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Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Beeserker
TJ Cordes
This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
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Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
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After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
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Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Mac Hall
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The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
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Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
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“look, idk how I can ask you, literally, when was the last time I made fun of you–bc I literally DO NOT REMEMBER such a thing–WITHOUT it sounding sarcastic”
lol when i was in school i kinda had a monotone voice when i was calm so ppl knew i was sarcastic by /what/ i said rather than my actual tone (tho that said i didn’t really get too ‘sassy/snarky’ among my group of friends [i don’t remember being esp. sarcastic/what i said but one time i said an off the cuff(?) thing that was ‘let slide’ but if it was someone else they would’ve gotten in trouble for it with the teacher])
joking around with friends for fun is one thing, but the ones that don’t ‘clarify’ it under a guise of like being mean/passive aggressive/getting away with an ‘insult’ that might fly over some ppl’s heads would be kinda rude, but it would be a pain in a more professional setting
Perhaps, but at the cost of the majority of people being significantly more annoyed every day. “Yeah I know you were being sarcastic, asshole, shut up”
Based on the preponderance of requests for clarification versus the utter lack of complaints about /s being used on reddit, I doubt that the folks offended by /s are as legion as you are imagining.
Yeah “slash-ess” is like a programming switch. The implication being it’s a shorthand denoting when the sarcasm ends. Like a terminated html tag. Which brings us to “how to make it italic”, which is moot, but to answer anyways. The supported html tags are below thr comment window, but to spell “is” in italic, just use the html markup:
I think she’s also lost a lot of self-esteem with having everything she believed to be true crumble out from under her, and kinda feels she deserves mockery.
Also worth remembering that she was brought up in Persecution Complex: The Religion. On some not-particularly-healthy level, being made fun of is actually affirming to her.
I mean, she also had Becky as a best friend growing up. Who admittedly to basically pushing Joyce’s buttons on occasion to get her to make funny faces on reaction.
I would bet cash money that Joyce got teased a lot by her family for her food aversions. We know for a fact John is enough of an asshole to make digs about Joyce still ordering off the kids menu, but knowing how those kinds of family dynamics play out, it was probably not just John, when she was growing up. Joyce is *very* insecure about her discomfort with food, absolutely has internalized it as a personal failing and a sign of immaturity that she has to overcome to be “normal” and earn the respect of the people around her. (One of the many things that endeared Jacob to me in their earlier interactions was a willingness to meet Joyce on her own terms on that kind of thing—giving her low-stakes validation when she was proud of herself for ordering noodles and meatballs, meatballs NOT on the side, without ever indicating that he thought that it was something that she *ought* to be doing.)
Oh yeah, for sure. Because if she does get that diagnosis, if she reflects back, a lot of what folks made fun of her for was her autism, they just didn’t know. It’s hard to trust that people just won’t do that now that they know there is a reason. And she’d unfortunately be probably right.
Indeed. While I am very smart and well-informed, and thus understood this joke perfectly well, we wouldn’t want the less-informed out there to feel left out, would we?
At least Joe is trying, not exactly the best method, but he is trying. I have a theory that he and Joyce will be doing a horizontal tango in the near future.
Well, their near future, we probably won’t see it until 2033
At the moment, Joe seems to be trying to be and actual friend to her. I don’t know if that is his end goal or not. Right now though, it seems to be he just wants to be her friemd.
He has an openly acknowledged crush on her, but very, very confused feelings about whether he wants to pursue it with her (at least in part because he things he’s not good enough for the person she’s becoming, possibly also because I think he’s not sure whether she *would* reciprocate). I think right now he just wants to be friends and hang around her because he likes her, and he’s trying to shove the romantic attraction down and ignore it when they interact.
Sidenote, is Joyce really “short?” I never pictured her as being particularly vertically challenged and always imagined her being of fairly average height. Meanwhile Joe is basically a tree and I’d imagine everyone is short compared to him.
My memory is that Joyce is 5’4″. Dorothy as well I think. Walky and Sal are 5’7″. Joe’s height has not been mentioned, nor Sarah’s, but maybe 5’10” (remember the jugs).
Joyce has some cool jug-shoes Carla made her, for showering. They make her taller, but I don’t think the connection between Joe’s height and the jugs is entirely linear.
It wasn’t about Joe being 5’10” but my guess for Sarah. When Joyce was wearing the prototypes Sarah was surprised to see Joyce looking her straight in the eye.
It’s quite unfortunate. Between Joyce’s fundamentalist brainwashing and now her autism, her friends took every opportunity to make fun of her. An unwise choice on their behalf, and these are the consequences.
Oh well. Even when the world just doesn’t want to play fair, at least now she has her own comic world that she can make however she pleases. She’ll eventually get fans who basically worship her. Maybe a few of them will even make her fan games. Who knows?
I mean, I get what you’re saying, but it’s not like they singled her out. They poke fun at each other, too, and she’s not above making comments with various degrees of seriousness. Like, think of any number of things she’s said about Walky.
She should probably wait until the cramps stop trying to murder her. I don’t think she’s got it in her to jump high enough to reach the appropriate bones.
I don’t think it’s that, exactly, like I feel like it’s one of those neurosis that is still present and colors his actions, but it’s not something he’s immediately in a position he can do much about it.
Yeah, that. There’s not an easy fix for Joe’s issues. It’d a slow burn even if this comic didn’t operate at a slow pace to begin with. I don’t think it got dropped, I just don’t think it’s something that goes away after a few strips of it coming up in the first place.
Joe might be a little insensitive over Joyce’s distress here, but he’s definitely handling this way better than anyone else in Joyce’s friend circle, and I love to see it.
IDK how much joe knows about the subject but it’s good that he interprets it as ‘good news’ even if it’s just so joyce can know/understand more about herself rather than ‘my condolences
I can understand why Joe’s non-reaction is throwing her, though, given the assorted reactions of her friends, each of whom found a *different* way to make her feel intensely self-conscious about it. She’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.
i mean, i def wouldn’t turn down cake/it’d def make most ppl with even a slight sweet tooth feel better unless the diagnosis was “diabetes” or like “you need to cut out carbs/sugars or your liver/kidneys/etc” will shut down lol
It’s been about 5 years now of comics, that the Joyce/Joe comics are the generally best/most positive, with the fewest problems. As such, while I would love to see their dynamic focused on more, I fully expect that tomorrow’s strip will whiplash us off to another pair, because we can’t have too much positivity…
IDK, Sal and Danny have at least been in the running recently. Also, while I definitely appreciate some good, wholesome content every now and then, I also live for the drama. INJECT IT DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS! (In the comic proper, mind you; I could do with less drama in the comments section.)
well, can’t tell for sure what it’s about but even if you’re not on patreon you can still click the ad in teh corner and see a ‘blurry’ version of it lol
I do this almost every day. It’s a zoomed-in, dim, blurred version of the middle half of the strip. You can’t read dialogue, but you can tell which characters are present except in very wide shots.
Honestly I’d prefer if they didn’t get together and just remained as friends. I know it’s cute and all, but they bounce off each other pretty well just like this.
We also don’t have that many M/F close friendships in the strip that don’t eventually go into kissyface. Sal/Danny are now a thing, Danny/Amber was a thing, etc. The closest otherwise is Walky/Jennifer.
If we were talking about a different couple of characters, I might agree. But the physical attraction between Joe and Joyce has always been present and always been mutual, and it’s not even a question of whether they might develop kissy-face feelings in the future—they already have ‘em, and are just not acting on them at present for a variety of good reasons.
I had a longer comment about those reasons, sigh, but the webpage spontaneously reloaded before I hit enter, and it’s lost to the aether.
Joe Rosenthal: Indomitable Sex Monster, Second Worst Brother (ahead of Faz), and apparently the most neurodiversity-positive (I couldn’t think of a better term) character in the entire strip thus far.
Can we agree that Faz is also on the ND spectrum? Like, maybe a third to half of his behavior can be laid at the feet of his being non-typical for whatever reason.
Faz is really traumatized. Do you have to be born with an unusual brain to count as neurodivergent, or can kids in the middle of intense ongoing trauma count as neurodivergent, too?
Kids in the middle of intense ongoing trauma almost inevitably wind up with mental illnesses (at least a mood disorder but very often a personality disorder, C-PTSD, dissociative disorder, a whole bunch of things have their roots in childhood trauma!) so it’s sadly almost a moot question?
Hoping Joe does O.K. in the future. I wish more people saw that he was trying to genuinely change, but not a single one seems to notice or they don’t care at all.
Yeah, he’s trying to obscure it and seems to get uncomfortable if people draw much attention to it. I’m sure Danny’s probably cognizant of it to an extent, but most people just don’t really see it.
Yeah, being simultaneously ashamed of the person you were/are seen as by others AND embarrassed of the kind of person you’re trying to be is a pretty tough spot to be stuck in.
I’ve argued as recently as yesterday that both Joyce and Joe have a lot of growing to do as individuals before I think they could be a viable long-term romantic couple, and I stand by it.
*But* also I think it’d be real sexy if Joyce climbed Joe like a sprightly squirrel alighting a mighty oak right now.
I’m glad you didn’t specify which half, since without knowing which half you disagree with, I can imagine your support for both, which is almost the same as if you’d said, “I agree with you completely.”
No no – the comment undeniably exists, just as the box containing the metaphorical cat exists in the thought experiment. The thing suspended in quantum uncertainty is Yotomoe’s agreement.
I actually looked up Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle before I posted my above reply, before I realized I did *not* understand Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle well enough to make a joke about it.
Poor Joe! Joyce is really putting him through it. Has he ever actually done anything to warrant the disgust and dislike from her? He keeps kinda bending over backwards for her.
Hopefully she realizes it…
Joyce is fully aware of how good Joe is to her. Unfortunately she is struggling extremely hard to reconcile her sexuality and feelings for him while also being absolutely miserable on her period. Let’s not forget also, that she’s still in the dead middle of a belief-based identity crisis.
Her closest friends have been; to quote her, “up her ass”. A stance I agree with her on, even though I also think they were doing the right thing ultimately. They did a good thing for her, but at the same time they were pushy to the point of extreme for something that almost certainly wouldn’t help her right away.
Oh right, her parents’ marriage also recently fell apart and she got a possible diagnosis for something she probably thinks is one of the worst things ever. Religious circles are REALLY hard on autistic people.
Joyce has been through a LOT lately, and ragging on Joe, someone she clearly trusts a lot is definitely one of her coping mechanisms.
The point is, if you mean Christianity (or whatever specific sect you may be referring to), say Christianity, not religion in general. The non-Christians get a bad enough rap without being accused of Christianity’s failings.
It’s a strip about Joyce, the probably-autistic former fundamentalist. Do we really need to add extra qualifiers and disclaimers when the context is at the top of the page? I struggle to imagine anyone is thinking of Shinto when Joyce is the topic of discussion and the word “religion” comes up.
Honestly.. Yeah kinda? The last time they seemed to get really close was the texting over break, which was followed by Joe giving her the cold shoulder when they came back to school and then ditching her for a hookup when confronted about his feelings irt her and Jacob.
So her frostiness is definitely not unwarranted. She doesn’t know if he’s gonna run off on her again.
So I recently started rereading DoA, just hit the 4 year anniversary, and to be honest, most of the Joyce-Joe interactions have been Joe making fun of her. The turn to a more kind Joe is kinda recent, there’s a lot of history and first impressions to work thru.
Love how Joyce is still freely offering up personal information and updates about her life that she has yet to share with Becky, mind you, while still accusing him of wanting to belittle her. Because regardless of everything she does want to share it with him.
Then there’s Joe’s attempt at disproving the accusation by telegraphing in the most passive, non-teasing way possible that he isn’t trying to ridicule her without saying so flat out (because that’s more vulnerable than he’s ready to or knows how to be).
These two, man!!!! They value each other so much but are so afraid of acknowledging it!
[imagine, if you will, that one viral three-panel comic about the dog playing fetch] rewards of being loved?? NO MORTIFYING ORDEAL OF BEING KNOWN!!! ONLY REWARDS OF BEING LOVED
i just. with these.
look at her like ‘I am revealing vulnerabilities but being like, thorny about it, cos I don’t Exactly recognise how/why/that I trust you so much.
That’s a big deal! my psych suggested autism and TWO people know and I raised it with them quite similarly. like its Just Another Thing, gawd.
I just. these lil bois
Very different situation. I’m trying to imagine how Joyce would react if Dorothy’s response to her completely freaking out about her autism diagnosis was “Neat”. She probably wouldn’t think Dotty was being sarcastic, but I’m not sure what she would think.
Honestly, I’m not even sure how I’d react if someone reacted to being told I was autistic with “Neat”, whether I was freaking out or not.
I mean, I wouldn’t know what the hell else to say. From my perspective, nothing about you as a person has changed. Most testimonials I see from adult autism diagnosees say that it was a huge, life-changing weight off their life to get diagnosed and have an explanation for this thing or that thing. It’s not like you can catch autism. If someone is telling me they’re autistic, they are exactly the same person I was friends with before that conversation. I can see having to fake one more intense archetypal response or another, based on the context of the person’s emotional strife; but, “neat” is, as far as I can tell, the only real response to have that actually makes sense.
Said it yesterday, Joe coming in at Joyce’s healthiest relationship right now. I’d say walky is a close second. (I’m going off from the start of spring semester)
Honestly, other than lack of convincing Joyce he’s not sarcastic and not checking in on how she’s feeling… not an inappropriate reaction. In my opinion, as someone figuring the autism shit out in my thirties (along with my husband- forties- and best friend, sixties.) “Congrats on starting to make sense of how you function” is… well, it’s hard to phrase well but not an inappropriate message.
Yea, it’s difficult processing it yourself. I was diagnosed when I was a toddler but didn’t really face it til I was 18, and it’s a lot to deal with how others view you and whether that changes who you are
Even now at 30 I’m still processing and while more confident in how I talk about being autistic, it’s still difficult
And whilst I think we autistics deserve our existence as margenlised people respected, I understand that it’s difficult to comprehend how to approach it considering how much ableism prevents people from understanding it’s not about intelligence but simply one way of describing different brains communicate and connect in specific ways
Also the variety of subjectivity that we all exist in
I was panicked that my 7-year-old might freak out during the face melting scene in Indiana Jones but she said "I guess he shouldn't have opened that" as seriously as possible and I've been crying laughing for 10 minutes
look i have a lot to say about this beetle bailey strip okay
anyway, nobody's hands reach their own crotches while their arms are fully extended, so plato only has to bend his elbows like 10 degrees to put his hands on his hips
not a lot to say about this mary worth other than i was curious how you make vegan lasagna and i looked it up and received psychic damage from three-to-four different revulsions/phobias
today in #9chickweedlane i learned that despite being ostensibly new yorkers, the characters in this strip sure like to talk about british royalty all the time
For April's second bonus strip, we see ROBIN in an unused strip that would've run April 16! But didn't! Read this bonus strip and hundreds of previous at the Dumbing of Age Patreon: patreon.com/dumbingofage
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CBS on the cardinals: "One thing we know they're not doing is checking Instagram because their devices have all been confiscated. I believe the kids call it rawdogging."
if you want to know my secret to finishing 6 strips in two days, it's -- you know it -- autism and blaring NES Ducktales Moon Theme nonstop for 36 hours, but i repeat myself
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It's nigh two minutes on two Generation Two toys that are too expensive, the unreleased Laser Cycles SOUNDWAVE and JAZZ! Man I hope we get a Legacy-molded Soundwave bike someday, but I ain't holding my breath.
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“my fives are up here”
…
“look, idk how I can ask you, literally, when was the last time I made fun of you–bc I literally DO NOT REMEMBER such a thing–WITHOUT it sounding sarcastic”
Joe just need to start saying “/s” after saying something sarcastic, so people will know.
If only more people would do that, it would make life so much easier.
I can promise that I am willing to say this, and to limit the number of times I say it sarcastically to only 40-60% of the time.
(The meta, it is just too tempting.)
lol when i was in school i kinda had a monotone voice when i was calm so ppl knew i was sarcastic by /what/ i said rather than my actual tone (tho that said i didn’t really get too ‘sassy/snarky’ among my group of friends [i don’t remember being esp. sarcastic/what i said but one time i said an off the cuff(?) thing that was ‘let slide’ but if it was someone else they would’ve gotten in trouble for it with the teacher])
joking around with friends for fun is one thing, but the ones that don’t ‘clarify’ it under a guise of like being mean/passive aggressive/getting away with an ‘insult’ that might fly over some ppl’s heads would be kinda rude, but it would be a pain in a more professional setting
Perhaps, but at the cost of the majority of people being significantly more annoyed every day. “Yeah I know you were being sarcastic, asshole, shut up”
Based on the preponderance of requests for clarification versus the utter lack of complaints about /s being used on reddit, I doubt that the folks offended by /s are as legion as you are imagining.
Context: cooking scrambled eggs
Dialogue: “Sarcasm: would you like an omelette?”
Took me a bit, trying to figure out how putting ‘is’ at the end would denote sarcasm, and how you made it italic before I realized it was slash s
Yeah “slash-ess” is like a programming switch. The implication being it’s a shorthand denoting when the sarcasm ends. Like a terminated html tag. Which brings us to “how to make it italic”, which is moot, but to answer anyways. The supported html tags are below thr comment window, but to spell “is” in italic, just use the html markup:
<i>is</i>Oh, Joe.
I like that Joyce can open up to Joe and I think Joe will not betray that trust.
I’m not humming the Ranma 1/2 theme to myself, I’m not humming the Ranma 1/2 theme to myself, YOU’RE humming the Ranma 1/2 theme to yourself
Which one? Yappa Paa? Sweet Memories?
Ya pappa ya pappa ii shan ten…
Oh absolutely Yappa Paa
I think Joyce doesn’t trust people not to make fun of her since it’s a familiar dynamic she can fall back on.
I agree.
I think she’s also lost a lot of self-esteem with having everything she believed to be true crumble out from under her, and kinda feels she deserves mockery.
Also worth remembering that she was brought up in Persecution Complex: The Religion. On some not-particularly-healthy level, being made fun of is actually affirming to her.
I mean, she also had Becky as a best friend growing up. Who admittedly to basically pushing Joyce’s buttons on occasion to get her to make funny faces on reaction.
Yup. :\
I would bet cash money that Joyce got teased a lot by her family for her food aversions. We know for a fact John is enough of an asshole to make digs about Joyce still ordering off the kids menu, but knowing how those kinds of family dynamics play out, it was probably not just John, when she was growing up. Joyce is *very* insecure about her discomfort with food, absolutely has internalized it as a personal failing and a sign of immaturity that she has to overcome to be “normal” and earn the respect of the people around her. (One of the many things that endeared Jacob to me in their earlier interactions was a willingness to meet Joyce on her own terms on that kind of thing—giving her low-stakes validation when she was proud of herself for ordering noodles and meatballs, meatballs NOT on the side, without ever indicating that he thought that it was something that she *ought* to be doing.)
Yep.
She is after all, inescapably her.
Oh yeah, for sure. Because if she does get that diagnosis, if she reflects back, a lot of what folks made fun of her for was her autism, they just didn’t know. It’s hard to trust that people just won’t do that now that they know there is a reason. And she’d unfortunately be probably right.
Dorothy might become President but Joyce, at this rate, could be Governor of Delaware.
John Carney?
I definitely understood this very funny joke, but could you explain it for the dumb people who aren’t me and didn’t get the joke
Indeed. While I am very smart and well-informed, and thus understood this joke perfectly well, we wouldn’t want the less-informed out there to feel left out, would we?
I _think_, maybe_ the joke is predicated more on taking the piss out of delaware.
Like in Wayne’s World.
At least Joe is trying, not exactly the best method, but he is trying. I have a theory that he and Joyce will be doing a horizontal tango in the near future.
Well, their near future, we probably won’t see it until 2033
Joe really is trying.
At the moment, Joe seems to be trying to be and actual friend to her. I don’t know if that is his end goal or not. Right now though, it seems to be he just wants to be her friemd.
He has an openly acknowledged crush on her, but very, very confused feelings about whether he wants to pursue it with her (at least in part because he things he’s not good enough for the person she’s becoming, possibly also because I think he’s not sure whether she *would* reciprocate). I think right now he just wants to be friends and hang around her because he likes her, and he’s trying to shove the romantic attraction down and ignore it when they interact.
I really love these two together. How much Joyce trusts him is so sweet.
And she brings out the best in him, with her directness.
Unless you’re being mean about them being short. Then you sarcastically get on the ground and hold your hand adjacent to the floor.
I’ve somehow never seen this before. Thank you.
Sidenote, is Joyce really “short?” I never pictured her as being particularly vertically challenged and always imagined her being of fairly average height. Meanwhile Joe is basically a tree and I’d imagine everyone is short compared to him.
To Joe’s distorted perspective? Joyce is absolutely short. I’m surprised he can even see Dina from up there.
Eyes of a frickin’ hawk on that man, I swear.
My spouse is 6’7. I’m 5’11. He calls me short constantly.
I was 5’10” before the wreck, now closer to 5’8″, my wife was 5’5″ when we got married. 5’11” is on the tall end of the bell curve for women.
My memory is that Joyce is 5’4″. Dorothy as well I think. Walky and Sal are 5’7″. Joe’s height has not been mentioned, nor Sarah’s, but maybe 5’10” (remember the jugs).
I was remembering the wrong jugs for a minute and got very confused.
Is there such a thing as “wrong jugs”?
“Wait, which jug did I just drink out of?”
But seriously, what’s the “jug” connection to Joe being 5’10”?
Joyce has some cool jug-shoes Carla made her, for showering. They make her taller, but I don’t think the connection between Joe’s height and the jugs is entirely linear.
Yeah, I knew about the jugs – I just didn’t remember any connection with Joe.
It wasn’t about Joe being 5’10” but my guess for Sarah. When Joyce was wearing the prototypes Sarah was surprised to see Joyce looking her straight in the eye.
You’re not the only one.
That strip ans the one after it are peak DOA comedy.
I liked Sarah’s face in the last panel of that one.
All the faces in that strip are gold, but Sarah’s is perfect.
Joyce is 5’4″ per https://walkypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Joyce_Brown
Joe has been described as towering sorta, paraphrasing/don’t remember exactly what dina said
And lol could be easily climbable haha
Dina has done that experiment.
Ammunition, thank you
It’s quite unfortunate. Between Joyce’s fundamentalist brainwashing and now her autism, her friends took every opportunity to make fun of her. An unwise choice on their behalf, and these are the consequences.
Oh well. Even when the world just doesn’t want to play fair, at least now she has her own comic world that she can make however she pleases. She’ll eventually get fans who basically worship her. Maybe a few of them will even make her fan games. Who knows?
I mean, I get what you’re saying, but it’s not like they singled her out. They poke fun at each other, too, and she’s not above making comments with various degrees of seriousness. Like, think of any number of things she’s said about Walky.
“High fives? No thank you. I prefer my fives sober, please”
That’s funny! ;-D
She has to be sober, now that she’s no longer high on Jesus Christ, her lord and savior.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/high/
Jesus Christ is a hell of a drug. I saw it almost put a guy in a coma. But he woke up 3 days later.
I hear you can’t even inject pure Jesus w/out Fentanyl poisoning these days.
Make sure to always test your Jesus before using. Dealers will try to cut it with all kinds of dangerous stuff.
You haven’t really been able to get the pure Jesus for a couple thousand years.
I’d rather much have Silphium than Jesus, really.
Straight Edge Five!
okay joyce you have a problem. girl. if you don’t jump his bones now, I AM GOING TO
I mean, this is Joe; if that ends up being a deal breaker, this thing’s never gonna happen.
She should probably wait until the cramps stop trying to murder her. I don’t think she’s got it in her to jump high enough to reach the appropriate bones.
I like this response. Joyce could use a little positivity that being / getting diagnosed as Autistic isn’t actually bad or shameful.
Yeah same.
Very true. I didn’t get diagnosed until I was 45, and it was one of the best things to happen for me. I finally had answers and I felt vindicated.
Yes, I was diagnosed in February of this year at age 33, and it’s nice to finally understand myself better.
He’s right you know.
That part in Panel 1 sounds familiar
It’s only sarcastic, until you have the jumping ability of a volleyball player.
Close friends do pick up speech patterns and turns of phrases from each other. Maybe Joyce got it from Dorothy.
I appreciate the effort Joe is putting in even if it’s not working.
Still hoping Joe’s self loathing get addressed and resolved. I feel like that was just dropped on us, played for laughs, and forgotten.
I don’t think it’s that, exactly, like I feel like it’s one of those neurosis that is still present and colors his actions, but it’s not something he’s immediately in a position he can do much about it.
Yeah, that. There’s not an easy fix for Joe’s issues. It’d a slow burn even if this comic didn’t operate at a slow pace to begin with. I don’t think it got dropped, I just don’t think it’s something that goes away after a few strips of it coming up in the first place.
Seconded. I look forward to seeing him make more progress, even if it seems everyone (including him) doubts he can.
Joe actually trying and succeeding at being sincere is so nice to see.
Joe might be a little insensitive over Joyce’s distress here, but he’s definitely handling this way better than anyone else in Joyce’s friend circle, and I love to see it.
IDK how much joe knows about the subject but it’s good that he interprets it as ‘good news’ even if it’s just so joyce can know/understand more about herself rather than ‘my condolences
Yup. From this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib56g2DsX-s the best reaction is just acknowledging it, and moving on
I can understand why Joe’s non-reaction is throwing her, though, given the assorted reactions of her friends, each of whom found a *different* way to make her feel intensely self-conscious about it. She’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Yeah, it started out OK, with just “yup, this checks out” but the next day with the medication stuff was not great.
LOL better than sending her a ‘congrats on the autism’ cake meme image i suppose?
Someone should do that too tbh
i mean, i def wouldn’t turn down cake/it’d def make most ppl with even a slight sweet tooth feel better unless the diagnosis was “diabetes” or like “you need to cut out carbs/sugars or your liver/kidneys/etc” will shut down lol
This is too goddamn cute. I do genuinely think he’s being serious, too, which makes Joyce’s suspicion all the more amusing.
It’s been about 5 years now of comics, that the Joyce/Joe comics are the generally best/most positive, with the fewest problems. As such, while I would love to see their dynamic focused on more, I fully expect that tomorrow’s strip will whiplash us off to another pair, because we can’t have too much positivity…
IDK, Sal and Danny have at least been in the running recently. Also, while I definitely appreciate some good, wholesome content every now and then, I also live for the drama. INJECT IT DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS! (In the comic proper, mind you; I could do with less drama in the comments section.)
well, can’t tell for sure what it’s about but even if you’re not on patreon you can still click the ad in teh corner and see a ‘blurry’ version of it lol
I do this almost every day. It’s a zoomed-in, dim, blurred version of the middle half of the strip. You can’t read dialogue, but you can tell which characters are present except in very wide shots.
Honestly I’d prefer if they didn’t get together and just remained as friends. I know it’s cute and all, but they bounce off each other pretty well just like this.
We also don’t have that many M/F close friendships in the strip that don’t eventually go into kissyface. Sal/Danny are now a thing, Danny/Amber was a thing, etc. The closest otherwise is Walky/Jennifer.
We’re getting there with Joe/Dina and Joe/Amber now which is nice! I really do enjoy their interactions.
If we were talking about a different couple of characters, I might agree. But the physical attraction between Joe and Joyce has always been present and always been mutual, and it’s not even a question of whether they might develop kissy-face feelings in the future—they already have ‘em, and are just not acting on them at present for a variety of good reasons.
I had a longer comment about those reasons, sigh, but the webpage spontaneously reloaded before I hit enter, and it’s lost to the aether.
Too much positivity for the characters, or too much positivity for us drama llamas down here in Commentsville?
Porque no los dos?
(I had to…)
But I see that my forecast was wrong, much to my pleasant surprise.
Joe Rosenthal: Indomitable Sex Monster, Second Worst Brother (ahead of Faz), and apparently the most neurodiversity-positive (I couldn’t think of a better term) character in the entire strip thus far.
“Second Worst Brother (ahead of Faz)”
Look, I understand the desire to forget John exists, but…
I read it as Amber’s second worst brother, not of all brothers in general.
Can we agree that Faz is also on the ND spectrum? Like, maybe a third to half of his behavior can be laid at the feet of his being non-typical for whatever reason.
Faz is really traumatized. Do you have to be born with an unusual brain to count as neurodivergent, or can kids in the middle of intense ongoing trauma count as neurodivergent, too?
Kids in the middle of intense ongoing trauma almost inevitably wind up with mental illnesses (at least a mood disorder but very often a personality disorder, C-PTSD, dissociative disorder, a whole bunch of things have their roots in childhood trauma!) so it’s sadly almost a moot question?
I’m just wondering how Joyce wanted Joe to respond to that.
Hoping Joe does O.K. in the future. I wish more people saw that he was trying to genuinely change, but not a single one seems to notice or they don’t care at all.
He’s also trying to hide it, so that makes it hard.
Yeah, he’s trying to obscure it and seems to get uncomfortable if people draw much attention to it. I’m sure Danny’s probably cognizant of it to an extent, but most people just don’t really see it.
Yeah, being simultaneously ashamed of the person you were/are seen as by others AND embarrassed of the kind of person you’re trying to be is a pretty tough spot to be stuck in.
I’ve argued as recently as yesterday that both Joyce and Joe have a lot of growing to do as individuals before I think they could be a viable long-term romantic couple, and I stand by it.
*But* also I think it’d be real sexy if Joyce climbed Joe like a sprightly squirrel alighting a mighty oak right now.
I agree with exactly half of that.
I’m glad you didn’t specify which half, since without knowing which half you disagree with, I can imagine your support for both, which is almost the same as if you’d said, “I agree with you completely.”
Schrödinger’s comment
No no – the comment undeniably exists, just as the box containing the metaphorical cat exists in the thought experiment. The thing suspended in quantum uncertainty is Yotomoe’s agreement.
I actually looked up Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle before I posted my above reply, before I realized I did *not* understand Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle well enough to make a joke about it.
That’s two people talking about grist and mills in as many days. They should date.
See that last line just makes me wanna kick him in the shin.
C’mon, he just did it for demonstration.
He’s telling the truth, that really is the sarcastic height for short people high fives
Poor Joe! Joyce is really putting him through it. Has he ever actually done anything to warrant the disgust and dislike from her? He keeps kinda bending over backwards for her.
Hopefully she realizes it…
Joyce is fully aware of how good Joe is to her. Unfortunately she is struggling extremely hard to reconcile her sexuality and feelings for him while also being absolutely miserable on her period. Let’s not forget also, that she’s still in the dead middle of a belief-based identity crisis.
Her closest friends have been; to quote her, “up her ass”. A stance I agree with her on, even though I also think they were doing the right thing ultimately. They did a good thing for her, but at the same time they were pushy to the point of extreme for something that almost certainly wouldn’t help her right away.
Oh right, her parents’ marriage also recently fell apart and she got a possible diagnosis for something she probably thinks is one of the worst things ever. Religious circles are REALLY hard on autistic people.
Joyce has been through a LOT lately, and ragging on Joe, someone she clearly trusts a lot is definitely one of her coping mechanisms.
“Religious circles are REALLY hard on autistic people.”
For example;
I know that in the buddhist lay-organization I was born into, grew up in, and still belong to, it has not been an issue for me.
Oh come on, you know exactly what they meant. Your upbringing being different doesn’t negate the Usual Suspects being a problem for others.
The point is, if you mean Christianity (or whatever specific sect you may be referring to), say Christianity, not religion in general. The non-Christians get a bad enough rap without being accused of Christianity’s failings.
It’s a strip about Joyce, the probably-autistic former fundamentalist. Do we really need to add extra qualifiers and disclaimers when the context is at the top of the page? I struggle to imagine anyone is thinking of Shinto when Joyce is the topic of discussion and the word “religion” comes up.
Honestly.. Yeah kinda? The last time they seemed to get really close was the texting over break, which was followed by Joe giving her the cold shoulder when they came back to school and then ditching her for a hookup when confronted about his feelings irt her and Jacob.
So her frostiness is definitely not unwarranted. She doesn’t know if he’s gonna run off on her again.
So I recently started rereading DoA, just hit the 4 year anniversary, and to be honest, most of the Joyce-Joe interactions have been Joe making fun of her. The turn to a more kind Joe is kinda recent, there’s a lot of history and first impressions to work thru.
i feel like joe has been making an effort to be better for a while and no one has noticed or given him the chance to improve.
Boy if that ain’t the human condition.
Love how Joyce is still freely offering up personal information and updates about her life that she has yet to share with Becky, mind you, while still accusing him of wanting to belittle her. Because regardless of everything she does want to share it with him.
Then there’s Joe’s attempt at disproving the accusation by telegraphing in the most passive, non-teasing way possible that he isn’t trying to ridicule her without saying so flat out (because that’s more vulnerable than he’s ready to or knows how to be).
These two, man!!!! They value each other so much but are so afraid of acknowledging it!
like june said: that’s the human condition.
[imagine, if you will, that one viral three-panel comic about the dog playing fetch] rewards of being loved?? NO MORTIFYING ORDEAL OF BEING KNOWN!!! ONLY REWARDS OF BEING LOVED
Neat!
Nice!
i just. with these.
look at her like ‘I am revealing vulnerabilities but being like, thorny about it, cos I don’t Exactly recognise how/why/that I trust you so much.
That’s a big deal! my psych suggested autism and TWO people know and I raised it with them quite similarly. like its Just Another Thing, gawd.
I just. these lil bois
Oh hey he’s wearing a beach shirt (or, kinda, it has a flower pattern)
Some stuff IS universal
Oh my god I love Joe. 100000% better reaction than Dorothy
Very different situation. I’m trying to imagine how Joyce would react if Dorothy’s response to her completely freaking out about her autism diagnosis was “Neat”. She probably wouldn’t think Dotty was being sarcastic, but I’m not sure what she would think.
Honestly, I’m not even sure how I’d react if someone reacted to being told I was autistic with “Neat”, whether I was freaking out or not.
I mean, I wouldn’t know what the hell else to say. From my perspective, nothing about you as a person has changed. Most testimonials I see from adult autism diagnosees say that it was a huge, life-changing weight off their life to get diagnosed and have an explanation for this thing or that thing. It’s not like you can catch autism. If someone is telling me they’re autistic, they are exactly the same person I was friends with before that conversation. I can see having to fake one more intense archetypal response or another, based on the context of the person’s emotional strife; but, “neat” is, as far as I can tell, the only real response to have that actually makes sense.
The difference is that she’s not freaking out in this strip.
did you just call me short ?
C’mon Joyce, high five him♡.
Excuse me, the global average height for women is about 5’3”. So, give that a high five, you tall, dark… Outlier!
That was YESTERDAY?
Said it yesterday, Joe coming in at Joyce’s healthiest relationship right now. I’d say walky is a close second. (I’m going off from the start of spring semester)
Yeah, I can confirm the sarcastic high-five height. We make it so you can’t reach it.
Signed, a tall person
We can reach anything. We might choose to kick you real hard in the shins to get as it.
Signed, a short person
Not really good news or bad new. Just news.
Joe, are you demonstrating growth?? Proud of you man, keep it up!
That’s weird, usually people just hold a character’s smallest transgressions against them in perpetuity and ignore all growth.
to be fair, joe is a hot man, that changes a lot of standards. now the WOMEN in the comic, hoo boy, they’d better get it together XD
Please do not paint me as sexist out of hand thank you
Honestly, other than lack of convincing Joyce he’s not sarcastic and not checking in on how she’s feeling… not an inappropriate reaction. In my opinion, as someone figuring the autism shit out in my thirties (along with my husband- forties- and best friend, sixties.) “Congrats on starting to make sense of how you function” is… well, it’s hard to phrase well but not an inappropriate message.
Yea, it’s difficult processing it yourself. I was diagnosed when I was a toddler but didn’t really face it til I was 18, and it’s a lot to deal with how others view you and whether that changes who you are
Even now at 30 I’m still processing and while more confident in how I talk about being autistic, it’s still difficult
And whilst I think we autistics deserve our existence as margenlised people respected, I understand that it’s difficult to comprehend how to approach it considering how much ableism prevents people from understanding it’s not about intelligence but simply one way of describing different brains communicate and connect in specific ways
Also the variety of subjectivity that we all exist in
high five of doom /s