The Book 14 Kickstarter is really gonna leave me at $49,999.99 all night, huh
oh and here’s today’s music
reminder that you can read tomorrow’s strip early on patreon
Discussion (250) ¬
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Tea Berry-Blue @teaberryblue.net ⋅ 2d
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
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For the time being, perhaps she can make up for the serotonin by drinking a whole tray of little communiom grape juice cups XD
Serotonin? Denied. Mom says it’s my turn on the hacked muzak.
*plays “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt because, let’s go in order.*
Music-illiterate me did not remember the band’s name. But soon as YT started “Don’t Speak”, yeah, I remembered quite clearly.
(dangnation that video has more than 1 billion views)
It’s been on the permasoundtrack of who knows how many breakups, romantic and platonic. A masterpiece for the ages
Okay, question.
What do you mean “in order”?
Did I miss a link where Willis has created Dorothy’s full playlist?
I’m just going by YT’s display order. By number of views starting at the top.
Maybe in order of the artists mentioned in this strip?
OH. Okay, that makes sense.
Tragic Kingdom is a masterpiece.
Perfect choice no notes
(actually I could write so many notes about why it’s a great choice but I’ll refrain)
awe but I want some serotonin too 🥺
also great song choice ^^
My two relevant offerings for serotonin would be Guess by Billie Eilish and Bad Guy by The Onceler.
lol Guess is literally Pile of Lesbos: Origin o3o
And why do we like to hurt so much?
I can’t decide
You have made it harder just to go on
And why?
All the possibilities, well, I was wrong
That’s what you get when you let your heart win
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh
That’s what you get when you let your heart win
Whoa-oh-oh-oh
I drowned out all my sense with the sound of its beating
And that’s what you get when you let your heart win
Whoa-oh-oh-oh
I love that song.
How much of this comment section is just going to be people quoting Paramore lyrics.
Yes
Ignorance is your new best friend, Joyce.
Okay so it’s her old best friend but still.
(Weirdly enough, I only found Paramore this spring, and it was by looking for something with pretty similar specs than what Dorothy has here. So … well done, Dorothy?)
of all the things that brought Paramore into my awareness, it was a mashup artist I follow making a 10 song mashup of good 4 u
I love me some Paramore. I’m gonna be a little upset if she rejects them! Not like, invested anger or anything like that, but just sad face.
Seriously. Paramore is awesome. I once saw a video where Haley was recording her voice tracks in her home studio (around 2020/21 I think), so the audience couldn’t hear any music– just her voice. It was incredible. Girl has some PIPES.
Yay Paramore!
Actually, I need to thank Willis for this strip – cause I didn’t realize they had a new album out (in 2023, but still). Wishlisted.
be right back gonna listen to 3 new musics
Odds are you’ve heard at least one of these acts before even if you wouldn’t know them by name, they all had pretty big hits at points.
Oh most definitely. No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” song is familiar. I just didn’t remember the group’s name. And I’ve known the Billy Eilish name but didn’t know any of her music. So now I’m learning 2 new groups and rediscovering ND.
I really loved No Doubt. Tragic Kingdom in particular. But Sunday Morning is my favorite song from that album.
Yeah. Tragic Kingdom is awesome. Every song on that album is good, compared to 2 or 3 you get on a lot of albums.
I know, right?
Just last month, my wife and I played Tragic Kingdom for the kids while on a car trip. I’d forgotten just how good that album is. So many amazing songs.
I’d bet you’ve heard No Doubt, even if you didn’t realize it. “Don’t Speak” and “Just a Girl” were pretty big hits in the 90s.
*Crumbles to dust like a mummy*
D-don’t say it so loud.
What? the 90s were only like 10 years ago I swear
I still need to manually do the math. What do you mean kids born in the aughts are adults now, it doesn’t check out ;AAA;
High schoolers are learning about 9/11 as an event that occurred before they were born.
matt_damon_aging.gifHigh schoolers?? I was born post-9/11 and I graduated college a full year ago :p
Was working in an elementary school not long ago and a kid, obviously born way after 9/11, was saying something about it– “Because of, uh, the 7/11 thing–“
Yep, I’ve played both now on YT. “JaG” was kind of familiar, but I definitely remembered “DS”.
Dorothy likes oldies
Oldies? But she’s got all the top bands in there!
Tell me about it, who still listens to Billie Eilish? Gosh
Yeah, she’s like in her 20s now. That’s practically geriatric by popstar standards.
Weren’t they still listening to her a few months ago, when this was written and drawn?
She’s a playable character in Fortnite, with playable tracks in their Guitar Hero mode, so The Kids™ definitely still know who she is. If she weren’t a real human being, I’d probably have the skin in my library because she’s all green and counterculture-y, but it’s weird for me to play as a real person in that game.
I don’t really play video games in that style, so the middle part of this comment threw me when it starting talking about having the skin of someone (but only if they’re fictional). And like. It’s you, so I figured the comment might just go somewhere unexpected.
Pffff
Yeah, I see what you mean. No, the “skin” part is just your character model. Every player has the exact same loadout and controls, so any difference in abilities comes from the gear you pick up during each match. For legal reasons, I do not own any amount of Billie Eilish’s literal skin.
I like to imagine the buffer being big enough that the comments go “sure, the kids don’t listen to Bruckner so much these days, but when this strip was drawn…”
Most definitely “Hella Good.”
Yes!
Spiderwebs is one of my favorites, but there are so many good songs to choose from.
Paramoreeeeeeee!
I love Pool & Aint it Fun
Doesn’t everyone love Ain’t It Fun?
If they dont, they should!
I admit I love the tortured story in Monster the best skldgjd but hell yeah Ain’t It Fun is was their intro card for me
I think Brick By Boring Brick was the first song I heard by Paramore, either that or Decode, I saw the videos of both of those songs around the same time…
I didn’t think I knew Paramore, but I started poking around other songs (after listening to All I Wanted and deciding I wasn’t a fan of the song in particular but maybe the singer) and came across Ain’t It Fun and was like ..! Wait I know this one! I haven’t heard that in awhile.
I think Ain’t It Fun was their last big hit, which is a shame because Hard Times is fucking excellent. After Laughter in general is just a great album
I have listened to After Laughter so many times. It really was a great album, I was shocked it didnt do well sales wise.
Maybe their best album?
Hard Times is amazing.
I love the detail that Joyce specifically likes guitars.
Everybody likes guitars. Except people how are learning to play them – I have heard that is painful on many levels.
who. Not “how.” who. What is wrong with my brain this week?
From personal experience, it’s been 90% fun. The only part I haven’t liked is re-stringing because I bought such fun colored neon strings and the purple one snapped just as I was finishing up, so I had to fight the old one back on. They sound fine at least, but what a hassle.
Yes, guitar is one of the more difficult instruments to learn.
Fortunately, it’s all additive, like most musical learning. The more you know, the easier the rest can become to learn.
For about a year, my brother was doing an American Hits-formatted music program for a radio station in Istanbul, Turkey (he did this from the confines of his den, in the USA). One day, he played me several “Turkish” mixes of some of the tracks on the station’s playlist….Beatles, Journey, Foreigner, Guns and Roses…..All of them either had the guitars mixed low or removed completely (and in a few instances, keyboards replaced the guitar parts)! Seems that Turkish people don’t like the sound that guitars make.
Really? That is fascinating. I wonder how much of music preference and emotional resonance is learned from environmental and cultural exposure and how much is genetic.
I’m cautiously curious how music preference could be genetic.
I suppose there could be a genetic component to how one experiences sound that could make different music more or less appealing. Cultural and individual factors seem more likely, though.
Given how drastically popular music has changed over the generations, cultural and individual factors have to be dominant.
You can explain 80% of everything about music with a few simple principles. The first principle comes from physics, but the rest are arguably a consequence of human genetics.
1) Musical sounds are produced multiplicatively, typically with a base frequency and then multiples of that frequency.
2) Human hearing functions logarithmically.
3) Human perception of frequency differences decreases as frequency increases.
4) The human mind likes patterns, both in sounds heard at a given time and changes in sound through time.
5) The human mind likes familiarity.
6) But the human mind is easily bored and requires some level of chaos, dissonance or novelty as an antidote in order to maintain attention.
Sure, but those basic principles don’t cover why new styles and genres of music come and go. Especially when they tend to develop (or be popularized) among the youth and subcultures and then spread.
That’s cultural.
They much prefer the bağlama (a big lute kind of thing). Turkish coworker of mine played the thing and brought it to work sometimes.
I recall a strip from some time ago in which she upbraided Jacob for his church not having guitars with their music. I’m guessing her favorite two instruments are guitar and dulcimer.
The dulcimer is fine and all, but the marimba is where panties go to drown.
*takes notes
Good to know!
I found this and am enjoying it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09TqAPwOBFs&list=PLtGnTkjhPRRqZIIFBTRXUGrCv3gFaNRxH
Yep, it’s been touched on in the past as being one of the things she liked about one of the campus churches, that they had guitar music, unless I am conflating things. It makes sense Dorothy’d pick up on that about her.
I guess if Dorothy really wants Joyce’s attentions, she’ll have to shell out for a Telecaster.
Danny would REALLY start giving Dorothy a hard time if Dorothy started ukulele-wielding.
* sneaks “Unbreak My Heart” onto Dorothy’s playlist *
I don’t know what Paramore sounds like, so when I read, “Huh, Guitars”, my brain played AC/DC.
I feel a little miffed at “safely subversive”, Paramore has some spicy bangers!
Plenty of non-subversive artists put out bangers!
But do they have mash and gravy?
What? No Captain Beefheart or Caroliner Hernia Rainbow Milk Queen?
Joyce would totally go for some Dr. John or early Primus.
Sunn O))) or gtfo
Oh yeah, that’s pretty perfect.
dont you hate it when your stupid brain and your stupid skull never did (nothing for me)?
Anyways this has been a much belated reminder that Paramore’s last album, This Is Why, is really, really good. Just a really solid new-wave-y post punk album!
Dumbing of Age, Book 17: My Brain is a Fickle Bongo
Bongo bongo bongoooo
I don’t wanna leave the conga, oh no no no-no noooo
Can’t wait for her to listen to Misery Business
Those lyrics and that last panel…Hmmm~
“All I Wanted (Was You)” is certainly a choice for how to soundtrack this scene. Don’t know how much of an omen that is.
Hey, at least it ain’t Misery Business :’33
Paramore? Miss Hayley Williams?
“My brain is a fickle bongo” is a good title for any ND book.
Huh. Joyce looks strikingly like Jocelyn in that shirt!
Dorothy, it seems, has made it through the worst of it. Clothes are safely on, they’re physically separated by the bunk bed, talking about a neutral topic that isn’t related to sex or Joe or anything icky like that. Ready to reaffirm her normal friendship with Joyce.
I still have to wonder what else Joyce has in mind for this… devirginification bachelorette party. Oh, oh, maybe Joyce would want Dorothy to roleplay as Joe so she could prepare for date/intimacy scenarios? That’s a classic cartoon bit, and would probably put Dorothy through an entirely new level of hell!
I am fully expecting that Joyce is going to ask Dorothy for some “now-that-I’m-showered-and-got-music” advice, followed by a “walk-me-through-it”, and culminating in “okay-let’s-do-light-roleplay.” Totally going the route of Cyrano de Bergerac.
I feel like Jocelyne and Joyce were purposefully designed to be that. “HRT sure is great.”-“bongo, why you look just like me?” meme.
I mean she was originally introduced as a dude version of Joyce for her gay boyfriend to crush on, so in a way she kind of was
Oh, I fully expect Joyce to climb on the bed next to Dorothy to look at the laptop for something.
Cartoon? That’s classic “As You Like It” Shakespeare – “Hey there definitely-a-man-named-Ganymede, would you pretend to be my love Rosalind so I can practice wooing you for when I meet the real Rosalind?”
Sublime. Dorothy chose well. It’s #TeenageAngst music, a genre I’ll stan until I die, and the lyrics are hurting me on the feels.
Also. I read “No Doubt” and “Don’t Speak” started insta-playing in my brain which is also a fickle bongo. Y’know, for extra pain.
ooh I’m partial to “just a girl”, personally. Not that I understand half the lyrics lol
All I wanted was you
I think I’ll pace my apartment a few times
And fall asleep on the couch
And wake up early to black and white reruns
That escape from my mouth
All I wanted was you
I could follow you to the beginning
Just to relive the start
Maybe then we’d remember to slow down
At all of our favorite parts
All I wanted was you
no hidden meanings lol ~<3
oh my god as soon as i saw that it was “all i wanted was you” dottie’s yearning became a 4D surround sound experience in my head are yOU FRICKIN KIDDING ME DOROTHY?????
Good choice, and it’s funny that Joyce speaks with the filter, seemingly.
Joyce is the source of the filter.
I’m only around 90% sure, but I think Joyce’s first in-comic use of bongo was after the filter had already been implemented.
Correcto. Pretty sure Roz haters got the filter enacted.
That’s how I remember it.
Yep, Roz haters got it activated and Billie haters kept it alive.
This is important information to put into posterity for the eventual DoA unit in future Webcomics Studies college courses.
“Think of me when you’re out, when you’re out there…” Dorothy COME ON
Much subtle. Very unnotice.
Yeah, brains are like that, kiddo. Sometimes they’re just persnickety assholes.
I’ve basically told mine to shut the fuck up and figure out how music works, at this point. Can’t trust the damn things to do what you need.
All I Wanted Was You? really? Dotty do you hate yourself?
Ever since her first C+
I get the impression she does, but I may be projecting.
Then let’s play it 59 more times
no no her new favorite artist is Ghost
or like 100 gecs
whichever is funnier.
Picture Joe trying to work with Deafheaven.
Joyce is so relatable here
WAIT HOLD ON HOLD ON
Dorothy’s dialogue. Spotify Wrapped quote. She’s been REHEARSING this!!
Spotify Wrapped? Is that a podcast or something?
Look I know you’re facetious like half the time (big fan btw) but just in case someone here doesn’t know — Every year, that app runs the analytics of what you’ve discovered and/or played the most in the last 12 months, and one of the things it says goes like:
“… But one band stood out as particularly you” + [four line description] + “[Username], your new favorite music is [Band]”
I can be mischievous from time to time, but I don’t use Spotify so I’m unfamiliar with its customs. Thanks for the explanation.
Anytime ^^ Congrats on the guitar btw!
That’ll be a Kramer Focus VT-211S, Neon Green obviously. Bought it in ’23 for about $200, didn’t get serious about learning til last autumn, and I’ve been gradually decorating it with alien stuff and learning aids since. The strap has aliens in it, there’s an alien head up there on the pickguard, the knobs look like little UFOs, I’ve got neon strings in various bright colors for instant recognition, and there’s a set of stickers on the fretboard so I can always find my way to the right note if I get lost reading sheet music. Less on-theme but fully on-brand is the FF14 decal down in the corner, with the Summoner symbol inside the iconic Meteor image and the phrase “Til Sea Swallows All” surrounding it in Eorzean font. I even went and got a neon pink amp cable for it, just so there’s no mistake who’s playing it during a performance. The phrase “You never forget your first” is key here, and I plan to keep this bad boy as long as I possibly can.
Do you watch Secure Team 10 on YouTube? Lots of UFOs and aliens on that channel.
I might check ’em out, but I’ve never heard of that channel before. I mostly watch stuff like long-form media analysis, weekly updates about the video game industry, the occasional Let’s Play, music videos, and YouTube Poop.
LATE AS HELL, SORRY, last night I straight out passed out asleep but. That’s so goddamn cool, seriously. I love that you got a guitar with full intent of making it a Forever Guitar, and the way you’ve made it so absolutely yours.
I admit I don’t know much about models but the green color was already awesome and the decals, decorations, strings and cables are so visually striking! The visual memory cues are genius :DD
Ain’t It Fun, Dorothy?
I mean I was personally hoping Joyce would get into gangster rap but whatever!
Give her time.
Also what actually qualifies as gangster rap? Do the performers have to be in a real gang?
It has origins in that sure but nowadays most gangster rappers are knowingly performative. It’s more or less just the subject of your lyrics and sound of your beat and mix that differentiate rap genre now. It’s all blending with other genres these days anyway. Gospel, country, pop, rock. The true gangster rappers are like retired celebrities and producers and actors now.
It’s a genre (style?) I haven’t got much familiarity with, but I hear and see it mentioned a lot, usually with a connotation of high intensity and “Don’t play this at church” vibes.
It’s a genre in that the subject of the lyrics is usually about the struggle of street and hood life. Anti cop, anti establishment, affording the listener a glimpse into gang lifestyle. These days that’s all really perception over substance though. It’s a brand over a lifestyle. The guys that actually were gangster back when the music form was arguably in its prime are gangsters anymore. They’re either dead like 2pac and Biggie or reffing fights for Jake Paul and appearing at Wrestlemania.
Traditional gangster rap is basically dead. Most rap guys are just guys and the gangster persona is just to sell CDs (is that even how it works anymore? Soundcloud followers? Youtube views?)
The genre also has a distinct musical footprint. Because rap is so based on sampling and remixing previous music, you can trace the sounds of gangster rap throughout music history all the way back to blues and Motown. So you’d know a gangster rap song on the beat alone.
A gangster rap song probably uses the n-word way too much for Joyce though. I kinda wonder what Sarah’s into. What’s her Youtube mix or Spotify wrap look like?
There’s probably a thesis that can be written about the gangster rapper –> police procedural actor pipeline.
Obligatory nickel comment.
It’s like outlaw country, but rap.
Perhaps Joyce would like Doechi!
the lack of familiarity with No Doubt in the comments section is putting so many gray hairs on my head D:
Was No Doubt even a band while Dorothy was alive with the sliding timescale? Their heyday was the 90’s and while Gwen is still a musical figure I was surprised to learn that they have released anything in the past 15 years.
Paramore’s fun and I love them, but introduce Joyce to The Offspring. I want to see her blasting Pretty Fly for a White Guy.
I need to see it but also, that’s most def Danny’s theme song sdlkgjs
Hell no, Danny is more a The Postal Service fan. If he could get over his Britishness I could see Jason going for it.
That’s another instance of a sentiment I’m not sure matters anymore: “Was this character alive when this band was active?”
“Dorothy’s parents (and someday, grandparents) were into No Doubt and it trickled down” is all the explanation needed here, s’how a lot of us gain favorite bands in our childhoods.
Hell, “She watched Captain Marvel” covers it.
Even that much isn’t particularly needed. Songs continue to play on radios (and not just “oldies” stations), or are heard in movies, or are used in commercials, or get covered by some random youtuber and you listen to the original, or letting Pandora recommend music that sounds similar to what you like, or 30 other ways to hear a song that has been recorded and became popular prior to Current Year and wind up checking out the rest of the artist’s catalogue.
Is it really that strange for people to be into music from before they were born? The first fan of The Doors I ever met was born around the time they released their last album, and none of the Mozart fans I’ve known listened to him when he was alive.
Indeed, I’m equally a classical fan (particularly the harder stuff) and metal fan. To me, metal is just taking Beethoven to logical conclusions.
My MP3 library contains at least 2,536 tracks that were recorded before I was born.
My sister was born in 1977 and has been a huge Beatles fan for as long as I can remember. I picked up a fondness for trad. folk from Mum, so some of my favourite singers had died before I’d ever heard of them.
Hell if you’re into trad. folk you’ve probably got at least a few favourite songs that were written well outside of living memory
Easy to end up listening to old music these days.
I have a real vivid memory of stumbling onto a Tom Lehrer live album and getting stunned by him talking about the Moon Landing as a thing which had not yet happened and about the assassination of Malcolm X as a thing which had happened like five days before they recorded
Not just “these days”. I remember listening to “Pasties and a G-String” as a 3rd grader in 1967, because my parents had the LP “The Stripper and Other Family Melodies”.
And the reason she had to climb into Joyce’s bed to access the laptop was?
YOU’RE ONLY MAKING THIS WORSE ON YOURSELF, DOTTY!
Joyce said the laptop was up there. You can see Dorothy hesitate in the last comic, but she also wants her eyes to be on the computer screen and not on Joyce.
Reach up, grab laptop, sit down on other bed.
Climb into upper bunk.
Which sounds easier to you?
They’re both upper bunks. The dorms have loft beds rather than bunk beds, their desks are underneath.
I like where your head’s, at, but replace “other bed” with “chair at desk”. The other bed is Sarah’s.
Probably the second one, depending on how easy it is to reach the laptop from the ground. The loft beds don’t seem that high here, but the laptop did look like it was more in the center of the bed than close to the edge, so I’m not sure how well Dorothy would have been able to grab it without climbing up.
I don’t think it’s weird that she chose to climb up and sit in a bed. People can bang anywhere and the bed is where the laptop is/comfy to sit on/farther away from any chance of accidentally brushing against Joyce right now.
Plus, Joyce was changing the whole time.
Climbing up the ladder and getting into the bed allows her to about-face without suspicion, and is a heck of a lot easier to do with your eyes closed than “grab laptop and relocate it elsewhere”.
Soooon, Joyce will be next to Dorothy. Dorothy will have…no escape.
In 4th panel, you can see that Joyce is almost getting it.
I seriously thought Joyce was saying she was over her limit for times having heard this song. Like when you like a song and then the radio plays it nonstop so you get tired of it. Overexposure.
It was only on second reading that it went from relatable to oh this must be a weird Willis/Joyce thing.
Radio stations seem designed to make you hate the music you love through overexposure. In my teens, it kinda led to this phenomenon where you’d basically get scolded and snubbed for listening to anything that didn’t come out in the last few months, because “That’s old shit, why are you still listening to it?”. Very odd way to live.
If I really like a song I tend to listen to it on repeat a ridiculous number of times. I’m pretty sure this is a thing some autistic people do, since I’m autistic and so is Joyce in DoA, and I believe Willis has said in the past that he might be, though he’s never been diagnosed.
I remember one time in high school, I was playing song a lot when with my friends, and they were fine with it but said something about how much it came up, and I was like, “This is the only song I like now”– which was joke, but also…
I misread it that way too, and assumed about the same that Joyce had heard the song on the radio before. However, I do relate to Joyce/likely Willis in that when I find the right music that I really love I will listen to it repeatedly until I have the musical beats nearly memorized. Because of this I have embarrassingly memorized a lot of movie soundtracks. To the point where if someone else is watching a movie I’m familiar with, all it takes is a couple seconds and I can go “ah, that’s *insert movie here* that’s there scene where *insert scene specific to the leitmotif or musical cue here*”.
I had Ronnie Milsap’s Stranger in My House stuck in my head for two days once. The only way to dislodge it was to listen to it again in its entirety.
And yeah, I’ll gladly skip tracks or change the station if I hear one of the few dozen songs I overplayed in the past, even if I know I still like it.
Hey, I’m 42 and Paramore has been my new favorite band for the last two years. So I can relate, Dorothy
I need Joyce to wear a blue sweater vest so she color coordinates with her bed.
I had to look up some Paramore songs. Apparently they’re one of those bands that I heard a few of their songs on the radio and liked them, but never learned their name or the names of the songs. I wish more radio stations in my area would actually say the band and name of the songs they play, because when they don’t it’s hard for me to figure out who I just listened to.
I’m now discovering just how many Paramore songs I’ve heard without realizing it. It’s a lot.
As a longtime Paramore fan, this one made my heart happy
A song of want and desire, Dortothy begging Joyce to give the “song” a chance even though it’s not something Joyce had ever considered before in her life, in the same frame the song talks of begging on their knees
This is going to end poorly. Poor things.
Dorothy stealth-gifting a mixtape
I had a bit of a revelation earlier today, and want to share it.
There was a common sentiment yesterday that a bunch of people talked about. Essentially, that there was no WAY that this was accidental, and that she must have either figured out Dorothy’s feelings and is teasing, or is unconsciously expressing her own desire, or that she’s been taught that straight friends do pretty darn gay stuff, etc.
And those sounded plausible but unlikely. The “subconscious” explanation seemed most plausible, but barely; that still makes this about as realistic as a 90s style TGIF sitcom.
But if I assume that she is OBLIVIOUS to Dorothy’s feelings, in true autistic fashion, then things click into place.
Earlier that day she was with Walky, and he suddenly started getting a ton of suggestive photos. Joyce can be *pretty dang sure* that they had sex. And now Joyce has basically decided that she, too, will be having sex. This is a huge, momentous occasion for her. She is, in a way, joining a “club” of people; the sex-havers.
So she’s elated. She’s behaving exactly like when she started full-on cursing; only instead of saying “fuck” every five words, she’s being hypersexual. And she’s sharing with Dorothy maybe partly due to that unconscious attraction, but probably *mostly* because she’s dying to share it with somebody, and Dorothy has already set herself up as the experienced guide to sexual activity. She wants to share her excitement with Dorothy, but she also feels like she needs help going into this – which was the main (not sole) reason she had said she wanted to watch Dorothy and Walky..
So it’s not an accident… but it’s also not meant cruelly. Joyce is excited and she’s playing a role. It is, “Hey Dorothy, you hanky-pankier; very soon I too will be a hanky-pankier as well! Look at me acting like someone who just has hanky panky all the time, all alluring in my towel and milk jug boots!”
Honestly, this has been my approximately my read on Joyce’s feelings/actions the whole time, so I’m glad you verbalized it.
A definite possibility!
I think you nailed it. Very well explained.
Yeah, that’s similar to how I feel; I think there are multiple factors at play– subconscious, best friends do gay things (which isn’t totally wrong– like, definitely not universal, but not universally false either), and her excitement.
There’s also just how new being able to talk about this stuff at all is for her. It’s a big shift that happens without explicit guidelines–“sex is shameful, never acknowledge your sexuality” to “it it totally fine to desire and have sex, and you can talk to people close to you about it”– and she’s figuring out those guidelines as she goes.
What I definitely don’t think it is is her knowing and messing with Dorothy on purpose.
The fact that some people seriously thought that she was being deliberate in order to tease Dorothy, and it not showing in the slightest, show a weird fundamental misunderstandings of Joyce as a character.
This is why she doesn’t leave the house. You say the coast is clear but you won’t catch her out
The solution is to listen to it sixty times.
That’s a real popular song! Who wants to hear of it fifty times more?
Ooo, strong connection to the next chapter’s title! (“The Only Exception”)
Cue up Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” — then await the return of Joyce’s “Orphan Annie” freakout eyes.
follow it up with some Nick Cave
Throw some Infected Mushroom at the girl and watch her head asplode. I’m Partial to “Becoming Insane” as an introduction.
When I was a wee bairn, many many long years ago, I was stone convinced that all the music would be moog and styleophones and theremins and waveform oscillators by now
Ahhh, another fan of the Dr Who opening sequence music!
and any soundtrack by Wendy Carlos, naturally
Naturally!
Davis, me man. You may haunt me as you wish. Throw soup at me…but I am stealing that phrase. Because that is my brain when my back keeps me froom sleeping like lastnight.
davis
I had to look paramore up yesterday because she was referenced in a NiqueMarina short. Apparently Willis knew about her a full year ago! (I did recognize some of her music just didn’t know about her at all.)
Paramore has been relatively famous (admittedly it’s a generational thing) since the mid-2000’s so I’m betting Willis knew about Paramore a lot longer than a year ago.
Not meant to be smug “omg you didn’t know??” just saying as a fan of Paramore and Hayley Williams (the singer) for god… almost 2 decades… I want people to know how awesome and enduring their music as been and how phenomenal she still is as a singer.
Yeah, I haven’t particularly sought out Paramore songs at any point (though I like most of the ones I know), but they seemed so, like… culturally present when I was in high school. I was surprised to see some of their singles didn’t chart higher when I looked them up just now– but high school is a subset that maybe wasn’t impacting the charts as much, especially with how things were ranked at the time.
(And my high school experience is of course a very small sampling.)
Paramore is one of those bands that somehow flies under your radar but you happen to come across them without even realizing it.
Not in my experience– the cultural presence in my high school was pretty explicit– but there has been music I had that experience with.
Dorothy (and by extension Willis), you’re so correct for this.
Oh is that how they censor the forbidden b word in-universe?
The beech filter is just that strong!
I feel like Dorothy dropped the ball here. Hozier is the clear recommendation, especially since some modern church music blatantly rips off Hozier songs (which I learned in reverse actually. I went to a church and was like “omg wait, this music sounds good good. How tf—“ only to go home and realize they stole the opening tune of Arsonist’s Lullaby. The lead dude would be so angry.)
There’s also Skillet to Evanescence of being churchy/Christian but the pipeline of easing your way out of it, Florence and the Machine… Pretty much any artist that did acoustic guitar and got big in the 2010’s had mad “this is just church music without the church” energy. I love me some Paramour, I just would never assume Paramour is a good way to ease someone into new music lol. I’d have to drag them through more closely related genres first.
Not to me rude but who is that? Paramore is a far better choice for young adolescent ladies and as Dorothy has already pointed out the lead singer of the band Hayley is very relatable to Joyce.
(I googled it and the only song I recognize is that church song)
“for young adolescent ladies” made me laugh, sorry.
Plenty of young women are big fans of Hozier, but I agree Paramore is a great pick.
I personally don’t know any girls under 20 who know who Hozier is (I work with a lot of young folks). In any case you have to agree Paramore is far more relatable to young women then Hozier is.
No, not really. Far more relatable to Joyce? Definitely. For what music people are familiar with, there’s a wide variance. I’ve heard Hozier mentioned in a middle school within the past couple weeks; haven’t heard someone in a middle school mention Paramore any time recently. At the same time, I have heard Paramore playing while I was in a public space more recently, but they don’t get mentioned by name then. (Also, a lot of people seem to not really listen to the songs big stores play through the speakers.)
(And I’ve heard Hozier much more recently, and frequently, on the radio when I listen in the car. And his most recent big hit isn’t my favorite, so I don’t love that, but it peaked at #1 on the Billboard charts last year, so I guess other people do.)
Hmmm guess it depends on what radio station you’re listening to because my radio station definitely plays more Paramore then Hozier. Also all the folks I work with are 18-25 so I don’t think they have much in common with middle schoolers….
I actually don’t have to agree with that (and I don’t agree, in fact). I believe you when you say that the young people you work with don’t talk to you about Hozier, but I don’t think he’s unrelatable or a bad choice for women to listen to. That’s just silly.
Responding to:
“Paramore is a far better choice for young adolescent ladies”
“In any case you have to agree”
If you really want to believe that a man is more relatable to women then an actual woman who has gone through a lot of worldly experience (i.e her divorce parents, breakups, ect ect) then you’re free do so.
You’ve got to remember that Joyce’s “church music” is very specifically contemporary Christian rock.
Music player gets stuck and all it’ll play is Chappell Roan’s ‘Good Luck Babe’
As much as I like Riot!, After Laughter feels like their best album yet… what’s next on the playlist
i mean, has anyone actually heard a song sixty times? anyway here’s APT.
There are extremely few songs that I have heard between 2 and 60 times.
Speaking of Riot!, My vote for the next song is ‘Let the Flames Begin’.
Heck yeah buddy. I also love that one.
…the way you found the EXACT song I’m listening to 60+ times at the moment.
Speaking through song lyrics, eh, Dorothy?
I really hope Ignorance is on that playlist. I also really hope that there is a real playlist out there and that someday we can see it. Hey Willis if you have a list of song but don’t have time to make an actual YT playlist I would be happy to help! I really really want to see Joyce’s playlist please. 🥺
I also feel like Sum 41 should be on that list and Joyce would really dig them
I’m still imagining her hearing some Weird Al and become instantly entranced.
This is too real
My brain does that too, Joyce. Makes it very hard to get into new music. I find if I force myself to listen several times in a row, it will sometimes grow on me.
This song is a little more subtle than most of the All Over Me soundtrack that suddenly popped into my brain. Which is a phenomenal soundtrack album – up there with, and possibly better than, the Singles soundtrack. Ani DiFranco, The Murmurs, Slater Kinney, Patti Smith… seriously good soundtrack. But it’s probably for the best that Dotty not hit Joyce with too much queer punk and riot grrl too soon. If this is actually going to have a chance at working between them at some point, anyway.
Until she said frontwoman I really thought she was gonna play The Mountain Goats
Dorothy dropping subtle hints; did she say Paramore or Paramour?
you…named all the artists in one of my study playlists
from the genius page: a “song about how the speaker loved someone so much that they became “All [they] wanted.” Their own desires and goals paled in comparison to being together.”
it’s happening, i know it is, it’s fucking happening
hmm, yea I think that’s a good pick
like if we think about it, Joyce is surprisingly optimistic given her past year. I don’t think anyone could blame her for following Ethan’s path
but when presented with that path,
even when roofied at her first party
even when kidnapped by a talking toe,
even as her family fell apart
she refused she refused she refused
no doubt is a funny choice, considering how gwen stefani has recently been doing the opposite of what joyce is doing, i.e. ditching whatever was left of her counter-culture persona in favor of REALLY getting back to her conservative christian roots.
(not that she ever had really ditched them in the first place, but it’s a lot harder to ignore it when she’s promoting that prayer app and tweeting her support of tucker carlson.)
I imagine Dorothy probably hasn’t paid much attention to anything Gwen’s done post-like, I dunno, Rocksteady? She hasn’t missed anything worth seeing/hearing, if so.
That is so depressing.
Mind you, as a theistic anarchist, I can’t understand anyone who isn’t performative faith practicing to support that monster…or that other monster. Or that other-other monster.
I like how Willis’ censoring even works in comic.
Be funny as hell if the Patreon version was uncensored
The panel in 4 is her being ordered to kill President Ross in Captain America 4.
Willis missed a real opportunity here, not naming the strip “fickle bongo”
No. I always try to avoid naming strips after words in the punchline. People click through the titles of strips from social media. I don’t want to give people the punchline before they even open up the strip.
Good point! I hadn’t thought of that.
and Hayley’s accidental selfie?
insert yet another comment along the lines of: “if Joyce needs to hear a song five dozen times before she likes it, Paramore is a great band for her! hyuck hyuck”
dont let her fall down the paramore to flyleaf to christian music youtube pipeline!