I mean, he can just bleach his roots when that happens, if he still wants the blonde hair?
With no specific animus towards you, but putting it here because it has to go somewhere – I find it really uncomfortable how many people talk about his hair (or durags, wave caps, and bonnets on other black cast members) like it’s at all unusual. Have you ever worried about Carla’s hair “looking rough” when it starts growing out? Just something to consider.
Yeah it’s, bleh. I can give people the benefit of the doubt and admit Willis’s style doesn’t capture Jacobs hairstyle as well as it could, hes not 100% when it comes to the intricacies of textured hair. But it’s uncomfortable just how much it comes up. Jacob doesn’t have a bad hairstyle, he has an extremely normal and pretty cool hairstyle for a 19 year old experimenting with their look for the first time . Also grown out roots always look cool
I was going to try to defend myself and say that Jacob’s really the only character whose hairstyle I don’t like, but I also don’t like Becky’s but I haven’t dunked on it is much because unfortunately “obnoxious ginger who hasn’t had a haircut in months” is not a criticism I can make without being deeply hypocritical.
I feel this way too. There are some people that feel they simply MUST comment every single time a black person has a black hair style (or du rags etc) on panel. It’s a known Thing that people fixate on black people’s hair and have a lot of… opinions about it. Culture prioritizes white aesthetics, and black folk’s hair gets criticized because it doesn’t fit in with that. Some black people even intentionally style their hair in a way that white aesthetics dislike, as a counterculture political statement.
If folks don’t like Willis’s portrayal of the hair, they should comment on the art, but I think it’s awesome he attempts to portray black hair authentically. Also, Linda has showcased this specimen of microaggression on panel, let’s not be Lindas!
Also, not a sarcastic question, but genuine: do we know Tony’s hair is natural?
I mean I only like dunking in Jake’s hair cause I am black myself and used to. work at a barber shop. I know the look he’s going for. The short side swept dreads. It’s very popular in media right now specifically in animated stuff. It’s even been criticized for being overused. Miles Morales has in the most recent Spider-Man game as well as Eddie in Tekken 8. Frankly most interpretations of black hair are about 3-5 years behind the modern trends cause it takes a while to be absorbed by creators. We need more variations. Black hair is truly very versatile.
If we’re talking about white characters’ hair, I liked Becky’s shorter asymmetrical look from before the time skip better than her current do, but it never seemed like a big enough deal to bring up. I’m not the artist or writer, it’s not my call how she wears it.
By the same token it’s not my call how Jacob or Sarah wear their hair, so I’ve never expressed a preference about which of their styles looked better to me either.
Also I’m realizing as I look at that picture, Tony’s hair really is super similar (in this art style, at least) to Jacob’s. Only difference is dread shape really. Interesting experiment, coincidental or not, to see how folks react to it on Tony versus Jacob.
This is how we find out he’s been angling to rail Tony from the beginning. For the influence of course. Him and Raidah had discussed the potential power throuple often.
Is Jacob beefier than Tony? We haven’t gotten to see a lot of Tony to compare but at an initial glance I want to say maybe Tony is wider but Jacob has height so he looks bigger?
Tony does play football. I don’t know what position but he was shown carrying the ball. Probably like a full back or half back. Short but strong guys to break through lines when you need guaranteed yards. He’s probably at least as buff as Jake. The male equivalent of Amber.
It was specified that he’s a running back, and that position seems to vary much more widely in side and build that most others. There are huge, strong ones, and small, agile ones…but the small, agile ones are still bloody strong. Jacob is definitely beefier than Tony, but it’s hard to say which one of them would actually be stronger, without additional evidence at least.
Or this is where we find out he’s always wanted to rail Tony but thought he was out of his league.
The person who you rejected “snagging” (urgh, I hate that word) the person you didn’t think you could get smarts.
Also allows Lucy to continue her “sweet but misinterprets her boyfriends” arc, furthering her journey to villain? “Aaw, it’s sweet you’re happy for the girl you chose me over! Wait, who’s he again? Principled, nepotically influential, college football player..? Does he know [Raidah’s version of] what she did to her roommate last year? Oh, he can hear me and knows the truth* and now he knows that was Sarah he’s even more into her and apparently I believed and spread lies and was nasty to Sarah over them…”
Jacob’s shown himself to be not exactly forgiving at times… Also, learning that Sarah was battling bullying with people putting out that sort of defamatory spin about her as Gospel could well help him understand her prickliness and why it’s so hard for her to open up to people: she thought Raidah and co were her friends, too, back then…
So: Jacob’s not-admitted-to-self[-yet?] bi-leaning plus that news about Sarah, plus “Lucy doesn’t verify sources properly”..? RIP Jacucy (pronounced like jacuzzi but with a soft “s” instead of the “z”s), hello Jacob trying to ingratiate himself with a “drew a hard line in the concrete, which has now set, and moved on” Sarah…
I mean…I just thought it was kinda funny that even Jacob seems to recognize Tony is a highly valued romantic partner. Like somehow all the soft power on campus is directly tied to Tony’s dick.
I’m not at all surprised that Jacob knows who the school’s star atheletes are and considers them high-value. It’s probably weirder (to most people) that I didn’t, when I was in school.
I legit think that he thought Tony was utterly uninterested in dating, and his reaction to Sarah managing to pull him is a “holy shit she yoinked out Excalibur” type of response.
Snagged Tony. Yup snatched him right out from under absolutely no one despite him apparently being in very high demand. The couple meta is shook. You are shook.
I get the impression he’s been single due very much to his choice, like I imagine he’s not terribly interested in a lot of the people he runs into whom are interested in him due to his football prospects, etc, being kind of a pessimistic dude without being an outright prick about it.
Malaya has loaned out Fuckface on a few occasions to worthy people. I’d say she’s Chaotic Good. I might be convinced to say she’s Lawful (since she hates fakey-ness) Good. She’s a Paladin of a very niche morality set.
That’s what I’m leaning towards – that Tony’s been VERY selective in women he’s dated (if anyone during the semester), so Jacob’s genuinely surprised that the woman that grabbed his attention was Sarah.
ohhh i love a strip that caters to the sarah/joyce/joe agenda i’ve had for ten years since i started reading this comic as a wee high schooler. my fave trio fr
These two are actually completely adorable together.
I also look forward to this somehow, if we survive the two years needed to get to the right storyline, leading to Tony meeting Walky’s Mom via the Dean again, with Sarah and Sal and Lucy all in the same room, leading to Tony cracking Mrs. Walkerton in the jaw.
Interesting final panel, for sure. I imagine, judging by this, that Tony does not date a lot due to not finding a lot of girls who fit what he’s looking for.
Also, perhaps some stray feelings lingering from Jacob, but maybe don’t gas a girl up with stuff like “I like your arms”, and then immediately fuck someone else. Just a thought.
Glad I’m not the only one who found this odd judging by the comments. I don’t know if Jacob is slowly realizing what a catch Sarah is, or he’s still processing between this and now knowing why Sarah is the way she is.
It’s not really true that Sarah wasn’t responding. Jacob coaxed Sarah into opening up and she straight-out admitted that she liked him, and not just physically but for his personality too. It’s true that he didn’t reject her outright, but I wouldn’t say Jacob gave up either. He was noncommittal, and fell for Lucy before he made up his mind.
Unless he’s even more oblivious than I think he is, he knew Sarah was interested and was just having trouble trouble cracking her armor and being vulnerable for him.
And then Lucy threw herself at him.
I’m not sure exactly what ~*connected*~ is supposed to mean, but the simple fact is they hooked up after hanging out a bit at a college party. Lots of people think they’ve got a real connection in those circumstances. And find out different afterwards.
And you know, nothing wrong with that in the abstract. If it works out for them, great.
Just being a bit critical of him kind of… not leading her on, per se, but I do feel like he got her to admit how she felt about him, but didn’t really do the same for her.
That said, he’s human, he’s only barely an adult, and I am not expecting perfection out of him. They are all allowed a certain level of inelegance in their social lives.
Joyce is doing this at maybe the one guy Sarah could have met and started dating the day before who’ll be like “yep, checks out, although I’mma assume the gleeful one is exaggerating slightly and Sarah isn’t in love with me since we only just met, but that she sometimes struggles to show her innermost feelings even though she’s as awesome as I have so far been led to believe”…
Is it wrong that I want Jacob and Lucy to both be like, welp, I hear angry sex is the best I GUESS WE SHOULD TRY THAT (with each other, not with anybody else because we’re with each other now)
lucy’s nice but she might not be ‘ambitious’ enough to be on Raidah’s radar versus her ending up to have slightly well off parents but not bragging about it/not too high up on the social ladder
So in this group we have three girls that Jacob has been interested in, two guys that Joyce has been interested in, two guys that Sarah has been interested in, two guys that Lucy has been interested in, and two girls that Joe had been interested in.
The smoochy chart is a neural network.
It has finished its set of training data.
It has now achieved sentience.
The Dumbing of Age LLM will be released to select customers by Summer 2025.
They are so damn cute together… if Raidah messes this up im gonna explode.
She finally found somebody who can not only handle her emotional state, but enjoys her emotional state and won’t try to make her change, she deserves this happiness.
Raidah’s a psycho bongo, but I think Tony will be able to see past any of her shenanigans. I’m hoping the attempt will completely blow up in Raidah’s face.
Not only do Sarah and Tony connect well emotionally, he seems to respect her work ethic too (remember, she suggested skipping class and Tony encouraged her to go.)
The only possible “glitch” I can see is that Tony is a football player, and I’m not sure Sarah enjoys the sport.
I ran a comedy superhero game once where I had Amber/Amazi-Girl make a cameo appearance as Lord Mayor Galasso’s mild-mannered assistant by day, crime-fighting vigilante by night. As a Shortpacked! in-joke, I gave her a 1-point Immunity: Criticism.
I was extremely amused and gratified when she tangled with the PCs, and one of them (who hadn’t even joined the game yet when I built her) had one of his summons use its demoralizing debuff on her, and I got to announce, “Amazi-Girl is IMMUNE TO CRITICISM!“
Honestly my brain goes to Dumbing of Age characters in a stock D&D setting, probably because I can’t think of a TTRPG that’s well suited for slice of life college hijinks.
That’s a different story, and honestly this artstyle would probably translate pretty well to a Night in the Woods / Pentiment style 2d slice of life game.
GURPS. Got crunchy rules for everything.
QuestWorlds. Got flexy rules for everything.
TORG. Got cinematic, dramatic rules for everything (though this is better suited for the earlier Walkyverse stuff).
“Okay, roll for Dina’s invisibility stealth as she and Charlie go on walkabout.”
“Got 22 total.”
“You think it’s a total success, since no one stops you. But now, Charlie has to roll for where you both end up. Disadvantage.”
“But Charlie’s got Fuckface on her head again!”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Okay, at advantage now.”
“27 total!”
“Okay, good stuff. Player’s choice: Where you two wanna go?”
I am reminded that when Joe realized he wasn’t going to get any better without female friends, he turned to Sarah. (She was understandably uninterested in being his friend, of course.)
There is another alternative – That he’s amazed ANYBODY can get Tony. Tony does seem to be the kind of person who is pretty hard to impress and woo in general, after all
Unironically I think this is it. I’m not necessarily saying he doesn’t have other, complicated feelings about this that will be revealed. But, Jacob seems to know a lot of the guys around campus, and so he’d have noticed the son of the dean and star football player being terminally single, despite also being a good, desirable guy.
Okay but it’s warming my heart to see Lucy smiling for Sarah and Tony. Their relationship may be strained but Lucy still loves love and seeing people happy.
And uh. Jacob. You wanna elaborate on your feelings on that statement?
Joe is being his honest self here. He’s found Sarah desirable since Book 1, so Much so that both times Sarah asked Joe to have sex with her (both times facetiously), his response was an enthusiastic Heck Yeah! While everyone else thinks that Sarah lucked out in nabbing Tony, Joe sees the reverse – it’s Tony that lucked out winning Sarah’s heart.
This is the second time now Tony has mentioned not suffering fools and just gotta say…still don’t know where I’d stand with that guy? What are you about Tony?
i think the “not suffering fools” comment MIGHT be intended to be a meta joke. because in walkyverse tony pretty much exclusively suffered fools. and suffered because of fools. literally all he did was suffer. and then because tony had barely appeared in doaverse until recently, he has therefore suffered no fools. and has no interest in suffering fools. but lets be honest, he’s gonna suffer a few fools.
Normally I would be the first to criticize Jake for any opinion he voices on Sarah on her love life but even I’m a bit confused what people are taking away from his comment.
Look, Willis has given us a gift, here; ships have sailed oceans for far less. We are free to use this strip as an excuse to crack ship Jacob and Tony, and for that, we are blessed.
“Cup of tea? Tea? Cup of tea, anyone? Nothing nicer than a cup of tea,
well, I tell a lie, but I see the couch is occupied, just my little joke, no offense meant, anyone for a nice cup of tea?”
-Pratchett, Maskerade
I can’t wait for the time and place where Raidah tries to use the old roommate story against Sarah with Tony, and he just looks her dead in the face like “well, what did you expect her to do? Girl clearly needed help, and was ruining both their lives?” Weaponized Reasonableness is the new hot look for modern times.
Sadly I remember when Raidah told her version of the story to Walky and Lucy, Jennifer didn’t bother to correct any of it and said that was pretty much what happened.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/jettison-2/
Indeed, her version is “Sarah jettisons people when they’re inconvenient. Sarah jettisons people when they’re inconvenient. Sarah had Dana sent home. Sarah didn’t want to give Dana any slack even though her mom had just died,” with some interjection from Carl.
“So Sarah had Dana sent home.” Yeah, that statement would be immediately spotted by Tony as 100% purest bullshit. His father is a college admin. He knows fully that no freshman student can have any other student “sent home”. Tony knows slanted b.s. when he hears it. A Tony-Raidah discussion would be short and unhappy (for Raidah).
I’d actually expect him to just cut the legs out from under her with a dismissive one-liner and walk away before she gets anywhere near her “Sarah so evil” story.
One advantage Tony has is that he’s not a freshman, and was presumably living in the same building last year. He may already know more than we would expect. I do find it noteworthy that Raidah has lost or ditched all her old friends except Carl, and her new attempted recruits are all freshman.
In that light, it’s also quite noteworthy that Tony himself is nowhere near Raidah’s group and never has been, despite her being obsessed with proximity to the Dean and social climbing. Surely that can only mean either that she tried and failed to get Tony on board with her last year when she was a freshman?
If Tony is also a sophomore, one begins to wonder if perhaps there’s a Raidah-shaped reason (amongst his general seriousness and reasonableness) that he specifically does not suffer disingenuousness.
I think this strip is also a good example that when Tony says ‘no buffoonery’ he doesn’t mean ‘no fluff or brightness’. Joyce is being extremely fluffy and bright at him, but she is being entirely genuine about it, and Tony’s reaction is ‘mild confusion’ and a temperature check with Sarah rather than annoyance at the silliness.
I forgot to put in my OR after the either! Either Raidah tried to get in with Tony last year at some point OR she was aware enough to recognize that he was un-gettable for her. In either case, he has already clocked or will immediately clock her deal.
I’m guessing Tony dislikes clowning for attention’s-sake. But Joyce is not clowning (she’s sincere) and is not trying to get attention (she’s expressing Joy-ce in her explicit shipper way). Clear difference between what Tony dislikes and what this group is doing.
My husband just showed me a bizarre one of Trump and Musk’s “rebuilt Gaza” complete with multiple gold Trump statues, Musk throwing handfuls of cash while children try to gather it, Trump and Netanyahu sunbathing together…
…how do we know for sure that the person in question literally didn’trape and murder a young girl in 1990fuck an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions?
There’s an episode or special or something where someone or other unleashes a flock of sentient angry eyebrows that fly around like bats and attach themselves to people’s faces, which makes those people act like jerks for the duration. Larry has to do something or other to get the eyebrows off of people, so they’ll stop being dicks. The “cameo by LarryBoy” comment is a reference to this.
As a side note, I recommend watching VeggieTales even if you’re not Christian, because it has a completely batshit sense of humor and catchy songs about various unrelated topics, sometimes of an educational nature.
Sarah doesn’t have to say “my eye (brow)s are up here. “ Tony is all business . Being a starter in the Big Ten is a full time job and he is serious about his classes. No time for drama. Being the dean’s son just makes him more diligent.
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*plays “Grouch Anthem” from Sesame Street: Follow That Bird Music CD*
…I forgot that movie even existed until just now.
I think I wrote it off as a fever dream.
I have never forgotten that movie.
I have never heard of that movie!
I saw half of that movie as a child, and the cliffhanger bothered me for a long time.
Same. I’ve never met anyone else IRL whose seen or even heard of it.
I of course, approve.
The angry eyebrow are indeed very hot.
They are, but that “I like eyebrows that suffer no fools” in Panel 4 has as disturbing amount of Galasso energy.
+1. Tony is saying all the right things.
Their showdown will be the stuff of legend!
I need more Galasso energy myself.
*snatches the compliment and eats it with my pawsies since that compliment applies to me as well* :3
I get full Huey Freeman at times but thankfully it’s not my default facial expression ^w^ (Boondocks reference)
Alright Jacob, that’s just the woman you turned to have sex with your current girlfriend. Don’t make it weird.
THEY EVEN HAVE THE SAME BLONDE CURLY TOP PART OF HAIR
Of course, Tony’s is natural and Jacob’s is going to look a bit rough once his roots start showing again.
Hate to say it, frosted tip dreads would be an improvement over the current look.
I mean, he can just bleach his roots when that happens, if he still wants the blonde hair?
With no specific animus towards you, but putting it here because it has to go somewhere – I find it really uncomfortable how many people talk about his hair (or durags, wave caps, and bonnets on other black cast members) like it’s at all unusual. Have you ever worried about Carla’s hair “looking rough” when it starts growing out? Just something to consider.
Yeah it’s, bleh. I can give people the benefit of the doubt and admit Willis’s style doesn’t capture Jacobs hairstyle as well as it could, hes not 100% when it comes to the intricacies of textured hair. But it’s uncomfortable just how much it comes up. Jacob doesn’t have a bad hairstyle, he has an extremely normal and pretty cool hairstyle for a 19 year old experimenting with their look for the first time . Also grown out roots always look cool
I was going to try to defend myself and say that Jacob’s really the only character whose hairstyle I don’t like, but I also don’t like Becky’s but I haven’t dunked on it is much because unfortunately “obnoxious ginger who hasn’t had a haircut in months” is not a criticism I can make without being deeply hypocritical.
I feel this way too. There are some people that feel they simply MUST comment every single time a black person has a black hair style (or du rags etc) on panel. It’s a known Thing that people fixate on black people’s hair and have a lot of… opinions about it. Culture prioritizes white aesthetics, and black folk’s hair gets criticized because it doesn’t fit in with that. Some black people even intentionally style their hair in a way that white aesthetics dislike, as a counterculture political statement.
If folks don’t like Willis’s portrayal of the hair, they should comment on the art, but I think it’s awesome he attempts to portray black hair authentically. Also, Linda has showcased this specimen of microaggression on panel, let’s not be Lindas!
Also, not a sarcastic question, but genuine: do we know Tony’s hair is natural?
I mean I only like dunking in Jake’s hair cause I am black myself and used to. work at a barber shop. I know the look he’s going for. The short side swept dreads. It’s very popular in media right now specifically in animated stuff. It’s even been criticized for being overused. Miles Morales has in the most recent Spider-Man game as well as Eddie in Tekken 8. Frankly most interpretations of black hair are about 3-5 years behind the modern trends cause it takes a while to be absorbed by creators. We need more variations. Black hair is truly very versatile.
If we’re talking about white characters’ hair, I liked Becky’s shorter asymmetrical look from before the time skip better than her current do, but it never seemed like a big enough deal to bring up. I’m not the artist or writer, it’s not my call how she wears it.
By the same token it’s not my call how Jacob or Sarah wear their hair, so I’ve never expressed a preference about which of their styles looked better to me either.
You mean the extremely common hairstyle that a lot of college age people have? Heck, I am not in college and have shaved sides.
Perfect Gravatar for this reply!
Also I’m realizing as I look at that picture, Tony’s hair really is super similar (in this art style, at least) to Jacob’s. Only difference is dread shape really. Interesting experiment, coincidental or not, to see how folks react to it on Tony versus Jacob.
Not quite sure how to read that reaction from Jacob.
This is how we find out he’s been angling to rail Tony from the beginning. For the influence of course. Him and Raidah had discussed the potential power throuple often.
Is Jacob beefier than Tony? We haven’t gotten to see a lot of Tony to compare but at an initial glance I want to say maybe Tony is wider but Jacob has height so he looks bigger?
I think aside from height they’re pretty much the same level of beef
Tony does play football. I don’t know what position but he was shown carrying the ball. Probably like a full back or half back. Short but strong guys to break through lines when you need guaranteed yards. He’s probably at least as buff as Jake. The male equivalent of Amber.
It was specified that he’s a running back, and that position seems to vary much more widely in side and build that most others. There are huge, strong ones, and small, agile ones…but the small, agile ones are still bloody strong. Jacob is definitely beefier than Tony, but it’s hard to say which one of them would actually be stronger, without additional evidence at least.
… FIGHT!!!!!!
?
And now KISS!
Tony is their Chief Ballsman, actually.
I think Beef is even taller than Jacob.
Or this is where we find out he’s always wanted to rail Tony but thought he was out of his league.
The person who you rejected “snagging” (urgh, I hate that word) the person you didn’t think you could get smarts.
Also allows Lucy to continue her “sweet but misinterprets her boyfriends” arc, furthering her journey to villain? “Aaw, it’s sweet you’re happy for the girl you chose me over! Wait, who’s he again? Principled, nepotically influential, college football player..? Does he know [Raidah’s version of] what she did to her roommate last year? Oh, he can hear me and knows the truth* and now he knows that was Sarah he’s even more into her and apparently I believed and spread lies and was nasty to Sarah over them…”
Jacob’s shown himself to be not exactly forgiving at times… Also, learning that Sarah was battling bullying with people putting out that sort of defamatory spin about her as Gospel could well help him understand her prickliness and why it’s so hard for her to open up to people: she thought Raidah and co were her friends, too, back then…
So: Jacob’s not-admitted-to-self[-yet?] bi-leaning plus that news about Sarah, plus “Lucy doesn’t verify sources properly”..? RIP Jacucy (pronounced like jacuzzi but with a soft “s” instead of the “z”s), hello Jacob trying to ingratiate himself with a “drew a hard line in the concrete, which has now set, and moved on” Sarah…
Lucy’s comment was in response to what Joe said.
I mean…I just thought it was kinda funny that even Jacob seems to recognize Tony is a highly valued romantic partner. Like somehow all the soft power on campus is directly tied to Tony’s dick.
More like his shoulders.
I’m not at all surprised that Jacob knows who the school’s star atheletes are and considers them high-value. It’s probably weirder (to most people) that I didn’t, when I was in school.
I think he is just surprised because yeah, she make quite a catch.
A little disbelief/surprise. Like knows about, but does not grok, differences in personality and compatibility.
That comment gives away the part of him that dated Raidah
I legit think that he thought Tony was utterly uninterested in dating, and his reaction to Sarah managing to pull him is a “holy shit she yoinked out Excalibur” type of response.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/jacob+tony/ honestly i’m surprised he even knows who he is b/c they dont’ seem to have appear in that many strips together
Snagged Tony. Yup snatched him right out from under absolutely no one despite him apparently being in very high demand. The couple meta is shook. You are shook.
She just grabbed him and ran out the door before the alarm went off.
I get the impression he’s been single due very much to his choice, like I imagine he’s not terribly interested in a lot of the people he runs into whom are interested in him due to his football prospects, etc, being kind of a pessimistic dude without being an outright prick about it.
So, Sarah did still score something of a coup.
That would line up with his first onscreen interaction with Billie, did not seem like his first time rejecting someone’s advances.
He’s like the Lawful Good version of Malaya. No fakey!
… Malaya’s Chaotic, I’m pretty sure, but is she Good, Evil, or Neutral?
Evil feels strong, but I wouldn’t call her Neutral either. Chaotic Bad I guess
They’re a chaotic baddie (did I do that right?)
Maybe Malaya is Tony’s Wario.
Yes.
Malaya has loaned out Fuckface on a few occasions to worthy people. I’d say she’s Chaotic Good. I might be convinced to say she’s Lawful (since she hates fakey-ness) Good. She’s a Paladin of a very niche morality set.
That’s what I’m leaning towards – that Tony’s been VERY selective in women he’s dated (if anyone during the semester), so Jacob’s genuinely surprised that the woman that grabbed his attention was Sarah.
Dumbing of Age, Book 17: Eyebrows That Suffer No Fools
yes this
Appropriate gravatar is appropriate.
I like this! 😉
The Glalthian Mining Consortium disapproves of this alt text joke!
And therein lies a story?
If I were Raidah I’d be nervous too
ohhh i love a strip that caters to the sarah/joyce/joe agenda i’ve had for ten years since i started reading this comic as a wee high schooler. my fave trio fr
Rock dem eyebrows!
Saffy from Giant Days.
I hope that Raidah(See: Psycho Bongo) fails to break up Tony and Sarah, and the whole thing blows up in her face.
These two are actually completely adorable together.
I also look forward to this somehow, if we survive the two years needed to get to the right storyline, leading to Tony meeting Walky’s Mom via the Dean again, with Sarah and Sal and Lucy all in the same room, leading to Tony cracking Mrs. Walkerton in the jaw.
Ooh, or Sarah with a baseball bat. Whichever is more cathartic to Sal.
Mayyybe all three working together? Sal, Sarah, and Tony all working over Linda, interrupting some racist-rant of hers?
You and me both, Tony.
Interesting final panel, for sure. I imagine, judging by this, that Tony does not date a lot due to not finding a lot of girls who fit what he’s looking for.
Also, perhaps some stray feelings lingering from Jacob, but maybe don’t gas a girl up with stuff like “I like your arms”, and then immediately fuck someone else. Just a thought.
Glad I’m not the only one who found this odd judging by the comments. I don’t know if Jacob is slowly realizing what a catch Sarah is, or he’s still processing between this and now knowing why Sarah is the way she is.
I think Jacob is just wondering, “how did he do that? What’s he got that I hadn’t got?” He didn’t reject Sarah; she wasn’t responding and he gave up.
It’s not really true that Sarah wasn’t responding. Jacob coaxed Sarah into opening up and she straight-out admitted that she liked him, and not just physically but for his personality too. It’s true that he didn’t reject her outright, but I wouldn’t say Jacob gave up either. He was noncommittal, and fell for Lucy before he made up his mind.
Unless he’s even more oblivious than I think he is, he knew Sarah was interested and was just having trouble trouble cracking her armor and being vulnerable for him.
And then Lucy threw herself at him.
I wouldn’t characterize it that way…I think they ~*connected*~
I’m not sure exactly what ~*connected*~ is supposed to mean, but the simple fact is they hooked up after hanging out a bit at a college party. Lots of people think they’ve got a real connection in those circumstances. And find out different afterwards.
And you know, nothing wrong with that in the abstract. If it works out for them, great.
I’m unsure how you got that he didn’t reject Sarah. He seemed pretty clear about that. She opened up to him, and he rejected her.
He does like her arms.
Liking her arms, and saying so, isn’t promising to forsake emotionally-available cuties who are into him.
Oh I think I missed what you were trying to say. Can you say more about it?
Just being a bit critical of him kind of… not leading her on, per se, but I do feel like he got her to admit how she felt about him, but didn’t really do the same for her.
That said, he’s human, he’s only barely an adult, and I am not expecting perfection out of him. They are all allowed a certain level of inelegance in their social lives.
Possibly, but it’s only one panel and he’s setting up the punchline. Enough ways to read it that I’m not going to jump to uncharitable conclusions.
Those are some pretty great eyebrows, and somehow when she’s smiling like that it enhances the effect instead of detracting from them
She has always had a powerful aura. This could be her final form.
Yeah, I think this is the first time I’ve seen this Sarah face. It’s nice to see her owning herself, and just being happy.
enjoying their ship as much as walky/amber garbage roof. this is fun
Aww, it’s nice seeing Sarah roll with Joyce’s compliments rather than deny and throw metaphorical smoke bombs.
He suffers no fools.
Joyce is doing this at maybe the one guy Sarah could have met and started dating the day before who’ll be like “yep, checks out, although I’mma assume the gleeful one is exaggerating slightly and Sarah isn’t in love with me since we only just met, but that she sometimes struggles to show her innermost feelings even though she’s as awesome as I have so far been led to believe”…
Is it wrong I want Raidah to invite Lucy to join the Cool KidsTM to replace Jennifer just to make the horror of Jennifer complete?
Is it wrong that I want Jacob and Lucy to both be like, welp, I hear angry sex is the best I GUESS WE SHOULD TRY THAT (with each other, not with anybody else because we’re with each other now)
lucy’s nice but she might not be ‘ambitious’ enough to be on Raidah’s radar versus her ending up to have slightly well off parents but not bragging about it/not too high up on the social ladder
So in this group we have three girls that Jacob has been interested in, two guys that Joyce has been interested in, two guys that Sarah has been interested in, two guys that Lucy has been interested in, and two girls that Joe had been interested in.
As has been established, the Smoochy Chart is basically an Ouroboros
Your mom is practically an ouroboros.
For a nickel.
The smoochy chart is a neural network.
It has finished its set of training data.
It has now achieved sentience.
The Dumbing of Age LLM will be released to select customers by Summer 2025.
We have reached sitcoms-level of interconnected relationships.
And now you begin to understand the wonder that is the Greater Seattle Polycule.
Feels like college to me :3 well truly like my high school friend group getting back together with the college friend group
They are so damn cute together… if Raidah messes this up im gonna explode.
She finally found somebody who can not only handle her emotional state, but enjoys her emotional state and won’t try to make her change, she deserves this happiness.
Raidah’s a psycho bongo, but I think Tony will be able to see past any of her shenanigans. I’m hoping the attempt will completely blow up in Raidah’s face.
Not only do Sarah and Tony connect well emotionally, he seems to respect her work ethic too (remember, she suggested skipping class and Tony encouraged her to go.)
The only possible “glitch” I can see is that Tony is a football player, and I’m not sure Sarah enjoys the sport.
He might actually consider that a plus since there’s a lot of people who only like him because he’s a football player.
That snaggin’ ain’t offish until Tony’s part of the cast
thanks alt-txt, now I won’t let that thing die again
Completely random thought but imagine, DoA RPG. That is as far as my mind went someone else fill in the rest.
“Okay… Dorothy, your turn. Roll Willpower. No, Amber had the -8 because of her character weakness, you just roll straight Willpower.”
“Uh oh… I rolled a 1. That’s a critical failure?”
“Yeah… you sleep in ’til noon. Or maybe one-ish. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is -”
“Should I just go home then? I mean… see you guys next session?”
“I cast Adorable Squeal. Nat 20.”
“The entire campus is now deaf”
They do get saving throws but at double disadvantage.
I ran a comedy superhero game once where I had Amber/Amazi-Girl make a cameo appearance as Lord Mayor Galasso’s mild-mannered assistant by day, crime-fighting vigilante by night. As a Shortpacked! in-joke, I gave her a 1-point Immunity: Criticism.
I was extremely amused and gratified when she tangled with the PCs, and one of them (who hadn’t even joined the game yet when I built her) had one of his summons use its demoralizing debuff on her, and I got to announce, “Amazi-Girl is IMMUNE TO CRITICISM!“
Sounds awesome, what system were you running it in?
DC Adventures, which is basically just DC-branded Mutants and Masterminds.
My name is a link to her character sheet. Also, Galasso’s.
Honestly my brain goes to Dumbing of Age characters in a stock D&D setting, probably because I can’t think of a TTRPG that’s well suited for slice of life college hijinks.
I was thinking more videogamey stuff.
That’s a different story, and honestly this artstyle would probably translate pretty well to a Night in the Woods / Pentiment style 2d slice of life game.
GURPS. Got crunchy rules for everything.
QuestWorlds. Got flexy rules for everything.
TORG. Got cinematic, dramatic rules for everything (though this is better suited for the earlier Walkyverse stuff).
Is a dating sim close enough to an RPG? Because I can totally see that
“Okay, roll for Dina’s invisibility stealth as she and Charlie go on walkabout.”
“Got 22 total.”
“You think it’s a total success, since no one stops you. But now, Charlie has to roll for where you both end up. Disadvantage.”
“But Charlie’s got Fuckface on her head again!”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Okay, at advantage now.”
“27 total!”
“Okay, good stuff. Player’s choice: Where you two wanna go?”
I am reminded that when Joe realized he wasn’t going to get any better without female friends, he turned to Sarah. (She was understandably uninterested in being his friend, of course.)
The the front panels are wonderful.
As for the back… I’m gonna hope the part of Jacob that was drawn to Raidah is up now and just assume he’s being a wee bit elitist.
Because that’s better than the other alternative I can think about.
There is another alternative – That he’s amazed ANYBODY can get Tony. Tony does seem to be the kind of person who is pretty hard to impress and woo in general, after all
Unironically I think this is it. I’m not necessarily saying he doesn’t have other, complicated feelings about this that will be revealed. But, Jacob seems to know a lot of the guys around campus, and so he’d have noticed the son of the dean and star football player being terminally single, despite also being a good, desirable guy.
I recall seeing a study which found that highly desirable, celebrated people tend to be more lonely than average.
I have no idea whether this has any validity; I just recall seeing it.
Several such studies.
Summary of one example:
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/~/media/Files/Departments/mors/CelebrityPressReleasepdf.ashx
Okay but it’s warming my heart to see Lucy smiling for Sarah and Tony. Their relationship may be strained but Lucy still loves love and seeing people happy.
And uh. Jacob. You wanna elaborate on your feelings on that statement?
And of course, Joe’s being Joe.
I can see Lucy’s response as either genuine or mid-west “nice”. Leaning towards “nice”.
Joe is being his honest self here. He’s found Sarah desirable since Book 1, so Much so that both times Sarah asked Joe to have sex with her (both times facetiously), his response was an enthusiastic Heck Yeah! While everyone else thinks that Sarah lucked out in nabbing Tony, Joe sees the reverse – it’s Tony that lucked out winning Sarah’s heart.
Why does Panel 2 Joyce’s dialogue make me wanna read it in the voice of the narrator from Dragon Ball Super?
Thanks, I cannot unhear this now XD
It works extra well if you listen to the arrangement of “Cha La” that plays during the recaps.
i’m ignoring joe’s last comment and instead focusing on how sweet it is that he called tony lucky.
He’s just trying to disguise how much he respects her.
Lucy lowkey throwing shade at Sarah with their history is so funny here haha.
Sarah and Tony are fun.
Going by Jacob’s usual character I’m going to assume his reaction to Sarah and Tony dating is entirely influenced by his time dating Raidah.
This is the second time now Tony has mentioned not suffering fools and just gotta say…still don’t know where I’d stand with that guy? What are you about Tony?
It seems he just like that phrase. It’s a pretty good one and accurate when describing Sarah.
Oh, I know what they should call this circle of friends, “oops! all fools”
i think the “not suffering fools” comment MIGHT be intended to be a meta joke. because in walkyverse tony pretty much exclusively suffered fools. and suffered because of fools. literally all he did was suffer. and then because tony had barely appeared in doaverse until recently, he has therefore suffered no fools. and has no interest in suffering fools. but lets be honest, he’s gonna suffer a few fools.
Let’s face it. Sarah’s eyebrows do nothing *but* suffer fools.
He’ll learn he’s not free of it here.
I’m starting to really not like Jacob.
Yeah ho dare he, stand there, and breath and blink.
Normally I would be the first to criticize Jake for any opinion he voices on Sarah on her love life but even I’m a bit confused what people are taking away from his comment.
Yeah, it’s obvious this is more of a comment on how hard Tony is to snag than on Sarah’s own abilities
Look, Willis has given us a gift, here; ships have sailed oceans for far less. We are free to use this strip as an excuse to crack ship Jacob and Tony, and for that, we are blessed.
Crackshipping commenced, dam the torpedos and put up sexy fan-made pin-up art.
There’s not enough pin-up fan art of anything.
I like how he supports her hate.
Alt Text offshoot:
“Cup of tea? Tea? Cup of tea, anyone? Nothing nicer than a cup of tea,
well, I tell a lie, but I see the couch is occupied, just my little joke, no offense meant, anyone for a nice cup of tea?”
-Pratchett, Maskerade
I appreciate the note in the alt text, it’s weird how it sometimes predicts the future-past by accident.
I don’t get it at all, was there another political scandal some time in the last 7 months involving a sofa?
It was specifically about the aledged fucking of one.
I was lucky enough to completely miss that.
Yes, but it’s very small beans compared to the 100% predictable stuff we got going on now.
Honestly this is adorable. Sarah deserves this.
Two misanthropes who are gaga for each other is an S-tier relationship. Fully support this.
I can’t wait for the time and place where Raidah tries to use the old roommate story against Sarah with Tony, and he just looks her dead in the face like “well, what did you expect her to do? Girl clearly needed help, and was ruining both their lives?” Weaponized Reasonableness is the new hot look for modern times.
But in Raidah’s version of the story, Dana didn’t feel bad or use drugs, she was just grieving normally and it was annoying Sarah.
The fun only starts when someone (more attentive than Jennifer) hears both sides of the story and understands Raidah is full of shit.
Sadly I remember when Raidah told her version of the story to Walky and Lucy, Jennifer didn’t bother to correct any of it and said that was pretty much what happened.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/jettison-2/
Indeed, her version is “Sarah jettisons people when they’re inconvenient. Sarah jettisons people when they’re inconvenient. Sarah had Dana sent home. Sarah didn’t want to give Dana any slack even though her mom had just died,” with some interjection from Carl.
“So Sarah had Dana sent home.” Yeah, that statement would be immediately spotted by Tony as 100% purest bullshit. His father is a college admin. He knows fully that no freshman student can have any other student “sent home”. Tony knows slanted b.s. when he hears it. A Tony-Raidah discussion would be short and unhappy (for Raidah).
Ooh, I hope Tony gets to destroy Raidah with a single word. When she tells him Sarah had Dana sent home, he will simply say “how?”
Just like Tony.
I’d actually expect him to just cut the legs out from under her with a dismissive one-liner and walk away before she gets anywhere near her “Sarah so evil” story.
One advantage Tony has is that he’s not a freshman, and was presumably living in the same building last year. He may already know more than we would expect. I do find it noteworthy that Raidah has lost or ditched all her old friends except Carl, and her new attempted recruits are all freshman.
In that light, it’s also quite noteworthy that Tony himself is nowhere near Raidah’s group and never has been, despite her being obsessed with proximity to the Dean and social climbing. Surely that can only mean either that she tried and failed to get Tony on board with her last year when she was a freshman?
If Tony is also a sophomore, one begins to wonder if perhaps there’s a Raidah-shaped reason (amongst his general seriousness and reasonableness) that he specifically does not suffer disingenuousness.
I think this strip is also a good example that when Tony says ‘no buffoonery’ he doesn’t mean ‘no fluff or brightness’. Joyce is being extremely fluffy and bright at him, but she is being entirely genuine about it, and Tony’s reaction is ‘mild confusion’ and a temperature check with Sarah rather than annoyance at the silliness.
I forgot to put in my OR after the either! Either Raidah tried to get in with Tony last year at some point OR she was aware enough to recognize that he was un-gettable for her. In either case, he has already clocked or will immediately clock her deal.
I’m guessing Tony dislikes clowning for attention’s-sake. But Joyce is not clowning (she’s sincere) and is not trying to get attention (she’s expressing Joy-ce in her explicit shipper way). Clear difference between what Tony dislikes and what this group is doing.
I mean that was the impression I got, it was fake smiles. Not smiles.
I love “weaponized reasonableness” and I’m going to borrow that concept as I go through the world dealing with extreme people and extreme opinions!
One day, Joyce’s mouth will swallow the world.
But not today.
Joyce’s triangle smile was reforged by the elves, and now she stands ready to claim her title as Queen of the Shippers.
Also unless you’re a hedgehog: the hedgehog never gets buggered at all.
Sarah’s attitude is taking more time than I expected. Which is great.
The alt text implies that seven or eight months from now we somehow segue to allegedly AI videos of Trump and Musk.
Twitter showed me one of Trump sucking Elon toes. Death was considerably more preferable.
My husband just showed me a bizarre one of Trump and Musk’s “rebuilt Gaza” complete with multiple gold Trump statues, Musk throwing handfuls of cash while children try to gather it, Trump and Netanyahu sunbathing together…
British brain had to double read “snagged Tony” in that last panel.
I mean she’s working on the other term I’m sure
“I’ll change the n to a h please, Jeremy.”
Snagged, snegged, snigged, snogged, snugged, and snygged. At least 3 of those, maybe more.
Regarding the alt-text…
…how do we know for sure that the person in question literally didn’t
rape and murder a young girl in 1990fuck an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions?I do not care for the backhanded compliment from Lucy :T
It looks like. Straightforward statement to me. Nothing backhanded about it.
Absolutely love Joyce being nothing but ecstatically happy for Sarah here.
I like Sarah and Tony’s chemistry.
She looks so cute in the third panel, proudly pointing out her wrathful eyebrows XD
Please tell me there’s not going to be a cameo by Larry Boy.
Who?
LarryBoy is the superhero persona of Larry the Cucumber, from the hit show VeggieTales. He got his own spinoff as well.
Suddenly I want to listen to Silly Songs.
¡Pobre tomate!
Googled that thing and he has angry eyebrows? Or does his enemy have angry eyebrows? Sorry i’m very unfamiliar with this whole VeggieTales thing
There’s an episode or special or something where someone or other unleashes a flock of sentient angry eyebrows that fly around like bats and attach themselves to people’s faces, which makes those people act like jerks for the duration. Larry has to do something or other to get the eyebrows off of people, so they’ll stop being dicks. The “cameo by LarryBoy” comment is a reference to this.
As a side note, I recommend watching VeggieTales even if you’re not Christian, because it has a completely batshit sense of humor and catchy songs about various unrelated topics, sometimes of an educational nature.
Oh that plot sounds like fun… what chaos would erupt if the Angry Eyebrows allied themselves with the Moustache and Beard from The Tick.
Yeah it sounds pretty fun.
Cue “Oh where is my hairbrush” ear worm. Oh, no, yay!
Sarah/Tony is the ship I never knew I needed until a few weeks ago, and I’m loving it.
Im gonna hope Joyce didn’t hear Joe say that lmao
Idk Joyce is a pretty angry person deep down. She is constantly pressed up against this injust world as a person with low tolerance for it. Lucky Joe.
Joe is not changing *that* quickly.
“Suffer no fools” is the “For science!” mating call of their people.
c:< angry eyebrows
……is it, tho
That was genuinely the funniest thing Joe has said in years. Good lord I was not prepared.
Sarah doesn’t have to say “my eye (brow)s are up here. “ Tony is all business . Being a starter in the Big Ten is a full time job and he is serious about his classes. No time for drama. Being the dean’s son just makes him more diligent.
Windy has stormy eyes That flash at the sound of lies
But does she have wings to fly…?
joyce is a little scary in this one
Joyce is insane and terrible but in the best way.
jacob pissing me the hell off here. boy learned some shit from raidah, huh
What a silly thing to get upset about.
Wouldn’t you be pissed if you were in a relationship with someone and people were like “wow, I can’t believe that person likes TAFFY”
Well that isn’t what is happening sooo.
Well, I guess not everyone knows how to read between the lines. That’s fine.
Booo, fake outrage, booo.
Dang!
Last strip, I said Joyce had a Pintsize vibe in the final panel, and now this strip, Sarah has a Trogdor vibe (angry eyebrows).
Willis throwing out a lot of homages this week!