Aaaand the last strip of this storyline. Phew, that was a long one, and had way more Dorothy in it than I expected. If I’d expected her to be in it so much, I would have given her a less-complicated shirt. Hmph.
Monday, new storyline! It’s finally Friday in the Dumbiverse!
FUCK YOUR “FRIENDS”
in the faaace?
niiice
For a nickel.
With their femurs!!
Not with my penis?
Dammit Willis look what you started!
What he started is babies.
…not literally.
Depleted Uranium Babies
is that better or worse than babies McGintys?
Google it and go to image mode… if you dare.
Don’t dare.
DON’T. DARE.
This is PROGRESS!
Like a boss?
Great advice! I’ll be in the bedroom.
I don’t think my friends want me signing up for a benefits package.
Haha, entendre.
🙁
Do you need a hug?
Wait, how does Billie get out of the closet?
When she finally comes to terms with her feelings on the subject.
Can’t she stand in the closet door?
You meant behind the closet dorr right?
Maybe, but I’d love to see her straddle some lines.
Or do some. *sniffle*
I’m sorry, your current gravatar makes this conversation hard to take with a straight face.
But this Joyce carries herself with such dignity and authority. *cough*
She dozes off and is discovered by Ruth on Friday morning?
Our friday or her friday?
Her Friday.
hopefully our friday cuz her friday wont come til 2017
Isn’t it already wednesday?
Willis just said the Friday would start Monday, didn’t he?
Are we SURE that this universe doesn’t have time travel?
Through the wall in the back of the closet.
Or on a strecher.
She should just take a tip from her room-mate and use the window.
D’aw, Joyce needs a hug, and she’s behaving well enough I’d actually give it to her!
this really sad. 🙁
curse *sniff* my dysgraphia. 🙁
I cannot stop laughing right now.
Kinda harsh, Sarah. Kinda reminds me of me on a really bad mood.
maybe she just needs some chocolate to calm her down.
chocolate rain?
A baby born will die before the sin
This sounds like some kind of subculture reference I am unaware of.
Where where you in 2007? Go to youtube. Right now.
Not destined to be a No 1 thats for sure.
I don’t get the reference either… but going to youtube would take like 3 clicks and some typing and I just don’t have the motivation
I agree with Sarah here.
You know, those times in college where I sit down, get everything ready to knock out my homework (and free myself for the wqhole week to, say, hang out with friends), and then my friend sbarrel in.
“HEY WANNA GO DO STUFF UNTIL TWO AM?”
Me: “Well, I have a lot of stuff due tomorrow… I’d love to, but I really can’t right now.”
“WAAAAAAH!!!!”
I can relate sooo much. Sarah is like “Life story dude” except without all the narcing.
I understand where you’re coming from, but your situation doesn’t compare to this one. If Sarah doesn’t want to join fine, but she doesn’t have to act like an ass about it.
Sometimes it’s the best way to get people to leave you alone. You treat people like shit and pretty quickly they stop coming back.
As a last resort yes, but that does not you don’t have to be polite.
Well yes, it does. It’s hard to treat people like shit while being polite. If they’re not mutually exclusive behaviors then they’re pretty close to it.
Generally last resort, but with someone like Joyce it can be best to nip it in the bud. She’ll be real persistent with her friendship thing and think she’s doing a service to the lonely person the entire time.
Point ceded.
Except in this case she -is- doing Sarah a service. Sarah has already alienated the old crowd from the previous semesters, justified narcing or not. I’m not saying one should be every single person’s friend, but one should definitely at least get along with a couple of people. Especially if one of them happens to be your roommate. Sarah is so wrapped up in herself, she’s pretty blind to how much of a complete bongo it’s turning her into. Her loss.
Lol. Yeah, just because Sarah doesn’t socialize with anybody Joyce is doing her a service by allowing her to join Joyce in her reindeer games. Lol. If Sarah wanted to be out socializing she’d be out socializing. It’s not complicated shit here. She’s not, therefore she has no desire, therefore by pushing the Joyce is attempting to pressure Sarah into activities she has no desire to partake in. That whole peer pressure thing.
I’m sorry, I can’t even stop chuckling over the notion that Joyce is being helpful. Lol. Next you’re gonna tell me Joe was doing Joyce a service by “Trying to bring her out of her shell”. Rofl. Goddamn.
“If Sarah wanted to be out socializing she’d be out socializing. It’s not complicated shit here. She’s not, therefore she has no desire, therefore by pushing the Joyce is attempting to pressure Sarah into activities she has no desire to partake in.”
As opposed to Sarah pressuring Joyce into avoiding activities she MIGHT have an interest in partaking in? Remember Sarah drove off the last girl Joyce wanted to get to know and pointedly told her that Billie was bad news?
Lol. Not saying Sarah’s a paradigm of nobility here. I support Joyce in her decision to disregard that advice as much as I support Sarah in her decision to disregard this invitation.
On a different note, and going back to Nothri’s quote of Gangler, it isn’t…really…all that simple. It’s hard to make friends when you’ve been focused on nothing but work at a constant amount of time, like Sarah has been. And there are times, while you’re in a situation like that, when you want to make friends, but don’t, because you’re almost waiting for someone to invite you. Joyce might not understand a lot of things when it comes to social interaction, but I think she REALLY understands akwardness and loneliness, (having experienced it so often herself, especially the awkward part) and therefore, invited Sarah to eat lunch and make some friends.
Sarah isn’t the epitome of morality, and she’s completely within her rights to stay and study if she wants, but at least Joyce was kind in her decision to get to know Billie better, there are just other ways to “nip in the bud” a person like Joyce than to scream out a complete and utter rejection of an attempt to invite a friend to lunch. For example, she could have said, “No, you go on, I’m busy with homework at the moment. Maybe later.” Joyce doesn’t understand much, but I think she gets a hard work ethic.
Just a thought. 🙂
Curse my dysgraphia. 🙁
Is that anything like dyslexia??
Yes. Dyslexia is a reading difficulty. Dysgraphia is a writing difficulty.
So does it affect typing as well as hand-writing?
I’m not sure. I tend to type letters in incorrect order as consistently as I write them so, but I’m probably not dysgraphic so much as I lack focus. (Doubtless the latter accusation is a constant source of irritation to the genuinely dysgraphic.)
It definately is.
Went through all of school having people insist that I was being lazy and that I “just needed to focus”; I can still remember the rage those people invoked. (I can type just fine, but it’s not uncommon for some people to have issues with that as well.)
*Brofists Mkvenner in understanding*
*sniff* I promised myself i wouldn’t cry.
I had to yell more than once, because often they WOULD NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER.
When asking whether to use “I” or “me” in an “X and I/me” thing, drop the “Dorothy and” to test it.
“Want to join I in the canteen?” makes no sense. So it should be “Dorothy and me”.
Every teacher I’ve had since kindergarten would insist on the “I”.
Doubtful.
Come to think of it, with all the essays I haven’t refered to anything in the first person since I got into college. None of the highschool teachers had any clue what they were talking about.
Then every teacher you’ve had since kindergarten was a moron not worthy of their license. Either that or they never explained the concept well enough to you, though the same statement would apply in either case.
Welp, there’s that.
People frequently use “me” incorrectly and are told to use “I”. That doesn’t mean “I” is always correct.
You use “other person and I” in the same situation you would use just “I”–the subject.
You use “other person and me” in the same situation you would use just “me”–the object.
I wouldn’t correct it in dialogue, though. It’s a pretty common error when spoken.
Wow.. i learned something new today, who woulda thunk it..
i mean, i’ve always used em properly, but now i have an explanation for why i sometimes use X and me/i in different situations, so thanks a bunch
Every pirate I know would insist on the aye aye! ^_^
Those grammar rules only apply to literature, not spoken ‘merican.
But this is literature.
But it’s dialogue. Joyce said it a little wrong; it happens.
Dialogue doesn’t always sound right if it’s too perfect.
Though it depends on the person talking, I do agree that Joyce’s dialogue would have sounded wrong if it were right.
I disagree… Joyce’s opening line triggered my grammar nazi tendencies the instant I read it. Though maybe I just pay more attention to that sort of thing.
As someone who pays attention to grammar, you should be aware of deliberate tweaks for dialogue.
I loathe your very existence with a deep vitriolic hate.
Yes, that’s what Sarah should’ve said.
Quiet you.
No, don’t be quiet, say it as loudly and as often as possible. Do not let the stubbornly ignorant silence your truth!
Belligerence also tends to function as a personal mute button.
“Want to join I in the canteen?” makes no sense…because there’s no way you could fit two people into a tiny canteen, no way. Not even one. Where would you put the water?
In a canteen of course.
Canteenception!
canteen has multiple meanings. in this context, a canteen is any mass eating area, such as a cafeteria. what you’re thinking of is a kind of flask used for carrying water on hikes and such.
I so feel like photoshopping some kind of rage face onto that last panel. Huge slanted eyebrows and everything.
Do you mean something like THIS?
I refuse to trust that image. I can’t see her hands, which leads me to suspect they’re behind her back, holding the unholy offspring between a jaded butcher’s knife and an antisocial meat cleaver.
Hm. I’m not sure how badly to feel for Sarah, because it’s not yet clear whether she genuinely isn’t interested in socializing, or would be if she weren’t hyper-concerned about academic/career success, or had experiences that led her not to trust people, or is simply painfully shy. If either of the first two reasons, I’d think “If that’s just the way she is personality-wise, that’s okay. But there’s no reason for her to be a jerk when someone invites her to socialize. It’s called politeness.” If either of the latter two reasons, I’d feel much more empathy for her. So I’m reserving judgement.
Well, there was the druggy roommate, but I’m not sure that really counts as a valid reason to not trust people in general…
“I had a friend, I thought she was in trouble, I did what I thought was right and best for her. Now I’m hated for it. Why would I want a friend again?”
It isn’t about trust. She has goals for her life, aspirations other than finding a husband. Of all the characters in the comic, she and Dorothy are the only ones with clearly defined long term plans. Her plans were almost completely derailed simply by being in close proximity to someone (who happened to be her druggy roommate).
Her entire identity is tied to academic success, and that identity was almost destroyed by forces completely out of her control: some else’s stupidity.
The best way not to be accidently destroyed by other people? Get rid of the other people. Joyce is lucky that Sarah doesn’t share my definition of “get rid of” other people.
Academic success is usually for the purpose of subsequent professional sucess. But there is no professional (or academic) position that doesn’t have a social aspect. You can’t suceed (yet) without social interaction.
I don’t have a joke here.
And yet miserly assholes seem to have jobs everywhere. Go figure.
Cause miserly assholes have friends. There are basically three ways to get ahead in an industry: Have money already so that you can enter at a better position, be incredibly frugal, or know a lot of people in your industry.
Are those friends Joyce? Or are they other like minded individuals who maybe know what no means?
I gotta say, I don’t think turning down an invitation from Joyce can be seen as an indication that she’s “Unsocialized” as such. Just not part of that clique. She gets along great with Danny.
If you’re trying to make the distinction between a miserly asshole and Sarah I’m not seeing it. To be true and fair, a genuinely unsocialized or poorly socialized person would probably be more along the lines of Dinah. Lack of social interaction as opposed to interacting somewhat abrasively.
Actually, I was just being snide. Given that we’ve only seen her being snide to people, not actually being friendly, she may be in for a rude awakening. Or not. We don’t know when she’ll recover from a bad semester.
Oops. Completely misjudged the tone of your post then o///o
Good point CWR. Trying to get good grades in and of itself is a worthless pursuit. Whoop de doo, you scored well in a class. If that leads to a good/ high paying job, then that makes sense. But most (all really) good jobs require a high degree of socialization, so failing to learn that in college is like failing one of your most important classes.
I was astonished to learn that in my profession, one of the most crucial steps to getting in is, in fact, grades. I could not believe that they mattered that much.
But they do. In order to become a licensed professional, one has to have an internship–HAS to have it–and the NUMBER ONE criterion for internship is grades. Nothing else is as important. The reason? The internship program directors in the past had accepted people with “everything but grades”–and gotten burned. A lot.
So, yes, other stuff is still very important–if *all* you have is grades, you’re still not going to get that internship–but it’s not actually a worthless pursuit.
Sarah’s capable of making friends when she wants them. At least that’s what we’re lead to believe. Right now, she has three more years before she has to worry about the friends part, and at that point she can make them in grad school with like-minded serious individuals who are driven towards success.
Given her comments to Danny earlier when he was death glaring at Roz, and her “I’ll be sad when this world breaks you” statement to Joyce, I think she’s just bitter and distrustful of people.
And by “comments to Danny” I mean the ones about keeping to yourself and away from the jerks, sneering at ‘justice’, etc.
Given her comments to Danny about keeping to yourself and avoiding the jerks, sneering at justice, etc., and her “I’ll be sad when this world breaks you” statement to Joyce, I think she’s just bitter and distrustful of people.
Wait, the other comments had vanished, but now they’re back. Agh. Sorry for the double post.
It’s sad that it’s come to that for Sarah. I know what it’s like to want to be left alone, but I do think she could have handled it better. That said, everyone handles things in their own way and unfortunately, this is her’s.
“It’s finally Friday in the Dumbiverse!”
And now that song is running through my head. DAMN YOU REBECCA BLACK AND WILLIS!!!!
Wait until you see the title of the next storyline. It’ll never leave!
I just got second handed fridayed! Why!?
It’s like syphilis, but without medication available to mitigate the symptoms.
I sympathize with Sarah because in college, I was working through a broad-spectrum depression and was a very antisocial (or not-sociable) person who got saddled with a succession of HYPERsocial roommates who would NOT get it into their heads that I just wanted to be left ALONE.
And then there was the guy who decided to take it upon himself to draw me out of my “shell” but couldn’t think of a better way to do it than to vandalize the ONE object of self-expression I put of my dorm room door.
I eventually DID become more social… in grad school, when I was READY.
You go, Sarah. The experiece of “hangng out” is overrated.
I understand where you’re coming from, but it’s the difference between simply trying do something (make friends, or sit alone), and trying to do that something while being a jerk about it. This is why I don’t feel able to empathize with Sarah.
Either poor Sarah hasn’t any FAAAAAAITH that she could make friends again or sje just needs to do her homework.
YAY, keepin up the meme from yesterday!
um.. you can do this, i have FAAAAAAAAAAAAAITH in you!
Yes it is important to have FAAAAAAAITH! ^_^
I wonder if it will ever be established whether or not Sarah wants to make friends. It’ll be interesting to find out! Maybe in the next story arc…
I’m pretty sure the next storyline is already set up to reveal whether Ethan is gay or not. Or who Amazigirl is (aka who Ultracar has double disguised himself as).
It’s Dorothy and me, Joyce, not Dorothy and I.
I actually like that she got it wrong. She’s trying to get it right, but failing! It’s endearing.
To me, anyway.
Not a good thing when you are an English major.
You can get away with stuff in speech.
And speech bubbles. (Or you *should* be able to.)
I know you can get away with a lot more in speech but it still should be spelt correctly (barring accents or the character spelling out a word themselves) and the grammar should reflect the way the character spoke.
Agreed: I think the bottom line is readability: you can get away with anything as long as the dialogue stays readable.
Of course, after that restriction, there’s a lot less “anything” left than most of us might expect.
THIS BOTHERS ME SO MUCH I CANNOT BEGIN TO EXPLAIN. I refuse to apologize for caps lock. Really. It makes me crazy. Or gives me an opportunity to express how crazy I am. Not sure which.
CAPLOCKS ARE CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL!! 😛
Wow, it took a year to get through a week?
Like sands trying to run through molten glass, so are the DoA of our lives.
Ugh. I just spent half a minute trying to think of who would be EJ, Bo, Hope, and Sammy.
Well played, Plasma Mongoose. Well played.
I try my best. ^_^
Well, someone is overreacting
JEEZE! Where the hell did that come from? Joyce acts nice and gets shouted at? I’m not the biggest DoA Joyce supporter, but there is NO WAY that she deserved that sort of reaction form Sarah.
I take it that her previous unpleasant experience with her dorm mates had led to that kind of massive distrust of people to the point of being an anti-social jerk. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong about being anti-social however, having issues had never been a valid excuse to act horrid to other people.
This what makes Sarah so very hard for me to empathize with. :-/
I think there’s something wrong with being antisocial for sure. I mean, if you don’t seek out the company of others for whatever reason, fine. But if people are trying to be friendly in an obvious “make friends” situation like a college dorm, you can stretch yourself and try to not be a jerk. It’ll be good for you.
Agreed, I can understand people who don’t want to go out and socialize or make new friends (I am that kind of person myself) but regardless of damage, it’s never a good thing to be a jerk for no reason on other people. 🙁
Joyce, despite her own faults, tries her best to be nice and considerate and totally did not deserve that kind of behavior from Sarah at all.
Ack! Avatar Clones! Heh.
Yeah, obviously Sarah’s had some bad experiences that has resulted in distrust and antisocial behavior. But to shout at Joyce with such obvious anger… All she needed to say was “Thanks Joyce, but I’m okay.” Its not like Joyce pulled a Mike and Ethan and dragged her kicking and screaming out of the room.
…Although that would have been fun to see…
So… what happened to the media circus Danny was affraid would come to town with all its elephents and clowns… good god so many clowns in that circus…
It’s all affecting Mary, apparently. Joe’s just that guy who was there.
It’s been about eight hours since that news story was published. We’ve moved from morning to afternoon. The media circus is probably still programming the school into their gps right now.
A news organization that took eight hours to get to the breaking story wouldn’t last long these days.
They’re a newspaper. The next story doesn’t come out until tomorrow and it’s gonna be sandwiched between a solid forty pages of trivia and heartstring-pullers. It’s not like we’ve got the blogosphere on the case or anything. I’m sure they’ll take their time. They’re operating from the fifties anyway.
When the reporters finally get here they’ll look like they’re out of a silver age comic book ^^
You might have noticed Danny’s a tad melodramatic. While the circus may yet come to town, his mental image of it was probably much worse than it would – or could – actually be.
Hmm perhaps the media circus still got its tent by congressperson DeSanto’s place instead of Roz?
Well, you have to remember that right now the only people who are aware of the Joe being involved are those in the school paper, and their story hasn’t been published yet. The rest of the media outlets are probably still trying to figure out who he is. The real shit-storm probably won’t hit until the weekend or the following week.
Sarah’s going to bite Joyce’s head off.
does this mean she can unhinge her jaw?
Yes. She can swallow things much larger than her head.
This makes her a terror in the bedroom.
Laughed myself to tears when I read that. Well played.
The gravatar just makes this post magical.
I’m so glad I made myself the Condom Hat gravatar.
I was about to make a period joke… good thing I stopped…
OR DID I!?
“I was about to make a period joke… good thing I stopped…
OR DID I!?”
No, see, you turned it into a question, so you didn’t stop with a period. You used a question mark instead.
…Well played, nothri, well played.
Reading through the old joyce/walky, roomies, etc sketches… I’m terribly torn about how I feel about the differences between joyce’s personalities in the different “worlds”…
… also, DoA is really lacking in taco bell jokes.
ok… JUST discovered the article regarding not bringing up the previous series’ and such. Hope I have not crossed into “not ok” territory…
i think he just has a problem with people mentioning all the other strips in response to someone that may not have read them. unless someone who started with DoA asks about the other comics, he doesn’t want people making references.
at least that’s how i understood it. someone correct me if i’m wrong.
ooooh ok, thanks.
then would it be too much to request that once Joyce finally gets Sarah to go out (and I’m assuming it will happen eventually) Can we see this old strip played out?
http://www.joyceandwalky.com/d/20050308.html
Really starting to feel bad for Sarah. I’ll admit there were times when I used to feel the same way as her… mostly because I didn’t HAVE any/many friends and thought I could get along fine anyways.
While Sarah overreacted, Joyce really does need to learn that “No” means “No.” There was a better time to approach the subject of the rock that feels no pain, as Sarah has a good reason for responding poorly to peer pressure.
Sometimes no doesn’t mean no though, at least in this context. A lot of people will decline an invitation simply because they don’t want to intrude, or because they feel it would be impolite.
Then make it clear that the person is welcome, rather than push the subject. Some of us would rather not have to keep asserting ourselves with hammers.
D’awww. That scowl is adorable.
I don’t know. While I think that Sarah’s response was WAY over the top… That last panel doesn’t look like RAGE to me… It looks almost sad. ind of like a little kid who just KNOWS that there is no way he/she could ever have something, denying they would ever want it at all. (Sour grapes, sort of , but proactive sour grapes)
It doesn’t look like rage *or* sadness to me – it looks like ‘goddam stupid people won’t learn to leave me alone for five slagging minunes when I slagging tell them to politely slag it all…”
Wow, I typed that poorly. Is ‘Curse my dysgraphia.’ a new meme here yet?
if not, I will see to it that it becomes so… here and in the SP world!
I’d prefer it if you don’t, please.
It needs to be catchier, something like these:
I. HAVE. DYSGRAPHIA!!!
I HAD IT WITH THE MO’FUKIN DYSGRAPHIA IN MY MO’FUKIN BRAIN!
I HEAR U HATE DYSGRAPHIA!
Dude not funny or cool.
Over my dead body.
………Of embarassment.
Sad Joyce (second to last panel?) is adorable!
a few days ago you called her “adorkable”… and I don’t think that any other description of joyce will ever be a more fair or accurate representation of her personality. 🙂
Oh God Sarah. You have been hurt. You have been hurt by somebody, that much is clear. Who hurt you?
http://www.trilulilu.ro/mike1413ro/c3e25c7a131978
*whispered sobs* who hurt you? who hurt you? who hurt you?
I wonder what crawled it’s way up her anus and died, dude she’s all angry 😮
http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/vv60/gangler52/2011-06-20-Brick.jpg
It was him. Poor little guy.
that text bubble looks like jhonen Vasquez’s art… pray tell, what is that from?
Nerf This. Great comic. Worth checking out.
Y’know, considering that Joyce is supposed to be the annoying, religious shut-in, she’s a lot more personable than Sarah…in fact, Sarah really doesn’t have a lot going for her right now. Except for, y’know, what Joe said, “probably great in the sack”.
On the contrary, I normally find her cynicism refreshing, ala her last conversation with Danny. But right now she’s being annoying.
You probably find her annoying because she’s not being cynical in this case. She’s being jaded and angsty. Jangsty.
Funnily, I’d agree, except that apart from cynical, she’s also being a snide know-it-all. And someday Sarah’s going to realize that she doesn’t know everything, and that the world doesn’t revolve around her or her success/failure at college. I mean, her reaction to meeting Billie? Totally out of line. Look at how well Joyce is handling these strange new experiences, and look at how negatively Sarah takes everything. They’re good foils for each other.
Her immediate world kind of does revolve around her success/failure in college. It’s nice that there’s more down the road and all, but if she fails here the road ends now. Funny how many people seem to lose sight of that.
College may be small in the big picture, but it’s far from trivial in the here and now.
“Well, would you like to find some puppies to kick, then?”
That’s actually why she’s pissed at Joyce. She had plans already. Got a full night of kicking puppies ahead of her. Heard about a really great place down by Queen St that she’s got to check out.
And then she will hatefuck Mike.
Why do we feel the need to specify hatefuck with either character? I don’t get the impression Sarah or Mike do other kinds of fucking. Pretty sure Mike making love to someone would be a sign of the endtimes.
Sarah might do other kinds. Plus, hatefuck is a meme, unspecified fucking isn’t.
Poor Sarah “I’ll be sad when this world breaks you” I wonder when it broke you.
“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
I gotta say I don’t think she’s broken yet. Not truly and irreparably anyway. Just a little damaged is all. The event horizon is still a ways down the road.
Is shara a character in either the Shortpacked or Walky universe?
She goes way back in the walkyverse.
http://www.joyceandwalky.com/d/19971002.html
Lol Sarah’s heart is cold and strong but has a very easy weakness.
….D’aw.
Such a cute widdle pouty faaace.
There is never enough Dorothy.
And just like that, not my favorite. Still an interesting character though.
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