A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
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!
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.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
All Known Alternatives
Karolina 'Kajotko' Jankiewicz
Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
Shaderunners
Alex Assan, Lin Darrow
A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
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Willis’ alt’s protestations to the contrary, “down to clown” is not strictly a sexual euphemism, but merely means “playing around” or shenanigans. At a guess, see also: “clown around”.
> “To have fun in an irresponsible manner”
Though I would add it can also be more carefree, rather than the somewhat more pejorative “irresponsible”.
If you do use “down to clown” as a strictly sexual euphemism, I’m gonna assume you’re into clown stuff you read about on Urbandictionary, “circus snatch” and “clussy” and whatnot.
Because a quirk of how people the english language, and possibly just languages in general, is that they find as many possible ways as they can to talk about sex.
Oddly, the internet doesn’t support the meaning “to have sex.” It says, “Willing to have a good time,” with no suggestion of sex, according to several different sources.
Well it’s not much of a leap to go from “willing to have a good time” to “willing to have sex”, and “to clown” as shorthand for “have fun” makes sense enough.
Some people keep succeeding in making the then-current terms unacceptable in polite society, so people who don’t want to censor themselves have to keep inventing new ones.
As an ace person, I get awfully frustrated about this sometimes. Particularly with “Netflix and chill” – why, oh WHY, did this have to become a euphemism?!? Binging on dumb shows and relaxing is an extremely normal, non-sexy thing for people to do! What kind of a-hole decided it need to become a euphemism for sex, of all things?! STOP COLONIZING NORMAL ACTIVITIES WITH WITH YOUR STUPID HORNINESS, ALLOSEXUALS.
My husband and I got together in 2005. We got Netflix DVDs in the post…
I always understood that Netflix and chill involved a movie AND sex, with only the “and chill” bit being a euphemism… So “wanna watch a movie with me? I have Netflix” and “wanna Netflix and chill with me?” would both involve an invitation to come over and watch a movie and relax together but only one of them would involve relaxing by means of sex…
i guess some ppl have to have ‘coded languages’ b/c if you barely know someone, or if you’re in polite company but close with someone, saying “hey wanna sleep together after this”, even if ppl know that it’s a term like how ‘trying for kids’ can be phrased as ‘oh yeah i creampie my wife nightly’ but i’d hope everyone knows their group of friends well enough to know which one
You’re not wrong on either count. But purity culture is obsessed with the idea that men and women are complementary colors, and that means everything is in opposites – men are *always* up for sex, and women are right in the middle of the madonna/whore complex.
Yeah, it’s an artifact of her background, along with probably, as a lesbian, not really feeling a strong need to learn that nuance, anyway, as it’s entirely irrelevant to her romantic/sexual life.
In any case, Becky’s like 18 and from a fundie background, I am willing to cut her some slack on having a lot she still needs to learn about gender essentialism.
Yeah definitely a bit problematic, especially since it’s quite obvious that Walky isn’t really into the sex idea with Lucy and appears to be using church as an excuse to put it off
I think that’s kind of the joke here. It reinforces the idea that Walky should be down to clown with Lucy because he’s a man, and if he’s not something is wrong with him.
I mean sure, but… there’s clearly a pattern here. Despite her *very* clear desire to have sex, Walky consistently deflects the offer. He very clearly has some reservations. I reject the frequently-paired claims that he doesn’t find Lucy attractive at all, and that this fact means their relationship is inherently doomed, but it’s really hard to make a convincing argument that Walky isn’t making excuses.
It’s an old, tired trope that I honestly wish would go die in a fire already.
I get why it exists, don’t get me wrong, and its not 100% wrong, but it just feels like a lazy and reductive joke most of the time, and that’s even before you get into some of the really horrific related crap that some people genuinely believe (like the belief that a man having an erection is proof that they are consenting to sex).
Not accusing Willis of intending anything remotely like that, for the record. I’m viewing this as them pulling out a cheap, easy, reliable simple gag with minimal punching down 99% of the time, but its one that I’m 100% tired of.
Might not even be a joke. I think it’s just loyal character writing. Becky is a young, lesbian, fundamentalist. Of course she would have some slightly misandrist views. Joyce was trying to check Dorothy’s junk for a secret weenus a bit ago and overall being a bit off about knowing a trans person. Not to mention the countless other quirks or flaws ever character has.
Yeah, I definitely read this as dramatic irony, with it being recognizably a flawed, mistaken viewpoint which Becky holds due to her upbringing, and it being actively and dramatically wrong about Walky. If anything, I feel like Willis is making the point that it *is* a legitimately unfair and hurtful stereotype. As the audience, we know that Walky does not seem to feel this way. (Or at least, a substantial portion of the audience seems to be reading it that way.)
Then again, recalling how Becky used reverse psychology on Ruth and Billie, it’s also possible she’s fully aware it’s an unfortunate trope and is trying to call it out so Walky recognizes that he might not want that. I feel like either reading would be faithful to Becky’s character, whether she’s intentionally throwing a lifeline to Walky or not.
It’s certainly a belief I wish would die out too. Would have made life with my ex-wife a lot easier for the several years it took to make her understand that.
It’s a really toxic attitude and it’s deeply rooted in our society. It’s true that young males tend to have stronger libidos, on average, than young females (due to testosterone being correlated with sexual desire) but the viewpoint that men always want sex is very damaging. I know people who have been publicly humiliated for turning down sex, and the entire incel subculture is deeply rooted in mens’ self-worth being determined by their sexual performance.
Agreed. I remember talking to a fellow student in college about how she was pretty down bad for our Professor and I told her to wait til she wasn’t in his class anymore to make a move, both because of… you know, the obvious student/teacher thing and because I told her that she didn’t want to make it seem like she was trying to be pushy or anything (as in for grades or something) and she immediately responded with something along the lines of “oh well guys always want it”. It led to us having a conversation about it and she really just could NOT fathom the idea that men are not in fact, ‘always down to fuck’. …I did not talk to her again after that semester.
Do you have a car? Do you use it every time you want to get from A to B or do you sometimes walk or ride a bike? I know that was supposed to be a joke, but DANG do I get tired of the “Checkmate, atheists” trope.
Oh yeah, I’m a grad student and literally one of the first words of advice you get as a TA is “don’t fuck the students”. Even my roommate, one of the most down bad guys I know, doesn’t even consider it an option.
I actually think it is a very intentional lampshade of how Walky is, in this very scene, demonstrably not “down” for sex. Whatever you may think his motivations are, he’s saying “no, not right now”, in direct defiance of the Generally Recognized Societal Expectation Becky is apathetically regurgitating.
I will note as a matter of historical interest, by the way, that the view that men are always interested in sex and women are more looking for relationships isn’t a historical constant by any means – during the early modern period in Europe (1500-1650 or so) it was believed that women had voracious and nigh-uncontrollable sexual appetites and that it was up to men, being morally superior (because of course they are, women are simply a deformed sort of man really), to keep women on the straight and narrow path of godly virtue and chastity.
A useful reminder that sexism does not express itself in universal forms and can take wildly different approaches based on the culture that’s expressing them! Which funnily enough is in its own way a refutation of that same sexism – after all, if gender stereotypes really are based in biological fact, why do so many cultures throughout history have DIFFERENT stereotypes about what the genders are like? Surely you’d expect them all to have the exact same stereotypes acting the exact same way?
Interesting, i didn’t know that yet!
And yeah, the only trope all patriarchal cultures have in common is the assumption that men and women are fundamentally different, and women are inferior. That’s what all customs and stereotypes boil down to, so the cause is patriarchy, not biology.
I remember the study that everybody was quoting years ago. It said men think about sex every 7? 8? seconds. Society would not be able too function if that were the case.
I mean … depends on how deeply they thought about sex and how they reacted to it. It comes to mind pretty frequently for me, but then I just move on to something else, and nobody would ever be the wiser unless I went out of my way to inform them.
It’s got to be some kind of weird math averaging – like if you think about sex once for an hour, that covers 1/16th of your waking time, which gets translated into every 16 seconds.
I know I don’t think about sex every 7 seconds, but when I do it usually lasts a bit longer than 7 seconds, so how could this even make sense.
I was one, for a long while.
Then I took diabetes drugs to the knee.
–Dave, my libido hs been entirely drained for 15 years or so. I still appreciate the view, and I can convince myself to get the urge, but the DRIVE, the flame in the belly? is not there
Well, thinking back to when I was that age, I wouldn’t completely disagree with that opinion. It may have not been always, but it was pretty close. I was surprised to learn that some women were not all that different from me about that either.
More like he’s interested in what he thinks a relationship is, and interested in her in that context, but every time she talks to him she’s continually bringing up how what she thinks a relationship is isn’t the same thing at all.
(In fairness, the underlying dynamic of them just having different things they want out of the relationship is just “literally every relationship that’s ever existed, including the platonic ones”, that part’s fine, it’s the part where she’s constantly highlighting the differences that’s stressing him out. Most people, y’know, try to downplay how much they want a dating life governed by arcane formal rules that everyone pretends to know but no one ever discusses, while their boyfriend just wants to hang out with a friend they occasionally also sleep with.)
But I also sort of wonder if he’s feeling guilty that she’s getting attached faster than him. Then again, it also could be because Dorothy was the experienced party, and with Amber, she was experienced and also they never had intercourse, just grinded. Now, Walky’s in the driver’s seat here, and that’s a lot of pressure. He probably really wants to make this special for her.
I will argue every single time this comic is brought up: show me a heterosexual teenaged boy who isn’t turned on by a girl licking his shirt clean. Are there ANY other examples of him being excited around her for her sexually? He almost seems resigned to it, if he isn’t actively glad it didn’t happen.
Somewhere out there Daisy’s head whips around. She has sexual chemistry with someone?!
(But I mean you’re not wrong that Daisy was way more into the spit on Walky’s shirt than Walky was. Arguably more into it than anyone should be.) (Please find an outlet somewhere and calm down, Daisy.)
Okay, I’ll humor you. The roller derby “date” fiasco was from this year where Walky was not a passive participant.
I am not fighting the notion Walky is less enthusiastic, obviously, but it’s also been a big thing where people reduce him to being like Ethan’s dad, like he’s just going with the flow with something he is clearly not into, and that’s just not how this has read to me.
I’m sorry if people are sick of it as a trump card, but as far as singular pieces of evidence goes, it’s… kind of unambiguous, so it makes sense it would be referred to often.
Maybe, but likewise as a depiction of male/ female interaction (complete with flush and Walky’s last-panel direct comment) it’s not as ambiguous as several people have sought to make out, either, so… stalemate?
I mean that falls into the “actively glad it didn’t happen” category mere strips later, but sure. He did briefly seem interested in hurrying home to have sex with her.
he’s blushing, like ok. let’s not read too much into this. I’m not saying he doesn’t find her attractive, but he responded by deflecting with a joke, not making out with her.
Bingo. Walky has implicitly and explicitly mentioned he is attracted to Lucy multiple times. I forgot who posited a week or three ago IRL but Walky’s trepidation at 1) Being the “experienced” half of the pair and 2) Being a little burned by Dorothy and Amber being whirlwind romances in their own right more than makes sense.
I see regular comments to the effect of “The stretched timescale fucks with our reactions,” and sometimes that’s applied unevenly. Walky gets a break for complaining about getting up early for church, but his being less eager about having sex than Lucy is A Sign.
Also, honestly tell me that early Joyce or Mary licking soda off shirt would give him the exact same reaction.
It’s also all likely tied into feeling it’s under false pretenses, since she thinks he’s said he’s in love with her, but also not wanting to have the “I’m not really in love with you” conversation, because that’s a minefield.
Of course they didn’t start making out, they didn’t have time. What, does he need to forsake all his obligations and take her right there on the table to convince you he was into that?
As a heterosexual male who once was a teenager, I agree: that’s a very intimate thing to do and it would definitely have turned my thoughts to other forms of intimacy. But even a teenaged boy can have a sense that he’s dabbling in powerful forces and be uncomfortable with the possible outcomes.
In Walky’s case, I still think that (a) he’s just come out of two intense relationships that ended painfully, and might like one that’s less intense for now; and: (b) he may be getting a sense that Lucy is more into sex than she is into him, and feeling a bit…is it too early for “used”? I mean, he wants to be a good boyfriend, but sometimes it seems that Lucy is looking right past that.
While I am no longer a heterosexual teenage boy, I still vaguely remember my attitudes at the time, and … no. No, I would very much not be excited or aroused by somebody getting super weird at me like that. Creeped out? Grossed out? Confused? Possibly a little frightened? All entirely likely. Turned on? Dear god, no.
Maybe Walky is submissive and thinks that he will be expected to take on a different role with Lucy. That can be a lot of pressure if you’re not used to it.
She could at least talk about anything else at all, ever. Every time they interact lately, it’s “Hey, tick tock, the countdown to sex is running” or “Will sleeping on my side instead of my back impress your mom?”
He wants a companion he can watch cartoons with. Literally/figuratively. He’s said it twice to her. Trying to impress his mom isn’t relaxing to him.
The pressure to have sex is part on him, he has to communicate and he won’t so far. I get it, he’s having trouble figuring out what to say, but ask advice from someone who isn’t your ex who is clearly not over you bud.
But like… how is she threading the needle between awareness and anxiety to not be wondering if something’s wrong?
Going to church is probably his way of saying, “sorry for just sitting there while my mom was racist towards you” where he doesn’t have to communicate anything about it.
I also don’t think “down to clown” means sex. You could say “down to clown” in reference to a lotta stuff. It means “down to mess around.” Down to “Do stuff”
Someone could ask if you’re down to clown while offering you a beer or weed.
Or if you’re down to clown with some video games
Or down to clown just to chill out with the crew at the school yard (Making trouble never looking too hard.)
If you think of “down to clown” as purely sex then that has more to do with you, Becky.
it will start as performers realize they can trademark a clownface, and use that to combat ai porn. But then producers will realize there’s an unmet demand.
there was that hilarious and incredibly wholesome reddit thread from this guy saying he has a massive and super specific clown fantasy, and then a literal clown chick apparently DM’d him and made his dream come true and now they’re dating, it was so adorable
Reminder for non-UK readers that two competing chain stores existed here, based on the fact that the unit of currency is the Pound. PoundWorld was formed first, but ultimately lost out to PoundLand.
Seeing people discussing Walky and his… seemingly non-interest in Lucy again, I gotta say I definitely get a read off of him that, if I didn’t know any better, I’d assume he was ace. In comparison he was a very flustered mess with Dorothy and although he and Amber never completely had sex they did some clothes on dry humping, so why’s it seem like he has no urge with Lucy? Aside from assumptions regarding whether he’s into her physically, I honestly think some of it is due to him being lowkey kinda depressed. Like he’s nowhere near as bereaved as Ethan but clearly the events from last semester have affected him a lot and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of his seeming lack of interest is part of just being burnt out and depressed from everything he’s been through.
I do think there’s a lot he hasn’t really addressed, I can believe that much. He’s had two relationships (one more of a “situationship”, but still) end, a roommate die, his sister figure trying to basically transform into a whole other entity, and the deeply humiliating treatment Linda has subjected him to while his dad just kind of stood by.
Honestly, if not for having a better relationship with Sal and the Lucy relationship, there’s a whole lot of shit that’s gone badly for him.
My vibe on Walky and Lucy is that it isn’t so much that he doesn’t want to have sex with her as it is that he thinks or feels that it would be a bad idea for him to have sex with her now for some reason. Ether he’s worried he’d be taking advantage of her, or that she would incorrectly interpret it as him making a commitment to her, or some other reason.
One thing that often goes along with the “all men always want sex” BS is the “the penis has no conscience” BS that men can’t or won’t turn down sex just because they think it would be wrong.
When do we get the idea he is worried about taking advantage of her? Lucy seems to be the aggressor here. It looks like she’s been trying to use him since she saw his abs.
I think it’s not a completely unreasonable thing to think Walky might be worried about (we know he’s at least a bit Conscious of the fact that he’s sexually experienced while she isn’t, see: him asking Dorothy how to navigate that), but I also think it would be revisiting the Joe-and-Danny confrontation about Billie.
Or, in other words, that in that scenario Walky would be displacing his own totally legitimate “don’t wanna, for whatever reason” onto an assumption that it would be taking advantage of an obviously very enthusiastically consenting woman.
I’d also say to take a look at the other comments about Lucy’s interpretation – if he had sex with her just because she was willing when he must have at least a hunch by now that she is thinking about forever already, that would be taking advantage of her – having sex with her when she is much, much more invested in the relationship while he still has a sense of obligation about it all.
Ooooooh now that you mention it, avoiding sex because he’s worried Lucy’ll interpret it as hard commitment sounds very on-brand for Walky. It would tie into what he was telling Amber about recently, where he really just wants some nice, meaningless, chill time, but can’t get that with Lucy (“Nothin’ is always a little bit somethin’ with Lucy”). And, well, considering how much Lucy has been shown to buy into various arbitrary dating ‘rules’ in the past, he’s probably right about how she’d react to them having sex for the first time.
Yeah, I think she very much sees some form of linear path where “he says the Love word first, we have sex after the third date, we get engaged before our final year then married shortly after graduation and happily ever after with 2-4 babies” is basically pretty much guaranteed so long as she checks all of the boxes on a longer list in order and keeps faith.
Unfortunately, one of the boxes was “meet the parents and make a good impression” and also the bit where there are no guarantees in life.
I kinda sold myself on him as demisexual, or some other kind of gray-ace. While anyone can be a late bloomer, his experience of having never been interested in anyone at all before suddenly getting hit like a truck by attraction to Dorothy is something I’m sure a lot of gray ace people would resonate with. Even now we haven’t seen a lot of… well, interest from him.
His interest in having sex with Dorothy and Amber could also be characterized as “reactive”, and. Yeah. Again, I think a lot of gray ace people would find that relatable.
My best guess (from my own relationship experience) he had one relatively healthy mutual relationship with Dorothy, then rebounded to Amber before he really re-entered after he and Dorothy broke up. Given that Dorothy was his first -albeit unintentionally- serious relationship. And the stress he experienced worrying about Billie then dealing with Mike’s passing. He’s probably very emotionally burnt out and really needs to just stop. And I think he knows it (see his conversation with amber about “doing nothing”) Not necessarily going the Dana or Ethan route of apparent self destruction but getting some distance and taking time to not expose yourself to heavy emotional engagement is needed. The year hasn’t really been kind to him in that regard.
some ppl can end up asexual later in life even if they’ve had experienced
idk if walky would go fully asexual (idk if there are canon ace males in the series yet rather than just generally lgbt) but there are prolly some passive-sexual ppl in like “not actively seeking it out, but wouldn’t turn down if someone was interested in a one night stand/during a relationship”
maybe walky would also being ok dating an asexual gf too, since when he asked lucy out he’s like “basically the same thing we were doing but infinitely more handholding” as opposed to saying kissing as an exmaple
The best seats are in the back, and Walky should not take communion anyways. The question he was asking Becky yesterday, the answer is probably: stand up and sit down when everyone else does. you don’t have to sing, you’re not expected to recite or read anything when everyone else does (unless there’s passing of the peace type thing), don’t take communion.
obviously nobody has to know, there’s no church police and if there’s a god, they’re not telling if someone’s cheating. But if you want to be respectful and/or not give a false impression, then don’t do it.
It’s not just the RCC. Other denominations are more open about who is welcome to take communion, as in which denominations’ baptisms/creeds are acceptable.
I mentioned communion twice because creeds are pretty clear on what statement you’re sending, it’s in the words you’d be reading. Without religious instruction in church, it’s hard to guess what statement is being made with communion.
That differs quite a bit between denominations. My church (United Methodist) makes a point of emphasizing that all are welcome to communion, regardless of membership or baptism or anything else.
And since we do actual bread dipped in grape juice, it makes for a nice mid-service snack too!
The major difference in Communion (Or the Eucharistic sacrament if Roman Catholic) us the theology behind it. The various Catholic Rites (yes we have multiple) and the Russian or Eastern Orthodoxy hold that the Bread and Wine when consecrated during the Mass ARE the Body and Blood of Christ. Because the Mass is a perpetuation of the Sacrifice on the Cross so its imperative that is wholly believe by those who receive it. (Most churches let you come up for a blessing if you for whatever reason can’t receive.) To my knowledge Most protestant denominations don’t hold that belief/doctrine/dogma.
It’s not bad, the sacraments just kinda go in order. You have to be baptized (initiated into the church) before you can take communion (be blessed by the priest as part of worship), which in turn is something you’re supposed to be doing before you get the sacrament of confession. And you’re supposed to confess (in theory regularly but a minimum of once) before getting one of the two ‘rite of adulthood’ sacraments, marriage or ordination (being raised to the priesthood). And obviously dying is always the last thing you do, so there’s where last rites fit in there.
This is one of those things that was super strict in the middle ages, but that the modern Church has backed off on a lot since the schisms and reformation, mostly just because at some point it became literally impossible to require that non-Catholics convert in order to marry Catholics, and wildly impractical to not consider people full adults / church members until marriage post-industrial revolution.
Baptism being prerequisite to communion is sort of an artefact of obsolete apologetics, basically. The modern take on it would basically be that the downside of a non-catholic taking it is that it’d just be having a cracker and some wine, since it wouldn’t be the magically transmuted flesh of christ for them. Not a big deal so much as just… pointless, I guess.
While I definitely know catholics who would froth at the mouth at your last.comment I am not one lol. It is interesting to note that you don’t actually need to be dying to receive Last Rites. It cam be administered before any event that may remove you from ready access to a priest or deacon (pretty sure they can administer last rites). I know many soldiers get it before deployment, and some people will receive it before traveling extreme distances. I got it before flying internationally for the first time.
well, lucy actually believes, so her def would be diff
makes me wonder how many parents drag their kids to the front so they behave.
tho while i understand ppl not trusting religious figures, if there were churchgoers with family, dropping kids off that are like ten and under at a church for an hour or two as a free daycare could be helpful in a busy family life lol
Until just now I assumed Becky made it up. I think it just sounds silly, and people tend to assume anything said with a certain tone of voice is an innuendo.
I do not believe that saying “That is definitely … why I’m here” with a somewhat stricken look on his face is actually an indication that he’s interested in sex with Lucy.
so very … interested. this is kind of his normal level of enthusiasm for sex with Lucy. 90 minute service will probably be long enough to come up with a reason to put off having sex, and maybe even a back-up reason.
I wish I had some gold or social media points to give Willis for the surprising concept of Walky just not being interested in Lucy as a romantic partner but kind of pressured into accepting her as a girlfriend when he really just wants to be her friend.
Yeah. Even better, Becky’s lampshading of the false assumption that guys always want sex adds the possibility that he is /romantically/ interested in Lucy, but not /sexually/, thus the confusion. Cause even he might not understand that it’s possible to care deeply for someone and enjoy a partnership that is something beyond friendship, but not based on physical desire.
The phrase “down to clown” is a slang term that originated in the United States in the early 2010s. It is used to express a willingness to engage in any activity, typically something spontaneous or fun.
The phrase has become increasingly popular in recent years, and it is often used in a sexual context. This is likely due to the fact that the phrase is vague and can be interpreted in many different ways. Some people may use it to mean that they are open to having sex, while others may simply mean that they are down for a good time.
I feel like it’s derived/spun off from the phrase “Clowning Around” such that the phrase means “interested in joining some (usually unplanned or chaotic) suggested fun activity”
if I had a nickel for every time I said “I refuse to Google this”, I could buy a nice train ticket to FL to visit my buddies down there. Sleeper cars and everything.
I agree with Becky I refuse to Google it. I just assume you can use any set of words to describe sex. This phrase probably took off beacuse of alliteration.
I see so much of my college self in Walky. I’ve been in the unhealthy “let’s be garbage together” relationship and the unhealthy relationship where I felt pressured into it by other person’s enthusiasm and was too much of a people pleaser.
makes me think of that ‘lesbian sheep’ post but i’m sure some are proactive and make the first move. or thats what dating apps are for versus having a group of friends and getting closer over time
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I feel like church is the worst foreplay tho
except maybe for Ross
(eew)
how didthat not work
Wow. So the Toe is awful in every timeline huh.
not always the worst. There’s this painting by Heinrich Lossow. NSFW
down to…clown.
i mean, i wouldn’t put it past walky to put on a clown nose lol
Willis’ alt’s protestations to the contrary, “down to clown” is not strictly a sexual euphemism, but merely means “playing around” or shenanigans. At a guess, see also: “clown around”.
> “To have fun in an irresponsible manner”
Though I would add it can also be more carefree, rather than the somewhat more pejorative “irresponsible”.
Thank you.
If you hadn’t looked it up and posted it, I would have.
If you do use “down to clown” as a strictly sexual euphemism, I’m gonna assume you’re into clown stuff you read about on Urbandictionary, “circus snatch” and “clussy” and whatnot.
Becky is wise, yes.
Becky has encountered the internet, though not always along with Joyce
–Dave, Becky has made a … very grown-up … decision. Rule 34 curses, unseen
Because a quirk of how people the english language, and possibly just languages in general, is that they find as many possible ways as they can to talk about sex.
Oddly, the internet doesn’t support the meaning “to have sex.” It says, “Willing to have a good time,” with no suggestion of sex, according to several different sources.
Well it’s not much of a leap to go from “willing to have a good time” to “willing to have sex”, and “to clown” as shorthand for “have fun” makes sense enough.
anything can mean sex if you use the right tone of voice.
I’m going to … respond to your post.
Saxophone plays.
after a few beats, the drummer joins in.
♫ I’m never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm ♫
a husky tone of voice
–Dave, no no, it doesn’t work with actual huskies. i mean, most of the time…
A woman walks into the bar and asks the bartender for a double entendre.
So he gave it to her.
the visual/food metaphors make sense tho. can’t talk about craving sausages or hot dogs without ppl also occasionally having a dirty joke
Some people keep succeeding in making the then-current terms unacceptable in polite society, so people who don’t want to censor themselves have to keep inventing new ones.
And we also use sexual terms to describe just generally messing about as well: screwing off, fucking around, having a wank, …
As an ace person, I get awfully frustrated about this sometimes. Particularly with “Netflix and chill” – why, oh WHY, did this have to become a euphemism?!? Binging on dumb shows and relaxing is an extremely normal, non-sexy thing for people to do! What kind of a-hole decided it need to become a euphemism for sex, of all things?! STOP COLONIZING NORMAL ACTIVITIES WITH WITH YOUR STUPID HORNINESS, ALLOSEXUALS.
Absolutely! If someone refers to sex as “Netflix and chill” they are doing one of those two things wrong.
My husband and I got together in 2005. We got Netflix DVDs in the post…
I always understood that Netflix and chill involved a movie AND sex, with only the “and chill” bit being a euphemism… So “wanna watch a movie with me? I have Netflix” and “wanna Netflix and chill with me?” would both involve an invitation to come over and watch a movie and relax together but only one of them would involve relaxing by means of sex…
i guess some ppl have to have ‘coded languages’ b/c if you barely know someone, or if you’re in polite company but close with someone, saying “hey wanna sleep together after this”, even if ppl know that it’s a term like how ‘trying for kids’ can be phrased as ‘oh yeah i creampie my wife nightly’ but i’d hope everyone knows their group of friends well enough to know which one
*plays “Circus Source” by Richard Bellis on hacked muzak*
“Entry of the Gladiators” (the traditional clown music for Ringling Brothers) – the actual Ringling Brothers circus band conducted by bandleader Merle Evans
I feel like thinking a guy’s always down for sex is a bit negative, but also I wouldn’t expect Becky to realize that.
You’re not wrong on either count. But purity culture is obsessed with the idea that men and women are complementary colors, and that means everything is in opposites – men are *always* up for sex, and women are right in the middle of the madonna/whore complex.
Yeah, it’s an artifact of her background, along with probably, as a lesbian, not really feeling a strong need to learn that nuance, anyway, as it’s entirely irrelevant to her romantic/sexual life.
In any case, Becky’s like 18 and from a fundie background, I am willing to cut her some slack on having a lot she still needs to learn about gender essentialism.
Yeah definitely a bit problematic, especially since it’s quite obvious that Walky isn’t really into the sex idea with Lucy and appears to be using church as an excuse to put it off
Yeah, I’m afraid Lucy is in for disappointment.
I think that’s kind of the joke here. It reinforces the idea that Walky should be down to clown with Lucy because he’s a man, and if he’s not something is wrong with him.
He could take a piss between classes and somebody would say it was an excuse to put off fucking Lucy.
I mean sure, but… there’s clearly a pattern here. Despite her *very* clear desire to have sex, Walky consistently deflects the offer. He very clearly has some reservations. I reject the frequently-paired claims that he doesn’t find Lucy attractive at all, and that this fact means their relationship is inherently doomed, but it’s really hard to make a convincing argument that Walky isn’t making excuses.
It’s an old, tired trope that I honestly wish would go die in a fire already.
I get why it exists, don’t get me wrong, and its not 100% wrong, but it just feels like a lazy and reductive joke most of the time, and that’s even before you get into some of the really horrific related crap that some people genuinely believe (like the belief that a man having an erection is proof that they are consenting to sex).
Not accusing Willis of intending anything remotely like that, for the record. I’m viewing this as them pulling out a cheap, easy, reliable simple gag with minimal punching down 99% of the time, but its one that I’m 100% tired of.
Might not even be a joke. I think it’s just loyal character writing. Becky is a young, lesbian, fundamentalist. Of course she would have some slightly misandrist views. Joyce was trying to check Dorothy’s junk for a secret weenus a bit ago and overall being a bit off about knowing a trans person. Not to mention the countless other quirks or flaws ever character has.
Mmm, yeah, that’s fair. Probably overreacting a bit here, I’m just REALLY tired of that trope popping up >_<.
Yeah, I definitely read this as dramatic irony, with it being recognizably a flawed, mistaken viewpoint which Becky holds due to her upbringing, and it being actively and dramatically wrong about Walky. If anything, I feel like Willis is making the point that it *is* a legitimately unfair and hurtful stereotype. As the audience, we know that Walky does not seem to feel this way. (Or at least, a substantial portion of the audience seems to be reading it that way.)
Then again, recalling how Becky used reverse psychology on Ruth and Billie, it’s also possible she’s fully aware it’s an unfortunate trope and is trying to call it out so Walky recognizes that he might not want that. I feel like either reading would be faithful to Becky’s character, whether she’s intentionally throwing a lifeline to Walky or not.
It’s certainly a belief I wish would die out too. Would have made life with my ex-wife a lot easier for the several years it took to make her understand that.
It’s a really toxic attitude and it’s deeply rooted in our society. It’s true that young males tend to have stronger libidos, on average, than young females (due to testosterone being correlated with sexual desire) but the viewpoint that men always want sex is very damaging. I know people who have been publicly humiliated for turning down sex, and the entire incel subculture is deeply rooted in mens’ self-worth being determined by their sexual performance.
dang I used the term “deeply rooted” twice in one paragraph. I’ve been doing too much academic stuff today -_-
No, the problem is you used “deeply rooted” twice while talking about sex and neither case had a pun
Agreed. I remember talking to a fellow student in college about how she was pretty down bad for our Professor and I told her to wait til she wasn’t in his class anymore to make a move, both because of… you know, the obvious student/teacher thing and because I told her that she didn’t want to make it seem like she was trying to be pushy or anything (as in for grades or something) and she immediately responded with something along the lines of “oh well guys always want it”. It led to us having a conversation about it and she really just could NOT fathom the idea that men are not in fact, ‘always down to fuck’. …I did not talk to her again after that semester.
If men aren’t always DTF, then why do they have genitals? Checkmate, atheists.
Do you have a car? Do you use it every time you want to get from A to B or do you sometimes walk or ride a bike? I know that was supposed to be a joke, but DANG do I get tired of the “Checkmate, atheists” trope.
Oh yeah, I’m a grad student and literally one of the first words of advice you get as a TA is “don’t fuck the students”. Even my roommate, one of the most down bad guys I know, doesn’t even consider it an option.
And from the bar of Galasso’s Pizza (and Subs) comes a cry of “Now you bloody well tell me!”
When I was a TA, the rule was “If you fuck the students you’re teaching, you have to let somebody else grade them.”
Yep, official university policy was that it was ok back then. Not sure if that’s changed at that school, but I thought it was a pretty good policy.
Y I K E S
I actually think it is a very intentional lampshade of how Walky is, in this very scene, demonstrably not “down” for sex. Whatever you may think his motivations are, he’s saying “no, not right now”, in direct defiance of the Generally Recognized Societal Expectation Becky is apathetically regurgitating.
I will note as a matter of historical interest, by the way, that the view that men are always interested in sex and women are more looking for relationships isn’t a historical constant by any means – during the early modern period in Europe (1500-1650 or so) it was believed that women had voracious and nigh-uncontrollable sexual appetites and that it was up to men, being morally superior (because of course they are, women are simply a deformed sort of man really), to keep women on the straight and narrow path of godly virtue and chastity.
A useful reminder that sexism does not express itself in universal forms and can take wildly different approaches based on the culture that’s expressing them! Which funnily enough is in its own way a refutation of that same sexism – after all, if gender stereotypes really are based in biological fact, why do so many cultures throughout history have DIFFERENT stereotypes about what the genders are like? Surely you’d expect them all to have the exact same stereotypes acting the exact same way?
Interesting, i didn’t know that yet!
And yeah, the only trope all patriarchal cultures have in common is the assumption that men and women are fundamentally different, and women are inferior. That’s what all customs and stereotypes boil down to, so the cause is patriarchy, not biology.
I feel like maybe she needs that gender studies course. Don’t listen to her Walky! It’s ok to not be down to clown!
This is the empowerment i didn’t know i needed! +.+
I remember the study that everybody was quoting years ago. It said men think about sex every 7? 8? seconds. Society would not be able too function if that were the case.
I mean … depends on how deeply they thought about sex and how they reacted to it. It comes to mind pretty frequently for me, but then I just move on to something else, and nobody would ever be the wiser unless I went out of my way to inform them.
It’s got to be some kind of weird math averaging – like if you think about sex once for an hour, that covers 1/16th of your waking time, which gets translated into every 16 seconds.
I know I don’t think about sex every 7 seconds, but when I do it usually lasts a bit longer than 7 seconds, so how could this even make sense.
i also don’t remember the study so well, but it comes to mind that i’d think way more about sex if i was in a study that’s knowingly linked to sex?
Sexual Georg, who lives in a cave & thinks about sex over 10,000 times each second, is an outlier and should not have been counted
I was one, for a long while.
Then I took diabetes drugs
to the knee.–Dave, my libido hs been entirely drained for 15 years or so. I still appreciate the view, and I can convince myself to get the urge, but the DRIVE, the flame in the belly? is not there
Yeah, it’s so toxic to paint men as always willing. This kind of assumption has trivialized sexualized violence done to men in so many cases.
Well, thinking back to when I was that age, I wouldn’t completely disagree with that opinion. It may have not been always, but it was pretty close. I was surprised to learn that some women were not all that different from me about that either.
If she could tell, she might realize he isn’t in this case
Is Becky working on her opening number for the comedy club or what?
Her tight 5 needs a bit of workshopping.
Sounds like something Dina can help her with.
*imagines Becky in Juggalo makeup and duds*
“Welcome to the Amazing Digital Circus!!!!”
There is no sexually explicit content allowed in the digital circus. To the V O I D
(Shameful that I posted this on my own comment thread)
No, Cain clearly stated “anything can happen in the digital circus, except swearing”.
(I don’t even wanna know what he did to Abel) 0_0
lean into it, reply with that to random comments
The real V O I D was the friends we made along the way
Yeah I was thinking the same thing, now I’m picturing her done up like Violent J, just staring at herself confused and horrified
The idea of an “Insane Clown Posse” suggests the existence of a “Sane Clown Posse” but my brain is too feeble to imagine tbat.
*Bunter intensifies, skillfully*
–Dave, he wields a ladder
… I read that as “Butter intensifies…”
buttered clowns are a WHOLE nother slipshine area, ma’am
–Dave, down the hall, to the left
Searching for that turned up this: https://i.imgur.com/3lxPA.jpg
“Magnets, how do they work?”
Followed by Dina popping into frame to explain in detail. They start a new educational series that rakes in millions.
YES
KISS and Zdunich both have better music.
God, Walky always seems so interested until she’s near him, then he seems so uncomfortable
I think he’s rethinking all of this.
There is no sexually explicit content allowed in the digital circus. To the V O I D
Dammit that’s not where this was supposed to reply
No, I think if we could hear Walky’s thoughts, that’s exactly what he’d be thinking.
More like he’s interested in what he thinks a relationship is, and interested in her in that context, but every time she talks to him she’s continually bringing up how what she thinks a relationship is isn’t the same thing at all.
(In fairness, the underlying dynamic of them just having different things they want out of the relationship is just “literally every relationship that’s ever existed, including the platonic ones”, that part’s fine, it’s the part where she’s constantly highlighting the differences that’s stressing him out. Most people, y’know, try to downplay how much they want a dating life governed by arcane formal rules that everyone pretends to know but no one ever discusses, while their boyfriend just wants to hang out with a friend they occasionally also sleep with.)
I sorta wonder. Like, we’ve seen him have sexual desire for her:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-12/01-sister-christian/solution/
But I also sort of wonder if he’s feeling guilty that she’s getting attached faster than him. Then again, it also could be because Dorothy was the experienced party, and with Amber, she was experienced and also they never had intercourse, just grinded. Now, Walky’s in the driver’s seat here, and that’s a lot of pressure. He probably really wants to make this special for her.
I will argue every single time this comic is brought up: show me a heterosexual teenaged boy who isn’t turned on by a girl licking his shirt clean. Are there ANY other examples of him being excited around her for her sexually? He almost seems resigned to it, if he isn’t actively glad it didn’t happen.
Yeah, I’m a little tired of this comic being linked as a trump card.
We remember the Taco Bell Lick. No one has forgotten the Taco Bell Lick. You could not possibly forget the Taco Bell Lick.
The fact that the Taco Bell Lick is from 2021 and no one has anything more recent is just not proving the point they seem to think it is.
I could use the Taco Bell Lick to argue she has more sexual chemistry with Daisy at this point.
Somewhere out there Daisy’s head whips around. She has sexual chemistry with someone?!
(But I mean you’re not wrong that Daisy was way more into the spit on Walky’s shirt than Walky was. Arguably more into it than anyone should be.) (Please find an outlet somewhere and calm down, Daisy.)
and you’d be right.
Okay, I’ll humor you. The roller derby “date” fiasco was from this year where Walky was not a passive participant.
I am not fighting the notion Walky is less enthusiastic, obviously, but it’s also been a big thing where people reduce him to being like Ethan’s dad, like he’s just going with the flow with something he is clearly not into, and that’s just not how this has read to me.
I’m sorry if people are sick of it as a trump card, but as far as singular pieces of evidence goes, it’s… kind of unambiguous, so it makes sense it would be referred to often.
the reason you get so many people telling you it’s not a trump card is because it is not as unambiguous as you think.
Maybe, but likewise as a depiction of male/ female interaction (complete with flush and Walky’s last-panel direct comment) it’s not as ambiguous as several people have sought to make out, either, so… stalemate?
Yeah yeah, he got turned on one time. We get it already.
+1
I mean that falls into the “actively glad it didn’t happen” category mere strips later, but sure. He did briefly seem interested in hurrying home to have sex with her.
he’s blushing, like ok. let’s not read too much into this. I’m not saying he doesn’t find her attractive, but he responded by deflecting with a joke, not making out with her.
The joke being that they could not have a platonic relationship after this, is the thing.
Bingo. Walky has implicitly and explicitly mentioned he is attracted to Lucy multiple times. I forgot who posited a week or three ago IRL but Walky’s trepidation at 1) Being the “experienced” half of the pair and 2) Being a little burned by Dorothy and Amber being whirlwind romances in their own right more than makes sense.
I see regular comments to the effect of “The stretched timescale fucks with our reactions,” and sometimes that’s applied unevenly. Walky gets a break for complaining about getting up early for church, but his being less eager about having sex than Lucy is A Sign.
Also, honestly tell me that early Joyce or Mary licking soda off shirt would give him the exact same reaction.
It’s also all likely tied into feeling it’s under false pretenses, since she thinks he’s said he’s in love with her, but also not wanting to have the “I’m not really in love with you” conversation, because that’s a minefield.
Of course they didn’t start making out, they didn’t have time. What, does he need to forsake all his obligations and take her right there on the table to convince you he was into that?
I was one. There’s nothing sexy about licking.
Right? Tongues are weird and gross and squishy and … eugh.
As a heterosexual male who once was a teenager, I agree: that’s a very intimate thing to do and it would definitely have turned my thoughts to other forms of intimacy. But even a teenaged boy can have a sense that he’s dabbling in powerful forces and be uncomfortable with the possible outcomes.
In Walky’s case, I still think that (a) he’s just come out of two intense relationships that ended painfully, and might like one that’s less intense for now; and: (b) he may be getting a sense that Lucy is more into sex than she is into him, and feeling a bit…is it too early for “used”? I mean, he wants to be a good boyfriend, but sometimes it seems that Lucy is looking right past that.
While I am no longer a heterosexual teenage boy, I still vaguely remember my attitudes at the time, and … no. No, I would very much not be excited or aroused by somebody getting super weird at me like that. Creeped out? Grossed out? Confused? Possibly a little frightened? All entirely likely. Turned on? Dear god, no.
might even react like this perhaps?
The amount of examples of Walky being into it? 1 “trump card” and a lot of other “ehhh sorta”
The amount of examples of Walky not being into it? Like 9
The casual observer would say Lucy is in the driver’s seat. Walky is merely backseat driving.
Maybe Walky is submissive and thinks that he will be expected to take on a different role with Lucy. That can be a lot of pressure if you’re not used to it.
Maybe if she’d ever shut up about sex and his mom, he’d seem less weary.
Lucy does not know how to shut up.
She could at least talk about anything else at all, ever. Every time they interact lately, it’s “Hey, tick tock, the countdown to sex is running” or “Will sleeping on my side instead of my back impress your mom?”
He wants a companion he can watch cartoons with. Literally/figuratively. He’s said it twice to her. Trying to impress his mom isn’t relaxing to him.
The pressure to have sex is part on him, he has to communicate and he won’t so far. I get it, he’s having trouble figuring out what to say, but ask advice from someone who isn’t your ex who is clearly not over you bud.
But like… how is she threading the needle between awareness and anxiety to not be wondering if something’s wrong?
An important point.
He like… the idea of it. But not the truth, the weakness. There was no future there.
…wait, is that not why Walky is there?
Is what not why walky is there?
Going to church is probably his way of saying, “sorry for just sitting there while my mom was racist towards you” where he doesn’t have to communicate anything about it.
I also don’t think “down to clown” means sex. You could say “down to clown” in reference to a lotta stuff. It means “down to mess around.” Down to “Do stuff”
Someone could ask if you’re down to clown while offering you a beer or weed.
Or if you’re down to clown with some video games
Or down to clown just to chill out with the crew at the school yard (Making trouble never looking too hard.)
If you think of “down to clown” as purely sex then that has more to do with you, Becky.
That’s also how I understood the phrase… that it’s contextual based on the circumstances it’s being applied to
Thanks for this, I say down to clown all the time and after reading this was suddenly like, oh no…lmao
Centuries of circumlocution have brought us to this: any compehensible assemblage of words can carry sexual innuendo.
i am meditating carefully on your assemblage of circumlocutions right now
–Dave, with the magical acronyms IYKWIN and ITYD
*IYKWIM
–Dave, curse these mortal fingers
Like “doing laundry”.
Class just never taught Becky this (proper slang meanings). I guess some things you’ve gotta learn hit-miss.
HEhe I love GX.
(Generation Next)
2024 pornography trend prediction: clowns have replaced step-incest.
It’s now step-clowns
it’s clowns all the way down the staircase
–Dave, it’s a greasepainted slope, really
This would mean some rehabilitations for clowns since their whole “scariest thing to exist” swing a few years ago, but I’m not really feeling it.
o3o as someone who uh…travels in horny circles.
There is a HUGE demand for wanting to bang clowns.
Would boink be a more appropriate word?
I think the technical term is “honk”.
as someone who travels in circus circles, performers of all kinds are often very horny so this makes a lot of sense
it will start as performers realize they can trademark a clownface, and use that to combat ai porn. But then producers will realize there’s an unmet demand.
Oh yeah, that stupid-ass meme where everyone pretended to have a real phobia, and then they went and watched Assault on Arkham anyway.
there was that hilarious and incredibly wholesome reddit thread from this guy saying he has a massive and super specific clown fantasy, and then a literal clown chick apparently DM’d him and made his dream come true and now they’re dating, it was so adorable
Sometimes you get to meet your manic pixie clown girl. Never take those opportunities for granted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpKc8N3FJsQ
+1
I mean clussy is already a thing
And thank Gosh for it.
Hey wait a minute! I drew that! Who did that coloring?
I mean that in a happy excited way, not an angry way.
Because otherwise why say “Not my circus, not my clowns”
” And definitely not my flying monkeys.”
–Dave, clowns did not appear much in Oz. however, in Little Nemo in Slumberland…
It’s probably just for the rhyme. That, or it was created by the kind of person with a lot of pictures of Pixi Payasita on their hard drive.
No, you can’t borrow my hard drive.
Clownfish are awesome. Amongst them, the death of the dominant member is a chance to get very very freaky (in more ways than one)
https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2731
Basically, anything can mean having sex, if you say it with the correct intonation.
Just ask Joey Tribbiani.
“When correctly viewed, everything is lewd.” – Tom Lehrer
or the flipside where you use a sexy voice to say something gross
i feel like there was a qc strip like tht with dora tho i havent reread the old pages in forever so i don’t know off the top of my head
She asks Martin to pop a pimple.
AM DOWN TO CLOWN
AND WELCOME TO POUND TOWN
(spoken in the same beat as Space Jam)
Oh now I hear it, too.
Reminder for non-UK readers that two competing chain stores existed here, based on the fact that the unit of currency is the Pound. PoundWorld was formed first, but ultimately lost out to PoundLand.
I learned about those stores from Stuart Ashen!
Doesn’t have the same ring as Family Dollar, no.
awooga, awooga
(worrisome similarity for risk of a creampie)
I feel Becky is missing out on quite a lot of SMBC.
Seeing people discussing Walky and his… seemingly non-interest in Lucy again, I gotta say I definitely get a read off of him that, if I didn’t know any better, I’d assume he was ace. In comparison he was a very flustered mess with Dorothy and although he and Amber never completely had sex they did some clothes on dry humping, so why’s it seem like he has no urge with Lucy? Aside from assumptions regarding whether he’s into her physically, I honestly think some of it is due to him being lowkey kinda depressed. Like he’s nowhere near as bereaved as Ethan but clearly the events from last semester have affected him a lot and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of his seeming lack of interest is part of just being burnt out and depressed from everything he’s been through.
I do think there’s a lot he hasn’t really addressed, I can believe that much. He’s had two relationships (one more of a “situationship”, but still) end, a roommate die, his sister figure trying to basically transform into a whole other entity, and the deeply humiliating treatment Linda has subjected him to while his dad just kind of stood by.
Honestly, if not for having a better relationship with Sal and the Lucy relationship, there’s a whole lot of shit that’s gone badly for him.
Walky’s got a lot of shit going on.
My vibe on Walky and Lucy is that it isn’t so much that he doesn’t want to have sex with her as it is that he thinks or feels that it would be a bad idea for him to have sex with her now for some reason. Ether he’s worried he’d be taking advantage of her, or that she would incorrectly interpret it as him making a commitment to her, or some other reason.
One thing that often goes along with the “all men always want sex” BS is the “the penis has no conscience” BS that men can’t or won’t turn down sex just because they think it would be wrong.
+1
When do we get the idea he is worried about taking advantage of her? Lucy seems to be the aggressor here. It looks like she’s been trying to use him since she saw his abs.
I think it’s not a completely unreasonable thing to think Walky might be worried about (we know he’s at least a bit Conscious of the fact that he’s sexually experienced while she isn’t, see: him asking Dorothy how to navigate that), but I also think it would be revisiting the Joe-and-Danny confrontation about Billie.
Or, in other words, that in that scenario Walky would be displacing his own totally legitimate “don’t wanna, for whatever reason” onto an assumption that it would be taking advantage of an obviously very enthusiastically consenting woman.
I’d also say to take a look at the other comments about Lucy’s interpretation – if he had sex with her just because she was willing when he must have at least a hunch by now that she is thinking about forever already, that would be taking advantage of her – having sex with her when she is much, much more invested in the relationship while he still has a sense of obligation about it all.
Especially when he likely thinks it’s at least partly because he said the love word and she took it more seriously than he intended.
Ooooooh now that you mention it, avoiding sex because he’s worried Lucy’ll interpret it as hard commitment sounds very on-brand for Walky. It would tie into what he was telling Amber about recently, where he really just wants some nice, meaningless, chill time, but can’t get that with Lucy (“Nothin’ is always a little bit somethin’ with Lucy”). And, well, considering how much Lucy has been shown to buy into various arbitrary dating ‘rules’ in the past, he’s probably right about how she’d react to them having sex for the first time.
Yeah, I think she very much sees some form of linear path where “he says the Love word first, we have sex after the third date, we get engaged before our final year then married shortly after graduation and happily ever after with 2-4 babies” is basically pretty much guaranteed so long as she checks all of the boxes on a longer list in order and keeps faith.
Unfortunately, one of the boxes was “meet the parents and make a good impression” and also the bit where there are no guarantees in life.
I kinda sold myself on him as demisexual, or some other kind of gray-ace. While anyone can be a late bloomer, his experience of having never been interested in anyone at all before suddenly getting hit like a truck by attraction to Dorothy is something I’m sure a lot of gray ace people would resonate with. Even now we haven’t seen a lot of… well, interest from him.
His interest in having sex with Dorothy and Amber could also be characterized as “reactive”, and. Yeah. Again, I think a lot of gray ace people would find that relatable.
My best guess (from my own relationship experience) he had one relatively healthy mutual relationship with Dorothy, then rebounded to Amber before he really re-entered after he and Dorothy broke up. Given that Dorothy was his first -albeit unintentionally- serious relationship. And the stress he experienced worrying about Billie then dealing with Mike’s passing. He’s probably very emotionally burnt out and really needs to just stop. And I think he knows it (see his conversation with amber about “doing nothing”) Not necessarily going the Dana or Ethan route of apparent self destruction but getting some distance and taking time to not expose yourself to heavy emotional engagement is needed. The year hasn’t really been kind to him in that regard.
some ppl can end up asexual later in life even if they’ve had experienced
idk if walky would go fully asexual (idk if there are canon ace males in the series yet rather than just generally lgbt) but there are prolly some passive-sexual ppl in like “not actively seeking it out, but wouldn’t turn down if someone was interested in a one night stand/during a relationship”
maybe walky would also being ok dating an asexual gf too, since when he asked lucy out he’s like “basically the same thing we were doing but infinitely more handholding” as opposed to saying kissing as an exmaple
The best seats are in the back, and Walky should not take communion anyways. The question he was asking Becky yesterday, the answer is probably: stand up and sit down when everyone else does. you don’t have to sing, you’re not expected to recite or read anything when everyone else does (unless there’s passing of the peace type thing), don’t take communion.
You listed communion twice. What’s so bad about it?
Communion, at least in my experience as a Roman Catholic, is intended only for those who are ‘of the faith’. Members only, in other words.
Nobody has to know.
Yeah, let him drink and cannibalize a 2000 year old Galilean! :p
Better than a 2000 year old Gallifreyan, I s’pose.
obviously nobody has to know, there’s no church police and if there’s a god, they’re not telling if someone’s cheating. But if you want to be respectful and/or not give a false impression, then don’t do it.
It’s not just the RCC. Other denominations are more open about who is welcome to take communion, as in which denominations’ baptisms/creeds are acceptable.
I mentioned communion twice because creeds are pretty clear on what statement you’re sending, it’s in the words you’d be reading. Without religious instruction in church, it’s hard to guess what statement is being made with communion.
I think they’re going to a United Methodist church, so anyone baptized in any Christian denomination is welcome, or anyone intending to be baptized. https://www.umc.org/en/content/an-open-table-how-united-methodists-understand-communion
That differs quite a bit between denominations. My church (United Methodist) makes a point of emphasizing that all are welcome to communion, regardless of membership or baptism or anything else.
And since we do actual bread dipped in grape juice, it makes for a nice mid-service snack too!
Tis why Welch’s was invented, after all.
And Quakers make it super easy. No communion for anyone!
No Power Rangers toys in the cereal boxes, either.
The major difference in Communion (Or the Eucharistic sacrament if Roman Catholic) us the theology behind it. The various Catholic Rites (yes we have multiple) and the Russian or Eastern Orthodoxy hold that the Bread and Wine when consecrated during the Mass ARE the Body and Blood of Christ. Because the Mass is a perpetuation of the Sacrifice on the Cross so its imperative that is wholly believe by those who receive it. (Most churches let you come up for a blessing if you for whatever reason can’t receive.) To my knowledge Most protestant denominations don’t hold that belief/doctrine/dogma.
It’s not bad, the sacraments just kinda go in order. You have to be baptized (initiated into the church) before you can take communion (be blessed by the priest as part of worship), which in turn is something you’re supposed to be doing before you get the sacrament of confession. And you’re supposed to confess (in theory regularly but a minimum of once) before getting one of the two ‘rite of adulthood’ sacraments, marriage or ordination (being raised to the priesthood). And obviously dying is always the last thing you do, so there’s where last rites fit in there.
This is one of those things that was super strict in the middle ages, but that the modern Church has backed off on a lot since the schisms and reformation, mostly just because at some point it became literally impossible to require that non-Catholics convert in order to marry Catholics, and wildly impractical to not consider people full adults / church members until marriage post-industrial revolution.
Baptism being prerequisite to communion is sort of an artefact of obsolete apologetics, basically. The modern take on it would basically be that the downside of a non-catholic taking it is that it’d just be having a cracker and some wine, since it wouldn’t be the magically transmuted flesh of christ for them. Not a big deal so much as just… pointless, I guess.
While I definitely know catholics who would froth at the mouth at your last.comment I am not one lol. It is interesting to note that you don’t actually need to be dying to receive Last Rites. It cam be administered before any event that may remove you from ready access to a priest or deacon (pretty sure they can administer last rites). I know many soldiers get it before deployment, and some people will receive it before traveling extreme distances. I got it before flying internationally for the first time.
The only services I’ve been to involved a lot of “keep an eye on everybody else and sit/stand/kneel when they do so you don’t stand out”.
I always thought the ‘good seats’ in church were in the very back, so you could slip out during communion and get home ten minutes earlier.
and nobody can see you nodding off.
well, lucy actually believes, so her def would be diff
makes me wonder how many parents drag their kids to the front so they behave.
tho while i understand ppl not trusting religious figures, if there were churchgoers with family, dropping kids off that are like ten and under at a church for an hour or two as a free daycare could be helpful in a busy family life lol
Weird, I was talking to someone yesterday about that phrase. Still don’t have a clue where it came from, and I have looked into it.
Until just now I assumed Becky made it up. I think it just sounds silly, and people tend to assume anything said with a certain tone of voice is an innuendo.
down to clown sounds like something insane clown posse would say to their fans, tho it just seemsl ike “let’s party” versus sexual
…. is Panel 1 the FIRST TIME that Walky’s actually indicated that he’s interested in sex with Lucy?
he did straight up tell carla about his ‘church to have sex later plans’ tho that might’ve been a tactic to rush carla outta there
Also, he did that with a sort of sour grimace on his face, almost like he felt it was another chore on the list.
I do not believe that saying “That is definitely … why I’m here” with a somewhat stricken look on his face is actually an indication that he’s interested in sex with Lucy.
The enthusiasm is not there, how anyone could misconstrue this panel makes me worried about people’s understanding of the “FRIES” consent model
Exactly why I’m concerned.
so very … interested. this is kind of his normal level of enthusiasm for sex with Lucy. 90 minute service will probably be long enough to come up with a reason to put off having sex, and maybe even a back-up reason.
If we are doing the One Piece definition then Down to Clown is probably to succesfully roll from one disaster into a bigger one.
Which, coincidentally, is ALSO an excellent descriptor of the near future of Lucy & Walky’s relationship!
I wish I had some gold or social media points to give Willis for the surprising concept of Walky just not being interested in Lucy as a romantic partner but kind of pressured into accepting her as a girlfriend when he really just wants to be her friend.
Yeah. Even better, Becky’s lampshading of the false assumption that guys always want sex adds the possibility that he is /romantically/ interested in Lucy, but not /sexually/, thus the confusion. Cause even he might not understand that it’s possible to care deeply for someone and enjoy a partnership that is something beyond friendship, but not based on physical desire.
Heyyy~
more silly fansmut~
NSFW~
Is that the palace from The Prince of Persia 2?
YES
thank you =D
But are any of them down with the clown?
Ok last panel becky is a mood
Becky telling us the basic truths.
Last panel: aw, Becky, I was counting on you!
*Plays Down 2 Clown on the hacked Muzak*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkS3FHTcf7c&pp=ygUpZG93biB0byBjbG93biB0aWxsIGknbSBkZWFkIGluIHRoZSBncm91bmQ%3D
I’m so sorry.
Interesting flavor, ableit I reckon it’s a bit too strong for some earthlings…
Per Google:
The phrase “down to clown” is a slang term that originated in the United States in the early 2010s. It is used to express a willingness to engage in any activity, typically something spontaneous or fun.
The phrase has become increasingly popular in recent years, and it is often used in a sexual context. This is likely due to the fact that the phrase is vague and can be interpreted in many different ways. Some people may use it to mean that they are open to having sex, while others may simply mean that they are down for a good time.
I feel like it’s derived/spun off from the phrase “Clowning Around” such that the phrase means “interested in joining some (usually unplanned or chaotic) suggested fun activity”
must be vast and pervasive coulrophilia
I blame The Big Comfy Couch. They knew EXACTLY what they were doing with that clock segment.
if I had a nickel for every time I said “I refuse to Google this”, I could buy a nice train ticket to FL to visit my buddies down there. Sleeper cars and everything.
Watching Walky passively fall into this relationship helps me understand how Charles ended up where he is.
Sorry didn’t mean to flag this!
I actually agree completely and have thought this a few times now in the last week especially.
I agree with Becky I refuse to Google it. I just assume you can use any set of words to describe sex. This phrase probably took off beacuse of alliteration.
That’s actually not what alliteration means; down to clown rhymes, but it’s not alliterative.
I’m sorry if someone has said this already, but Becky for the past several strips reminds me so, so much of Rogue from the X-Men.
It’s the hair. And the written-out accent.
And I’m sure it’s unintentional cause it’s not even the same accent? But it will not leave my head.
Becky will come out of this fugue state in approximately 75 minutes, and wonder how she missed church.
It’s because it’s fun to do and “clown” rhymes with “down.” Don’t overthink it.
Sincerely,
You’re Friendly Creative Writing Teacher
And yes, “You’re” was a joke, a horrible joke that misfired….
She will google this.
down to clown because you’re ready to fool around?
Becky feels a lot more genre savvy and mature all of a sudden
I see so much of my college self in Walky. I’ve been in the unhealthy “let’s be garbage together” relationship and the unhealthy relationship where I felt pressured into it by other person’s enthusiasm and was too much of a people pleaser.
Next week: Becky finds out that all the adults in her life growing up frequented Juggalo sex clubs.
down to clown.
What do clowns do?
Fool around.
As I understand it, Becky, that is every lesbian’s lesbian curse.
makes me think of that ‘lesbian sheep’ post but i’m sure some are proactive and make the first move. or thats what dating apps are for versus having a group of friends and getting closer over time
willis…..down to clown means up for a fun time….lmao
Becky is wise.