Dumbing of Age Book Twelve

Dumbing of Age

A college webcomic by David Willis
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remind me what normal is again please, i was raised in a cult
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June 14, 2026

Almost

by David M Willis on March 18, 2025 at 12:01 am
  • 03 – Me And Who You Say I Was Yesterday
└ Tags: jennifer, joe, joyce

Discussion (175) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. shadowcell
    shadowcell
    March 18, 2025 at 12:03 am | #

    step three: have sex with her!…almost

    • Doctor_Who
      Doctor_Who
      March 18, 2025 at 12:04 am | #

      Jennifer: “Wait, does that mean I’m going to have sex with her, or are you?”

      Joyce: “Yes.”

      • Steamweed
        Steamweed
        March 18, 2025 at 12:34 am | #

        “The almost sex will be with me. That will cause the actual sex to be with Alice. See?”

        • Reltzik
          Reltzik
          March 18, 2025 at 1:23 am | #

          “I didn’t say I wanted to have sex with her, I said I wanted to be friends with her again.”

          “Yes, but you also said that friends could bang once.”

          “Yeah. … um… kinda already hit my limit on that one.”

          “But if you become friends with her again, that’s the start of a SECOND friendship with her, which means…”

          “OMG JOYCE WE NEED TO ALMOST-BANG RIGHT NOW!”

          • Steamweed
            Steamweed
            March 18, 2025 at 9:19 am | #

            *rubs chin thoughtfully

            Yeah, now I want to see this almost-Slipshine.

  2. Thag Simmons
    Thag Simmons
    March 18, 2025 at 12:03 am | #

    Joyce continues to be shockingly good at information gathering, she’d make an excellent spy.

    • Jamie
      Jamie
      March 18, 2025 at 12:48 am | #

      Is this not a normal autistic thing? I lose track.

      • Taffy
        Taffy
        March 18, 2025 at 12:59 am | #

        People are occasionally surprised by how easily I can track them down in Final Fantasy XIV, even in large zones. As if it’s not blatantly obvious by my friends list showing they’re a level 87 Miner in Ultima Thule, meaning they’re likely at a specific set of rocks or turning in materials at the local trade hub.

        • Azrael
          Azrael
          March 19, 2025 at 5:42 am | #

          I’m usually the go to to find the one guildy in Dungeons and Dragons Online who manages to get lost in literally a single room quest. I attribute that mostly to the fact that for 15 years I’ve had to literally run around nearly every map repeatedly looking for that same one guildy, who gets lost in the exact same spots over and over again.

      • Daibhid C
        Daibhid C
        March 18, 2025 at 8:37 am | #

        It’s one of those things I consider an Autism Superpower, which in my head means all autistic people have it except me.

        • NGPZ
          NGPZ
          March 18, 2025 at 5:30 pm | #

          I mean autistic people very much have a diversity of superpowers,

          some luckier in the draw than others (speaking from experience super hearing for instance is NOT something you want T_T)

          • Inahc
            Inahc
            March 18, 2025 at 11:03 pm | #

            💯

      • Joy
        Joy
        March 18, 2025 at 5:01 pm | #

        I stopped doing it because people freak out, yell at me, and the start avoiding me.

        • Joy
          Joy
          March 18, 2025 at 5:02 pm | #

          No, wait, the freakouts had to do with me remembering things they personally told me and then forgot about telling me.

          • Joy
            Joy
            March 18, 2025 at 5:03 pm | #

            Honestly? Kind of a you problem if you do that.

            • NGPZ
              NGPZ
              March 18, 2025 at 6:05 pm | #

              cosigned (-_-)

    • Reltzik
      Reltzik
      March 18, 2025 at 1:26 am | #

      I feel spies also need a degree of deceptive ability, coolness under pressure, and capacity to go unnoticed by not hyperventilating about their being extra foods in their food.

      • Bash
        Bash
        March 18, 2025 at 3:11 am | #

        But think of how little anyone would suspect her.

      • Mark
        Mark
        March 18, 2025 at 7:05 am | #

        Field agents, yes. Maybe she’s an intelligence analyst.

      • Buck Ripsnort
        Buck Ripsnort
        March 18, 2025 at 9:26 am | #

        “Spying is waiting.” John Le Carre’.

        Then again, I don’t know how good Joyce is at waiting.

      • Aquila
        Aquila
        March 18, 2025 at 2:57 pm | #

        So … basically Dina?

        • Reltzik
          Reltzik
          March 18, 2025 at 8:07 pm | #

          Except I think awareness and understanding of social cues is also useful.

          …

          …. wait, what am I talking about, I’ve never been in the espionage business, what do I know?

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      March 18, 2025 at 3:55 am | #

      How soon we forget the escapades of the lesbian love sleuth.

      • Buck Ripsnort
        Buck Ripsnort
        March 18, 2025 at 9:26 am | #

        Who was it who tried to find the whiteboard-dong-doodler?

    • anon
      anon
      March 18, 2025 at 9:07 pm | #

      I wonder if alice would be a footnote in billiefer’s ‘file’ that amazigirl might have on her/other charas

    • Yumi
      Yumi
      March 18, 2025 at 10:34 pm | #

      Me: “This just seems like pretty basic stuff.”
      *comments about how this shows up as a trait in autistic people*
      Me: “…huh.”

  3. Sirksome
    Sirksome
    March 18, 2025 at 12:03 am | #

    Is Joyce propositioning Jen to flirt with her? Probably not, but I’m gonna pretend she did.

  4. Yumi
    Yumi
    March 18, 2025 at 12:03 am | #

    Jennifer can’t keep track of who she’s almost slept with, but Joyce is there to help.

    • Steamweed
      Steamweed
      March 18, 2025 at 12:34 am | #

      Joe, too. He has spreadsheet experience.

      • Steamweed
        Steamweed
        March 18, 2025 at 12:35 am | #

        Oh, dang, I just re-read that and saw a horrible innuendo that I hadn’t seen at first.

        • Yumi
          Yumi
          March 18, 2025 at 1:03 am | #

          Shh, just pretend it’s intentional, it lands.

        • `
          `
          March 18, 2025 at 1:12 am | #

          @Steamweed actually that’s hilarious and actually made more so by it being unintentional

          • Isactuallyabear
            Isactuallyabear
            March 18, 2025 at 10:04 am | #

            On an unrelated note, I like your avatar! Really digging the art style. I’m curious about who the artist is (assuming you didn’t draw it yourself).

        • Laura
          Laura
          March 18, 2025 at 11:28 am | #

          I’m not getting the innuendo. Is it like “bedsheet experience”?

          • Gigafreak
            Gigafreak
            March 18, 2025 at 1:47 pm | #

            Spreading ’em in the sheets

            • Laura
              Laura
              March 19, 2025 at 12:06 am | #

              Ah. Thank you for the clarification!

          • Yumi
            Yumi
            March 18, 2025 at 5:41 pm | #

            https://www.instagram.com/pawneeclips/reel/C5rIg9RPSGO/

            (reminded me of this Parks & Rec clip)

  5. Doctor_Who
    Doctor_Who
    March 18, 2025 at 12:03 am | #

    I would honestly love to see Joyce’s social media theme since she kicked the Jesahol.

    I bet it’s just super cute and wholesome, with occasional moments of crazy.

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      March 18, 2025 at 12:29 am | #

      I would say the mix probably has a lot more of Joyce’s specific neuroses than just occasional.

    • Charles Phipps
      Charles Phipps
      March 18, 2025 at 2:10 am | #

      It’s nothing but macaroni and cheese reviews.

      • Fnord
        Fnord
        March 18, 2025 at 9:30 am | #

        I suddenly find myself imagining Joyce going wild over a macaroni and cheese recipe that suggests putting the macaroni and the cheese next to each other instead of mixed.

        • Pizzasgood
          Pizzasgood
          March 18, 2025 at 11:26 am | #

          “The left bowl is for the macaroni, and the right bowl is for the cheese sauce. This style of mac ‘n cheese is eaten by threading a noodle over each prong of your fork, carefully dipping them in the sauce, doing two swirls, popping them into your mouth, extracting the noodles from the fork by closing your lips around the fork and pulling it free (don’t use your teeth for that (unless you hate teeth I guess?)), chewing to completion, and then repeating until finished. When you near the end of the noodle supply you may find yourself with a mismatch between the number of noodles and the prongs on your fork. I used to think that this was because Kraft are secretly in league with Satan, but it turns out he’s fake and this is just capitalism-induced sloppiness. Packaging macaroni in precise multiples of sixty to ensure integer forkfuls for three-pronged, four-pronged, and five-pronged forks doesn’t make enough impact on revenue to offset the cost, so they don’t bother. This means it will be up to you to cut the final noodles into an appropriate number of pieces so that you can finish consuming them without putting a gross, imbalanced fork in your mouth. You’ll need to perform (P-1) evenly spaced cuts per noodle where P is the number of prongs on your fork. This might result in very small noodles that are too cute to actually eat, so you might find it easier to count your remaining noodles while you’re still several forks away from finished and then simply cut (N/2) noodles in half where N is the least common multiple of P, 2, and the remainder after dividing your noodles by P. When you’ve finished eating the noodles you may have extra cheese sauce in the sauce bowl; this makes for a delicious drink. I recommend using a straw, but drinking directly from the bowl is fine as long as you were careful to keep track of which (if any) bits of the bowl’s lip you touched while handling it. And that concludes the best way to consume the best food on the best planet! Thanks for reading! I love you all (except the ones I don’t because I don’t have to do that anymore now that I know the Bible is a bunch of lies made up by genocidal maniacs to excuse their conquests and misogyny)! <3 <3 <3" — Joyce, probably

          • Taellosse
            Taellosse
            March 18, 2025 at 10:42 pm | #

            :chefkiss: Excellent fanfic. No notes.

          • Inahc
            Inahc
            March 18, 2025 at 11:06 pm | #

            💚

  6. NGPZ
    NGPZ
    March 18, 2025 at 12:03 am | #

    “apolitical”? what’s that? XD

  7. Reltzik
    Reltzik
    March 18, 2025 at 12:03 am | #

    Answer: Posting pictures of puppies, kittens, and food. Like, no one could ever make a picture of a head of lettuce political, right?

    • Aura
      Aura
      March 18, 2025 at 12:06 am | #

      If they did I’m sure that would be a very short-lived moment ^^

      • Dante
        Dante
        March 18, 2025 at 12:19 am | #

        I Understood That Reference

      • Rabid Rabbit
        Rabid Rabbit
        March 18, 2025 at 1:20 am | #

        Short-Lized, please.

        • Miri
          Miri
          March 18, 2025 at 3:23 am | #

          Hey, I don’t, but it makes for a better joke if I say I do think that trussed-up lettuce picture looks really strong and stable, and not like a crazed pug with a coke habit…

          • Miri
            Miri
            March 18, 2025 at 3:30 am | #

            OK, spoiler tags don’t work here…

            Also too tired to remember that I either go with

            Hey, [spoiler tags which don’t work] I don’t, but it makes for a better joke if I say I do [/spoiler] think that trussed-up lettuce picture looks really strong and stable

            OR add the and not, which indicates my feelings about her already…

    • Reltzik
      Reltzik
      March 18, 2025 at 12:42 am | #

      Actually, at the rate things are going, even posting pictures of sad puppies might soon be earning the ire of Homeland Security.

      • Jamie
        Jamie
        March 18, 2025 at 12:51 am | #

        Time to break out the Winnie the Pooh.

        • ABunchOTrees
          ABunchOTrees
          March 18, 2025 at 1:13 am | #

          Good thing they don’t live in China.

          • Bruno
            Bruno
            March 18, 2025 at 7:20 am | #

            The winnie the pooh thing was made up by racist Americans to make china look bad and harass Chinese people. It isn’t real.

            • eh, whatever
              eh, whatever
              March 18, 2025 at 9:24 am | #

              lolwut

              In China, Xi is compared to Winnie the Pooh at every single occasion.

        • Needfuldoer
          Needfuldoer
          March 18, 2025 at 4:01 am | #

          Better make it the public domain Pooh, just to be safe. No need to get the feds and the mouse on your case.

          “Red shirt on bear? Copyright! Beware!
          If nude be he, that Pooh is free.”

          • Laura
            Laura
            March 18, 2025 at 11:30 am | #

            I love it!

      • Aura
        Aura
        March 18, 2025 at 12:55 am | #

        Ok I’m making things worse, did you know the Sad Puppies are/were a reactionary right-wing sci-fi fan group? Full name was something like ‘the sad puppies think of the children’ and they were the equivalent of the anti-dei/anti-woke brigade.

        • Reltzik
          Reltzik
          March 18, 2025 at 1:20 am | #

          *googles*

          … I feel that I should be more surprised to learn that right-wingers have pre-ruined sad puppies.

          • Charles Phipps
            Charles Phipps
            March 18, 2025 at 2:10 am | #

            I am annoyed I didn’t get to post that but I assumed it was a clever reference.

        • Laura
          Laura
          March 18, 2025 at 11:31 am | #

          In Philly, the ATF and JTTF raided a group home inhabited by activists affiliated with the group “Hugs for Puppies”…

          Many years ago…

          • Laura
            Laura
            March 18, 2025 at 11:31 am | #

            It was a pretty surreal search warrant…

      • jeffepp
        jeffepp
        March 18, 2025 at 2:10 am | #

        Sad Puppies was a conservative group influencing the Nebula Awards several years back, that overlapped with Gamergate.

        So, that ship sailed.

      • Hof1991
        Hof1991
        March 18, 2025 at 8:46 am | #

        Sad puppies was ruined and is undergoing repairs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_Puppies

    • Mollyscribbles
      Mollyscribbles
      March 18, 2025 at 1:14 am | #

      Or a can of soup, or Winnie the Pooh.

    • Thing2
      Thing2
      March 18, 2025 at 3:29 am | #

      You are familiar with UK politics and short lived PMs?

  8. Dara
    Dara
    March 18, 2025 at 12:04 am | #

    “she’s very pretty” ^_^

    • StClair
      StClair
      March 18, 2025 at 12:06 am | #

      yup, noticed that too.
      (Joyce noticed it first!)

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      March 18, 2025 at 12:26 am | #

      The “Dorothy realizes that she isn’t straight” chapter has had a lot of “Joyce probably isn’t straight either!” to go along with it.

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      March 18, 2025 at 4:03 am | #

      Indeed she is.

  9. BBCC
    BBCC
    March 18, 2025 at 12:04 am | #

    Probably but it’s too late now!

  10. Sirksome
    Sirksome
    March 18, 2025 at 12:05 am | #

    When did Jennifer almost bang Joe? I don’t remember that one. Was it right before Danny?

    • The 25th
      The 25th
      March 18, 2025 at 12:12 am | #

      It was after in this: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/01-if-the-shoes-split/billingsworth/

      • The 25th
        The 25th
        March 18, 2025 at 12:15 am | #

        That is a follow up to https://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/02-choosing-my-religion/notsure/ and the next strip. So Joe can be referring to either.

        • Buck Ripsnort
          Buck Ripsnort
          March 18, 2025 at 9:19 am | #

          If Joe is referring to either of these, his idea of “almost banging” is really flexible. What would he call, “actually made physical contact”? “Almost brought to orgasm”?

      • Sirksome
        Sirksome
        March 18, 2025 at 12:17 am | #

        Wow that cheerleader had a pretty unique character design for an untagged nobody. What role could she hypothetically have?

        • PedanticJerkass
          PedanticJerkass
          March 18, 2025 at 12:24 am | #

          She’s the secret final boss of the entire comic.

        • Thag Simmons
          Thag Simmons
          March 18, 2025 at 12:27 am | #

          Maybe she’ll find out that Ruth was the one who stole her cheerleading uniform

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          March 18, 2025 at 12:53 am | #

          That’s Martina. She’s a sex addict and sells vinyl decals on Etsy.

        • Reltzik
          Reltzik
          March 18, 2025 at 1:28 am | #

          At a guess? Leading cheer.

    • DashWallkick
      DashWallkick
      March 18, 2025 at 8:40 am | #

      “Hang on, this cheerleader wants to have sex with me.”

  11. Joe Moose
    Joe Moose
    March 18, 2025 at 12:07 am | #

    “Nope! Not with me!”

    Once again, Joyce is unintentionally throwing shade.

    • Amós Batista
      Amós Batista
      March 18, 2025 at 5:45 am | #

      Combing perfectly with “she’s very pretty”.

  12. Rolf of Many Doors
    Rolf of Many Doors
    March 18, 2025 at 12:07 am | #

    Surely Joyce’ feed is non-threatening and apolitical by now – she spent all that time scrubbing all of the nothing-offensive-because-she-never-said-anything-like-that-you-can’t-prove-anything off her social media

    • Li
      Li
      March 18, 2025 at 11:37 am | #

      I mean we were just going over how she WANTS to like non-Christian music, but is having trouble because she also wants to just listen to the same handful of songs over and over.

      Wanting to engage with apolitical culture isn’t the same thing as actively doing so.

      I kinda think Joyce’s best bet would be filling her feed with Dexter / Head Alien content, but I don’t know that that would present her as someone Alice would wanna befriend.

      • Rolf of Many Doors
        Rolf of Many Doors
        March 19, 2025 at 8:58 am | #

        Was referring to the offensive tweets

  13. StClair
    StClair
    March 18, 2025 at 12:08 am | #

    so, does expressing a desire to climb into someone’s cleavage and be safe and warm forever count as almost having sex with them?
    … asking for a friend.

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      March 18, 2025 at 12:32 am | #

      No, I don’t think “expressing desire” translates into “almost realized that desire”.

      I would very much like to have a million dollars, but I have never even come close to actually having a million dollars.

      • Li
        Li
        March 18, 2025 at 11:22 pm | #

        I mean Joe is apparently counting a conversation with Jennifer that ended with him getting distracted by a different girl, so. We’re working with a loose definition of “almost”.

        • Thag Simmons
          Thag Simmons
          March 19, 2025 at 12:05 am | #

          Slightly different because she wanted to fuck him and he rejected her.

          • Li
            Li
            March 23, 2025 at 2:55 am | #

            I mean, first of all, you know you’re responding to a joke, right? StClair was joking.

            I also think the difference between “expressing a sexual desire for someone” and “expressing desire to have sex with them” is… nnnnot that huge? I’d be much more sympathetic to the argument that Jennifer and Joe were mutually attracted to one another, while Jennifer has never seemed to find Joyce attractive.

            But again: StClair was joking. This is all very silly, and Joe definitely did not almost have sex with Jennifer either, it’s just that saying it that way is funnier than “didn’t you hit on both me and my roommate”, and also the latter doesn’t really leave room for Joyce’s scandalized response, so this is where we are.

            • Li
              Li
              March 23, 2025 at 2:58 am | #

              …rereading this and your comment and I’m honestly not even sure what I’m responding to here. I guess the idea that Jennifer being the instigator is more of an “almost had sex with them” than Joyce expressing confused sexual interest in Jennifer’s boobs? And sure, I’ll give you that. Silly thing to argue over, too. I’m tired, lol.

    • misanthropope
      misanthropope
      March 18, 2025 at 12:34 am | #

      “the world is cold and hard, but tiddy is warm and soft”
      -oglaf

      • Steamweed
        Steamweed
        March 18, 2025 at 12:36 am | #

        Oglaf is a national treasure, and must be protected.

        • morleuca
          morleuca
          March 18, 2025 at 3:16 pm | #

          I miss Ivan

    • DashWallkick
      DashWallkick
      March 18, 2025 at 8:40 am | #

      Oh, right, suddenly my “Joyce is straight and her autism is making her look bi when she’s not” theory has a big hole in the center.

      • Gigafreak
        Gigafreak
        March 18, 2025 at 1:51 pm | #

        At least she can climb into it and be warm and safe forever

  14. John Campbell
    John Campbell
    March 18, 2025 at 12:08 am | #

    Very pretty. Just saying. In a totally heterosexual way.

    • NGPZ
      NGPZ
      March 18, 2025 at 12:12 am | #

      that’s one long way of saying “no homo” XD

    • jeffepp
      jeffepp
      March 18, 2025 at 2:19 am | #

      I don’t think anyone has any illusions about how bi Joyce is, including Joyce. She did go into why she couldn’t make out with Dottie, due to being in an official relationship with Joe, and that would be cheating.

  15. The 25th
    The 25th
    March 18, 2025 at 12:19 am | #

    Wow Jennifer and Joe are only in 14 strips together

  16. Dante
    Dante
    March 18, 2025 at 12:23 am | #

    Joyce will one day gain full awareness of her bisexuality. In the meantine, she’s keeping us fed with the kind of casual girl-loving material Becky fell for.

    ….. Also, Joyce babe don’t assume apolitical is best. Maybe Alice sleeps with Das Kapital under her pillow. Maybe she’s reappearing with blue hair and pronouns next time we see her. Keep an open mind!

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      March 18, 2025 at 12:33 am | #

      That’d be a quick dye job

    • Miri
      Miri
      March 18, 2025 at 3:41 am | #

      In fairness, most people use pronouns. Just most people don’t think about their pronouns all that much, I think? (I think I genuinely don’t care but most people would feel odd calling the short, curvy, high-pitched person with non-feminine pronouns but if somebody asked if they could practice using a different set that don’t feel instinctive on me in a low stakes environment, I’d be completely OK with it, if I knew them and had no reason to think they were somehow being unkind..?)

      • John Campbell
        John Campbell
        March 18, 2025 at 5:05 am | #

        I just wish all of these people who keep complaining about pronouns would actually stop using pronouns. It’d be hilarious.

        • John Campbell
          John Campbell
          March 18, 2025 at 5:35 am | #

          John means John wishes all the people complaining about pronouns would stop using pronouns. John would find John’s proposed scenario hilarious.

          • Mark
            Mark
            March 18, 2025 at 7:20 am | #

            One can craft fairly natural speech without personal pronouns, and even find it fun, but probably not in live conversation.

            • eh, whatever
              eh, whatever
              March 18, 2025 at 9:31 am | #

              “One” is playing impersonal pronoun here.

            • Steamweed
              Steamweed
              March 18, 2025 at 9:38 am | #

              Many years ago, when I taught my 9th grade English students the use of the “one” pronoun (as in, “Yes, one can craft such speech), it blew their texting-dependent minds. They’d never seen it before.

          • Steamweed
            Steamweed
            March 18, 2025 at 9:39 am | #

            Indeed, Steamweed agrees with John.

        • Smallmoon
          Smallmoon
          March 18, 2025 at 5:35 am | #

          Smallmoon wonders what it would sound like if they that group were to actually engage in the behaviour you John Campbell requested. Probably like they that group suffers from a collective compulsion towards illeism.

          Note that I couldn’t even get through the thought without needing three (well, two, one of which was used twice) pronouns.

          • Taellosse
            Taellosse
            March 18, 2025 at 10:58 pm | #

            ‘It’ is also a pronoun.

      • Dante
        Dante
        March 18, 2025 at 10:36 pm | #

        Pronouns are an inevitability in all languages I know of dskjgsld the “blue hair and pronouns” is just a meme. I use brightly colored hair and neopronouns :’33

        Your open-mindedness despite any initial oddness is a good thing! It’s an hostile world out there.

        • Inahc
          Inahc
          March 18, 2025 at 11:13 pm | #

          japanese technically-kind-of-almost doesn’t have pronouns! 🙂 they use stuff like “the boy” or “the girl” a lot from what I’ve heard.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns

          • Dante
            Dante
            March 19, 2025 at 12:07 am | #

            AFAIK they use degrees of formality, which give off the Gender Vibes (though they aren’t _explicitly_ so.) But oooh, thank you for the link! It’s really interesting how nouns used this indirectly end up working as pronouns! :33

  17. ian livs
    ian livs
    March 18, 2025 at 12:25 am | #

    I do feel like the “she’s very pretty” is meant toward Jennifer as a “your Totally Not Girlfriend is pretty” approval sort of thing. but also: Joyce, still not beating the bi allegations, lol~

  18. HueSatLight
    HueSatLight
    March 18, 2025 at 12:26 am | #

    how about food reviews for original flavor snacks?

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      March 18, 2025 at 12:55 am | #

      The only ethical food review would blur out the product’s container and not refer to it by its brand name. Unfortunately, Joyce has used brand names in her reviews, making her an unpaid shill.

      • clif
        clif
        March 18, 2025 at 1:43 am | #

        Some people might feel that a review without the brand name to identify just what you are reviewing is kind of useless.

        Am I one of the some people?

        Maybe.

      • Daibhid C
        Daibhid C
        March 18, 2025 at 8:34 am | #

        I don’t read food reviews, but book reviews are just as bad. “Oh, you’re telling me the title, author, and publisher of this book you think I’d like? Seems sus.”

      • HueSatLight
        HueSatLight
        March 18, 2025 at 9:52 am | #

        It’s ok, there’s no good reviews.

  19. Suet
    Suet
    March 18, 2025 at 12:30 am | #

    Instructions unclear, Alice will be friends with Jennifer again, but won’t befriend Joyce.

    I presume Tristan is one of the reasons for step two…

  20. Steamweed
    Steamweed
    March 18, 2025 at 12:32 am | #

    “Normal”? SO over-rated. Abby is all the rage these days. Abby Normal. SO hot.

  21. Dean
    Dean
    March 18, 2025 at 12:53 am | #

    Alice: Eww, this girl prepares Kraft mac and cheese strictly according to the instructions, unfriended.

  22. BadRoad
    BadRoad
    March 18, 2025 at 12:53 am | #

    I’ve found pictures of cute animals to be mostly nonthreatening and apolitical.

  23. darkoneko
    darkoneko
    March 18, 2025 at 12:55 am | #

    ok this is already getting creepy loàl

  24. Lingo
    Lingo
    March 18, 2025 at 12:55 am | #

    While you’re at it, yes please remind ME of what is normal, I’ve been immersed in [waves hands around wildly] all THIS for the last god-knows-how-long

    • Reltzik
      Reltzik
      March 18, 2025 at 1:33 am | #

      Saying “This is not normal” is the new normal.

      • Steamweed
        Steamweed
        March 18, 2025 at 9:21 am | #

        There’s lots of precedence for saying these are unprecedented times.

        • Thag Simmons
          Thag Simmons
          March 18, 2025 at 10:58 am | #

          Honestly the idea that these are well precedented times is probably worse

  25. IntangibleMatter
    IntangibleMatter
    March 18, 2025 at 1:01 am | #

    I forgot that I still had the css enabled that inserts the last two panels of yesterday’s strip when I opened this, and was caught off guard by Walky’s removal of pants at the end of the strip.

    • Aura
      Aura
      March 18, 2025 at 6:03 am | #

      *snrk* oh my god

  26. Taffy
    Taffy
    March 18, 2025 at 1:03 am | #

    Why is a phantom hand rubbing Joe’s titty through his jacket?

    • Schpoonman
      Schpoonman
      March 18, 2025 at 1:29 am | #

      Joyce psychically claiming her territory in front of Billie.

    • John Campbell
      John Campbell
      March 18, 2025 at 2:43 am | #

      It’s not a phantom. It’s clearly coming from Joyce’s backpack. She’s testing a new system for Carla.

      The pie magazine hasn’t been loaded yet.

    • Amós Batista
      Amós Batista
      March 18, 2025 at 5:54 am | #

      it’s Mike

    • Jeremiah
      Jeremiah
      March 18, 2025 at 8:38 am | #

      What you talking about? If you mean the panel 2 one that is very clearly Joe’s.

    • Yumi
      Yumi
      March 18, 2025 at 11:10 am | #

      Joe has been in a long running game of ninja-style tag. It actually started way back in “Move-In Day.” If you crawl all the way back through the archive, you’ll occasionally see bits of it playing out. Joe is now it.

  27. Bryy
    Bryy
    March 18, 2025 at 1:43 am | #

    I cannot wait for this to blow up spectacularly in Jennifer’s face.

  28. aelfwine
    aelfwine
    March 18, 2025 at 1:44 am | #

    I hadn’t realized how few times Joe and Jennifer had interacted with each other.

  29. Charles Phipps
    Charles Phipps
    March 18, 2025 at 2:12 am | #

    We need Tristan to show up. Then reveal he has ChatGPT set up for his parents to read and is a gay punk rocker.

  30. Amós Batista
    Amós Batista
    March 18, 2025 at 6:00 am | #

    “didn’t you almost have sex with you and your roommate” is a weird statement to say in front of your girlfriend. Or it’s just accepted there, I don’t know…

    • Yumi
      Yumi
      March 18, 2025 at 12:44 pm | #

      It’s possible Joe was feeling a bit slighted by Jennifer not acknowledging that they’ve met. Or maybe he just wasn’t thinking. Either way, he did seem to quickly recognize it wasn’t the best thing to have said.

  31. Florence
    Florence
    March 18, 2025 at 6:47 am | #

    Unfortunately the drug of Dorothy’s feelings being confirmed have made every other strip an extension of that

    There could be a strip that’s just Sal smoking a cigarette and I would see the connections

    • Li
      Li
      March 18, 2025 at 11:43 am | #

      Yep. Like, it’s very true. I tried not to read into that fourth panel but I did anyway lmao.

      • Florence
        Florence
        March 18, 2025 at 2:31 pm | #

        Oh no I see it now, I’m in too deep 😂

  32. UrsulaDavina
    UrsulaDavina
    March 18, 2025 at 7:59 am | #

    Otters people like and relate to otters.

  33. Jeremiah
    Jeremiah
    March 18, 2025 at 8:34 am | #

    Joyce continues to not beat the allegations.

    • Looney
      Looney
      March 18, 2025 at 9:59 am | #

      i think at this point the allegations are beating joyce.

  34. Buck Ripsnort
    Buck Ripsnort
    March 18, 2025 at 9:13 am | #

    Well, now I really want to see what’s in Joyce’s feed.

    • anon
      anon
      March 18, 2025 at 9:06 pm | #

      I’m surprised she’d really have time to catch up/post anything significant if not like post recent pics of her and jocelyne tho idk if she’ d wanna risk their mom finding out that she’s trans too

  35. EtchJetty
    EtchJetty
    March 18, 2025 at 11:00 am | #

    this comic has been so fucking good recently

  36. Kyulen
    Kyulen
    March 18, 2025 at 11:53 am | #

    I guess I couldn’t do that. My social media feeds are full of very political content, and I doubt that’s gonna change anytime soon.

    • John Campbell
      John Campbell
      March 18, 2025 at 1:39 pm | #

      Seriously, I know this strip was probably drawn when Biden was still the presumptive nominee, but at this point in the fall of the republic, “apolitical” is hella sus. If you don’t have at least one reposted article shedding light on the regime’s latest crimes against humanity or informing vulnerable people of threats to their existence, how’m I gonna trust you?

      Hell, even the social media app they’re posted on is political now. I mean, if the Nazi manchild hasn’t banned you from Twitter yet, what are you even doing with your life?

      • Slartibeast Button, BIA
        Slartibeast Button, BIA
        March 18, 2025 at 1:45 pm | #

        Hanging on Mastodon and posting one cute picture to Twitter each month to keep the account from being hijacked.

      • Charles Phipps
        Charles Phipps
        March 18, 2025 at 3:10 pm | #

        I post on Bluesky but keep my Twitter account.

        I keep it to call out all the lies.

        The .0001 Elon earns from me a month is worth me regularly calling him a lying monster, IMHO.

        • Jeremiah
          Jeremiah
          March 18, 2025 at 3:25 pm | #

          I keep my Twitter because I already follow people there, I don’t really post anything.

      • Kyulen
        Kyulen
        March 18, 2025 at 7:20 pm | #

        I’ve been posting political stuff on my social media accounts for a long time, going back several years on my old Facebook account, and more recently on Twitter and Bluesky. I would probably be happier if I could be less into political stuff, but I have a combination of political views that are very far to the left of the American mainstream, and I’m autistic with politics as one of my major special interests, so that’s not likely to happen.

        • NGPZ
          NGPZ
          March 18, 2025 at 8:04 pm | #

          I mean I’m very far left politically and hyperfixated on it too, which is ironically why I don’t use social media for political stuff anymore (or at all when I can help it)

          The attention-seeking game of social media, that which calls itself “”debate”” in US Politic, it is not a game which can be won by progressives.

          Progress rests on truth, about the facts about the complex natural and artificial systems which govern our lives, and let’s face it — facts are ultimately useless in the framework of a performative tweet and hour-long televised political debate.

          Proper understanding of systemic bigotry, climate change, and other important issues which affect us inevitably take much longer than that.

          • Joy
            Joy
            March 18, 2025 at 9:37 pm | #

            I know for sure that social media has personally misled me when it comes to the details of several different politics conflicts, and some of the most compelling stories I’ve seen online had turned out to be complete fabrications. They just aren’t valid news sources and I hate it when one specific post or comment changes my worldview in some way …. Only for me to find out later it was a complete fabrication. A lie. I get tricked, and I’ve been tricked over and over online. I hate it.

            • NGPZ
              NGPZ
              March 18, 2025 at 10:09 pm | #

              If it’s any consolation, it’s not just you. The spread of misinformation is a direct consequence of the incentives platforms place on users to get attention for whatever cause.

              There’s only so much 128 characters or a minute-long video can do to accurately capture the truth on complex issues which affect our lives.

              Bad actors advance themselves on these kinda platforms with statements that are short, quippy and wrong, our allies all too often think the correct response are statements that are short, quippy, and correct, but here’s the conundrum:

              There’s a limit to how simple the truth can be and still be the truth. Falsehoods don’t have that. There is no limit on how simple an idea can be when it doesn’t have to conform to the complex reality in which we live.

              You play the game of “who’s got the simplest argument,” liars win every time. But if you can convince people that the world is complex, then simplistic explanations, across the board, become suspect.

              TL;DR

              for the sake of progressive causes, we’re better off staying off of Twitter and adjacent social media, thems literally the tobacco of the information age, and it’s made by the same crooked white people who’ve been growing it for centuries at our expense.

              The difference being that in recent decades they ran out of land to colonize, so they basically started colonizing our MINDS

      • NGPZ
        NGPZ
        March 18, 2025 at 8:16 pm | #

        The problem isn’t even just with the various reasons artists and activists and who not stay on Twitter, but generally with how complacently everyone chooses to engage with technology these days, sliding into the techno-feudalist landscape of the current web.

        My advice? Look into healthier alternatives:

        – Find smaller sites and keep tabs on them through browser bookmarks.
        – Curate RSS feeds. Always keep a local copy.
        – Start your own personal website (and look into the Web Revival Movement).
        – Instead of paying for Discord Nitro, use Catbox or an uguu instance.

        generally, don’t let a handful of platforms control how you engage with the wider web

  37. AnonGrouch
    AnonGrouch
    March 18, 2025 at 4:16 pm | #

    For a long time I honestly thought Willis was going to write Joyce straight. I no longer think that is the case. She’s very pretty.

    • John Campbell
      John Campbell
      March 18, 2025 at 4:27 pm | #

      Armed with her new terrible Jennifer advice, she can be straight and make out with Dorothy!

    • HueSatLight
      HueSatLight
      March 18, 2025 at 6:13 pm | #

      Opposite take, but kind of the same take at the heart of it. Joyce is probably some kind of bi, but, “She’s very pretty” is not an indication of it. Reminds me of insecure straight guys insisting they can’t tell if a guy is attractive or not because that would make them gay.

      • thejeff
        thejeff
        March 18, 2025 at 6:55 pm | #

        This is definitely a case where common male and female socialization is very different. Probably (hopefully) getting less so with time.
        It’s not just refusing to say because it would make them gay, but just not thinking about other guys in those terms at all.

      • AnonGrouch
        AnonGrouch
        March 18, 2025 at 8:36 pm | #

        I agree and I don’t think that it, alone, is what tilts me that direction. It’s just the whole haystack of evidence. I was pretty staunchly in the ‘she’s definitely straight and a lot of her actions just look queer coded because she’s a lot more intimate with her friends than the average person’ camp for years. If she made this sort of comment a few years ago I’d probably make the same argument.

    • anon
      anon
      March 18, 2025 at 9:05 pm | #

      I’d imagine she wouldn’t make a (subconscious/unintentioanl) move on alice if she thinks she’s gonna ‘re-set’ her back pu with billiefer but i think it’d take a few more years if not her speedrunning her bi awakenning or so (and even then i imagine she wouldn’t necessarily rush into a relationship with another girl considering how thirsty she is for joe currently ulnless they’re willnig to be in a polycule lol)

  38. Joy
    Joy
    March 18, 2025 at 5:01 pm | #

    This strip made me do a lot, ugly, creaking laugh. I cackled, like the word cackle. This is the best one I’ve read this month, no notes.

  39. anon
    anon
    March 18, 2025 at 8:59 pm | #

    I guess some ppl are more casual about adding them or so, but i feel like unless alice doesn’t remember the interaction she’d prolly avoid friending someone, even online, of someone connected to billie

    • Yumi
      Yumi
      March 18, 2025 at 10:40 pm | #

      It seems like Joyce sends friend requests pretty freely, and so she might have several mutual friends with Alice. If Alice has blocked Jennifer (which seems likely), then she probably wouldn’t even know that that’s how Joyce knew her.

      Many of my high school friends went to the same college and were in a certain group there. Someone I had never met was also in this group, I guess, and we had around ten mutual friends. Somehow I accidentally sent a friend request to him, which he accepted… and when I got the notification he had accepted, I was so confused, because who the hell was he?

      • anon
        anon
        March 19, 2025 at 1:19 am | #

        i guess sarah did surprisingly have a handful of contacts before textign like 3-4 ppl ‘is this lucy’ lol

  40. thakoru
    thakoru
    March 18, 2025 at 9:17 pm | #

    …It occurs to me that this is the exact sort of meddling that Joyce was trying to do with Sarah and Jacob last semester. It would be really funny if this went roughly the same way.

    • thejeff
      thejeff
      March 18, 2025 at 10:17 pm | #

      Is it really?

      Big difference is that, as far as we know, Alice isn’t dating anyone and the motivation certainly isn’t breaking up a couple.

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