Well technically, the Doctor’s TITLE is “The Doctor”. But his name, what people call him? Is just “Doctor”, no definite article in front. So nyeh-nyeh, Willis! 😛
Doctor Who is acceptable! He’s called “Doctor Who” In the early classic episodes, Wotan called him “Doctor Who”, and Bessie’s (The third doctor’s car) license plate said “WHO 1”.
Well WOTAN was a computer, makes sense he’d get the Doctor’s name wrong, how would he even know about the Doctor, anyway? 😛 And a car numberplate isn’t a designation of a person’s name, so that is an even flimsier bit of reasoning. 🙂
When was he called Doctor Who in early episodes? Aside from occasions when he would introduce himself as the Doctor, and other characters would ask “Doctor who?” (as in “Yes, but what’s your name?”) 🙂 If you could cite at least one definite example, that’d be great, then I could check it out on video. 🙂
There was a book on Doctor Who once that addressed this very question. I wish I remembered the name of the book. What it said was his business card in the veeery early episodes was one with ?s on it that said Doctor Who. He was also called Doctor Who in a few episodes but they weren’t official episodes but rather made by fans.
There’s a few other occurrences. For specific examples, here you go.
They were official episodes, the versions you are thinking of are the ones the fans recreated them from the scripts because the Beeb trew out the tapes, remember.
You learn to read html and then examine the source code. But many people wimp out and get a decent browser that responds when the cursor goes over the comic. For those who can’t afford a device with a decent browser, Willis puts a clickable area to the right of the “Latest” link that will pop up the alt-text.
or right-click the comic and choose “View Image Info,” which I have to do cause the alt-text box and the actual text are the same colour on my computer for some reason and I can’t figure out how to change it ^<__<^;;
“For those who can’t afford a device with a decent browser, Willis puts a clickable area to the right of the “Latest” link that will pop up the alt-text.”
I’ve clicked there by accident before – I never realized it was a feature. The first time it happened I thought my computer was possessed.
Eh, he’s used it since the 60s. (Using aliases such as Doctor Von Wer and Qui Quae Quod, German and Latin versions of ‘Who’) The outrage over calling him Doctor Who is mostly a weird form of gatekeeping which doesn’t even reflect the show itself.
To say nothing of the fact that the character was credited as “Doctor Who” or “Dr. Who” for decades and it only stopped because a pedantic fan the show hired pointed this out to them.
I was actually referring to Ian Levine, a wealthy record executive who nearly destroyed the program when he convinced an army of nerds that the show was on the brink of cancellation during a hiatus, in order to create a protest movement which would keep the showrunning regime in place which had granted Levine an unpaid internship as “Continuity Adviser”.
He often tries to claim credit for penning Attack of the Cybermen, an infamously pedantism-filled serial which was utterly impenetrable unless you literally did nothing but memorize Doctor Who trivia all day.
If I recall correctly, on top of doing all that, he was also the original “actually it’s the Doctor” guy. If nothing else, it’s the sort of thing he’d definitely try to claim credit for.
Outside of their performances, which I feel are best summed up as “half-asleep” and “makes Brian Blessed look subtle and nuanced”, I have no beef with Davison or Tennant.
Are you kidding? David Tennant can show you exactly what he’s thinking by moving one facial muscle. He’s the best actor of any of the people who have played the Doctor. 0.0
I lost a lot of love for Ten (and the RTD era in general) with End of Time. Ten’s whining about Regeneration and talk about how “It feels like dying” finally opened up my eyes that the Tenth Doctor is a whiney jerk.
Eleven and Twelve are so much better and (Prepare your torches and pitchforks) Steven Moffatt is a far better writer than Russell T. Davis ever was.
It’s not cringy, I’ve seen it before, Walky is being extra self aware in the moment for cartoon hilarity but it’s not uncommon for students to get a college shock once their classes stop reviewing high school material.
“His name…..is DOCTOR WHO? Is he from a long line of “Whos”? Son of Bob and Margaret Whos? A proud tradition of Whos stretching all the way back into antiquity? A member of WHOVILLE, perhaps??”
Also, I remember the first appearance of the Daleks, we didn’t even see them yet, but a Dalek voice announces that a party of humans has arrived with “Doctor Who.”
Uh, Mike knew Amber and Ethan in high school. I think the only confirmed childhood friends in the Dumbiverse are Walky/Billie and Sal/Marcie, and if they knew each other as kids then Walky probably would have recognized Mike when they were assigned the same room… unless Mike did something even worse than the churchmouse incident that made him suppress all memory. Do you know something I don’t know?
I was incredibly lucky. In Grade 11 English, the teacher was lecturing away and filling chalk board after chalk board with notes, and then went to start erasing one of the boards to write new stuff, and the class went “Eek! No! We aren’t done copying!”
He was shocked to realize we’d all been busily transcribing his notes verbatim instead of, you know, taking notes. “What do you mean?” He asked, incredulously. “Hasn’t anyone ever taught you to take notes before?”
“Yes; we write down what the teacher does,” we replied.
“No no no, that’s not taking notes; that won’t do you in college at all!” he said, and proceeded to teach us how to take notes from a lecture.
He was a great guy, and a great teacher. One of my favourites, and the only reason I was able to take reasonable notes in college.
At first I thought that Mike was trying to encourage Walky to get help, then I re-read it and realized that actually he was contemplating potential for being an asshole. Never change Mike, never change.
I don’t think Sal is a helping person. She doesn’t seem very patient. Danny might be willing though. Or Joyce. Or literally anyone who is calmer then Sal. Plus being tutored by your sibling tends to be super akward.
Plus, just cause she’s suddenly getting B’s doesn’t mean she can teach calculus to someone. Hell, I got all A’s for four semesters of Japanese but I sure couldn’t TEACH anyone Japanese, even the basics. Teaching anything is not in my skillset.
Even if that’s the case, even if his reason’s aren’t all together altruistic, it would still have been good for both of them if Walky agreed to the tutoring offer. Jason doesn’t feel so much like a loser, and Walky get’s his grades back up. A win-win situation.
Jason is sincerely trying to be a better teacher because Sal made him realize he’s bad at it, yes. He’s trying hard to be nicer and reach out to students who are struggling.
Sadly, he too is being judged by his marks rather than his effort, so he’s stilll failing hard.
I don’t think it has anything to do with Walky being related to Sal. Jason wants to be a good teacher, and the fact that Sal’s grades didn’t improve until after Jason stopped tutoring her really hurt his confidence. Jason trying to help Walky is just his way of proving to himself that he can be a good teacher. Really it could have been any student.
Yeah, but once in a while the professor says something worth writing down, and I hate interrupting a good novel. Catnaps, doodling, and creative writing are the way to go for a dull and easy class. Math stopped being easy a while ago, though, which really cut into napping hours.
Just to clarify, he’s not necessarily in shadow (the cues are ambiguous without knowing the character’s skin tone), but he would have to be in shadow to have even the remotest possibility of having the same skin tone as Willis.
Apropos of nothing, I just wonder what he was studying and what he would be doing for a career if he were not a successful webcomic author/illustrator and Slipshine pornlord.
It’s a ‘perfect story’ really. His self-esteem has taken a hit just at the moment when Walky (who needs his help) is transitioning from ‘denial’ to ‘anger’ and is thus going to be aggressive at just the point when Jason is least able to deal with it.
He’s actively avoiding turning into his parents. Which I can’t say I blame him for, given how uncomfortable it would be to be around them for 8 minutes, let alone 18 years.
I don’t think Mike gives a damn what anyone thinks about him.
I believe he enjoys being the voice of reason, the reason that no one wants to hear.
I love Mike. He is the sort of person the world needs but can’t tolerate.
“Every organization needs a designated asshole. . . The asshole may not be liked, but he will always be necessary. Because he does what’s needed.” —Fancy Lee
Carla, I think, gets more of a charge out of being disruptive because she has self-esteem issues leading her to want to be noticed. Mike just is very impatient and dislikes self-deceit and self-centredness; he just goes all out to break people of what he considers bad habits by being as vile to them as he can.
And so, our brave hero, clad in his jean pajamas, set off to face th greta best, the beast known as Actual Work. He died mounting his horse, as fhe actual work of mounting said horse was too much for him. Twas a sad funeral that day.
I mean, if something works consistently for 12 years, it seems pretty logical that it should keep working. I’m not saying he shouldn’t get his butt some studying/tutoring done, but I definitely get the headspace he’s in.
As lots of people have said, this hits close to home. I started failing calculus just as Walky did, and I would like to say I can handle these things better than Walky is here, but I dropped the class and switched to a major that didn’t require any further math from me. (It’s not the only reason I switched but it’s a lot of it.)
Being the naturally smart kid in high school becomes your whole identity, and so much of your self-worth is wrapped up in it, that when you hit the point when you have to start working, and you don’t know how… Walky’s reaction is not a good one, but I absolutely get why he’s this way.
Welp… he’s fucked now that he’s on Mike’s radar in a major way.
And also, this exact strip is why I think its such a disservice to favor “ease” or the “appearance of ease” as a sign of intelligence rather than effort and curiosity. The second it stops being easy, the meltdown is so much bigger and it takes so much longer for them to get help, because they had so much baggage and ego stored into things being “easy”.
Agreeing from personal experience. In the Engineering department at my college it was that former high-school honor students who dropped like flies while the rest of us just kept grinding on through the course work.
I don’t know. I’m still holding out hope for Walky and Sal’s tests being switched. Walky already has good study habits (he hangs out with DOROTHY for crying out loud!) and Sal finding out she’s not as smart as she thinks she is would be a great moment to finally knock her ego down a peg. I wouldn’t put it past Willis at this point to spring something like THAT on us.
His problem started when they stopped reviewing what he already knew.
They are into new territory, and he thought the first quiz was a fluke.
He is now in the denial stage. “But… but… honors!…”
Dude they are getting back their own work, with their own names, handwriting, and answers on them. Your scenario makes zero sense, as well as going against multiple levels of character development.
*Sal* is not the one whose ego needs deflating but your description of them both really makes it sound like you have mixed them up as characters in your head.
I know that you said you want Walky and Sal’s test scores to be switched, (a plot development that makes zero sense. I think both twins would notice that they are getting back the wrong paper, especially if there’s a huge change in grade). But I’m wondering if you have Walky and Sal switched in your head.
Walky has terrible study habits. We saw him on Saturday trying to study, and it was mostly looking at the title page of the textbook. We saw him study with Dorothy once. He clearly wasn’t doing any actual studying at that point in time.
And while Sal’s aloofness may be the result of a bit of an ego, I really don’t see where she thinks she’s super smart or anything. She gets angry at Jason insulting her intelligence, but that’s because he’s calling her stupid for not understanding the material when he explains it, and in general acts super condescending.
I am utterly confused as to why so many people want the tests to be switched. It wouldn’t make any sense for it to not be noticed before hand, and it would actively sabotage character development with Walky, Sal, and Jason. And what would it prove? That after a lot of hard work, Sal is incapable of improving at something?
It’s sort of a ‘fair warning’ on his part: “I’m going to mock you and torment you over this until you take positive action. I may even keep doing it afterwards, just because of the lulz.”
“And I may tell others. Actually, I WILL tell others. I will tell your sister. And your girlfriend. And that Joyce chick. Hell, I’ll tell Tits McGee, if I ever see her again. Everyone will know, Walky. Everyone. So now will you fucking study so I can stop hearing you fucking whine?”
Uggggh, me all through college. Which is why a good portion of me wants to hit Walky because YOU STUPID DICK GO GET HELP FROM SOMEONE. FOR ONCE SAL IS SOMEONE TO EMULATE. UGH.
Might be projecting my frustration with my former self. Might be.
I was naturally smart until my stupid physics class. It’s so stupid that I had to clean up my word choice to stupid because I didn’t want to swear on this website.
Job-hunting is not a practical alternative to college. There will never be a time in your life when it is as easy to attend it; once you have kids and a mortgage then getting the time is ridiculously difficult; and dropping your expenses by living in a $500 shithole no longer seems like a viable alternative (and if you have kids it may very well not be for more than just “Ew I don’t wanna live like this” reasons). And without an education in something (engineering seems promising right now) then you end up being a middle-aged person whose only job choices are Walmart Greeter and asking if you want fries with that. Like me.
Nothing over fifty cents over minimum wage is available without an education, unless you are so incredibly lucky as to fall into something with danger pay, and the competition for those jobs is ridiculously fierce and you will need to know someone on the inside to get it.
This reminds me of my second semester in college. Cause this is exactly what happened my second semester of college. 0.7 GPA cause I thought I was too smart to study. Dumb college kids man.
Walky will change his mind about getting help from Jason tomorrow and thank Mike right before he goes to bed. Mike will then super glue a Sal wig to Walky’s head while he sleeps and maybe something for the breasts too. He may also steal all of Walky’s regular clothes (and his own) and leave him with nothing but a Sal outfit.
Hmmm, he’ll probably also change Walky’s alarm so it only goes off right before he’s supposed to meet with Jason so Walky has zero time to counter it.
Although, with a few more swears he could be the new Malcolm Tucker:
“Listen you fucking cockwomble, get your fucking whiney ass into fucking gear or I’m fucking dishing the fucking proverbials to your equal fucking obnoxious fucking poindexter girlfriend.”
I find it kinda strange that Jason let Walky leave after saying what he said. I get that University teaching staff aren’t there to baby you, so even approaching him about his poor grades is non-standard, but Walky literally explained his whole problem. At the very least Jason could’ve said something like, “This isn’t high school material, if you’re not paying attention or properly catching up in off hours you will continue to fail and it will become increasingly difficult to turn your grades around.”
I wonder if he’ll figure out that Walky is Sal’s brother.
I’ve seen kids like Walky. They coasted through high school with top grades, but fell on their asses in college. Some learned from it, changed their strategy and wound up doing well from then on. Some just crashed and burned and flipped out. Some of the flip-outs still have problems twenty years later.
I understand that Walky is grieving. He’s suffered a loss. He had this image of himself as superhuman and infallible, and that image has now been destroyed. He’s now fluctuating somewhere between the denial and anger stages of grief. Still, that’s not an excuse to act like an ass.
I could give Walky some lessons on failure. I have ample experience with that. I’ve done plenty of failing at life in general, and continue to do so. I do not deal with said failures by lashing out at the messenger. I generally try to improve. In my case, my neurologically atypical brain does not process information in an organized and efficient manner so my efforts to improve are often unsuccessful. Then I just despair at how worthless I am, and how I’ll never be good enough for anything or anyone ever.
Okay, so that latter part may not be particularly constructive. Walky doesn’t share my neurological issues, however, so making a serious attempt to improve would most likely be successful. If he accepted help, and made a real effort to improve his study habits, he would most likely get real results. He just needs to start acting like a grown-up, and take some personal responsibility for his actions.
Just for a little context though, how many days ago was the other quiz? Less than a week, right?
This is Monday, I think. It might even have been last Friday. I know to us, he’s been in denial about this for 6 months, but it’s basically been over the weekend in his time.
I feel your pain Walky. I too used to be able to goof off in class. But everyone hits their limit. When I’m pretty sure has to do with IQ. Most people (~100 IQ) hit their limit around 5th or 6th grade. At that point teachers most teachers teach them how to learn like an adult i.e. studying. For us (130+) IQ people, that kind of learning seems pointless and boring so we casually ignore them and the teachers don’t mind because we can still learn like a child and therefore still ace the tests anyways. The problem is what happens when like me you hit your limit in High School. You’ve failed to learn how to learn and none of the teachers want or know how to teach you how to learn like an adult and think you’re just a slacker. You have to teach yourself how to learn like an adult (a nigh impossible task by the way). It’s the reason I almost failed High School and couldn’t make it through a semester of College.
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“That’s THE Doctor!”
“…say, you wouldn’t happen to have any way to EXTERMINATE any witnesses, would you”
*mutters under breath ‘dang it alt-text’*
Heh, I had the same reaction to the alt-text. xD
Willis beat us to it, again.
Well technically, the Doctor’s TITLE is “The Doctor”. But his name, what people call him? Is just “Doctor”, no definite article in front. So nyeh-nyeh, Willis! 😛
Doctor Who is acceptable! He’s called “Doctor Who” In the early classic episodes, Wotan called him “Doctor Who”, and Bessie’s (The third doctor’s car) license plate said “WHO 1”.
Well WOTAN was a computer, makes sense he’d get the Doctor’s name wrong, how would he even know about the Doctor, anyway? 😛 And a car numberplate isn’t a designation of a person’s name, so that is an even flimsier bit of reasoning. 🙂
When was he called Doctor Who in early episodes? Aside from occasions when he would introduce himself as the Doctor, and other characters would ask “Doctor who?” (as in “Yes, but what’s your name?”) 🙂 If you could cite at least one definite example, that’d be great, then I could check it out on video. 🙂
There was a book on Doctor Who once that addressed this very question. I wish I remembered the name of the book. What it said was his business card in the veeery early episodes was one with ?s on it that said Doctor Who. He was also called Doctor Who in a few episodes but they weren’t official episodes but rather made by fans.
There’s a few other occurrences. For specific examples, here you go.
They were official episodes, the versions you are thinking of are the ones the fans recreated them from the scripts because the Beeb trew out the tapes, remember.
How does one see the fabled alt-text?
You learn to read html and then examine the source code. But many people wimp out and get a decent browser that responds when the cursor goes over the comic. For those who can’t afford a device with a decent browser, Willis puts a clickable area to the right of the “Latest” link that will pop up the alt-text.
or right-click the comic and choose “View Image Info,” which I have to do cause the alt-text box and the actual text are the same colour on my computer for some reason and I can’t figure out how to change it ^<__<^;;
“For those who can’t afford a device with a decent browser, Willis puts a clickable area to the right of the “Latest” link that will pop up the alt-text.”
I’ve clicked there by accident before – I never realized it was a feature. The first time it happened I thought my computer was possessed.
Clearly the only reasonable assumption.
Computers being possessed is a real issue!
Oh man, the Doctor hates it when people call him Doctor Who.
Eh, he’s used it since the 60s. (Using aliases such as Doctor Von Wer and Qui Quae Quod, German and Latin versions of ‘Who’) The outrage over calling him Doctor Who is mostly a weird form of gatekeeping which doesn’t even reflect the show itself.
where on earth did you get that great icon?
To say nothing of the fact that the character was credited as “Doctor Who” or “Dr. Who” for decades and it only stopped because a pedantic fan the show hired pointed this out to them.
Are you calling Peter Davison and David Tennant “pedantic fans”?
Hey, just because you get to star in the show doesn’t make you any less pedantic or any less of a fan.
I was actually referring to Ian Levine, a wealthy record executive who nearly destroyed the program when he convinced an army of nerds that the show was on the brink of cancellation during a hiatus, in order to create a protest movement which would keep the showrunning regime in place which had granted Levine an unpaid internship as “Continuity Adviser”.
He often tries to claim credit for penning Attack of the Cybermen, an infamously pedantism-filled serial which was utterly impenetrable unless you literally did nothing but memorize Doctor Who trivia all day.
If I recall correctly, on top of doing all that, he was also the original “actually it’s the Doctor” guy. If nothing else, it’s the sort of thing he’d definitely try to claim credit for.
Outside of their performances, which I feel are best summed up as “half-asleep” and “makes Brian Blessed look subtle and nuanced”, I have no beef with Davison or Tennant.
Are you kidding? David Tennant can show you exactly what he’s thinking by moving one facial muscle. He’s the best actor of any of the people who have played the Doctor. 0.0
All of those facial muscles represent the feeling “OH MY GOD I’M ON DOCTOR WHO YOU GUYS I CAN’T BELIEVE IT — OH SHIT SHOULD I BE ACTING RIGHT NOW”
You misspelled BRIAN BLESSED.
Outside of their performances, which I feel are best summed up as “half-asleep” and “makes Brian Blessed look subtle and nuanced”
I was very fond of Davison’s Doctor, whose approach struck me as gentle, and for the most part I liked Ten, but when I watch his , I think “yet still more restrained than his final season in Doctor Who”. @Arian, if “David Tennant can show you exactly what he’s thinking by moving one facial muscle”, then why towards the end did he insist on using all of them all the time (and SHOUTING)?
Crap, I always get href commands wrong on this site.
“Harry Potter performance” -http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Bartemius_Crouch_Jr.
I lost a lot of love for Ten (and the RTD era in general) with End of Time. Ten’s whining about Regeneration and talk about how “It feels like dying” finally opened up my eyes that the Tenth Doctor is a whiney jerk.
Eleven and Twelve are so much better and (Prepare your torches and pitchforks) Steven Moffatt is a far better writer than Russell T. Davis ever was.
And Pink Floyd even had a character named Pink Floyd.
But seriously, which one is pink, I forget
Pink isn’t well; he stayed back at the hotel.
Okay, I get the alt-text reference, but what does it have to do with the comic?
Oh, never mind; I got it on second reading.
Must be Monday.
Walky called Jason Doctor Who (2nd panel)
YOU get it together, you little twerp!
Wow! Easy there Doc!
Keep the Malcolm Tucker under control until he’s needed for fuckety-fucks-sake.
On point gravatars
WALKY. NO. BAD WALKY, BAD.
WALKY. NO. WALKY. STAHP.
…Accept help when it is offered.
This is so very fun yet so very cringy.
I’m conflicted.
The fact that Mike is a factor in all this makes me love it.
AND he’s trying to help!
By being evil. It’s his way.
It’s not cringy, I’ve seen it before, Walky is being extra self aware in the moment for cartoon hilarity but it’s not uncommon for students to get a college shock once their classes stop reviewing high school material.
But Walky’s reaction is still cringe-worthy. I definitely hit this kind of a failing-wall in college, but I didn’t act like that about it.
When Mike is the one who knows… yes be very scared.
Yeah, he’s trying to be helpful. And I don’t think he’s even drunk. *shivers*
Mike is always helpful. He is not, however, nice.
In a nutshell.
Strongly agree. Dunno about drunk but that was serious Mike trying to help.
Mike’s only useful when it’s optimally important.
Has anyone noticed that Mike’s been trying to help a lot, lately? First Joyce, now Walky. What’s his angle?
Either: He’s trying some new way of tormenting his friends, OR, he knows something we don’t know.
OR?
Next strip: Mike is researching the price of hiring a skywriter, and looking up Walky’s parents’ house on Google Maps.
And leaving the results out for Walky to find.
Well, I’m going to be reading all of Jason’s lines in Matt Smith’s voice now.
I already do. In Panel two, he even almost has the chin.
If he grew out his hair more, he’d look like Mike, though. Which would be really confusing.
Obligatory Jason/Sal pic Slipshine ad looks like it could be Walky/Mike comment.
Oh god, I’d seen it as Walky/Jason, but Walky/Mike is even more hilarious.
Walky/Jason is, after all, already featured on the left side on this page.
I could see Christopher Eckelson (sp?) playing Galasso.
Eccleston was my first Doctor. Sucks about the “creative differences” and all, one season didn’t feel like nearly enough.
I’m a Tom Baker fan, but Eccleston was definitely the better of the two.
The angst and the Northerness.
I’m looking forward to a woman Doctor.
I am attracted to both of those characters
So
Um
Thanks for pointing that out
Recognizing your problem is the first step to a cure.
It’s usually the first step to building ever bigger banks of denial.
Galasso will be played by Colm Feore. Fools!
Seriously it’s like Willis used him as a character model or something. He’s perfect.
He feels to straight laced to be the doctor. I give him Sean Connery’s James Bond voice.
Bit of an ass.
Sleeps with really hot chicks.
British.
He was even worked for an organization that fought super villains in another life and had a hot evil chick for an arch enemy! Who he had dated.
Where you aware that Sean Connery has a son Jason when you posted that?
No, no I was not….but that is kinda awesome
He resembles Peter Davison a bit, to me.
Y’know, I do manage to always hear the accent when I read his lines, but I can’t think of anyone specific that I’m hearing.
11th Doctor was the one with the bow tie, too.
“His name…..is DOCTOR WHO? Is he from a long line of “Whos”? Son of Bob and Margaret Whos? A proud tradition of Whos stretching all the way back into antiquity? A member of WHOVILLE, perhaps??”
Whoville as a Gallifreyan colony? That fanfic probably exists somewhere.
Undoubtedly. His chosen title is the Doctor. His true name is a secret told only to one person.
Angus.
There is a picture of The Doctor done in Dr. Seuss style.
(Actually, it turns out, there are MANY;)
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Dr.%20Seuss%20Dr.%20Who&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=dr.%20seuss%20dr.%20who&sc=8-17&sp=-1&sk=
Also, I remember the first appearance of the Daleks, we didn’t even see them yet, but a Dalek voice announces that a party of humans has arrived with “Doctor Who.”
NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!
Never change Mike.
He doesn’t need change. He already has plenty of nickels.
Mike is… awfully nice in the middle panel. Scary.
He doesn’t even look especially angry.
Mike being nice just means that’s the best way for him to hurt you in the long run.
I realize the thought is scary, but it’s possible that Mike… cares about Walky, his childhood friend.
Uh, Mike knew Amber and Ethan in high school. I think the only confirmed childhood friends in the Dumbiverse are Walky/Billie and Sal/Marcie, and if they knew each other as kids then Walky probably would have recognized Mike when they were assigned the same room… unless Mike did something even worse than the churchmouse incident that made him suppress all memory. Do you know something I don’t know?
Hm, I may have mixed something up.
Yeah, they only know each other through being assigned a dorm roomies.
Ah, so he’s just been cosplaying this whole time. That’s…not reassuring.
Jason also mutters: “I don’t even LOOK like !
(insert current Doctor actor’s name’s here)^
Peter Capaldi.
I know who the Doctor-as-of-posting is. I did that for the sake of people who will read this comic (and these comments) five years from now.
Story of my life…
Also, Mike might forget if you give him 2 nickels and your mom’s adress
Time for Mike to help by telling everyone! 😀
The threat of Mike telling may be what gives Walky the impetus to actually do something about it.
*plays Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” on the hacked Muzak*
Jason’s like: “Definitely twins.”
THIS
Appropriate gravatar is appropriate.
Yeeeup.
Gosh Wally, stop losing it and just start studying!
*Walky
He tried!
Really hard!
for, like, a whole 15 minutes!
I genuinely think that he doesn’t know how!
He doesn’t. People who coast through school don’t know how to study or work for their grades.
Regretfully, I know this first-hand.
I was incredibly lucky. In Grade 11 English, the teacher was lecturing away and filling chalk board after chalk board with notes, and then went to start erasing one of the boards to write new stuff, and the class went “Eek! No! We aren’t done copying!”
He was shocked to realize we’d all been busily transcribing his notes verbatim instead of, you know, taking notes. “What do you mean?” He asked, incredulously. “Hasn’t anyone ever taught you to take notes before?”
“Yes; we write down what the teacher does,” we replied.
“No no no, that’s not taking notes; that won’t do you in college at all!” he said, and proceeded to teach us how to take notes from a lecture.
He was a great guy, and a great teacher. One of my favourites, and the only reason I was able to take reasonable notes in college.
I never had a teacher who showed us how to actually take notes.
I in denial much, Walky?
Oh Walky… this will destroy you 🙁
At first I thought that Mike was trying to encourage Walky to get help, then I re-read it and realized that actually he was contemplating potential for being an asshole. Never change Mike, never change.
¿Porqué no los dos?
Bless that commercial for giving us such a useful meme.
Anyone else think that Jason is trying to help Walky because he failed to help Sal. If I can’t help Sal, I can at least help her brother!
ie, the entire dynamic of their sibling relationship.
Walky should cut out the middle man and get help from Sal.
I don’t think Sal is a helping person. She doesn’t seem very patient. Danny might be willing though. Or Joyce. Or literally anyone who is calmer then Sal. Plus being tutored by your sibling tends to be super akward.
Joyce & Walky really get on each other’s nerves right now, so it’s probably not a good idea.
Plus, just cause she’s suddenly getting B’s doesn’t mean she can teach calculus to someone. Hell, I got all A’s for four semesters of Japanese but I sure couldn’t TEACH anyone Japanese, even the basics. Teaching anything is not in my skillset.
Even if that’s the case, even if his reason’s aren’t all together altruistic, it would still have been good for both of them if Walky agreed to the tutoring offer. Jason doesn’t feel so much like a loser, and Walky get’s his grades back up. A win-win situation.
I never said it was a bad thing. He wants to make up for something. Thats a good thing.
In theory, yes, but Sal actively wanted help and Jason was useless. Walky needs tutoring, but it would be much better coming from a competent teacher.
Except Jason would just do the exact same thing he did to Sal and Walky wouldn’t have the tolerance she had for it.
Yeah just because Jason has some self-awareness about it now doesn’t mean he’s not still a terrible teacher.
Sal would probably get pissy about it, too. win win win !
Twenty bucks says this ends with the most awkward slipshine EVER.
I’ll take that bet.
You lose. The Mike/Jason slipshine will be awesome. 😀
That does sound pretty good, and I’m not even into dudes. If it’s that awesome, I don’t think I’ll be too broken up over forking ovee $20.
I’d be behind it just to feast on the tears of all the people going “But… but the guy/guy Slipshine was supposed to be Danny/Ethan! WAAAAAHHHHH!!!!”
Oh,good,gonna need some salt for my food anyway.
Oh Honey, I’m going to be putting a charge on the credit card to join a porn site. There is this one homoerotic comic I absolutely have to see.
Um, I may need to work on my presentation.
Jason is sincerely trying to be a better teacher because Sal made him realize he’s bad at it, yes. He’s trying hard to be nicer and reach out to students who are struggling.
Sadly, he too is being judged by his marks rather than his effort, so he’s stilll failing hard.
I don’t think it has anything to do with Walky being related to Sal. Jason wants to be a good teacher, and the fact that Sal’s grades didn’t improve until after Jason stopped tutoring her really hurt his confidence. Jason trying to help Walky is just his way of proving to himself that he can be a good teacher. Really it could have been any student.
Love it when we get to see Mike’s assholery used for “good.” Say something Walky needs to hear, but don’t be nice about it in the least.
Don’t be ridiculous Walky, that’s no way to take school seriously!
You come to class, read fiction books though all of them, and do great on all the quizzes.
Hey, it worked for me.
Yeah, but once in a while the professor says something worth writing down, and I hate interrupting a good novel. Catnaps, doodling, and creative writing are the way to go for a dull and easy class. Math stopped being easy a while ago, though, which really cut into napping hours.
Poor Walky. I know how you feel, bro.
Jason must be so annoyed when Capaldi talks about the character then.
*mutters under breath ‘the fandom didn’t even really give a crap about it until Tennant gave everyone his personal fan hangup’*
Wow, when Mike is the voice of reason you know you’ve got a problem.
Mike is always the voice of reason. The one you don’t want to hear.
This ^
I know we have the Joyce freak out compilation but there really ought to be a Walky freak out compilation.
The alt text made me uncomfortable because when I read the second panel I immediately thought, “it’s THE Doctor”
Oh, come on, NOBODY noticed the Willis sighting in panel 3?
He *did* go to this college, after all…
I thought he looked familiar…
But where are the glasses?
No, compare it to his avatar – Willis draws himself with black hair, the guy in panel 3 has brown hair even in shadow.
Just to clarify, he’s not necessarily in shadow (the cues are ambiguous without knowing the character’s skin tone), but he would have to be in shadow to have even the remotest possibility of having the same skin tone as Willis.
Maybe it’s Willis in disguise.
We do know that Willis studied at IU.
Apropos of nothing, I just wonder what he was studying and what he would be doing for a career if he were not a successful webcomic author/illustrator and Slipshine pornlord.
Poor Jason. He actually does something right for a change, and this is what he gets for it.
It’s a ‘perfect story’ really. His self-esteem has taken a hit just at the moment when Walky (who needs his help) is transitioning from ‘denial’ to ‘anger’ and is thus going to be aggressive at just the point when Jason is least able to deal with it.
Poor Jason. I just wanna pat his little head
Geez, Walky: you get it together. It’s “the Doctor”.
(Also, Willis on panel 3?)
Did you check the alt-text?
Of course Jason would know. But will Walky listen? No, he won’t.
“Have I mentioned I am an asshole today”
Mike sure spends a lot of effort maintaining his image. Why is it so imortant for him to be that asshole dude to his peers?
Mike is kinda a one note joke isn’t he
He’s a glorious one note symphony.
He’s actively avoiding turning into his parents. Which I can’t say I blame him for, given how uncomfortable it would be to be around them for 8 minutes, let alone 18 years.
I don’t think Mike gives a damn what anyone thinks about him.
I believe he enjoys being the voice of reason, the reason that no one wants to hear.
I love Mike. He is the sort of person the world needs but can’t tolerate.
But are you strong enough to smash the Mike-signal in with a crowbar to make sure people don’t realize he’s helpful, if it comes to that?
“Every organization needs a designated asshole. . . The asshole may not be liked, but he will always be necessary. Because he does what’s needed.” —Fancy Lee
Mike and Carla are cut from the same cloth.
I’m not sure about that.
Carla, I think, gets more of a charge out of being disruptive because she has self-esteem issues leading her to want to be noticed. Mike just is very impatient and dislikes self-deceit and self-centredness; he just goes all out to break people of what he considers bad habits by being as vile to them as he can.
Because he enjoys it.
Mikeperture science ♫
We do what we must ♪
because ♫
we can ♪
For the good of all of us
except the ones who are dead
There’s no way around it, Walky. You may have to face your ultimate foe in final battle: ACTUAL WORK
And so, our brave hero, clad in his jean pajamas, set off to face th greta best, the beast known as Actual Work. He died mounting his horse, as fhe actual work of mounting said horse was too much for him. Twas a sad funeral that day.
Yeah, I dunno where that even came from.
I’d hazard “from your head”
High school is over, Walky. Get with the times and find a tutor.
Also, keep on doing you, Mike.
I find it ironic that your avatar is Sal.
For someone smart enough to have coasted by until now without studying, Walky is incredibly stupid.
Having academic smarts absolutely does not mean that you have any shred of common sense.
I mean, if something works consistently for 12 years, it seems pretty logical that it should keep working. I’m not saying he shouldn’t get his butt some studying/tutoring done, but I definitely get the headspace he’s in.
Wait till he throws a toy at the next girl he’s smitten with.
It worked before.
As lots of people have said, this hits close to home. I started failing calculus just as Walky did, and I would like to say I can handle these things better than Walky is here, but I dropped the class and switched to a major that didn’t require any further math from me. (It’s not the only reason I switched but it’s a lot of it.)
Being the naturally smart kid in high school becomes your whole identity, and so much of your self-worth is wrapped up in it, that when you hit the point when you have to start working, and you don’t know how… Walky’s reaction is not a good one, but I absolutely get why he’s this way.
Welp… he’s fucked now that he’s on Mike’s radar in a major way.
And also, this exact strip is why I think its such a disservice to favor “ease” or the “appearance of ease” as a sign of intelligence rather than effort and curiosity. The second it stops being easy, the meltdown is so much bigger and it takes so much longer for them to get help, because they had so much baggage and ego stored into things being “easy”.
Agreeing from personal experience. In the Engineering department at my college it was that former high-school honor students who dropped like flies while the rest of us just kept grinding on through the course work.
Also Walky has been on Mike’s radar in a major way. He even got pajama jeans out of the deal.
Yep, one patented Walky Melt-Down is definitely on the way!
I don’t know. I’m still holding out hope for Walky and Sal’s tests being switched. Walky already has good study habits (he hangs out with DOROTHY for crying out loud!) and Sal finding out she’s not as smart as she thinks she is would be a great moment to finally knock her ego down a peg. I wouldn’t put it past Willis at this point to spring something like THAT on us.
This test result isn’t his first fail. I really can’t see his and Sal’s tests being switched. She worked her butt off for those grades. With a tutor.
Jason has graded both of their papers and he for sure knows the difference between the two of them.
And between the two siblings: it ain’t Sal with the ego problem.
okay but um, walky doesnt have good study habits at all, hes established like fifty times at this point that he doesnt study at ALL.
and sals not the one who thinks shes smart.
im not sure where you got this interpretation of the scenario.
His problem started when they stopped reviewing what he already knew.
They are into new territory, and he thought the first quiz was a fluke.
He is now in the denial stage. “But… but… honors!…”
Um.
What?
Dude they are getting back their own work, with their own names, handwriting, and answers on them. Your scenario makes zero sense, as well as going against multiple levels of character development.
*Sal* is not the one whose ego needs deflating but your description of them both really makes it sound like you have mixed them up as characters in your head.
I know that you said you want Walky and Sal’s test scores to be switched, (a plot development that makes zero sense. I think both twins would notice that they are getting back the wrong paper, especially if there’s a huge change in grade). But I’m wondering if you have Walky and Sal switched in your head.
Walky has terrible study habits. We saw him on Saturday trying to study, and it was mostly looking at the title page of the textbook. We saw him study with Dorothy once. He clearly wasn’t doing any actual studying at that point in time.
And while Sal’s aloofness may be the result of a bit of an ego, I really don’t see where she thinks she’s super smart or anything. She gets angry at Jason insulting her intelligence, but that’s because he’s calling her stupid for not understanding the material when he explains it, and in general acts super condescending.
I am utterly confused as to why so many people want the tests to be switched. It wouldn’t make any sense for it to not be noticed before hand, and it would actively sabotage character development with Walky, Sal, and Jason. And what would it prove? That after a lot of hard work, Sal is incapable of improving at something?
Sal taking pride in the accomplishments she earned with no help from the tutor who repeatedly belittled her =/= having an ego problem.
Mike actually showing genuine concern??? That’s a first.
It’s sort of a ‘fair warning’ on his part: “I’m going to mock you and torment you over this until you take positive action. I may even keep doing it afterwards, just because of the lulz.”
“And I may tell others. Actually, I WILL tell others. I will tell your sister. And your girlfriend. And that Joyce chick. Hell, I’ll tell Tits McGee, if I ever see her again. Everyone will know, Walky. Everyone. So now will you fucking study so I can stop hearing you fucking whine?”
Hmm,needs a little more Mike: ,,And then I’ll fuck your mother!For a nickel.” There,now that’s better.
“Man, this is awkward.”
“Kinda like the hotel room after prom, huh?”
The only love Mike knows is tough love, which is probably why he liked being dominated by AmaziGirl.
walky, stop pulling a billie.
Walky, do yourself a favor and swallow that pride before it hurt you.
keep digging yourself deeper, walky. at the very least mike will enjoy it.
unless it doesnt count cause he didnt cause it. hm.
He can enjoy it if he makes it worse.
Or he can enjoy making it better. Which he hopefully is.
Both enjoying it and helping make it better.
Only if making it better is painful. Only then.
Uggggh, me all through college. Which is why a good portion of me wants to hit Walky because YOU STUPID DICK GO GET HELP FROM SOMEONE. FOR ONCE SAL IS SOMEONE TO EMULATE. UGH.
Might be projecting my frustration with my former self. Might be.
I believe this is also the root of most people’s feelings about Danny.
Curse you former self for not having the benefit of my experience.
It’s certainly why *I* enjoy making fun of Danny.
I was naturally smart until my stupid physics class. It’s so stupid that I had to clean up my word choice to stupid because I didn’t want to swear on this website.
I understand your pain! Physics was always the class in which I could fail at a test, and did, though thankfully I never failed the actual class.
My head canon of Jason sounding like David Tennant is now confirmed!
I imagine him as more of a Matt Smith voice, myself.
I go back and forth between Tennant or Eccelston for Jason, but am leaning more towards Tennant now
Poor Walky. It’s either this or – gasp – work in the real world! Maybe he and Becky can go job-hunting together?
Job-hunting is not a practical alternative to college. There will never be a time in your life when it is as easy to attend it; once you have kids and a mortgage then getting the time is ridiculously difficult; and dropping your expenses by living in a $500 shithole no longer seems like a viable alternative (and if you have kids it may very well not be for more than just “Ew I don’t wanna live like this” reasons). And without an education in something (engineering seems promising right now) then you end up being a middle-aged person whose only job choices are Walmart Greeter and asking if you want fries with that. Like me.
Nothing over fifty cents over minimum wage is available without an education, unless you are so incredibly lucky as to fall into something with danger pay, and the competition for those jobs is ridiculously fierce and you will need to know someone on the inside to get it.
BEWARE!!! OoooOOOOOoo!
Or the Army?
I really doubt Walky meets the physical requisites, notwithstanding the attitude problems (And ethical ones, Walky isn’t stupid)
This reminds me of my second semester in college. Cause this is exactly what happened my second semester of college. 0.7 GPA cause I thought I was too smart to study. Dumb college kids man.
Guess it’s time to stop drawing aliens, Walky.
No, no. It’s time to start drawing better aliens and start a web comic.
Got to keep a sense of proportion.
And/or become a porn lord.
Wouldn’t that be Joyce?
That was me on my 1st go-round in college…
Jason could be Sherlock Holmes – definitely the same hair as Basil Rathbone.
What, foreground guy in panel 3 doesn’t get a tag?
This seems like the closest Mike has ever come to being genuinely helpful.
Meaning tomorrow he’s going to screw walky over something fierce.
Walky will change his mind about getting help from Jason tomorrow and thank Mike right before he goes to bed. Mike will then super glue a Sal wig to Walky’s head while he sleeps and maybe something for the breasts too. He may also steal all of Walky’s regular clothes (and his own) and leave him with nothing but a Sal outfit.
Hmmm, he’ll probably also change Walky’s alarm so it only goes off right before he’s supposed to meet with Jason so Walky has zero time to counter it.
That sounds like a perfect unavoidable trap!
Either that’s what Mike will do, or Mike needs to get some help from you(as he completely disregards the 4th wall)
I’m looking forwards to seeing what actually does happen. Maybe Mike will do nothing this time while we bite our fingernails 😛
Mike will have career as a Motivational Speaker!
Although, with a few more swears he could be the new Malcolm Tucker:
“Listen you fucking cockwomble, get your fucking whiney ass into fucking gear or I’m fucking dishing the fucking proverbials to your equal fucking obnoxious fucking poindexter girlfriend.”
etc etc
I find it kinda strange that Jason let Walky leave after saying what he said. I get that University teaching staff aren’t there to baby you, so even approaching him about his poor grades is non-standard, but Walky literally explained his whole problem. At the very least Jason could’ve said something like, “This isn’t high school material, if you’re not paying attention or properly catching up in off hours you will continue to fail and it will become increasingly difficult to turn your grades around.”
Given Walky insulted him for trying to help, I’d say that’s the definition of, “Not his problem.”
I wonder if he’ll figure out that Walky is Sal’s brother.
I’ve seen kids like Walky. They coasted through high school with top grades, but fell on their asses in college. Some learned from it, changed their strategy and wound up doing well from then on. Some just crashed and burned and flipped out. Some of the flip-outs still have problems twenty years later.
Walky’s got to stop being an ass.
I understand that Walky is grieving. He’s suffered a loss. He had this image of himself as superhuman and infallible, and that image has now been destroyed. He’s now fluctuating somewhere between the denial and anger stages of grief. Still, that’s not an excuse to act like an ass.
I could give Walky some lessons on failure. I have ample experience with that. I’ve done plenty of failing at life in general, and continue to do so. I do not deal with said failures by lashing out at the messenger. I generally try to improve. In my case, my neurologically atypical brain does not process information in an organized and efficient manner so my efforts to improve are often unsuccessful. Then I just despair at how worthless I am, and how I’ll never be good enough for anything or anyone ever.
Okay, so that latter part may not be particularly constructive. Walky doesn’t share my neurological issues, however, so making a serious attempt to improve would most likely be successful. If he accepted help, and made a real effort to improve his study habits, he would most likely get real results. He just needs to start acting like a grown-up, and take some personal responsibility for his actions.
Just for a little context though, how many days ago was the other quiz? Less than a week, right?
This is Monday, I think. It might even have been last Friday. I know to us, he’s been in denial about this for 6 months, but it’s basically been over the weekend in his time.
I’m guessing Walky is not a ‘Whovian’.
Jason, your hair is unfinished.
I feel your pain Walky. I too used to be able to goof off in class. But everyone hits their limit. When I’m pretty sure has to do with IQ. Most people (~100 IQ) hit their limit around 5th or 6th grade. At that point teachers most teachers teach them how to learn like an adult i.e. studying. For us (130+) IQ people, that kind of learning seems pointless and boring so we casually ignore them and the teachers don’t mind because we can still learn like a child and therefore still ace the tests anyways. The problem is what happens when like me you hit your limit in High School. You’ve failed to learn how to learn and none of the teachers want or know how to teach you how to learn like an adult and think you’re just a slacker. You have to teach yourself how to learn like an adult (a nigh impossible task by the way). It’s the reason I almost failed High School and couldn’t make it through a semester of College.