A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Kochab
Sarah Webb
A YA F/F fantasy comic about Sonya, a lost skier trying to survive a snowy wilderness and find her way back to her village; and Kyra - a fire spirit trying to fix the home that she let fall apart around her.
Hazy London
Scotty
A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
Tigress Queen
Allison Shaw
A barbarian warlord and a pampered prince try to avoid a marriage alliance that could end decades of violence.
Widdershins
Kate Ashwin
A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins!
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
Paranatural
Zack Morrison
Superpowered middle schoolers fight evil spirits in their rural hometown. Come for the jokes, stay for the cast, the creatures, and the mystery that ties them all together!
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
Astral Aves
Moon Cabal
A fantasy coming-of-age following the adventures of Astra The Black and friends, as they navigate the mysterious world around them. It's politics, adventure, and the supernatural; oh, and crazy hair.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Never Satisfied
Taylor Robin
Lucy Marlowe, a magician's apprentice, competes against other apprentices for an important, magical, Goverment Job.
The Automan's Daughter
Mike Stamm
Aisha Osman and her uncle Siddig outwit bikers, spies and kidnappers while gearing up for a showdown with the formidable Widowmaker mecha.
The Sanity Circus
Windy
Magic, monsters and mysteries await in the odd city of Sanity. It's up to Attley and a colorful group of characters to find out just what is going on.
Caramel Corn
Potchimew
Sarah is the only human left in a world full of mythical creatures and monsters. All she wants to do is live a quiet life, but everything changes when she meets her guardian angel, Jacob.
Lilith's Word
inkPangur
If you had the power to make any wish come true using just one word, what would you say?
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Monsterkind
Taylor C
Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Anarchy Dreamers
Emily Ree
Sparkly undead kids fight society's worst Nightmares in this pastel-punk urban fantasy coming-of-age!
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Starhammer
J.N. Monk, Harry Bogosian
A teen girl inherits a powerful alien artifact and proceeds to make a series of increasingly poor decisions
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
This is Not Fiction
Nicole Mannino
What do you do when the person you're in-love with is an anonymous romance novelist? Get your best friend to hire your worst enemy for help!
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Go Get a Roomie
Clover
Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
Cassiopeia Quinn
Gunwild, Psudonym
A cute, pantsless thief is pursued across the stars by a buttoned-up military officer in the spacey, laser-filled future.
Sufficiently Remarkable
Maki Naro
Two young women living in Brooklyn discover that you're always coming of age.
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
Devil's Candy
Rem, Bikkuri
A lush fantasy about boy genius Kazu Decker, the girl he constructed for his 9th grade science project, and the world of devils and monsters they live in.
Love Not Found
Gina Biggs
Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Kiwi Blitz
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
Steffi thinks she can use her kiwi mech to become a superhero. This idea turns out to be very stupid.
Ghost Junk Sickness
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Two hunters try to survive and end up being pushed to pursue a deadly bounty dubbed "The Ghost".
Awaken
Koti Saavedra/Flipfloppery
Superpowers, monsters and conspiracies. Piras, the spoiled Dameschi heir, fights to recover his identity after becoming a terrorist!
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
Diana Huh
Vincent is an unkind man looking to disappear, and finds himself in the care of a vampire and her two wicked children.
Star Impact
Jack McGee
A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
Cut Time
Juby
Rel and her trusty avian friend Fugue are on a quest to save a world that's lost track of time. Follow them and their new recruits, in a story written with help from the stars.
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
The End
August Brown, Cory Brown
Two aliens crash a sci-fi convention and accidentally take seven nerds on an adventure that spans the galaxy!
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Godslave
Meaghan Carter
Edith has been thrown into the dangerous world of modern-day Egyptian mythology. Fighting monsters and dealing with family drama of godly proportions.
Jailbird
Charlie Davis
An all-ages comic about a recently escaped prisoner's struggle to understand the outside world, and vice-versa. Also, a magic cape!
Fireweeds Moors
Gato Iberico
A cat-headed man and a girl with a sandwich hankering accidentally end up in a myth-infused country where magic chalices are a really big thing.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Alice and the Nightmare
Misha Krivanek
Alice finally attends University to learn to collect the dreams of humans, meet new friends, and deal with a pesky reflection along the way.
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
BOOKMARK Click "Tag Page" to bookmark a page. When you return to the site, click "Goto Tag" to continue where you left off.
BUFFER WATCH
Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:
I think this confession will include a “We should date regardless of Amber” moment. Assuming he actually does and doesn’t talk about something completely different.
I believe he only told Ethan that he thinks he’s mega hot??? Confessing physical attraction isn’t the same as confessing romantic feelings. They also agreed to never ever act on the attraction because they’re both exes of Amber and they believe it would be possibly damaging to her to find out that they’re dating.
I don’t think his head is going to change that much. I’m still wearing the same size hat I wore when I was in the Army back in the early 1980s. I think some of you hadn’t been born yet when I last had a hat smaller than the one I wear now.
Hair certainly keeps growing. But if head keeps growing you might have either acromegaly or Paget’s disease.
I knew a fellow once whose acromegaly got diagnosed because he mentioned to his GP that he was taking larger and larger sizes in shoes. The GP commented that it used to be easier to detect when people wore hats and gloves.
Well, I wasn’t full grown at 18, but on the other hand, my shoe size is up to 13, which is big for a man who stands 5’10”. My dad’s hat and shoe size increase throughout his life, too.
I don’t know if YOLO is outdated or not, but it was used for stupidity so it hardly matters. Also I’m not sure if telling someone you have a crush on them is appropriate timing after they just got kidnapped.
Honestly, I’ve only just now in the age of COVID started using YOLO in a non-ironic way.
IE: “I shouldn’t buy this thing I want online… but fuck it. YOLO.”
Life never feels shorter than during a pandemic.
“Life During Wartime”, and “All She Wants To Do Is Dance”, to name just two songs. When life looks precarious, making long term decisions becomes more difficult. You tend to live in the now.
I never once saw YOLO used seriously (by normal people), even in its heyday. It was always exclusively used by idiots (or the reckless, if you want to leave leeway for a non-overlapping grouping), or to make fun of idiots.
In that sense, it’s like twerking- everyone knew the phrase, but noone (or at least, noone sober) with any self-respect ever used the term (excluding to make fun of it), much less acted on it.
Though, silly as it was, twerking probably was at least decent exercise. YOLO was.. well, at best, it was Darwinism at work. At worst, it was yet another excuse for assholes to excuse their misbehaviors towards others.
@Kyrik “How would you react in Ethan’s shoes?”
I’m not in the habit of stealing other people’s shoes so as to wear them, nevermind doing so just to get confessions from strange hipster boys. Is.. is that a thing you’re into?
Oh god, maybe now isn’t the best time for confessions, but I still want these two to become a thing. Ethan deserves to be in a relationship that isn’t a) a beard or b) a sex-only relationship fraught with uncertainty and insecurity.
A disguise … in this case, usually in a relationship with a woman to hide the fact that you are actually gay. Was, maybe still is, fairly common of an occurrence.
According to wikipedia: “Beard is a slang term describing a person who is used, knowingly or unknowingly, as a date, romantic partner (boyfriend or girlfriend), or spouse either to conceal infidelity or to conceal one’s sexual orientation.”
Ethan’s relationship with Joyce was basically this: him dating a girl so as to prevent himself from being outed as gay. Amber could count as a beard too, though that might have been an unconscious coping mechanism on his part.
In gay terms a beard is slang for ‘dating someone of a gender that you’re not attracted to to put up a front’. For instance, a gay dude dating a girl to please homophobic parents.
I first learned the term from the heterosexual male viewpoint. You were meeting a woman who was otherwise ‘attached’, and a male friend was present and, should someone who knew you saw you and the female and started asking embarrassing questions, was there ostensibly as her companion rather than you. Eventually, once the coast was clear, he would discreetly remove himself from the scene. Since this person was usually male, he was referred to as a ‘beard’.
When I first heard it, somewhere back in the middle of the 20th Century, it referred to a man going around with a lesbian to hide her orientation. I don’t know if either particular usage was original, or if it was always general.
“She’s there to make him appear more “masculine”, so she’s a “beard”.
Yeah, that’s pretty iffy”
I always had the impression that it came about from the same perspective as a fake beard as a form of concealment. meaning “a superficial disguise” [a term I heard referenced to such a usage while within theater, though I can’t speak as to how recent such an adoption of usage is].
Nevermind that the term originally began as a term for heterosexual men who’d go along with a male companion to hide the fact that they were having an affair (on their wife, with another woman), and that that does in fact appear to have derived from the previously noted meaning.
So there’s definitely no reason to assume the social construct you’re associating with it. In fact, Google’d search results match to the etymological interpretations I provided above, with the only reference I found to the interpretation you offered (within the first few pages of Google’d results) being dated to 2015, and was contained within an opinion piece.
I’ve also found several sources which directly reference and invalidate the masculinity theory, noting that there’s no source for such an interpretation and that such an interpretation contradicts all existing sources.
So it may be a rather new interpretation, rather than an old one (in fact, the non-homosexual usage appears to date back 30 years before the homosexuality usage, with the generalized “concealment” usage presumably dating back even further, and perhaps to a rather significant degree- while not used as general slang, I’ve found etymology references of beards being considered a concealing element dating back to the 1100s.).
And even if the homosexuality usage was as well-dated as the other usages, again, the term of “beard” had alternative meanings (within theater or non-masculine references towards infidelity) within public usage prior to any potential use towards homosexuality entering the mainstream. Ergo, we can assume that even if beard did have certain implications to it, those implications were deliberately selected by early homosexuals. Which I believe makes such a usage cultural, rather than offensive?
So I think we’re safe on excluding that term from “the iffy list”, especially given that “beard” doesn’t in itself have any negative associations, unlike what actual iffy words would have.
*Adding to the theater section: Beards as a deliberate form of superficial concealment date back rather far in theater, as they allowed a character to appear different while still being recognizable to the audience as the same character. Additionally, I’ve also seen beard as a term of concealment used within con/scam terminology, and similar. So there’s certainly precedence for general usage though, again, I can’t speak as to how recently that entered slang (ie, as an intuitive phrase, versus just being an associated conception with beards).
is there a known female name for a beard? i was a cover for my friend for a while before she decided to just tell everyone she was gay. I curious is all.
AFAIK, the term is still a beard. Saw this occasionally when I was in the military back before restrictions were lifted. The “best” instance of this I ever knew of was a gay guy and a lesbian who married each other so they could move off post and collect housing and food allowances.
“Beard” is actually an old theater slang from the early days when they didn’t have a backstage. When actors had to exit from one side, but their next entrance was from the other, they would put on a false beard that would let them cross the stage as a different (minor) character who became know as “The Beard”.
@Garanhir Awesome, thanks. I was rather sure of my recollections of a (very long-standing) predating theater usage, but it’s been so long since I was involved in theater myself (and I didn’t find any suitable google references) that I was hesitant to be more firm in my comments above. Glad to have the reassurance that my recollection on the matter is likely accurate.
@P!enapple Worth noting that beard (much like orgy and similar terms) defaults to a sexual association in non-setting-specific general usage, but doesn’t require such an association (hence its usage in theater, cons, etc).
This is petty of me, but I have always had an issue with YOLO because it doesn’t even try to explain the contradiction with Nancy Sinatra’s prior research in the subject.
Yeah, and that’s before we throw in ‘Ethan is/was genuinely romantically attracted to Mike (and never acted on it because by the time he realized it, Mike was such a constant active jackass he knew it was not a good idea to let himself actually be emotionally vulnerable there.)’ Which is like three different complicating factors on its own, some in different directions.
I think any romantic interest has only been on Mike’s side, actually. I don’t think we’ve seen any indication that Ethan’s attracted to Mike beyond a physical level, aside from maybe one moment when they were kids.
I mean, I don’t know how long Mike’s going to be in a coma. Probably at least a good little bit, but I feel there’s going to be some… drama when he comes out if Ethan and Danny are a thing.
Mike missed his chance and he knows it. It will be a huge bummer for him and I’m actually not saying ‘he deserves it’ – I actually like Mike. But Ethan does not know about his feelings and I think he has moved on. Meanwhile, Danny and Ethan are my dream ship.
I would possibly advocate for some sort of poly situation, but Mike seems like the only one who could handle that. Danny seems very monogamous to me, and probably Ethan too.
I won’t pass judgement on whether Mike deserves heartbreak, but I do think he needs some. He needs to see some lasting personal consequences for his behavior if this change of heart is going to stick, and losing his chance with Ethan could be it.
Absolutely agreed. Mike won’t learn any lesson if he gets with Ethan after this, and there would be some resentment on Ethan’s end probably for a while if they did start dating.
You know though, if Mike’s “last words” were passed on to Ethan, he might have an entirely different reaction to Danny. Ethan seems like the type to get confused because of their history; he already stayed friends with Mike long after he should have.
We’ve got a time skip coming up, maybe we’ll jump ahead enough for him to be on the cusp of coming out of it. (Or maybe at a stage where it’s medically induced.)
Come ON, Danny, just think “Freedom” by George Michael. And then throw your arms around his neck, kiss him and say, “Oh God, I could have lost you without ever telling you how I really feel.”
Even though the background is changing, my headcanon is that Danny is moving his arms like he’s striding purposefully while actually standing on the spot, with Ethan watching him, amused, the whole time he’s wresting with his dilemma.
Also, I like that the couthness of declaring his feelings is his concerns. Also also I’d like to submit The Lonely Island’s “YOLO” to the hacked muzak committee for consideration.
Incidentally, man do I feel for Ethan. He’s said pretty much outright (or at least, agreed with Mike) that he has purely casual sex relationships because there’s no pressure to acknowledge he is, in fact, still gay to his mom, but I also think there’s a strong element of the two people he actually likes romantically being off-limits due to one being his best friend’s very recent ex,* and the other being… well, Mike.
* I would not be shocked, sadly, if when Amber finds out Danny’s bi (because IIRC he’s not out to her yet) she doesn’t take it super-well. Even without potentially throwing ‘and I’m dating Ethan’ into the mix. Pretty sure we’ve seen Prom Night have a red panel flashback here (https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/happy/) and while I’m pretty sure we’d have seen it again by now if it got worse from there, it sure as hell affected her self-loathing. Clearly bad, if it managed to get red panel status. Hoooopefully the presence of Walky now could mitigate that? But since he is transparently not over Dorothy… Well, let’s hope that gets worked on in therapy. If she narrowly focuses on her romantic life and not the minefield of issues Blaine’s left, the search for a therapist doesn’t have to include the DID stuff and can just be about fit!**
** I cannot see her managing to talk exclusively about her romantic life, even without her having to leave out the AG complications with Danny since that was… well, complicated. Honestly I’m not entirely sure Amber and AG realized quite how distinct they were until Danny thinking he was dating Amber-who-is-a-superhero while AmbG considered him dating AG who shares a body with Amber pressed the issue.
Oh huh I’d actually had a point in * and forgot it. Anyway. I can see Amber reacting badly, but even that aside ‘best friend’s very recent ex’ is one of those things that is… well, uncouth.
I get the feeling Amber has transcended a lot of stuff through what just happened, and this (finding out Danny is bi and into Ethan) will feel like small potatoes to her now.
Its better to take a chaance and to be rejected, to be hurt…to be hurt and move on…than to pine on and not know “what if?”
We get hurt a lot during our lives, we never stop getting hurt as long as we keep on living…but thats life…
Will a relationship between them work? likely not
even if it did it be a college thing that could only last a year or 2 and yet it would still be worth it.
Cause we wouldnt know happines and plesure if pain and suffering didnt exist
My favorite story from when yolo first popped up came from my brother and his friend..Sean.
After school, they meet up with a friend that had to wait for her parents to pick her up. To kill time they decided to get frozen yogurt at a shop by the school.
Sean got a phonecall and stayed outside while my brother and their friend get their frozen yogurt. When they go back out, Sean finished the call and sees the toppings my brother got. He saw these little popping boba of different colors and asked him “hey wtf are those?” When my brother says “Excuse me, do you not know what yolos are? Too bad they ran out”, Sean just replies that of course he does and walks off before the friend explains. Through the window they can see he’s talking to the clerk (who gives him an incredulous look) and then looks back at the group with a big thumbs up while the clerk goes and gets something.
Eventually Sean emerges triumphantly. “Hey, hey. I got the Yolos”
I wish I was there when they told him. My brother forgot if he told him immediately or if he waited some time after he ate the treat.
I’m predicting that Ethan and Danny are gonna get together, but Ethan’s thoughts are gonna keep drifting towards Mike, leading to Mike taking part in a love triangle while in a coma, because of course he would.
I remember this one from my childhood in Kentucky, but you are right that it seems to be a localism. Haven’t heard or seen it since I came to DC in 77.
“Well, I remember people were using it at the beginning of the semester, so that means it’s almost a decade outdated. Wait a minute, what happened to the passage of time? I’m starting to feel a little bit of existential dread, so it’s best to stop thinking about that now. Sorry, what were you saying?”
Theory: They’re all in something like purgatory without realising it and Joyce is slowly getting to the stage where she wouldn’t freak out over catholic’s having been right about some things.
Well damn now I’m nervous! I’ve been hoping these two could become a couple since Danny discovered his bi-feelings years ago. This could go wtong, and I’m worried.
Loading ...
“ETHAN… PLEASE SELL ME YOUR DINOBOT”
“what no”
“…I knew it, I blew it”
Didn’t Danny already confess to Ethan, though?
I think this confession will include a “We should date regardless of Amber” moment. Assuming he actually does and doesn’t talk about something completely different.
I think he came out as bisexual but not specifically that he is way into Ethan.
Well both Danny and Ethan admitted their attraction to each other but they decided they couldn’t be together because if Amber.
I believe he only told Ethan that he thinks he’s mega hot??? Confessing physical attraction isn’t the same as confessing romantic feelings. They also agreed to never ever act on the attraction because they’re both exes of Amber and they believe it would be possibly damaging to her to find out that they’re dating.
Danny: good egg, slightly cracked.
Ethan, it’s your civic duty to seduce Danny. It’s the only way to separate him from the hat long enough that Amber can have it incinerated.
The Slipshine I’ve been wanting on for like a decade.
Amber Performs a Mercy Killing on Haberdashery
Too bad it doesn’t qualify as a book title.
Pfffft, thank you for this laugh :’)
But why do people hate the hat? Do they just think it’s ugly, or do they associate it with… whatever?
Come on, his hat isn’t that bad, right?
give it 4-5 years and he’ll outgrow it
I don’t think his head is going to change that much. I’m still wearing the same size hat I wore when I was in the Army back in the early 1980s. I think some of you hadn’t been born yet when I last had a hat smaller than the one I wear now.
I think heads keep growing. When I entered the Air Force back in ’67, I wore a 7 1/4. Now I wear 7 3/4 or 7 7/8.
Hair certainly keeps growing. But if head keeps growing you might have either acromegaly or Paget’s disease.
I knew a fellow once whose acromegaly got diagnosed because he mentioned to his GP that he was taking larger and larger sizes in shoes. The GP commented that it used to be easier to detect when people wore hats and gloves.
Well, I wasn’t full grown at 18, but on the other hand, my shoe size is up to 13, which is big for a man who stands 5’10”. My dad’s hat and shoe size increase throughout his life, too.
Sure that isn’t just because your hair was shorter when you were in?
But look how much his head size has changed in just a few weeks.
BAH! BAH, I SAY!
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/together/
Not to count the cuckolding might wake up Mike through sheer spite
I think Danny looks better with that hat than he did before he started wearing it.
Other than that, I agree that Ethan and Danny should become a couple.
The fez-destroying scene from The Big Bang but with Danny as Eleven, Ethan as Amy, and Amber as River.
Well, it appears that there’s one person who still says it, at least in his internal monologue.
“How about BOGO? Bi One Guy One”
“Bi One: Get One Free”? or is that chat-up line too desperate?
Bogof. Sounds a bit too much like “Bug Off” perhaps?
I don’t know if YOLO is outdated or not, but it was used for stupidity so it hardly matters. Also I’m not sure if telling someone you have a crush on them is appropriate timing after they just got kidnapped.
How would you react in Ethan’s shoes?
Honestly, I’ve only just now in the age of COVID started using YOLO in a non-ironic way.
IE: “I shouldn’t buy this thing I want online… but fuck it. YOLO.”
Life never feels shorter than during a pandemic.
“Life During Wartime”, and “All She Wants To Do Is Dance”, to name just two songs. When life looks precarious, making long term decisions becomes more difficult. You tend to live in the now.
Well it’s not like we were going to extinct ourselves through degrading our environment by YOLO’s global politics, anyway.
I thought Bond taught us that “You only live twice,”. …Or so it seems? I mean once for yourself and once for your dreams.
I never once saw YOLO used seriously (by normal people), even in its heyday. It was always exclusively used by idiots (or the reckless, if you want to leave leeway for a non-overlapping grouping), or to make fun of idiots.
In that sense, it’s like twerking- everyone knew the phrase, but noone (or at least, noone sober) with any self-respect ever used the term (excluding to make fun of it), much less acted on it.
Though, silly as it was, twerking probably was at least decent exercise. YOLO was.. well, at best, it was Darwinism at work. At worst, it was yet another excuse for assholes to excuse their misbehaviors towards others.
@Kyrik “How would you react in Ethan’s shoes?”
I’m not in the habit of stealing other people’s shoes so as to wear them, nevermind doing so just to get confessions from strange hipster boys. Is.. is that a thing you’re into?
Carpe that diem, Danny. Dan it the fuck up.
Seize the carp!
Oh god, maybe now isn’t the best time for confessions, but I still want these two to become a thing. Ethan deserves to be in a relationship that isn’t a) a beard or b) a sex-only relationship fraught with uncertainty and insecurity.
A beard? Is this some slang I’m unfamiliar with?
A disguise … in this case, usually in a relationship with a woman to hide the fact that you are actually gay. Was, maybe still is, fairly common of an occurrence.
I think it was also coined when facial hair was really unpopular so a beard makes you unattractive to the ladies.
According to wikipedia: “Beard is a slang term describing a person who is used, knowingly or unknowingly, as a date, romantic partner (boyfriend or girlfriend), or spouse either to conceal infidelity or to conceal one’s sexual orientation.”
Ethan’s relationship with Joyce was basically this: him dating a girl so as to prevent himself from being outed as gay. Amber could count as a beard too, though that might have been an unconscious coping mechanism on his part.
Ah, I see. Thank you for enlightening me.
In gay terms a beard is slang for ‘dating someone of a gender that you’re not attracted to to put up a front’. For instance, a gay dude dating a girl to please homophobic parents.
It’s a term that refers to when a gay guy would date or even marry a woman so that people wouldn’t realize he’s gay.
She’s there to make him appear more “masculine”, so she’s a “beard”.
Yeah, that’s pretty iffy, but it dates back to like the middle of the 20th century, they weren’t exactly PC back then.
I first learned the term from the heterosexual male viewpoint. You were meeting a woman who was otherwise ‘attached’, and a male friend was present and, should someone who knew you saw you and the female and started asking embarrassing questions, was there ostensibly as her companion rather than you. Eventually, once the coast was clear, he would discreetly remove himself from the scene. Since this person was usually male, he was referred to as a ‘beard’.
When I first heard it, somewhere back in the middle of the 20th Century, it referred to a man going around with a lesbian to hide her orientation. I don’t know if either particular usage was original, or if it was always general.
“She’s there to make him appear more “masculine”, so she’s a “beard”.
Yeah, that’s pretty iffy”
I always had the impression that it came about from the same perspective as a fake beard as a form of concealment. meaning “a superficial disguise” [a term I heard referenced to such a usage while within theater, though I can’t speak as to how recent such an adoption of usage is].
Nevermind that the term originally began as a term for heterosexual men who’d go along with a male companion to hide the fact that they were having an affair (on their wife, with another woman), and that that does in fact appear to have derived from the previously noted meaning.
So there’s definitely no reason to assume the social construct you’re associating with it. In fact, Google’d search results match to the etymological interpretations I provided above, with the only reference I found to the interpretation you offered (within the first few pages of Google’d results) being dated to 2015, and was contained within an opinion piece.
I’ve also found several sources which directly reference and invalidate the masculinity theory, noting that there’s no source for such an interpretation and that such an interpretation contradicts all existing sources.
So it may be a rather new interpretation, rather than an old one (in fact, the non-homosexual usage appears to date back 30 years before the homosexuality usage, with the generalized “concealment” usage presumably dating back even further, and perhaps to a rather significant degree- while not used as general slang, I’ve found etymology references of beards being considered a concealing element dating back to the 1100s.).
And even if the homosexuality usage was as well-dated as the other usages, again, the term of “beard” had alternative meanings (within theater or non-masculine references towards infidelity) within public usage prior to any potential use towards homosexuality entering the mainstream. Ergo, we can assume that even if beard did have certain implications to it, those implications were deliberately selected by early homosexuals. Which I believe makes such a usage cultural, rather than offensive?
So I think we’re safe on excluding that term from “the iffy list”, especially given that “beard” doesn’t in itself have any negative associations, unlike what actual iffy words would have.
*Adding to the theater section: Beards as a deliberate form of superficial concealment date back rather far in theater, as they allowed a character to appear different while still being recognizable to the audience as the same character. Additionally, I’ve also seen beard as a term of concealment used within con/scam terminology, and similar. So there’s certainly precedence for general usage though, again, I can’t speak as to how recently that entered slang (ie, as an intuitive phrase, versus just being an associated conception with beards).
If person A is in a relationship with person B in order to hide their sexuality/sexual preference, person B is a beard
If person A is in a relationship with person B in order to hide their sexuality/sexual preference, person B is a beard
Wow! In the 2 minutes to peck this, 6 other replies lol
The comments section is a very helpful place!
is there a known female name for a beard? i was a cover for my friend for a while before she decided to just tell everyone she was gay. I curious is all.
AFAIK, the term is still a beard. Saw this occasionally when I was in the military back before restrictions were lifted. The “best” instance of this I ever knew of was a gay guy and a lesbian who married each other so they could move off post and collect housing and food allowances.
“Beard” is actually an old theater slang from the early days when they didn’t have a backstage. When actors had to exit from one side, but their next entrance was from the other, they would put on a false beard that would let them cross the stage as a different (minor) character who became know as “The Beard”.
@Garanhir Awesome, thanks. I was rather sure of my recollections of a (very long-standing) predating theater usage, but it’s been so long since I was involved in theater myself (and I didn’t find any suitable google references) that I was hesitant to be more firm in my comments above. Glad to have the reassurance that my recollection on the matter is likely accurate.
Strangely enough, it is a “beard” for either gender. I do not know why.
@P!enapple Worth noting that beard (much like orgy and similar terms) defaults to a sexual association in non-setting-specific general usage, but doesn’t require such an association (hence its usage in theater, cons, etc).
This is petty of me, but I have always had an issue with YOLO because it doesn’t even try to explain the contradiction with Nancy Sinatra’s prior research in the subject.
How many people recognize that James Bond reference?
How many people know what the hell I’m talking about?
All those who have been shaken, but but not stirred. But wasn’t Nancy Sinatra the one with the Boots?
Keep walking…
Old curmudgeon or Cassandras. They really should listen, but often do not.
“You only live once” goes back to the 1830s. The title of Fleming’s trashy novel was a play on it, and only goes back to about 1960.
Daring attempt at a hyperlink.
Oh Danny, you’re so preciously awkward
DO IT!!! DO IT!!!
Good work, Danny. Now kill him.
Do it!
Do it!
Ah yes, the classic ‘do I tell him now so I don’t lose the chance or do I wait until it’s not so many heavy things on his plate?’ dilemma.
Yeah, and that’s before we throw in ‘Ethan is/was genuinely romantically attracted to Mike (and never acted on it because by the time he realized it, Mike was such a constant active jackass he knew it was not a good idea to let himself actually be emotionally vulnerable there.)’ Which is like three different complicating factors on its own, some in different directions.
But does Danny know about that?
Pretty sure no, which is why he doesn’t bring it up.
But we the audience do, and we the audience know it’s its own exciting wrinkle of Potential Drama.
I think any romantic interest has only been on Mike’s side, actually. I don’t think we’ve seen any indication that Ethan’s attracted to Mike beyond a physical level, aside from maybe one moment when they were kids.
*Two Gloria Estefan songs are fighting each other for airtime–maybe three*
Danny, do it- if it’s about Ethan’s sake, not your’s
I actually am not entirely sold on these two as a potential couple. Like, the mutual attraction is cute, the friendship is cute, but… hmm. I dunno.
I’m definitely down to be proven wrong if this does turn out all cute, though.
im not feeling it today, but They def had real chemistry;
but Willis might have kept them apart in real time 6 years? too long. and now Ethan might have outgrown him.
that is actually a good question.
KISS HIM YOU FOOL!
I mean, I don’t know how long Mike’s going to be in a coma. Probably at least a good little bit, but I feel there’s going to be some… drama when he comes out if Ethan and Danny are a thing.
Mike missed his chance and he knows it. It will be a huge bummer for him and I’m actually not saying ‘he deserves it’ – I actually like Mike. But Ethan does not know about his feelings and I think he has moved on. Meanwhile, Danny and Ethan are my dream ship.
I would possibly advocate for some sort of poly situation, but Mike seems like the only one who could handle that. Danny seems very monogamous to me, and probably Ethan too.
Ethan seems to be having fun playing around casually with a lot of guys, but I think that yeah, he’d only get in one serious relationship at a time.
I won’t pass judgement on whether Mike deserves heartbreak, but I do think he needs some. He needs to see some lasting personal consequences for his behavior if this change of heart is going to stick, and losing his chance with Ethan could be it.
Absolutely agreed. Mike won’t learn any lesson if he gets with Ethan after this, and there would be some resentment on Ethan’s end probably for a while if they did start dating.
You know though, if Mike’s “last words” were passed on to Ethan, he might have an entirely different reaction to Danny. Ethan seems like the type to get confused because of their history; he already stayed friends with Mike long after he should have.
My same thought exactly. But… I really like drama and I want this to happen.
We’ve got a time skip coming up, maybe we’ll jump ahead enough for him to be on the cusp of coming out of it. (Or maybe at a stage where it’s medically induced.)
Come ON, Danny, just think “Freedom” by George Michael. And then throw your arms around his neck, kiss him and say, “Oh God, I could have lost you without ever telling you how I really feel.”
Even though the background is changing, my headcanon is that Danny is moving his arms like he’s striding purposefully while actually standing on the spot, with Ethan watching him, amused, the whole time he’s wresting with his dilemma.
Also, I like that the couthness of declaring his feelings is his concerns. Also also I’d like to submit The Lonely Island’s “YOLO” to the hacked muzak committee for consideration.
Both an adorable image and yeah, I love that his phrasing is ‘uncouth.’ You good egg, you.
Same here.
After “uncouth”, is anyone else imagining Danny will use “callow” in the near future? And then think to himself about what it literally means?
Incidentally, man do I feel for Ethan. He’s said pretty much outright (or at least, agreed with Mike) that he has purely casual sex relationships because there’s no pressure to acknowledge he is, in fact, still gay to his mom, but I also think there’s a strong element of the two people he actually likes romantically being off-limits due to one being his best friend’s very recent ex,* and the other being… well, Mike.
* I would not be shocked, sadly, if when Amber finds out Danny’s bi (because IIRC he’s not out to her yet) she doesn’t take it super-well. Even without potentially throwing ‘and I’m dating Ethan’ into the mix. Pretty sure we’ve seen Prom Night have a red panel flashback here (https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/happy/) and while I’m pretty sure we’d have seen it again by now if it got worse from there, it sure as hell affected her self-loathing. Clearly bad, if it managed to get red panel status. Hoooopefully the presence of Walky now could mitigate that? But since he is transparently not over Dorothy… Well, let’s hope that gets worked on in therapy. If she narrowly focuses on her romantic life and not the minefield of issues Blaine’s left, the search for a therapist doesn’t have to include the DID stuff and can just be about fit!**
** I cannot see her managing to talk exclusively about her romantic life, even without her having to leave out the AG complications with Danny since that was… well, complicated. Honestly I’m not entirely sure Amber and AG realized quite how distinct they were until Danny thinking he was dating Amber-who-is-a-superhero while AmbG considered him dating AG who shares a body with Amber pressed the issue.
Oh huh I’d actually had a point in * and forgot it. Anyway. I can see Amber reacting badly, but even that aside ‘best friend’s very recent ex’ is one of those things that is… well, uncouth.
I get the feeling Amber has transcended a lot of stuff through what just happened, and this (finding out Danny is bi and into Ethan) will feel like small potatoes to her now.
That’s my hope.
But you know. It’s Willis, so my fear also seems relevant.
Danny’s arc is to perpetually be plagued by crippling, if not valid, self-doubt and indecisiveness, isn’t it?
I feel called out.
“You Obviously Like Owls”?
I’m sure Screaming Bird thinks that’s what it means.
Yelling Bird who states the canonical ending to QC is “And they all fucked! The End”.
Re “You Obviously Like Owls”: Everyone is fond of owls! (Except for mice and shrews and Simon Cowells.)
Is Simon Cowell
Allergic to owls?
Has he thrown in the towel?
Is he mammal or fowl?
He’s the king of the beavers, and you can’t fool owls.
And you know why they come for you!
The owls in your dressing room,
The owls in your gravy,
Even if you hide at sea,
There’s owls in the Navy!
Its better to take a chaance and to be rejected, to be hurt…to be hurt and move on…than to pine on and not know “what if?”
We get hurt a lot during our lives, we never stop getting hurt as long as we keep on living…but thats life…
Will a relationship between them work? likely not
even if it did it be a college thing that could only last a year or 2 and yet it would still be worth it.
Cause we wouldnt know happines and plesure if pain and suffering didnt exist
My favorite story from when yolo first popped up came from my brother and his friend..Sean.
After school, they meet up with a friend that had to wait for her parents to pick her up. To kill time they decided to get frozen yogurt at a shop by the school.
Sean got a phonecall and stayed outside while my brother and their friend get their frozen yogurt. When they go back out, Sean finished the call and sees the toppings my brother got. He saw these little popping boba of different colors and asked him “hey wtf are those?” When my brother says “Excuse me, do you not know what yolos are? Too bad they ran out”, Sean just replies that of course he does and walks off before the friend explains. Through the window they can see he’s talking to the clerk (who gives him an incredulous look) and then looks back at the group with a big thumbs up while the clerk goes and gets something.
Eventually Sean emerges triumphantly. “Hey, hey. I got the Yolos”
I wish I was there when they told him. My brother forgot if he told him immediately or if he waited some time after he ate the treat.
I’m predicting that Ethan and Danny are gonna get together, but Ethan’s thoughts are gonna keep drifting towards Mike, leading to Mike taking part in a love triangle while in a coma, because of course he would.
when I saw the title before the comic loaded I thought Mike was dead, damn you willis, etc.
“And you’re asking me whether something is still in-style because…?”
You YOLO because of FOMO.
Also, you’re a dodo.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen “shitass” outside Central West Virginia.
I remember this one from my childhood in Kentucky, but you are right that it seems to be a localism. Haven’t heard or seen it since I came to DC in 77.
Don’t wanna be uncouth, do you Danny?
I was listening to Gimme All Your Lovin’ by ZZ Top as I read this strip and I just realized that song’s kinda fitting for what’s going on here.
“Well, I remember people were using it at the beginning of the semester, so that means it’s almost a decade outdated. Wait a minute, what happened to the passage of time? I’m starting to feel a little bit of existential dread, so it’s best to stop thinking about that now. Sorry, what were you saying?”
Theory: They’re all in something like purgatory without realising it and Joyce is slowly getting to the stage where she wouldn’t freak out over catholic’s having been right about some things.
you LOST me there
The last few years have been a long decade, to be fair.
Mike’s master plan was to get murdered so these two would have to date.
asking the important questions
Well damn now I’m nervous! I’ve been hoping these two could become a couple since Danny discovered his bi-feelings years ago. This could go wtong, and I’m worried.
By the time scales involved, I’m not sure YOLO is even a term yet.
DoA is always “this year”, so I’d guess every real-world fad is just a flash in the pan to them.
“‘YOLO’, Danny? Really? That’s so 3:30 PM September 14th.”
If only memes died such a quick death in the real world.
Hah, as I thought yesterday, that super random dropping a word with “sex” in it meant that he had something in his mind.
Maybe is coming the time to know if Ethan is now in love with Mike or still just his friends. I love Danny’s interior monologue.
I’m rooting for these guys but I just know it’s not gonna be easy with Amber and Mike present. The latter especially if he goes good.
What will Mikes (the both of them) have to say about this?
Danny blowing his chance to blow Ethan.