to a different butt.
Praise for Willis!: wow there ius about 10 different things daves doing well, drawing wise last panel.
very Specifcally drawing Joe! the contrast and coloring on the shirt is great. Its the type of deep brilliant linework and color you did around 2010.
The Body mechanics are superb. The angle of the belt, the subtle translucense of the shirt, bith combining to imply the curve of the samll of back and thus his ass.
his subtle leaning forward. trhe turn oif his gaze. the arch if his back, how it combines in the sexiest Joe Picture ever, wearing full clothes.
havent figured out why he’s got landing gear for arms and wrists. This i can only assume is some sort of decepticon visual Pun, the meaning and sexiness I can only surmise is only available to diehardest robots in disguise fan.
ignore typos please. I have hand mobility issues
It’s often worth looking at Willis’s drawing for things like the way Joe’s head and body move as he decides to present his butt to Dina. The positioning of his body sells his attitude every bit as much as his facial expressions and dialogue.
Look again – that shirt is not translucent at all.
Look at panel 2 to start. The shoulder and arm on his right (our left). The shading on (under) the shirt follows exactly the outline of his body, implying the shirt itself is slightly translucent. If this was an artist’s error/drawing glitch it wouldn’t likely carry across every panel (or the previous comics) consistently.
I’ve been staring at the sleeve for 10 minutes, trying to figure out what you’re talking about. It just looks like a sleeve.
The physical sleeve sits proud of the line of his arm yes? Like, you can follow his bicep up from his elbow and see where it enters his sleeve? And then the sleeve itself is wider. But there is shading in the sleeve, but it’s uniform, and it’s **inside** the lines of the shirt. Shading is usually on only one side, and continues to the outer edge, but here, there is a non-shaded area on the shirt, and the boundary between the shaded and non-shaded area of the shirt sleeve lines up **exactly** with his arm where it enters the sleeve.
Its actually sheer Black or deep violet. Clealry a Club shirt meant to glow in Blacklight while showing off the Goods. A hawaiin shirt but remade for nightlife
Its either double sided/ reversible or just double printed. The OTHER Lilac colored Flowers are visible from the opposites side where the shirt gathers at his arm, or their interior side ehere the shirt gathers at the small of his back .
If you blow this up it might help to help to see.
But obv if the shirt wasnt sheet or translucent you wouldnt be able to the its interior or opposite side.
Thats why some of the blossoms are darker, you are looking through it through a sheer black shirt
It’s interesting–in the past, Joe would’ve taken this scenario as carte blanche to hit on Dina, or (since she’s “taken”) at least be kind of puerile and gross in her general direction. It seems like he’s trying very, very hard to be neutral here and consider that that’s not what Dina’s asking for, which is kind of a huge step for him.
On a structural level, I really like the placement of dialogue bubbles around Becky’s head in panel one, eschewing the “…” we might expect from Becky there to instead let her face do the talking.
Also, great Joyce face in the last panel. A real hall-of-famer.
I’m definitely liking Joe’s growth as a person and the unexpected wholesomeness of his interactions with Dina and Becky lately
I like both the content of your analysis and how you broke it up into subheadings.
I think part of it is that Joe’s never really shown any attraction to Dina? I know he had a list, but I think that just because he’s attracted to women (and a lot of them) doesn’t mean that he’s going to want to hit on all of them.
And when you’re not attracted to somebody, a lot of your behaviours can change since you’re no longer consciously or subconsciously trying to display a certain level of behaviour.
(It also means Joe’s list was never a fair ranking, since he clearly has a type and that list was made through the biased lens of one person)
The idea that Joe is only purile around women he’s interested in is fairly easily falsifiable: there’s one sort of woman we know is definitively not his type, and that’s those in existing monogamous relationships.
Here’s him smugly offering Raidah, pre-Jacob-breakup, access to his Do List.
…actually I went and found this link and realized actually, he’s fairly gross in his first two convos with Dina! Dina’s not especially bothered by it, sure, but that just makes it all the more remarkable that he’s consciously altered his behavior here.
Didn’t Joe once make the comment that his list “had actual grannies on it”?
In the strip Wack’d linked in fact.
Of course his “Do List” also has women with low ratings – Other Rachel, I believe. And Joyce was only “practically excised”, though the reasons for that were more complicated.
If Dina wasn’t on it at all, that probably does mean something. Not just that he saw her as not attractive, since that’s not a bar, but possibly that he saw her as a child back then? As many other people did. Just didn’t even register as a possibility.
I don’t think anybody ever claimed that Joe’s list was a fair ranking. Also, that is very far from being the biggest problem with it.
I agree that Joe not being attracted to Dina is a factor (although as others have said, he can be gross and sexist to women he’s not attracted to), but I think a bigger factor is that he knows for absolute certain that Dina is not attracted to him. (Yes, she doesn’t, which is why she’s experimenting, but he doesn’t know that.) And the biggest, of course, is what Wack’d said; he’s simply not the same person who wrote The Do List.
Ah, I see that Joe is a man willing to expand the boundaries of human knowledge. Admirable.
Your avatar is great here. What a good friend! (Although usually Danny is more cynical.)
At first we joked, but now…
“Can I touch your butt? For science?”
It’s real. The science of butt-touching truly exists
Joyce: Who’s the hussy now?!
I-
This is-
Hehehe this is gonna devolve into a trainwreck, isn’t it?
Suddenly Joyce!
Joyce does not want to touch Joe’s butt.
There’s absolutely no tushy envy happening here. None at all
In fact, it’s strange that so many people are asking her about Joe’s butt and the touching thereof.
Joyce’s “I don’t want to touch Joe’s butt” t-shirt sure is prompting a lot of questions already answered by her t-shirt
Thank you, that made me laugh out loud.
I am trying to figure out a joke which calls back to was conversation between Billie/Jennifer and Joyce about what a “booty call” was
Joyce : “I thought it was where you call someone up and say “hello I want to touch your buttt”
Unfortunately Joe’s line is already busy.
Also since nobody else said it *gasp* she touched the butt!
So this is how we get Joyce to realize she likes Joe, due to her feeling jealous here. I definitely did not see THIS as the route we’d take to get there, but I like it.
I don’t see it as jealousy, but as a violation of her carefully-constructed ideas of who should be with who. Remember her feelings of total shock when a character (I don’t remember which one, sorry) that she clearly decided was lesbian started getting bi-curious?
I’m not as deep into the lore as most of you, I’m probably mis-remembering this.
It was Ruth, and you’ve got it pretty much right. Well, except she wasn’t getting bi-curious, she’d always identified as bi, and had just failed to keep Joyce informed of this, on the grounds that it was none of Joyce’s business.
But yeah, I interprete this more as a “This thing that Should Not Be Happening is happening” state of shock. Especially since she knew Ruth and Jennifer had split, but this looks very much like Dina cheating on Becky.
Slight nitpick: Ruth discovered she was bi from her experiences with Billie, and had dated a dude before the comic started. Joyce, not knowing any of this, assumed Ruth had always been solely into girls and therefore made a big fuss of Ruth dating Jason.
I also thought she was jealous. She looks angry, not just shocked.
Yeah, I’m thirsting the jealousy train. In my case, I freely admit to wishful/hopeful thinking.
THIRDING. But I also stand by the mistype.
I totally didn’t get it was a mistype and thought it just my first time seeing that word used as a verb like that. Love it!
Now I want a verse where Dina is a detective and Joe is her Watson for some reason.
I would like a Sherlock who is autie but not assinine.
Yeah we really need more nonstereotypical rep.
This could shock Joyce back into the anti-science camp.
Or make her want to do more scientific exploration herself.
Ah… the quartet is complete!
Joyce’s surprised pikachu face was the perfect way to start the day. Thank you, Willis.
The things Dina is ready to do for reassure Becky… so sweet. Luckily Joyce has arrived, now Dina can ask her to repeat the experiment, tell her what she’s feeling and compare the data. It would not be bad to involve Becky as well to get as many datas as possible.
A fistful of Datas!
oh MY
There was an episode with a title like that, there was a holodeck malfunction and all the NPCs were Data.
Yup, with Sheriff Worf and Deputy Alexander.
Science !
Sometimes is hard to read a reaction of a person; you don’t get a cue about it and don’t know what to do.
Hope this don’t storm Becky and Dina relationship.
DINA: For science!
AGATHA HETERODYNE: You rang?
Dina is the Heterodyne! (Dina becomes a Queen)
Dina isn’t the Heterodyne, she’s one of the madgirls who threatens Trelawney Thorpe, Spark of the Realm.
No, really.
This is an absolutely unrelated (unrelatable?) musing, but the name “Heterodyne” has always annoyed me for reasons I don’t fully understand.
It just means “different frequency”. There’s also superheterodyne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz_mMLhUinw
I’m reasonably sure her last name is Larsen.
*audible gasp*!
D I N A.
Excellent comic. No notes.
An excellent comic all around. Joyce works well as a punchline.
Very accommodating of you, Joe! You’re a pal.
Agreed alt-text, Dina must endeavor. She must persevere and push his rear.
No response from Dina, at least…
LOL
This is the hardest I have ever laughed at a DOA strip, except for maybe Joyce and the vibrator.
If this whole sequence of strips were only to end up with Joyce’s reaction in the last panel, it would be worth it for me.
Well today marks my last year of being in the pre-Medicare age bracket, I’m turning 64 today. For some reason I have an irrational urge to yell at children on my lawn, irrational because there are no children playing outside in sight or sound.
Also Dina is best at blowing minds, Becky, Joe, and now Joyce are all flabbergasted at her touching Joe’s butt. For science, because as she noted in the last panel it does nothing for her.
Welcome to eligibility for evil socialized medicine. I worked for another three years and now wonder why. It’s confusing at first but less so than my employer provided insurance was. Hint: supplement rather than advantage plan.
And keep an eye out for those pesky kids.
Don’t know why but Joyce’s reaction looks adorable.
Alternative meme dialog for third panel:
“I consent!”
“I consent!”
“I don’t!”
There’s always a third person.
Most people just probably thought it was Jesus or something.
/popcorn-eating intensifies
I’m surprised Dina didn’t ask “may I” in panel 3.
Then again, responding “at your age I sure hope so” when someone asks me “can I use your bathroom” is one of my all-time favorite dad jokes. (Even though I’m not a dad, which makes telling it a faux pa.)
I continue to enjoy the relationship that’s developed between Dina and Joe, where they are both absolutely straightforward and face-value with each other, and there’s obvious affection, and even a shared humour there.
I mean, I would be one who would enjoy that – but I still do, regardless.
Man, I really hope this one makes it as a bookmark.
And now Joyce is jelly.