As I used to point out at the time this PSA was a common thing, It really should be ‘don’t copy that floppy without first checking the license’. Stallman had founded the FSF by this point and free and open source software was in reasonably wide distribution, along with freeware, shareware and many other similar licenses allowing a lot of popular software to be copyable and redistributable. Quite a lot of this kind of software was in heavy trade via BBS and included a fairly wide range of games, both in type and quality.
I think I know the answer to this! (though I could be terribly wrong)
I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the Jewish tradition of gematria (where you assign a number to certain letters). I remember that if you write out Emperor Nero’s name two different ways, you either get 666 or 616.
Yeah. If you do it in Greek you get 616, and if you do is in Latin you get 666. Old Greek bibles have 616 and old Latin bibles have 666. This is part of the reason that we believe that the Book of Revelation (that’s “Apocalypse” in Greek) is about events in Palestine in AD 70–77 and the divine retribution that St John the Divine expected and hoped for.
Is it not snuggleability? Either way, I agree that Dina has that base covered. Now, time for Dina to tell Sarah that the evil toe man is responsible for Raidah dating Jacob and that his demise shall being order to the land
You can’t just add words together like that willy-nilly, QQ. Snuggle is a verb, Huggable is an adjective. Logically, you can only really add together words of the same type.
(… unless maybe the preschoolers’ prostitute ring!)
And she’s never done anything… illegal…
(Unless you count all the times she sold dope disguised as a nun!)
She’s always been a good, law-abiding citizen… (Oh gimme a break!) of the USA, and… (SHUT UP!) a community-conscious individual… (BROOOOWN! She’s nothin’ but a low-down double-dealin’ backstabbin’ larcenous perverted WORM! Hangin’s too good for her! BURNIN’S too good for her! She should be torn into little bitsy pieces and BURIED ALIVE!)
Very much so. Not sure how a Human female would do it, but a male would have to be rather…compact…to fit into 1 of the ports. I may be a 3 feet tall Minicon out of armour, but you won’t catch me doing that…
Actually, I think that Joyce is going to be Joyce and spend some time fretting about Becky, what she’s doing and Joyce’s own role in where Becky has ended up in life. Then she’s going to get a hard talking to from some of the other characters about how the real world works.
Speaking of which, has anyone with an android phone ever see a little dinosaur on the screen when the Internet connection breaks on chrome? I just found out touching it starts a little video game.
I ended up in the… Inverse? Or converse? Of that situation…
Straight guy, got to be really good friends with a lesbian, then she broke up with her girlfriend, then she realized she liked me, I fell for her, we started dating, I’m helping her come out as bi to people who’ve known her and are now really confused what’s happening. Apparently “attracted to girls-plus-one-guy-but-not-really-any-other-guys” is a thing. And I couldn’t be happier with her <3
My understanding is that jailbreaking a phone means that you can then use it on another carrier’s network (so you could, say, use a Squint phone on ATT). But it’s not like people keep phones forever and ever; most people switch out their phones for a newer model as soon as they can. So why would anyone jailbreak a phone anyway?
That’s unlocking a phone, which allows you to use a SIM card from a different carrier to move to another network freely. Jailbreaking (which is technically only applicable to iOS devices) is breaking your phone out of the locked-down sandbox that Apple imposes on it to gain full control over the software on the phone – basically, it’s gaining the ability to do things to your phone that Apple doesn’t normally allow – install apps from places other than the App Store, install system-wide themes and tweaks, modify system files, etc.
On Android devices, they have far less restrictive permissions and don’t lock your user environment in a sandbox, so the process to gain full control their is called “rooting” – literally gaining access to the root user account on the phone, root being the user account in any UNIX/Linux system that has full control over the system. Jailbreaking involves rooting, but rooting doesn’t always involve jailbreaking.
I’m glad I’m not the only one worrying about that. He could show up in as little as half an hour depending on how gullible/intelligent he is. Given his blind acceptance of Dina’s direction, I’d say it’ll be more like 2-3 hours.
I wonder if there’s a specific ranking in Joyce’s head as to the sin level of dating a non-Christian, getting a tattoo, and jailbreaking a phone (and illegally downloading music).
Considering Apple has marketed itself as rebel/antiestablishment, it sure limits how much you can customise as well as preventing you from using non-sanctioned software/apps.
oh, given their apple symbol, I bask in the irony that they are as free as Adam and Steve were in heaven :
do not eat the fruit of knownledge, no nudity, nothing contradicting the words of god (Jobs), etc.
They’re the opposite of antiestablishment. They market themselves as being the IT thing, the exclusive high-end thing, which is about as establishment as you can get.
It lets you do things like install apps that aren’t approved by the app store. Some of the tweaks that were made get integrated into real iOS as time goes on.
I jailbroke my ipod, f.lux is great (cools down LCD screens, it’s a must on both my laptop and the ipod), I have an emulator on it for SNES games, I have some adblockers, and have some pretty great tweaks for the buttons–double tapping home will play/pause music, and holding the volume buttons lets me skip tracks. Oh, and since ipods don’t have a battery percentage for some damn reason, I made it so mine shows one.
Go all out, Joyce. Tramp stamp in Chinese characters that you don’t understand, but that you THINK translate into an inspiring message about your character.
If Becky can’t can’t over the fact that OHMYGOD JOYCE HAS A NEW FRIEND, she can’t expect Joyce to suddenly be cool with something that she believed to be completely against the values of her faith until three days ago. Easier said than done, but they both need to get over their respective issues with these changes if their friendship is going to hold.
I first read that as “Easter said than done” and realized that (according to legend) the apostles went from a normal Thursday of following Jesus to watching his betrayal, death, and resurrection in three days. So I’m going to say that radical expansion of worldview in three days is pretty par for the course in those circles.
Sure, that’s how it starts. First you associate with people who hold incorrect beliefs. Then you look up biblical contradictions. Then you download a car. And the next thing you know… BAM! You’re out on the street selling your body for hookers and blow, just so you can make it through to next week without killing somebody. It’s a slippery slope, kiddo, and the last stop is a highway to hell in a handbasket with a side of eternal damnation! And all because you had the gall to think outside the cult. …Uh, I mean the divinely ordained rule of law.
So the moral of the story, children, is that sins are never hidden from god. Don’t touch yourself. Jesus will be back any day now, and won’t you be embarrassed if he catches you! Also, don’t plan on growing up, Pastor Whatsisface is betting on a week from Tuesday and we’re pretty sure his logic is air-tight this time.
The End!
She’s a doughnut filled with all the JELLY about Dorothy and Joyce being close and intimate. She’s trying to do the best she can to work through it, but that all hurts too much and she sees too much of herself and Joyce in their dynamic and so can’t help thinking that Dorothy is getting the romantic relationship she craves with Joyce.
Because Becky is Joyce’s long time bestie, and with the huge crush she has (had??) on Joyce the closeness of Dottie and Joyce really got under Becky’s skin. That’s my two cents anyway.
Dotty the Boozing Athiest is a good line though!
Well the two of them were able to make it through a restaurant dinner together relatively fine earlier, so I think Becky’s describing her thusly here to point out that Joyce doesn’t have much of a high horse to ride on in terms of criticizing associations based on religious beliefs.
Right now I think it’s more that Becky challenges Joyce. If Joyce actually still believed that what Becky is and does is something sinful… that would be horrible. Becky just has to prod a bit more.
Well any metal will ruin your hearing if it’s cranked up high enough, but yeah, Ghost is considerably more melodic than most similarly-themed bands out there.
“Dotty the Boozin Atheist” When Dorothy is running for President, that’s how her opponent will refer to her. That nickname will quickly spread, and that will become how Dorothy is known worldwide.
In spite of this hurdle Dorothy will still manage to win the presidential election — twice. She will serve two terms, and be the greatest President America has ever known, leading America into a new Golden Age of peace, prosperity, and equality for all. She will still go down in history as “Dotty the Boozin’ Atheist.”
Wow, my brain goes to weird places at this hour. (12:33 am here)
She runs a very cerebral campaign. People like her policies but her squeaky clean image makes her strange and unrelatable to the voters. Then it gets out that when the sun sets Senator Dorothy Keener becomes Dotty the Boozin Athiest and the populace accepts her as a true woman of the people.
FWIW, I think that Dorothy is going to end up giving politics a wide berth. As she matures, she’ll become more and more disgusted by the venality, corruption and the absolute barrier to high office standing in front of those who do not, first and foremost, obey the diktats of the vested interests.
Rather than compromise in the name of trying to get a political office wherein she’ll be neutered and powerless because of said vested interests anyway, she’ll eventually find her true calling in investigative journalism as a different way of trying to change the world.
I feel like there would be some unique trials and tribulations in looking for exclusively Christian same sex relationships.
Like, don’t get me wrong I’m sure there’s plenty of gay christians out there. It’s just that as a straight person you’re pretty free to just go hitting up the local religious events looking datable singles where Becky might not wanna find out which Indiana churches have a gay dating scene through trial and error.
I’m waiting for someone to point out to both of them that Jesus hung out with tax collectors and whores while giving the proverbial finger to authority figures.
So really, one could argue that being really close with “bad influences” is about as Christ-like as you can be.
The difference is that the tax collectors and prostitutes changed for the better from spending time with Jesus, while Jesus never joined them in their sins. So Joyce hanging out with Dorothy is totally different than Becky’s use of that friendship to justify something she probably still subconsciously thinks of as sin (judging by the “ticket to hell” phrase…)
In any case, this strip has me back to disliking Becky because she’s manipulative of Joyce despite the kindness and compassion she’s been shown so far. I felt a little bad for her after Toedad showed up but now she’s back to being rude and just plain awful to Joyce.
(Well the Jesus & co. bit was kind of a joke. Ah well.)
I dunno if I’d say Becky’s being manipulative so much as I’d say she’s being sort of hyper-defensive. She’s trying desperately to cling to what little she has; and damn anything that threatens it, whether it’s her dad threatening her current place of residence or Joyce’s views threatening her new relationship.
So I wouldn’t say manipulative, but certainly insensitive/unthinking.
This. Joyce is her best friend. Becky spent all of her childhood and life in an environment where people like her with feelings like hers were the worst sort of Satanic sinners, an act of violence against her God and her family. Right now she has been robbed of her family, her support network, a place to sleep, her education, and every friend but Joyce because of what she is, because she wants to be true to who she is and what she wants.
But she was still raised to believe that being gay, being into women was a sin, was the main thing God cared about besides having an abortion or no longer believing in him. That what she is and who she is is wrong in the eyes of her deity.
She has personally decided that her God, the God she believes in, doesn’t view who she is as a sin, did not give her her feelings to punish her for it, but she was still trained for life that the opposite was true and so it hurts when people echo that.
And we see that in the moments that Becky gets real and upset with Joyce. The only two points she’s gone all glarey at Joyce have been moments where Joyce doubted the religious approval of Becky’s life:
This comic with suggesting that dating a non-Christian was a mortal sin.
And this comic where Joyce let Becky know that she had to do a lot of research to confirm that being gay was probably okay. The bit that stuck with Becky there was the idea that if Joyce had found the opposite then she would be moved to abandon or mistreat her or otherwise assume she was damned.
Becky isn’t being manipulative. Becky is genuinely hurt in those moments. A particular interpretation of religion with relation to Becky’s genital activities and dating proclivities has robbed her of everything in her life except the clothes on her back, Joyce, and Joyce’s friends and she’s had to start from scratch.
Statements that step closely to feeling like that religious judgement with regards to those or that suggest she may be committing a sin in her dating or mating life hit too close to home and as such, she gets glarey and firm.
Which is absolutely fair and a completely rational way to respond. I can be one way with a lot of friends or loved ones, but when they accidentally say something that invalidates a way I am, I definitely get upset and call them out of it and need to take a second to calm down. That’s just healthily dealing with life.
What the hell is with the “Becky is manipulative” camp?
People seem to keep wanting to view Becky as some master manipulator who is playing their friends and it’s just utterly baffling and inane. Becky has time and time again gone out of her way not to abuse friendships for things even though she literally has nothing:
Becky is like anti-manipulative given her circumstances and her level of need for help from others.
But the repetition of this complaint means that a lot of people are seeing it make sense which:
A) Means what the hell do they think Becky’s manipulating towards? Or what is she deceiving about? Do they assume that Becky has made up being gay and homeless because that’s super fun to lie about? If so, to what purpose would she have done so? If not, then where’s the manipulation? She’s literally relying on the kindness of strangers to have a bed, to have food, to not be dragged away in the middle of the night to a conversion camp where she’ll be constantly abused until she lies about her sexuality. And yet she’s imposing the least she possibly can. Do they assume that anytime anyone asks for help then that’s a manipulation? That being in need is the same thing as being manipulative? That occasionally accepting aid freely given is some dastardly action by a master manipulator?
B) Also, that these people have probably been fortunate enough not to know a real manipulator. Someone who will go out of their way to fuck you over or force you into bad positions. Who will exploit empathy to cover up their rapes or force you to stay with them. Who will take advantage of any weakness on your part to angle more toxic time under their control, who will constantly maneuver to try and invent ways to have power over you in order to demand more concessions. And to them, I say, I’m happy for you that you have not experienced it, but this is not that.
This is a homeless kid trying to survive the week.
Thank-you …
for reminding me in the right universe , afterall.
500 comments after Joyce BSD over something trivial —without an attack on Becky with a crazy-biased Double-standard — and Just for a a day or so, I thought I was accidentally fell in a parallel non-homophobic one.
Becky just instructed Joyce not to be a Bigot , and a not to be a hypocritical Christian.
( Didnt Jesus say something about that? )
Seems weird to get all hardcore up in arms about something like this.
I don’t think Jesus actually had all that much to say about dating outside your religion. Some particularly insular religious communities have schools of thought on when and why you should be associating with outsiders but for the most part even that’s more of a guideline than a hard rule. You know, outside of cults and theocracies at least.
Becky is in the process of re-evaluating a lot of her religious values right now due to a recent life altering revelation, but there’s plenty of room to be a good wholesome Christian Woman while also dating somebody who subscribes to the theory of evolution.
6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Apparently all relationships with non-Christians must be geared towards “saving” them, and you can’t hang out with them just because they are awesome to party with. (I mean that’s what it sounds like Mr. Brown is saying).
Joyce seems bound and determined to exactly live up to whatever social roles that she believes she’s “supposed” to do. (I mean, you can be a bad influence without a tattoo or a jailbroken phone) At some point, she’s going to have to determine what role *she* wants… if any. (Not what her parents want, not what her church wants, or what she thinks any of those want)
Becky setup Dina with the joke to blow Joyce’s mind, admitting that she knew what she was doing, when Dina stated that knowing a person gave you the ability to get under their skin was a new fact she had now learned.
Sarah said it right when she told Joyce to give Becky some room to reach out to other friends. (and busted her and Joyce’s deep friendship doing so. Joyce did try to give Becky room.
Now Becky needs to accept that Joyce has been friends with Dorothy a long time, and stop being a pisser about it.
And the next time she is outright rude to Dorothy or starts her ‘I know you hate me but it’s okay” bs: I hope Dorothy pokes her right in the nose.
Oh well all minor issues compared to Toedad. Hope Dina is filing in Sarah on that now.
Becky’s jealousy of Dorothy is her biggest flaw and something she’s been shown in comic to be working on working through, but it’s definitely not going to occur in a day, especially since every time Dorothy and Joyce are being cutesy in a way that reminds Becky of Becky and Joyce and Becky’s hopes for a relationship it causes her so much emotional pain, she has to look away.
But yeah, it would be awesome to see Becky work through this and become better friends with Dorothy.
If it’s an iPhone the answer is jailbreaking is usually “I dunno, do you want to?”
If it’s an Android the answer is usually “Yes, yes, why in God’s name have you not done so already, do you need a hand doing so?”
Wasn’t Joyce’s dating either Joe or Ethan, and mentioning to Becky that they’re Jewish, was what prompted Becky to say that it’s not a good idea to date non-Christians.
I was just looking at Sarah in the last panel. Based on the expression on her face, Dina is saying something that threatens to break her sense of reality pretty badly.
Oh, and Becky wins today’s ‘false equivalence argument’ award.
Something tells me that there is a long, complicated and somewhat confusing story behind the ‘jailbreak my phone’ thing.
Dating and being close friends aren’t equivalent, but Becky isn’t wrong about asserting that she can date Dina without losing her faith. (I mean the way they were raised Joyce shouldn’t be even hanging out with Dorothy without trying to convert her. And Joyce hasn’t lost her faith).
Becky has a valid point here! Though for Joyce I think it’s not really ’cause Dina is non-Christian, but more the fact that she feels like Dina is anti-Christian with her talk on evolution and bird-feathers, etc. Also because she doesn’t get on all that well with her, haha.
This Becky/Dina thing is going *super quick* though, seeing as they met properly what, the evening before? I think it’s a rebound relationship for Becky, while she is into Dina, she’s still not over Joyce and I reckon that’ll be a problem at some point. But we’ll see~
Becky is in a complex place, emotionally, right now. It isn’t a particularly healthy place either. Lots of commentators are hopeful that her relationship with Dina will be ultimately beneficial and it may be. My concern is that the two of them are going into it with different ideas about what might be the outcome and they may end up getting hurt about it.
I don’t think that Becky is doing this out of jealousy of Joyce’s friendship with Dorothy. However, as we see here, I think we can confidently expect Becky to rub Joyce’s nose in that friendship every time Becky/Dina hits the slightest speed-bump and Joyce offers advice. I think that this is ironic because, to me, it’s Joyce’s relationship with Ethan that is the one from which she should have learnt serious lessons. Her relationship with Dorothy is actually completely normal, healthy and middle-of-the-road.
“I used to say a lot of stuff”
I know it seems like an apathetic view but it sounds to me like a healthy perspective of someone who realizes that their childhood brainwashing isn’t the only truth in the world. Joyce and Becky are both emerging from the oppressive attitude of their home town but in very different ways. Becky has been thrown through the shredder by her own religion because of her sexuality, and seems to be discarding her upbringing wheras Joyce seems to be trying to make adaptations and exceptions where possible.
I know. That little line shows so much of her religious evolution and viewpoints. She said stuff to follow in the line before having to grapple honestly with her sexuality and attractions, praising the heteronormative, enforcing the idea that God needs to micromanage one’s dating and sexual activities. That was what she had been trained in from a very young age.
But she made her break from that. When struggling with her sexuality and her wants at Anderson, she came to a religious conclusion about her personal vision of God, as someone who doesn’t determine one’s worth based on who one loves or whether one fucks. And this conclusion was critical to her reaction to Toedad’s insistence of reparative therapy. Feeling that her idea of God supported her gave her the strength and courage to run away and hope for the best. To reach out for help and to build a relationship with Dina and to admit her feelings to Joyce. It’s kept her alive and going even as Toedad continues to stalk her.
And she’s trying to share that idea with God to Joyce who she sees is struggling and hurting with the idea of God they were trained in. “I useta say a lotta stuff” is her breaking with the damaging advice she has given in the past to enforce that old worldview. Encouraging Joyce that she can love who she wants and date who she wants and that’s okay. God isn’t sitting in judgment because she goes on a date with a non-Christian. God won’t care if she touches herself or has a fantasy. God doesn’t view fuckface’s attempted rape as a punishment for being public and having wants.
And God in Becky’s eyes is okay with kaboodle noodlin’ outside the bounds of marriage (no word yet on the kapoodle, but all signs point to it being more than okay in Becky’s eyes). And she wants Joyce to understand that too, because Joyce needs to break with all that shame and bullshit in order to finally be happy with who she is inside and healthily deal with her reality as a sexual being.
Hmm, question. So do fundamentalist Christians genuinely believe that it’s a sin, or at least a very, very bad idea, to marry someone who also isn’t a Christian?
I’m sure there’s scriptural references to it, but I suspect that many don’t do it simply because the paths they would be walking are just too different. If you’re the type who dates because you’re trying to find a spouse and not just to “have some fun,” then you would be walking into a relationship knowing full well that you aren’t going to suddenly stop believing for this person, and they likely aren’t going to start believing for you.
That leaves the believer to get increasingly depressed because their spouse won’t join them in something that is so important to them, and the non-believer to experience (or just imagine) resentment coming from the believer for not joining wanting to join them. Not to mention the battle you could have someday over how future children will (or won’t) be raised in the faith.
We’ve all seen in this strip that Joyce is the type who dates because she’s trying to reach marriage. Becky might be a little more on the “just having fun” side right now.
Sorry, I re-read it and still missed a couple typos! I need an “edit” button!
For the record, it should be “there are” and not “there’s” in the first line, and “not wanting to join them” instead of “not joining wanting to join them” near the end of paragraph #2.
I’d like to think that Joyce is getting a little snarky in the last panel, and she’s feigning that bewildered expression to sell the sarcasm. But in reality, no, I expect that she’s being sincere in her consternation, and genuinely wonders if Becky’s plunge off the gosh-darned deep end is in fact her fault.
Well, Joyce has already been seeing agonizing over the idea that every one of her friends (by the rules of her religious ideology) are going to Hell for their sexual activities and how nonetheless she feels like the broken one for wanting to join them:
I love stories about fundamentalist Christians views getting expanded/broken or changed, myself coming from such family and had to live through that, struggle during my teen years was a nightmare.
I think at that point Becky might still have been in fundie overdrive. It wasn’t until Joyce started talking about how boys were hanky-panky obsessed jerks that Becky figured Joyce could reciprocate.
I think she was just echoing the general fundie culture.
Even if she had broken with that particular view of her deity, it would have been important to “keep up appearances” as she was trained that having doubts is how Satan infests someone.
One has nothing to do with the other. She’s just pointing out some less-than-logical points of trying to apply rules for a group of bronze-age drones to modern society.
I would jailbreak the *hell* out of her phone. And I’m terrible at it! Jailbreaking phones. Seriously, that’s what I meant. Why are you looking at me like that?
i am still squeeing everywhere about becky & dina! however this time i want to point out that one of the things i love about your art? is the hands. becky’s pointing hand in the 4th panel! so great
I like all the really subtle character beats in this strip.
Becky worried that Joyce is going to stop supporting her, or maybe never has, because she now has a girlfriend.
Joyce trying to dissuade Becky from Dina using her own argument which Becky’s casual dismisses since she’s now trying to affirm her own identity as a lesbian woman and also as a Christian.
I also like the implication that Becky’s also seeking other companionship to get away from Joyce even if it’s unusual to their upbringing and uses Joyce’s friendship with Dorothy to make that point.
Becky is down to one on her old support network and it’s the one she loves, despite realizing that will never happen. So she’s scared constantly of losing that either to Dorothy’s seductive intimate charms or to Joyce really deciding one day that she can’t keep supporting her and keep her own idea of her God.
And yeah, Becky dating Dina and moving out of Joyce’s room and bed is a really healthy move to starting the process of getting over Joyce and thus to be able to stop getting upset at Dorothy and Joyce’s platonic cutseyness together.
What worries me is Beckys headspace meaning is she emotionally ready for a relationship with someone other then Joyce, it may be really healthy for her and Dina (hopefully it is) but it might also be really bad for them once the initial thrill wears off
Its not Beckys fault of course (due to circumstances) but it does seem like shes expecting Joyce to be able to come to terms quickly with all these major changes that’re happening
Joyce isn’t my favourite character but in this shes doing as well as anyone could be expected to (and better than most I’d guess) I mean shes housed, clothed, fed, and emotionally supported Becky all while going through her own issues yet it seems like Beckys trying to force the issue
Well, I think it makes a lot of sense that statements suggesting that Becky is going to Hell because of who she loves or who she dates might be a little bit of a sore spot given the context.
This is why I love Joyce. Instead of doubling down on what she thinks, Joyce questions her role in life and her beliefs. It makes for a better Christian and human being.
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“You, alright?? I learned it by watching you!!”
(Can’t decide? Why not both? Jailbreak your tattoo!)
I like that this rhymes.
Tatoo your phone !
Phone your jail!
don’tcopy that floppy!Is that anything like plaster casting your willy?
you mean like (nsfw)?
(then I remembered this is a real thing) ((also nsfw))
Oh Sexy Loser, they don’t make webcomics like that anymore… well Oglaf comes close…
Don’t use plaster. It can cause 3rd degree burns.
Keeping your dick hard enough for long enough?
I’ve studied sculpture:)
As I used to point out at the time this PSA was a common thing, It really should be ‘don’t copy that floppy without first checking the license’. Stallman had founded the FSF by this point and free and open source software was in reasonably wide distribution, along with freeware, shareware and many other similar licenses allowing a lot of popular software to be copyable and redistributable. Quite a lot of this kind of software was in heavy trade via BBS and included a fairly wide range of games, both in type and quality.
Sorry, kinda a personal hot button topic.
I posted that as tongue-in-cheek–here’s a different take praising exactly the opposite
*Drops a tumble weed*
For copyright holders, public domain do not exist, and never have.
Download this song?
Even Lars Ulrich knows it’s wrong
<333 Thank you for replying to that with that. I was gonna do it but you did it first. Mmm weird al <3
Keep your library books until they’re WAY overdue!
Jailbreak a Windows Phone
10/10, would sin again.
Wait, who IS this? Lemme guess, Jen couldn’t keep making first posts consistently, so her sister stepped in to take up the slack?
Wait… how big IS the Aside family? Lemme guess, you have a Chinese half-brother named Hom, and a Lebanese cousin named Famil?
Don’t forget about her nephew Reginald (who prefers to be called Reg).
we covered this
Reg is dad, fwiw
You mean Regi? Yeah, he’s in the Side family…
Yes, get a 666 tatoo.
I heard that the real number of the beast is 616 these days.
(ooh, NERF now! avatar)
hmm, 616 ? … do I dare ask why ? ^^;
Yup, it’s Morgan/Demo-tan! ^_^
Something about how scholars had mistranslated 616 as 666, I’m not sure about the details, just google is it 666 or 616? if you want to know more.
uh, I kinda assumed it was just the verse number.
I’ll look that up… once I’ve slept some more =_=
Aw, but I liked the “668… Neighbor of the Beast” (tshirt)
616 is the mobile number of the beast, obviously.
I think I know the answer to this! (though I could be terribly wrong)
I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the Jewish tradition of gematria (where you assign a number to certain letters). I remember that if you write out Emperor Nero’s name two different ways, you either get 666 or 616.
Yeah. If you do it in Greek you get 616, and if you do is in Latin you get 666. Old Greek bibles have 616 and old Latin bibles have 666. This is part of the reason that we believe that the Book of Revelation (that’s “Apocalypse” in Greek) is about events in Palestine in AD 70–77 and the divine retribution that St John the Divine expected and hoped for.
616? Isn’t that the area code for Manhattan?
Oh man, now Iron Maiden are going to have to update their song.
It’s actually 999 b/c in your dreams you see things upside down
[/Mulder]
Look, the Marvel universe is a bit of a mess, sure but that’s going a bit too far.
It would be less of a mess if they replaced s/Squirrel Girl/Grace/.
Only if you provide the whole EGS team so she’s not lonely.
Apparently the Beast lives in MI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_code_616
Kalamazoo to be precise.
I don’t live there, just drove through.
So many misconceptions.
Actually Grand Rapids. I should know, since 616 is my area code.
Kalamazoo used to be 616 — now it’s area code 269.
Dr. Phil
Wait that means the main Marvel Universe of 616 is the Devil universe. No wonder Peter and MJ sold their marriage to Mephisto.
Hey, Dina is doing her report to Sarah in the background !!
Ooohh good catch, that’s gotta be what she’s doing indeed!
on another note, I have to agree with Becky about Dina’s snuggabiltiy too.
Is it not snuggleability? Either way, I agree that Dina has that base covered. Now, time for Dina to tell Sarah that the evil toe man is responsible for Raidah dating Jacob and that his demise shall being order to the land
Yeah, she should’ve said that Dina is snugglable, not snuggable. You snuggle with someone, you don’t snugg them. 😛
Snuggle + huggable = snuggable
You can’t just add words together like that willy-nilly, QQ. Snuggle is a verb, Huggable is an adjective. Logically, you can only really add together words of the same type.
[/supernerd] 😛
Actually, you can it falls within the rules of a portmanteaux
Oh, dang! I’ve been doing it wrong!
Clearly you haven’t tried hard enough to perform the snugg >.>
It is snogability.
Point: the hof
If heaven doesn’t have Dina, what’s the point?
Conquering Hell?
Specifically, conquering Dino-Hell with Dina?
Dina and Becky, on the back of a Giganotosaurus, conquering hell together.
Make it happen, Willis! 😛
Better to rule in Hell than to serve in heaven! Someone great said that
It was my great pal Lucy. Lucy Fer
I thought it was Louis Cypher.
Yes Joyce, give in to the dark side… and take more than one packet of ketchup at McDonalds.
There’s evil, then there’s monstrous. Joyce may now abandon the teachings of her Lord, but she’s not an animal! :3
C’mon, that’s just going to far! 😀
That the way to Heck not hell. Only the mildly bad people go there.
Yes, if you want to go to Hell, you steal the dip-or-squeeze catsup tubs from Chick-Fil-A.
I usually take four or five.
Clearly I am the ruler of all evil.
GASP
double dip…..
Yes Joyce, take that extra ketchup packet, get a tattoo, jailbreak your phone, download music illegally, hump that tank.
jeez joyce at this rate you’ll be using bittorrent
After that she’ll be selling crack and running over schoolchildren with a car!
Don’t forget about snorting blow off a hooker’s buttocks.
eating cookies for breakfast!
Wow, that is an old batch of commercials. Is Cookie Crisp still a thing?
Yes, I still see it in grocery stores.
by then she’ll be calling it “ass”
she is definitely on the way to destruction, she has no chance to survive make her time ha ha ha ha
You have killed me.
She can still survive if she takes off every zig…
Woah slow down Satan.
That was a Weird Al reference. Thank you so much for that 🙂
Glad to see I’m not the only one with that in their head now!
Joyce has never done anything immoral…
(… unless maybe the preschoolers’ prostitute ring!)
And she’s never done anything… illegal…
(Unless you count all the times she sold dope disguised as a nun!)
She’s always been a good, law-abiding citizen… (Oh gimme a break!) of the USA, and… (SHUT UP!) a community-conscious individual… (BROOOOWN! She’s nothin’ but a low-down double-dealin’ backstabbin’ larcenous perverted WORM! Hangin’s too good for her! BURNIN’S too good for her! She should be torn into little bitsy pieces and BURIED ALIVE!)
Now, Hannover …
wow. A+ for the Heavy Metal reference.
Hanover, you’ve had this coming….
300… 400… 500 Internets.
*shrinks down, takes money*
Thanks, boss!
Oh, and Hanover?
Yeah, boos?
Good bye.
*pulls lever*
This is honestly the last place where i expected a Heavy Metal reference. 😀
Poor Joyce, she doesn’t know which way is up, now…
“My moral compass is spinning, just like you said it would!”
“Magnetic North isn’t True North! My whole life is a lie!”
That is a pretty apt analogy for Joyce’s college life thus far. Also, yay science!
“Magnetic North isn’t True North!”
=> goes on and create their own obscur religious congregation 😀
I know where true north is! *points up* it’s just a little bit past the atmosphere.
I know too! It’s that place where I get a funny feeling all over…
Right round, baby. Like the wheels on sal’s “hog”
If she had an Android phone, she could combine multiple sins by rooting her phone.
Rooting your phone has a whole different meaning down here in Oz.
Very much so. Not sure how a Human female would do it, but a male would have to be rather…compact…to fit into 1 of the ports. I may be a 3 feet tall Minicon out of armour, but you won’t catch me doing that…
Nonsense. You just need the right adapter.
everybody has a back door
From now on Dorothy needs to sign her name as “Dotty the Boozin’ Atheist”.
“So that’s my legacy now…”
*get elected with 80% votes*
Seriously, put that on her door. Best nickname ever.
I read it as “Dotty the Boobin’ Atheist,” twice. Thrice. A few times.
I’m pretty sure she only has two of those.
Check again!
Naa, she’s only got the standard pair, she just keeps mashing them in people’s faces, “boobing” people… 😛
Sarah and Dina are talking about how amazing that joke was. Sarah is so amazed her mind has been blown and she can’t smile to show her enjoyment.
How can you tell? She doesn’t smile anyways.
where did you get that epic icon?
That seems to be from the Kiwi Blitz webcomic.
Spoilers: <a href="http://www.kiwiblitz.com/comic/page-347"Benjamin Contractor's debut as the vigilante Donner.
Sod all. I shouldn’t link when I’m not awake. That was meant to look like this:
Spoilers: Benjamin Contractor’s debut as the vigilante Donner.
That is what she looks like when she’s smiling. Almost no features whatsoever.
Oh god, I hope this doesn’t mean Joyce is about to do something really stupid… Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Don’t worry. I’m sure she won’t regret that Monkey Master tattoo at all.
… on her butt.
And then she shows up on Tattoo Nightmares
Actually, I think that Joyce is going to be Joyce and spend some time fretting about Becky, what she’s doing and Joyce’s own role in where Becky has ended up in life. Then she’s going to get a hard talking to from some of the other characters about how the real world works.
Money on Sarah
Of course! When has Joyce ever done anything wro-? [Greatest hits reel plays]
That’s why I wanted an Android phone, so I didn’t have to jailbreak it to customise it the way I like.
Speaking of which, has anyone with an android phone ever see a little dinosaur on the screen when the Internet connection breaks on chrome? I just found out touching it starts a little video game.
Just found it the other day. It’s such a funny little game. Hi score: 408 (I only played for 10 minutes)
Thanks for telling me, I tried it and it worked.
It’s on all versions of Chrome, or at least on windows desktop, chromium, and android… (so I assume also on apple machines)
The awkward moment when JOYCE is a bad influence xD
Looking between your comment and avatar, all I can say is…
Roz would be proud 🙂
It’s now canon that Joyce is the corrupter of the innocent.
Joyce: Friend’s with an athiest, dated a gay guy, lied to her mother, BAD INFLUENCE!
In short, nothing much then what everyone else did that age, minus the dating a gay guy, cuz there’s not enough gays around for that:-P
I do wonder how many times a girl has dated a gay guy and had to help him come out of the closet after realizing that he was gay?
Or even the reverse situation?
I ended up in the… Inverse? Or converse? Of that situation…
Straight guy, got to be really good friends with a lesbian, then she broke up with her girlfriend, then she realized she liked me, I fell for her, we started dating, I’m helping her come out as bi to people who’ve known her and are now really confused what’s happening. Apparently “attracted to girls-plus-one-guy-but-not-really-any-other-guys” is a thing. And I couldn’t be happier with her <3
Its nice to meet you, Captain Jack
jack harkness says no to nobody. robot, man, lizard person, etc…..
all are welcome on and in captain jack.
The rare and wild omnisexual
There is nothing stable or sane about any aspect of Jack Harkness’s emotional life. That’s not me saying that; that’s him saying that.
Sounds like she is ‘gay, but with an exception’. We’ve seen that before, here.
Bad influence, or second coming of Jesus Christ?
Why not both?
I hear that in the mud-slinging political ad voiceover voice…
Might as well go for broke and steal a packet of gum, Joyce.
*plays Gregg Allman’s “I’m No Angel” on the Muzak*
Joyce is going to try and mimic Sal in the hallway again, isn’t she?
No, she’s going to go all the way! She’s going to mimic Sal outside
http://pre13.deviantart.net/0196/th/pre/f/2014/214/d/6/dumbing_of_age___joyce_by_syndicaidramon-d7kf3me.jpg
woah XD
Come on, let’s all chip in and get her that bike! Or donate to charity, whichever
*GASP* That’s… that’s a BOY’S BIKE she’s straddling!! *blush*
That girl’s gone out of control!!
A tattoo and leather jacket:Sal 2.0
Bonus: Sal also broke out of jail
(citation needed).
Whoa whoa whoa, how does Joyce know about jailbreaking?
I doubt she actually knows what it is. She just knows it’s against the rules.
she wanted cheap bible verse apps.
“The Good News is for everyone, so… it’s actually a good thing if I get free bible verses!”
Before this comic, I had never heard that term before. Huh. Not that I have a smart phone with which to jailbreak.
My understanding is that jailbreaking a phone means that you can then use it on another carrier’s network (so you could, say, use a Squint phone on ATT). But it’s not like people keep phones forever and ever; most people switch out their phones for a newer model as soon as they can. So why would anyone jailbreak a phone anyway?
That’s unlocking a phone, which allows you to use a SIM card from a different carrier to move to another network freely. Jailbreaking (which is technically only applicable to iOS devices) is breaking your phone out of the locked-down sandbox that Apple imposes on it to gain full control over the software on the phone – basically, it’s gaining the ability to do things to your phone that Apple doesn’t normally allow – install apps from places other than the App Store, install system-wide themes and tweaks, modify system files, etc.
On Android devices, they have far less restrictive permissions and don’t lock your user environment in a sandbox, so the process to gain full control their is called “rooting” – literally gaining access to the root user account on the phone, root being the user account in any UNIX/Linux system that has full control over the system. Jailbreaking involves rooting, but rooting doesn’t always involve jailbreaking.
Might want to mention Toedad soon, Becky.
looks like Dina’s got that on lock. Sarah seems to have very-concerned-face happening.
Very concerned face is probably on the report on the couple of doom, more so on toedad
Sorry, are we sure that 3 dots in the background is concerned face? Looks more like Dina learning sympathy via light physical contact
I’m glad I’m not the only one worrying about that. He could show up in as little as half an hour depending on how gullible/intelligent he is. Given his blind acceptance of Dina’s direction, I’d say it’ll be more like 2-3 hours.
Come on Becky, focus! Your father is near. This is no time to induce an existential crisis in Joyce.
This may end in tears.
Give Becky some credit…
“Jailbreak My Phone… Lie to a Parent’
Becky: “Now that you mention it…”
I wonder if there’s a specific ranking in Joyce’s head as to the sin level of dating a non-Christian, getting a tattoo, and jailbreaking a phone (and illegally downloading music).
I am sure she’s thought about it if she doesn’t have it ranked already.
“Dating non-Christians is wrong. And so is dating the gays. But since Ethan is both it cancels out and is OK when I do it.”
Also, Joe was Jewish too.
And Joe cancels out, when she punches him in the face.
( not following that particular rabbit hole )
it’s been 8 years since the iphone came out and i still dont know what jailbreaking is
basically (and supposedly) makes iPhones more usable/customizable/gives Steve Jobs the bird.
Or DID give him the bird, nowadays he’s less stiff and more fragmented and chill about i bet:-P
Considering Apple has marketed itself as rebel/antiestablishment, it sure limits how much you can customise as well as preventing you from using non-sanctioned software/apps.
censorship, oh !
You would think that Apple products should be the freer option compared to the “straight-laced” Windows but instead the opposite is true.
oh, given their apple symbol, I bask in the irony that they are as free as Adam and
Steve were in heaven :do not eat the fruit of knownledge, no nudity, nothing contradicting the words of god (Jobs), etc.
They’re the opposite of antiestablishment. They market themselves as being the IT thing, the exclusive high-end thing, which is about as establishment as you can get.
It lets you do things like install apps that aren’t approved by the app store. Some of the tweaks that were made get integrated into real iOS as time goes on.
I jailbroke my ipod, f.lux is great (cools down LCD screens, it’s a must on both my laptop and the ipod), I have an emulator on it for SNES games, I have some adblockers, and have some pretty great tweaks for the buttons–double tapping home will play/pause music, and holding the volume buttons lets me skip tracks. Oh, and since ipods don’t have a battery percentage for some damn reason, I made it so mine shows one.
I love that Joyce is getting called out.
Go all out, Joyce. Tramp stamp in Chinese characters that you don’t understand, but that you THINK translate into an inspiring message about your character.
That is risky. About 70% are probably “insert here”
If Becky can’t can’t over the fact that OHMYGOD JOYCE HAS A NEW FRIEND, she can’t expect Joyce to suddenly be cool with something that she believed to be completely against the values of her faith until three days ago. Easier said than done, but they both need to get over their respective issues with these changes if their friendship is going to hold.
Hey, if Ruth and Billie can go from mortal enemies to drunken lesbian suicidal pact-sealers, then surely Joyce and Becky can overcome this hurdle 🙂
Drunken sexy suicidal pact sealers!
I first read that as “Easter said than done” and realized that (according to legend) the apostles went from a normal Thursday of following Jesus to watching his betrayal, death, and resurrection in three days. So I’m going to say that radical expansion of worldview in three days is pretty par for the course in those circles.
Joyce get that tattoo! Jailbreak that phone! Rip the tag off your mattress! it’s a whole new world of nutty, exciting things you can try!
Joyce’s would probably get a BeatrixPotter-illustration tattoo. She’s probably have Benjamin Bunny on her hip.
That’d mean showing her hip to the tattooing artist, so no way 🙂
She’d also likely be very drunk.
Sure, that’s how it starts. First you associate with people who hold incorrect beliefs. Then you look up biblical contradictions. Then you download a car. And the next thing you know… BAM! You’re out on the street selling your body for hookers and blow, just so you can make it through to next week without killing somebody. It’s a slippery slope, kiddo, and the last stop is a highway to hell in a handbasket with a side of eternal damnation! And all because you had the gall to think outside the cult. …Uh, I mean the divinely ordained rule of law.
So the moral of the story, children, is that sins are never hidden from god. Don’t touch yourself. Jesus will be back any day now, and won’t you be embarrassed if he catches you! Also, don’t plan on growing up, Pastor Whatsisface is betting on a week from Tuesday and we’re pretty sure his logic is air-tight this time.
The End!
“Download a car”?
If you have access to an industrial grade 3D printer, it might just become possible to do just that in a few years time.
Google “local motors 3d printed car” Mind = blown.
But also, from those anti-piracy ads that go, “You wouldn’t download a car.”
been there done that
The hell I wouldn’t
true, “you couldn’t download a car” would’ve been more accurate
Selling your body for hookers seems…counter-productive somehow. Or at least inefficient
I wish the alt-text wasn’t the actual truth of how I used to view piracy, because of my religious beliefs of the time. 🙁
Being a good little Christian means that you must obey any laws of man that don’t contradict the laws of God.
Just when I despair there’s no originality left in the world, along comes the light that is “snuggable ride to hell”.
Dotty the Boozing Athiest?
1. Great name for a children’s book.
2. Becky REALLY doesn’t like Dorothy and I can’t figure out why.
Becky believes that Dotty stole her status as Joyce’s BFF.
Becky needs to not be such a spiteful thing, as she devoured food on Dorothy’s tab, while still being hostile to her face 8I
Hopefully some dino-love can save her.
Jesus ain’t got nothing on a stegosaurus
She’s a doughnut filled with all the JELLY about Dorothy and Joyce being close and intimate. She’s trying to do the best she can to work through it, but that all hurts too much and she sees too much of herself and Joyce in their dynamic and so can’t help thinking that Dorothy is getting the romantic relationship she craves with Joyce.
It’s one of her biggest flaws.
Because Becky is Joyce’s long time bestie, and with the huge crush she has (had??) on Joyce the closeness of Dottie and Joyce really got under Becky’s skin. That’s my two cents anyway.
Dotty the Boozing Athiest is a good line though!
Well the two of them were able to make it through a restaurant dinner together relatively fine earlier, so I think Becky’s describing her thusly here to point out that Joyce doesn’t have much of a high horse to ride on in terms of criticizing associations based on religious beliefs.
2) Jealousy.
Right now I think it’s more that Becky challenges Joyce. If Joyce actually still believed that what Becky is and does is something sinful… that would be horrible. Becky just has to prod a bit more.
So, Joyce is now going to illegally download Christian Music off of the Internet…..
Or LEGALLY purchase some Death Metal mp3.
That’d go along with her starting to dress more Sal-like I guess?
Awesome image in my head of Joyce listening to that though!
This makes me want to see how she’d handle listening to Ghost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFhqCXl5jb0
Finally, some death metal that doesn’t threaten to destroy your hearing.
Well any metal will ruin your hearing if it’s cranked up high enough, but yeah, Ghost is considerably more melodic than most similarly-themed bands out there.
Holy shit, latin
I have to laugh a little because my dad was all into jailbreaking when he got his first iPhone. Then he converted to Samsun and the rest was history.
“Dotty the Boozin Atheist” When Dorothy is running for President, that’s how her opponent will refer to her. That nickname will quickly spread, and that will become how Dorothy is known worldwide.
In spite of this hurdle Dorothy will still manage to win the presidential election — twice. She will serve two terms, and be the greatest President America has ever known, leading America into a new Golden Age of peace, prosperity, and equality for all. She will still go down in history as “Dotty the Boozin’ Atheist.”
Wow, my brain goes to weird places at this hour. (12:33 am here)
And then on her last day in office, she’ll get drunk again and push the button, condemning the entire human species to extinction.
This should all be part of a nightmare that Dorothy has at some point.
Also Dorothy being president makes me want to see Walky as First Dude…
And it really is oblivion, because she’s right and there’s no god, nor afterlife.
What if that’s why she wins?
She runs a very cerebral campaign. People like her policies but her squeaky clean image makes her strange and unrelatable to the voters. Then it gets out that when the sun sets Senator Dorothy Keener becomes Dotty the Boozin Athiest and the populace accepts her as a true woman of the people.
I’m sure the whole bible belt will welcome her with open arms XD
Sometimes you hear about people talk about which candidate would be best to have a drink with. Dotty the boozin’ atheist should be a given.
Headcanon!
Yup, Joyce. You are a REBEL now.
…meant to be a new comment. Oh well.
Are you TRYING to give the poor girl a nervous breakdown?
I keep trying and trying, but this is Joyce on hard mode.
Now I want to see Dorothy and Teddy Roosevelt sitting down to chat over beer.
FWIW, I think that Dorothy is going to end up giving politics a wide berth. As she matures, she’ll become more and more disgusted by the venality, corruption and the absolute barrier to high office standing in front of those who do not, first and foremost, obey the diktats of the vested interests.
Rather than compromise in the name of trying to get a political office wherein she’ll be neutered and powerless because of said vested interests anyway, she’ll eventually find her true calling in investigative journalism as a different way of trying to change the world.
I feel like there would be some unique trials and tribulations in looking for exclusively Christian same sex relationships.
Like, don’t get me wrong I’m sure there’s plenty of gay christians out there. It’s just that as a straight person you’re pretty free to just go hitting up the local religious events looking datable singles where Becky might not wanna find out which Indiana churches have a gay dating scene through trial and error.
I suggest downloading Revenge of the Fallen illegally instead.
For some reason my brain saw this as U Seta rather than useta. Must be the time of night.
I’m waiting for someone to point out to both of them that Jesus hung out with tax collectors and whores while giving the proverbial finger to authority figures.
So really, one could argue that being really close with “bad influences” is about as Christ-like as you can be.
The difference is that the tax collectors and prostitutes changed for the better from spending time with Jesus, while Jesus never joined them in their sins. So Joyce hanging out with Dorothy is totally different than Becky’s use of that friendship to justify something she probably still subconsciously thinks of as sin (judging by the “ticket to hell” phrase…)
In any case, this strip has me back to disliking Becky because she’s manipulative of Joyce despite the kindness and compassion she’s been shown so far. I felt a little bad for her after Toedad showed up but now she’s back to being rude and just plain awful to Joyce.
(Well the Jesus & co. bit was kind of a joke. Ah well.)
I dunno if I’d say Becky’s being manipulative so much as I’d say she’s being sort of hyper-defensive. She’s trying desperately to cling to what little she has; and damn anything that threatens it, whether it’s her dad threatening her current place of residence or Joyce’s views threatening her new relationship.
So I wouldn’t say manipulative, but certainly insensitive/unthinking.
This. Joyce is her best friend. Becky spent all of her childhood and life in an environment where people like her with feelings like hers were the worst sort of Satanic sinners, an act of violence against her God and her family. Right now she has been robbed of her family, her support network, a place to sleep, her education, and every friend but Joyce because of what she is, because she wants to be true to who she is and what she wants.
But she was still raised to believe that being gay, being into women was a sin, was the main thing God cared about besides having an abortion or no longer believing in him. That what she is and who she is is wrong in the eyes of her deity.
She has personally decided that her God, the God she believes in, doesn’t view who she is as a sin, did not give her her feelings to punish her for it, but she was still trained for life that the opposite was true and so it hurts when people echo that.
And we see that in the moments that Becky gets real and upset with Joyce. The only two points she’s gone all glarey at Joyce have been moments where Joyce doubted the religious approval of Becky’s life:
This comic with suggesting that dating a non-Christian was a mortal sin.
And this comic where Joyce let Becky know that she had to do a lot of research to confirm that being gay was probably okay. The bit that stuck with Becky there was the idea that if Joyce had found the opposite then she would be moved to abandon or mistreat her or otherwise assume she was damned.
Becky isn’t being manipulative. Becky is genuinely hurt in those moments. A particular interpretation of religion with relation to Becky’s genital activities and dating proclivities has robbed her of everything in her life except the clothes on her back, Joyce, and Joyce’s friends and she’s had to start from scratch.
Statements that step closely to feeling like that religious judgement with regards to those or that suggest she may be committing a sin in her dating or mating life hit too close to home and as such, she gets glarey and firm.
Which is absolutely fair and a completely rational way to respond. I can be one way with a lot of friends or loved ones, but when they accidentally say something that invalidates a way I am, I definitely get upset and call them out of it and need to take a second to calm down. That’s just healthily dealing with life.
too long;…still read.
I think you hit a lot of good points there.
Also…
What the hell is with the “Becky is manipulative” camp?
People seem to keep wanting to view Becky as some master manipulator who is playing their friends and it’s just utterly baffling and inane. Becky has time and time again gone out of her way not to abuse friendships for things even though she literally has nothing:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/sushi/
She’s shown genuine remorse and pain at feeling like she’s imposing to the level she has:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/bubbling/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/fault/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/lob/
She has put aside her own stuff to support those she cares about:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/safe-2/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/rivalry/
She’s even deliberately underplays how much she is suffering in order to not over-worry her friends:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/04-walking-with-dina/downer/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/floor-2/
Becky is like anti-manipulative given her circumstances and her level of need for help from others.
But the repetition of this complaint means that a lot of people are seeing it make sense which:
A) Means what the hell do they think Becky’s manipulating towards? Or what is she deceiving about? Do they assume that Becky has made up being gay and homeless because that’s super fun to lie about? If so, to what purpose would she have done so? If not, then where’s the manipulation? She’s literally relying on the kindness of strangers to have a bed, to have food, to not be dragged away in the middle of the night to a conversion camp where she’ll be constantly abused until she lies about her sexuality. And yet she’s imposing the least she possibly can. Do they assume that anytime anyone asks for help then that’s a manipulation? That being in need is the same thing as being manipulative? That occasionally accepting aid freely given is some dastardly action by a master manipulator?
B) Also, that these people have probably been fortunate enough not to know a real manipulator. Someone who will go out of their way to fuck you over or force you into bad positions. Who will exploit empathy to cover up their rapes or force you to stay with them. Who will take advantage of any weakness on your part to angle more toxic time under their control, who will constantly maneuver to try and invent ways to have power over you in order to demand more concessions. And to them, I say, I’m happy for you that you have not experienced it, but this is not that.
This is a homeless kid trying to survive the week.
Thank you.
May I reach through the internets and hug you?
Thank-you …
for reminding me in the right universe , afterall.
500 comments after Joyce BSD over something trivial —without an attack on Becky with a crazy-biased Double-standard — and Just for a a day or so, I thought I was accidentally fell in a parallel non-homophobic one.
Becky just instructed Joyce not to be a Bigot , and a not to be a hypocritical Christian.
( Didnt Jesus say something about that? )
Seems weird to get all hardcore up in arms about something like this.
I don’t think Jesus actually had all that much to say about dating outside your religion. Some particularly insular religious communities have schools of thought on when and why you should be associating with outsiders but for the most part even that’s more of a guideline than a hard rule. You know, outside of cults and theocracies at least.
Becky is in the process of re-evaluating a lot of her religious values right now due to a recent life altering revelation, but there’s plenty of room to be a good wholesome Christian Woman while also dating somebody who subscribes to the theory of evolution.
St. Paul, on the other hand…
Check out the Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 14.
No one will, you know. We’re lazy.
‘By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.’?
1 Corinthians 6:14
Not sure what that has to do with anything. >_>
Sorry. It’s 2 Corinthians 6:14 ff.
6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Joyce did bring this up with her parents during their visit. Go figure the authority figures interpreted things differently.
Very true.
‘Very true” was supposed to be reply to Mada.
How the hell is a tax collector not an authority figure?
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/attitude/
Apparently all relationships with non-Christians must be geared towards “saving” them, and you can’t hang out with them just because they are awesome to party with. (I mean that’s what it sounds like Mr. Brown is saying).
Joyce seems bound and determined to exactly live up to whatever social roles that she believes she’s “supposed” to do. (I mean, you can be a bad influence without a tattoo or a jailbroken phone) At some point, she’s going to have to determine what role *she* wants… if any. (Not what her parents want, not what her church wants, or what she thinks any of those want)
Best case scenario… she makes her own.
It seems like she can’t live without adhering to some ind of social code and working around it when she feels like she can.
And now I want to see Joyce as a paladin in a suit of plate. I should just go buy a sketchpad at this point.
Not ‘can’, ‘must’. There is a significant difference in the emotional drivers of the behaviour.
Embrace your new role, Missy!
Rip the tags off those mattresses! Go WILD!
Becky setup Dina with the joke to blow Joyce’s mind, admitting that she knew what she was doing, when Dina stated that knowing a person gave you the ability to get under their skin was a new fact she had now learned.
Sarah said it right when she told Joyce to give Becky some room to reach out to other friends. (and busted her and Joyce’s deep friendship doing so. Joyce did try to give Becky room.
Now Becky needs to accept that Joyce has been friends with Dorothy a long time, and stop being a pisser about it.
And the next time she is outright rude to Dorothy or starts her ‘I know you hate me but it’s okay” bs: I hope Dorothy pokes her right in the nose.
Oh well all minor issues compared to Toedad. Hope Dina is filing in Sarah on that now.
And I hope Becky fills in Dina now. 😉
😐
agreed, I find Becky to be obnoxious at times, especially around Dorothy.
I could totally see the two of them getting into a nose poking fight
Becky’s jealousy of Dorothy is her biggest flaw and something she’s been shown in comic to be working on working through, but it’s definitely not going to occur in a day, especially since every time Dorothy and Joyce are being cutesy in a way that reminds Becky of Becky and Joyce and Becky’s hopes for a relationship it causes her so much emotional pain, she has to look away.
But yeah, it would be awesome to see Becky work through this and become better friends with Dorothy.
What do you mean? She’s already a friend of Dorothy.
Sort of.
I see what you did there. 🙂
If it’s an iPhone the answer is jailbreaking is usually “I dunno, do you want to?”
If it’s an Android the answer is usually “Yes, yes, why in God’s name have you not done so already, do you need a hand doing so?”
Has anyone else noticed how Becky looks like Hannah Hart with red hair? Makes her even more lovable in my book.
I keep thinking Rachel Dukes
I feel totally square now, as I have neither jailbroken my phone or gotten a tattoo.
Joyce has also dated a non-christian, though I guess she might not realize Ethan’s Jewish
Sarah pointed it out to her, and he freely admitted it when it came up in conversation.
In fact, I think she also made a statement about how she apparently has an affinity for ‘God’s chosen people’ due to having dated both Joe and Ethan.
After all, jews are “halfway to christianity” in her book.
(well litteral books, old testament an’ all)
Wasn’t Joyce’s dating either Joe or Ethan, and mentioning to Becky that they’re Jewish, was what prompted Becky to say that it’s not a good idea to date non-Christians.
That moment when you realize you’re the bad one.
I was just looking at Sarah in the last panel. Based on the expression on her face, Dina is saying something that threatens to break her sense of reality pretty badly.
Oh, and Becky wins today’s ‘false equivalence argument’ award.
Something tells me that there is a long, complicated and somewhat confusing story behind the ‘jailbreak my phone’ thing.
Dating and being close friends aren’t equivalent, but Becky isn’t wrong about asserting that she can date Dina without losing her faith. (I mean the way they were raised Joyce shouldn’t be even hanging out with Dorothy without trying to convert her. And Joyce hasn’t lost her faith).
Becky has a valid point here! Though for Joyce I think it’s not really ’cause Dina is non-Christian, but more the fact that she feels like Dina is anti-Christian with her talk on evolution and bird-feathers, etc. Also because she doesn’t get on all that well with her, haha.
This Becky/Dina thing is going *super quick* though, seeing as they met properly what, the evening before? I think it’s a rebound relationship for Becky, while she is into Dina, she’s still not over Joyce and I reckon that’ll be a problem at some point. But we’ll see~
Becky is in a complex place, emotionally, right now. It isn’t a particularly healthy place either. Lots of commentators are hopeful that her relationship with Dina will be ultimately beneficial and it may be. My concern is that the two of them are going into it with different ideas about what might be the outcome and they may end up getting hurt about it.
I don’t think that Becky is doing this out of jealousy of Joyce’s friendship with Dorothy. However, as we see here, I think we can confidently expect Becky to rub Joyce’s nose in that friendship every time Becky/Dina hits the slightest speed-bump and Joyce offers advice. I think that this is ironic because, to me, it’s Joyce’s relationship with Ethan that is the one from which she should have learnt serious lessons. Her relationship with Dorothy is actually completely normal, healthy and middle-of-the-road.
How would you think Joyce feel if Becky was dating an evolution-backing Christian?
She would likely deny it’s possible.
“I used to say a lot of stuff”
I know it seems like an apathetic view but it sounds to me like a healthy perspective of someone who realizes that their childhood brainwashing isn’t the only truth in the world. Joyce and Becky are both emerging from the oppressive attitude of their home town but in very different ways. Becky has been thrown through the shredder by her own religion because of her sexuality, and seems to be discarding her upbringing wheras Joyce seems to be trying to make adaptations and exceptions where possible.
Its okay that you Used to be a way that is not the way you want to be now. The past happens to the best of us.
I love that line =o
“The past happens to the best of us.” *stealing*
I’m so reusing that as well 😀
New favorite random quote
I know. That little line shows so much of her religious evolution and viewpoints. She said stuff to follow in the line before having to grapple honestly with her sexuality and attractions, praising the heteronormative, enforcing the idea that God needs to micromanage one’s dating and sexual activities. That was what she had been trained in from a very young age.
But she made her break from that. When struggling with her sexuality and her wants at Anderson, she came to a religious conclusion about her personal vision of God, as someone who doesn’t determine one’s worth based on who one loves or whether one fucks. And this conclusion was critical to her reaction to Toedad’s insistence of reparative therapy. Feeling that her idea of God supported her gave her the strength and courage to run away and hope for the best. To reach out for help and to build a relationship with Dina and to admit her feelings to Joyce. It’s kept her alive and going even as Toedad continues to stalk her.
And she’s trying to share that idea with God to Joyce who she sees is struggling and hurting with the idea of God they were trained in. “I useta say a lotta stuff” is her breaking with the damaging advice she has given in the past to enforce that old worldview. Encouraging Joyce that she can love who she wants and date who she wants and that’s okay. God isn’t sitting in judgment because she goes on a date with a non-Christian. God won’t care if she touches herself or has a fantasy. God doesn’t view fuckface’s attempted rape as a punishment for being public and having wants.
And God in Becky’s eyes is okay with kaboodle noodlin’ outside the bounds of marriage (no word yet on the kapoodle, but all signs point to it being more than okay in Becky’s eyes). And she wants Joyce to understand that too, because Joyce needs to break with all that shame and bullshit in order to finally be happy with who she is inside and healthily deal with her reality as a sexual being.
“Dotty the boozin’ atheist.” OK, I laughed hard at that one.
Funny story, I literally just woke up from a dream where my niece was helping her mom and me jailbreak our phones.
Kids these days huh.
“If I’d know my ride to hell would be so snuggable, i woulda bought a billion tickets long ago.”
i feel like this is honestly my favorite Becky line so far
Hmm, question. So do fundamentalist Christians genuinely believe that it’s a sin, or at least a very, very bad idea, to marry someone who also isn’t a Christian?
Yes, they do.
Yes, some do and some of them really do think the world is only a few thousand years old.
They cite something in the writings of St Paul about “unequally yoked” marriages, IIRC.
I’m sure there’s scriptural references to it, but I suspect that many don’t do it simply because the paths they would be walking are just too different. If you’re the type who dates because you’re trying to find a spouse and not just to “have some fun,” then you would be walking into a relationship knowing full well that you aren’t going to suddenly stop believing for this person, and they likely aren’t going to start believing for you.
That leaves the believer to get increasingly depressed because their spouse won’t join them in something that is so important to them, and the non-believer to experience (or just imagine) resentment coming from the believer for not joining wanting to join them. Not to mention the battle you could have someday over how future children will (or won’t) be raised in the faith.
We’ve all seen in this strip that Joyce is the type who dates because she’s trying to reach marriage. Becky might be a little more on the “just having fun” side right now.
Sorry, I re-read it and still missed a couple typos! I need an “edit” button!
For the record, it should be “there are” and not “there’s” in the first line, and “not wanting to join them” instead of “not joining wanting to join them” near the end of paragraph #2.
Isn’t that true for judaïsm and islam as well ?
they showed us videos
I’d like to think that Joyce is getting a little snarky in the last panel, and she’s feigning that bewildered expression to sell the sarcasm. But in reality, no, I expect that she’s being sincere in her consternation, and genuinely wonders if Becky’s plunge off the gosh-darned deep end is in fact her fault.
Which is a shame, because I like snarky Joyce.
Well, Joyce has already been seeing agonizing over the idea that every one of her friends (by the rules of her religious ideology) are going to Hell for their sexual activities and how nonetheless she feels like the broken one for wanting to join them:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/somuch/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/sexualshamereel/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/unobjectionable-2/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/02-guess-whos-coming-to-galassos/afraid/
I saw Dotty The Boozin’ Atheist open for Bad Religion in ’06…
I love stories about fundamentalist Christians views getting expanded/broken or changed, myself coming from such family and had to live through that, struggle during my teen years was a nightmare.
Is it just me or is becky becoming female walky?
To me she has been female Walky all the time – only a Walky that had to fight much harder to be allowed to just goof around.
Don’t you remember when they first met? They’re life bros.
Joyce, get a piercing. In your nose.
Don’t be swayed by the snuggability of the Evilutionist, Becky!
The devil comes in many an appealing form. Here, he happens to have a tail
and horns.
…oh !
Hey, they’re even the same colour as Satan if you have deuteranopia deltonism !
dAltonism. God.
Red-green color blindness? What’s that got to do with Dalton? Was he color blind or did he publish on the subject?
John Dalton “discovered” daltonism.
He was suffering from deuteranopia, the most known branch of it.
Not to mistake with Joe Dalton, the Lucky Luke character 🙂
You know, was Becky by chance saying that, about dating non-Christians being a bad idea, to make sure Joyce was single for her?
Sounds likely, but I think Becky never really had much apt for the “long con”.
Probably doesn’t take a long con to go ‘I dun want the love of my life to be in a relationship with no-one. FIND AN EXCUSE’
I think at that point Becky might still have been in fundie overdrive. It wasn’t until Joyce started talking about how boys were hanky-panky obsessed jerks that Becky figured Joyce could reciprocate.
I think she was just echoing the general fundie culture.
Even if she had broken with that particular view of her deity, it would have been important to “keep up appearances” as she was trained that having doubts is how Satan infests someone.
Joyce, take it slowly. Just watch some dude smut and see where things go from there…
Now taking all bets on where things go from there!
Alright. I’ll put 20 on ‘closes the notebook while a video is running and later opens it in a crowded room with the volume full tilt…’
I heard Limewire was what kids these days use to get music Joyce.
I had completely forgotten about limewire
Next strip is Dina and Sarah? Yes!
You should ALWAYS jailbreak your phone. Always.
And for the love of anything holy and security you should change the dam default password/pin !
Joyce is going to start jaywalking now. And she’ll be dressed like Sal when she does it.
Oh Joyce…
It used to be when Joyce said that dating non-Christians was a bad idea, but… Joyce befriending Dotty led Becky to do the same with Dina. Why’s that?
One has nothing to do with the other. She’s just pointing out some less-than-logical points of trying to apply rules for a group of bronze-age drones to modern society.
I would jailbreak the *hell* out of her phone. And I’m terrible at it! Jailbreaking phones. Seriously, that’s what I meant. Why are you looking at me like that?
i am still squeeing everywhere about becky & dina! however this time i want to point out that one of the things i love about your art? is the hands. becky’s pointing hand in the 4th panel! so great
but jail-breaking your phone is completely legal. It was decided in courts many years ago.
and tattoos are completely legal too!!!
what a terrible list of illegal things!!!!!!!!!
Not legal in the Bible, though.
pfffft, only in the OLD covenant, whatever, that doesn’t count
Thou shall not jailbreakth thee phone.
I like all the really subtle character beats in this strip.
Becky worried that Joyce is going to stop supporting her, or maybe never has, because she now has a girlfriend.
Joyce trying to dissuade Becky from Dina using her own argument which Becky’s casual dismisses since she’s now trying to affirm her own identity as a lesbian woman and also as a Christian.
I also like the implication that Becky’s also seeking other companionship to get away from Joyce even if it’s unusual to their upbringing and uses Joyce’s friendship with Dorothy to make that point.
Yes, all of this.
Becky is down to one on her old support network and it’s the one she loves, despite realizing that will never happen. So she’s scared constantly of losing that either to Dorothy’s seductive intimate charms or to Joyce really deciding one day that she can’t keep supporting her and keep her own idea of her God.
And yeah, Becky dating Dina and moving out of Joyce’s room and bed is a really healthy move to starting the process of getting over Joyce and thus to be able to stop getting upset at Dorothy and Joyce’s platonic cutseyness together.
What worries me is Beckys headspace meaning is she emotionally ready for a relationship with someone other then Joyce, it may be really healthy for her and Dina (hopefully it is) but it might also be really bad for them once the initial thrill wears off
Its not Beckys fault of course (due to circumstances) but it does seem like shes expecting Joyce to be able to come to terms quickly with all these major changes that’re happening
Joyce isn’t my favourite character but in this shes doing as well as anyone could be expected to (and better than most I’d guess) I mean shes housed, clothed, fed, and emotionally supported Becky all while going through her own issues yet it seems like Beckys trying to force the issue
Well, I think it makes a lot of sense that statements suggesting that Becky is going to Hell because of who she loves or who she dates might be a little bit of a sore spot given the context.
Yes that is a good point however in spite of her own feelings Joyce has almost become Beckys defacto parents which is pretty impressive of her I feel
Also not being an expert on the bible but is drinking alcohol really such a bad thing?
SHouldn’t be! Jesus turned water into Wine :V
Isn’t “thou shalt not jailbreak thy phone” one of the 10 commandments? I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure there’s one like that?
I’m sure it’s the Donald Trump Edition or other
Of all those things, downloading music illegally is by far the worst. It’s the only one that is actually illegal, and with good reason.
This is why I love Joyce. Instead of doubling down on what she thinks, Joyce questions her role in life and her beliefs. It makes for a better Christian and human being.
Slippery slope here.
First Jailbreaking your phone, then it will be ripping music (that you bought) to mp3!
Thats actually illegal now in the UK!
Why isn’t Lucy Glenn an option for the poll? I’m so in love~ with her. <3