Discussion (130) ¬
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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com ⋅ 1h
trash panzer @panzertron.bsky.social ⋅ 7h
Meredith Rose @mrose.ink ⋅ 1d
Alex Wayne @aawayne.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
David F Walker a.k.a. BadAzz MoFo @davidfwalker.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Arren @arrenm.bsky.social ⋅ 3m
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Nothings Monstered @nothingsmonstrd.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
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“ok I lied it’s actually Celebi”
“That only works on Amber, MAYBE“
“Why is there an iguana on your head?”
“DEUS VULT!”
The Duck Man from Discworld had this exact same origin story.
What origin story? He was just a perfectly normal fellow with some odd friends.
What duck?
quack.
buggerit!
millennium hand and shrimp.
Nothing you’ve said actually disproves the iguana theory though.
Theory? The Alt-Text is proven fact!!
The real question is how long until Malaya realises Joyce is walking around with her illegal pet on her head?
Is it officially lizardnapping at this point? Should we call in Grand Theft Iguana?
It’s not really “Grand”. Petty Theft Iguana?
So thats what “GTI” on cars means… (°◇°)
Maybe it’s just me, but does Dorothy seem oddly cold to Joyce here?
The last time they spoke, Dorothy told her to get a receipt for personal lubricant for her own good. Instead she got a lizard hat.
I mean, she doesn’t know for sure Joyce didn’t get both.
She agreed to hang out instantly with a smile on her face. Not sure how that’s cold.
Right, didn’t Dorothy promise Joyce she’d hang out if Joyce bough some personal lubricant?
(Now this sounds rather leading without the context.)
It’s because her view of Fuckface is obscured by the bunk. His full squee-inducing powers are muted as a result.
Fuck face’s true power is the ability to compel women to put him on their heads.
It is actually Fuckface who’s stolen Joyce!
Fuckface is taking Joyce out for a Joyce-ride.
A Joyceride is like a joyride, but with more Bible verses.
Dorothy, don’t be a killjoy.
I think a better question would be why isn’t there an iguana on your head?
Dangit, beat me to it.
DO NOT QUESTION THE IGUANA!
Dang it Lisa… I mean Dorothy, stop turding things up by overthinking.
Okay Joyce, let’s be real. Those are some exceptionally adorable faces you’re making there, but that doesn’t distract from the fact that you’re misuing Fuckface’s powers.
Dorothy needs a nap. You with me, Joyce? A nap!
Also I’m really surprised Dorothy just agreed to spontaneously hang out with Joyce! I must be overestimating how far gone she is, I would have expected her to put up some kind of a fight or something.
(Ennh, okay, I had a rough day and saw an excuse to doodle.)
I think it’s been about a day since they last interacted. It’s not implausible that Dorothy might have a bit of free time if she’s been studying consistently since then. Funny drawing! Nice.
Dorothy has been neglecting sleep, meals, exercise and hygiene in favor of studying. If she’s somehow managed to carve out free time in her schedule, the sleep should probably be prioritized. (She has at least been eating semi-regularly, and sleep is the one that takes the longest to reset and compensate for after a period of skimping on.)
Obviously she’s broken up with Walky and is now fine. All her problems have been resolved.
Yeah, this is fair, but considering A: everything Regalli said, and also B: that, on top of all her other corner-cutting, she broke up with Walky in order to be less distracted, it feels remarkable to me that she’d so casually give time to Joyce. I mean, I’m always glad to see them interact, it’s just surprising.
(Also thank you for compliment!)
Unless Dorothy pulled an all nighter, it’s reasonable to assume she only woke up a few hours ago. Plus she looks pretty decent.
I don’t think she needs a nap at the moment.
Catching up on sleep and getting some extra in there is actually necessary with sleep deprivation, and Dorothy has definitely been cutting hers to the point where she’s low-grade deprived. Sleep is weird that way. The sleep she’s been getting recently is probably more REM rebound for the all-nighters she has pulled, which doesn’t work as well.
She’s not deprived of low grades, and that’s the whole problem!
Neglecting your health drives the quality of your studying and work down! Self-care is efficient and productive!*
* Self-care is entirely necessary and even if it weren’t productive people would still need to do it, but appeal to someone on an unsustainable study crunch in language they understand.
Dorothy will sacrifice whatever is necessary to recover her grades! And that’s fairly terrifying!
…hey, does anyone else want to see one pf Dorothy’s childhood friends appear in this strip? Just to see Joyce get jealous?
And then Becky starts hanging out with her (secretly to convince her to win Dorothy away from Joyce), and Joyce and Dina team up to for sitcom hijinks!
I’m going to be honest I don’t think she had a lot of friends growing up.
Yeah no Joyce this is very firmly in ‘stealing and endangering someone else’s pet’ territory now. The rooms sharing a half-bath is one thing, especially since it can be hard to remove an iguana from where it wants to be, but once you’re in the hall all deniability is gone and the chances of Ruth seeing Fuckface (or someone else who can pass it onto Ruth) go up exponentially.
(Mary probably wouldn’t report to Ruth, but I’m betting she might try appealing to Puddinghead on the subject.)
Joyce I like you but SHEESH this story’s got you in a bad light so far.
I did not think about that until I read your comment, so how long until Malaya finds her and gets(rightfully) pissed that she took Fuckface out of her room? Or until Ruth sees her with Fuckface and she has no plausible explanation why she has an iguana on her head? I’d say take bets but with the timeline we live in, it is likely both happen at the same time.
I’m still pissed she took Fuckface to see Sarah. She didn’t know Sarah knew about him and she promised to keep him a secret.
Between this and her obnoxious habit of waking people up, it’s only a matter of time before Malaya decks her.
Oh yeah. Joyce is setting herself up for trouble here. And I will cheer for Malaya.
I could see if Fuckface were clingy, but clearly she’s trying to exploit his persuasive powers rather than anything like that going on.
I love Joyce, but I’m out of patience for this particular trait of her’s.
I really hope this is the ‘yes, here is this flaw the character has and we’re being repeatedly reminded it’s bad before it gets confronted’ point, but I do tend to think we still have another storyline or two before Joyce actually learns. Mainly because this arc’s supposed to be Sal-heavy.
Yeah, as much as “Fuckface’s new meat puppet” is, I hope it’s this chapter’s B-plot. We need some Marcie-Sal reconciliation!
I think it’ll be a C-plot. I think Amber/Walky will be B plot because that’s leading to some serious stuff with Sal.
Yeah, I think you’re right. I know she’ll develop past this stuff eventually, but rn it’s extremely uncool.
She just openly carried him over the floor. His presence is known to everyone who saw her. And she has to go back.
Exactly. So much for keeping him secret/
Just as a side note: Mary would not report it to Puddinghead. That’s not like Mary at all.
Mary would note it down in her little black book and save it for leverage over Malaya. She’d threaten to report Fuckface, but there’s no advantage in actually doing so.
Gee, it sure is a shame Mary disappeared after trying to blackmail Malaya.
We think she moved to a different art school, we dunno.
A missing person who nobody missed at all.
I mean, her parents might. They’re supposed to be good people who love their daughter.
Mr Lizard? Is Joyce going to need another Timmy?
So fuckface is basically the hypno toad except not the hypno toad.
Glory to the hypno iguana!!
Reposting what I wrote yesterday for Dumblr of Age–Football Season:
Call it being inspired by B.D. from Doonesbury, or succumbing to my Research Addiction™, but overnight I went over Wikipedia to the Hoosiers Football Team history pages and check the timeline of Dumbing of Age against what happened in the corresponding dates and years.
The result? The reason why nobody talks much about the football team is that they’re having a poor season. At this point (Book 9), it’s Week 8 of the season and the Hoosiers are 2-4 with no in-conference wins.
Book 1: Win over Towson. Book 2: Loss to Virginia and win over South Carolina State. Book 3: No games scheduled (takes place entirely on weekdays). Book 4: Loss to Missouri. Book 5: Bye Week. Book 6: Loss to Ohio State. Book 7: Loss to Nebraska. Book 8: No games scheduled.
So the next game is a very “important” one, against Penn State. The Hoosiers must win this one and two of the remaining five to have a chance at a Bowl game. There’s going to be considerable social pressure on the student body to have everybody show up to the stadium and fill the seats.
(I’m using the sliding progression scale. The Penn State game mentioned will be played this month!)
Maybe that’s why we hardly ever see Tony?
Dorothy? Are you ok? Actually, that was a stupid question, we all know that you are not okay right now. Better question, how long until you realize you aren’t alright and ask for help instead of secluding?
Dumbing of Age Book Nine: Why Is There An Iguana On Your Head?
Unsurprisinglym Dotty4s not feeling too cheery uh<
Joyce, put the damn iguana back. I know you have a difficult time grasping things like this, but he’s actually not fucking yours.
Also – Dorothy is absolutely right here. If the iguana were actually magic and could actually compel people to do things, using it to get someone to do something you KNOW they don’t want to do, for good reason like trying to get their grades up, and get around their no would be an incredibly shitty thing to do.
And Dorothy did hang out with her yesterday. She’s been running herself ragged slightly less these last couple of days, and actually maintaining some social contact. There have been times where I’m like ‘someone get Dorothy away from her classwork for an hour or two for her own good,’ but this one is not it.
Yeah, pretty much. I’m glad Dorothy’s happy to hang out. She deserves it and maybe she’s almost done catching up.
I kind of hope she’s not. That smacks a little too much of “She broke up with Walky and now everything’s fine.”
That’s true. Maybe she’s just done enough work that she can take a break to hang out?
I spent all weekend doing school stuff and prepping to apply for grad school, but I still had some free hours between things.
Yeah, that’s a very normal rational approach.
But it’s still a sign her issues with it are fading away now that she’s broken up with Walky. Before she wasn’t making time for sleep and food, now she’s happy to take a break to hang out.
That’s good. That’s healthy. You actually accomplish more that way.
I just don’t like the implication that breaking up with Walky was actually the fix for her impending overwork breakdown.
I think the break is still coming – she still doesn’t look very good (her hair’s a mess). I think she might be hiding it better though, possibly to avoid dealing with the break up?
Possibly stimulant pills.
Dang Dorothy, can you not be the worst ever? Like for even an entire comic, just not be awful?
Every single comic with Dorothy, people talk about how she is completely horrible all the time, even though she never seems any worse than any of the other characters. I should really start avoiding the comments when she shows up.
Dorothy, Sal, Amber, Ruth, and Carla have always attracted some…very interesting comments.
… What is Dorothy doing wrong here? She agrees to hang out despite her super-busyness. She points out that an iguana with convincing powers would actually be uncool, and she is right. She questions why Joyce, who has no iguana, has an iguana on her head. All of this is reasonable. The studying isn’t HEALTHY, but that’s Dorothy’s choice to make.
Oh right. I forgot Dorothy must always be hated because she’s a woman with Ambition and that makes her The Worst. Silly me.
He didn’t really do anything though.
*She
I’m not seeing any behavior from Dorothy that’s even remotely awful here, or in most strips with her either.
Clearly you mean Joyce. If Joyce really DOES believe the iguana can make people do what they don’t want to do, then she’s being a terrible person here, let alone not a friend.
Because she put it there. Come on Dorothy your supposed to be the smarrt one!
“Because if I wear it anywhere else it chafes.”
But technically, I believe Fuckface put himself there.
So, if the iguana powers work, couldn’t that be argued as her using witchcraft?
Does hypnosis count as witchcraft?
Heh, I wonder… that was SLIGHTLY more sharp than usual with Dorothy. Methinks there was a passive aggressive fishing for a compliment in there.
“Do you really think I don’t want to hang out with you?”
No, no, of course not, Dorothy. You want to hang out with me all the time because you are such a great friend, and I totally understand that you have to study most of the times. Incidentally, dumping Walky does not make you a bad friend either. <- Dorothy's inner Joyce-voyce
Yo, Willis? Getting a bunch of scammy redirects claiming I’ve won Amazon gift cards or whatever these last couple days. Assuming there’s a bad ad somewhere or the like?
Similar thing happened here, except my anti virus software blocked it.
Yeah, don’t believe there’s anything for it on IOS.
That happens to me a lot on iOS too. It’s not just here and on It’s Walky, so it’s definitely scammy redirect ads sneaking through the networks.
At this point I just tell Chrome to request the desktop site before coming here. It loads exactly the same page, but it seems like the un-closeable “congratulations you are $500 gift card winner” pop-ups only happen if the ads get requests from smartphone user agents.
Ah, thanks! I’ll see if that helps.
Technically that’s Question Three, Dorothy.
ALL HAIL HYPNOGUANA!!!
It’s cute and all to wear an iguana on your head, but don’t blow Fuckface’s cover in front of Ruth or Mary!
Also, I’m loving that The Good Place application for google named the iguana “Forkface”.
Mary would only be a problem insofar as Malaya being able to intimidate her. Ruth would blink twice and then look the other way on the grounds that she knows no way to say “I saw Joyce Brown with an iguana on her head” without it sounding like she needs a week of in-patient treatment.
At this point Dorothy just rolls with it, no real questions asked.
The real question here is Dorothy is why don’t you have an iguana on your head?
Well, to be frank, Dorothy, the way you’ve been acting over the last couple of days, Joyce would be forgiven for thinking you’d need a little extra persuasion to get you to quit cramming and actually relax for a while!
Regarding the lizard…? Well, you have to prioritise. Joyce doesn’t seem to have too many problems with her ‘passenger’ so that needs to take its place in the list of mysteries to solve today!
I know DoA is supposed to be more realistic than the Walkyverse, but I’m still kinda disappointed that Fuckface’s powers didn’t carry over into DoA.
Honestly, were I in Joyce’s fur clad boots, panel 4 would make me a bit hesitant as to why I wanted to hang out with Dorothy :/
“So you’re saying that the Iguana made me agree…”
Huh. I wonder if Willis is going to have Dorothy use this example of a “mind controlling/wish granting” Iguana to confront Joyce with how praying for someone to change their mind is a violation of free will? And that mind control is evil?
(And also lazy – you want to change someone’s mind you should really put in the effort)
Lets see what happens in the next few strips.
Fuckface is God in this allegory.
Calling it now: Fuckface is going to climb on Dorothy’s bed and refuses to be moved (and an Iguana’s claws make such an opinion stick). Malaya thus inherits Dorothy’s bed covers.
Does Dorothy seem a little existentially rattled to anyone else, or is that just me?
No, I pick it up too. Probably something to do with breakup+workload+that whole RA thing+friends being chased with guns+Joyce having a lizard on her head.
…you know, college stuff.
Also one of her friends carved off a man’s face in front of her like a week ago.
Ah, careless college days
“The Power of JoyceFace Compels You!”
Yay, I was hoping somebody would utilize that incredible panel 1 for an avatar. Nice!
Great stuff!
I wonder if Fuckface is genuinely confused or contemplating just what the constantly-moving endotherm is about? He definitely seems to be watching Joyce closely on occasion!
Reiterating that I love Dorothy, here and everywhere, to counter some of the hate for her in the comments.
I love Dorothy too! I don’t understand the hate for her.
Maybe Joyce does believe you arent going to hang with her because of your workaholism
She hung out with her yesterday and even if she hadn’t, that wouldn’t give Joyce license to try to magically make her hang out.
She hung out with her yesterday and look what that turned into. Tense lunch with romantic conflict, followed by tension between them over it.
Yes, but she still hung out with her and them having a spat yesterday wouldn’t give Joyce the right to try to magic Dorothy into complying with what she wanted.
Yeah, none of that was Dorothy’s fault tho. Joyce was the source of all the conflict and tension, and if she was really trying to magically make Dorothy hang out with her ignoring what happened, that’d be kinda shitty.
Didn’t say it was or that it would justify Joyce.
Might make her less likely to want to hang out though.
Dorothy has only been in crunch mode for a few days. And she’s managed to make time to have social interactions with Joyce in spite of that. It’s not like she’s been rebuffing Joyce for weeks. They literally hung out yesterday.
Carrying an iguana named “Fuckface” around on your head seems to be just begging for disaster.
Panel 4 was a truly “laugh out loud” panel. Thanks for the laugh.
Answer 2: “New Munchkin card.”
“How many more times are you not going to work before I think maybe you don’t work?”
Maybe fuckface needs someone to write a bunch of songs and picture bibles about him, then Joyce would give him the time of day.
Mr Lizard?! YES! We’re gonna need another Timmy!
I love Dorothy. She’s clearly vulnerable right now, but I still don’t interpret her as bongoy.
omfg that third pane joyce face is ADORABLE holy shit
Was gunna say
The first three panels,ESPECIALLY the third, is one of (if not) my FAVORITE Joyce expression. SO cute.
But I love both your dorks, here. But I think, Dorothy may need some self care, here.
Love your comic, but speaking from painful personal experience – having a big lizard with big claws sitting on your head is a great recipe for facial lacerations. They especially seem to catch on your ears, but I’ve had my eyelids and cheeks scratched up as well. I hope Joyce has better luck than I did.
“How many more times are you not going to work before I think maybe you don’t work?”
You think she’s having an existential dilemma now, wait till she asks that question about prayer.