Booyah
Posted on February 10, 2026 by David M Willis

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Tags: asma, dorothy, joyce, sal

186 thoughts on “Booyah”

  1. Doctor_Who

    I choose to interpret the “Booyah!” as evidence that Asma is a Teen Titans fan, and should make friends with Lucy.

    1. TrueSurvivor

      Teen Titans!
      I remember as a kid, my babysitter was real into that show and she turned my on to it. I don’t think I watched it regularly (I may have been to young to figure out how to use a channel guide), but I recall she showed me this flash-2D fighter game Cartoon Network (I assume) put up to play online for free. I loved it, even if I didn’t get all the characters. Later when I got hospitalized with a really really bad rare version of strep, I recall binge watching Teen Titans on the TV they had in the room. I felt terrible but was having a great time with that show through the haze of illness. I was not informed how close to actually dying I was.

      PS. I am having major trouble with getting this website to load on Chrome. So if this comment isn’t moderation blocked, maybe someone can tell how to fix that?

      1. clif

        This version of the website is new and still has problems. I expect they will slowly get solved.

      2. Noted

        Heck yeah, that fighting game is Teen Titans Battle Blitz! I think it’s emulatable via Flashpoint, though not sure.

      3. Nono

        The original Teen Titans was so good. Like it wasn’t perfect, but I really liked what they did with it.

        Teen Titans Go!, on the other hand…

        1. Roborat

          I liked Teen Titans Go. I loved Tara Strong as Raven, since I already knew her as Bubbles and Twilight Sparke.

    2. Gin

      We got Lucy as Starfire, Asma as Cyborg, if we get three more we can get a full squad.

      1. Cholma

        Well, if *anybody* is Beast Boy, it’s got to be Walky! (It’s Walky!)

        1. Cholma

          Ah, it seems that if I wait until after the server is being hammered (it is currently 90+ minutes after comic posted) then I can post without getting the “timeout/cannot find that page” error.

          And so now, I can see the Edit button! (name & email still weren’t saved though)

          Edit: Oh, Bee Tee Dubs, David: whatever change you made to the links code worked– I can now see previously clicked links again. Thanks!

        2. Wizard

          That’s not just me then? I checked the “save name” box, but I still have to enter my name and e-mail from scratch every time. And the color combination makes the buttons incredibly difficult to read.

        3. Sharizard

          I wanna say Sal as Raven, based on their aloofness.
          But then, Raven and Beast Boy shipping makes that a problem…

        4. eh, whatever

          That’s not just me then? I checked the “save name” box, but I still have to enter my name and e-mail from scratch every time.
           
          No, that’s everybody.

        5. zee

          @Sharizard tbf as much as I am a raven x beast boy shipper, they had a lot of sibling energy in the original cartoon and the romantic stuff came later I think. So if we’re talking raw 2000s TT, it works.
          And even more than Raven x Beast Boy, I’m a Raven x Cyborg truther. Cybergoth shall reign supreme!!!
          –
          On a side, as long as we’re complaining about the new site: I really hate how responsive the comment buttons are on mobile. As in they activate as soon as you interact. So if you happen to touch reply or report while scrolling, it’ll open the reply box or send a report. If you happen to hit cancel while writing your comment and scrolling to check something, it cancels (thank God this site still remembers whatever comment you were typing). I feel like in mobile it’s important that the input only goes through when you lift your finger, rather than the second your finger touches it. Prevents more mistakes

        6. Shade

          The choice for Raven right now is definitely Ethan more than Sal.

      2. Nono

        Robin’s parallel is probably Amber? Or Walky depending if you want angsty Robin or goofy Robin.

    3. Tessea

      When I was in high school in the 90’s,kids used Booya! fairly often. The first time I remember hearing it in media was Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove

    4. zee

      I associate booyah more with Kim Possible, but that one didn’t have a more recent remake in the sliding timeline

    5. Hof1991

      Since I’m older than teen titans and from Wisconsin, booyah is a tasty chicken stew originally from Belgium that is often served to large gatherings, such as church picnics. Popular in the Green Bay Area. My mom used to make it because we were a large family. I enjoy the dissonance, when cartoons shout it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booyah_(stew)

  2. IntangibleMatter

    New last panel which works well when tacked on to any strip, along with “TAKING OFF PANTS NOW”

    1. Jon

      It also works as the panel following “TAKING OFF PANTS NOW”.

      1. clif

        Internets all around.

        1. drs

          Or the panel preceding “TAKING OFF PANTS NOW”

    2. deliverything

      For anyone who wants to revisit it:
      https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/gotcher/

    3. IntangibleMatter

      For what it’s worth I have now edited the injectible CSS to work with the new version of the site and also to have the Asma panel.

  3. Sirksome

    Don’t trust Sal.

  4. Bogeywoman

    Called it

    1. Bogeywoman

      https://www.reddit.com/r/dumbingofage/comments/1p4osbk/asma_getting_ready_for_her_date_doodles/

      1. Jon

        It also works as the panel following “TAKING OFF PANTS NOW”.

      2. Jerna

        Man, I should not have taken a look at that Reddit.

        1. Big Z

          Yeah, reddit is bad at the best of times except for some very well-curated pockets, but THAT subreddit is basically Mordor where the illiterate shadows lie.

      3. zee

        Why sal look like she’d be a good white Christian girl from Joyce’s home town named Rebecca? Damn she’s been robbed like a melinated one piece character getting animated by toei.
        someone hit her with the joe biden attack

        –
        No disrespect to the artist if they happen to be in here, it’s funny. Just like. I know you know what brown is, cuz you put it on asma

      4. Taffy

        Ew, the subreddit. If you think people on this site are addicted to upsetting themselves with shit they made up, that place takes it to a whole new level of willful stupidity.

        1. NGPZ

          yeah i concur, also not to mention Reddit’s very pertinent… nazi problem 👀

    2. Thag Simmons

      Everyone called it

      1. Needfuldoer

        Alexander Graham Bell called it.

      2. Yumi

        Apparently some people didn’t know what was coming, which is more surprising to me.

        1. Maniacalshen

          Okay, I looked through Asma’s tag, and the last hint for this was in OCTOBER. It is more than reasonable to not remember that four months later

    3. Zero

      That was less foreshadowing and more just text.

  5. Taffy

    I can’t believe this. Sal is going to cheat on Danny with Asma??? That’s the canon direction this story is going in? Oh no!

    1. Reaver

      No, no no, she’s going to cheat on Danny with Dorothy and Joyce

      1. Astariel

        That would be hilarious.

    2. Cbwroses

      She’ll kiss Joyce and Dorothy in a triple kiss.

      The reporter who just so happens to be covering the local bowling tournament for the school paper will see it and take a photo.

      Daisy will immediately mark that as front page news.

      The next morning, Sal will awkwardly try to tell Danny that she has to break up with him when Dorothy comes in the room and drags Sal away after telling Danny Sal is with them now.

      Joyce will poke her head in and start to laugh, because, for some reason, she feels someone has ro, but then the laughter will trail off when she realizes Joe is staring at her expectantly (to which she’ll promise ro talk to him another time).

      Then, as Sal is trying to figure out why she should care about the picture in the paper, they’ll all three enter her room where they’ll find Marcie standing in the dark crying, signing to Malaya that God isn’t real.

      1. Wizard

        And then they’ll go on to assimilate every female student on their floor into the Lesborg collective. some may try to avoid this fate, but”Resistance is futile!”

  6. shadowcell

    Dumbing of Age Book 16 – All of This Has Been a Mistake

    alternatively, Dumbing of Age Book 16 – With the Extremely Brushable Hair!

    1. Steamweed

      (I assume.)

    2. TrueSurvivor

      I prefer the latter. It sounds like the comic got its advertisment sloganmixed up with a barbie doll’s. This generates a noncongruenty which I find hillarious…. and I have once again overexplained and murdered someone’s joke again, haven’t I?

      1. Stanistani

        *in coroner’s voice* Time of death, 0030, February 10, 2026.

  7. DiDi

    Welp, nice to see this wasn’t dragged out any more than necessary.

    1. Wizard

      Yeah, it’s awkward, but at least Asma quickly coming clean right away should avoid making it a lot more awkward.

  8. Dot

    Yeah there was really no point in having this be ambiguous at all

    1. Thag Simmons

      It’s more efficient and if you don’t have a banger idea for a scene where they ask Sal to bowl with them there’s not much value in overelaborating. It’s a pretty reasonable choice I think

      Remind the audience that this plotline is still happening, which would be much less relevant on a binge read anyways.

  9. Yotomoe

    No, that wasn’t a mistake. You were supposed to knock down all of the pins.

    1. Leadsynth

      Asma’s clearly good at bowling, and enthusiastic about it enough to shoot “Booyah!” But all her enthusiasm is suddenly gone now that there’s no Alice? What’s up with that? Is Asma down THAT bad?

      1. Freemage

        Well, she was thinking this was going to be a date, and now it’s not, meaning she’s been spending time with Doyce for no reason. Some folks here would, I believe, prefer a few hours with the Good Place’s penis flatteners and carnivorous bees.

        1. Leadsynth

          Heh. Doyce.
          OK, from now on, it’s “Joyrothy” when I’m enjoying Joyce/Dorothy, and “Doyce” when Joyce/Dorothy are cringe.

  10. RassilonTDavros

    Interesting detail that Sal, despite seemingly never learning most people’s names, actually does know Asma’s.

    1. Leadsynth

      She uses nicknames for everyone, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t KNOW their names. Like “Wonderbread.”

    2. anon

      it’s interesting how asma doesn’t seem to know her name if she’s like “Who’s this?” Versus “Why is sal here” b/c i remember her and walky interacting when walky got his packages

  11. Yotomoe

    “hey Sal, me and the girl I cheated on your brother with are going to go bowling with the Front Desk girl who’s name escapes me right now to absolve our guilt over kissing at a protest. Are you game?”

    1. Taffy

      Sal, who could be having awesome sex with Danny right now: “Sure, that’s a reasonable thing to ask.”

      1. Yotomoe

        “Ah don’t even like bowling that much, but I’ll be there.”

      2. NullSet

        No its cringe sex with Danny ( which she loves)

        1. Taffy

          How about it’s the thing I fucking said and you grow the fuck up and get the anti-cringe surgery like you told our daughter you would?

        2. KtBear

          Wait, when did Taffy and Nullset get married? Or am I completely misinterpreting what Taffy said?

        3. YourCousinJay

          they’re not, they actually had a child out of wedlock, it was a big controvery in the comments when it happened

        4. LiamKav

          EVERYTHING is a big controversy in the comments

        5. Throwatron

          Don’t trust the comments.

    2. yak

      Yeah it really is weird how Sal did any of this

      1. Thag Simmons

        Sometimes you’re curious about whatever nonsense your trainwreck nerd [s]friends[/s] acquaintances are trying to involve you in.

        1. Thag Simmons

          Are the tags borked or did I just forget the right formatting

        2. clif

          Don’t trust square brackets.

        3. Needfuldoer

          It’s HTML, not BBcode, so you use greater-than and less-than symbols.

          The alligator eats the tag!

        4. yak

          TRUE

        5. Thag Simmons

          Yeah I can never keep it straight which sites use which codes. C’est la vie, I suppose.

      2. Sirksome

        I’ve said this before but I think the expectation that Sal should be really invested in her brother’s love life is a bit unreasonable. What is she supposed to do? Stop being friends with Joyce and Dorothy in solidarity with Walky even though he never expressed wanting that? They are all adults-ish and capable of making their own decisions and Sal has the right to friendship with Joyce and Dorothy outside of their relationship to her brother’s love life. It’s also really not her business until any of them decide to involve her.

        1. anonymsly

          Yeah, it’s totally normal and solid loving sibling behavior, to tell your twin brother to stop whining, grow a pair, and find a different chick immediately after the girl his girlfriend cheated on him with broke up with him for her and laughed in his face. And it’s likewise super normal to go hang out for fun times with both the ex-girlfriend and the girl who cheated with her and took obvious loud joy in his pain.

          This is totally normal affectionate sibling behavior and not cold or dickish at all.

        2. Sirksome

          You do know Walky was dating and is once again trying to date the girl that stabbed his sister in the hand and stalked and antagonized her for weeks if not months right? They’ve pretty well established it’s okay to have relationships outside of the personal baggage each other has with people. Sal was also arguably friends with both of them before and after Walky’s first run with Dorothy. What exactly do we expect here?

        3. Yotomoe

          Didn’t Walky literally break up for her BECAUSE of that? Or at least have a shaky relationship with her because of that drama and literally only reconciled when Sal herself showed up to say “bro, I don’t care, fuck whoever you want”

        4. Sirksome

          @Yotomoe-That’s my point entirely. Sal didn’t ask Walky to hold some sort of moral stand on her behalf without any of her input and got actively frustrated when he tried to force that. It also didn’t really stop him. Neither of them expect the other to end or not pursue relationships for the other. This desire for Sal of all people to stop associating with Joyce and Dorothy or perhaps chastise them for how they’ve treated Walky feels more born from a dissatisfaction that Joyce and Dorothy have not been punished enough for their behavior than an actual reasonable expectation of Sal.
          ——

          I get it in some ways. I really want this friend group to burn from the fiery backlash of their interpersonal bullshit. But I think it’s kind of just out of character for Sal to be the one towing a line over something as low stakes as Walky and Joe’s love life.

        5. HueSatLight

          Makes me think of this strip.

        6. HueSatLight

          I think this one’s relevant too. She doesn’t say, “I’ve been the other woman”, but it does show she’s familiar with being part of the mess. https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/girlfriend-2/

        7. YourCousinJay

          tbh Sal and Walky’s relationship aside since they’ve only recently reconnected anyways.
          –
          I dont think it’s weird at all to not want to be friends with someone who cheats on their partner. Or at the very least distance yourself from them for a while so soon after they cheated on their partner.

        8. yak

          I’m more surprised that Sal would come when summoned, if she’s been getting serenaded by Danforth all afternoon/night.

          Also it’s one thing to be invested in your sibling’s love life, but another thing entirely to continue to be friends with people that really hurt your sibling’s feelings, literally a day later. I would never in my life do that to my sister, even if she insisted it was no big deal.

          And yeah, Walky did date Amber. Is currently dating Amber. I wouldn’t do that either. Maybe me and my sister are especially close but it doesn’t feel that way.

        9. nadamás

          @cousinjay Sure but it’s also not particularly to not do that, it’s a matter of personal standards. Some might view cheating as a really big deal and not associate with someone who has done it. Others might not really care. Sal seems to be the later do far.

        10. clif

          Currently dating Amber is the direction I expect things to go, but it’s not a done deal yet.

    3. Kyulen

      It genuinely bothers me how little Sal seems to care about how the bad behavior of Dorothy and Joyce recently has hurt her brother Walky.

      1. Kyulen

        The edit function doesn’t seem to be working and it keeps sending me to “Page Not Found” whenever I post a comment right now, by the way.

      2. Scruffy looking nerfherder

        I think it’s been long enough that we all have to acknowledge that this is just what the vibes after the kiss is gonna be. I don’t think that big moment is coming from the boys.

        Unrelated but it’s funny Sal definitely remembers Asma’s name because most people don’t and it fits her image of going against the grain.

        1. mads_in_zero

          Walky (and to a lesser extent Sal) have been joking about Joyce and Dorothy’s Very Close Friendship for ages now. It doesn’t make it fine but I think both of them are sort of approaching this as “yeah that checks out”.

      3. YourCousinJay

        I’m surprised she’s this unbothered but it’s not exactly weird either. Sal and Walky only very recently reconnected after being out of each other’s lives for several years up to that point.
        –
        Sal’s also just as emotionally dishonest as Walky, it’s just that when she does it it’s usually in cute moments with Danny, but that equally probably means that if she has any actual opinions on what happened, she wouldn’t want to share them with anyone regardless since it would clash with her whole “loveless renegade rebel without a cause” stick

      4. anon

        i mean she was like ‘eh i give it two weeks’ when he and lucy started dating so i imagine she thought he’d be fine/get over it as opposed to disapproving of dorothy even before they got together

        1. Throwatron

          Maybe, and this is just spit-balling here, Sal’s entire life of living with Walky has left her of the opinion that his deliberate and obligate emotional shallowness, implies that she has no reason to take Walky’s dating life seriously? Because, from her perspective, Walky doesn’t even take his dating life seriously? Like, she’s wrong about that take, but that’s how it looks to her. He’s been through three girlfriends in how many months? If I had a friend who went through partners at that rate in real life, I wouldn’t be assigning a lot of value to those relationships, either.

      5. yak

        Eh she’s been pretty nonchalant about it, but she didn’t seem to think Walky was all that invested in Dorothy. I don’t expect her to like burn bridges with them, but the fact that she picked bowling with them over hanging out with her boyfriend is a bit odd.

        1. Throwatron

          Her boyfriend stormed off in an emotional huff over something she didn’t really care about. Sal would absolutely give him space in that scenario, not seek him out.

        2. yak

          You’re right, idk how I forgot that when it was literally two days ago

        3. Throwatron

          We live in current year, and everything is exhausting. Forgetting a lil something is allowed imo

  12. yak

    Asma should have realized she lives in a comic universe and this sort of hijink will happen all the time if she isn’t specific about who she is referring to

    1. anon

      also the possibility of the author wanting to be cruel and start drama like,

      alice showing up but like “Hey, hope you don’t mind i invited my gf/bf to here too!” and spending half the time flirting with each other in front of asma

  13. Lensi

    So who did she expect?

    1. Taffy

      A L I C E

      1. Theluxland

        Oh. OH.
        Yep, I am the person who didn’t know who she expected.
        I may be stupid

        1. Hinoron

          Nope. I hadn’t a clue either.
          …and now I’m going to have to hunt down a reminder of who Alice is. (lost track of this comic for a few months.)

    2. tim gueguen

      Alice, probably.

    3. Owlmirror

      (wrong answers only)
       
      Chidi (gesturing towards blackboard): P L A T O
       
      Giorgio Tsoukalos (holding an invisible watermelon): A L I E N S

  14. Ty34er

    I’m trying to figure out who it was supposed to be and I really got nothin here.

    1. Axel

      iirc Malaya

      1. nadamás

        You did not remember correctly, it was Alice

        1. Axel

          I realized this on today’s page (the next page) and came back here like “I hope I didn’t actually answer that comment.” Oops.

    2. Taffy

      Go back through Asma’s tag, you’ll find it.

    3. Yotomoe

      Alice

      1. Irreleverent

        Guess you’re gonna have to make like Jefferson Airplane and go ask Alice.

    4. NullSet

      Alice

    5. Owlmirror

      (Actually, maybe plausibly wrong answers (badass leather girls, i guess) only)
       
      Buffy: F A I T H
       
      Gabrielle: X E N A
       
      Neo: : T R I N I T Y

  15. Steamweed

    And that’s 2 strikes for Asma. First with the pins, and second…welp.

  16. Kyulen

    I think the only thing that really surprised me about this strip is that Sal actually knows Asma’s name. Most of the characters in their residence hall didn’t know her name until pretty recently.

    1. Taffy

      And yet, Asma is asking who Sal is. The shoe is on the other foot, for once.

  17. darkoneko

    …too blunt, Asma

    1. darkoneko

      wait I can’t edit anymore ? oh well.
      That’s quite a nice expression in panel 2

      1. Hof1991

        Time limit on editing. Makes sense. You don’t want someone editing comments hours later. Think it’s 10 minutes.

      2. Shade

        Besides the time limit If that error occurs you can’t edit.

    2. anon

      i don’t think sal will take too much offense to it unless asma has had unpleasant run ins with sal before

  18. Cameron Stone

    Never have truer words ever been spoken.

    1. Taffy

      It makes a lot of sense that you would say this.

  19. Giguioto

    I still don’t understand why Asma even associated Alice with Joyce and Dorothy. She never saw them together, Alice hasn’t even interacted with Dorothy and she lives in another building. The only opportunity she had was when Raidah was complaining about the newspaper, but Alice did say “I don’t know ANY of these people”.

    On the other hand, Asma, who is the front desk girl of the building Joyce and Dorothy live, SHOULD know that they are friends with Sal, whom she also should recognize.

    Guess that Asma just doomed herself with her wishful-thinking, but that’s on her.

    1. Sirksome

      You’re right. This is actually a pretty funny joke retroactively.

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/whatshername/

      1. Ophidiophile

        You would be right if Sal was in the habit of coming in through the front door and not her dorm room’s window.

    2. BorkBorkBork

      I don’t know if she would necessarily know that Sal is good friends with Joyce and Dorothy. They walk together, sure, but they all meet up in front of the building. Whereas Alice was absolutely gossiping as if she knew them very well.
      .
      Yeah, she did say she didn’t know any of those people, but that’s an easy thing to either miss or misinterpret, especially if you’re basically listening in on a stranger you’re enamored with and start off assuming that they’re good friends. Whereas I’m not sure that it would ever occur to Asma that Sal is friends with Dorothy and Joyce. The closest they ever *really* get is in walking to class, which they meet outside the building.
      .
      The real reason why this is so awkward, though, is because the Asma storyline is one that was inserted into the buffer when Willis realized the only named Muslim characters they had were one villain and two background characters, and so they had to create a plausible reason for Asma to think that Alice was friends with Joyce, and then a plausible reason for Joyce and Dorothy to want to befriend Asma. That’s why the whole meet-cute setup is so awkward, with Raidah calling Joyce a “hussy” and Alice infodumping that she’s gossiping about people she doesn’t know, and Asma acting so thirsty. Trying to do a lot in a single strip with just ultra-side characters.

      1. the Lurker

        So Asma thinks Alice is cute, and thinks Dorothy and Joyce are friends with her; and Dorothy and Joyce want to befriend Asma out of a sense of guilt because a thirsty editor posted a picture of them in a public setting where they were overcome by the emotions of the moment. And Asma is mad because they ask their friend that fits the description that Asma gave them so she bounces from the social setting she said she likes?
        Yeah, I see why everybody hates them now.

  20. Lingo

    Everyone but me! lol

  21. Shepsquared

    So Danny stormed off to nowhere? Remember when he was trying to get Joe to express his vulnerabilities and would’ve continued that conversation?

    1. SaffronComic

      There is not a single person in the universe, least of all Danny, that cares what Danny thinks about anything.

    2. anon

      he went to get a nother hat/ukelele tuneup/ maintenance eqipment 8D;

  22. Lanz

    [runs in from off screen]

    THE ALL IS LOST MOMENT

  23. Adept

    That was a long walk to an obvious punch line. I’m not really seeing the payoff.

    1. YourCousinJay

      Well I’m assuming they’re gonna go into it more in the next page

      1. Taffy

        What’s a “next page”? This is the last one. Today’s strip is always the last one.

        1. clif

          This seems to be related to what is known in some philosophically minded circles as the Tomorrow Already Exist Fallacy.

          It is somewhat related to the Tomorrow Will Exist Hypothesis which, while not itself a fallacy, is nevertheless a bold claim considering the complete lack of supporting evidence.

    2. anon

      imagine if they immediately cancel for joyce to bring becky into the ‘lesbian love sleuth’ shennanigans and having help asma and alice get tgoether

  24. Li

    Asma’s excitement over that strike is pretty adorable.
    .
    I also enjoy Joyce’s tiny “I assume” after describing Sal’s hair as extremely brushable. It’s true that she doesn’t have first-hand experience!
    .
    And yeah, I found this gag fun and don’t think it in any way took too long to come to fruition. I also think it does in fact make sense for Asma to think Joyce knew Alice, but also that it makes sense for Joyce and Dorothy to think first and foremost of Sal when asked if they can get “that friend with the boots and the hair” to show up. Frankly, it Asma had explicitly asked after their hot friend, I’m sure Sal would’ve been #1 in Joyce’s mind, though then it probably would have occurred to them to inform Asma that Sal has a boyfriend.
    .
    I also don’t think it’s especially weird that Sal showed up — for one thing, we don’t know why yet, so it could be for any number of reasons, including the opportunity to covertly give Dorothy an earful on Walky’s behalf. So, too soon to say either way.
    .
    (But also, it really seems like only Jennifer and Amber currently have any idea that Walky’s at all upset about the breakup or the cheating, and I’m not sure I see Sal as the type to go to bat for Joe, someone she doesn’t know very well? Sal’s fiercely loyal, but she also tries to keep the number of people in her inner circle kind of small, and as we’ve seen with Danny, repeatedly, is also a bit reluctant to directly own up to caring about other people. I think only more so for Walky specifically, tho she definitely does love him.)

    1. Big Z

      Sal’s the least likely person to get mad at these two at the moment — not only does she not have any context for how bad Walky’s actually hurting, but he was kinda flip about it in texts when Amber showed up. She may honestly either think he’s fine or be waiting for him to actually give her actual information.

      1. Li

        Basically.
        .
        I said months ago that it was very sad that I couldn’t really think of anyone who would be unreservedly in Walky’s corner the same way I could think of people who would be in Joe’s, but I don’t think I even took into account the likelihood of Walky further embracing nihilism?
        .
        Jennifer got to see glimpses of what’s on the other side of that. And I think Booster is, like, trying. But.
        .
        Honestly all three of them ALSO seem to be on more or less the same page of: “Walky will be fine as soon as he has another romantic partner”. Sal explicitly said she wasn’t worried because he’d be dating someone else before the end of the day, Jennifer tried to comfort him by saying there’d be someone else eventually, and Booster has been trying to cheerlead him and Amber as a couple.
        .
        Which… heck. They’re all dumb kids, and I’m not sure what my advice would’ve been at nineteen but probably also bad? As an omniscient reader, I both think Walky should probably take a break romantically and that he’s already had too much alone time post-Mike’s death.
        .
        What he really needs are more and better friends, which I think Booster is at least approaching, even if their approach is incredibly cringey and awkward.
        .
        But also: watch Sal defy all expectations tomorrow by just socking Dorothy in the solar plexus? It IS true that we don’t actually know why she showed up.
        .
        Oh and I meant to add this possibility in my first comment but I might as well do it here:
        .
        Is Sal still trying to prove to Marcie that she can make other friends? Because that would add a whole other wrinkle here. We know that Sal and Marcie spent a while being each other’s whole worlds, but more recently (“recently”, I’m talking before-the-comic-started) Marcie has made a lot of other friends of varying types (some are the kind of friend you smooch!), and Sal had instead kind of doubled down on Marcie being the only friend she needed.
        .
        Side note: I wonder if Marcie’s broadening social circle was actually partly because she knew her crush on Sal was never going to go anywhere? Codependency is never completely healthy, but it’s definitely worse when there are one-sided romantic feelings…
        .
        Sal’s been branching out some more since then, though seemingly mostly under protest, and the best platonic friend she seems to have made since is Amazi-Girl, which I’m sure she has mixed feelings about…
        .
        So I wonder if PART of her internal reaction to the invite wasn’t: “Damn, I guess I DO need more friends. I guess I’ll go see if I click with Asma…”

        1. Big Z

          Walky needs better friends, but I think he needs to be better AT that before he can get there — as much as I love the little shit, he’s got to drop his armor or people are going to think of him as the unflappable goofball clown right up until he crashes out or worse. He’s getting the advice he gets from Jennifer and Sal because he doesn’t much let them into his actual mental state; if his surface/displayed emotions matched his inner life more frequently, “just move on, you’re good for it” would be workable advice.
          –
          Which is why I love Garbage Scow so much, in fact — Walky and Amber might not be necessarily making each other better or anything, but they ARE forthright and open with each other to an extent and they both need that. Booster might be getting there, but I think they’ve got to figure out how to stop randomly needling Walky every ten seconds before that’ll work.

        2. Li

          Oh, I agree.
          .
          I also think that, even if you don’t think Wally’s necessarily right that none of his other girlfriends want / will “put up with” all of him, you have to admit that Walky feels that way. The way he went to Amber while kind of hiding from Lucy way back when, saying he couldn’t do “nothing” with Lucy the way he can do it with Amber because “Lucy’s nothing is always something”, or something along those lines.

        3. Big Z

          It really was the biggest mismatch between Lucy and Walky that, frankly, Walky doesn’t have the actual self-actualization to know quite what he wants, but there was no room to think and explore with Lucy because she had a Plan. On top of their other issues, that was the one that would’ve broken them even if the stuff with his parents had not happened.

        4. Li

          Oh, agreed on thar, too. Particularly your point about Walky not really knowing what he wants in a relationship — heh, that can be a lifelong learning process, honestly.
          .
          Right now, I’m just hoping he can get to a point where he stops thinking of all three of these relationships purely in terms of “what I did wrong that caused us to break up”?
          .
          Which I’ve been hoping for for him for a whiiiile, and I’m only now really realizing that, oh. Heh. I probably got that particular wish in a monkey’s paw kind of way! I doubt he’s going to be thinking of Take 2 with Dorothy as something he screwed up……..

  25. Astariel

    It’s nice that Sal likes Joyce and Dorothy enough to come bowling with them, even though she used to ride a motorcycle.

    Feeling a bit bad for Asma here.

    1. Durandal_1707

      When did she lose the motorcycle? Weird that I don’t remember that detail, but I’m drawing a complete blank on it. She definitely had it for the highway parkour episode, so it’s got to be at least later than that.

      1. clif

        She didn’t so much lose it as gave it up after learning that it was her mother’s influence that allowed her to have it on campus.

  26. Folus

    I, for one, am shocked. Shocked, I say!
    I absolutely had no idea the buffer had gone down so far.

  27. Ruby/AGV

    Wait, if not Sal, who’s Asma’s crush?

    1. moon

      alice
      or ghost rider or the fonz

      1. moon

        oh wait she could be a lesbian
        trinity

        1. Jon

          Trinity’s a lesbian? Man, Neo is gonna be so disappointed…

        2. Li

          JSYK it’s actually a pretty popular read that Trinity and Neo are both lesbians. The trans reading of The Matrix (down to the red pill matching the color estrogen pills were at the time) is very well-supported, the Wachowskis are now publicly out as trans women, etc.

  28. mads_in_zero

    The alt-text (and some comments) are saying, yup, we knew this was coming, but personally that just makes me more amused at how Joyce apparently planned this hangout while being unnecessarily vague for no reason. I’m not even complaining, it’s great, it’s like she’s just made of pure concentrated sit-com shenanigans.

    1. John Campbell

      Joyce wasn’t being unnecessarily vague. She just had none of the information she needed to be less vague. Asma apparently wanted Joyce to set her up on a date with Alice, but she actually told Joyce none of that. She doesn’t know Alice’s name, her description was frankly terrible, and she didn’t mention that she was trying to angle her way into a date, though someone more socially savvy than Joyce might have figured that out.

  29. YourCousinJay

    Man the last two pannels make me feel so bad for Asma..

    1. anon

      i mean it’s not as if it’s imposisble to see alice/her only being in town for a week versus going to the college

      imagine if alice has been constantly ordering packages allalong but only picking them up when someone else is on shift

      1. Astariel

        Alice lives in a different dorm, so she wouldn’t be picking up packages from Asma.

  30. Zamperla

    don’t lose hope girl one of these knuckleheads’ll bend over backwards making this right

    1. Stormtide Leviathan

      You tell joyce you’re trying to get together with a girl, she WILL do everything in her power to make it happen and WILL cross your boundaries and theirs. (Though perhaps less than she might have in the past). That’s the Lesbian Love Sleuth oath

      1. Astariel

        Even if it’s the same girl she was already wingwomaning Jennifer for?

        1. Big Z

          I hadn’t considered that but that’s actually a great point — how, do we think, will Joyce handle knowing two people are both interested in Alice?
          –
          And more importantly, what will her response do to poly stocks?

        2. Stormtide Leviathan

          Her shipping is quantum

  31. Bill Erak

    You know, getting Sal to chill with you like that 6 months ago would’ve made Joyce faint. They don’t know how good they have it…

  32. JBento

    “All of this has been a mistake” is the correct response to hanging out with Joyce, Dorothy or both for longer than 5 minutes, yes.

  33. nadamás

    “All of this has been a mistake”
    How i fell after doing any exercise.

  34. Corey C.

    I had to re-read literally all of Asma’s strips post-DoJo kiss to realize that she had a crush on Alice, not Sal… unfortunately, given Joyce and Alice have had like ONE conversation, of course she wouldn’t put two and two together! (I also think that Joyce hadn’t picked up that Alice has a crush on jacket girl, since she seems to respect Sal’s relationship with Danny and wouldn’t want to intentionally break it apart for s girl she had a couple conversations with)

    That being said, to anyone who’s miffed that Sal would go bowling with the girl who rubbed in her brothers face (quite literally) the fact that she stole his girlfriend… I guess Sal just liked bowling more than her brother. And he messaged her that he’s got a rebound to his rebound (Amber) so I guess her rightful anger against Joyce just vanished because, hey, Walky got another girl on deck so he doesn’t need any emotional support.

    1. anon

      i mean while sal isn’t rly cruel and gloating over walkys breakups i don’t think she’d necessarily feel obligated to comfort him either

      1. Throwatron

        it’s like the two siblings have some kind of massive, life-long rift in their relationship, and spent years apart from each other, or something. But I can’t imagine what the cause of THAT would be. there’s just no reason for them to have a strained relationship, where they aren’t particularly close. nothing in the text supports it!

    2. Vanessa

      Walky’s fine. If his sister got mad at every girl who broke up with Walky she’d soon not be able to socialize at all. That boy gets around.

      1. Big Z

        Walky is objectively not fine, like, in the actual text. That boy gets jerked around by the women in his love life as though his devil-may-care playfulness means his feelings can be brushed off (instead of it being a defense mechanism for his internal turmoil).

        1. anon

          @big z sure, but idk if he’d reach out to sal for comfort/venting. I’d assume pretentiousness aside, booster would be able to tell if walky was in a bad mental state as becky’s potential suicidal thoughts or so and reach out to friends they know walky is close with if not walky trying to spend time with platonic ppl

        2. Throwatron

          Yes, but if you spend your whole life playing the fool, not talking to people about your emotions or internal experience, and act like everything is always fine even when it’s not…the people around you start to believe you. Everyone has the false perspective that Walky doesn’t really have serious or deep emotions…because Walky has spent literally his entire life cultivating that image. Nobody is going to assume there’s anything inside him to fix, because he is the king of never externalizing his feelings, for any reason, no matter the amount of duress he’s under.

        3. Big Z

          Oh, he definitely did this to himself (and it’s also the only reason Garbage Scow works as well as it does — he’s more open to Amber, circumstantially, than anyone else) but mostly my point was that he’s definitely not fine, not that anyone else in the comic needed to know it.
          –
          I don’t think Booster will be much help, either. Undergrad psych majors are worth about as much as undergrad engineers, in my experience.

  35. GUIGUI

    Regarding the lat-text, I only figured it out a couple of day s ago.

  36. anon

    i mean if she’s attracted to alice she’d prolly find sal attractive too not that anything can come of it

    interesting sal knows who asma is tho, i don’t remember them interacting too often

  37. Vanessa

    Hang in there Asma, you can socialize too! You need this time with good-hearted people who want to be your friend, even if they are not perfect. It’s OK to go out and talk to people after a day of talking to people for your job, it’s necessary for your mental health.

  38. Hof1991

    ALooking forward to hijinks as Dorothy and Joyce play lesbian love sleuth. Maybe enlisting Becky.

  39. bliss

    The next mini-arc: “the hunt for Alice”. Can they seduce her away from Jennifer/Billie?
    Oh the humorous situations that must ensue.

  40. Jay

    You can really tell this was added after

  41. Keith Curtis

    What??? Asma is just going to defuse the situation? Not very genre-savvy. This is supposed to lead to five more pages of Comical Misunderstanding and Hijinks.

  42. Mo

    Honestly? I picked up on the Alice desire at the time, but it’s been so long that when I saw “friend with jacket and boots” this week I assumed they’d always been talking about Sal.

  43. thejeff

    The tag functionality seems to have changed again. Thought it was completely broken at first, since it brings you to a page with a ton of strange tag buttons, but the strips are still linked way down at the bottom.
    We can do multiple tags again, but it works the other way around, which is much less useful. You get all the strips with either of the characters in them.

  44. Amós Batista

    Fuck, Joyce/Dorothy! Asma already didn’t show up that often, you both have to screw that, too??

    1. Alongcameaspider

      Yeah how dare they not read her mind to know that “your friend with the hair and jacket” was actually referring to someone they barely know

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