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LorennaCleary.bsky.social @lorennacleary.bsky.social ⋅ 6h
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(Jim Lee Era)
⚧️Coming Out
next, on Who Wants to Be a Teacher’s Aide?
If that hasn’t been done on Piled Higher and Deeper, then it damn well should be.
I don’t think Jorge is still making new strips
If he is, he’s posting to a secret URL that I’m not privy to.
We need more Tajel & Cecila in our lives!
He still posts *something* on instagram sometimes. So far it’s all been strips I hadn’t seen before, but I was never great about checking that one super regularly and I didn’t find it on Insta until recently
[Someone plays the Who Wants to be a Millionaire theme music at full blast on their tinny phone speaker]
Strips like these I wonder if Willis misses writing for Shortpacked!
Considering the superhero antics earlier he probably misses writing for the Walkyverse in general.
I always think sometimes what the Its Walky! storyline would look like now with decades of experience and hindsight behind Willis. Like, if he were to rewrite it.
Uh-oh – Robin has Fourth-Wall Awareness!!
It was only a matter of time.
Ok, who pulled the tag in this one?
Only if she eats sufficient quantities of sugar.
So constantly then.
She’s staring right at us…
Tomorrow does she point at the poll and say it’s meaningless because she already decided, and that the next 6 months’ worth of strips are already drawn?
Aaaah, Robin fourth wall awareness. I do love that about her sometimes.
Whatever happened to Robin’s mustard elbows?
even someone like robin would do laundry occasionally lol. unless she’s somehow rich enough to buy a new jacket everytime
She licked the mustard off.
She sent the jacket out to the cleaners a while back.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/sneakinta/
…what
Robin has 4th wall awareness and the ability to teleport people what do you not understand
Perfect Avatar is perfect.
Ok, I know She-Hulk can sorta teleport because she has 4th wall awareness and can step out of a comic panel and into another one. Can she pull other people through with her? Is Robin She-Hulk?
I’m always a little surprised when a new character appears and I click on their name to find out they *haven’t* made several crowd shot cameos already.
He was in Shortpacked!, I think
He appeared in Shortpack a total of six times and got one speaking line.
It’s in the first panel of https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/dinosaurpark
When Walky was cruising for free pizza, I’m pretty sure he made mention of two people, Barry and Hilary, manning one of the voter registration booths.
[Fry] I get it!
https://www.dumbingofage.com/allright/ good memory
The logical part of me’s thinking maybe Ruth mentioned something to Becky who mentioned something to Robin and now we’re here.
But Robin having metaknowledge actually makes more sense.
The middle link in the chain was actually Leslie, not Becky, but otherwise this is essentially correct.
God, that feels like a million years ago now, but yeah, you’re totally right.
Well-remembered Rassilon!
This comic is already mind-numbingly slow, so sometimes Willis uses Robin to speed through the mind-numbingly boring parts (that he doesn’t want to waste time drawing).
She could’ve approached him at his public-facing job at Galasso’s at some point, off-panel. It wouldn’t be the first time she hired one of their employees.
*quietly looks at medieval beekeeper art to recover from whiplash*
Veinspotting? Is that what I heard?
Oh Robin. We’re all voting for Barry anyway.
I look forward to getting to know Barry and their foibles. Did not expect Jason to get the Penny treatment, but it’s a pleasant surprise.
That’s going to be the lesson. She doesn’t care how they vote; she’s going to pick Jason because she’s already decided.
That is also the lesson of the poll here on the site, since willis has already completed the next 6 months of strips.
I wonder if this will be like the poll over whether Joyce or Walky should get the comic strip. Maybe Robin will just have two TAs now.
Why would we want to curse sweet, innocent, Barry with the burden of working for Robin tho?
Because it’s that or we put Jason back in the classroom.
I have a possibly irrational dislike of Jason. Even before his sexpestery. The new design helps, but not enough.
Glad to see Robin still has enough superspeed to vibrate at the right frequency to break nearby walls
I mean, I’m voting for Barry.
That’s the perfect vote, even though there are multiple months of Jason comics in the can. Barry is the less sex-pestery choice. And dang you otto Korrect. I did spell sex-pestery properly, you just need to update your dictionary.
Run, Jason, run like the wind!
Robin with fourth wall awareness feels correct.
Ah, I was hoping this would happen. Jason and Robin are the kind of characters who are bound to really bounce off of each other comedically.
You’re right, this would be hilariously bad.
I don’t know who Barry is but I’m diggin his hair!
It’s a toupee he stole from Becky’s haircut.
… does Jason have ANY qualification in poli-sci?
Per the May Patreon comic, evil supervillain dad?
english accent.
I’ll vote for him.
I’m sure Dorothy is fine.
I’ll vote Barry. Ginger black guys probably gets a lotta shit. Let the man have a cushy job with an animaniac as his boss.
I’m voting Jason, because of the Rule of Narrative Causality.
In other words, it has to be Jason because the plot says it should be Jason.
Not necessarily true. I’m sure the narrative could come up with many other ways for Jason to re-up his visa and stick around. He is a rich, white, dude. The world is essentially made to cater to him. Even if his dad is evil. That’s likely more of a perk for him realistically.
you shouldn’t vote for somebody just because they’re gonna win. You gotta REJECT FATE.
Fate leaning on a stone, resting her head on her arms and weeping silently.
Rapunki, when he joined the Seven.
I’m still voting for Jason because yeah, there are some things worth duking it out with fate over, but this just isn’t one of them.
Also, if Barry did win, I’m afraid fate’s next move would be to, like, drop a piano on them so that Jason gets it anyway. Barry probably doesn’t deserve that.
Vote Jason and watch their existences neing in close proximiry act as a purgatory for one another’s sins. Apologies for any bad writing. I’m wearing stupid nails.
See, I vote for Jason because Barry probably deserves a nicer job.
Jason’s better than he once was, but he should pay further penance.
I’m voting for Barry because it’s obviously *meant* to be Jason, and I don’t want the DM to think he can railroad me
I voted for Barry, mostly because Jason was already a TA and he boned his own student at this specific college and she is currently enrolled in this specific class.
Sal is not in this class.
Huh i could a sworn, ok i stand corrected
Oh yeah, Leslie did try to put in a word for him ages ago. Surprised this is coming back around.
I wonder if Barry even wants this gig. I guess, if nothing else, he’s got a tag now.
I’m voting for Barry
What’s going on? How did I get here? Why do I hear reality shattering around me?
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down. Letting the days go by, water flowing underground. Into the blue again, after the money’s gone. Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground.
Robin’s just the same as she ever was.
There is water at the bottom of the ocean.
Fourth wall looking a little shaky.
Everyone’s noting Robin leaning on the fourth wall, but Jason is showing a lack of situational awareness. It was only yesterday he was in the same building, with Ruth asking someone else in the department if he could have a job as a TA. https://www.dumbingofage.com/trustworthy/
I wonder if this is Robin’s way of discretely asking the students if they have an objection. We’ll see if it’s a secret poll or not, where they could write those down. https://www.dumbingofage.com/sexpest/
What does Jason know about political science?
Probably not much. But neither does Robin, so it works out.
More seriously… How useful Jason is depends on a lot of factors… Having him answer student questions would be a problem but there are other things he could help with.
What are Robin’s tests like in the class? (even a non-expert could probably grade true/false or short answer questions… Long essay style questions would need a bit more expertise.) what type of classes did Jason take during his undergrad years? (Some colleges might have a broad based curriculum where even someone in mathematics might need to take a civics course or 2) is there any other prep work Robin might need? (Eg getting her lecture materials ready, proof reading her materials or her tests, etc )
And then there’s the likelihood that if he does get roped into this, he’ll make it a priority to fill in whatever gaps in his knowledge he has, because that’s just how he works.
Tbh, I find some international students have a better understanding of our government than the majority of the students in the class. Had one exchange student that could name all of the US presidents off the top of their head.
i would’ve expected a teachers aide to maybe do a little research on the subject but mostly be there to like hand out papers, keep stock of supplies and maybe help grading some stuff but i cant imagine robin’s class being super complicated or ‘traditional’
Unless there are essays, TAs are normally given answer keys by the professor anyway. Essays and papers are more questionable, but a lot of that is just checking that they used good sources, didn’t plagiarize, and write a cohesive and reasonable argument. That is actually more complicated the more TAs you have since everyone has a different opinion (aka one person might let something fly that someone else wouldn’t). Having office hours, answering questions, and doing a tutorial might be more difficult, but I found that office hours were normally answering questions about how something got graded (normally people who weren’t happy about their grade and wanted to argue for a higher grade, so almost like customer service).
Of course. But this is still robin we’re talking about. If anything jason might be overqualified since he was al egit prof here before
She knows about us! Everybody, uh…. actually, I don’t know what we should do with this information.
Being Robin’s TA is probably terrible. We should all vote for Jason.
Robin’s kind of a maniac, so this feels right. Even if she’s not aware of the fourth wall, she’d probably act like she was.
I’m a little disappointed there isn’t a new poll on the page to support Robin’s theory.
Annnnd I refreshed and now look like an idiot.
You look fine, I didn’t even think about a poll until I saw your comment.
Thank you stranger <3
It would be amusing if barry somehow won in a landslide despite him never apeparing before
I am extremely curious if this storyline will be dragged out long enough to use the results of the site poll, or if democracy is a sham (which is absolutely a Robin’s poli-sci class lesson).
Robin has a lot of flaws, but gosh darn it, she’s fucking SPOT ON with the “Jonny Lee Miller” bit lmaooo
I wonder if Barry is a sort of anti-ringer in on the “let’s hire Jason” scheme. I also wonder if Barry is the name chosen in homage to Barry Allen, who can vibrate through walls (although not the 4th wall as far as I know, Flash Facts excepted).
I wonder since Barry has been given a tag whether it was done because he was named in comic or might he be a repeating character.
And I was thinking of Barry from Questionable Content.
Man, there’s lamp-shading…
Then there’s this. Robin’s 4th wall break is a major lampshade of off-screen developments. XD
From the look on Barry’s face, the “…what am I doing here?” line could just as easily have been his.
Barry is only here because Mike was no longer available.
I mean, does Robin from the Shortpacked! -verse and her shenanigand give 4th wall powers to all versions of Robin?
I like to think Dumbiverse!Robin is Walkyverse!Robin, mid-Cadbury bender. She’s loaded up with enough sugar and laundry detergent to hit just the right quantum harmonic resonance frequency and fall through to the alternate universe.
This is where the Robin that ODs on cereal ends up. She’ll eventually lose her memory as she returns to her own world, but what she does when here will destroy us all!!!
Jason, the gossip chain was 3 people long and you were present for the first half. This should not be hard to put together.
(Unless, of course, he’s asking how he literally got here because Robin somehow has super speed in this universe too and a second ago he was halfway across campus.)
A second ago he was tending bar at Galasaso’s.
Sorry, Jason, you have to be Robin’s TA. Barry just got here and doesn’t deserve that punishment
is Robin breaking the fourth wall? I’m gonna barf
No, she’s saying weird stuff that happens to look like she’s breaking the fourth wall, about something that we actually saw her learn about on panel. She’s Ted Forth, not She-Hulk.
What a delight these past strips have been, the webcomic is in its manic phase and I’m here for it.
In my country, you couldn’t be the equivalent of a TA without a formal education in the tenured professor’s discipline, can Jason really be a political science TA with a mathematics background? Or is it the joke that is going to slap us in the face two weeks from now?
Either way I’m delighted.
Yeah. TAs are regulated hyperlocally. Grad statudent Unions and Universirty rules.
There might be some with federal regulation, but only if they are funded by a specific federal research grant.
Even in that case i think regulation might go the otherway towards protecting stem and science foundation grantees not social science ( which is in the Humanities ) .
But TAs are often the prerogative of the Professor and comes out of their grant. Robin already has no formal education in PS, she was hired for celebrity status.
I think the bigger issue is Jason evading the kafkaesque disciplinary action.
In the U.S. as well this is unlikely. Teaching assistantships are understood to be for graduate students in the department that teaches the course. In real life, Jason would not be considered, nor would Robin be able to select him on her own initiative. Dumbing of Age is not real life.
In real life, Robin wouldn’t be.
not relevant to this strip, but there’s undergrad TAs too. In my major at my school, there were a lot of undergrad TAs, and like one grad TA who was the boss.
It turns out Barry was a die-hard Robin voter and a toxic dude.
He still gets picked.
The fourth wall has been broken, smashed, shattered, its debris grinded and thoroughly snorted.
A Challenger Approaches!
I think sometimes Robin forgets that she’s in the alternate universe *without* alien superpowers.
I haven’t seen Barry before (1)
I haven’t seen Barry before (2)
Imagine if Barry wins the poll… NO RIGGING!
Didn’t Ruth specifically ask Robin about getting him a TA job with her though?
Ruth asked Leslie, Leslie said she couldn’t due to ethics, her own morality, and the fact she had no budget. Then, because she felt bad, she went and asked Robin. Who said as much to her, with the exception of the budget part. But then found out what a TA can do for her, and jumped at the chance. The fact that doing a favor for Leslie might infatuated her a little bit is also a motivating factor.
Ugh. Infatuated = ingratiate
I mean also that to be fair
AGH right it was Leslie, but Robin does have reason to know about it then
Right, but it seems she didn’t tell Jason.
Jason was with Ruth when she asked Leslie.
Leslie kind of turned them down though and Jason has no reason to know that she knows Robin, much less that she asked Robin.
Even if he didn’t watch the news during election season, he knows it’s the same building/department. He was there yesterday. There’s clearly a logical way she could know.
Jason is confidently ignorant of the situation that he finds himself in, he has an English accent, and he’s a sex pest. He’s overqualified, he should be a cable news pundit.
Lol 50-50 on the poll.
I know this is not a poll that will decide the actual future, but damn it would be sweet, like Robin’s death in DC… (well no sweet, but you know, engaging :P)
For gods sake Jason, Robin is actually trying to be helpful for once and you actually could use that help… save the smartass for when you are hired!
I think Jason agrees with the assessment that he probably shouldn’t be a TA anymore.
Wow it’s actually 50/50 in the poll, that’s nuts
Resist fate! Shake your fist at god! Barry 2023!!
Voted for Jason because he’s obviously the chosen one (by Robin).
Vote for Barry to show that the elections are rigged, gerrymandering is rampant, and that our votes don’t matter when the majority goes for him and Jason wins anyway.
Exactly! Robin’s students get a good lesson in the realities of political science, Jason gets another chance, and everybody’s happy! Except for Barry, but we all know the opinions and feelings of minorities don’t matter, right? ;P
How do you gerrymander a webcomic poll? just for my edification.
Is Robin breaking the fourth wall?
Oh my Grodd, is Robin a She-Hulk?
I need to go lie back down.
Jason really just lets women drag him to places and then complains about it, doesn’t he.
Also Walky, come to think, so maybe he’s just very draggable.
Of course Robin is the Walkyverse’s Deadpool
Perfect gravatar, no notes
There’s something very funny about Jason being so unpopular that the poll deciding his fate is nearly a tie with a guy we literally just met and know nothing about! At the time of this comment less than 20 votes in Jason’s favor is the difference. Almost any other main character and this would be a blowout.
903 votes, in the AM.
Have there BEEN 904 VIEW of the comic, yet?
I smell ballot stuffing.
I wouldn’t put it past Willis to start the poll at 400/400, to get a “close” race.
I assure you I have more than 1000 readers.
If you didn’t, you’d still be working in another field. I just wasn’t convinced that many had viewed the comic by the 11:00 hour. Considering, I often stay up until it posts, although I hadn’t this night, I shouldn’t make that assumption.
There is this gag magic item in some game I have been known to play, that gave you, temporarily, a maximum HP that was significant, but it didn’t give you any actual HP to go with it. The way the game graded your health was, so long as you had at least a certain percentage of your maximum, you were “healthy”, but if your total HP was only a tiny fraction of your maximum HP, you were “near death”, as indicated by a red health bar. So, suddenly having your maximum HP jump, leaving your actual HP alone, immediately put you into the red, health-wise. The item was a pretend heavy hit to your HP, that didn’t actually harm your character, just appeared to do so. Again, for gag effect. 99% of your HP GONE, (actually, your total HP limit raised to about 10,000%, or whatever it actually was, for a few seconds).
Or rather, I wasn’t convinced the poll had racked up that many votes by 11 hours after the comic posted, with that being only 3-5 hours of “up-time” for most of your audience.
Speaking as someone in a different timezone, I generally check the strip around 2am-4am strip time on working-from-home days, and I’m always surprised how many comments there already are, so I would believe there’s been 900 votes in that time.
Traffic for me spikes every night around update time, usually with about several thousand simultaneous visitors at midnight. Something’s very wrong if I don’t have the bulk of my traffic by the time folks wake up in the morning.
We haven’t scared them all off? (Maybe out of the comments; it seems like the same couple dozen regulars are always here…)
Serious Shortpacked vibes on this one
Jason’s not eligible for the job. He’s not a natural-born Citizen, and he wasn’t a Citizen of the United States at the time the Constitution was adopted.
He, like Schwarzenegger, may be popular, but can’t hold the position.
Ruth, like Cruz, MIGHT be eligible. Both were born in Canada to an American parent. Both are also unpopular with enough people that neither would get it, however. That said, Robin looks like the type of person who would pick Ruth anyway.
So, we’re stuck with “Barry”.
You don’t have to be any of those things to be eligible for a job, you just have to have some paperwork that says you can have the job, like a work visa (or whatever the fuck they’re called, I’m not a visologist here). Jason’s visa let him have his other TA job, so unless something expired at some point, I don’t see a reason it wouldn’t work for this one. Getting fired and re-hired in a slightly different position is the backbone of the American workforce.
If anything, getting hired as Robin’s TA would get him back in compliance with his visa.
Really confused as to the implication that Schwarzenegger can’t hold a TA position for constitutional reasons when he was a state governor. I think you might be confusing this with the presidency?
Deliberately.
Oooh, 4th-wall meta humor!
Ok, deadpool.
Knowing Robin and her chaos, I have one piece of advice for the other guy…
Run, Barry. Run!
I am arching my eyebrow at you, and sighing. well done
Barry: (votes for Jason)
Very disappointed in 55% of you.
Dammit. I really, really wanted to vote for Barry. But I found myself voting for Jason.
I’m actually kinda hoping that Jason is the one who backs out of this of his own free will. He seemed to be reflecting last time we saw him that maybe he wasn’t cut out for being a teacher and at least looked to be on the path to accepting that.
(May be biased in that I find Robin rather loathsome)
The story needs Jason to win, but it doesn’t need it to be by much. I voted Barry to keep it close lol
Drama tag!!! (Shortpacked callback)
Robin is always going to be an agent of chaos and pull that tag! XD
I’m voting Barry!
Robin is still depicted as a horrible, horrible person… Yet you can feel Willis loves her, I’m really troubled each time she appears…
I think she’s also starting to break the fourth wall