It’s a touch more than just being naïve. Naïve is Joyce not knowing calling her roommate a novelty for being black; trying to reunite two people who drive each other mad is flat-out denial.
Yeah, the last thing I need is for my toxic mother to get back together with my drug addicted pi-polar father. They’re both great people, but they drove eachother to actions neither would normally ever do. Quite frankly if it wasn’t for their religion the marriage wouldn’t have lasted a year, let alone the twenty that it did.
Literally the moment they separated mom’s behavior toned down to casual condescension and Dad’s been clean and consistently taking his medication for five years. They were about as terrible a match as any could be.
As someone whose parents didn’t get divorced until he was 19 and was thus forced to live with them fighting constantly until then. And then STILL had to deal with them fighting as two people who just hate each other and live in the same house (because my family wasn’t dysfunctional enough as it was) for 4 more months, I have to agree with Joe here.
He did destroy it, in It’s Walky, many years ago. But this story takes place in a world where that never happened. So it makes sense she’s back to her old naive self.
True, I learnt the flute. Wasn’t actually given a choice, they just one day sent me home with a note saying “We’re teaching your son the flute, so pay us for instrument rental.”
There is actually not such a thing as a bass violin. Unless Joe is referring to a musical instrument from the renaissance, which is highly unlikely, but would also be by far the geekiest kind of musical instrument you can play. My guess is that he is referring to a viola. Or that Willis is making something up.
However, I think playing drums is about the “coolest” instruments schools would allow. Even then, percussionists generally have to learn to play dorky instruments, too, like the glockenspiel.
PIZZA PROTECTION PROGRAM…. 12$
if you buy one, and your pizza is wrong, it will only cost you 5$ to have it fixed instead of the price of a whole new pizza.
I hate that this is my first time ever commenting on a Willis comic, but:
Do you mean “bass violin” as in the Renaissance-era precursor to the cello, or do you mean the modern-day double bass?
If it’s the former, which I’d be very interested in seeing a high school orchestra who was performing on period instruments (I can’t imagine what the rental on such an instrument would be); or the latter, for which I’m surprised Joe would use such an archaic nickname?
I can picture him playing double bass, for what it’s worth. He’d do well in a jazz trio.
In my town, they were just basses. If we had to go further we’d usually fall back on ‘non-electric bass’ or ‘bass violin’. But then my town’s junior high and high schools had really active (and popular) jazz bands, so it’s also bizarre to me that the bass could be considered an uncool instrument in the first place.
I see what you did there. I wish I could eat at Galasso’s next time I’m visiting friends in b-ton. Hopefully the logo is a grimacing Galasso wearing an apron with a bow in his hair (what’s left of it, anyway).
I know Joyce means well and is insanely sheltered, but she is being REALLY inconsiderate here. What person wants to spend a first date talking about their parent’s divorce? I mean, damn woman, you’re making JOE, who is the living human embodiment of college libido, SAD.
That’s ain’t right!
And frankly, meddling hair-brain schemes that you come up with from somewhat forgettable Disney Movies, is more of a second date sort of thing.
Reading this a couple times, seeing how she’s momentarily sad and then returns to her previous state of mind something occurs to me. Roomies Joyce was actively blocking out, suppressing, etc the outside world. She was putting a concerted effort into maintaining her innocence.
I think that’s what we just saw. She encountered something resembling a harsh reality, momentarily elicited an emotional response, and then just started ignoring/denying it away. By this time tomorrow I’m sure she won’t even remember hearing about an unhappy marriage.
I really love Joyce’s expressions in this comic. From the look of her face in the 4th panel, you can almost sense that she knows deep down that the real world doesn’t work the way disney movies do, but she refuses to actually accept it, because that would shatter her world view of how love is the most important thing ever and marriage is always perfect and blissful, leading her to crank her excitement and happy smiling face up to 11 in the last panel. Clearly, the reason why the real world isn’t like the movies is because she’s just not trying hard enough.
I’m not a Joe fan but, as a ex-orchestra geek and cello player, he totally wins points by playing upright bass. One of the coolest and most crushed on guys in my high school was a bass player.
In my limited experience, if you played the double bass you were guaranteed a place in the orchestra, as no-one played them. If your instrument was the violen or clarinet however, you were screwed unless you were actually good.
I opted for the oboe. Then gave up after my lips exploded. Stupid double reed.
Loading ...
I could see Joe playing Bass Guitar but not violin for some reason
I could see a double bass.
Or I could be Billie and see double. Either one.
Or you could be roxy and make double/still see double.
Galasso’s =D
joyce has selective hearing/memory it seems
It’s called “being naïve”
i was trying to point that out, i just couldn’t think of the word (thanks)
I’m not sure it’s Naive, or just actively refusing to live in the real world.
Let’s face it, college is next door to the real world, and she’s actively refusing to live there, even.
Why would you want to live in the real world if you have another option?
It’s scary!
what’s scary is how well your avatar and what you said fit
It’s a touch more than just being naïve. Naïve is Joyce not knowing calling her roommate a novelty for being black; trying to reunite two people who drive each other mad is flat-out denial.
Wow, this is actually very sweet, & a bit sad. Love the sudden emotion in those middle panels.
This is strip really is something.
A bit of pathos from Joe in the third panel. Unexpected. Like it.
Galasso’s Pizza…what.
Oh God, I hope he’s just as insane as a pizza shop owner.
I hope he IS! <3 and that their server is Faz!!!
Yes and yes to Faz. Maybe Ninja Rick too cutting up pizza with a Katana blade.
Apparently, Mother Bear’s has been bought by Galasso in this universe, since it has the same coloration.
Also…as a child of divorced parents, I REALLY identify with Joe here. Joyce’s naivete hits me.
my mom divorced her 1st husband and married my dad, so i’m a product of divorce, so you can probably tell i’m w/you on that
Yeah, the last thing I need is for my toxic mother to get back together with my drug addicted pi-polar father. They’re both great people, but they drove eachother to actions neither would normally ever do. Quite frankly if it wasn’t for their religion the marriage wouldn’t have lasted a year, let alone the twenty that it did.
Literally the moment they separated mom’s behavior toned down to casual condescension and Dad’s been clean and consistently taking his medication for five years. They were about as terrible a match as any could be.
pi-polar? he has 3.1415926… different moods? That must get confusing.
As someone whose parents didn’t get divorced until he was 19 and was thus forced to live with them fighting constantly until then. And then STILL had to deal with them fighting as two people who just hate each other and live in the same house (because my family wasn’t dysfunctional enough as it was) for 4 more months, I have to agree with Joe here.
So…
How many years is it going to take before Willis destroys this Joyce’s closed-minded world view. Her inability to see the real world is kinda sad.
She’s out with Mike and Joe. One way or another, she’s seeing the real world tonight.
I dunno… her ability to reside in her own little world, seems pretty sturdy…
She rejects our reality and substitutes her own.
In the original Walkyverse (Walkyverse Prime?) it took a clone embodiment of every negative impulse she’d been repressing to tear down her world view.
DoA!Joyce might take a while.
He did destroy it, in It’s Walky, many years ago. But this story takes place in a world where that never happened. So it makes sense she’s back to her old naive self.
hence why Ripps said “this” Joyce
oh whoops…my bad
Bass violin? Really? I always pictured him playing something more..chick-magnety. Maybe a guitar or something.
Also, I quite like how this is playing out. In Roomies!, Joe found Joyce irritating right off the bat. Here he’s catching on slowly.
Joe learned bass violin in high school orchestra. You don’t get to play a cool instrument in school.
That can’t be right. My mom assured me the clarinet is the coolest instrument in the universe.
It is. Especially the two contras.
True, I learnt the flute. Wasn’t actually given a choice, they just one day sent me home with a note saying “We’re teaching your son the flute, so pay us for instrument rental.”
For some reason bass violin strikes me the same way as bass flute. You know they’re real and out there somewhere, but the concept just seems wrong.
And that was totally not meant to go there.
I see bass violin and I think upright/double bass.
It is a very manly instrument. I can very much see Joe playing double bass.
Silly readers. You think Joe is actually cool, instead of being a giant dork engineer who pretends to be a cool fratboy type.
Of COURSE he plays the violin.
Willis has said he doesn’t know about Joe being a closet nerd in the DOA verse.
There is actually not such a thing as a bass violin. Unless Joe is referring to a musical instrument from the renaissance, which is highly unlikely, but would also be by far the geekiest kind of musical instrument you can play. My guess is that he is referring to a viola. Or that Willis is making something up.
Bass Violin is a really common name for a Double Bass.
The Bass Violin is just another name for String Bass or Double Bass. And it is one of the coolest instruments ever.
Of course I’m a bit biased because I’ve played that and tuba for 12 years now…
People played an electric guitar at my school!
That was also with the Jazz Band though.
There was also Cow Bell.
Saxophone is the coolest instrument you can learn in school. Which I played.
I’m with you there on the sax.
However, I think playing drums is about the “coolest” instruments schools would allow. Even then, percussionists generally have to learn to play dorky instruments, too, like the glockenspiel.
No no no, TRUMPET is the coolest instrument. We can hit high notes like nobody’s business!
Watch me go third position on
joycemy violin and I’ll show you high notesWait. You didn’t just say that the bass is uncool, did you? Because Mingus is the fucking MAN and you’re going to take it back.
Run Joe, run…
Also, I can’t wait to see how Galasso runs a pizza place to extort the most money from his customers.
PIZZA PROTECTION PROGRAM…. 12$
if you buy one, and your pizza is wrong, it will only cost you 5$ to have it fixed instead of the price of a whole new pizza.
You’re hired!
Wow. I’m guessing most of Joe’s dates never learn that particular bit of trivia. Good work, Joyce…I guess?
Galasso’s Pizza? Is this where Faz works?
Oh, FAZ. Do you think he’s still [SPOILERSPOILERSPOILER] in this universe, or is his origin going to be completely different?
We don’t even know if [SPOILER] is [SPOILERSPOILERSPOILER] in this universe yet, but I very much doubt Faz’s [SPOILER] is a space pirate.
Also [SPOILER] are ungulates, and despite the [SPOILER] of their neck, have the same number of [SPOILER] as humans.
But what about [SPOILERSAPLENTY]? I mean, Dexter [MORESPOILERS], and that’s not even getting into the weird stuff.
Joe’s eyes seem to have reached escape velocity in the last panel.
Sadly, Joyce’s view of things is very similar to a great deal of people whom I recently graduated college with.
I think Joyce is going to end up completely broken at the end of this. Then again, you could say she’s pretty broken already.
Aww, Joe! Joyce looks so horrified by the idea of yelling (before she promptly resumes Parent Trap mode).
I hate that this is my first time ever commenting on a Willis comic, but:
Do you mean “bass violin” as in the Renaissance-era precursor to the cello, or do you mean the modern-day double bass?
If it’s the former, which I’d be very interested in seeing a high school orchestra who was performing on period instruments (I can’t imagine what the rental on such an instrument would be); or the latter, for which I’m surprised Joe would use such an archaic nickname?
I can picture him playing double bass, for what it’s worth. He’d do well in a jazz trio.
They used this “archaic nickname” pretty exclusively in the town Joe grew up in. I would know. 🙂
I was wondering that. Out of curiosity, what did they call a cello? Or viola for that matter
I’d be willing to bet still ‘cello’ and ‘viola’.
In my town, they were just basses. If we had to go further we’d usually fall back on ‘non-electric bass’ or ‘bass violin’. But then my town’s junior high and high schools had really active (and popular) jazz bands, so it’s also bizarre to me that the bass could be considered an uncool instrument in the first place.
I was wondering that too. In my highschool one of my friends starting everyone calling my cello a “battle violin” because of the sharp endpin.
Galasso’s Pizza?
Awesome
joyce’s puppy dog face makes me so sad XD then she totally gets over it in like the next 2 panels lol
Was not expecting Joe to… well, know an instrument at all, but especially not that. Interesting
Wall of Teeth.
I sympathize with Joe, they yell a lot is a completely reasonable reason not to want your parents to get back together.
That’s not teeth – Joyce’s triangle grin opens up onto an alternate dimension containing nothing but a colorless void.
Okay, perhaps not, but I’m still quite confident that her triangle grins are open-mouthed.
Joyce, please, for the love of god, shut up. D:
In the immortal words of that famed philosopher Keith Olbermann: That woman……IS AN IDIOT.
Might Joe havehidden depth?
For the first time since DoA started, I have found Joe to be something other than irritating.
I see what you did there. I wish I could eat at Galasso’s next time I’m visiting friends in b-ton. Hopefully the logo is a grimacing Galasso wearing an apron with a bow in his hair (what’s left of it, anyway).
Mike plays an instrument as well: your mom.
With his penis!
Concert admissions cost one nickel.
Okay, Joe… run away. Run FAR away.
I know Joyce means well and is insanely sheltered, but she is being REALLY inconsiderate here. What person wants to spend a first date talking about their parent’s divorce? I mean, damn woman, you’re making JOE, who is the living human embodiment of college libido, SAD.
That’s ain’t right!
And frankly, meddling hair-brain schemes that you come up with from somewhat forgettable Disney Movies, is more of a second date sort of thing.
Amen to this. Tho Joe looks less sad so much as “eye-rolling annoyed” in that last panel.
Reading this a couple times, seeing how she’s momentarily sad and then returns to her previous state of mind something occurs to me. Roomies Joyce was actively blocking out, suppressing, etc the outside world. She was putting a concerted effort into maintaining her innocence.
I think that’s what we just saw. She encountered something resembling a harsh reality, momentarily elicited an emotional response, and then just started ignoring/denying it away. By this time tomorrow I’m sure she won’t even remember hearing about an unhappy marriage.
I don’t think it’s quite the same. I don’t get her reaction as ignoring/denying it, so much as getting the surface of it but not the depths.
I think she gets the depths, but is unwilling to swim out them just yet and play in the shallow water. Denial, denial, de Nile.
I really love Joyce’s expressions in this comic. From the look of her face in the 4th panel, you can almost sense that she knows deep down that the real world doesn’t work the way disney movies do, but she refuses to actually accept it, because that would shatter her world view of how love is the most important thing ever and marriage is always perfect and blissful, leading her to crank her excitement and happy smiling face up to 11 in the last panel. Clearly, the reason why the real world isn’t like the movies is because she’s just not trying hard enough.
Joyce is quickly becoming the character I want to reach through my monitor and shake violently. I hope Faz comes into play to replace this soon.
dear god, she’s behaving like a sheltered Right wing christian version of ROBIN. This won’t end well.
Joyce’s expression terrifies me in the last panel.
Poor Joe.
Wow so I think we just found a sweet naive christian girl that joe won’t be able to fix with his penis
She is just not going to give up on this, is she?
Do you know what the difference between a violin and a bass violin is?
A Bass Violin burns longer.
Ooh! Ooh! Are we telling musician jokes now? I got some good ones.
How do you make two flutists play in perfect union?
Shoot one of them.
I don’t know- what?
Shoot one!
Why are a viola player’s fingers like lightning?
They never hit the same place twice?
I am adoring reading all the band geek replies to this comic. <3
This one time… in band camp…
….And now I’m sad.
I like the silhouettes in the second-last panel just reminding us that Mike is still there. Watching. Waiting.
Waiting for face punching.
Bass Violin? I don’t know of any such instrument. Does he mean Contrabass or maybe Cello?
Bass Violin = Double Bass.
It’s really not that uncommon a name.
I’m not a Joe fan but, as a ex-orchestra geek and cello player, he totally wins points by playing upright bass. One of the coolest and most crushed on guys in my high school was a bass player.
In my limited experience, if you played the double bass you were guaranteed a place in the orchestra, as no-one played them. If your instrument was the violen or clarinet however, you were screwed unless you were actually good.
I opted for the oboe. Then gave up after my lips exploded. Stupid double reed.
Panel 1 face: cute chipmunk. Panel 4 face: crazy-ass psycho, ready to take on the world.
Bass Guitar= Boss (I should know)
Bass Violin= Even more Boss
GLASSO!
How good is the pizza anyways?
Joyce, sweetie, I think you need a good slap in the face. Mike, if you please….?
🙁 🙁
A banner of the cast (the “DoA Orchestra”, a la PW:AA’s Turnabout Orchestral OST covers) on the instruments they know how to play would be kickass.
And I’ve never heard of it referred to as the bass violin. Maybe it’s a regional thing?
I could have sworn this said “bass viol” when I read it the first time. Going through my copy of Book 1 and I had to check, and no, but … maybe?