At least he’s realized that revenge-dating Sal isn’t what’s right. I think they’d make a great couple, but not if the original motivation is “haHAha, her brother won’t be able to date her if/when I screw this up!”. Gives me hope for the boy.
Now, can we please stop using “Danny” as a synonym for “to screw things up”?
Shit that why the Joyce x Jacob situation seems so familiar to me. It’s the exact same thing Amber did to Danny when his parents showed up, except at least in that case Amber WAS dating Danny even if he didn’t know it.
And it depends entirely on when you choose to be impulsive Danny. For example – asking out someone cute? Good time. Whether or not to use protection? Bad time.
Danny/Mike as a one-off shag that sets off various explosive plot repercussions I could appreciate.
Sal/Mike would anger me. Sal has her own confidence and intimacy issues but she’s working on them, and even though it seems to have worked out OK for Ethan, I don’t want her to get hurt and Mike can be cruel… She’s done absolutely nothing to deserve that.
While Danny has thankfully realised just what an idiot he was being I think he’d be making that mistake with a better understanding of the risks going in.
Nope, Mike made a promise that he would mess with Ethan and leave Danny alone. And for all his chaotic nature, he is honest. I trust Mike to keep his promise. What I would believe is that Mike ends up talking to Danny and in clamping down his default to mess with him ends up genuinely liking him and falling into affection in the same way that Danny connected with Sal. But Ethan thinks that Mike is getting closer in a convoluted plot and gets angry that Mike broke his promise. Leaving Mike angry and conflicted about not being believed because of the reputation that he so carefully constructed for himself. At which point, he opens up to Danny and shares things that he has avoided telling anyone before even the people he has always considered to be friends. This, of course serves as backstory exposition on Mike for us, the audience.
Not happening right now, but Danny’s on his third “one-person” in under two months, it doesn’t actually take his affections that long to shift if he gives up on Ethan.
I empathize with Danny so hard here. It’s hard for the average person to understand, but some people are just not built for being impulsive, because our impulses are almost always too ill-conceived to be safe to indulge.
The problem with never being impulsive is that the one time an impulse slips through, it’s bound to be one that messes things up due to lack of practice.
The less you trust your impulses (at least as a source of information on what you like/dislike in life) the more the logical part of your brain tries to keep you at peace with stuff you shouldn’t really be at peace with.
If you shouldn’t be at peace with something yet your brain says to just lie down and accept it, then perhaps the logic you’re relying upon is flawed to begin with.
I’ve learned over the years that when it comes to social behavior, my instincts are very, very bad. (“Bad” in the sense of making other people feel awkward, or worse.)
Being more impulsive might work for Danny…or not, depending on the metric being applied.
The strip in which Danny sinks his own ship is the one which finally gets me to board the ship. Sal and newly matured Danny might actually work by balancing each other out.
That can be technically true if Willis takes the equivalent of a standard human life to finish this story. He would become a cyborg that survives through martian technology and narrative powers like in the works of Paul Shapera.
Awww this is so sweet Danny is awlward and a doof but deep down he really is caring and doesn’t intend to hurt people and I really do like his and Sals relationship. I could ship it but not right now they have a lot tov work through before that
Yes, but Danny’s not flirting back! I can only keep this shipping face on for so long until the comic shifts back to the inevitable, disastrous cheating relationship that is Joyce and Jacob.
Man, be a bit more slutty, you are in college, and you are single, date around until you get together with someone special, waiting around for people is a waste of time
Sal knows the truth! The semester will never end. They will never age or graduate. IU is just a shared purgatory where they live in the suffering of eternal college drama!
This universe’s versions of Sal and Danny might actually make a pretty good couple now that I think about it. Damn it now I’m shipping more conflicting ships.
Danny is really a good guy and Sal like that. Now I wonder if he will help Walky with mat like he did with Sal. I like the idea, but I fear too that some trouble between them will begin.
I didn’t interpret that as “not being into her,” but rather “I’m not currently dating you therefore speaking to you like that was an inappropriate impulse and I’m sorry.”
No, he just said that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea. That’s a slightly different thing but I get what he’s saying. He’s two-for-two crashing-and-burning a romantic attachment so far this semester (I mean… just three months?) and I can see why he thinks that, no matter who he feels and what are Sal’s feelings in return, it is a bad idea.
I’m not sure I agree with that. Like JBento says below, he’s romantically interested in Ethan at the moment, and he really wants the emotional connection as much as anything; a fling, even if wholly consensual and without consequence, just isn’t him.
I think it could be interpreted both ways, yeah. Judging from Danny’s past behaviour and his current body language, I interpreted it as “… I COULD see the two of us together, should we choose to explore it, but I’m currently into somebody else and I’m DEFINITELY not the kind of guy who dates/pursues a lot of people at once, so I’m not comfortable with pursuing you while I have a current attraction going on.”
Whether deliberately or not, Mike is already doing Mike things to Danny. If he expected a no-strings-attached banging to free Ethan to go out and have fun with other guys, then he’s put him in a dating space that is entirely outside of what Danny wants and needs right now.
Man im…really glad these two didn’t start dating. A good, close friendship between two members of the opposite sex, who do feel attraction to the opposite sex but just not each other is kinda rare in media sometimes. Seeing as how thats most of my friendships, I’m really happy when i see it written
I agree, and I hope they just stay good friends.
(I also really like Joyce and Jacob as friends, but with recent developments, I don’t see that lasting…)
This is me, but I think that Sal is telling Danny that she wouldn’t automatically say no to a romantic approach from him but Danny’s been burned too often in too short a time and he’s just going to let it drop for now.
That’s not why Danny’s dropping it. Danny’s dropping it because he’s not currently interested in dating, he’s currently interested in DATING ETHAN, which is a different thing.
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Is he becoming aware of his Dannying things up?
He’s been “aware” for a long time, no thanks to his parents.
Hey, are you guys using ‘Danny’ as verb for when someone makes a small mistake?
Yeah, the phrase is ‘Danning,’ as in to Dan something, as Joe coined.
…Yes.
(I get that reference, because I’m streets ahead).
He is a Woke Danny.
You know what else is short, sexy mama?!
My chances of beating Ana to the punch!
Longer than you think.
TFW you posted that on a page where Ana hasn’t even commented.
Yeah, I REALLy didn’t count on THAT.
Truer words have never been spoken, Sal.
Is that a fourth wall break? Broken? Burnt?
I half expected her to look up from the last panel directly at the camera as I processed the line.
I think the term is “leaning on the 4th wall”.
Damn it Danny, I’m fully invested in this ship and you’re sinking it >.<
At least he’s realized that revenge-dating Sal isn’t what’s right. I think they’d make a great couple, but not if the original motivation is “haHAha, her brother won’t be able to date her if/when I screw this up!”. Gives me hope for the boy.
Now, can we please stop using “Danny” as a synonym for “to screw things up”?
I second this notion of stopping the use of Danny as a term for blowing it.
I believe that went out of style super quickly when we saw that Danny’s parents did it to him.
When did we see that? It’s been a while.
Shit that why the Joyce x Jacob situation seems so familiar to me. It’s the exact same thing Amber did to Danny when his parents showed up, except at least in that case Amber WAS dating Danny even if he didn’t know it.
And amber was looking for protection from her abusive father, as supposed to looking for some sweet Jacob booty
“blowing it”
What about if/when there’s a Slipshine of Danny and Ethan?
In that case, an exception will not only be granted, but mandatory.
Are people still doing that? I thought we stopped 5 years ago.
Literally the first post on this page.
Self sinking ship
I’m pretty sure that’s called a submarine.
Unless it is irreparably damaged, a submarine also be self-rising. This ain’t that.
Yet.
I can’t believe it took me this long to think, “No, that’s a hoagie.” I am getting old and my mind is growing feebler by the day.
The sandwich is a grinder (“grinda”).
Well, he just realized Sal isn’t the Walkerton he wants to date right now.
Okay, your picture is absolutely making me hear Claire saying that, because she would unquestionably be one to say that.
fire_daws has a Claire gravatar for any occasion. Can’t wait to see Stoned Claireface.
Dumbing of Age Book 10: Unlike This Semest–dammit
Life is short and then Mike appears.
Oh please, It’s only been a decade.
I mean, tell her she’s wrong, Danny.
And it depends entirely on when you choose to be impulsive Danny. For example – asking out someone cute? Good time. Whether or not to use protection? Bad time.
Impulsively choosing to add extra layers of protection? Good time, unless those layers are gonna interact poorly.
*watches the fanwork pages light up with “Sal is Lazarus Long” theories*
Time is walkin’
Time is wastin’
Time you ain’t no friend of mine
By god, I think you are on to something there. Or rather, the as-yet hypothetical theorists are on to something there.
Now you’re just encouraging the twincest shippers.
I see Mike in the corner. If this sets up Danny/Mike I will flip a truck into Ruth’s dorm room.
I think that could be an interesting dynamic with them both having complicated feelings for Ethan.
Danny/Mike as a one-off shag that sets off various explosive plot repercussions I could appreciate.
Sal/Mike would anger me. Sal has her own confidence and intimacy issues but she’s working on them, and even though it seems to have worked out OK for Ethan, I don’t want her to get hurt and Mike can be cruel… She’s done absolutely nothing to deserve that.
While Danny has thankfully realised just what an idiot he was being I think he’d be making that mistake with a better understanding of the risks going in.
Walky is also there. Time to get super awkward.
Nope, Mike made a promise that he would mess with Ethan and leave Danny alone. And for all his chaotic nature, he is honest. I trust Mike to keep his promise. What I would believe is that Mike ends up talking to Danny and in clamping down his default to mess with him ends up genuinely liking him and falling into affection in the same way that Danny connected with Sal. But Ethan thinks that Mike is getting closer in a convoluted plot and gets angry that Mike broke his promise. Leaving Mike angry and conflicted about not being believed because of the reputation that he so carefully constructed for himself. At which point, he opens up to Danny and shares things that he has avoided telling anyone before even the people he has always considered to be friends. This, of course serves as backstory exposition on Mike for us, the audience.
Good luck with that.
ohhh man id love that
Yeah not the type of impulsive I’d want Danny diving into.
Date Evan instead, the next best thing after Ethan.
“That’s Mike in the corner
That’s Mike in the spot…light”
(But it’s Joyce who’s losing her religion.)
Yes, Sal. It’s been a brisk 9 year long semester
and we aren’t even to midterms yet
Huh well there you have it these two ain’t happening
It’s all good their friendship is just as sweet.
Anyway Danny really seemed to have to turned himself around, really earned that “good egg” title.
May also be implying the boat maybe leaving the dock on him and Ethan, given Ethan’s enjoying playing the field.
Not happening right now, but Danny’s on his third “one-person” in under two months, it doesn’t actually take his affections that long to shift if he gives up on Ethan.
Meta as fuck from Sal.
Also, fuck meta from Sal.
Also, Sal fucks Meta.
(Meta has great arm tats.)
Oh no, subject “Sal” has become self-aware! Quick, deploy a wacky gag to distract her!
She’s been self-aware most of the comic. She keeps looking at the camera. She sees us, seeing her, watching us, watching her.
Ain’t that the truth
I empathize with Danny so hard here. It’s hard for the average person to understand, but some people are just not built for being impulsive, because our impulses are almost always too ill-conceived to be safe to indulge.
Exactly this. My heart provides the power, but a lifetime of experience has put my brain in the driver’s seat for anything important.
Experience tempers and guides impulses too. I take Sal’s meaning here to be “Don’t overthink it”.
The problem with never being impulsive is that the one time an impulse slips through, it’s bound to be one that messes things up due to lack of practice.
The less you trust your impulses (at least as a source of information on what you like/dislike in life) the more the logical part of your brain tries to keep you at peace with stuff you shouldn’t really be at peace with.
If you shouldn’t be at peace with something yet your brain says to just lie down and accept it, then perhaps the logic you’re relying upon is flawed to begin with.
I’ve learned over the years that when it comes to social behavior, my instincts are very, very bad. (“Bad” in the sense of making other people feel awkward, or worse.)
Being more impulsive might work for Danny…or not, depending on the metric being applied.
I think I’m far too socially awkward to be impulsive.
Oh good. Danny’s good egg-ness has reasserted itself and he realized how fucked up what he was trying to do was before it went too far.
Epiphanies don’t stick around too much in this universe. Soon he and Joe will play video games for a whole night again.
Watch out for those two wild rebels.
How… innocuous? I’m not really sure where you wanted to go with this.
The strip in which Danny sinks his own ship is the one which finally gets me to board the ship. Sal and newly matured Danny might actually work by balancing each other out.
I mean, it’d likely get him to stop playing uke (I actually like the hat personally, so…).
maybe he’ll pick up a real instrument instead, like a majestic trombone
https://youtu.be/wPpB7y18ps8
Depends on what you mean by Uke really.
Rot13 of the day: Rivy qnqf vapbzvat
That can be technically true if Willis takes the equivalent of a standard human life to finish this story. He would become a cyborg that survives through martian technology and narrative powers like in the works of Paul Shapera.
Yes, but when he’s no longer human, what would be his interest in continuing to tell a story about humans?
When Ana didn’t comment on a strip…
WAIT W H A T
Awww this is so sweet Danny is awlward and a doof but deep down he really is caring and doesn’t intend to hurt people and I really do like his and Sals relationship. I could ship it but not right now they have a lot tov work through before that
Eh i ship em
Did… did Sal just flirt with Danny?
Or just suggested that he should be more adventurous.. yeah, she flirted with him.
Yes, but Danny’s not flirting back! I can only keep this shipping face on for so long until the comic shifts back to the inevitable, disastrous cheating relationship that is Joyce and Jacob.
Man, be a bit more slutty, you are in college, and you are single, date around until you get together with someone special, waiting around for people is a waste of time
Sal knows the truth! The semester will never end. They will never age or graduate. IU is just a shared purgatory where they live in the suffering of eternal college drama!
This universe’s versions of Sal and Danny might actually make a pretty good couple now that I think about it. Damn it now I’m shipping more conflicting ships.
“Unlike this semester, life is short.”
THAT is going to be the title of the entire Dumbing of Age book collection once the 45-volume set has been completed.
Just 45 volumes? You’re being optimistic here.
Whew, Danny. You really had me worried there for a second.
Danny looks very cute in the first panel.
That’s one of the best catch line I ever heard
Danny is really a good guy and Sal like that. Now I wonder if he will help Walky with mat like he did with Sal. I like the idea, but I fear too that some trouble between them will begin.
Date date date date date date! 😀 C’mon, Danny, take the hint already!
He literally just said he’s not actually into her.
As the audience we don’t have to believe what characters say, even when it’s polite to do with real people.
I didn’t interpret that as “not being into her,” but rather “I’m not currently dating you therefore speaking to you like that was an inappropriate impulse and I’m sorry.”
No, he just said that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea. That’s a slightly different thing but I get what he’s saying. He’s two-for-two crashing-and-burning a romantic attachment so far this semester (I mean… just three months?) and I can see why he thinks that, no matter who he feels and what are Sal’s feelings in return, it is a bad idea.
I’m not sure I agree with that. Like JBento says below, he’s romantically interested in Ethan at the moment, and he really wants the emotional connection as much as anything; a fling, even if wholly consensual and without consequence, just isn’t him.
I think it could be interpreted both ways, yeah. Judging from Danny’s past behaviour and his current body language, I interpreted it as “… I COULD see the two of us together, should we choose to explore it, but I’m currently into somebody else and I’m DEFINITELY not the kind of guy who dates/pursues a lot of people at once, so I’m not comfortable with pursuing you while I have a current attraction going on.”
Mike, remember your promise to not to your Mike things to Danny.
Whether deliberately or not, Mike is already doing Mike things to Danny. If he expected a no-strings-attached banging to free Ethan to go out and have fun with other guys, then he’s put him in a dating space that is entirely outside of what Danny wants and needs right now.
His stated intention was to do his Mike things to Ethan in order to mess with Danny.
Kind of hard to argue that it’s not working.
It is working but not necessarily how Mike would like it to.
I’ve forgotten, where did the nickname “wonderbread” actually come from?
Like the brand of bread, Danny is extremely white.
I’m pretty sure it’s because he’s just plain, there’s no “flavor” to him, just like normal wonderbread.
the funny thing is thats the nickname i gave to an irl friend of mine who looks kinda like danny (totally unintentional)
I actually had to google to find out if Wonder Bread is still being produced.
Meta
Oh hey, there’s Mike. How about you impulsively hit it up with Mike?
Man im…really glad these two didn’t start dating. A good, close friendship between two members of the opposite sex, who do feel attraction to the opposite sex but just not each other is kinda rare in media sometimes. Seeing as how thats most of my friendships, I’m really happy when i see it written
I agree, and I hope they just stay good friends.
(I also really like Joyce and Jacob as friends, but with recent developments, I don’t see that lasting…)
This is me, but I think that Sal is telling Danny that she wouldn’t automatically say no to a romantic approach from him but Danny’s been burned too often in too short a time and he’s just going to let it drop for now.
That’s not why Danny’s dropping it. Danny’s dropping it because he’s not currently interested in dating, he’s currently interested in DATING ETHAN, which is a different thing.
Yep! Here’s hoping he acts on it now that he’s realized it’s what he wants, and Sal has recommended to be impulsive…
The Danny Train has now reversed course and is no longer going to wreck. Wrecklessness attained due to a lack of recklessness.
Panel 4: “Meh, his lil’ white dick couldn’t be worse than Jason’s weird European dick.”
Wow, Danny didn’t Joyce it up! I’m impressed.
Funny how life is short, but longer than a semester, which is long.
Although if it takes a hundred years to get through this semester, then we’ll talk…
Doom incoming, panel 4
I love the fourth wall poking Sal is doing here.