Also, you can tell me British people “pronounce words correctly” when you guys stop bastardizing anything with foreign ancestry, especially words with French roots.
And the British accent is a relatively modern invention. The American accent is literally the original one:
The English language (and by extent it’s accent) doesn’t so much borrow from other languages as it lurks in dark alleyways and mugs them when they’re not looking, and steals their vocab.
That being said, the correct way to pronounce any word in the English language is of course whichever way the English pronounce it 😀
Just don’t get us started on the correct way to pronounce ‘bath’!
There is no such thing as “correct” when it comes to usage. Or rather, it asks the wrong question. The point of language (and grammar) is not to be “correct,” but to communicate in a clear and understandable manner. If you’re doing that, nothing else matters.
When all of you are saying “correct,” what you are really meaning is standard. (What linguists called the “Received Pronunciation.”)
A fascinating book which talks about this and other language myths is: Language Myths. It’s also actually enjoyable to read (especially if you’re finding this discussion fascinating), so I’d highly recommend it to anyone who’s interested in finding out how language actually works, instead of just ranting about who is “wrong” and who is “right.”
Which is a little like saying “OMG YOU GUYS, THAT PINE TREE OVER THERE DOES NOT KNOW IT’S WINTER AND STILL HAS ITS LEAVES ON WHAT AN IDIOT!”
Where I grew up (right in the middle of England) we replaced half of our consonants with glo”uw sto’s* and added a kind of nasal sneer to most of the vowels.
I am VERY glad this is not the international standard.
*glottal stops
Hah, okay, I chanced to look at an old comment thread and I think I’d better address all these responses.
When I said the British pronounce words “properly” of course I wasn’t being serious. Nobody has a particular claim to correct language, the best feature of the English language is that it is continually evolving.
Aluminum was named for alum, as calcium was for calc, sodium for soda, potassium for potash. Platinum was named for the Spanish for “little silver”, Lathanum was named for the fact it took a while to find, and molybdenum for molybdenite (the only other -ummer to actually be named for its ore). Americans added the -n- to make it sound like platinum (it was more precious than gold at the time of discovery) and for euphony; the British added the extra -i- to get it in line with the other -iums, which are in the vast majority among the elements compared to straight -um.
Yeah, I know, it’s been a while. But I just had to get this out here.
Prescriptivist much ;P
Neither American nor British English have a more solid claim to “correctness” on any particular level. Both are about equally divergent from the English spoken during the colonial period, even if those divergences are more meaning in one and pronunciation in the other.
Also, for the record, in some American English subdialects the pronunciation dictates the meaning, one is a candy cooked to firmball stage the other a viscous sauce for deserts.
Mount carmel still exists you know… it’s in northen israel and Haifa the third largest city in istrel is located on it.
Allso it’s actualy a mountin range.
Like Shadow’s, Walky’s skin color is what would happen if you took a sample of skin tone of every person in North America and put the blender on “very fine”.
She’ll gruesomely guillotine the gangly git with grotesque gusto, ghoulishly gulping his gangrenous gallbladder after MacGyvering his guts into garters?
(Okay, so X, Y, and Z failed on both the violent and insulting angles, and feel sorta silly, honestly, but at least I got us the rest of the way through the alphabet!)
Sorry. I just remember that “99 Bottles of Beer on the Floor” never got finished, and I was the last one to add to that, so I wanted to make sure that this one got completed.
I’d love to see what others come up with for the letters I covered!
As I said, though, I wanted to make sure this one got finished.
I was going to post something about the comic, but then I noticed an ad stating asking if I was “Tired of Dating Liberals??” and told me to meet conservative singles on RedStateDate.com. And then I laughed, because it went so well with the awkwardness of Joyce’s question.
If you’re talking about the ad on the lefthand side, that shows Slipshine to everybody 24/7. So while you may be lonely, the ad isn’t about you specifically.
Your tracking cookies have revealed both your preferences, and the resulting porn you look at after each dating event… thus determining your dates are failures!
Don’t worry though… some of the best dates you can get (especially in the South) are 19 year old, short shorts wearing hotties with no teeth, that are grandmother’s already!
Just avoid the spit cup (it’s dual use) and her husband/father!
I mean, as long as there aren’t any auto-play ads with sound (like the mossy nissan ad from a few months ago), they’re not annoying and sometimes they’re quite funny.
I use ad-block, but turn it off on all the webcomics I read, along with some other sites that employ inoffensive advertising practices that I want to support.
I pulled from the frontpage tag list to make the poll, and Jacob’s only had one appearance and so didn’t appear on it. Same reason Marcie didn’t get included.
Like I said in the comments last week some time, since those not listed are tangential to other characters on the list, more of the closest related charactera will mean more of the not listed ones. For more Jacob, you’ll likely want to vote Ethan.
I just like how… tidy mine is.
I’m pale with freckles. My family names are MacDonald, Stafford, and Kelly.
GOSH, guess what part of the world all MY genes come from.
Some years back (OK, a lot of years back) I was at an Army Dining Out, a formal dinner for battalion officers and non-commissioned officers to which spouses are invited. One lady, as I remember she was the battalion S-3’s wife, mentioned that her family sprang from some of the earliest settlers in Virginia.
My reply: “My family never sprang from anyone. We sprang at ’em.”
Just start asking white folk “so, where are you from?” and follow it up with “no, I mean like where are you really from — you’re obviously not a native”.
I’m about as white as a person can get:
Caucasian
Anglo Saxon background
Protestant
I don’t really waste any brain cells on my ancestry… its not like there are any Popes or Presidents in my family history.
Well there is also Rod Stewart Jesus (with highlights) to consider… and this one, who is the odds-on favorite for Mr. IU this year, with an invite to Mr. Indiana with a win or runner up. That’s why he’s in class.
Im so happy that Sal is blakc even if lighter than Saah. Yay for diversity in webcomics. ANd her har pomfing was too hilarious. It looks like everyone was right and Sal did not get the grade she was expecting.
Oh. I didn’t know there was a doubt – because for some reason, so far, I had been assuming Sal and Walky were Native/First Nations. I not sure why, but it was a strong enough belief that yesterday’s hair explosion gave me a ‘that’s just a exaggerated emotion panel, right?’ even though that hasn’t happened so far in DoA, afaik.
I know that Sal and Walky are black and…some percentage caucasian? But their narrow features and Sal’s long, straight hair make me think of them as Indian. Knowing the truth about Sal’s hair helps though.
“Airman” is like “fireman” or “policeman”, except in the military “sir” can be truly gender neutral. I don’t know which divisions and it probably varies a little with the woman, but “sir” is a title of respect (think being knighted) and military women have earned it. Some of them will definitely not take being “ma’amed” instead kindly.
Gah, you are giving me flashbacks of my time in the U.S. Air Force!
Nothing used to make me twitch more than some officer yelling out “Airman!”
You never knew if it was you he was yelling at or the other 600 people around you…
And you are totally correct about the “ma’am” thing. Always much safer to say “sir”.
Eh, in ROTC we got yelled at to no end for calling female superiors ‘sir’.
I remember one time where a cadet was saying something to a female cadet officer and finished the sentence with a ‘Ma’am’. However, he was either parched or stressed out from training that day, and it came out sounding like ‘Mom’.
He got yelled at for a couple minutes, and then at the end of the training day he had to apologize in front of the detachment to her for calling her Mom.
My experience with ROTC programs is that they don’t really emulate the culture of the actual military so much as hybridize it with civilian cultural expectations. So requisite gender differentiation in ROTC where it would be considered rude in the military makes perfect sense, most especially if it was a JROTC program.
That is my one major complaint about ROTC. Their instruction on how to work with airmen and NCOs is…lacking, and there was absolutely zero training for working with DoD civilians and contractors (at my detachment, anyway). But yeah…the actual military is a far, far different world than ROTC or other training.
If I remember correctly, they are 75% black (I believe Walky’s exact terms were “You know my father’s half white? Well I’m even more.) Of course, that was in It’s Walky!, so maybe it doesn’t apply anymore.
If this was a murder mystery, Sal would now stumble across Jason’s dead body, accidentally leave some sort of evidence which, along with her public exclamation here, is enough to incriminate her. Subsequently, she would have to quickly and ingeniously solve the mystery of his death, before the police could pin the crime on her.
While I’m at it, I’ll do some other genres.
If this was a romance, I think Jason would be irrelevant now. He will recur later as a competing love interest, but Sal’s true love will come across her while she’s emotionally unstable and take advantage of that and his ability to actually tutor her properly to seduce her. She will lose much of her personality because of falling in love with him. It will still be written as a genuine love-story, though, because romance authors always have strange notions of love.
I hate romances.
If it was fantasy/science-fiction, Sal would clearly be a fantasy creature/alien, because no-one’s hair actually does that.
If it was action-genre or literary fiction, Sal would succeed in her goal, or at least injure Jason badly. In literary fiction, there would be dire consequences for Sal.
In a webcomic, Sal would confront Jason, he would explain that he had no influence on her grade, and then she would probably sleep with him again in a nonsensical effort to change his mind. Perhaps.
It’s simple: “What is your genetic heritage?” Or depending if you don’t live in America and the person you’re talking to is the third or second generation living this country “Where are you parents from?”
About as frustrating as being a white person with an unknown heritage beyond their great grandpa? Not every black person (or person of such heritage) is still mad about slavery.
Well, it kinda isn’t your (or mine) business, is it? I know it seems “interesting” when someone appears non-white, but what difference does it make? And I’ll guarantee that the person you’re asking gets that question far more than is comfortable. I’ve learned to just not ask, and if I’m friends long enough, culture and heritage comes up eventually, beyond just what lead to our skin tones.
Yes, exactly! If it comes up naturally in a conversation and you and the person you’d like to ask about it have a somewhat close or very open hearted relationship, then you might, but otherwise it’s just rather rude.
You may want to know, but there are a lot of things that you already don’t do or say or ask etc. if you’re properly socialised/raised and this is just one of them.
Pretty much. There are circumstances where there’s an exception, but those are few and far between. Just like asking about religious persuasion, voting history, or sexual persuasion unless you have a conversation just segue into the topic naturally, it’s something you don’t ask about in polite society.
Something interesting I just noticed about your comment… that you assumed I am white. Maybe it’s my gravatar (not chosen by me).
I’m not offended in the least, partly because you are correct, I just find it interesting that it seems the “default” skin color is white, at least to some people. I’m guilty of it, too, having grown up around mostly other white people, and I think that’s all it is.
I only ever ask “Where are you from” if the person has an accent AND it has come up in conversation in such a way that I can neatly segue into it.
One of my coworkers has a slight accent and is obviously of non-European descent, and I was a little curious, so I just waited until an appropriate time to ask the question. She said something about how she can’t find any Chai tea as good as the Chai in India, so I waited for her to finish that thought and asked, “Oh, so are you from India?”
(She’s not; she’s actually from Africa. Her parents are from India, and she moved the the U.S. when she was 17.)
Mostly, it’s just important to keep in mind that, yes, while you are simply curious and mean no ill-will, it’s still best to wait until something has been mentioned. After all, people leave their home countries for reasons, and they might not want to think about it, much less talk about it. Curiosity is important, but not important enough to make someone else upset or uncomfortable.
That…seems a bit ridiculous to me. If somebody had NO accent, I wouldn’t think twice about asking where they’re from as part of getting to know them. I’m on board with Josh up there. if somebody is offended by you honestly asking where they (or their family) are from, they’re being hypersensitive.
(Now if you follow that up with asinine, racist questions like “Ohhh, wow! Do they have schools there?” then you should be fired out of a cannon into the sun.)
I agree with that, but for reasons which I won’t bore you with here I am *very* sensitive when it comes to offending people. I hate feeling like people are upset with me or thing badly of me for any reason. I know it can’t be avoided, but the feeling is there all the same.
Having lived with a girl who was obsessed with straightening her hair, I can safely say that the reason Sal is never seen at night is that she spends her whole night in the bathroom, straightening her hair for the next day.
And this, kids, is why we don’t fuck students. They never do it for fun, only for a grade that they don’t deserve. If you want sex with an imbalance of power, bang your supervisor and demand a bigger share of their grant money.
I dunno… Billie’s efforts in that direction haven’t shown promise, and we all know what kind of girlbait Billie makes.
Where is Billie, anyway? She was with Joyce when they headed to this class, but there’s no sign of her now, and there’s intriguing goings-on on her Twitter. Was Ruth lying in wait to pick her out of the herd?
Well, technically all she has broadcast at this point is that she expected to get a better grade than she got, or that she thinks her grade is unfair. Without the context we have, I don’t think anybody else in that classroom would conclude that she schtupped him for an A and didn’t get it.
Damn you, Willis! The women you draw are hella attractive. Referring to Dorothy’s mom here. I’m not on Tumblr so I just put this here.
Your style is not particularly realistic, yet you push all the right buttons. And every new character is distinctly different from the others. I find this amazing.
Loading ...
CARAMEL, obvs
Carmel. We say carmel.
Actually, its spelled Caramel. Carmel is a Mountain in the Bible.
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
Well if it’s in the Bible I’m sure Joyce will be glad to climb it.
Well-played.
+1
Well done!
Flamey-o, flamey-o, as a Christian I salute you
It’s also pronounced caramel.
You know, if you’re British, and pronounce words properly.
Huh. I’m in America and I pronounce it like that.
Me too.
Also, you can tell me British people “pronounce words correctly” when you guys stop bastardizing anything with foreign ancestry, especially words with French roots.
And the British accent is a relatively modern invention. The American accent is literally the original one:
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2047-americans-brits-accents.html
(Can also be found on Snopes.com.)
So… yeah. I realize you were teasing, but in the future you will tease more accurately! 🙂
That article about accents was actually really fascinating! I had no idea!
The English language (and by extent it’s accent) doesn’t so much borrow from other languages as it lurks in dark alleyways and mugs them when they’re not looking, and steals their vocab.
That being said, the correct way to pronounce any word in the English language is of course whichever way the English pronounce it 😀
Just don’t get us started on the correct way to pronounce ‘bath’!
Not really, since they’re basically different dialects.
Yes, this.
There is no such thing as “correct” when it comes to usage. Or rather, it asks the wrong question. The point of language (and grammar) is not to be “correct,” but to communicate in a clear and understandable manner. If you’re doing that, nothing else matters.
When all of you are saying “correct,” what you are really meaning is standard. (What linguists called the “Received Pronunciation.”)
A fascinating book which talks about this and other language myths is: Language Myths. It’s also actually enjoyable to read (especially if you’re finding this discussion fascinating), so I’d highly recommend it to anyone who’s interested in finding out how language actually works, instead of just ranting about who is “wrong” and who is “right.”
Which is a little like saying “OMG YOU GUYS, THAT PINE TREE OVER THERE DOES NOT KNOW IT’S WINTER AND STILL HAS ITS LEAVES ON WHAT AN IDIOT!”
@Stewart baker , thanks! you just gave me something to read in between waiting for comic updates, haha.
Where I grew up (right in the middle of England) we replaced half of our consonants with glo”uw sto’s* and added a kind of nasal sneer to most of the vowels.
I am VERY glad this is not the international standard.
*glottal stops
I can’t help feeling like you clicked the “Reply” link without actually reading my comment…
I pronounce it “shower”.
The Newfies got them both beat. Lord tunderin that’s some old school English.
Hah, okay, I chanced to look at an old comment thread and I think I’d better address all these responses.
When I said the British pronounce words “properly” of course I wasn’t being serious. Nobody has a particular claim to correct language, the best feature of the English language is that it is continually evolving.
One word for you: Al-you-min-ee-um.
Where the hell does that extra syllable come from?
American: Aluminum
British: Aluminium
The question is: Why did the US lose a syllable?
Fun fact: aluminum was around first (well, second -alumium was first). The element was renamed “aluminium” to match the rest of the elements.
It comes from “every other similarly-named element ends in ‘-ium’, wtf are you doing”
Oh? What about “platinum”? “Molybdenum”? “Lanthanum”?
Aluminum was named for alum, as calcium was for calc, sodium for soda, potassium for potash. Platinum was named for the Spanish for “little silver”, Lathanum was named for the fact it took a while to find, and molybdenum for molybdenite (the only other -ummer to actually be named for its ore). Americans added the -n- to make it sound like platinum (it was more precious than gold at the time of discovery) and for euphony; the British added the extra -i- to get it in line with the other -iums, which are in the vast majority among the elements compared to straight -um.
Yeah, I know, it’s been a while. But I just had to get this out here.
Prescriptivist much ;P
Neither American nor British English have a more solid claim to “correctness” on any particular level. Both are about equally divergent from the English spoken during the colonial period, even if those divergences are more meaning in one and pronunciation in the other.
Also, for the record, in some American English subdialects the pronunciation dictates the meaning, one is a candy cooked to firmball stage the other a viscous sauce for deserts.
Descriptivism ftw
Some people same Caramel. Some people say Carmel. I say Caromel
So you’re saying that for the last 7 to 8 years, I’ve been mispronouncing my dog’s name? I’ll stick to Carmel, good English gentleman.
Consult Isaac Asimov on British pronounciations:
School is pronounced skool,
schedule is pronounced shed-u-al.
WT…!
Carmel is a high school in Indiana.
And a town, it’s a suburb of Indianapolis.
And a high school in Illinois.
“cause knowledge is power”
carnal knowledge is fun
Mount carmel still exists you know… it’s in northen israel and Haifa the third largest city in istrel is located on it.
Allso it’s actualy a mountin range.
But, in Indiana, they SAY “carmel”. Except for me, because I never wanted to sound like I was from Indiana.
Where is the rainbow? Shit, somebody forgot to cue the rainbow!
speaking of Bible. There is a hidden Jesus in this picture
Well, you say it wrong then!
“I heard you wanted some Caramel Filling?”
Definitely caramel.
Like Shadow’s, Walky’s skin color is what would happen if you took a sample of skin tone of every person in North America and put the blender on “very fine”.
Hm. Backstabbing British Bastard.
I like where this is going.
She’ll Bludgeon the Blowhard by beating him brutally with a baseball bat.
She’ll clobber the crumpet-eater by crowning him with the queen’s cricket stick.
She’ll disembowel the… uh…
I’ve got nothing
She’ll Disembowel, that dastardly, douchebag with her dangerous delicate daggers that dangle from the digits of her hands.
She’ll exterminate that effete English ectomorph with an electrified epee!
She’ll Furiousely fist that fastidious foppy flavish flake with fire-y force from her forearms.
She’ll gruesomely guillotine the gangly git with grotesque gusto, ghoulishly gulping his gangrenous gallbladder after MacGyvering his guts into garters?
She’ll heartily hang that horrible, haggard human, whom will hesitate, having heard her harbinger.
She’ll harrowingly hit the horrendous handsome hunk with heartfelt hurt.
She’ll actively shed Herpes Simplex Virus 2 onto his corneas.
(it didn’t follow the pattern, but at least it’s bongoin’ revenge!)
She’ll inhume the irritating idiot with an icepick inserted into his intestines then irreligiously inter him intestate.
She’ll jab Jason’s jugular with jagged jars!
She’ll just jump the jerk and jab his giblets.
(Bah, close…)
She’ll use knives and katanas on the knuckle-head’s kidneys and knees until she kills him!
She’ll lacerate the limey louse with lances and longswords!
She’ll startlingly stab the susceptible stupid, with a soldered steel sword.
She’ll mangle and murder the mangy motherf***er with a morningstar!
She’ll neuter the nerd with a night-stick!
She’ll obliterate the obstinate ogre with an ordnance!
She’ll pulverize the pissant poindexter with the pommel of her pickaxe!
She’ll quickly quell the Queen-loving quim with her quarterstaff!
(By Queen I mean the British monarch, not the band.)
She’ll ravage the rapscallion with a razor-sharp rapier!
She’ll savagely stab and slice the simpering shit with swords and spears and string up the shreds with his sinews!
Thunderously she’ll thump and trample that twit with a tank, then twist the trash with a trident.
Until that useless ungulate screams “uncle”, she’ll relieve her umbrage with an uzi!
She’ll violate that vermin with venomous vipers!
She’ll waste that wretched wuss with a wounding whip!
She’ll x__ that xanthodont with a xiphos!
(Yeah, sorry, I found an insult and weapon, but not a violent act.)
She’ll make the yutz yelp by shooting him with a yumi!
She’ll zombify that zippy with a zweihander!
(Okay, so X, Y, and Z failed on both the violent and insulting angles, and feel sorta silly, honestly, but at least I got us the rest of the way through the alphabet!)
Wait… we never had an ‘A’?
She’ll assail the asshole with arrows and axes until he’s been assassinated! She’ll avenge his not allowing her an A!
Great effort, Totz, but you’ve deprived everyone else of the rest of the fun.
Sorry. I just remember that “99 Bottles of Beer on the Floor” never got finished, and I was the last one to add to that, so I wanted to make sure that this one got completed.
I’d love to see what others come up with for the letters I covered!
As I said, though, I wanted to make sure this one got finished.
X- rehash
She’ll exacerbate that xenophobic exchange student with extreme exemphalary execution.
Best. Thread. Evar.
Sal the Southern Seductress will slaughter the slimy snake for slyly sabotaging her solutions.
Pissed-off pulchritudinous puella will plunge the Pommy putz into the Pits of Perdition.
Oh my sweet Waru. I know that “puella” means “girl,” but I can’t help but think of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
DON’T MAKE A CONTRACT, SAL! WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T MAKE A CONTRACT!!
Is that what they’re calling it now?
Right in the Rs.
She should have called him a “back-stabbing BONEY British bastard.” (Or a broney, I’m not picky.)
Who wants to bet that this will end with hatef*cking?
Hey, you totally called it! Nice one.
I read Generically as Genetically. Doesn’t really change anything i guess.
Caramel flavor, Joyce. Dorothy has already confirmed this.
Jesus looks concerned for some reason.
It looks like we should be concerned for Jesus. He seems to have become completely stiff and is in the middle of falling over.
Maybe he’s concerned for the guy in the third panel who appear to have lost both arms.
He seems ‘armless enough. 😛
He’s concerned for the other students that were eaten by Sal’s hair.
…Wait, that’s not canon?
That avatar looks really scary. I don’t know who it is though…looks like a Touhou girl (in which case she IS scary)
All I want to know is if that’s Historical Jesus behind Joyce in oNeo 1.
No, that’s Religious Jesus. Historical Jesus looks nothing like that.
I was going to post something about the comic, but then I noticed an ad stating asking if I was “Tired of Dating Liberals??” and told me to meet conservative singles on RedStateDate.com. And then I laughed, because it went so well with the awkwardness of Joyce’s question.
Bleh. *Asking. Silly me.
The only ads I see here are for webcomics.
It’s advertising Slipshine to me. I think the internet thinks I’m lonely.
…and that would be right…sigh…
If you’re talking about the ad on the lefthand side, that shows Slipshine to everybody 24/7. So while you may be lonely, the ad isn’t about you specifically.
….which means you’re even more alone.
@piemanpie24
Your tracking cookies have revealed both your preferences, and the resulting porn you look at after each dating event… thus determining your dates are failures!
Don’t worry though… some of the best dates you can get (especially in the South) are 19 year old, short shorts wearing hotties with no teeth, that are grandmother’s already!
Just avoid the spit cup (it’s dual use) and her husband/father!
There are ads?
Firestorm with the AdBlock Plus add-on. You won’t see any more ads.
And Willis won’t get any money for your views.
But doesn’t Willis make money from ads?
I mean, as long as there aren’t any auto-play ads with sound (like the mossy nissan ad from a few months ago), they’re not annoying and sometimes they’re quite funny.
I hadn’t realized I was blocking ads on willis’s sites!
Fixed.
I use ad-block, but turn it off on all the webcomics I read, along with some other sites that employ inoffensive advertising practices that I want to support.
More like off white.
Lets hope, for Dorothy’s sake, he is a pineapple flavored person.
What is Walky saying exactly, that he is bland??
Naw. Sal’s chocolate. Walky’s Coffee flavored.
I hope he’s not too bitter about that.
Naw…he’s a sweetie.
Dorothy makes sure to give him lots of sugar.
She still flunking?
She was flunking jason a few days ago…if you catch my drift.
Ugh don’t you hate it when your keyboard acts up? Looks like it accidentally added a N and a L to your word, and it removed the C!
“cfunkig” doesn’t make any sense.
I laughed my ass off at your reply, John.
It took me a minute, but I think SUG meant f***ing…
That doesn’t make any sense. Those are asterisks, not ‘c’s.
And now apparently, I am revealed to have been Joyce all along since reading IW.
I feel such elation when Walky makes that face.
Let your Faz Flag Fly.
Right into the wood chipper?
Try saying THAT three times fast. Preferably loudly, in a public place.
Sal is Salsa Rio to Walky’s nacho Cheese
More like Cheez Whiz.
More like just Whiz… (as in… I gotta take one!) – but with lots of B vitamins and a benzo.
I love how bearded guy is trying to poke his head into the panel, even though it would’ve been outside Sal’s hair anyway.
Maybe she should lick him to find out?
Is it just me or are the background faces in panels 1 and 3 oddly detailed?
Like, creepily so.
Yeah, that always creeps me out because they’re more detailed than the front pages and I feel like they’re watching me. ._.
I think Panel 3 is Secret Service from a different Universe, checking to see if Walky is young Obama.
Well, Willis has had a few Kickstarter campaigns. Maybe they were cameos real people could get if they pledged at a certain level.
They are.
…she wasn’t expecting sexing up Jason to actually improve her grades, right?
She probably sexed him up in exchange for the answer sheet to the quiz.
Which was, apparently, fake.
SHE DID THE EXTRACURRICULARS, GUYS!!!
Yes, yes she was. Seriously, HOW DID YOU PEOPLE MISS THAT? She practically -said- it!
I figured it was just stress relief and poor judgement. I didn’t think she’d be so stupid to think that just jumping him would work.
Does Joyce still want to brush it? I will be a bit dissapointed with her if she likes Sal’s hair less because of this.
All she needs to do is imagine that Sal is a pony while she combs it.
I think Joyce would loose the afro pick on her first time. He’ll I’d loose the pick if not most of my arm trying to get to her roots!
She just needs an Afro-comb.
Hmm, well I don’t really recall either of them making the deal of sex in exchange for better grades. She just kinda hopped onto him.
Unless I’m misremembering something.
No you’re remembering right. At least Sal learned you can’t always sleep your way to the top with somebody reasonably attractive.
And by that I mean Jason is reasonably attractive. Not that you have to sleep with unattractive people to get to the top. Though it probably helps.
You’re wrong. They were both awake and she WAS on top!
I just noticed the current poll and I have a question. Why is there no Jacob?
My guesses are that Jason is either already set to appear more or Willis doesn’t have any interesting ideas for him in the dumbiverse, just yet.
I pulled from the frontpage tag list to make the poll, and Jacob’s only had one appearance and so didn’t appear on it. Same reason Marcie didn’t get included.
Like I said in the comments last week some time, since those not listed are tangential to other characters on the list, more of the closest related charactera will mean more of the not listed ones. For more Jacob, you’ll likely want to vote Ethan.
Omg I might have to use that sometime. No no I’m not blackor mixed just generically beige
I’m genetically chalk.
Most white guys I have dated are really specific about their ancestry.
It gives some distinction.
It’s better when you date a Jew.
What’s your Ethnicity?
– Mostly Ashkenazi, but my Grandmother on my father’s side was Sephardic. You?
I’m Mizrahi.
I just like how… tidy mine is.
I’m pale with freckles. My family names are MacDonald, Stafford, and Kelly.
GOSH, guess what part of the world all MY genes come from.
Ronald MacDonaldLand?
Easter Island?
Well, technically Africa.
Some years back (OK, a lot of years back) I was at an Army Dining Out, a formal dinner for battalion officers and non-commissioned officers to which spouses are invited. One lady, as I remember she was the battalion S-3’s wife, mentioned that her family sprang from some of the earliest settlers in Virginia.
My reply: “My family never sprang from anyone. We sprang at ’em.”
Just start asking white folk “so, where are you from?” and follow it up with “no, I mean like where are you really from — you’re obviously not a native”.
I’m not a native of Colorado, no.
I’m originally from Iowa.
Born in California, but lived in Oregon since I was three. Close enough to ‘native’ for me.
I get that. I’ve had a number of people demand to know where my accent was from.
I’m about as white as a person can get:
Caucasian
Anglo Saxon background
Protestant
I don’t really waste any brain cells on my ancestry… its not like there are any Popes or Presidents in my family history.
For some of us it’s the only thing we have to connect to a wider cultural heritage than just two to four generation in the US.
Ten generations, bongoes!
…god, I’m so white.
I go with American Mutt for my pedigree.
(That awkward moment when you realize ‘Oh yeah, I’m a few days back in the archive playing catch-up’ after you’ve already hit reply.)
I’ll have to disagree with you, walky. Sal’s hair is much more kinky. *rrrrrrowrrrrrrr*
Huh, Discovery Channel Jesus is in their class.
I wonder if Historical Jesus exists in this universe. Or Ronald Reagan.
Why did you name him Discovery Channel Jesus.
I agree, he doesn’t even look safely ethnic. No, that’s Really White Bible Jesus.
Well there is also Rod Stewart Jesus (with highlights) to consider… and this one, who is the odds-on favorite for Mr. IU this year, with an invite to Mr. Indiana with a win or runner up. That’s why he’s in class.
Ah! forgot my quotes!
#1 http://goo.gl/ESYQJ
#2 http://goo.gl/dY5QI
That second one is… disturbing?
Reminds me of the scene from Talladega Nights where everyone is very specific on which Jesus they pray to.
Well they did, but they’re dead.
Im so happy that Sal is blakc even if lighter than Saah. Yay for diversity in webcomics. ANd her har pomfing was too hilarious. It looks like everyone was right and Sal did not get the grade she was expecting.
He stabbed her in the back? That’s pretty kinky!
Ah, but what am I talking about, they did have sex in his office.
OOOOhhhhhh! Ya think that was that a euphemism for buttsecks?
Go Sal!
The strip is awesome as usual, but the chat comments are pretty good tonight.
Lucky. My hair looks like a drunk bird tried to make a nest.
Pst…mistake in the tags. Sal is tagged as Sarah.
WHAT IS THIS “TWITTER LINK” WILLIS SPEAKS OF? I must know, because of reasons.
He usually links his comics with their title, so I’m pretty sure he’s saying that “Kinky” is misleading.
Ah. Willis, I am disappoint.
welp, we now know why grace’s sect is so sheltered from the outside world; they devour the flesh of those who intrude.
All that sex for nothing :C lol
Well, there you go. Mystery solved!
‘Generically beige’ is the best description of Walky I’ve ever heard.
Oh. I didn’t know there was a doubt – because for some reason, so far, I had been assuming Sal and Walky were Native/First Nations. I not sure why, but it was a strong enough belief that yesterday’s hair explosion gave me a ‘that’s just a exaggerated emotion panel, right?’ even though that hasn’t happened so far in DoA, afaik.
I mean, it still is exaggerated emotion. Surprise doesn’t really make anyone’s hair poof up, regardless of ethnicity.
I know that Sal and Walky are black and…some percentage caucasian? But their narrow features and Sal’s long, straight hair make me think of them as Indian. Knowing the truth about Sal’s hair helps though.
Half-black half-Indian?
I knew a half-Korean half-black airman when I was in the Air Force. She said she was Krack.
You know a biracial man that was a she… in the US Air Force?
You don’t have to ‘ask’ to ‘tell’ about that kind of thing!
“Airman” is like “fireman” or “policeman”, except in the military “sir” can be truly gender neutral. I don’t know which divisions and it probably varies a little with the woman, but “sir” is a title of respect (think being knighted) and military women have earned it. Some of them will definitely not take being “ma’amed” instead kindly.
Gah, you are giving me flashbacks of my time in the U.S. Air Force!
Nothing used to make me twitch more than some officer yelling out “Airman!”
You never knew if it was you he was yelling at or the other 600 people around you…
And you are totally correct about the “ma’am” thing. Always much safer to say “sir”.
Eh, in ROTC we got yelled at to no end for calling female superiors ‘sir’.
I remember one time where a cadet was saying something to a female cadet officer and finished the sentence with a ‘Ma’am’. However, he was either parched or stressed out from training that day, and it came out sounding like ‘Mom’.
He got yelled at for a couple minutes, and then at the end of the training day he had to apologize in front of the detachment to her for calling her Mom.
My experience with ROTC programs is that they don’t really emulate the culture of the actual military so much as hybridize it with civilian cultural expectations. So requisite gender differentiation in ROTC where it would be considered rude in the military makes perfect sense, most especially if it was a JROTC program.
Eh, true (this happened in ‘real’ ROTC btw :P)
That is my one major complaint about ROTC. Their instruction on how to work with airmen and NCOs is…lacking, and there was absolutely zero training for working with DoD civilians and contractors (at my detachment, anyway). But yeah…the actual military is a far, far different world than ROTC or other training.
Huh? I never said it was a guy that was a girl. ‘Airman’ is the generic term for a member of the Air Force for both men and women.
I learned long ago not to expect anyone not either from a military family or having direct military experience to understand that kind of stuff.
I think they’re half and half? Mother’s black, father’s white…if I’m remembering my Walkyverse history right.
Panel 4: Now with Walky looking 50% more like Faz.
Walky and Sal are creole (anglo-afro-caribbean)
If I remember correctly, they are 75% black (I believe Walky’s exact terms were “You know my father’s half white? Well I’m even more.) Of course, that was in It’s Walky!, so maybe it doesn’t apply anymore.
75% white, sorry.
Too much sexytime and not enough studytime.
She probably aced the anatomy test, though.
Hey look! It’s photobombing Jesus again!
If this was a murder mystery, Sal would now stumble across Jason’s dead body, accidentally leave some sort of evidence which, along with her public exclamation here, is enough to incriminate her. Subsequently, she would have to quickly and ingeniously solve the mystery of his death, before the police could pin the crime on her.
While I’m at it, I’ll do some other genres.
If this was a romance, I think Jason would be irrelevant now. He will recur later as a competing love interest, but Sal’s true love will come across her while she’s emotionally unstable and take advantage of that and his ability to actually tutor her properly to seduce her. She will lose much of her personality because of falling in love with him. It will still be written as a genuine love-story, though, because romance authors always have strange notions of love.
I hate romances.
If it was fantasy/science-fiction, Sal would clearly be a fantasy creature/alien, because no-one’s hair actually does that.
If it was action-genre or literary fiction, Sal would succeed in her goal, or at least injure Jason badly. In literary fiction, there would be dire consequences for Sal.
In a webcomic, Sal would confront Jason, he would explain that he had no influence on her grade, and then she would probably sleep with him again in a nonsensical effort to change his mind. Perhaps.
Actually, this hair-stuff never happened to Sal in the Walkyverse, where she was part martian.
Well, there was this one time, but that hardly counts.
As TA he likely is the one doing the grading, but if this mirrors my college experience the name isn’t on any of those papers anyway.
I’m with Joyce on this sort of thing… I never know exactly how to ask such questions without accidentally being offensive. :/
She could have just spoke in “Jive” to see if he understood. Joyce looks like that was part of her Home Education anyway.
I mean, WHO HASN’T seen “Airplane” at least once!?
Cut her some slack jack!
God, that scene in Airplane always makes me laugh! 🙂
It’s simple: “What is your genetic heritage?” Or depending if you don’t live in America and the person you’re talking to is the third or second generation living this country “Where are you parents from?”
Oh, them. Pittsburgh.
Ironically a line uttered by a white guy in brown makeup playing a funny indian guy, which actually -is- kinda questionable.
If someone is offended by you asking what race they are, then they have the problem not you.
If it’s a black person, I could understand being frustrated at not knowing exactly where in Africa your ancestors were ripped from.
About as frustrating as being a white person with an unknown heritage beyond their great grandpa? Not every black person (or person of such heritage) is still mad about slavery.
Well, it kinda isn’t your (or mine) business, is it? I know it seems “interesting” when someone appears non-white, but what difference does it make? And I’ll guarantee that the person you’re asking gets that question far more than is comfortable. I’ve learned to just not ask, and if I’m friends long enough, culture and heritage comes up eventually, beyond just what lead to our skin tones.
Yes, exactly! If it comes up naturally in a conversation and you and the person you’d like to ask about it have a somewhat close or very open hearted relationship, then you might, but otherwise it’s just rather rude.
You may want to know, but there are a lot of things that you already don’t do or say or ask etc. if you’re properly socialised/raised and this is just one of them.
Pretty much. There are circumstances where there’s an exception, but those are few and far between. Just like asking about religious persuasion, voting history, or sexual persuasion unless you have a conversation just segue into the topic naturally, it’s something you don’t ask about in polite society.
That’s true, but I do get curious. But like you I don’t ask because it usually isn’t relevant.
Something interesting I just noticed about your comment… that you assumed I am white. Maybe it’s my gravatar (not chosen by me).
I’m not offended in the least, partly because you are correct, I just find it interesting that it seems the “default” skin color is white, at least to some people. I’m guilty of it, too, having grown up around mostly other white people, and I think that’s all it is.
Just made me think, is all I’m sayin. 🙂
I only ever ask “Where are you from” if the person has an accent AND it has come up in conversation in such a way that I can neatly segue into it.
One of my coworkers has a slight accent and is obviously of non-European descent, and I was a little curious, so I just waited until an appropriate time to ask the question. She said something about how she can’t find any Chai tea as good as the Chai in India, so I waited for her to finish that thought and asked, “Oh, so are you from India?”
(She’s not; she’s actually from Africa. Her parents are from India, and she moved the the U.S. when she was 17.)
Mostly, it’s just important to keep in mind that, yes, while you are simply curious and mean no ill-will, it’s still best to wait until something has been mentioned. After all, people leave their home countries for reasons, and they might not want to think about it, much less talk about it. Curiosity is important, but not important enough to make someone else upset or uncomfortable.
That…seems a bit ridiculous to me. If somebody had NO accent, I wouldn’t think twice about asking where they’re from as part of getting to know them. I’m on board with Josh up there. if somebody is offended by you honestly asking where they (or their family) are from, they’re being hypersensitive.
(Now if you follow that up with asinine, racist questions like “Ohhh, wow! Do they have schools there?” then you should be fired out of a cannon into the sun.)
I agree with that, but for reasons which I won’t bore you with here I am *very* sensitive when it comes to offending people. I hate feeling like people are upset with me or thing badly of me for any reason. I know it can’t be avoided, but the feeling is there all the same.
*think badly.
I blame that typo on me typing too fast for my eyes to catch it and for me being too groggy from this stupid head cold to care. Heh.
Having lived with a girl who was obsessed with straightening her hair, I can safely say that the reason Sal is never seen at night is that she spends her whole night in the bathroom, straightening her hair for the next day.
shes going to attack the brit ending with them getting it on again and her wondering what the hell jsut happened
MIKE
WHERE IS YOUR NOSE
Sal tried to play “Got Your Nose” with him and accidentally ended up ripping it off.
She wants to know how well they would go with a side of fava beans!
“Generically” beige? Genetically beige, perhaps? Or is the joke that Walky has mixed up the two words?
No, the joke is that Walky’s racial heritage is visually ambiguous and he is aware of it.
13 years and finally someone asked that question!
Well, we’ve known for a while that the Walkerton twins are 3/4 white, right?
http://www.itswalky.com/d/20021015.html
Eh, that could just be a statement about his ability to (not) dance, rather than an actual breakdown of his ethnicity.
I think it’s cute that Walky immediately knows what Joyce is talking about and isn’t the slightest bit offended. He has greater concerns.
And this, kids, is why we don’t fuck students. They never do it for fun, only for a grade that they don’t deserve. If you want sex with an imbalance of power, bang your supervisor and demand a bigger share of their grant money.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t remember Sal sexing anyone up lately.
You’re wrong. It was weeks ago by our terms, but only a day or two ago in comic-time.
You know, Joyce, if you wanna know what flavor Sal is…
I dunno… Billie’s efforts in that direction haven’t shown promise, and we all know what kind of girlbait Billie makes.
Where is Billie, anyway? She was with Joyce when they headed to this class, but there’s no sign of her now, and there’s intriguing goings-on on her Twitter. Was Ruth lying in wait to pick her out of the herd?
I was wrong, I didn’t think Sal would broadcast the ‘event’ to the entire class, but then, I guess her hair already did that for her.
Well, technically all she has broadcast at this point is that she expected to get a better grade than she got, or that she thinks her grade is unfair. Without the context we have, I don’t think anybody else in that classroom would conclude that she schtupped him for an A and didn’t get it.
Damn you, Willis! The women you draw are hella attractive. Referring to Dorothy’s mom here. I’m not on Tumblr so I just put this here.
Your style is not particularly realistic, yet you push all the right buttons. And every new character is distinctly different from the others. I find this amazing.
You know, I think Sal is pretty hot with that hair.
Hello, is my Gravatar thing working? This comment SHOULD show up with a picture of Hendrix.
\m|_ ^_^ _|m/
Oh lordie! I can’t wait to see how this all turns out.
Totally pleased to see Sal has the same hair issues I do. 😀
XD
“THE BRITISH ARE COMING! And they don’t bump grades afterwards” 😛
“Bumpin’ grades” is totes the euphemism for what Sal and Jason have been doing.
Oooh. As of today’s strip this punch line got a lot less innocently funny.
The brilliant thing is, even here, they’re the same colour as each other. I think Walky’s just messing.
“Taste the rainbow”
There you go. The honest to god worst skittles joke I am ever likely to make. And no, I’m not proud of it.
walky is the color of the universe