The Dumbing of Age Book 11 Kickstarter is live!
I Excised All my Anxieties into Cartoon Characters Who Definitely Don’t Have Feelings for Each Other will collect “Year Eleven,” spanning the five storylines that start on September 10, 2020, and complete on August 26, 2021. This includes new commentary, 24 Patreon bonus strips, behind-the-scenes artwork, and new character designs into an 224-page tome with luxurious glossy paper all bound up into a sturdy presentation. Plus a foreword by Kendra Wells!
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‘Ullo
‘Ullo ‘ullo
What’s all this, then?
Shouldn’t it be “‘Ello ‘Ello ‘Ello – wot’s all this ‘ere then?” ;D
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag!
‘Ullo, feel like a spot of tea and a crumpet?
‘Allo, ‘allo! is a British sitcom television series created by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, starring Gorden Kaye, and originally broadcast on BBC One. The sitcom focuses on the life of a café owner in the French town of Nouvion, during the German occupation of France in the Second World War, who has to deal with problems caused by a dishonest German officer, a local French Resistance leader, a stolen painting, and a pair of trapped British airmen, while concealing from his wife the secret affairs he is having with his waitresses.
Wholly recommend.
Thanks to the Monty Python sketch Dead Bishop, I can’t hear that phrase without ‘Amen’ on the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is_v1dIvYgw&ab_channel=python_towers
Top of the morning, to ya! (Literally).
“I’m even wearing the BOWTIE!“
I wear a bowtie. Bowties are cool now. 😀
He’s the one who ends Bart?
Sideshow Bob HATES him!
Bleh. I don’t care for Jason. He doesn’t deserve to know two girls banged.
I doubt he’s going to care, really.
I do care for Jason. He doesn’t deserve to know two girls banged.
I admit Jason has serous flaws, but I like him, partially because of those flaws. I mean an ambitious, overly formal, stuck up nerd with a history of inappropriate sexual relations. Its a unique, interesting take on the typical trope a character like that would inhabit.
I also like that he or at least his family is implied to be very important but so far he largely remained a solid B cast character, only showing up periodically and forever trapped just at the periphery of the main plot.
Ambitious? I wish Jason were ambitious! I don’t care for him not in that I hate him (Although he was debateably racist to Sal assuming she associated with thugs purely based on her appearance) I literally just don’t care about what he’s doing. He’s uninteresting. The guys in general don’t have much going on in this comic and he has the least.
Jason’s a bit of a shit sometimes and a terrible teacher, but he’s not that bad and honestly seems like a decent bartender
I guess he can be kind of entertaining when a funny character like a Walky is nearby for him to interact with.
I will never let go of my Jason and Walky ship.
Jason works best when he’s countering absurdity with snark and subtle humor.
Kind of like James May.
The thing about Jason is that he’s instinctively a terrible person, but he wants to be a good one. When he makes an inappropriate comment to one of his students, he immediately apologizes. He’s an awful teacher, but he really hopes he’s a good one, and tries, in the worst possible way, to get advice on how to be better. He has an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student, but 1) while that initial comment of his made it clear that it was an option to Sal, he didn’t technically initiate it, 2) he then refused to let it influence his grading decisions, and 3) when he was inadvertently called on it by someone who thought they were just slandering them, he just instantly let his job go, even though it still seems weird that he couldn’t have got away with it.
He’s not a very good person, but he’s aware of it, and he wishes he was one. And how many characters are there like that in this? Mike was aware he was awful, but the fact he got away with it just reinforced his nihilism. Malaya is aware of it, except that she refuses to view it that way. Amber is aware of her faults, but, well, overly so, shall we say. Ruth is aware, but both her awareness and her behavior are so tied up in her depression that it’s hard to establish a parallel. Sarah is an awful person with a complicated relationship with her occasional very nice instincts. And so on.
Though of course, it’s partly because being a good person would be another way of getting away from his terrible father. Which makes him not so different from everyone else in this comic with terrible parents.
Given what little we know of Jason’s awful father it could be that the poor instincts are the things he’s been taught and his efforts are part of him trying to shake that off and be better. Which, like just about everyone in the cast, would be more effective with a good therapist, but hey ho. IF that theory is correct it also shows that his nature is to strive to improve and be a decent person and that it’s actively coming up against his nurture.
This is all theorising from a single (I think?) throwaway line which implied (iirc) that his father was both very powerful and… very not a great person.
That’s how the elder Chesterfield was in the old Walkyverse, and we’ve had no indication he’s much different here. He’s probably not a “volcano lair supervillain” anymore, but he’s probably a powerful business magnate or a higher-up in a London guild or something.
Sorry, here’s an e for that word. If he uses ‘ullo, then you naturally need to use shite…
I may be in the minority but I am not totally convinced Jason is a “terrible teacher”.
There have been 2 notable failures… Sal and Walky.
Yes, he should not have had an affair with Sal. But, he was not the instigator AND he made sure it did not affect the way he graded her papers. And while she did do better under Danny’s tutoring, she still improved a little under Jason before Danny came along.
The other failure was Walky, but given his ADHD and general lazyness it is hard to imagine anyone getting through to him.
On the other hand, he did actually have an interest in doing a good job (even if he can’t figure out how), and was willing to give direct help to Walky. And we don’t have any sort of indication that he did a bad job with less problematic students (I e. Those without ADHD, or with a more normal academic background.)
Plus, he is a student/T.A. not a tenured professor. It makes sense someone would be less than perfect at that point.
We have two notable failures consisting of many smaller failures, which also represent the totality of our exposure to Jason’s teaching methods. Jason has terrible instincts for it and when he doesn’t immediately succeed writes it off as a lost cause, and while I find that quite relatable and really wish I didn’t, it is not the sign of a good teacher
Yeah I think it’s less that Sal and Walky are our only examples so much as they’re the examples the series has given us to show What Jason Is Like As A Teacher.
They’re also the only ones we know Jason taught. We don’t know anyone else he was responsible for teaching. He wasn’t teaching the whole class, only students who came to him, of which we only know about Sal and Walky.
My feelings on Jason are irrelevant. No one deserves to know the sex life of anyone they are not dating.
Jason would undoubtedly agree, which makes it doubly funny.
So there actually IS a chance Carla’s gonna tell Joyce?!?! 😲
They better hurry!!!
*plays “Danger Pikachu” on Hacked Muzak*
Carla will only be able to tell Joyce IF they can work out which one Joyce is! 😉
Therefore the logical answer is to tell everyone. She’s bound to tell Joyce just by pure chance eventually, right?
You’ve channeled Carla perfectly.
My Game Theory is that joyce will find out, not through becky and dina, but will just not be in a State to care that much about it so she won’t bring it up to them. They will however feel like sly little foxes who got away with it.
So is Jason on payroll, or does he just kinda show up and empty the tip jar every now and then? Because I don’t think Pamela is as incompetent as Galasso and I think she’s the one that handles the books.
I imagine he is on the payroll. If I remember correctly he needs the job to fulfill requirements on his Visa, which probably takes paperwork.
Also, while it is implied his family is well off, I don’t think he is phoning home for money if only to avoid his father’s anger at his firing. Therefore, he likely requires greater income than stealing tips would provide.
Jason’s probably getting paid, but he’s definitely violating his visa
I imagine it went something like
Pamela: Who are you?
Jason: New Bartender, Glasso just pointed at me and told me I was hired.
Pamela: Of course he did, let me get the paperwork.
I mean, it is Galasso’s Pizza and Subs, after all.
That sounds like how a lot of the new hires probably go at Galasso’s.
https://i.imgur.com/3sN9pkh.png (NSFW)
Alright I’ll be honest I feel like the buildup is a LITTLE weak but I feel like this part had been going on kinda long.
Story so far
https://imgur.com/a/9Ob1cy3 (NSFW)
🤩 LOVE IT bruh!!! A perfectly explosive climax!!! 🤣
Wow! This one was just hot
I don’t think Walky shares your thoughts on the “buildup”.
Very nice.
So, kinda curious – will there be a round 2, and will it involve condoms?
Entirely believable that Jennifer has them on hand, given her partying history. Not sure I buy that Walky could plan that far ahead and that optimistically.
*Knowing smile*
Roz dumped an entire box of them into her room way back near the beginning of the comic.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/04-the-bechdel-test/late/
Suggestion. The “put your money where your mouth is” line, feels a wasted opportunity for a pun since they are talking about oral sex.
“Put your mouth where your mouth is?” perhaps?
Haha yeah honestly I don’t like a lot of the dialogue so far. Most of it’s gonna get refined later.
I get the feeling this is going to go similarly to when Joyce found out about Jason and Ruth
Becky already knows about Jason and Ruth. She made some comment that if a dude makes her happy then it beats the alternative
I had honestly forgotten about that
Jason is basically the Rung of this universe, isn’t he? Nobody ever remembers him.
Who is Rung? (This question is not meant as a joke, I actually have no idea who that character is or what is from but am curious about it).
A character from Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye (an excellent comic, and one that DoA has referenced a couple of times).
Rung is a skinny dude like Jason, considerably less wacky than most of the cast, receives no respect, and has a tendency to be forgotten entirely, even by people who know him well.
Thanks.
And to feed THAT OTHER multi-year running gag I have involving David Willis-created comics, since it’s the season:
“*Scenes of marbles racing around a track*
ANNOUNCER: The pack is now moving on from the chicane to the roundabout before the home stretch and everybody’s bringing 110%…
ANNOUNCER: Darkwing and Scud are taking the fight to Quickie and Stink-Eye…
ANNOUNCER: Rokky Topp of the O’Rangers and Tarr Heel of the Kobalts are trying to open a breakaway…
ANNOUNCER: And at the line—The Champion of the Shortpacked! Five Hundred for Twenty Twenty-Two—
The cast of Shortpacked!, who aren’t doing much of anything. The kids and parents who’ve been watching the demo are cheering.
ANNOUNCER (FAZ): —Barbie of the Pretty Pinkies.”
My brother is a big fan of Marble League.
Oooo! MARBLES!!! 🤩
Hmm… maybe I’ll make a game about DOA roller derby one day….
On one team you’ve got Amazigirl, Sal and a reasonably competent Malaya. How are you going to get a balanced game out of that?
I guess you could blow off playability and go for full on fan service. That might work.
Carla also plays on the team….
Even more one-sided.
Besides Dina, is there ANYONE Becky isn’t a jerk to? There can’t be more than 10 people who work at Galasso’s Pizza (And Subs) and it looks like he’s wearing his work outfit.
Nope. Not a single person.
Yep, looks like Ruth to me.
*plays PSY’s “New Face” on Jason’s bowtie*
It is not certain that they won’t be tired of bragging, but I want them to meet their match/es.
Just to keep tally here the people who know about Becky and Dina smashing now include:
Roz
Carla
Amber
Dorothy
and potentially soon at least Ruth and possibly Jason
All this assuming no one heard them initially shouting this loud enough for Amber at least to hear it from the other room and again loud enough to startle her. Or anyone Carla might blab to in passing wnile specifically searching for Joyce. Yeah Joyce is gonna find out if she doesn’t somehow already know.
In the same time, most that list isn’t particularly risky:
Roz: find it too lame to be told
Amber: recluse
Dorothy: respects Becky’s wish
Ruth: doesn’t care enough to tell anyone
Jason: Joyce would think a stranger is speaking to her of a David Beckham under a nickname. Also he wouldn’t tell such private things.
Most of the blabbermouths are in Lucy’s aisle.
To be fair, I often have trouble recognizing people who turn up somewhere different from where I usually see them.
However, just a bit of difference in speech patterns between Jason and Roy…
Does Becky still not know other sexual identities besides gay and straight exist?
I think it’s been established that she does, the question is does she know Ruth is bi or has she, like Joyce, shoved her in the “lesbian” box
Yeah that’s what worried me if she didn’t know about bisexuality. I want to hope Becky’s more open-minded in that regard.
She’s fully aware that Ruth is bi. Which implies that she knows bisexuality is a thing.
Ah gotcha. So much to keep track of in this comic.
Did the comic text change before I saw it? I see her calling Ruth their queer overlord, and my understanding is that queer has both been reclaimed and extended to cover everything under the LGBT+ umbrella.
It didn’t change. You and Becky are correct in this usage of “queer”. Ruth is still queer even if she’s dating a dude.
Further evidence of these two being hobbits. I knew Jason was one of the taller cast members, but even still.
Also, I do love that Becky has this deference to Ruth. I guess she doesn’t really have a lot of queer elders in her life, to say the least, so Ruth’s got that going for her. Looking forward to Jocelyne letting her know she has one more, someday.
Ruth also overlooked her staying in the dorms, and Becky knows she was previously suicidal. Becky has shown a lot more deference to Ruth than, say, Leslie, imo.
True, Ruth has done her some major favors. I think it’s also easier for her to gravitate towards Ruth than, say, Leslie or Robin, even, because she’s closer in age and there’s less tension. Ruth doesn’t particularly want anything from Becky, versus Leslie being a quasi-mother figure and all of the baggage that comes with that.
Having Jason say “‘Ullo” implies a different British accent than the one I’ve been imagining him with, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Well, you have to allow for the fact that Jason is trying to sound American on account of his visa.
I mean, he’s not doing a very good job, but we already established that he’s Jason.
When is Jason’s hearing? We still don’t know who the supposed victim is supposed to be as it doesn’t seem to be Sal. Maybe I’ve got this wrong.
I thought there was no hearing because he decided not to fight it.
Plus that was 3 months ago in the timeline, right?
It should have passed regardless.
Yep.
The whole thing with the hearing was very strange. There was no specific accusation. Jason was fired on the basis of a vague and uncorroborated accusation, without any sort of investigation, and told that the only possible appeal was to “successfully mount an argument with the affected student”, no specific student having been named. Proving that he didn’t actually do it would not have been sufficient defence. The only defence that the university would consider was for him to incriminate himself.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/tribunal/
Having worked in academia, I actually find that entirely credible because the goal would be to make the problem go “away” by making any defense impossible and the person(s) involved realize this/be intimidated. The goal being to avoid drawing any attention to it or actual justice.
What problem? Jason’s former colleague, clearly disgruntled, made a vague accusation with no specifics and no evidence.
I mean, it’s a vague accusation that is absolutely true.
That’s sort of the irony that it’s a kangaroo court that is railroading someone absolutely guilty.
It is, yeah. And the reason that Jason is taking it on the chin is that he accepts that.
If it were actually a baseless accusation, I imagine Jason would have been able to fight it somehow. He didn’t bother to try because it was a true accusation, and he had a guilty conscious.
No hearing, Sal refused to turn up or press charges from what I can recall.
I’m honestly not sure Sal even knows it happened. Because it was the redheaded girl (I forgot her name) that Joe banged who outed Jason as a way to, I dunno, drag someone down with her.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sal never even heard of the “hearing.”
Here’s what Sal knows: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/visa/
Thanks!
I for one do not think Becky and Dina will stop telling people they had sex after they told Ruth.
Dude, bold of you to think Becky remembers her coworkers. XD
Ohhhh, poor Jason. He is not qualified for this dorm XD
…the only way Ruth could push Carla to keep her mouth shut would be by telling her to talk about it (assuming she can stop talking about herself for 5 seconds, anyway)
Becky’s going to be tad shocked, eh mate?
I’m starting to think that the real reason Becky is telling so many people is because deep down, she wants Joyce to find out from someone other than her.
Maybe she’s hoping that by hearing about it from someone else that Joyce will have time to realize she shouldn’t laugh at her about it.
I’m not real clear on why Joyce would laugh about this though.
Back at Dina’s party Becky went after Joyce so she could convince her not to sleep with Dina, and when Joyce didn’t throw wacky fundie faces and tell her not to because she was currently having a nihilistic meltdown over her faith being an utter lie, she told Becky that she should sleep with Dina because none of the bullshit they were taught matters (whereupon Becky told her she was going through a stupid phase and had only been rebelling against her parents for 30 seconds).
More recently, Joyce told Becky that Becky did not have to be “left behind” by Joyce (Becky had explained last strip that she needed Joyce as her buffer, she knew Joyce would leave her, and it was happening sooner than expected) because atheists can have all the sex they want without God hovering over them.
There’s a lot of reasons and assumptions and double standards flying around Becky right now, but for the specific reason of “why would Joyce laugh?” it’s because Becky made a big deal about resisting her sinful loins in the name of God-sanctioned hanky-panky, Joyce made a comment like “but atheists don’t have to worry about that!” and then Becky “betrayed” her argument by sexing up Dina. Joyce now has one over her, it just remains to be seen if that’s in Becky’s head or not.
Some of that is projection on Becky’s part, too. She would laugh in Joyce’s face if she fell into her old fundie ways, therefore Joyce will laugh at her for hypocritically having premarital hanky-panky.
I think Joyce’s actual reaction will be just a calm “nice”. She’ll offer a fist bump. Becky’s first reaction will be “oh no she’s punching me”.
I also think Joyce will take it well but that’s bad because every time I try to predict something I am immediately dunked on. I feel pretty confident in my character reads of stuff as it happens, for example, regardless of the outcome I do think it’s blatant that Becky is dealing with major double standards and her Victim/Aggressor complex is trying to set this up in a way where she’s not the problem causer (because the problem causer gets whacked with a spoon).
Where I’m playing with fire is that I’m playing Guess the Narrative Intent again, because it feels to me that the most logical outcome for this current problem is for Joyce to not act like she’s being expected to because we’ve had like a year now of strips of Becky being the worst goddamned best friend she can possibly be and everyone around her is in a rush to make sure her feelings are validated (including Lucy’s tacit approval of trying to brainwash Joyce back; hello, what?!?!?!?!), so I dunno what’s the point of a bunch of strips where Becky goes “don’t tell Joyce!” if the end result is just that Becky gets to be right and Joyce will be a jerk. That’s kinda what I mean about playing Guess the Narrative Intent; if it resolves the way Becky wants to, what the hell is the point other than to have another point where Joyce is held to some absurd moral standard that no one else in the cast has to put up with?
Joyce could totally do that anime “ohohoho” laugh if she felt like it I guess but the more Joyce gets all these cranky antagonistic moments the more it hammers it in that it’s entirely her idiot friends’ fault and the only argument against this is that “she’s being mean to Christians” as if that behaviour didn’t last all of 24 hours and didn’t start directly after she was dragged into justifying losing her faith after a nightmarish amount of emotional trauma on the grounds that it makes Becky sad.
Like if Joyce does act like a butt for it, can anyone tell me a single reason why Becky does not have it coming for engaging in the exact same behaviour to her gleeful delight?
Becky’s setting up another no-win situation for her snd Joyce.
Joyce is smug? “See, you’re becoming one of those smug atheists they always warned us about! I don’t even know you anymore!! D:”
Joyce is neutral but approving? “Wait, you’re not upset? You’re supposed to be upset! Why aren’t you upset?! D:”
Joyce is supportive? “But… but PREMARITAL HANKY-PANKY! You KNOW how big of a deal this is! How can you just wave it off?! D:”
Shocked Joyce face? “HA! SEE! I KNEW you still have all the same old hangups you said you threw away! *Smug Becky grin*”
There is another factor here. Joyce is currently suffering near debilitating effects of her period. Becky even knows this. I can’t imagine that’s been setup at the exact time Becky’s worried over Joyce finding out about her sexcapades is a coincidence. I actually predict none of the suggested outcomes will happen yet cause Joyce isn’t really in a great condition to respond at all.
Becky: “Dina and I had sex.”
Joyce: “Nice of you to have given a fuck, because I don’t. I’m wrecked, go away.”
Becky’s idea that Joyce would laugh is mostly projection, however I don’t think this news is going to go down well in light of the recent fight about atheism.
I choose to believe Becky literally doesn’t remember who Jason is.
Ditto Joyce and Danny.
It’s actually pretty believable they never bothered to remember them.
Huh. Have we ever seen an expression as… awkward, for lack of a better word, on Becky’s face as the one in that last panel?
Also, while I know that it’s trying to make Jason sound like he uses overwrought syntax, I’m sorry, but even British people would say “You know very well.”
Yeah, I agree with your second point.
She’s trying to look at someone to the right of and slightly behind her, while facing toward ‘the camera’. This pushes her dot-pupils to the edges of her invisible sclera, so at first glance it looks like her eyes moved to her forehead.
This has happened before:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/03-sometimes-the-sky-was-so-far-away/confusion/
That effect wouldn’t happen if she had visible sclera and dot pupils, like Agatha and Robin, but she pulls off plenty of Wacky Becky Faces just the same.
My working assumption is that everyone in the world except me knows what Tedd Lasso is.
My second assumption is that this is true and it is a notorious clown escort service.
Ted Lasso is a what? I though it was a who. I assumed it was the stage name for a rodeo cowboy.
I went and looked it up and it’s both a what and a who. Apparently it’s a television series by Apple where the main character is also named “Ted Lasso”.
I understand it to be a workplace TV Workplace Sitcom about a european football team and their american coach.
European football team, American football coach.
The Coach would have a heart attack from just watching them run around.
Nah, I had to look it up because I’d never heard of it until now.
For reference: It’s really very good TV. A frank, wholesome comedy with a high degree of psychological and social realism and even higher self-awareness. (If you’ve heard of Scrubs, this is the same showrunner after two generations further of television writing evolution.)
The criticisms I’ve heard is that not everyone likes this sort of thing, not everyone likes its didactic themes, and some people hate it because everyone won’t shut up about it.
What’s the gay to straight ratio?
Almost all straight, I’m afraid. At least as far as we can tell. One bi woman in the main cast. I’m hoping that further seasons might look at how the social pressures of being in/near a 25 man football team probably prevents anyone from coming out of the closet, but that’s only speculation.
Feel like I’m forgetting someone though.
No offense to Ted Lasso but that might be a little too straight for me.
Nice to see Ruth and Jason are still together. They are a good couple of no so good people. Very interesting!
“I’m the bartender, and he’s Ga, not Ted”
Pretty sure there’s nobody in the dorm left to tell, Becky.
I think Mary is still unaware of that.
The reason for Sayid’s long absence is because he is a hot dude as opposed to a hot lady, and so Becky cannot perceive him when at work.
She bellows a table’s order into the kitchen and sticks the order slip into that little order slip holder thingy, then a few minutes later the pizza just magically appears in the kitchen window.
She has never questioned this arrangement.
I mildly dislike Jason
I strongly dislike Becky
Dina is okay I guess.
Shes a good person just not a very interesting character
i truly enjoy jason’s indignant spluttering 😄
That’s good since that’s his primary form of communication
It could be read not that Becky doesn’t know who he is, but that she thinks he’s cosplaying somebody from Ted Lasso.
He’s here, he’s there, he’s every-fucking-where!
I honestly don’t get the Ted Lasso joke.
Sure, yeah, he’s British, but that’s really low hanging fruit. It’s a show about Association Football players in Britain, which says Jason about as much as Gridiron Football does.
At least with Doctor Who there’s the whole posh looking and bow-tie-ness to Jason…