Did Willis change Joe’s dialog in the last panel? I remember being confused by it when I read it this morning, but now it makes perfect sense. Maybe I just wasn’t awake yet.
Lol, Danny cracks me up. I don’t know why people here seem to dislike him so much. He’s cute, he tries to be nice, his failures are often just social faux pas and not literally beating people up like many of the other cast members.
IMO, it’s because a lot of people see their own past fuckups in him – the person they were at that age, when they didn’t know any better, and now would like to forget.
I think his Walky!verse version being an unlikable git-bag, that this version hasn’t been differentiated from enough, doesn’t help his case either. Like Faz, before we were harshly reminded that his one parent was Blaine.
I think more people like him than don’t, it’s just, that like with every character (except Dina anyway), the people who dislike him are a *lot* louder than the people who think he’s alright, or at least interesting.
Joe did not appear to take that as a dig, he kept smiling straight through the panels.
I don’t remember a racial slur?
The Mike thing was obviously bad, but I feel like the comments are much more forgiving to characters who made far worse mistakes than that. I think we literally got a rare thought bubble from Danny in that situation to make it clear that he was just running his mouth out of control and not feeling actual malice. The degree of hatred just seems wholly disproportional.
Yeah, I think the Real Mom thing was just awkward buffy speak. Something that happens fairly regularly in this comic anyway.
As for the racial slur, I don’t remember one either, and it seems pretty out of character for him. Danny is at worst, Kind of a jerk, that seems like Mary levels of dickishness.
That’s probably what Danny was getting at but there’s still the undercurrent of “unsocialized jungle boy” which… you know, not really an okay thing to say about Walky.
People like Danny when he goes for extended periods of not having any character flaws (like he did when he was trying to figure out if he liked Ethan or taking the brunt of Amber’s worsening mental health) and turn on him when he says things like “your mom who I am distinguishing from your newfound stepmother has called.” The idea that a 19 year old can occasionally say crappy things and remain a decent person is alien.
COMMANDMENTS OF THE DUMBING OF AGE COMMENT SECTION AND FANBASE
1.) Thou shalt not believe that Danny might be a generally nice boy who sometimes says shitty and problematic things, then feels bad. Know thou instead that he is Dancifer, called SATAN, who is the Devil, source of all Evil.
2.) Thou shalt conflate Dan eternally with his Walkyverse counterpart in the most tiresome grognard way, for truly I say to thee, never shalt this get old.
3.) Thou shalt make out of innocuous remarks the most vast towers of personal sin, and on behalf of the characters which we have declared good, shalt thee launch Holy Crusades against the remonstrater, e’en if the character spoken to careth not.
4.) Thou shalt not believe Willis knoweth his own characters’ motivations nor thoughts. That is a gift given only to Thee.
wow. i can’t believe you wrote the truest thing i’ve ever read. also i was wondering what was going on and if I was somehow a terrible person for liking Danny even though everyone else apparently hates him. glad to know I’m not alone.
That Joe didn’t feel the need to correct him in a following strip indicates that he’s not bothered by Danny referring to his bio mom as his “real mom” over his new stepmother he met a few months ago.
I imagine he just filters out anything that might involve responsibility, like letting your parents know you arrived somewhere safely, which is why Danny is always tasked with that job
Whether it might retroactively bother him, idk, it IS Joe
because danny tries to be nice at first, but the moment anyone does anything he wouldn’t do himself or doesn;t act the way he wants too, he shifts hard hard haaaaard into judgement mode. something that’s extremly rude and also completly not his place to say, especially since he;s never gone into judgement for anything other than a difference in personality
and it’s not just ‘occassionallly says something bad’ – he ends most conversations with a passive agressive insult too the person he’s talking too, and usually whenever he mentions anyone else, it’s passive agressive insults
danny’s not some bullied perfect child people dislike because ‘haha we can’ – he has repeated acts of being super unpleasant and super dickish that saying ‘hes a 19 year old you have to forgive him!’ doesn’t fix
*he ends most conversations with a passive agressive insult too the person he’s talking too, and usually whenever he mentions anyone else, it’s passive agressive insults*
He didn’t judge Amber, though. He was worried about her, and really tried to be there for her.
He didn’t judge Ethan, either, even if he was jealous of his boyfriends/flings.
He didn’t judge Sal, neither for being bad at math nor her whole bad girl thing.
I’m sorry, I don’t really see it.
Oh,and he doesn’t judge Joe, usually. Which he maybe should have a bit more.
The only time I really disliked him was in the “would that be so bad converstion” with Ethan. Apart from that I think the hate he gets is dispropotionate to the things he does.
Yeah, he screws up periodically, but most of the time it’s honest mistakes. (Even in that conversation, I’m damn certain he wasn’t thinking Mike would actually die. Just, not something you can avoid accounting for in that scenario, even with 18-year-olds tending to think they’re immortal.)
People take the “danning it up” meme too far and act like he’s the worst person in the comic. He’s just a normal guy, sometimes petty, sometimes funny. People here act like they’ve never “done a Danny” before. He gets as much hate as actual villains in this comic and if some of the more loved characters did the same stuff as him they’d get away with it waaay easier. It’s a shame because he’s probably the most realistic character in the comic. I’m sure if many commenters who hate him actually had hundreds of people reading a strip about their first year at college they would find themselves being considered the “Danny” – we’ve all done something we regret, Dan’s just get held against him more for some reason. (Also he is very cute and I love his finding out he’s Bi arc and experimenting with who he is – totally normal and harmless thing to do! And yet he gets given such ire for it)
I stand by the assertion that Danny hate is so prominent because he’s a lot more like us than we care to admit.
He tumbles and falls and is oblivious and says dumb shit sometimes. He doesn’t have sweeping victories of character development, he just puts a dapper hat on and picks up a ukelele because he’s confused and lost on who he is.
Late sidenote: This genuinely isn’t Walky making a dig at Joe or Danny. It’s Walky having, as established in that previous sequence, almost no friends in his hall, just superficial relationships. All his friends are girls.
Danny’s behavior here is reprehensible at best, and morally indefensible to boot. He needs to grow up and stop being so damn judgemental of every single thing everyone else does.
/s
Yeah, I really think this is more the point. Why is Joe more worried about what *Dorothy* would say? And if Amber would let him (although I think she wouldn’t), what’s it got to do with Dorothy?
No. The point is that Dorothy wouldn’t let him do it with Amber on account of their commitment to the tradition of swapping boy friends. Particularly since custom demands that Dorothy go first.
I think he needs to keep verbally reminding himself that she’s off the table, at least until it truly sinks in. And not necessarily because he’s attracted to her in particular, but more that if she isn’t off the table he might accidentally hit on her out of habit and make things super weird.
I had to do some Google research, as I had never heard of this show, and I am a big fan of animation. Not quite old enough to have seen it originally, and living in various parts of Canada’s hinterlands, wouldn’t have seen it anyway.
A few days ago, someone (I forget who, sorry) pointed out that Booster is probably wearing the wrong color-tone of lipstick for their skin-tone, which is a Basic Makeup Mistake.
He shouldn’t kiss his stepsister and Dorothy wouldn’t let him kiss herself, not Amber. So Joe can’t get a second sentence from being bundled in as another person who’s kissed either of the same girls as Walky.
He’s talking about the two women who have made out with both Walky and Danny: Dorothy and Amber.
First he considers Amber, who he will not make out with because she is his stepsister. Then he considers Dorothy, who would probably not make out with him, he thinks.
And I say he’s wrong!
Dorothy is a stiff workaholic but has few scruples past loyalty to friends and civic duty. If he were polite about it and gave the impression he Wouldn’t be an ass, I think she’d be down.
Joe has already given the impression that he would be an ass. And while Dorothy’s doesn’t have many scruples regarding sex (beyond the standards of consent, not being mean, etc), I think she has a preference for flames that last weeks or months rather than one night stands.
Ah, the way the sentence is constructed, it sounded to me like Joe was saying Dorothy gets a vote in whether or not he makes out with Amber, and it didn’t make any sense to me either
Also..*And I do feel the need to explain that I’m only bringing this up because I hate Walky and have a biased against him* but uh, that hat dig against Danny was a little uncalled for. Like considering the shared romantic history he just explained they’ve been remarkably civil to each other so far and I think Danny has even helped Walky at least once when he really didn’t have to. So that was kind of a dick move on Walky. A really “Mike” kind of comment honestly. They’re not really at a level where jokes like that are acceptable. You’re a douche Walkman.
Maybe not to his face, but Danny hasn’t been that nice to Walky behind just back. He called Walky a boy toy to Dorothy and then goes, ‘really?’ about him to Amber when they were gossiping about him dating Dorothy early on.
So it’s not hard for someone to probably pick up on a vibe that they don’t like you.
Shhhhh. I know Danny’s a whiny little piss boy but I’m trying to make a bad faith comment about Walky here! It doesn’t work if someone intelligently points out the fallacy immediately. Not unless I just double down which I don’t have the skill to pull off effectively yet. Cut me a break here.
Okay speaking genuinely here. It does kind of imply that the hat was the only thing interesting about Danny which is a tad mean especially since we know Dan’s been struggling with identity issues. That being said it wasn’t really something worth noting as there’s no damage done. I was only focusing on it to rib Walky and partly because Danny’s comment about Joe’s mom got criticized despite my belief it was not meant as a dig while here the hat comment clearly is meant as a very slight shot at Danny.
Danny was the one who attempted to construct a personality from a piece of haberdashery, that was the explicit point of the hat in the first place.
As such, if someone isn’t very familiar with who he is as a person beyond this attempt at accessory based identification, then that would be the only real way to describe him, especially considering that at the time Danny was deliberately trying to be “the hat guy.”
Thus, could quite easily be not intended as a dig, but rather just a very lazy and possibly insensitive way of describing him.
Agree. I think it’s laziness, not a dig.
I doubt Walky would even know Danny but for the Dorothy and Amber connection. Remember, Joyce addressed him as “Hat Guy” right after he said his name.
To that I would say at the time Danny was also making a considerable effort at music and yet Walky didn’t even mention the ukelele which to me at least was arguably more interesting than the hat. Because playing a ukelele might sound slightly cool as a skill that is significantly more than I’ve seen Walky do ever.
That being said I will agree that walky IS lazy and insensitive!
Walky isn’t actually all that lazy. He believes in cultivating an image of himself as lazy, in order to lower expectations, and he believes in that image. But he also genuinely cares about specific people and will do his utmost for them at basically the drop of a hat. Himself, not so much.
I don’t want to imagine… okay now I want to imagine a foursome between Walky, Danny, Dorothy and Amber. That would be not canon, but still something as good as the april fools’ day fake slipshine of Joyce and Dorothy.
Hold Up. Did Joe just drop him and Dorothy dating or something? ’cause I can’t think of another reason why Dorothy would come up in that sequence other than “my girlfriend won’t let me make out with other girls’
since.. dorothy and amber don’t really hang out in the first place. Not a lot of cross over in conversations
I think Joe more meant that there’s two people that Walky’s made out with, Dorothy and Amber, and Amber’s his step-sister, and Dorothy would rather not.
Joe: “I shouldn’t make out with my step-sister” – like social convention is the only reason he wouldn’t.
True story: our 4yo kissed our 2yo on the lips. My wife said “Don’t do that. There’s a pretty strong social convention.” 4yo thought for a second and replied, “Should it be subverted? Mommy, should it be subverted?”
Another true story: I told that story to an Italian coworker, who replied that his kids kiss each other on the lips all the time and it’s no problem.
Booster theory: trans child whose deadname has ‘rod’ in it somewhere.
Father or brother (estranged) is Youth Pastor Powers. Powers, Booster, Rod.
All the pieces fit! There’s even a visual similarity! And imagine the drama when Joyce finds out…
Through a cruel twist of fate, it turns out Booster’s deadname happens to be Michael Roderick Powers. Walky never learns this, but groggily calls them ‘Mike’ early in the morning out of habit. Roommate drama ensues.
I hard nope on almost all Abled/Neurotypical People Writing Psych Ward stories to begin with. At best it’s pity/inspiration porn that Those Crazies are people too, at worst it falls back on atrocious stereotypes and outdated treatments (in non-period pieces.) There’s almost certainly exceptions, but you damn well have to earn my trust before dropping the ‘Protagonist wakes up in a mental hospital, was the series to this point real or a delusion??’ episode or the like.
So that Ryan Murphy uses ableist tropes in that one is not remotely surprising. Of course he does. The ‘self-diagnosed autism’* character in Glee was my impetus to drop the show. (This is why I didn’t touch American Horror Story after hearing a season was Asylum.)
* Much more common in self-diagnosis is ‘avoided detection long enough diagnosis would be tricky/from a marginalized group that is under- and misdiagnosed, may or may not pursue formal diagnosis because what would it change.’ I hear that character got enough pushback that ‘quirk’ got dropped later, but the damage was done for me. You get far more Dinas or even Joyces than ‘I will use this as an excuse to be an intrusive dick’ types.
I have no problem with Able creators making fiction about mental illness and psych wards, as long as it’s well-researched and doesn’t promote harmful stereotypes. Meanwhile, Ratched, with the way it presents the MPD patient, falls back on the old “crazies are dangerous!!!” trope…
BTW. Overall, the show is really poorly researched. It makes some wild claims, like California using lethal injection for death penalty back in the 1940s or chemotherapy being used as a cancer treatment back then (that one is not completely impossible, but really skirting the line, considering that these treatments were in experimental stages at that time).
Yeah, it’s the ‘so long as it’s well-researched and doesn’t promote harmful stereotypes’ that always causes the problem. Easier to be on guard and wait until someone says ‘hey, this one ISN’T horribly offensive!’
True, but it doesn’t mean that a modern show (even if it’s set in 1947, as Ratched is) shouldn’t rely on current knowledge when presenting mentally ill characters. Meanwhile, in Ratched, the MPD gets completely misrepresented: the explanation of why that patient suffers from it is wrong, also…
SPOILERS – SPOILERS – SPOILERS
… the character is presented as one of the most dangerous people in the story, with her alters being delusional and violent. That character kills people and, in the end, becomes a willing accomplice to a serial killer. Seriously, this is disgusting! What next, mass-murdering OCD patients???
Ups, developing a strategy based on so little facts is not a good idea, Joe.
OT: I developed a new theory why people vote for T***** and J****** and all the others of their ilk. It’s not that people actually believe they intend to make their lives better (and we know they don’t ), but that they will make the lives of people they dislike worse (and they are very successful with that) .
I sort of really feel sorry for Danny. It seems that everyone else agrees with him that the fact that he once wore a hat is, well, pretty much the most interesting thing about him. “These are my acquaintances Vanilla Scoop and a guy who is trying to avoid the emotional void in his life by sleeping around.”
I love how Boomer is snarking back, clearly realising that Walky is doing the best he can despite not really being interested in doing so. They’re obviously trying to needle him into opening up and I don’t think that it’s going to work!
I don’t, but mostly because that was who Danny was trying to be known as. Like if you try to be known as the hat guy with a ukulele, people will only know you as the hat guy because you’re gonna need a lot of time and practise to get good at the ukulele. Like. People can’t find your most interesting features if you only display two things you are trying out to them and then those are gone so now they know *nothing* else about you.
still getting the current strip partially cut off. yesterday’s strip rendered in full after I clicked on it. tried that repeatedly with today’s strip, no go
Okay idk why but this strip just tickled my funny bone and I really enjoyed it haha. I need a full tour! And also a texting montage later?? I will enjoy seeing who Booster becomes friends with in the circle of madness.
I initially misread the last panel to mean “I shouldn’t make out with my step-sister, and I don’t think Dorothy would let me make out with my step-sister.”
But no, I think he means Dorothy wouldn’t let him make out with Dorothy.
Also: I love Booster so fuckin’ much, Willis. The Willis give-eth and I’m sure the Willis will also take away. Soon we’ll see Booster’s trauma and bad decisions and shit I’m sure – but now we’re just seeing their smart remarks and good nature and I am loving it.
Danny was just being altruistic of course — telling a traumatized Ethan that his dying best friend was abusive is of course the timely and ethical thing to do.
I don’t subscribe to that binary view of the situation. Danny shot his mouth off at the wrong time, sure, that doesn’t make anything he said about Mike wrong.
I’m saying you’re not wrong to interpret Danny as acting wrongly anymore than I am to interpret him as correct. It’s interpretative; we’re both right to perceive it however we want.
Danny’s not a saint anymore than he’s a shithead. He doesn’t have to be either.
by Camden Benares, The Count of Five
Headmaster, Camp Meeker Cabal
A serious young man found the conflicts of mid 20th Century America confusing. He went to many people seeking a way of resolving within himself the discords that troubled him, but he remained troubled.
One night in a coffee house, a self-ordained Zen Master said to him, “go to the dilapidated mansion you will find at this address which I have written down for you. Do not speak to those who live there; you must remain silent until the moon rises tomorrow night. Go to the large room on the right of the main hallway, sit in the lotus position on top of the rubble in the northeast corner, face the corner, and meditate.”
He did just as the Zen Master instructed. His meditation was frequently interrupted by worries. He worried whether or not the rest of the plumbing fixtures would fall from the second floor bathroom to join the pipes and other trash he was sitting on. He worried how would he know when the moon rose on the next night. He worried about what the people who walked through the room said about him.
His worrying and meditation were disturbed when, as if in a test of his faith, ordure fell from the second floor onto him. At that time two people walked into the room. The first asked the second who the man was sitting there was. The second replied “Some say he is a holy man. Others say he is a shithead.”
Sure seems this season is a real reboot. This is very close to the scene where Joyce toured Becky around the floor and identified her floor mates. That we’ve gone from Joyce / Becky to Walky/ Booster is the kind of perfect and subtle narrative I expect from DYW.
Loading ...
DoA!IU students give the worst tours
at least Walky manages not to show off only people’s backs
Walky has form:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/yawnchasm/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/plebs/
This just reminds me that there’s an entire universe where Joyce and Walky are a thing together and it makes me happy.
There were technically MANY such universes, but most of them end badly (per Head Alien aka “Dexter”)
Head Alien does have that effect on people.
Yes, Joe definitely needs to find Danny’s hat and wear it for a chapter or two.
Honestly, Joe, a hat is about the last thing your hair needs right now.
Ok, but how tall would he be if he started wearing a bunny ear headband.
A tall drink of water
That fits your current avatar very well 😀
No Joe, Dorothy will NOT let you make out with your step-sister. ;p
Did Willis change Joe’s dialog in the last panel? I remember being confused by it when I read it this morning, but now it makes perfect sense. Maybe I just wasn’t awake yet.
It’s the same as when I read it at midnight.
It’s the same. I was purposely misconstruing Joe’s remark.
Did it say Amber instead of “my step-sister”? That’s all I can think of
Lol, Danny cracks me up. I don’t know why people here seem to dislike him so much. He’s cute, he tries to be nice, his failures are often just social faux pas and not literally beating people up like many of the other cast members.
IMO, it’s because a lot of people see their own past fuckups in him – the person they were at that age, when they didn’t know any better, and now would like to forget.
I think his Walky!verse version being an unlikable git-bag, that this version hasn’t been differentiated from enough, doesn’t help his case either. Like Faz, before we were harshly reminded that his one parent was Blaine.
*narrows eyes* I object… on the basis that I agree
I think more people like him than don’t, it’s just, that like with every character (except Dina anyway), the people who dislike him are a *lot* louder than the people who think he’s alright, or at least interesting.
Might be a mixture of the racial slur he said to Walky, him saying “Would it be so bad?” if Mike died to Ethan, his clingy, overbearing personality..
Oh and the ‘REAL MOM” Digs he’s been spewing at Joe
Joe did not appear to take that as a dig, he kept smiling straight through the panels.
I don’t remember a racial slur?
The Mike thing was obviously bad, but I feel like the comments are much more forgiving to characters who made far worse mistakes than that. I think we literally got a rare thought bubble from Danny in that situation to make it clear that he was just running his mouth out of control and not feeling actual malice. The degree of hatred just seems wholly disproportional.
Yeah, I think the Real Mom thing was just awkward buffy speak. Something that happens fairly regularly in this comic anyway.
As for the racial slur, I don’t remember one either, and it seems pretty out of character for him. Danny is at worst, Kind of a jerk, that seems like Mary levels of dickishness.
He called Walkie Mowgli.
A barely-socialized manchild? Sounds about right.
That’s probably what Danny was getting at but there’s still the undercurrent of “unsocialized jungle boy” which… you know, not really an okay thing to say about Walky.
People like Danny when he goes for extended periods of not having any character flaws (like he did when he was trying to figure out if he liked Ethan or taking the brunt of Amber’s worsening mental health) and turn on him when he says things like “your mom who I am distinguishing from your newfound stepmother has called.” The idea that a 19 year old can occasionally say crappy things and remain a decent person is alien.
unpossible
COMMANDMENTS OF THE DUMBING OF AGE COMMENT SECTION AND FANBASE
1.) Thou shalt not believe that Danny might be a generally nice boy who sometimes says shitty and problematic things, then feels bad. Know thou instead that he is Dancifer, called SATAN, who is the Devil, source of all Evil.
2.) Thou shalt conflate Dan eternally with his Walkyverse counterpart in the most tiresome grognard way, for truly I say to thee, never shalt this get old.
3.) Thou shalt make out of innocuous remarks the most vast towers of personal sin, and on behalf of the characters which we have declared good, shalt thee launch Holy Crusades against the remonstrater, e’en if the character spoken to careth not.
4.) Thou shalt not believe Willis knoweth his own characters’ motivations nor thoughts. That is a gift given only to Thee.
(FEEL FREE TO ADD MORE)
5) Damn thee, Willis.
Amen.
So mote it be.
Have a spare Internet.
wow. i can’t believe you wrote the truest thing i’ve ever read. also i was wondering what was going on and if I was somehow a terrible person for liking Danny even though everyone else apparently hates him. glad to know I’m not alone.
Well said.
It also sort of depends on how he and Joe normally refer to Joe’s mother, we don’t really know but Joe didn’t correct him at all.
That Joe didn’t feel the need to correct him in a following strip indicates that he’s not bothered by Danny referring to his bio mom as his “real mom” over his new stepmother he met a few months ago.
Or at least that it is in the goldilocks zone of banter for them. Not to mean, not too milquetoast.
I imagine he just filters out anything that might involve responsibility, like letting your parents know you arrived somewhere safely, which is why Danny is always tasked with that job
Whether it might retroactively bother him, idk, it IS Joe
because danny tries to be nice at first, but the moment anyone does anything he wouldn’t do himself or doesn;t act the way he wants too, he shifts hard hard haaaaard into judgement mode. something that’s extremly rude and also completly not his place to say, especially since he;s never gone into judgement for anything other than a difference in personality
and it’s not just ‘occassionallly says something bad’ – he ends most conversations with a passive agressive insult too the person he’s talking too, and usually whenever he mentions anyone else, it’s passive agressive insults
danny’s not some bullied perfect child people dislike because ‘haha we can’ – he has repeated acts of being super unpleasant and super dickish that saying ‘hes a 19 year old you have to forgive him!’ doesn’t fix
*he ends most conversations with a passive agressive insult too the person he’s talking too, and usually whenever he mentions anyone else, it’s passive agressive insults*
No he doesn’t.
He didn’t judge Amber, though. He was worried about her, and really tried to be there for her.
He didn’t judge Ethan, either, even if he was jealous of his boyfriends/flings.
He didn’t judge Sal, neither for being bad at math nor her whole bad girl thing.
I’m sorry, I don’t really see it.
Oh,and he doesn’t judge Joe, usually. Which he maybe should have a bit more.
Yeah, it’s hard to even think of examples.
Mike, obviously.
Apparently some old comment about Walky.
The only time I really disliked him was in the “would that be so bad converstion” with Ethan. Apart from that I think the hate he gets is dispropotionate to the things he does.
Yeah, he screws up periodically, but most of the time it’s honest mistakes. (Even in that conversation, I’m damn certain he wasn’t thinking Mike would actually die. Just, not something you can avoid accounting for in that scenario, even with 18-year-olds tending to think they’re immortal.)
Yeah. And since that was recent it’s carrying over to the at worst mildly bad “real mom” thing a few days ago.
I liked new Danny.
People take the “danning it up” meme too far and act like he’s the worst person in the comic. He’s just a normal guy, sometimes petty, sometimes funny. People here act like they’ve never “done a Danny” before. He gets as much hate as actual villains in this comic and if some of the more loved characters did the same stuff as him they’d get away with it waaay easier. It’s a shame because he’s probably the most realistic character in the comic. I’m sure if many commenters who hate him actually had hundreds of people reading a strip about their first year at college they would find themselves being considered the “Danny” – we’ve all done something we regret, Dan’s just get held against him more for some reason. (Also he is very cute and I love his finding out he’s Bi arc and experimenting with who he is – totally normal and harmless thing to do! And yet he gets given such ire for it)
I stand by the assertion that Danny hate is so prominent because he’s a lot more like us than we care to admit.
He tumbles and falls and is oblivious and says dumb shit sometimes. He doesn’t have sweeping victories of character development, he just puts a dapper hat on and picks up a ukelele because he’s confused and lost on who he is.
And that’s why I hate
myselfhim./s
No tapping on the glass!
Yeah, Joe, time to wake up in the floor with Joyce again…
… The sad part is, I think this is a step up from Jason visiting the dorm.
Late sidenote: This genuinely isn’t Walky making a dig at Joe or Danny. It’s Walky having, as established in that previous sequence, almost no friends in his hall, just superficial relationships. All his friends are girls.
Danny’s behavior here is reprehensible at best, and morally indefensible to boot. He needs to grow up and stop being so damn judgemental of every single thing everyone else does.
/s
He needs to grow up and accept his role as a zoo animal.
Agreed.
Oh wait, was that sarcasm?
Does he think Amber would let him?
He thinks that it would never get so far. His disinclination to make a pass means that Amber’s non-consent would never become the binding constraint.
Yeah, he’s indicated twice now he finds ‘new stepsister I’m trying to form a familial relationship with’ a hard no.
Yeah, I really think this is more the point. Why is Joe more worried about what *Dorothy* would say? And if Amber would let him (although I think she wouldn’t), what’s it got to do with Dorothy?
No. The point is that Dorothy wouldn’t let him do it with Amber on account of their commitment to the tradition of swapping boy friends. Particularly since custom demands that Dorothy go first.
Or you know, because Dorothy doesn’t want to make out with him though in her case he actually would if she wanted to.
Dorothy is the other girl both Waky and Danny made out with, and Joe is (somewhat awkwardly) saying that Dorothy would not make out with Joe herself.
Mention a girl and Joe’s mind immediately goes to ‘make-outs’. I had hoped his character development would be more lasting.
*plays some Simon & Garfunkle on the hacked Muzak*
Don’t forget to get a bag of peanuts.
The best part is Walky is 100% correct on all descriptions, with Booster being absolutely fair to find it interesting in the weirdest way.
Monkey See…..Monkey…p .
Sea monkeys?
Joe: “Do.”
…Oh forget it!
p
I’m getting some “doth protest too much” vibes from Joe where Amber’s concerned.
I think he needs to keep verbally reminding himself that she’s off the table, at least until it truly sinks in. And not necessarily because he’s attracted to her in particular, but more that if she isn’t off the table he might accidentally hit on her out of habit and make things super weird.
That sounds like how I see the vibe. Has! to mention it once every ten minutes.
Sorry, Boosters lips continue to disturb me. I feel like an episode of “Clutch Cargo” should be breaking loose whenever I see them!
“Clutch Cargo”??? If you can toss out a reference like that, man, you is old!!
(and the fact that I immediately got it means that I is old too)
Booster definitely has kissable lips
Also, Clutch Cargo was before my time and I’m a little over 60…just saying
You just haven’t heard their tragic backstory yet!
”It was summer of ‘87, the best were swarming…”
I’m 58 and I totally remember Clutch Cargo and the creepy lips.
I had to do some Google research, as I had never heard of this show, and I am a big fan of animation. Not quite old enough to have seen it originally, and living in various parts of Canada’s hinterlands, wouldn’t have seen it anyway.
Booster’s strange way of talking weirds me out much more than their lips.
A few days ago, someone (I forget who, sorry) pointed out that Booster is probably wearing the wrong color-tone of lipstick for their skin-tone, which is a Basic Makeup Mistake.
Is it a mistake if they picked it to be a bit more showy about it though?
Technically yes (the best kind of yes) from an aesthetic standpoint. From a personal style standpoint, let them do them.
Booster <33333
You're gonna have fun with this rich tapestry, kid.
Suggestion: Booster’s last name is “Phedon”, because they go both ways.
I thought Janus, but I like your idea better.
I got that reference!
I’m beginning to like Booster a bit. They(?) have a kind of go with the flow snark that I enjoy.
Also Joe. What kind of hat should he wear?
I’m thinking a Chaperon.
I do love that people continue to acknowledge the impact that hat had on everyone! It was the main character of its own story. A Hat Story.
Wait, why would Joe assume Dorothy would be the one standing in their way?
He shouldn’t kiss his stepsister and Dorothy wouldn’t let him kiss herself, not Amber. So Joe can’t get a second sentence from being bundled in as another person who’s kissed either of the same girls as Walky.
Oh! Yeah, I didn’t get that either.
He’s talking about the two women who have made out with both Walky and Danny: Dorothy and Amber.
First he considers Amber, who he will not make out with because she is his stepsister. Then he considers Dorothy, who would probably not make out with him, he thinks.
And I say he’s wrong!
Dorothy is a stiff workaholic but has few scruples past loyalty to friends and civic duty. If he were polite about it and gave the impression he Wouldn’t be an ass, I think she’d be down.
I don’t believe that Dorothy is actually as hip to casual sex as her theory of herself tells her that she ought to be.
Joe has already given the impression that he would be an ass. And while Dorothy’s doesn’t have many scruples regarding sex (beyond the standards of consent, not being mean, etc), I think she has a preference for flames that last weeks or months rather than one night stands.
Yeah, Dorothy doesn’t actually like Joe all that much. She does not seem to be one for hatesex.
I first read that as hatsex, and was trying to figure out how that would work.
I mean, Dorothy presumably gets a vote in whether or not Dorothy and Joe make out.
Ah, the way the sentence is constructed, it sounded to me like Joe was saying Dorothy gets a vote in whether or not he makes out with Amber, and it didn’t make any sense to me either
Yeah, a couple folks on patreon took a second to get it too. XD
In that case we need to find a third party to end the tie breaker.
Did I say vote? I meant veto. If either says no, make outs don’t happen.
Anagrams! What yer gonna do?
I like the little detail of Danny unrolling his sleeves to cover the marker tattoos
aka: The little detail of Willis ensuring he doesn’t have to draw them in any more strips.
Nah, Willis LIKES complaining about having made too much work for himself.
This is probably some subtle visual cue like Joe has successfully (or inadvertently) made Danny self-conscious of and embarrassed by his art.
Sure, that’s also why Danny’s forearms were all off-panel in the previous strip.
Also..*And I do feel the need to explain that I’m only bringing this up because I hate Walky and have a biased against him* but uh, that hat dig against Danny was a little uncalled for. Like considering the shared romantic history he just explained they’ve been remarkably civil to each other so far and I think Danny has even helped Walky at least once when he really didn’t have to. So that was kind of a dick move on Walky. A really “Mike” kind of comment honestly. They’re not really at a level where jokes like that are acceptable. You’re a douche Walkman.
Maybe not to his face, but Danny hasn’t been that nice to Walky behind just back. He called Walky a boy toy to Dorothy and then goes, ‘really?’ about him to Amber when they were gossiping about him dating Dorothy early on.
So it’s not hard for someone to probably pick up on a vibe that they don’t like you.
Shhhhh. I know Danny’s a whiny little piss boy but I’m trying to make a bad faith comment about Walky here! It doesn’t work if someone intelligently points out the fallacy immediately. Not unless I just double down which I don’t have the skill to pull off effectively yet. Cut me a break here.
I urge you to cultivate the skill of doubling down. Its time has not yet passed.
He also called him Mowgli 😐
Danny’s just holding a grudge from when Walky stole Roomies! away from him.
Also although I was one of few that took the ‘real mom’ thing as a dig I actually don’t understand how the hat thing is one.
Okay speaking genuinely here. It does kind of imply that the hat was the only thing interesting about Danny which is a tad mean especially since we know Dan’s been struggling with identity issues. That being said it wasn’t really something worth noting as there’s no damage done. I was only focusing on it to rib Walky and partly because Danny’s comment about Joe’s mom got criticized despite my belief it was not meant as a dig while here the hat comment clearly is meant as a very slight shot at Danny.
Danny was the one who attempted to construct a personality from a piece of haberdashery, that was the explicit point of the hat in the first place.
As such, if someone isn’t very familiar with who he is as a person beyond this attempt at accessory based identification, then that would be the only real way to describe him, especially considering that at the time Danny was deliberately trying to be “the hat guy.”
Thus, could quite easily be not intended as a dig, but rather just a very lazy and possibly insensitive way of describing him.
Agree. I think it’s laziness, not a dig.
I doubt Walky would even know Danny but for the Dorothy and Amber connection. Remember, Joyce addressed him as “Hat Guy” right after he said his name.
To that I would say at the time Danny was also making a considerable effort at music and yet Walky didn’t even mention the ukelele which to me at least was arguably more interesting than the hat. Because playing a ukelele might sound slightly cool as a skill that is significantly more than I’ve seen Walky do ever.
That being said I will agree that walky IS lazy and insensitive!
I can see what you mean but I still think it’s more of a not knowing anything else about Danny thing
Y’know I didn’t think Walky would care so much as to actually show Booster around. That required a certain level of… not lazy.
Walky is lazy but he is also gregarious
More likely, Booster asked for the tour.
anything to get out of talking about his dead roommate or helping Booster move in
As someone links above, Walky previously tried to ‘adopt’ Jason and gave him a tour of the hall.
Walky’s future career is “tour guide”.
Walky isn’t actually all that lazy. He believes in cultivating an image of himself as lazy, in order to lower expectations, and he believes in that image. But he also genuinely cares about specific people and will do his utmost for them at basically the drop of a hat. Himself, not so much.
haha you said ‘hat’ haha
“Should I wear a hat? Do I dare to eat a peach?”
(“Time yet for a hundred indecisions” could be Danny’s motto)
Danny listens to the Allman Brothers album from beginning to end.
“That didn’t clarify anything!”
I don’t want to imagine… okay now I want to imagine a foursome between Walky, Danny, Dorothy and Amber. That would be not canon, but still something as good as the april fools’ day fake slipshine of Joyce and Dorothy.
The what.
The April Fools’ Day fake Slipshine of Joyce and Dorothy.
🙂
You heard abysswalker, Porn-Meister. Get drawin’.
We know Joe is at his wits ends when he wonder if he should be more like Danny
Joe should wear the hat.
…and nothing but the hat.
Your icon makes this absolutely perfect.
The name helps too
Joe, you’ve seen the internet. Making out with your stepsister is not just allowed, it’s apparently expected.
Well actually it’s optional, though an understandable confusion. According to the Internet, making out with your step-mom is what’s required.
I thought that was only if she is stuck in something.
Hold Up. Did Joe just drop him and Dorothy dating or something? ’cause I can’t think of another reason why Dorothy would come up in that sequence other than “my girlfriend won’t let me make out with other girls’
since.. dorothy and amber don’t really hang out in the first place. Not a lot of cross over in conversations
I think Joe more meant that there’s two people that Walky’s made out with, Dorothy and Amber, and Amber’s his step-sister, and Dorothy would rather not.
This (Wraithy2773) is how I read it too.
Walky had just mentioned the two girls whom he and Danny had both made out with. Those two girls are Amber (as far as Joe knows) and Dorothy.
I’m kinda disappointed that Danny didn’t let Booster and Walky see his drawn-on tattoos.
So far Booster continues to be my favorite thing about the timeskip 😅
Joe: “I shouldn’t make out with my step-sister” – like social convention is the only reason he wouldn’t.
True story: our 4yo kissed our 2yo on the lips. My wife said “Don’t do that. There’s a pretty strong social convention.” 4yo thought for a second and replied, “Should it be subverted? Mommy, should it be subverted?”
Another true story: I told that story to an Italian coworker, who replied that his kids kiss each other on the lips all the time and it’s no problem.
That language coming from a 4 year old is a good indication of social progress taking root in your family
Topkek. Booster’s growing on me quick. His commentary is amazing.
Feck. Their*.
Going from praise to misgendering in the same post Please let us edit these Willis
Booster theory: trans child whose deadname has ‘rod’ in it somewhere.
Father or brother (estranged) is Youth Pastor Powers. Powers, Booster, Rod.
All the pieces fit! There’s even a visual similarity! And imagine the drama when Joyce finds out…
Dang haha beat me to it
In that case, Booster will be recognized by Becky and Joyce pretty quick.
Through a cruel twist of fate, it turns out Booster’s deadname happens to be Michael Roderick Powers. Walky never learns this, but groggily calls them ‘Mike’ early in the morning out of habit. Roommate drama ensues.
Everyone, I figured out who Booster is. His name is short for “Power Booster Rod” and he’s a tree branch in disguise
On completely unrelated note – seeing that, because of Amber, MPD / DID is an often topic here, I wanted to ask:
What do you guys think of the heinous portrayal of an MPD patient in Ryan Murphy’s Ratched TV show?
I hard nope on almost all Abled/Neurotypical People Writing Psych Ward stories to begin with. At best it’s pity/inspiration porn that Those Crazies are people too, at worst it falls back on atrocious stereotypes and outdated treatments (in non-period pieces.) There’s almost certainly exceptions, but you damn well have to earn my trust before dropping the ‘Protagonist wakes up in a mental hospital, was the series to this point real or a delusion??’ episode or the like.
So that Ryan Murphy uses ableist tropes in that one is not remotely surprising. Of course he does. The ‘self-diagnosed autism’* character in Glee was my impetus to drop the show. (This is why I didn’t touch American Horror Story after hearing a season was Asylum.)
* Much more common in self-diagnosis is ‘avoided detection long enough diagnosis would be tricky/from a marginalized group that is under- and misdiagnosed, may or may not pursue formal diagnosis because what would it change.’ I hear that character got enough pushback that ‘quirk’ got dropped later, but the damage was done for me. You get far more Dinas or even Joyces than ‘I will use this as an excuse to be an intrusive dick’ types.
I have no problem with Able creators making fiction about mental illness and psych wards, as long as it’s well-researched and doesn’t promote harmful stereotypes. Meanwhile, Ratched, with the way it presents the MPD patient, falls back on the old “crazies are dangerous!!!” trope…
BTW. Overall, the show is really poorly researched. It makes some wild claims, like California using lethal injection for death penalty back in the 1940s or chemotherapy being used as a cancer treatment back then (that one is not completely impossible, but really skirting the line, considering that these treatments were in experimental stages at that time).
Yeah, it’s the ‘so long as it’s well-researched and doesn’t promote harmful stereotypes’ that always causes the problem. Easier to be on guard and wait until someone says ‘hey, this one ISN’T horribly offensive!’
I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m guessing it’s on-brand since psychiatric treatment and diagnosis in the 50’s was pretty heinous.
True, but it doesn’t mean that a modern show (even if it’s set in 1947, as Ratched is) shouldn’t rely on current knowledge when presenting mentally ill characters. Meanwhile, in Ratched, the MPD gets completely misrepresented: the explanation of why that patient suffers from it is wrong, also…
SPOILERS – SPOILERS – SPOILERS
… the character is presented as one of the most dangerous people in the story, with her alters being delusional and violent. That character kills people and, in the end, becomes a willing accomplice to a serial killer. Seriously, this is disgusting! What next, mass-murdering OCD patients???
Ups, developing a strategy based on so little facts is not a good idea, Joe.
OT: I developed a new theory why people vote for T***** and J****** and all the others of their ilk. It’s not that people actually believe they intend to make their lives better (and we know they don’t ), but that they will make the lives of people they dislike worse (and they are very successful with that) .
I sort of really feel sorry for Danny. It seems that everyone else agrees with him that the fact that he once wore a hat is, well, pretty much the most interesting thing about him. “These are my acquaintances Vanilla Scoop and a guy who is trying to avoid the emotional void in his life by sleeping around.”
I love how Boomer is snarking back, clearly realising that Walky is doing the best he can despite not really being interested in doing so. They’re obviously trying to needle him into opening up and I don’t think that it’s going to work!
Hey! You take that back. Vanilla is an exotic tropical flavour that comes from an orchid. An Orchid!
https://slate.com/human-interest/2005/08/how-vanilla-became-shorthand-for-bland.html
I don’t, but mostly because that was who Danny was trying to be known as. Like if you try to be known as the hat guy with a ukulele, people will only know you as the hat guy because you’re gonna need a lot of time and practise to get good at the ukulele. Like. People can’t find your most interesting features if you only display two things you are trying out to them and then those are gone so now they know *nothing* else about you.
Joe’s life really took a turn for the strange, after he had his “I am the Danny” moment…
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/02-everything-youve-ever-wanted/approachable/
Please add “He used to wear a hat” to Danny’s Bio page, Willis. It’s important context.
still getting the current strip partially cut off. yesterday’s strip rendered in full after I clicked on it. tried that repeatedly with today’s strip, no go
Try a complete refresh.
Okay idk why but this strip just tickled my funny bone and I really enjoyed it haha. I need a full tour! And also a texting montage later?? I will enjoy seeing who Booster becomes friends with in the circle of madness.
I adore Booster with each additional panel.
Would you say that he’s gold?
(Talk about obscure references)
Bwahaha.
Oh wait I didn’t notice this and want to issue a correction: Booster goes by They/Them pronouns.
yeah Walky, he’s the step brother of one of the girls you made out with, that deserves more of a mention than the hat thing…
No, Joe, you should definitely make out with Amber…*mumbles* stupid internet porn *mumbles* …
I initially misread the last panel to mean “I shouldn’t make out with my step-sister, and I don’t think Dorothy would let me make out with my step-sister.”
But no, I think he means Dorothy wouldn’t let him make out with Dorothy.
11 out of 10 strip. I like Walky and Booster’s rapport as well as the old besties’ reactions and slight resentment of their conversation.
Also, real happy Joe isn’t into that gross ass step sibling nonsense. Haha, or maybe he was and now he’s like “Yeeagh.”
Also: I love Booster so fuckin’ much, Willis. The Willis give-eth and I’m sure the Willis will also take away. Soon we’ll see Booster’s trauma and bad decisions and shit I’m sure – but now we’re just seeing their smart remarks and good nature and I am loving it.
Walky: I actually noticed Danny existed, unlike Joyce, which is a mistake I bitterly regret.
This is a long way to go because Danny told Ethan his abuser was, in fact, an abusive person.
While said person was on their deathbed, having died saving Ethan’s other friend.
I suppose that instantly redeems the years he spent reinforcing Amber’s trauma.
Danny was just being altruistic of course — telling a traumatized Ethan that his dying best friend was abusive is of course the timely and ethical thing to do.
I don’t subscribe to that binary view of the situation. Danny shot his mouth off at the wrong time, sure, that doesn’t make anything he said about Mike wrong.
His factual correctness was disproportional to the wrongness of his action.
I’m saying you’re not wrong to interpret Danny as acting wrongly anymore than I am to interpret him as correct. It’s interpretative; we’re both right to perceive it however we want.
Danny’s not a saint anymore than he’s a shithead. He doesn’t have to be either.
A ZEN STORY
by Camden Benares, The Count of Five
Headmaster, Camp Meeker Cabal
A serious young man found the conflicts of mid 20th Century America confusing. He went to many people seeking a way of resolving within himself the discords that troubled him, but he remained troubled.
One night in a coffee house, a self-ordained Zen Master said to him, “go to the dilapidated mansion you will find at this address which I have written down for you. Do not speak to those who live there; you must remain silent until the moon rises tomorrow night. Go to the large room on the right of the main hallway, sit in the lotus position on top of the rubble in the northeast corner, face the corner, and meditate.”
He did just as the Zen Master instructed. His meditation was frequently interrupted by worries. He worried whether or not the rest of the plumbing fixtures would fall from the second floor bathroom to join the pipes and other trash he was sitting on. He worried how would he know when the moon rose on the next night. He worried about what the people who walked through the room said about him.
His worrying and meditation were disturbed when, as if in a test of his faith, ordure fell from the second floor onto him. At that time two people walked into the room. The first asked the second who the man was sitting there was. The second replied “Some say he is a holy man. Others say he is a shithead.”
Hearing this, the man was enlightened.
Is this foreshadowing?
Will Joe get together with Amber eventually?
Whoa
Sure seems this season is a real reboot. This is very close to the scene where Joyce toured Becky around the floor and identified her floor mates. That we’ve gone from Joyce / Becky to Walky/ Booster is the kind of perfect and subtle narrative I expect from DYW.