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Anthony Oliveira @meakoopa.bsky.social ⋅ 15h
Sitcom People @sitcompeople.bsky.social ⋅ 16h
Greg Pak @gregpak.net ⋅ 17h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 4d
Tea Berry-Blue @teaberryblue.net ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
People’s City Council - Los Angeles @pplscitycouncil.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Cheryl Lynn Eaton @cheryllynneaton.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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Tony: “You’re pretty” >=[
Sarah: =ᴅ
More like :3
Panel 5 Sarah: uwu
Panel 6 Sarah: DON’T LOOK AT ME
Tony: “You’re pretty >_>”
noooo Sarah, he doesn’t want the smile, quick, think of Joyce! wait… why are you smiling more!? ~<3
I’m beginning to understand why Walkyverse Sal called him her soulmate if that’s his type.
This Tony could Sal’s sibling, though, if Linda is their mom.
*Rains of Castamere starts playing*
Again, there is absolutely zero reason to believe that’s the case.
Well at least it’s extremely plausible for Walky and Sal to have a half-brother only a year or so older than them that they’re completely unaware of despite Linda still being on decent terms with his father.
Right? And Linda doesn’t strike me as a ‘abandon her new baby’ type. She’d want to make sure the baby grows up by her standards.
And god, out of all her kids, you expect me to believe she’d abandon the white one?
No. But I’d expect that she would have lingering resentment that was unintentionally aimed at her new family, if her husband discovered her infidelity because of that pregnancy and divorced her. And constantly be pushing her children and expecting them to meet the standard of where she came from.
Even so, I can’t imagine a scenario in which the older son stays with the working career-focused father and isn’t even told who his mother is, or is told that someone else is his father. Especially with them being relatively close distance-wise and staying in touch. That’s a real Parent Trap-style scenario, without the extreme circumstances that make the “Parent Trap” scenario plausible.
Especially because she’d still want to make sure Tony was meeting those standards himself. And he’d unquestionably be her favourite child, she’s not leaving him entirely with his dad and the woman he grew up knowing as ‘mom’.
Dang, should’ve read like one comment below mine.
I’m sure that the interactions between Linda, Chuck and Anthony reflect the sort of turbulent relationship dynamics you’d expect to be necessary for there to only be a year gap between her children by her first husband and her second.
Do we know what year Tony is? Couldn’t he be a junior or senior?
Tony’s a sophomore iirc.
Walky calls him an underclassman, so if he’s right, Tony’s a sophomore.
linda is not tony’s mom
This will not stop people from bringing it up.
See, I’ve learned!
Yeah, it’s obviously all a mislead until Tony is bleeding out and he’s all “Linda” and Sal is all “How do you know that name?”
Wow, you have the same name as the cartoonist!
just a coincidence, pretty sure
Probably.
So anyhow, let’s talk about more about this Linda-as-Tony’s-Mom theory!
Could the Witness Protection Program be involved somehow?
omg wait… is Tony actually Mike?
Impossible. Jennifer is Mike.
like, is there any rule saying that he can’t be both?
maybe he’s like the entity from Smile, and wears people as “masks” :p
Thank you, Willas.
What chu talkin’ bout Willis?
So Charles is Tony’s dad then?
No, Hank is.
You can see the family resemblance.
Ya gotta pick your headcanon battles carefully.
When you start firing those headcanons, friendly fire is always a possibility.
No, I don’t know what that means either.
*rubs chin thoughtfully
You might be referencing the Fanfic Wars. I heard those got very bad. (When AO3 finally joined in, the destruction increased exponentially.)
I am completely unfamiliar with the Fanfic Wars, but sure, that must have been what I was inadvertently referencing.
Fire headcanons on stun.
Tony and Beef (who is Linda’s son) switched at birth, no doubt.
but Tony’s dad had his penis inside Linda!
Lol. I love you felt the need to comment on this.
Now, onto moar important business. I discovered a Not So Old DOA where a character is doing impossible Stretch astromstrong anatomy Twisting straight from 9 Chickweed Lane
Either this was some type of deliberate Easter egg with a prize for finding it.
Or …your OCD might require I shut the F up and privately mail it so you can edit reality.
Let me know
Adam.
King of Kings
SARAH I LOVE THIS FOR YOU
I really love that she found someone who actually gives her a reason to smile, not someone who just tells her to smile more to make themselves more happy. This also doesn’t seem creepy like some unwanted compliments on the street can feel.
I am always horrible at knowing whether or not it is appropriate to compliment strangers or if it seems weird. Normally it is someone whose hair looks fantastic for the day or if someone is wearing a really neat shirt or outfit that I pay them a compliment “in the wild”.
Having been on the receiving end once or thrice, to me it feels appropriate and weird. But I appreciate voluntary weirdness. I wish I were as good at noticing and complimenting strangers who make my day a little nicer by being themselves.
I still occasionally give compliments to strangers, but I try to do that while keeping them in security. Usually while I’m walking away or otherwise clearly not in their space.
hopefully she doesn’t have to hold herself back with genuine smiles, tony might actually be attracted to ‘grumpy’ ppl unless he’s somehow saying something as a passive aggressive jab to some “shallow girls who smile at him” or so or whatever b/c being told ‘you smile too much’ by someone that barely knows you would be almost equally as annoying
Same. ^^ I kind of feel like this is one of the few genuine “dating smiles” we’ve ever seen out of Sarah. Also, daaaaamn you are smooth, Tony. XD
“Wait, did you just reverse-neg me?”
“I feel like there must be another term for that…”
“Wait… Is that one of those ‘com-plee-mints’ Joyce is always going on about?”
Nah, Joyce just makes these terms up.
We called it POS-ing, until that led to some messy mistakes.
just in time! right about now we could all use some SarahTonyn release ^^ <3
*plays “Mystery Kindaichi Band” by Hiroshi Takada on hacked muzak*
This ship name is perfection
+1 internet point for the name.
I love the effort Willis put in to the skunk wallpaper.
Seconded!
I really want to know how he landed on “fancy skunks” for the pattern.
Two decision wheels, one with adjectives, one with animals. It was almost “constipated geese” so let’s all be grateful the universe spared us.
Wait. We could have had constipated geese?
Damn you, Willis.
Looks more like “random animals”. I see one skunk, a possible second skunk, a chicken, and whatever that is mostly covered by Tony’s speech bubble.
effortless charm that brings out the :3 of even the :\est of people…
excellent pass mr. quarterback
OMG PANEL 5
<3 <3 <3
Forget the smile, I want the café’s background 🥲
Unhand her, Alt Backslide
Best part is, Sarah would probably never get that reference.
Don’t get in a rut!
This Tony is a lot more likeable than Walkyverse Tony. She’ll get to Arnold eventually, but Tony’ll do fine in the meantime.
This Tony feels like he is utterly annoyed everyone tries to make him Flash Thompson.
“I am done with superhero bullshit.”
No wonder Sarah likes him.
OMG that Sarah face
I’M NOT SMILING YOU’RE SMILING SHUT UP
It’s good to have something to smile about today. I’m liking these two.
Let’s try that again…
I’m sure he will.
That smile and that sparkle full of life in the eyes in the last panels.
Very good
Awwwwwwwwww 🥰
Don’t danny this up, Sarah. Please…
Yeah I don’t think she can pull the news boy hat.
Sarah can fuck any hat she wants.
Oh gods now I’m imaging Sarah taking up the uke.
The horror!
Oh no, Sarah, what if you become TOO HAPPY FOR HIM.
Also, if you marry him, would that mean Walky and Sal are your siblings?
How? Dean married Tony’s mother after he divorced Linda and presumably before Linda married and had the twins so there’s no sibling relationship at all
I mean it all happened close enough that they’re a couple of years apart.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/plebs/
Are we certain Tony was born after t
after the divorce?
Yes. Willis explicitly confirmed in a comment thread above that Linda is not Tony’s mom (after your comment was made, so no harm no foul, just answering the question).
Yeah, that’s WoG. But the Devil’s Advoship is gonna ship anyway.
Well yeah, that goes without saying. (Not that there’s anything wrong with pointing it out.)
I’m not sure what you’re saying? What we know is that the dean and Linda used to be married, then went on to have different families. They could have been divorced for five years or something before Tony was born.
They could have. Or she could have had Tony and left her new-born for Charles. Not saying likely, but possible. Or it may have been already established otherwise. I’m just wondering.
Yeah, I was replying to Charles, not you. We don’t know the exact details, other than Linda saying it was a long time ago:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/fancypantslounge/
That said, the reasonable assumption seems to be that she did not give birth to Tony. I see her as more status-hungry to not have done something with that if it had been the case. (Also, just, would be a wild thing to come up.)
It probably wouldn’t be a secret, though. Linda and Anthony Sr. are on good terms and live in the same state. (Also I just happened to accidentally scroll up and see Word of the Author while I was typing just now.)
I suppose if that were the case walky doesn’t know or doesn’t acknowledge it since Tony is “that dude” and not his half-brother nor did he say “our mom” when talking to Jason. Though yes that just proves walky doesn’t know or acknowledge it and not disproves that Tony is his half brother
Yeah, Willis has confirmed she’s not Tony’s mother.
Which, of course, means that there’s a cover up going on.
Mike went back in time and did Walky’s mom confirmed. Look at the matching hair colors! Two characters can’t both be blonde without being blood related!
Which doesn’t mean she’s not the mother of Tony’s Older brother…
Well, Willis is pretty definite above, they are not half siblings.
So Sal/Tony endgame is a go.
God, don’t tease me. I loved those two.
yesssssssssssssssssss
so what cafe is it
did Willis make it up
is it the Runcible Spoon? I don’t remember skunks, but it’s been a while. also not a trek… well, from the west edge of campus, I guess a trek from the dorms.
Whatever it is, it’s that place Lucy went on her own, that she told Walky about. Maybe it’s called Selfworth’s?
Because this is the sort of nerd I am, I’ve been looking into this, and either I haven’t found it, or the online photos don’t include that wall.
What I can tell you is that if you search DuckDuckGo for coffeeshop, Bloomington, and skunk, DuckDuckGo assumes you’re actually looking for coffeeshops in Amsterdam. Which is weird, because I didn’t see the wallpaper in any of those pictures either!
DuckDuckGo is perfectly happy to show you results that only contain one of the words you searched for. And the world’s most searched-for coffeeshops are in the Netherlands because they sell pot.
Yes, this is the most maddening thing about search engines since defaulting to OR. When I am dictator both of the people who decided that these were good ideas will pay.
If I searched for “radioactive” and “penguins”, any page which doesn’t contain *both* of those words in the *visible text* is not a valid result.
Obligitory OR is bad. no AND NOT is worse. The extra search terms they add in make me want to burn it down.
And one of the zillion slang terms for cannabis is “skunk”, due to its pungent odor.
I suspect it’s made up, at least partly. The skunk wallpaper is too on the nose (pun unintended). They made up the bar Joyce and Dorothy went to, so it wouldn’t be unprecedented.
I think it’s Hopscotch. Newer, on the South side by Templeton. Watch the video on their website.
you found it! https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/hopscotch-coffee-bloomington?select=OzBLUak5pmGSv7HsVUhvgQ
All the real no fake smiles for Sarah!
Dawww Sarah cute!
And just like that, she’s ruined her chances. Stupid involuntary happy reactions.
This, kinda. Tony is the kind of grump Sarah »used« to be. He never smiles. Now that Sarah made an effort to grow past that, Tony arrives to pull her back in. Ultimately, this is where that ship will falter. Tony is not very fun to be with.
Or she realises she was overdoing it and Tony helps her find a healthy medium that’s more comfortable for her. Because she shouldn’t feel like she has to smile to be positive.
She shouldn’t feel she can’t smile or Tony will no longer be interested. He seems genuinely against showing signs of happiness.
We haven’t seen enough of Tony, by far, to draw to any such conclusions.
…to draw any such conclusions, let alone to jump to them!
I can’t help but suspect jumping to conclusions is some commenters’ main source of exercise.
No? His exact words were “so damn much”. That doesn’t imply to me he hates smiling or expressions of joy full stop. Sounds like he’s looking for someone who understands that you don’t have to smile all the time to be happy.
I reckon Tony could be a lot of fun to be with, if you don’t push the happy-happy-joy-joy attitude all the time. He’s “important” (on the school football team, Dean’s son) and may be a little tired of people being happy at him for those things and not for himself.
Tony does seem sensitive about fake emotional displays. As long as Sarah is not pushing it and stays with herself, I think Tony will enjoy dating her.
I don’t think it’s as far as that. But Tony is 100% business, no nonsense. And Sarah is like 5-10% nonsense. That can work out, but the height thing could be a problem. As in Sarah gets over it, but it takes time and Tony doesn’t have to wait for that.
They get a chance to figure it out though. it can’t go as bad as Walky+Lucy did, and they had a couple of weeks to try.
I am not entirely convinced Sarah x Jacob is never happening, but damn if Tony’s isn’t kinda winning me over, too.
I was onboard for Sarah and Jacob for a while, but these two are making me happy in a way Sarah×Jacob never did
When it seemed that there was something going on with Jacob, Sarah herself stepped back… and Lucy appeared.
But maybe with this experience, I don’t doubt it much anymore, and let’s be honest, those expressions in the last panels are so genuine that you really want this to happen.
***But maybe with this experience, she doesn’t hesitate much anymore, and let’s be honest, those expressions in the last panels are so genuine that you really want this to happen.***
An this is based on genuine reciprocated interest for each other as people rather that on sided lust.
I don’t think Sarah’s really Jacob’s type, unfortunately for her. He likes her as a friend and I think he could have been persuaded to give it a shot, but it probably wouldn’t work out.
It feels narratively off to me if that’s the direction this is going to go.
Sarah seemed genuinely interested in Jacob and was definitely working on making herself vulnerable enough to come out of her shell for him. Until Lucy walked into the picture and off with him. Which prompted Sarah to do the weird fake smiley thing. But now Tony drops into her lap, she can drop the fake smiley bit with no character growth payoff from it. It doesn’t even look like she’ll have to deal with any of her issues to make this work.
Waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is cute, but where’s the conflict that makes it interesting?
Sarah WAS interested in Jacob, but it was mostly based on physical attraction. And yeah she was trying to improve at being vulnerable but it was gonna be a long a hard road and it would be pretty unfair to expect Jacob to wait up and never try to go out with someone until she overcome her issues. Her finding someone that she actually connects with personality wise without needing to fake or rush herself to make overt changes is actually pretty good. She can still continue to work on being vulnerable, as any relationship needs that, but she doesn’t need to do it just start it.
That’s a possibility, but not really an interesting one, I think. In many ways this might be better for Sarah. Certainly easier, but if that’s the direction we’re really going, it just defuses all the narrative tension built up for her character.
But Willis plays the long game, so we’ll see. Eventually.
I really don’t see how it defuses anything or what “tension” you mean.
Can this Sarah face be a grav please? I love it so much.
These two have chemistry
My sister in christ, you have met your soulmate.
Genuinely laughed at my gravatar. It was meant to be. Just like Sarah and Tony.
“Just the ones who are pretty without having to smile so damn much.”
“I want my eye candy to be pretty at all times, without having to work at it. You can be a bongo if you want, but you’d better having resting pretty face!”
Yeesh, Tony. Wouldn’t have taken you for such an aesthete. How actively superficial of you.
Requisite disclaimer: this comment is a joke.
And came with the perfect new gravatar for it, at that.
That’s what “pretty” means. If your makeup is pretty, that doesn’t mean you are.
Yes it does
It means you’re pretty AND good at makeup. A two-for-one deal!
How you choose or don’t choose to present yourself, and the work you put or don’t put into your appearance does in fact determine how pretty you are. Much more than what stuff you’re born with, I’d say.
Wait, what genitals does Tony have?
You know, the usual two penises and a vagina.
So many. So many genitals.
I sense a future in genetic engineering.
Did anyone else read that alt-text in the voice of Dan Backslide, the villain in the cartoon “The Dover Boys At Pimento University, or the Rivals of Roquefort Hall”, or was that just me?
“A car! I’ll STEAL it! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!!”
*reads alt text*
Well now I’m gonna see Tom Dover whenever I look at Tony.
The line is actually “A runabout!”, not “car,” but yes.
Absolutely!
That line cracked me up so bad when I first saw that cartoon as a kid.
Nobody can do a crazed lunatic voice like Mel Blanc could.
I put Mel Blanc, Frank Oz, and Robin Williams in my Top 3 Crazed Voice Actors of all time.
Truly, he could scream into a microphone with perfection.
I’ll steal the ruuuuun-a-bout
No one can heeeaaar me scream and shout
The Sarah/Tony ship is one I never knew I needed until recently.
I really love this. She was burning herself out trying to change, and then she met someone who liked her how she was.
Character growth? Who needs it.
Just have the author make up a character who likes your issues.
Maybe that mean that Sarah whole personality isn’t an issue that need fixing? She can work on being vulnerable while still being a cynical grouch.
If she can learn to let herself be genuinely happy without having to force it, I’d argue that counts as personal growth.
yee yee SarahTonyn 100% ^^
BTW sorry if off topic, Kylulen what’s that cloud thing in your avatar, and is it “holding” the hammer and sickle?
Cloud? It’s a lizard, and it doesn’t quite touch the hammer & sickle, it’s just walking across a not-quite-Soviet flag.
It’s a komodo dragon plushie. The hammer and sickle is close to it, but not touching. I used Paint to combine a picture of my plushie I took with a communist flag.
Ahh. I thought at first it might be a Fuckface or Winslow. Good to know it’s a Komodo monitor instead.
So cute lol
Tho i can understand the resting grump face (tho i personally have a resting zoned out face but usually ppl don’t care, tho i guess i must look more ‘worn out’ when sweaty/if it’s a summer walk b/c i get asked if i’m ok versus just seeming more chill)
Damn that was smooth. (And no, I don’t mean the coffee.)
That was adorable <3
Bluuuuush
I SHIP IT SO HARD. (This is like, the fastest I’ve become invested in a main character getting shipped with a side character we’ve barely seen, but damn Tony makes a real good impression and they’re so good together.)
And so begins the plippety-plip of estrogen coursing thru Sarah’s physique…
I feel like that probably started a long time ago.
Not gonna lie, that fifth panel has me melting. Let Sarah have something nice, please
Joyce is shipping this. So. Hard.
(she just doesn’t know it yet)
She’s probably feeling a great disturbance in the Force and wondering what’s happened ^^
“Shipping…senses…tingling!”
[sotto voce: anditsnotthedryerthistime]
Not going to lie, Sarah is conventionally attractive.
Yeah. She’s pretty, shy, and perhaps taller than me. PERFECTION.
It’s so good to see something nice happen for Sarah. I know somehow it won’t last, something will go wrong, something bad will happen, for for now…. It makes me happy to see this.
Here just to say that I love that for Sarah :3
Sarah deserves it.
I support this ship just as I support people not forcing themselves to smile all the time.
I also support gravatar roulette; let’s see what we get.
Eh. It’s doable, but let’s try again.
Honestly, Jason is pretty close to my personality and I am ok with that.
And I am not ok with that.
So let’s spin again.
And Tony’s resting grump face is a good representation since i also have one.
But I feel like that’s too on the nose considering today’s strip, so we’ll gamble one more time and then choose from the 4.
You know what?
F*ck it!
We’re going with Blowjob Cat (mostly because it put an involuntary smile on my face just like Sarah in today’s strip)!
So how does this gravatar roulette thing work? I’ve seen people talk about it a while, but I don’t know how to achieve it.
Testing…
Got it! I vaguely remembered someone mentioning email capitalisation
I’m keeping this one, it’s unusually cute.
Congratulations on achieving your final form.
*gloomy little stormcloud appears over Joyce’s head, starts raining*
Jocelyne: That’s a… strange weather phenomenon…
Joyce: grumblegrumble it just means Sarah’s somewhere being happy, the jerk grumblegrumble
Calling back: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/balance/
Panels 5-6: Awww.
(And now I gotta cut out all sugar for the next week.)
well done, tony
Well shit. Tony just went from an 8 to a 10.
Tony’s known as a very fast player. Seems that doesn’t apply just to football.
In hindsight, Jacob snubbing Sarah makes perfect sense. Yeah he’s built like Chris Hemsworth but he also is a peppy, outgoing, sunny and organized guy who really tries and communicates to his relationships with care and sensitivity.
Sarah isn’t that. She needs to be more vulnerable but she doesn’t have to stop being herself, because herself is in fact a prickly, grouchy person. Enter Tony — who is also a prickly, grouchy person, but sees her beauty and gels with her beautifully because they both like complaining.
It’s the “don’t change yourself for someone” thing again. Beautiful way to take her character.
Looking forward to how Willis is gonna break our hearts with this one
NOoooOOooOOooo not blowjob cat ;-;
You have to give it time. Really epic heartbreak takes years to prepare.
D’aw. Happy Sarah :3
Even if this probably won’t work out, Sarah definitely deserved this happy coffee.
No problem unless she smiles all the time. It’s Sarah. She’s not going to smile all the time.
Sorry. that was supposed to be a reply to Rabisch below.
So, Tony like Sarah because she’s cute even if she’s not smiling like crazy. But.stay with Tony seems to be one of the few things that made Sarah smile… I see a problem.
I suspect real smiles are fine with Tony. I imagine it’s performative flirty/fake smiles that put him off more than smiles in general.
So two negatives make a positive and both are negative so this postive and fucking delightfully adorable.
I’m so much more into Sarah+Tony than I ever was Sarah+Jacob.
That was pretty much intentional it seems.
Hot damn, Tony! What a line. The rizz is off the charts.
Maybe to my surprise, I REALLY want Sarah to have some Happy for a change. Let’s just hope the skunk on the wallpaper isn’t foreshadowing.
(Duh-duh-DUH!)
Better be careful, Sarah, or you face might get stuck like that!
Oh I like this
Awwww…
Willis did my favorite meme. I can die happy now!
This is fucking BEAUTIFUL. Hastag team doesn’t have to telegraph happiness all the time.
Did he just not-like-other-girls her?
A skunk wallpaper is an interesting choice for a cafe