I asked Google “thing to do that’s not getting drunk or getting laid”, and got an entire page full of “get drunk and get laid”, “get laid without getting drunk”, and “smoke weed”. So filtering out the things that obviously violate the search parameters, it seems they need to find Meredith.
I am nostalgic of the not-too-predictive Google of the early 2000’s where you could search something and actually get an answer that respected the search.
SO, the bright side of the direction Google is going is that it will probably at some point in the near future have ingested enough of the new stuff to realize you actually want something NOT getting drunk or laid.
The dark side of that is that 20% (or worse) of the time it seems likely to respond to that by…making something up that doesn’t actually exist?
SO inspired by this, I signed into Google Bard and asked it. After getting past really generic answers, I managed to find a page with even more generic answers, including suggesting they play Exquisite Corpse.
I’m not convinced of this. There is enough toxic crap on the Internet, I think Google’s AI is forever learning more thoroughly that when you ask for “thing to do that’s not getting drunk or getting laid”, you really want to do both.
On the bright side this means that Google is forever making itself less relevant. On the dark side, so are all of their competitors. Yay blindly following market leaders into dark holes.
Google isn’t really smart enough to understand that you want results that do NOT have certain text. You might want “fun things to do while sober” or something like that.
Okay, but that’s not how to google. What you want to type in is “fun things to do -sex -drunk” (which searches for fun things to do, excluding sex and excluding drunk).
Some of the highlights: learn knitting, visit a local animal shelter, look for free local concerts, board games/puzzles, get a massage, yoga/meditation, bowling, indoor rock climbing, painting/pottery/art generally, and also lots of outdoor activities that would not be appropriate for January but I give passing mention to nonetheless.
I assure you I know and use booleans while making requests… but sometimes (most of time) google doesn’t give a fuck and just want to sell me gazoline barbecue grills when I’m trying to verify a whole “+” -“” quote (what somehow is comforting knowing I’m a vegetarian).
You need to have some constricting elements in your search. In advanced search, you put ‘drunk’ and ‘laid’ in the negative search prompt, while you put in the normal search “things to do locally”. This will get you to weed, yeah, but there will be other stuff.
When done properly even in the absence of alcohol karaoke involves lowering your inhibitions and baring you emotions and soul. While singing off key and out of tune.
I’ve found that off-rhythm is appallingly easy, though.
Even if you think you know a song, knowing the song at the exact tempo and rhythm used in a particular recording can be challenging, particularly since kareoke drops out the original vocals so to use the rest as a cue you need to know the background track well enough to know when to come in.
I don’t have a problem with timing, unless it’s a particularly wonky cover. My problem is my normal register sounds like Darius Rucker with a head cold, but my music tastes lean toward prog rock where all the vocalists sound like Peter Cetera and Tommy Shaw. I’ve tried doing whatever it is Geddy Lee does, but then all concept of staying on-key goes out the window.
My hair-trigger self-consciousness doesn’t help either. Can’t stand to hear my own voice, I always feel like I sound like I’m doing a ‘mentally challenged’ stereotype.
Maybe I could fill in for you? Prior to puberty, I always got straight As in music class. After puberty started, enough people heard me sing that I’ve never been invited to Karaoke. In fact, my mere approaching a group that’s been known to enjoy Karaoke has resulted in them immediately claiming that they weren’t talking about doing Karaoke, and then later on when talking about the weekend admitted, “We were going to do Karaoke, but then Ed walked by and we panicked.”
To be clear on this point, none of the people in several of those groups ever heard me sing. They merely went to school with some people who had. I’m not sure how many connections between them and those people there were. It’s also possible they just heard my speaking voice and assumed I’d be really bad at Karaoke.
Sometimes when you rule out your top choices, your brain just scrambles for something.
Recently had an eval where at one point I was asked to list types of animals, and “wallaby” was, like, fifth on my list, which is so much higher than I would have thought it would be.
are there any karaoke bars near campus? tho i suppose an impromptu karaoke night in their dorm would make all those ‘fangirls’ flock to jen again
i mean asians liking karaoke is a thing (is asian so i can say that lol), but i think sal and danny have sung outside together so their faces pop into my head more so
I live in Taiwan so I can confirm that a lot of Asians like karaoke too much. The dumbest one they have here at some places is the karaoke booth. It’s like a telephone booth but you sing karaoke. By yourself. And it has glass like a telephone booth so everybody walking by can watch you making a fool of yourself. I have never had the urge to try it.
My cycle is more “get mad when I read something, move on, get interrupted by the realization that there’s a potential pun in it, and have to go back to inflict it on everyone else so it doesn’t live in my brain for the next week”.
Because she’s in a position of authority. There are times in her job when she’s basically required to open a dorm room door (sometimes even her own) in front of dorm authorities. Picking a lock would look rather bad in that situation, especially when they gave her a key that works on all the doors on her floor.
you know, so is refarencing Linkin Park.
or Too Dark Park
or Park Chan-Wook
or Park Yong-rae
or Nick Park
or Mungo Park
or Europa Park
or if you’re dinosaur old, Jurassic Park
My tastes are ecletic so I immediately went to Lincoln Park Pirate.
And other pirate songs like
The Last Saskatchewan Pirate, because why not?
Ok, now I want to Ruth to do kareoke with Stan Rogers and Arrogant Worms songs (also, if I found a kareoke machine with these songs I would totally do this).
(look we just did the “act with integrity” thing yesterday, i had the word “regrets” fresh in my mind and this was the first thing that popped in my head)
well usually karaoke places are a private room and with friends so it’s not the same as performing in a stage, although i’m sure dorothy would have a meticulous ‘method’ on performing and ordering drinks/snacks efrever yone
Theoretically I guess? Frankly even back before recorded music when public singing was a lot more common it tended to be something you did while at least a little drunk.
I actually karaoke sober most weeks. Not right now because my wife’s in the hospital for a broken leg, but once a week, I usually get the kids to bed and then head out to do some singing with friends. (My wife isn’t interested, which works out because someone has to stay with the sleeping kids)
I’m an introvert with severe social anxiety who only does karaoke sober the rare times I’ve let people drag me out anywhere it’s happening (since I don’t drink). Actually getting up on the stage is an exercise in stomach-churning terror, but once I’m there I’m suddenly fine: I like to sing and a mass of randos below me who I will never interact directly with in any way doesn’t bother me like actually having to talk to them.
My coworkers and I used to go to the bar every Thursday night after 2nd shift to have what we affectionately called Drunkass Karaoke.
So I would have the same reaction as Ruth upon hearing that suggestion.
I get this is probably a joke, but on a very serious note : please don’t offer shrooms to a depressive person…
A clinical trial of shrooms was conducted to treat depression, and though the results seemed promising at first, horrific side effects (stuff like week-long bad trips with increase in suicidal tendency) prompted the trial to be stopped.
Recently, the combination of untreated depression and hallucinogenics (taken a couple of days before the flight) lead an off-duty airline pilot to endanger the lives of 83 people while flying in the cockpit jump seat (which is very common in the airline business) of a regional jet.
Yeah. When I was younger, WAY too many friends were hospitalized after shrooms. At least one never did fully recover from the sequence of events the spiral tipped off.
For me, it just got to be too scary to be around.
It was a joke, but the way i understand it, the research into therapeutic use is still very much ongoing. Also i couldnt find the source for that trial that was interrupted. But other studies of psilocybin-assisted depression therapy have been conducted showing promise (for instance) although they do warn about suicidality as a potential (but not significant in this study at least) adverse effect.
None of this is to diminish the potential danger from magic mushrooms, and thank you for pointing out that they are no joke. Let’s be safe <3
Joke taken. I will sugggest, though, that there’s miles of distance between “psilocybin-assisted depression therapy” and “SHROOMS” and it probably makes a significant difference in the frequency of unfortunate outcomes.
On that note, microdosing classic psychedelics such as shrooms, LSD, mescaline, etc. is actually on my bucket list, of course in any instance of those done in a controlled environment and a trip sitter who’d ideally be my future GF
We are talking about Dorothy, most likely she was so immersed in her thoughts that she did not even notice the weather or otherwise she was looking to catch a cold and be the excuse for not getting out of bed the next day):
Dorothy has gotten insulted only because Jennifer was so generic in saying: You just need go get laid.
If she just was more specific to Dorothy, the response could be other.
well, i don’t think anyone’s ever reacted to ‘you need to get laid’. other than a pent up guy going ‘hell yeah’ because he thinks the person saying that is going to help ‘wingman’ or wahtever
“what a cure to hysteria” mumbled Dr Schweinkopfkugelschreiberjalievschreiberistdernichtgeil striking his bart while looking through the bow window in his room surrounding the campus where he resided much more than in his Nantucket farm, his Soho flat or the AirBnB castlet the university paid for him to be visiting this semester, again, as would stress the resident professor for unrealistic studies, a former NKVD agent wo had spent most of his post-perestroika taxi time learning to tame bears and hegelian propedeutics.
This would have been a good time for me to make another reddit post of what songs I think would be on some characters Spotify list but reddit isn’t haven’t it. So I’ll just to this instead.
Now that I’m an adult I realize I love doing Karaoke. But a loot of songs are outta my range. Makes me wanna make my own custom versions of my favorite songs that are pitch shifted to my range so I can go all out!
i mean other than singing along where you might instinctively go higher or flatter, you could just try singing it in your own range, i’m terrible at timing when its just instrumental wise and the melodies but i prolly wouldn’t go super high as a solo b/c just listenign to the instrumental wouldn’t make me hit the same ‘high notes’ as the original singer even if i’ve memorized the song a bit better lol. tho some songs do have pitched down versions in instrumentals on niconico but that’s a very specific subset of vocaloid songs XD
If I go to low I sound a little flat. I won’t sound good. If I sing in my speaking range I can only go So High or So low. It’s my fault for always speaking higher than my voice should naturally sit.
But this is part of why kareoke is harder than Actually Just Singing. Although I’m sure some kareoke sets have controls you can use to transpose the backing track; that would be rad.
Most modern-day digital karaoke systems have the capability of being pitched up or down almost a half-octave either way. Or you could just do as I do and sing a song an octave lower than, say, Celine Dion or (yes, even though I’m a guy I have sung ‘My Heart Will Go On’ or ‘The Rose’ this way more than once).
You could also find a someone and do duets, taking the lower parts for yourself.
I have quite a narrow range, so that long ago I had to learn to switch octaves between any two notes if I wanted to get through some songs. If it sounds weird to others…too bad.
What’s your Go-to Karaoke song?
It’s not my favorite but I can kill a “Fly me to the moon”. A song that’s right in my range and I love doing that Sinatra style intonation.
With Plenty of Money and You. It goes a bit low but I can fake a tenor (I’m actually an alto but have a decent low end) and can take over a room with that track.
I have a repertoire of over a hundred songs that I can do well, ranging from rock to country to pop to show tunes, but the one i generally come back to is the first one I ever performed when I started singing karaoke singer back in the 1990s – the 1972 hit ‘Brandy’, by Looking Glass.
i also note that I have memorized the words to all my songs so that I don’t have to hover over the monitor, but can move about the stage and interact with the audience or (in the case of duets) with my singing partner.
I’ve never done karaoke, but if I had to, I think I’d go for something folky. It’s probably too much to expect they’d have some Steeleye, so maybe Dougie Maclean’s Caledonia.
(I live in Scotland. While I’ve never been to one, I absolutely believe the local karaoke bars will have Dougie Maclean’s Caledonia. And that most of the people who sing it are really, really drunk.)
Okay, never tried karaoke but, since people would be expecting me to (a) not sing well and (b) act out of character, I’d take a chance on “Stairway to Heaven”.
I would probably start with something by Cake. I know their songs are more complicated than just chanting it out, but if that’s what I ended up doing, I think it’d still be fun enough.
I’d say hitting the notes in a Cake song is less important than mimicking John McCrea’s delivery style. Like mimicking Michael Jackson comes down to delivering all the right noises and “hee hee”s as much as it comes down to the notes.
It’s actually not a bad idea. She needs to let loose and have a little fun. The main problem is that Ruth and Dorothy would want to drink in front of Jennifer.
This does have merit. Also, I already assumed as much, but this further makes me think Jennifer legitimately wants to help, it’s not an ego trip thing. Well, not fully, anyway.
I might have said “bowling.” Probably available nearby, indoors, tolerably good exercise, typically done in a social group. Plus you get to throw heavy objects and hear things go CRASH! as a result, without having to clean up the splinters or replace anything.
Typically a fine idea. But there’s a score in bowling, and while getting a higher score than others, or higher than your old score, can be fun, it’s probably better for Dorothy to learn to have fun where there’s not an objective measure of how close/far to perfect she’s done.
Honestly, we’re working towards a good solution here. You can’t be self-conscious and do karaoke, which should help Dorothy. If Ruth can do it sober, she might force herself to genuinely enjoy things. And Jennifer might actually have a good time hanging out with people she used to like.
The only thing that could fuck it up is… well, some fucking at the end. That’s the one thing any of them must absolutely not do in any combination with each other.
Wilbur and Estelle’s karaoke duel was more entertaining than the current “author can’t decide if main character is a villain or not” Mary Worth storyline.
Ruth dumped Jennifer because if they both went to the dark place again, Ruth would have helped her die, and clear-headed Ruth didn’t think that was acceptable.
It’s because her medicine was no longer at risk of interference from booze, along with her now being legally allowed to drink. It isn’t great reasoning, but it isn’t necessarily as bad a position as she had been in.
That’s… actually a pretty good idea. At least sounds fun. But then, thinking about Dorothy being stuck singing with Jennifer and Ruth, than will very probably start fighting for some dumb reason… dunno. But I would love to see Ruth and Dorothy sing. It’s also really sad discovered that some people can’t enjoy karaoke without being drunk.
Karaoke will start well, but after Sal sings, nobody wants to follower her. But they’re not the only one there, and someone else gets up and does an overly enthusiastic and poorly sung rendition of Under Pressure, and they’re Arnold. And afterwards Dorothy and him get to talking.
Too many people use weed as a crutch and it’s disgusting, really. I mean literally smells like dog feces 90% of the places I go nowadays. Kinda sad, really. It’s also indicative of a LOT of problems in society, that so many people need it for whatever they need it for.
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*out of curiosity, searches “fun things to do” to see if that would help*
1. [City] Outdoor Pool
…maybe not
I asked Google “thing to do that’s not getting drunk or getting laid”, and got an entire page full of “get drunk and get laid”, “get laid without getting drunk”, and “smoke weed”. So filtering out the things that obviously violate the search parameters, it seems they need to find Meredith.
Given that “weed” was actually Jennifer’s first plan before “karaoke”, it’s probably an even worse plan.
I am nostalgic of the not-too-predictive Google of the early 2000’s where you could search something and actually get an answer that respected the search.
Me too. 🙁
SO, the bright side of the direction Google is going is that it will probably at some point in the near future have ingested enough of the new stuff to realize you actually want something NOT getting drunk or laid.
The dark side of that is that 20% (or worse) of the time it seems likely to respond to that by…making something up that doesn’t actually exist?
Not convinced that better.
SO inspired by this, I signed into Google Bard and asked it. After getting past really generic answers, I managed to find a page with even more generic answers, including suggesting they play Exquisite Corpse.
Honestly, I think kareoke is a better idea.
I’m not convinced of this. There is enough toxic crap on the Internet, I think Google’s AI is forever learning more thoroughly that when you ask for “thing to do that’s not getting drunk or getting laid”, you really want to do both.
On the bright side this means that Google is forever making itself less relevant. On the dark side, so are all of their competitors. Yay blindly following market leaders into dark holes.
Yeah, remember when putting -“thing” made it exclude results for ‘thing’?
Pivoting search engines from “find information” to “provide answers” was a mistake that only lead to enshittification.
Google isn’t really smart enough to understand that you want results that do NOT have certain text. You might want “fun things to do while sober” or something like that.
it USED to be. But now it’s all AI’d out. I hate the modern internet T_T
The worse is people beginning to speak like AIs.
Okay, but that’s not how to google. What you want to type in is “fun things to do -sex -drunk” (which searches for fun things to do, excluding sex and excluding drunk).
Some of the highlights: learn knitting, visit a local animal shelter, look for free local concerts, board games/puzzles, get a massage, yoga/meditation, bowling, indoor rock climbing, painting/pottery/art generally, and also lots of outdoor activities that would not be appropriate for January but I give passing mention to nonetheless.
+1, you need to know how Google expresses Booleans.
I assure you I know and use booleans while making requests… but sometimes (most of time) google doesn’t give a fuck and just want to sell me gazoline barbecue grills when I’m trying to verify a whole “+” -“” quote (what somehow is comforting knowing I’m a vegetarian).
I just said search
Fun fact: I use searches like “fun things to do -sex -drunk” and it will absolutely say “have sex” and “get drunk” bc what is even a minus sign
You need to have some constricting elements in your search. In advanced search, you put ‘drunk’ and ‘laid’ in the negative search prompt, while you put in the normal search “things to do locally”. This will get you to weed, yeah, but there will be other stuff.
Jesus Christ, people, that was a joke, not a request for remedial Google lessons.
Yeah, but you asked a bunch of nerds, who are far more literal than Google is these days.
Welcome to the Internet.
Where’s the closest zoo?
Petting zoo.
Still counts. I would also accept indoor reptile zoo that has like two restaurants worth of space in a plaza next to a fast food franchise.
I choose to believe that Hazel referred to a heavy petting zoo.
Is that legal in Indiana?
According to the legislature, everything not compulsory is forbidden.
How about a
puttingpetting green?(h/t John Held, Jr.)
without getting drunk?
“dorothy jennifer and ruth have a sitcom b plot”
Always Sunny theme or Curb Your Enthusiasm?
It’s Always Sunny in Bloomington.
I honestly hope this isn’t just a gag. I wanna see the karaoke arc.
So do I! I think that sounds both fun and embarrassing for everyone involved — a good activity for Dorothy.
Dorothy needs to do something she’s bad at just for fun. That’s what karaoke is all about!
*the hacked muzak becomes an Ascended Meme*
Desperado…
these three have the powerpuff girls’ hair colors
I would totally draw fanart of this and post it, if I had a half-decent scanner.
Maybe I could make do with quarter-decent?
Except Dorothy would be Blossom and Ruth would be Buttercup, but somehow Jennifer is Bubbles?
Oh no! The analogy is failing and I must bail!
I am calling it now: Jennifer and Dorothy end up in bed together.
Dorothy thus realizes…she may be a 1 not a 0.
*fingers crossed*
If we’re really lucky, maybe it’ll be a 3-way.
She has a dream!
Dorothy narrowed her eyes the most at karaoke and she is correct to do so.
How the hell did Jennifer get karaoke?
When done properly even in the absence of alcohol karaoke involves lowering your inhibitions and baring you emotions and soul. While singing off key and out of tune.
i apologize deeply, but I would be totally unable to manage either “off-key” or “out of tune”
–Dave, barbershop baritone for about 4 decades now
I’ve found that off-rhythm is appallingly easy, though.
Even if you think you know a song, knowing the song at the exact tempo and rhythm used in a particular recording can be challenging, particularly since kareoke drops out the original vocals so to use the rest as a cue you need to know the background track well enough to know when to come in.
I don’t have a problem with timing, unless it’s a particularly wonky cover. My problem is my normal register sounds like Darius Rucker with a head cold, but my music tastes lean toward prog rock where all the vocalists sound like Peter Cetera and Tommy Shaw. I’ve tried doing whatever it is Geddy Lee does, but then all concept of staying on-key goes out the window.
My hair-trigger self-consciousness doesn’t help either. Can’t stand to hear my own voice, I always feel like I sound like I’m doing a ‘mentally challenged’ stereotype.
You’re not singing it wrong; the band is playing it wrong.
Ditto …
— Bill, a former barbershop bass
Maybe I could fill in for you? Prior to puberty, I always got straight As in music class. After puberty started, enough people heard me sing that I’ve never been invited to Karaoke. In fact, my mere approaching a group that’s been known to enjoy Karaoke has resulted in them immediately claiming that they weren’t talking about doing Karaoke, and then later on when talking about the weekend admitted, “We were going to do Karaoke, but then Ed walked by and we panicked.”
To be clear on this point, none of the people in several of those groups ever heard me sing. They merely went to school with some people who had. I’m not sure how many connections between them and those people there were. It’s also possible they just heard my speaking voice and assumed I’d be really bad at Karaoke.
Sometimes when you rule out your top choices, your brain just scrambles for something.
Recently had an eval where at one point I was asked to list types of animals, and “wallaby” was, like, fifth on my list, which is so much higher than I would have thought it would be.
Eval day is a very dangerous day.
I haven’t thought of the word “wallaby” in years. Heh.
Wallaby.
are there any karaoke bars near campus? tho i suppose an impromptu karaoke night in their dorm would make all those ‘fangirls’ flock to jen again
i mean asians liking karaoke is a thing (is asian so i can say that lol), but i think sal and danny have sung outside together so their faces pop into my head more so
Anybody who willing plays a ukelele – especially a blue one – is sufficiently uninhibited enough to sing karaoke.
For the record: the one I saw Johnny Marr play that time was black. He even pointed it out in case anyone hadn’t noticed.
I live in Taiwan so I can confirm that a lot of Asians like karaoke too much. The dumbest one they have here at some places is the karaoke booth. It’s like a telephone booth but you sing karaoke. By yourself. And it has glass like a telephone booth so everybody walking by can watch you making a fool of yourself. I have never had the urge to try it.
I dunno. Ruth taught Jennifer how to pick locks a while back. I don’t know why she’d karaoke.
Do you ever get mad when you read something, move on to your next task, then get interrupted by understanding what you just read?
My cycle is more “get mad when I read something, move on, get interrupted by the realization that there’s a potential pun in it, and have to go back to inflict it on everyone else so it doesn’t live in my brain for the next week”.
SHARING IS CARING OKAY?
You monster.
Thank you for prompting me to re-read. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the result was satisfactory.
marry me Reltzik
Because she’s in a position of authority. There are times in her job when she’s basically required to open a dorm room door (sometimes even her own) in front of dorm authorities. Picking a lock would look rather bad in that situation, especially when they gave her a key that works on all the doors on her floor.
What
You
How
WHY
IM SO MAD AT YOU RN unless you made a real subtle pun in there in which case i am an insignficant wormy worm
It took me like 5 minutes of sounding this out in my head before I got this one, so just to be clear: “karaoke” -> “carry a key”.
You’re welcome!
OK, I was vainly trying to make some sens out of it and failing miserably, so thanks for putting me out of misery.
Someone can do karaoke sober
Allegedly.
Seems unlikely.
What songs would these characters sing at Karaoke
Dorothy’s definitely in the mood for Linkin Park right now and I am here for it.
They have a great list of songs that are suitable for Dorothy
Not “MacArthur Park”?
Yes, I’m old.
For some breakdown tears, What about Stan Roger’s “Rise Again” (Mary Ellen Carter)? What about the wreck of the ‘97?
you know, so is refarencing Linkin Park.
or Too Dark Park
or Park Chan-Wook
or Park Yong-rae
or Nick Park
or Mungo Park
or Europa Park
or if you’re dinosaur old, Jurassic Park
They thought about if they could sing Karaoke, but not about is they Should. What about fondu? They could go somewhere where there’s lots of Cheese!
My tastes are ecletic so I immediately went to Lincoln Park Pirate.
And other pirate songs like
The Last Saskatchewan Pirate, because why not?
Ok, now I want to Ruth to do kareoke with Stan Rogers and Arrogant Worms songs (also, if I found a kareoke machine with these songs I would totally do this).
Something inadvertently revealing that would embarrass them and drive the plot forward
If Jennifer or Ruth don’t sing “You’re So Vain”, missed opportunity.
Ruth goes on and sings it, but Jennifer, knowing her webcomic lore (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1074), properly counters by busting out Jay Z for her next song!
We made a playlist like… two comments sections ago
so start there
Regrets
I’ve had a few
But then again
Too few to mention…
(look we just did the “act with integrity” thing yesterday, i had the word “regrets” fresh in my mind and this was the first thing that popped in my head)
well usually karaoke places are a private room and with friends so it’s not the same as performing in a stage, although i’m sure dorothy would have a meticulous ‘method’ on performing and ordering drinks/snacks efrever yone
Sure.
There’s precious little in life that karaoke CAN’T make at least a LITTLE bit better… ;-D
How about “really not wanting to sing in front of anyone ever”
How about loving to sing in front of people but not being able to sing?
Sing with no shame!
Or alternatively, sing with a friend.
As a friend of mine, a retired classical singer, said: “Can’t sing? If you’re not getting paid, it doesn’t matter.”
Yup! Your’e the one paying; you don’t have to care what anyone else sings; do what you love.
Embrace the adrenalin.
The one where Dorothy, Ruth and Jennifer go to an arcade and discover a passion for Taiko no Tatsujin
*Can* you karaoke sober? I suppose it’s possible if you’re very extroverted. (I imagine Becky wouldn’t have any problems)
If you’re actually a good singer, sure.
That’s never been a requirement.
Theoretically I guess? Frankly even back before recorded music when public singing was a lot more common it tended to be something you did while at least a little drunk.
I actually karaoke sober most weeks. Not right now because my wife’s in the hospital for a broken leg, but once a week, I usually get the kids to bed and then head out to do some singing with friends. (My wife isn’t interested, which works out because someone has to stay with the sleeping kids)
I’m a solid ambivert and I’d absolutely do karaoke sober.
I’m an introvert with severe social anxiety who only does karaoke sober the rare times I’ve let people drag me out anywhere it’s happening (since I don’t drink). Actually getting up on the stage is an exercise in stomach-churning terror, but once I’m there I’m suddenly fine: I like to sing and a mass of randos below me who I will never interact directly with in any way doesn’t bother me like actually having to talk to them.
hope y’all have a happy Martin Luther King Junior’s birthday
right now, i in lot of pain. Dororthy still aint doin to well either
the struggle is real T_T
*plays “Rain” by The SeatBelts on hacked muzak*
Happy MLK day to you as well.
Feel better soon.
I’m sorry you are hurting so much, NG!
Sending healing NRG your way!
…wait is this leading to a girls’ night? Finally, a Jennifer-centric storyline I might not hate.
My coworkers and I used to go to the bar every Thursday night after 2nd shift to have what we affectionately called Drunkass Karaoke.
So I would have the same reaction as Ruth upon hearing that suggestion.
….I unironically want to see these ladies do karaoke. And I do think it could maybe get Dorothy out of her head for a little while.
WEED
karaoke AND WEED
someone, anyone, please put up some songs to make Dorothy feel better
I don’t suppose she knows “Catch Another Butterfly”.
SHROOMS
I get this is probably a joke, but on a very serious note : please don’t offer shrooms to a depressive person…
A clinical trial of shrooms was conducted to treat depression, and though the results seemed promising at first, horrific side effects (stuff like week-long bad trips with increase in suicidal tendency) prompted the trial to be stopped.
Recently, the combination of untreated depression and hallucinogenics (taken a couple of days before the flight) lead an off-duty airline pilot to endanger the lives of 83 people while flying in the cockpit jump seat (which is very common in the airline business) of a regional jet.
Yep. Microdosing for clinical benefits means microdosing, not “I’ll just eat half of one and see what happens lol”.
There are also studies on macro dosing.
But it’s within a clinical setting with a licensed therapist/psychologist.
Yeah. When I was younger, WAY too many friends were hospitalized after shrooms. At least one never did fully recover from the sequence of events the spiral tipped off.
For me, it just got to be too scary to be around.
It was a joke, but the way i understand it, the research into therapeutic use is still very much ongoing. Also i couldnt find the source for that trial that was interrupted. But other studies of psilocybin-assisted depression therapy have been conducted showing promise (for instance) although they do warn about suicidality as a potential (but not significant in this study at least) adverse effect.
None of this is to diminish the potential danger from magic mushrooms, and thank you for pointing out that they are no joke. Let’s be safe <3
Joke taken. I will sugggest, though, that there’s miles of distance between “psilocybin-assisted depression therapy” and “SHROOMS” and it probably makes a significant difference in the frequency of unfortunate outcomes.
you’re saying being a performative dumbass and discussing something seriously are two very different things? gee thanks
There’s a morel here somewhere.
The o-porcini-ty for one anyway.
Are youse shitaking me? ;-D
You better button it!
hangs his head in shame and slinks away.
On that note, microdosing classic psychedelics such as shrooms, LSD, mescaline, etc. is actually on my bucket list, of course in any instance of those done in a controlled environment and a trip sitter who’d ideally be my future GF
To be fair, it all boils down to Dorothy needing to be aloof without being antisocial, just not getting laid or getting hammered.
But why was she outside anyway, it’s not like there isn’t a Buffalo-style snowstorm out
We are talking about Dorothy, most likely she was so immersed in her thoughts that she did not even notice the weather or otherwise she was looking to catch a cold and be the excuse for not getting out of bed the next day):
“I didn’t go to work today.
I don’t think I’ll go tomorrow.”
https://www.linke-t-shirts.de/images/details/i-didnt-go-to-work-today-i-dont-think-ill-go-tomorrow_DLF218490.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0c/a0/16/0ca016997306520dfa3cd81c3ad96224.jpg
Back when I was doing COVID contact tracing, thar was kind of my mantra, when talking to the folks with COVID…
i imagine she was just on her way to do something or a trip to whatever convenience? store joe and amber went to that one time
Dorothy has gotten insulted only because Jennifer was so generic in saying: You just need go get laid.
If she just was more specific to Dorothy, the response could be other.
“so there’s this extremely single newspaper editor…”
*gasp*
DOROTHY is AMAZI-GIRL?!
FINALLY IT ALL MAKES SENSE!
and I hope they’ll be very happy.
well, i don’t think anyone’s ever reacted to ‘you need to get laid’. other than a pent up guy going ‘hell yeah’ because he thinks the person saying that is going to help ‘wingman’ or wahtever
Yeah, the implication that someone needs another person to tell them that is always be just a little insulting.
“what a cure to hysteria” mumbled Dr Schweinkopfkugelschreiberjalievschreiberistdernichtgeil striking his bart while looking through the bow window in his room surrounding the campus where he resided much more than in his Nantucket farm, his Soho flat or the AirBnB castlet the university paid for him to be visiting this semester, again, as would stress the resident professor for unrealistic studies, a former NKVD agent wo had spent most of his post-perestroika taxi time learning to tame bears and hegelian propedeutics.
This strip just blew ahead as ‘describe your college experience in one Dumbing of Age comic’.
This would have been a good time for me to make another reddit post of what songs I think would be on some characters Spotify list but reddit isn’t haven’t it. So I’ll just to this instead.
Dorothy possible Spotify list:
“Could have been me”- The Struts: https://youtu.be/T8obR2hx6Og?si=bYWe2GzqkFIBVW_q
“Don’t stop believing”- Journey : https://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs?si=2jPXudWBZgL_Sg4L
“When were young”-Adele : https://youtu.be/Xpc8mAJ_2nM?si=oqCfHAWXPh8TIda5
I’ve done karaoke both sober and under the influence. No difference.
Now that I’m an adult I realize I love doing Karaoke. But a loot of songs are outta my range. Makes me wanna make my own custom versions of my favorite songs that are pitch shifted to my range so I can go all out!
i mean other than singing along where you might instinctively go higher or flatter, you could just try singing it in your own range, i’m terrible at timing when its just instrumental wise and the melodies but i prolly wouldn’t go super high as a solo b/c just listenign to the instrumental wouldn’t make me hit the same ‘high notes’ as the original singer even if i’ve memorized the song a bit better lol. tho some songs do have pitched down versions in instrumentals on niconico but that’s a very specific subset of vocaloid songs XD
If I go to low I sound a little flat. I won’t sound good. If I sing in my speaking range I can only go So High or So low. It’s my fault for always speaking higher than my voice should naturally sit.
But this is part of why kareoke is harder than Actually Just Singing. Although I’m sure some kareoke sets have controls you can use to transpose the backing track; that would be rad.
Get a friend, and sing harmony to their melody
Getting friends is so hard. 😛
Something that helps with this is looking up covers made by people with different voices and styles and finding one that clicks
Most modern-day digital karaoke systems have the capability of being pitched up or down almost a half-octave either way. Or you could just do as I do and sing a song an octave lower than, say, Celine Dion or (yes, even though I’m a guy I have sung ‘My Heart Will Go On’ or ‘The Rose’ this way more than once).
You could also find a someone and do duets, taking the lower parts for yourself.
I have quite a narrow range, so that long ago I had to learn to switch octaves between any two notes if I wanted to get through some songs. If it sounds weird to others…too bad.
My solution is to sing grindcore covers. Since people are bound to be horrified anyway…
What’s your Go-to Karaoke song?
It’s not my favorite but I can kill a “Fly me to the moon”. A song that’s right in my range and I love doing that Sinatra style intonation.
Rock Star by Hole if it’s an option, Chop Suey by System of a Down if it’s not.
Fiona Apple’s Criminal
With Plenty of Money and You. It goes a bit low but I can fake a tenor (I’m actually an alto but have a decent low end) and can take over a room with that track.
Devil Went Down to Georgia. I used to sing along when it was on the classic rock radio station, so I can do a decent job of it.
Timothy – by The Buoys
OH GOD WHAT DID I DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd.
I have a repertoire of over a hundred songs that I can do well, ranging from rock to country to pop to show tunes, but the one i generally come back to is the first one I ever performed when I started singing karaoke singer back in the 1990s – the 1972 hit ‘Brandy’, by Looking Glass.
i also note that I have memorized the words to all my songs so that I don’t have to hover over the monitor, but can move about the stage and interact with the audience or (in the case of duets) with my singing partner.
I think the lyrics to “Brandy” were burned into my brain in the early-mid 70s.
Anything by Bauhaus, Siouxie and the Banshees, or Mr B Gentleman Rhymer
Tevon (sp) Campbell’s Can We Talk.
Though my first song was Luther Vandross’ Dance With My Father Again.
I’ve never done karaoke, but if I had to, I think I’d go for something folky. It’s probably too much to expect they’d have some Steeleye, so maybe Dougie Maclean’s Caledonia.
(I live in Scotland. While I’ve never been to one, I absolutely believe the local karaoke bars will have Dougie Maclean’s Caledonia. And that most of the people who sing it are really, really drunk.)
“La Paga,” by Juanes. Just belt it out!
Either that or “Caroline” by MC Solaar.
“Burning Bright” by Shinedown
Okay, never tried karaoke but, since people would be expecting me to (a) not sing well and (b) act out of character, I’d take a chance on “Stairway to Heaven”.
Ngl, I would love to hear you sing a rendition of fly me to the moon.
I would probably start with something by Cake. I know their songs are more complicated than just chanting it out, but if that’s what I ended up doing, I think it’d still be fun enough.
I’d say hitting the notes in a Cake song is less important than mimicking John McCrea’s delivery style. Like mimicking Michael Jackson comes down to delivering all the right noises and “hee hee”s as much as it comes down to the notes.
I prefer the June Christy version of Fly Me To the Moon, so i’d be trying to channel her.
With my vocal range? Johnny Cash, Willie and Waylon. Dylan. Leonard Cohen. If you can talk you can sing them.
Cliffs of Dover, by Eric Johnson.
La Fête triste by Trisomie 21
Creep Radiohead, because whatever the reaction is, it is never neutral
“Taxi”–Harry Chapin
Oh god yes please I need these three doing karaoke.
either that or dorothy grabbing the mic and screaming /venting all her feelings into it XD;
That starts about halfway through her song.
the best acoustics are in the shower. Just saying
Dorothy’s song: “hey hey, you you, I don’t like your boyfriend”
“Get offa my cloud,” Rollng Stones
Get offa me
Dorothy may downplay the getting laid part until she finds out that Walky is back on the market.
He’s ambiguously back on the market. We know the story is heading that way but Lucy hasn’t quite signed the contract termination yet.
Not a bad idea, mostly what you need is someone willing to sing with more enthusiasm than talent while sober first.
Ah, the Aggretsuko gambit
PROTEIN!
Just such a great show!
It’s actually not a bad idea. She needs to let loose and have a little fun. The main problem is that Ruth and Dorothy would want to drink in front of Jennifer.
I think Dorothy, being Dorothy, would want to not drink in front of either of them more than she’d want to drink, but ICBW.
This does have merit. Also, I already assumed as much, but this further makes me think Jennifer legitimately wants to help, it’s not an ego trip thing. Well, not fully, anyway.
Oh yes! I love karaoke!
🎶”Standing alone in my fire! You’re not aloooone!”🎶
Gonna be honest, my first thought was “weed”, since both Jennifer and Ruth suggested it.
Now I really hope karaoke with these three will actually happen
Dorothy does give off Retsuko vibes in some ways
Ah, Retsuko!
I was thinking Ritsuko (Evangelion).
well I certainly didn’t expect it to go in that direction lol
Just did Karaoke sober, can confirm it’s possible.
I might have said “bowling.” Probably available nearby, indoors, tolerably good exercise, typically done in a social group. Plus you get to throw heavy objects and hear things go CRASH! as a result, without having to clean up the splinters or replace anything.
Definitely available nearby, at the Union. They don’t even have to leave campus.
Typically a fine idea. But there’s a score in bowling, and while getting a higher score than others, or higher than your old score, can be fun, it’s probably better for Dorothy to learn to have fun where there’s not an objective measure of how close/far to perfect she’s done.
Honestly, we’re working towards a good solution here. You can’t be self-conscious and do karaoke, which should help Dorothy. If Ruth can do it sober, she might force herself to genuinely enjoy things. And Jennifer might actually have a good time hanging out with people she used to like.
The only thing that could fuck it up is… well, some fucking at the end. That’s the one thing any of them must absolutely not do in any combination with each other.
I can’t tell if we’re actually getting The Gang Goes To Karaoke or if this is just the punchline.
I hope we get it.
This is in fact my favorite comic that does song lyrics on the page so yeah that sounds good regardless of what Gang is involved.
I consider my head-canon that Jennifer just used Force Persuasion on Ruth.
Wilbur and Estelle’s karaoke duel was more entertaining than the current “author can’t decide if main character is a villain or not” Mary Worth storyline.
A webcomic / funny (funny-strange) legacy comic crossover may be just what we need.
Not a bad idea not a long-term soultion but it’s way better then the orignal idea so progress.
So to be clear, Ruth has abandoned sobriety after her meds had started to work and being the reason she dumped Jennifer.
Ruth dumped Jennifer because if they both went to the dark place again, Ruth would have helped her die, and clear-headed Ruth didn’t think that was acceptable.
It’s because her medicine was no longer at risk of interference from booze, along with her now being legally allowed to drink. It isn’t great reasoning, but it isn’t necessarily as bad a position as she had been in.
And since she’s somehow not an alcoholic anymore, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
That’s… actually a pretty good idea. At least sounds fun. But then, thinking about Dorothy being stuck singing with Jennifer and Ruth, than will very probably start fighting for some dumb reason… dunno. But I would love to see Ruth and Dorothy sing. It’s also really sad discovered that some people can’t enjoy karaoke without being drunk.
Karaoke will start well, but after Sal sings, nobody wants to follower her. But they’re not the only one there, and someone else gets up and does an overly enthusiastic and poorly sung rendition of Under Pressure, and they’re Arnold. And afterwards Dorothy and him get to talking.
HEY ARNOLD!
Too many people use weed as a crutch and it’s disgusting, really. I mean literally smells like dog feces 90% of the places I go nowadays. Kinda sad, really. It’s also indicative of a LOT of problems in society, that so many people need it for whatever they need it for.
But of course Xanax and Prozak aren’t “crutches” because the US government didn’t ban them for Totally Non-Racist™ reasons
Also, are you sure that’s JUST weed you’re smelling in those places?
I think you need to get your dog to the vet ASAP.
I dunno. The collective level of damn with this shit…ness…radiating from these three may be more than any mere karoke bar can handle.
She just wants to hang out with Ruth, at this point
Dumbing of Age Book 14–“You can do Karaoke sober.”