Discussion (152) ¬
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 22d
Bayjmin Tuckles @bayjmin-tuckles.bsky.social ⋅ 17h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 22d
Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social ⋅ 21h
Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com ⋅ 2d
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“I hope you mean BARB”
“nope”
“Whaaaaaaa–“
Ruth: “No, not the fucking bartender. I just handcuffed him to the door. No fucking occurred.”
Depends. If he’s still handcuffed to the door, I’d say he’s screwed.
In other news, the little smile in panel four is delightful.
Jennifer: “Don’t try to trick me with that crap, I know exactly how you flirt. THOSE USED TO BE OUR HANDCUFFS!”
Other students: “…”
Excellent timing, Becky.
Daisy deserved better. We all know it.
She’s one cropped deepfake of Alyson Hannigan ahead of the game, at least.
Yes, but had she gone home with Ruth she also would’ve deserved better. As a fan of Ruth who would genuinely like to see her happy, I doubt that it would have been good for either of them. Not that I’m particularly into Jason v Freddy Ruther slash either.
I don’t actually care if they went home. My problem is that as far as we know Daisy is still strung along. Thanks to fake porn of Alyson Hannigan she might think that date ended with future prospects of another one. Ruth actually does need to like at least talk to Daisy one more time to clear the air on this. Or y’know be a douche and never talk to her again. It was only one date. Still Daisy deserved better.
Ruth may actually want to date Daisy and dom Jason.
No commitments.
I was actually considering some sort of poly romantic options but Ruth still would need to communicate that to both Daisy and Jason and frankly none of the three have shown any previous inclination to want to try that.
Correct.
Oh, yes absolutely Daisy deserves better communucation, and an apology.
I’d like to hope that eventually Daisy at least gets a one-night stand with a girl, if not an actual girlfriend.
Calling it now – Daisy will steal Jason from Ruth.
“That doesn’t get me anything I want!”
So much for them being on friendly terms again..
No, half of her big dumb plan to get her ex and her boss laid went swimmingly
The other half not so much and it was probably the more important one
That’s not Ruth’s problem.
leaving out some important details here ruth
Deets which aren’t Jenniferno’s business anyways. Especially in a class setting.
Jennifer’s “Operation: Get Daisy Laid” will have to go to Plan B.
Don’t feel bad, Jennifer. Daisy’s “Operation: Get Daisy Laid” hit plan Z years ago, and she had to switch to Unicode Characters, and then emoji when she ran out.
She’s currently on Plan
, and is very unhappily aware of that fact.
Hey, there are some cute girls with
…
Well, TBF Daisy probably isn’t getting lucky with them either.
Daisy couldn’t get lucky with a girl who had a little plastic spigot where you blow the air in.
I bet that picture Ruth sent her got corrupted as soon as she got home. The universe will simply not permit her to get laid.
It took me a full day to realize that you did not, in fact, mean a CPR mannequin.
If Daisy needs “Plan B” she’s a worse lesbian than Monette.
“Was it at least a FEMALE koala?”
man that rebrand does not stick whatsoever for Jennifer Billingsworth.
It’s like a scene I remember from Urusei Yatsura, when Lum had been undercover as a human girl student up till Ataru did something so stupid it made her angry and her horns poked out of her hairdo.
Wow, that is a blast from the past. I read the manga for that last year, when I was on a Takahashi retrospective and read through all her old stuff. Spotting the influence that manga had on newer stuff, particulary To Love Ru, was very interesting.
That’s typically what happens with rebrands. New Coke didn’t last long either.
Ah, but if you believe New Coke was a marketing ploy to make Coke classic sell better, Jennifer might be on to something – Be horrible as Jennifer and then everything will finally love her when she goes back to Billie. Perhaps even Billie will love Billie
…huh. Y’know, I think you’re onto something there.
Dear god…
Everything is just branding, even people.
New Coke was introduced to cover up that the US bottlers were switching over to High Fructose Corn Syrup from the more-expensive Cane Sugar. People would have noticed the different taste immediately, so New Coke was introduced as an intermediary to prevent side-by-side comparisons, then the “Old” Coke was re-introduced with HFCS.
Amurricans can get an idea of the difference by comparing their current HFCS Coke product with bottled-in-Mexico Coke, which uses Cane Sugar. Or “Kosher-for-Passover” Coke, ditto. Dunno about other countries though: I seem to remember that the HFCS switchover was also part of sanctions against the USA buying any cane sugar from Cuba.
(
I’ve tried mexican coke and pepsi side-by-side with US-bottled/canned versions, and I honestly have never been able to tell the difference. Maybe my taster isn’t as sensitive as some people’s, but I can’t discern between them.
I live in Canada, and I can definitely tell the difference between coke from the two countries when I visit the U.S.
I like manipulative crazy plan Jennifer! She’s upping her game!
Booster is going to pop Billie like a goddamn balloon.
I hope so. I really liked Billie when she was starting to let herself be vulnerable and realize her mistakes. This new Jennifer is so fake it’s cringey.
Yeeeeah. This makes for some interesting drama, and does track with how she’s acted in the past, but… OOF.
Surprised it hasn’t set Malaya’s radar off yet.
*Cackles*
You see Jennifer? This is why the cliche exists of stalking the date set-up. So you can be sure that shenanigans like this don’t happen. Only the shenanigans you WANT to happen.
“time is a circle”
I beg to differ. For all we know, time is more like…. wibbly wobbly, timey wimey…. stuff.
Ahem, actuuualy, it’s “a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey…. stuff.”
– Nayann said, in the dorkiest, nerdiest tone he could.
“CUT!”
You failed to push your glasses up the bridge of your nose, or to grab your suspenders.
“Reset”
“Take 2”
“Rolling and… ACTION”
“Are you sure it’s not a circle? We seem to keep repeating this twenty-second sequence over and over in a loop.”
“Cut! Reset! Take 17!”
“And now it’s starting agai-”
“Cut! QUIT MUGGING FOR THE BLOOPERS AND GET SERIOUS!”
Time is an illusion Doc.
Lunch time doubly so.
I like to think there’s one student here from last semester, auditing the class because they need it (and to actually learn the material) for their major and it got derailed so damn many times by Joyce and Roz.
That student is doomed.
Poor Jen
Oh right she’s tagged as ‘Sue’ not ‘Jen’.
I forgot there actually was a student tagged as the Hapless Gender Studies Class Bystander! Perfect.
But also, poor her indeed.
There is?! Where can I find them?
Here you go:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/sue/
Her last appearance was in 2018, so she’s overdue for another cameo.
RIP, random student
Wow, what did that random student do to you, Regalli? XD
Sometimes, comedy needs a truly hapless victim.
They may also sell cabbages at the local farmers market, which is CLEARLY just tempting fate.
So much for pathos.
Pathos. Wasn’t he one of the three Musketeers.
Mean. Cruel. Unkind. I’m reporting you to Background Character Protective Services, you MONSTER.
To be fair, wasn’t it revealed in LoK that Cabbage Guy ended up founding some kind of produce shipping company and became ultra-wealthy?
Yup: Cabbage Corp.
His descendant was dragged out of a building, wailing “NO, NOT MY CABBAGE CORP!”
That was the same guy as the cabbage cart vendor.
This is now 1000% my head-canon as well
NGL, funniest setup in a while.
Yeah, I’d been wondering how Jennifer was going to react to this news (and how Ruth was going to drop it). Next few days should be… fun.
I’m kinda curious as to what in particular makes Becky think they’re a bad couple. The suicide-pact part is obvious, assuming she knows about it, and I know she sees “Billie” as a “queer role model” and Ruth as a fellow-orphan in need, but I’m wondering how exactly she came to the conclusion they were bad for each other. I can see why someone who thinks of them that way would want to try to keep them apart even after the breakup, though– I mean just look at them, the tension is off the charts even now.
If I had to think about it and apply a serious reason with some basis in past strips, probably the suicide pact.
Becky had a pretty bad reaction to finding out Ruth had been hospitalized and glued herself to Billie when she was complaining about therapy and pills, and the transparently obvious connection was that Becky was freaking out because her mom committed suicide and two people in front of her were in danger and she had no idea even though “she’s supposed to.”
I assume she came to her conclusion after watching them interact with each other.
She was staying in Jennifer’s room the first week or so because Jennifer was spending all her time at Ruth’s. When she and Joyce returned from the trip home post-first kidnapping, they came back to both Ruth and Jennifer hospitalized, because Walky had been aware of Jennifer’s depression and told Chloe (Ruth’s boss, Responsible Adult for the building, and known puddinghead.) Walky was also one of the people filling Joyce and Becky in on what they’d missed, so they heard about the mutual depression if not the suicide pact. (Becky was clearly traumatized to find this out, having sworn she would never miss the signs again after finding Bonnie post-attempt and reading Jennifer giving up her room as a suicidal person giving away belongings and putting affairs in order, though it’s more ambiguous as to whether or not that was Jennifer’s ACTUAL intent – it depends on just how consciously suicidal versus passively self-destructive you read her, even moreso than Ruth.)
Becky also REALLY likely saw whatever the breakup at Halloween was that we haven’t yet, which is probably a big factor. Finally, the power dynamic at the start was still an issue with the relationship, and Jennifer and Ruth were still physically fighting to resolve disputes right up before the timeskip, so Becky could have issues with either aspect.
“I’m kinda curious as to what in particular makes Becky think they’re a bad couple. The suicide-pact part is obvious, assuming she knows about it.” <=
XD
Yeah, I didn’t proofread very well, did I.
What I meant was that Becky didn’t seem to think they were bad for each other last semester (despite knowing of the suicide pact), unless she was just really good at hiding it— oh right I forgot it’s Becky, the master of hiding things, that explains it
I was thinking something had changed and was wondering what had caused said change but nah it’s probably the usual Becky-hiding-things-thing
Becky hiding things, Becky finding out more about the start of the semester she missed, Becky reevaluating after a big public fight, could be a lot of things.
As like someone from a real abusive home, Becky realizes that shoves don’t equal hugs.
To quote the Great Carla.
Yeah, Becky is from an incredibly abusive home. She knows the signs of a shitty relationship.
Mass hysteria….
Where’s a lake of electrum when you need it to make Electrum Schnapps?
Massively hysterical anyway.
But in answer to your question, Canada, I think. http://www.24hgold.com/english/project.aspx?id=7913598E6680
I appreciate your efforts. But unfortunately, it’s not the kind of electrum I’m looking for.
Oh well. I guess hard apple cider with orange syrup will have to do.
First it’s not the droids we’re looking for. Then it’s not the electrum we’re looking for.
I thought I could find you an ocean of orange drink syrup, but it turned out to be a Fanta sea.
What droids?
The Fanta sea looks so delicious and worth visiting one day (or at least the small version in Japan)!
I meant that I already had orange syrup and hard apple cider. Was hoping for electrum, but I guess I’ll have to substitute that with some szechuan peppercorn when I make the schnapps.
What droids? Exactly!
I tried to look up how much electrum costs and the Internet tells me its a flat rate of 0.2 mBTC, but I don’t know how to translate that into my native currency of ISK and Plex.
If it’s a substitute for electrum, I can’t help wondering just what the Szechuanese put into their peppercorn.
In fact, yes, that bartender has fucked, but not quite in the context you’re assuming, Miss Billingsworth.
Oh, this promises to be a FUCKING HILARIOUS mess.
Or a very upsetting mess. Or both. Probably both. I mean, it IS Willis.
It’s all part of organizing events to create plot, the DyWie Drama System if you will.
Billie wildly misunderstands pansexuals. Rutg is Pan right?… right?
Bi.
I think
Ruth described Booster as cute, so she might be pan. Given that she only realized she was anything other than straight just last fall, it’s quite likely that she’s still figuring her sexuality out.
Ruth is bi. Lots of bi folks are into NB folks.
My mistake then.
No worries. Pretty sure its from word of Willis, so the text itself has never given her a specific label, only stated she’s liked boys and girls (plus, hopefully, Booster).
the difference between bi and pansexuality tends to be pretty per-person, honestly. That said, the important note is that generally most people use ‘Bisexual’ in the same way as ‘Bilingual’, So that it applies to Two or More.
Yeah, pretty much. Bi CAN but doesn’t necessarily include all genders, pan always includes all genders is how I tend to think of it.
Officially listed (albeit years ago) as bisexual with Danny and Jennifer, but most bisexual community definitions of the term define it as ‘their own gender and others’ so it doesn’t preclude her being attracted to nonbinary people.
(The difference between bisexuality and pansexuality with that in mind ranges from ‘bisexuals find different traits attractive in different gendered ways while pansexuals don’t consider gender a factor’ to ‘bisexual who nonetheless is not attracted to some genders – say, men and nonbinary people but not women’ to ‘whichever one you connect to more, plain and simple.’)
All the best laid plans of mice and lesbians, right?
Just wait til Jennifer finds out it was also unhealthy and illegal!
She would be disappointed with anything else.
Really nice touch that Ruth specifically opens with calling Jennifer by her chosen name.
Still something Becky is learning.
Yeah. We’ve seen a few times that she (like almost everybody) still thinks of her as “Billie,” but it’s nice that she actually makes an effort to get it right. Neither Sal, Walky, or Becky have extended her that courtesy. I’m pretty sure the only other person who has is Lucy.
She has transcended Billie and become a new more mature version of herself.
Now actively trying to pimp her ex and upset she doesn’t go along.
She may yet be a Congresswoman!
I love the fact that she’s capable of both loving Ruth as well as pimping her out.
It’s so…Jennifer.
Unlike a drug dealer, a pimp taking precautions doesn’t waste ‘product’ by using some on the side.
And I think that is actually the most horrible logical conclusion I’ve ever come to and uttered. I’m going to go cry now.
That’s actually very sound reasoning you’ve got there.
Don’t be too hard on yourself!
On the contrary, time is money. Time spent on essential maintenance is overhead, but the bottom line is that when the product is being sampled it isn’t earning money. If there is available downtime while the capital equipment depreciates over time, it indicates inefficiency in the system and is to be avoided.
Capitalism at its finest.
Now, surely a successful business isn’t ALL about cutting costs and reducing inefficiencies — sole focus on both of those would mean that the business would NEVER make a profit.
Well, the thing is, demand has never lagged.
Quality control. Since John’s may not be down to be watched or fill in customer satisfaction cards, pimps and madames likely gotta do random sampling anyways. Include professional development… Typical business head, sorry, overhead.
Oh my gosh, today’s strip has extremely gorgeous character art!! I keep coming back to look at it. The facial expressions, Jennifer’s head tilts and movements against Ruth’s stationary form and near-expressionless face, her perfect angry reaction in panel four with the perfect wordless smirk in reply. One of those strips where you can see what the dialogue is without reading the words.
Incoming “but he’s a dude”.
“Its okay, lots of women experiment with men before they get better! I mean, not me, because I’m too awesome.”
“Stop helping, Becky.”
That would be a super gross thing for Becky to say.
“You see, Billie, you were so bad at being a lesbian that you drove me straight!”
“Ditto, Ruth.”
Jennifer: Well I’m happy you were able to–how the fuck did you score the bartender?!
Ruth: Ingenuity and honesty…also I handcuffed him to my door.
Jennifer: Damnit why didn’t I think of that…?
What’s that Becky has in her hands? Is that what English teachers call a “symbol?”
Her hat.
The hat symbolizes the gasoline she’s going to throw on the fire. Again, since last time didn’t stick.
Hopefully this time, Leslie treats Rebecca like she treated Roz that one time. Y’know, when Roz called Joyce out on her ignorance regarding churches and queer homelessness and Leslie had no time for that shit?
He’s not the fucking bartender yet, but we have high hopes that soon enough he will be.
Hey now.
It’s possible that some of our hopes are sober.
Ah yes, Ruth was supposed to be a bribe to Daisy in order to get Jennifer something that she wanted, wasn’t she? Well, there’s that short-cut to the top gone down in flames!
Since Daisy blames herself, all is not lost.
Awwww. Ruth looks so happy♡. And I’m personally are happy that Jennifer is so disappointed.
I don’t see what’s wrong with Jennifer and Ruth taking the same class together. It’s not like they’re still dating. And I still think it wasn’t cool when Becky tried to get them both to drop this class.
I just don’t think that Becky wants to be around all the ‘failed relationship’ bile and other aftershocks that are going to be bouncing between them. It’s none of her business but she’s still going to be forced to sit there and listen as it is played out in front of her.
Ever went off-road driving with a vial of nitroglycerin sitting comfortably in your glove-box? That’s how Becky feels I imagine.
Boo-fucking-hoo. I have no sympathy for her in this regard after she outed Ruth and Jennifer, plus started airing dirty laundry that was in no way hers to air.
For them to be in the same class together is too tempting for both of them, to much potential for “Jennifer” to relapse into using Ruth to fulfill her drama cravings, and for Ruth to relapse even more into her maladaptive coping mechanisms. You might as well be waving a Whiskey bottle in front of an alcoholic.
Not to say that Becky isn’t overly hopeful for both their cases, but still.
Of course, Kinko’s thinks she means Carly.
Billie’s upset that she won’t get the leverage on her editor that she wanted with the ‘date’. Also, pimping out your ex to your boss for work-related favors is extremely shitty. Nothing new with Billie though. So good for Ruth.
Agreed.
STILL COUNTS AS A WIN FOR JENNIFER!
AND ALSO FOR BECKY!
Sorry Becks, your machinations weren’t as successful as you initially thought. Guess you’ll have to…try harder? Or maybe just not try to manipulate other people for what you think is their own good?
Jennifer just needs help to avoid falling into the traps of Billie.
Oh come on. This isn’t Amazi-girl we’re talking about. A very particular phrase comes to mind in “Jennifer’s” case:
“Put a bowtie on a pig, it’s still a pig.”
I really, really bet my money that their breakup wasn’t ACTUALLY Ruth’s “fault” at all. That is to say, it was probably something that was equally Jennifer’s fault, if not moreso, but Ruth is happy to default to blaming herself, and Jennifer is also more than happy to also blame her for everything to absolve herself of any and all responsibility.
Either that, or it realistically wasn’t really anybody’s fault, just a messed-up circumstance mostly out of Ruth’s control that Jennifer nonetheless blames her for and Ruth accepts blame for.
I dunno, I think some fans try to make Jennifer the instigator of all drama with Ruth when the “literally kidnapped Jason” thing is a reminder that Ruth has severe problems with intimacy.
But I admit, I am Team Jennifer.
Personally, I’m assuming ‘primarily Ruth, but became a mutual clusterfuck from there’ just because that’s been a theme of their relationship and we know they’re now on decent terms. (Also that there’s no new animosity towards anyone that we can tell – Rachel and Walky both already disliked Ruth. Becky seems to be okay with them both while still recognizing they’re terrible TOGETHER, as well, which again suggests ‘mutual clusterfuck’.)
My guess/headcanon until we inevitably hear more is that Ruth’s old meds might have had some nasty emotional side effect – increased irritation, or given that ‘painting the dorm in an afternoon’ bit maybe even some form of mania or hypomania – and she blew up over something minor, prompting a big fight where things got fairly nasty and public, they broke up, and later she apologized and had realized the meds amplified the feelings but her reaction was still on her. Currently a neat explanation for everything. (Alternately, when the change was very soon after the time skip and she realized ‘oh hey I can drink again once my birthday hits’, which prompted a new phase of the Jennifer and Ruth and Booze argument. Also more than possible, but I’d LIKE it to stay away from the topic of Jennifer drinking entirely because I’d really like her quitting shortly before the timeskip to have stuck. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but it’s still a bit too close to Jennifer drinking again for my taste.)
My bet is that Billie’s whole charade about being this totally different person is stood on the shaky foundation of her like, five sessions in therapy helping her stay sober. She hasn’t actually addressed *anything* fundamental to her alcoholism, but has put enough of a band-aid on it that she now considers herself REINVENTED. SHE’s a MATURE person who keeps her space clean and doesn’t hoard alochol and doesn’t go to immature parties with alcohol present and bla bla bla.
IMHO the second she is faced with some sort of event that involves wine or some other form of alcohol as a “casual, mature drink for mature people”, she’ll cave instantly.
Distressingly plausible, but I’d like to have hope that her realizing just how bad things had gotten with the DUI (several months late, but still happened during the hall meeting) has given her more of a push to genuinely dtop drinking and keep at it. Or at least to try.
It’s certainly possible. It’s common for alcoholics trying to quit to relapse.
Like Ruth has.
I think that Jennifer ghosting everyone is part of her therapy.
She relapses because of Walky and company.
Another poster theorized that Ruth’s granddad came back to the college and Ruth downplayed Billie in front of him, which is what I’m thinking right now.
I love Ruth’s little dimple when Jennifer is outraged her shitty matchmaking didn’t work out (yet Ruth is still content)
Yup, there’s definitely a smirk cracking through her poker face.
Unrelated to any discourse going on but I have been loving Jennifer’s new hair; the fact that it’s Akane Tendo-inspired just makes it even better. I really like how Willis has tried to improve his character designs over the years, giving people more varied bangs and hairstyles for example. It’s so cool to see a cartoonist grow and develop in realtime.
on the other side, Jeph’s war on long hair continues.
billie is so cute in this one!
One of these days I wanna see what Ruth looks like with makeup on. I think she’s so cute!
Becky’s one weakness: other lesbians’ drama
ruth and jennifer aren’t lesbians, they’re bi, ugh why is this so hard for people, we literally just had ruth hitting on jason a month or so ago–
oh right, you’re talking about it from becky’s perspective
…yeah, in that case your analysis is pretty much accurate.