378

Congrats
Posted on January 13, 2015 by David M Willis

378 thoughts on “Congrats”

  1. Jen Aside

    Come on Walky, don’t let Sal show you up!

    [Saljocky OTT]

    1. Yet_One_More_Idiot

      Looks like Walky’s finally reached that point, academically, where he can no longer just skate by on his natural talent for the subject.

      I remember it well, when I reached that point in Uni too… except for me it was sometime in my second year at least.

      1. Rowen Morland

        And then you have to learn how to be a good student. Or not.

      2. Sean

        He knows the strange redhead is a lesbian. She announced it at the top of her lungs a few moments ago in his presence.
        Now the strange redhead just admitted admiring HIS SISTER.

        I don’t think it’s his grade. I could be wrong.

        1. Yet_One_More_Idiot

          Becky deeply admires Sal; so does Joyce.

          I think maybe, as well as the shock of Sal beating him in a test, Walky has just realised that a potential hot lesbian threesome might be forming in the seats right next to his. And one of those three is his sister, hence the FLOOOMPFH with his hair. 😛

      3. ok then

        Or you can take Lit!

        Wheeeee!

        (Four years, above average grades, zero effort.)

        And it’s STILL more useful than a Bio degree!

      4. The Seeker

        I don’t reach this point yet and i hope that i don’t reach this point for another year. (I’m 3rd year student and next year is my last.) XD

      5. Nezumi

        I read the book, occasionally give it another look before tests, and usually do pretty well. Not as great as I used to, but at least Bs or Cs at the low end. But I’m still in progress because issues.

    2. Charlie Spencer

      You mean academically or follicley?

      1. Jen Aside

        I was gonna say “come on Walky hair” but that sounded weird

    3. Chris

      Is that Sal, Joyce, and Walky?

      I’d usually say ‘Oh God, that’s gross,’ but considering how open minded David Willis seems to be with sexual things, it might actually happen.

      Either that or it’s Sal, Joyce, and Becky.

      1. Drakey

        Um, no. Ew.

      2. Jen Aside

        That would be Saljolky, and BLECHHHHHHH

  2. Anthusiasm

    FLOOMPF

    1. Robert

      Exactly. “Floompf” is the sound your hair makes when your fro comes out. “Fweep” is the sound your penis makes when exposed to cold water. Or when you suddenly discover you’ve been jacking it to your sisters annonymus tumblr for the last year and a half.

      1. Vert

        … that’s oddly specific.

        1. Lel

          Suspiciously specific, yes.

      2. NotFred

        No, it doesn’t.

        1. No Name

          And how would you know, NotFred?

      3. Anthusiasm

        You know, when I first read this strip, I remember thinking “What the hell is a fweep?”

        …I think I could have lived without knowing.

  3. Nono

    Dorothy’s either gonna have a fit or rejoice in being able to introduce Walky to the joys of studying (again).

    1. Taigan

      She’ll do both, while trying to suppress giggles at his hair.

      1. Annie

        Giggles? I was thinking she’d be dying to run her hands through it. I know I would. I love it when my husband’s hair grows out a bit. It makes him look shaggy and not so professional, but when his hair gets any length to it, it gets wavy and curly. Love it!

    2. The_Bionic_Doctor

      I really don’t see Dorothy as a fit kindda girl: she’s shown time and time again how level-headed she is! I can imagine her getting mad for important things, but not blowing up for random (and predictable stuff) such as “people who slack off don’t get good grades”. I just hope Walky does not shut down because of this, feelig unworthy or some dumb thing like that

      1. lightsabermario

        http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/running-2/ Of course Dorothy’s a fit girl! She gets up every morning for jogging!

        1. Sambo

          You sir, are awesome

  4. Idon'tcarenomore

    ah so Mr. I don’t have to study because I am so smart…got a wake up call.

    1. desolation0

      He’s gotten plenty of wake up calls, just keeps hitting Snooze.

    2. brionl

      Yeah, I had that same problem when I hit college calculus. Up until then math was a breeze, and then I had to actually start studying.

      1. Yet_One_More_Idiot

        Yeah, I was the same too – Maths had always just been my subject, I didn’t have to start studying hard at it until sometime around 2nd year at Uni – then I hit partial differential equations, matrix calculus, and several other hurdles I could barely make it over.

        And then the 8 classes I signed up for in my third year made my second year look like a breeze… 😛

        1. Charlie Spencer

          It didn’t take me that long. I hit the wall first semester of freshman year. I came out of high school with great grades, better than average SATs, and not the first clue how to study. It wasn’t just math, it was everything. I wasted two years of my life and an Air Force scholarship at the first school, two more years and my parents’ money at the second, and had -maybe- 40 credit hours to show for it. I then did what I should have done in the first place – joined the National Guard and got a job. Eventually a 2-year IT degree gave me the springboard to a better job with tuition assistance. By taking classes one or two at at time, I was able to develop the study skills I’d never needed in high school. I finally finished my degree when I was about 38.

        2. Kryss LaBryn

          Well done!

        3. Charlie Spencer

          Night school was the key. That and accepting that I was never going to get there if I took a full course load. I could take one or two classes a term and get a degree in six or seven years; or I could try to take full load, fail most of them, get depressed, give up again, and never get a degree.

          The night environment suited me better. Nobody in night classes cares about the athletic team or the social aspects of college, at least no where near as much as traditional day students. Most of the students are older, with lives outside the academic environment, and a better grasp of what they want to do with their personal and professional lives.

        4. Yet_One_More_Idiot

          I finished my Maths degree at the first try, but my second and third years severely hammered at my grades. The second year wasn’t too bad, my studying skills were just lacking but I understand the material. In the third year though, I took classes that sounded interesting but were so far beyond my capabilities even while studying my hardest, I never stood a chance. I literally blew my degree single-handedly, going from a 1st to a lower 2nd in the space of my final year.

          My third year classes included such light reading as:
          Chaos Theory
          Special Relativity & Electromagnetism
          Space-Time Geometry and General Relativity
          Introductory Quantum Theory, and
          Quantum Mechanics II.

          That last one was particularly insane, it re-iterated the entire Intro Quantum Theory course in its first 1 hour lecture. 😛 And it is the only course I scored 0% on. The professor told us that out of 10 students, the likelihood was AT MOST 1 of us passing. Indeed, 1 passed with about 43%, 4 failed, and 5 (including me) scored 0%.

          Still, I made it out of Uni with my degree in the end, and then worked a dead-end job in a betting shop for 3 years, before resigning due to depression. I’ve been unemployed for the 7+ years since. Uni was a waste of time for me, in hindsight; that and I never made the most of it.

          Moral of the story, kids: STUDY YOUR FUCKING ASSES OFF IN SCHOOL!

        5. leadsynth

          Come on now, teacher. If you’re teaching a class where you assume 90% of the students will fail, it seems to me there’s a mismatch between teacher, students and coursework. If the students are THAT lost, they won’t learn much even if they DO learn how to study.

      2. Roborat

        Yup, me two, first year engineering, first midterm was physics, I got 12%, was in shock, until I found out that was actually not far from the class average. I learned to study really quick, as I never had to in high school. My best friend, the smartest guy I have ever known, hit the same wall in third year mechanical engineering, but he ended up quitting.

  5. Opus the Poet

    OK what happened to Walky’s test score?

    1. -Sentinel-

      The reality of college caught up with him.

      1. Kris

        Eh, so he’ll have to try a little. Trying isn’t that hard. His girlfriend’s a study nut genius this problem solves itself.

        1. JessWitt

          So you’re saying Walky and Dorothy should switch brains?

        2. Kris

          I was thinking tutoring, but the brain idea seems less complicated.

        3. Deanatay

          And, easier on Walky’s ego.

        4. K

          If you’re used to skating through high school on natural ability alone, it can be a HUGE challenge to adjust to an environment where you actually have to study. Studying is definitely a skill, and it’s one Walky’s never had to develop.

          This could be a Big Deal. I’ve seen people fail out of their programs because they couldn’t adjust to this exact situation.

        5. Bodmans

          ^ exactly what happened to me…

        6. Crazy Dina

          Almost got myself into trouble with something like that. ALWAYS take teachers that grade the homework.

        7. Nightsbridge

          TRUTH

        8. jpic89

          Not for me. Never studied a day in my life, still passed college Cum Laude. My brain is just a sponge for useless knowledge.

        9. No Name

          LUCKY!!

        10. jpic89

          Yes and no. Like I said, USELESS knowledge, lol.

        11. The_Bionic_Doctor

          Yeah, the question here is whether Walky will have the guts to ask for it or if his “manhood” (the one that depends on how many pairs of shoes he owns) will think it is too humiliating to ask for her help

        12. Atlantic Salmon

          College math teacher here. I see it every year: students who used to ace high school math by doing little to no work, because they were smart and high school math is mostly remembering a few formulas and pattern-matching them to variants of textbook questions.

          Some of them hit a wall in calculus 1, and it’s sad to see: they should have learned how to study during high school, but because they got such good grades doing nothing, they wasted their time and are now in college with no idea how to do the job of a student.

          So, every year, I see smart students fail the first few tests and get more and more anxious as the midterm exam gets closer, but a huge percentage of them do nothing. They don’t come see me during office hours (either because they don’t understand that they should, or because they think it would be some kind of admission of defeat). All my preaching about effective studying habits and not waiting until the last minute and using office hours falls on deaf ears, as they cannot imagine that I am talking to them. Old habits are hard to break, and after all they’ve aced school for 12 years doing nothing, getting fantastic grades and having people tell them they’re exceptional students, so that cannot be the problem, right?

          Fortunately, the shock of failing a midterm exam is enough to get them to realize they need to change things, and most of them succeed.

          Although I never realized how much self-esteem counseling I’d have to do as a math teacher, nor how many tissue boxes I would need to buy.

        13. Killjoy

          Even before the current obsession with testing, testing, testing, too much of the K-12 school system was about being able to repeat things back to the instructor, whether directly, on a test, or in a paper.

          Most schools do very little to teach students how to learn, how to study, how to research, how to write effectively, and most importantly how to think. As long as they produce the replies that the instructor is looking for and do what they’re told, no one cares.

          Of course, when one looks at the history of the American education system and how influential the Prussian system was on its foundations, this becomes a bit more understandable. The Prussian public school system was designed to produce loyal, obedient workers and middle managers.

        14. Kryss LaBryn

          Prussians? Really? Cool!

          I was lucky enough to have a teacher in Grade 11 English who taught us to take notes. He’d write ridiculously copious notes all over the board, and we were all frantically trying to copy down every word, when he started to erase what he’d already written to make room for new notes and pretty much 100% of us went “Augh! No! Wait! We haven’t finished copying them yet!” To which he replied something along the lines of “What? How can you not be done yet? –Wait, you guys aren’t just copying down everything I write up here, are you?”

          He halted the class and took about ten minutes or so to show us how to write NOTES, not just blindly copy down everything on the board. Saved my life in college.

          Grade 11 and all the way through we’d just been told to copy down what the teacher wrote up there verbatim, and that was our “notes”.

        15. Charlie Spencer

          “…they should have learned how to study during high school, but because they got such good grades doing nothing, they wasted their time…”

          In my case, I didn’t know or expect college to require any more effort or skills than I’d needed in high school. As someone else said, when people have been telling you all your life what a great student you are, you have no reason to think otherwise and don’t know you’re wasting time.

          I don’t recall ever taking advantage of an office meeting, although I don’t remember why. Maybe it was because I hit the wall in almost every single class, so overwhelmed by the experience of massive, multiple failures that I had no clue where to start. Being an undecided major with no goals in life didn’t help much. That left guilt over wasted resources as my only incentive, and it’s a lousy motivator.

          For me, the worst was the foreign language requirement. I must have failed French twice and Spanish three times. It was rote memorization, something I hate to this day. I could see no value to it, then or now. When I finally completed my degree almost 20 years later, Spanish 101 and 102 were the last two classes I took, and each was the only class I took that term. I walked around with a deck of homemade flash cards for several months. Thankfully, I only needed two semesters; if four had been required I might still be there. I haven’t used it since, although I’ve retained enough to order a meal, get drunk, and then beat up.

        16. Kaoy

          Calculus I never had an issue with. The wall for me has been and forever will be Physics. No matter how much time I actually spent studying for it, it made no difference. The number of units and amount meaningless, derived numbers you have to go through for a single problem just fill up all of my ‘RAM’ and make it becomes almost impossible for me to sort it all out.

          I suppose the main issue for me is that I am such an heavily Intuitive type, problems that requiring a heavy focus on Sensing make very little sense to me. If I can’t feel the answer or form concrete connections in my mind, I have almost no ability to understand it. So many physics problems hinge on non-intuitive steps that were only discovered by trial and error that I can never tell the difference between a “meaningless derivation” and the answer to the problem.

        17. gwalla

          This was definitely my experience. Deep, deep denial didn’t help either.

      2. Randomguy

        About friggen time.

    2. motorfirebox

      He got… a 97. Lowest score of his life.

      1. otusasio451

        …No. NO.

        NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

    3. Lord Geovanni

      i think the teacher siphoned points form him to give to Sal as repayment for the ehem

  6. otusasio451

    And THAT is why gifted kids often get grades that aren’t indicative of their intelligence.

    1. otusasio451

      It should be noted that 1. I realize that Walky’s not technically a kid chronologically, but he is mentally; and 2. I say the above AS one of those kids of gifted intelligence who didn’t study because he thought he “didn’t have to.”

      1. motorfirebox

        Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup. You end up passively absorbing enough to pass without trying, meaning you never actually learn how to learn.

        1. otusasio451

          Thankfully, I smartened up eventually gained some academic discipline. Walky…Walky’s about to learn the same lesson I did.

        2. Alyssa

          Yuuuup.
          I didn’t hit that wall until taking graduate complex analysis (really hard math) while not actually meeting the prerequisites (one class that was a pre-req I was taking concurrently instead) and the wall was specific to that class, but when I hit it, I REALLY hit it.
          Everyone else kind of assumed the problem was that I was taking too many classes (which, if I was going to need to *study,* then I kind of was…

        3. WeezerLuvr3030

          Nah, we already know how to learn. That’s the easy part. We don’t know how to learn on someone else’s arbitrary schedule.

        4. Charlie Spencer

          Speak for yourself. Even now I can’t say I ‘know how to learn’. For example, I don’t know how to read a textbook effectively. I only know how to read the entire text, word for word, not any of the shortcuts so many others use to quickly, effectively extract the important material.

      2. grantimusmaximus

        Word. Had the same issues myself in high school. In the “gifted” category, but damn, did math kick my ass. I was in the higher levels, but many a sleepless tear-filled night marked my math experiences. Meanwhile, English and History was my jam. Walky’s just gotta manage his time a bit better… and maybe have naked study sessions with Dorothy.

        1. otusasio451

          For me, it was middle school (for various reasons, I didn’t have to worry about high school), and my problem was English. Science and Math were my jam, and I always liked History. English kind of bored me until later on. Honestly, I still have trouble with time management. Got better, though.

      3. Ben

        Yep, I was afraid this was where it was going. I too never had to try until I hit college. And even then it wasn’t learning the subject matter or the tests that gave me trouble, it was the term assignments. I just would not accept those things couldn’t be done on the eve of the due date.

        Even after I recognised the problem, altering my lifestyle to fit those demands proved to be an incredibly difficult task. To this day I’m still awful at it.

    2. Jinxed44

      Wellllll…
      Intelligence as a broad statement is a flawed concept.
      Tests are meant to measure crystallized intelligence (fact-y knowledge) rather than ability to gain it, so technically Walky is getting a proper grade for that form of int.

      But yeah. That’s what happens in college when you assume it’s high-school easy. 😀

      1. A Scientist

        That depends on the test, though you can’t completely decouple learning from the raw fact-y stuff. Critical thinking and creative problem solving, which, to me, are the purist forms of practical intelligence, can still be probed in, for example, a calculus class as long as the concepts addressed on the test are extensions of what has been covered in class, not just limited to the actual material covered.

        I write chemistry tests in that mold. At least one question involves developing a new concept we haven’t explored yet, but which they should be able to deduce from what we have covered, and there is no memorization involved. All constants and equations are provided, but the students need to be able to evaluate problems in the same way a professional would, not just give algorithmic answers.

        But you’re right, tests often can be passed–and even aced–with simple rote-memorized knowledge, which doesn’t really help anyone, in my opinion.

        1. Jinxed44

          I was simplifying above and I agree that problem solving is a huge part of learning. Particularly in the disciplines that focus on it. However, even the thought processes that a student has to gain to be successful have to be learned. Given that those processes have to be altered/grown from problem to problem, particularly from discipline to discipline, the ability to gain the process is a different ability from the ability to use it. Both could be considered intelligence, but only the ability to use the relevant style of thought is tested and that grade is indicative of that. (Examples: 1. Calculus has a different thought process than Chem. 2. Billy is great at building the thought processes to be a good problem solver for chem, Sam is bad at it. Sam puts in way more time practicing problems and gets a higher grade. The test fairly measures the relevant facet of intelligence and only the relevant facet of intelligence.

          I also don’t feel memorized knowledge is the same as crystallized knowledge/int, as you have to be able to keep C-knowledge for a long time for it to really be crystallized. M-knowledge can just drain out of your head after a test/course.

          That said, I feel C-intellegence can be just as necessary as (what I’m gonna call) Practical Intelligence. You wouldn’t trust a doctor that didn’t know his terminology/biology, or one that couldn’t solve problems, and a chemist who doesn’t know the rules for carbon can’t understand O-chem processes.

          That was super long but I love thinking about this stuff. Sorry. ^^

    3. A Scientist

      High school should be harder. So should grade school. Or at the very least, the option should be there for the students who aren’t being challenged.

      I would have loved to have been engaged in high school. I’m fortunate to have gone to a college which invoked learner-centered course structure so I was never given a chance to even consider coasting. Otherwise, I might have really struggled in college, because I didn’t do *anything* in high school.

      1. Jinxed44

        Did your High School have AP courses?
        They are optional High School courses that have a test at the end for college credit.
        AP courses were the first things to make me even consider studying. It was senior year of HS, but it was better than nothing.

        1. Kaoy

          AP classes really aren’t anything special. For the most part, they are college level content on a high school level.

        2. Kaoy

          AP classes really aren’t anything special. For the most part, they are college level content on a high school level.

      2. Jinxed44

        Oh and a good gifted program can help.
        Though good gifted programs are rare in public school.

        1. A Scientist

          We had two AP courses, and I took both, and both were easy. College, though, was really freaking hard. I labored through it. Never failed a class, but got darned close, and often in classes I thought I should have done well in, or in which I thought I understood the material but clearly didn’t.

          I was grossly unprepared for college, and my high school was actually pretty good, relatively speaking. I was prepared for technical writing, though, more so than just about everyone else (definitely more so than my current students). But I was not prepared to handle the conceptual rigors of college level material, especially as I got to upper level classes, squeaking by in most of them.

        2. Jinxed44

          Yeah, I had two AP courses too, and I’m really lucky that one of them was made difficult by a good instructor. A lot of students at my college seemed to have 20 or more AP credits, so hopefully the chance of that happening for others is on the rise.

        3. Alyssa

          My high school had a lot. I coasted them, too. (And then I walked into college with 66 credits. Um??)
          But I was able to coast most of college so meh.

        4. brionl

          I took AP Trig in high school. Along with half the Varsity cheerleaders. Sadly, none of them asked me for help with their homework.

        5. Kaoy

          In my experience, the “Pudding Brained” Cheerleader stereotype is no true for the gander than 99% of stereotypes. The “stuck up” stereotype seems to hold water.

          I feel they face a similar issue that the lazy smarties do, in that cheerleaders often coast through compulsory education without developing genuine social skills because they never had to; the people who “mattered” liked them by default.

      3. otusasio451

        As a high school teacher, I am proud to say that my classes are not easy. Apparently, I have some of the hardest tests in the school. Granted, it’s a ridiculously small school, but I’ll take it!

  7. Doctor_Who

    Jason’s math tests should be patented and sold as a hair product. Juust look how much it volumizes!

    1. Jen Aside

      only among the bad at math

      1. Kaoy

        That’s a much better “works as intended” percentage than any other hair care product can boast.

      2. Kaoy

        That’s a much better “works as intended” percentage than any other hair care product can boast.

    2. -Sentinel-

      I have curly hair and I hate it. Is there a math test that can straighten my hair?

      1. Nono

        If AttentionfromParents= 0
        Then ConvenienceStore = Go
        Confirm GetStabbedbyTwinkieHungryGirl
        Confirm RebelAgainstParents, StraightenHairInRebellion
        >_

        1. poofdepoof

          Straightening hair is actually Sal’s way of trying to please her parents, not rebel.

      2. Portmanteaust

        Sal’s maths test might work for you.

  8. Reflex76

    “FWEEP”?

    1. CptNerd

      His hair is shorter than Sal’s, so the pitch is higher. Her hair is long so she has a bass “fwoomp”. It’s physics, I say!

      1. stevecharb

        Also, Walky’s hair seems to have contracted, whereas Sal’s expanded.

  9. beege

    Walky’s adventures in maturity look to be entering an exciting new phase.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      …and nothing matures like cheese. 😀

  10. Kris

    Well it’s nice to see they have some similarities, y’know besides the identical d.n.a.

    1. RAZ

      technically, they don’t share the same DNA. only identical twin does

      1. Kris

        Nooooooo ignorance is my folly!

        1. Gangler

          That’s what Walky said, amirite?

    2. Jinxed44

      Well I mean… an average of 50% is identical between siblings right?
      Not what Kris meant maybe but the statement is true-ish.

      1. RAZ

        Yes, they are similar. but different enough to be identified as different people. but I agree with the spirit of the statement.

        1. Jinxed44

          Not to go on bout this, but this is nerd cool.
          Even identical twins don’t have perfectly identical DNA.
          The machinery transcribing the copy strand is intentionally imperfect, so out of the billions of amino-acids transcribed, a few are always uniquely different from your family (or even the whole human race!)
          …
          Cough
          …
          K bye.

      2. Plasma Mongoose

        Any two full non-identical siblings most likely share between 6-18 of the exact same chromosomes.

        1. Jinxed44

          That seems odd.
          I was led to believe splicing occurred more frequently than that in the zygote…

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          I remember being told that getting a particular chromosome was 50/50 and the DNA of each ova and sperm is like tossing a coin 23 times.

        3. Jinxed44

          Yeah, but there is actually another process going on at gamete creation called splicing!
          Basically, the 2 chromosomes you have in your cells get cut, switched, and sewn back together a few times before they get pulled apart to make a single chromosome sperm or egg

          So if you have 2 Chromosome 007, one from your Mom an one from Pop:
          ABCD
          ZXYV

          Splicing happens
          ABYV
          ZXCD

          And then you end up with two chromosomes that are a mix up of Mom an Pops, either of which can end up in your kid. And, since the chromosomes can be switched at almost any point on the chromosomes (multiple times or not at all), it would be really hard to get the same chroms twice in a row.

          (This is a factor in gametes not the zygote. Total mis-information on my part mate, sorry.)

        4. Jinxed44

          Ah, I’m talking about the 2 similar chromosomes you have for each chromosome type, not all chromosomes in general.

        5. No Name

          Although there are cases where chromosomes are mis-spliced, with part of one chromosome attaching to another. That is one source of mutation.

        6. tyersome

          [pedant] Actually the correct term is recombination, splicing in a biological context is what happens to transcripts (RNA) to remove the introns resulting in the mature mRNA. This is what gets translated to produce protein. [/pedant]

          But other than the name Jinxed44 has got the gist of it.

        7. Jinxed44

          Oh shiznit!
          You are right!
          Thanks for the correction!

        8. NotFred

          It is like tossing a coin a few hundreds of thousands times 🙂
          Evolution 101

    3. dreadedseamonster

      Boy/girl twins are always fraternal twins. If they were identical twins and had the same genetics they’d have to be the same sex, so they’re as genetically different as any other pair of siblings.

      1. PedanticWebcomicsJunkie

        As long as both twins are cis, boy/girl twins are always fraternal. Or I guess if they’re both trans. But you can get identical twins where one turns out to be the other gender, despite being born with the same tackle.

  11. Plasma Mongoose

    At least Walky’s hair didn’t claim any lives.

    1. Doctor_Who

      The students sitting on either side of Sal still haven’t been found.

    2. Cephalo the Pod

      Now I’m imagining Sal hiding knives in her hair, setting them up to spring out at enemies with the right trigger.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        I was thinking more on the lines of this: http://plasma-mongoose.tumblr.com/tagged/Cthulhu

        1. Kryss LaBryn

          Lol.

  12. Tunaro

    Huh. So it’s genetic.

    1. begbert2

      The retroactive implication is that they both have naturally curly hair but their parents had Walky’s hair (and only Walky’s hair) straightened when he was a young child.

      1. tyersome

        That can be done semi-permanently? Or in this case a semipermanent anti-perm …

      2. Tenn

        Young Walky fell into a cauldron full of hair-straightening potion.

  13. Lilac

    “fweep” best sound effect ever

  14. Spencer

    Shit, this will be a rude wake up call for Walky.

    1. StClair

      Early college grades often are, for gifted slackers.

      … not that I’d know anything about that.

      1. Spencer

        I’d never call myself gifted, but I got majorly depressed by how bad my grades were in my first year of college.

        Course now that I’m back and doing CPA for a year now, I’d take the consistent Cs. >_>

  15. newllend

    Guess someones going to haft to saduce the Math teacher.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Becky? But he’s already resisting one redhead already.

      1. -Sentinel-

        Speaking of redheads, who’s your avatar?

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          Anna from Frozen.

        2. -Sentinel-

          Oh, nice. Who’s the artist?

        3. Plasma Mongoose

          I honestly have no idea, I got it from a ‘booru.

        4. newllend

          Now I see it, I couldn’t guess at first.

  16. Aubri

    Come on Mike, give us the lowdown. I see you sitting in the perfect spot.

  17. Agera

    aww im rocking the same hairstyle but need to actually do something with my hair

  18. Knifleman

    What’s that supposed to mean, Becky?

    1. Halloween Jack

      It means that the Lesbian of the Year has a big ol’ crush on our gal Sal and doesn’t want her to be too unattainable, aside from the whole her being straight AFAWK thing. Mark my words, Becky/Sal–it’s on like Donkey Kong with a beer bong and a double dong.

  19. Mkvenner

    I smell foul play.

    1. lipstick_suckerpunch

      I was thinking the same thing.

  20. Plasma Mongoose

    Why is Becky wanting Sal to be dumb??

    1. Kelly

      She’s too awesome.

    2. Raine

      Cause Sal’s perfect. Beautiful, strong, cool, owns a bike. I mean Joyce must have gushed about Sal off screen like crazy. And now she’s smart too?

      Joyce is more likely to be between Sal’s legs than her own.

      1. -Sentinel-

        Nah, Joyce only wants to brush Sal’s hair. While they’re both riding Sal’s motorcycle.

        1. StClair

          which is not a euphemism or sublimating anything, nope.

        2. Raine

          emphasized only by good girl joyce avatar

        3. neeks

          This would be the perfect place for the “exactly what you said without the sarcasm” Joyce panel if only we could post images in replies. Oh well!

      2. Amazi-Stool

        Off screen?

    3. newllend

      Maybe she’s looking for flaws in order to count Sal in her league because she wants to hit that or maybe she gives into stereotypes to easily

    4. timemonkey

      Because how can Becky compete with someone so awesome? Every superior woman pushes Becky farther and farther away from her fantasy of being with Joyce. And she hasn’t even met Dorothy yet.

  21. Just Me

    Don’t understand why Becky was hoping Sal would be dumb.

    1. Thomas64

      All Becky knows about Sal so far is that she’s bad-ass, as in “bad,” as in “flouting the rules at every opportunity.”
      Conventional wisdom is that someone like Sal should be paying a heavy price for their freedom. Because justice, or something. Especially if you’ve been brainwashed with the idea of justice handed down from up on high.
      Of course Becky doesn’t know that Sal did, in fact, have major problems with this class earlier on, and that she has actually been working hard, and probably really deserves the good grade she just got.

      1. Bagge

        She also knows that Joyce thinks Sal is the coolest thing ever. *singsong voice* Someone is jeeeelous.

  22. Boomwolf

    Oh no not fweep. Fweep is never good.

    1. Cybersnark

      Fweep?

  23. Beachfox

    I agree with the alt-text, that’s a good look for you, Walkie!

  24. Kris

    I think the real story here is one of hard work and dedication. Sal got and 83 people that doesn’t just happen.

  25. Steve

    Cause she’s hot in every other way. Nobody could be that perfect, in Becky’s mind.

  26. Kk

    Huh. So that’s what Walky looks like with natural hair.
    On another note, seems someone’s finally finding out college ain’t as easy as high school

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Does this mean that Walky also secretly straightens his own hair like Sal?

      1. Hoboturtle

        Actually ya, this is a good question. Like probably just for the gag but wasn’t Sal’s whole thing about Walky being whiter then her about how curly her hair was?

      2. Kinoko

        I don’t think Walky’s the type to bother straightening his hair out. Most likely it settles straight when it’s long enough to have some weight to it (he said it’s curlier when short), and humidity will froof it out again.

        1. No Name

          Or, you know, bad grades.

        2. neeks

          His temperature rises so quickly from the shock that he sweats and it evaporates immediately, thus raising the local humidity just enough to fweep his hair. Science!

  27. Yotomoe

    I figured it out. Dorothy is only going out with Walky to leech his brain power out of his head so she can become the ultimate president.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Nah, she just fucked his brains out. 😀

      1. newllend

        Witch is how she does it, that’s her power she absorbs brain power through sex. How do you think Danny got so stupid?

        1. Gangler

          That was an actual Seinfeld episode. George briefly became a genius for so long as he had the willpower to maintain a celibate lifestyle, while his girlfriend almost failed out of lawschool because she couldn’t steal his intelligence through sex.

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          If it was featured on Seinfeld, then it must be true. 😀

        3. Zaidyer

          I saw that Seinfeld!

          And so I got grounded.

        4. takashid

          how is danny stupid?

        5. newllend

          Have you not seen the rest of this comic ?

        6. Gangler

          He does seem to do pretty well in school. Has a solid grasp on math. Like Amber he seems to be studied a few courses beyond where he is in computer sciences, though he’s probably not quite on her level. His interactions with Sal seem to indicate that he does quite well in concrete subject matters where the rules are firm and explicit.

          It’s likely that many of his troubles in his personal life draw back to that same need for an explicitly structured environment. An inability to make the intuitive leap to figure out rules, facts, and boundaries when life doesn’t break down into his consistent algorithms. Falling short when human relationships require him to be more artist than scientist.

          He could probably benefit from a romantic partner who engages in more open communication than he’s been able to rely on so far.

        7. Gangler

          Though then again, if secrets keep being unlocked through orgasm his relationship woes may be behind him where Amber is concerned. Problem solved.

        8. neeks

          I kind of want to make a strap-on joke in reply to that. Is it just me?

        9. Amazi-Stool

          Even more so his interactions with Sal are among the reasons that Sal got a better grade!

  28. Rodavure

    I’m going to assume that Walky only did bad because he missed the class to try to find Billy. Otherwise, I call BS on him doing poorly.

    1. John

      They have Calc MWF. The quiz they’re getting back today would have been on Wednesday, and probably at least in part covering material from Monday… which was the day Walky skipped class because Dorothy didn’t set her alarm after they banged the first time.

    2. Lone Wolf

      Yeah, this is my take on the situation. He’s spent the last couple of days before Becky showed up freaking out over Billie (first when she suddenly appeared in his bed one morning, then when she started saying stuff like how she wasn’t the best at stuff, and then she just basically straight up disappeared and they couldn’t get in touch with her).

  29. Raine

    …Uhm. Maybe I’m over thinking this but it also kinda feels a bit racist. I mean when they feel particularly dumb their hair expands out of their straight whiteness and becomes puffy and curly in a way that people stereotype most black hair to be like?

    Especially since Walky doesn’t seem to straighten his hair like Sal does, especially since he doesn’t care much if at all about his appearance, showing there’s been no indication that his hair should do that in the first place.

    I dunno. Overthinking this?

    1. David M Willis

      All I can say that in the long run, Walky not mirroring his sister’s visual gag would have been more problematic. It has more to do with being surprised.

      1. Raine

        You tread a thin blurred line between cartoon tropes and social societal problems.

        After things like Becky’s situations it’s hard to unblur those lines. xD

        1. Jinxed44

          In Willis’ defense my inner evil stereotyping monster stereotypes black hair as way more curly. Course, I’ve got hair like Walky and am usually just lighter than him skin-wise, and have been implied to be part black by strangers. So that may not count for much?

    2. sps48

      Racism is everywhere and we must be on constant lookout for anything that might be it!

      1. David M Willis

        What you said exactly but without being sarcastic?

        1. -Sentinel-

          ^ this.

        2. Hotsauce

          I am growing to love that sentence

      2. Aris Katsaris

        Racism is the primary sin and primary designated enemy of the current western world’s progressive ideology, like heresy was in the middle ages, and communism was in McCarthy-era America. So, yeah, careful about those heretical/communist/racist ideas/attitudes/behaviors.

        Not that heresy/communism/racism haven’t been big problems, but as always the way one goes about combatting things *sometimes* becomes a bigger problem than the things themselves.

        1. Gangler

          When cops are shooting down unarmed racists in the street maybe you’ll have a better case there.

        2. WaytoomanyUIDs

          …….OK………..
          backs away slowly

        3. 3oranges

          I’m pretty sure most heretics in the middle ages didn’t hurt too much, not compared to the people who went after them.

          I’m pretty sure most communists in the McCarthy era didn’t hurt too much, not too many in America anyway, and not compared to the people who went after them.

          I’m pretty sure most people opposing racism today aren’t actually hurting anyone, not compared to racists and subtle effects from racism.

          But sure, ignore that and it’s just the same.

      3. Killjoy

        When you’re constantly on the lookout for something, you’re certain to find it…

    3. AgentKeen

      My second reaction to this was similar, as the only time we’ve seen it happen to Sal or Walky is in relation to bad grades (assuming that’s what Walky is seeing, which it probably is).

      But, it’s also kinda traditional ‘surprise’ cartoon gag, even with white characters.

      1. AgentKeen

        And I should say my reaction was more ‘oh, I could see why that might be viewed as problematic, though I’m sure the intention is mirroring a previous visual cue’.

    4. RAZ

      this one is either a brick joke, a running gag or a call back.

    5. Zagreus

      Yeah, I see what you mean. I also have beef with the twins’ hair, though it’s more along the lines of “I’m identifying them as half black now, so they’re REALLY going to be black! Did you consider their long, straight hair that has been a mainstay for almost two decades now to be better looking than the strange curly hair which has mostly shown up as a gag, especially considering how little the twins’ exact ethnicity has EVER been discussed? YOU RACIST BASTARDS.” It feels oddly tone-deaf and ill-advised for Willis, but the comments section laps it up anyway just because SOMEBODY is finally talking about the Good Hair phenomenon. Not that the issue doesn’t deserve attention, but still.

      1. Killjoy

        In Roomies and It’s Walky!, I never thought about race when it came to Walky and Sal, they were just Walky and Sal, two interesting characters in an ongoing story.

        It wasn’t until DoA that race became “a thing” with them, unless there’s something hidden in the “bonus” comics or whatever.

    6. timemonkey

      It’s hard to tell when you’re overthinking something. For example I spent several hours yesterday trying to figure out if the fact that Willis seems to punish his most badass women by having them be either objectified or mentally unstable. At first I thought yes, and it was a sign of his growth as a writer that he’d stopped that by the time of Shortpacked, but then I realised that Amber was the biggest badass in DOA and she’s also the craziest by far. But Amber is a character crossed over from a different comic who had those issues there as well and so it was natural she’d have them here. It’s a difficult thing to gage.

      1. Jinxed44

        Well… I think badass women tend to be either objectified or portrayed as mentally unstable in society itself. I also feel that being badass sometimes is helped (or caused) by being a little unstable in certain ways.

        I don’t fault Willis as a writer for portraying either of those aspects effectively, and have never (or rarely) felt pushed to have the same opinions of the characters that the setting forces upon the characters.
        At least that’s how it appears to me.

      2. Allen Tor

        Amber is a normal human, with no special powers to speak of, who dresses up in a costume and beats up criminals. There was no way this character could work in a realistic setting without being crazy.

    7. Plasma Mongoose

      Basically DoA is like the real world except that girls who play WoW clones all day can still have leet squirrel-like athletic powers and hair can move under its own power.

      1. Gangler

        To be fair, Amber only seemed to spend an excessive amount of time playng WoW during a particular episode of depression where she was trying to avoid human contact.

        This was also the period of time when she’d be too caught up in phone games to engage to the people around her during social outings.

        A normal day for her seems to have significantly more time reserved for kicking ass as Amazigirl than killing spiders as her…. I believe it was a Blood Elf Paladin?

        1. Eric Burns-White

          I assumed Amber’s monofocus on WoW was actually her version of “mild manner reporter.” Oh, of course Amber couldn’t be Amazigirl! Why, she never left her room or got any exercise! How could she possibly be Amazigirl?”

        2. Gangler

          That makes a lot of sense. Though it makes me wonder if she does everything related to personal fitness as Amazigirl. Like if she wants to go out for a morning jog does she have to put on the costume so nobody will know Amber does that sort of thing? She’s not actively attending martial arts classes anymore, but how does she handle it if she decides she wants to start sparring again?

        3. Yet Another Laura H.

          Oh,dear. If she’s not actively attending martial arts classes, how is she going to explain the constant bruises? Her RA isn’t going to be on sex repair holiday forever…

        4. neeks

          She jogs everywhere while on patrol and wears long sleeves to cover any bruises? Either that or she excuses them away as bruising easily as caused by malnourishment, which is believable for a college shut in.

          That actually happened to me when I first started at my current job in a warehouse, my arms were practically Dalmatian but no one in my personal life was beating me or anything. I just hadn’t been eating properly because I couldn’t afford food before I started working so when I knocked my arm against a pushcart or something at work, it bruised later.

          It freaked people out a little but I thought it was kind of funny, although I’m sure I would have felt differently about it if I ever had been abused physically as a child.

        5. Jinxed44

          That really is the perfected alibi.
          I don’t think it was the case for the other universe, but it totally could be here.

          And I think she gets aerobic exercise at night, and you can do weight/strength training pretty decently in a dorm sized space.

    8. Superdud

      I’m pretty sure Willis wouldn’t mean it that way, but yeah, this bothered me too. So is Walky’s hair naturally straight or not? >.>

      1. The_Bionic_Doctor

        To me it seems pretty clear from the comic that Walky’s hair is slightly straighter than Sal’s so that it usually falls straight when long enough, but can wildly “FOMP” under shock, just like his sister’s, for comical purposes. My grandma has hair a little like this (except for the FOMPing thing though, unfortunately): mostly straight without much effort, but becomes a glorious mane when it rains. My only surprise, in retrospect, is that Walky’s hair didn’t FOMP when he ran under the rain with Dotty

      2. Amazi-Stool

        “That’s what her hair actually looks like, before she murders the curls outta it.
        Her hair looks more like our dad’s, while mine looks more like our mom’s, though my hair’s more obviously kinky when it’s really short.”

    9. feministicman

      As a person of color born with coarse hair, I didn’t associate Walky’s sudden “poofing out” his hair (heheheh, “poofing out”) from his low scores with his blackness. I just thought of it being a hyperbolic expression of his shock (rule of funny). It’s especially hyperbolic since Walky has naturally straight hair.

      Having said that, I want to state the following: it’s best to let us people of color speak for ourselves. White people usually lack so much experience of being subjected to racism (an understatement I know) that there are times when they point something out ambiguous that most people of color didn’t have a problem with in the first place.

      Another reason: we’re perfectly capable of speaking for ourselves. We appreciate your intentions, but we don’t need a white knight to rescue us.

  30. AgentKeen

    Yeah, figured this was gonna happen sooner or later.

  31. Arikel

    $5 says they mixed up their tests since they’ve got the same last name

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      I would have thought the handwriting would give it away.

  32. JessWitt

    I was perusing the cast page a while back and noted Walky’s grades came easily to him. I figured that shoe would fall off soon – and fall it did. Right into Ruth’s hallway.

    1. Killjoy

      It was the predictable storyline, wasn’t it?

      Oh well.

  33. quix

    I remember that happening to me in college. I floated through high school with virtually no effort and was one of the top people in my class. Then college hit and the need to actually study and prepare for projects knocked me for a loop at first.

    Still think college was/is a mistake for a lot of people like me and Walky, that’s a lot of money spent without a clear plan.

    1. Matt

      The job market is such these days though that a degree in something is practically a necessity for a decent paying gig.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        It’s kinda sad that you are practically forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars in student loans just so HR departments for entry-level jobs don’t automatically toss your resume in the reject pile.

        1. Thomas64

          I think it’s kinda sad that “too many people for too few jobs” turns into this horrible competition of who-is-the-most-overqualified, instead of “if we would work shorter hours, everyone could do their share.”

        2. Nightsbridge

          Wages gotta increase first for that to work, and they’re not increasing.

        3. Thomas64

          Do I detect signs of market worship?
          It is possible to improve the lives of workers, and at the same time create more jobs. It’s been done before.
          http://www.dol.gov/dol/aboutdol/history/flsa1938.htm
          Of course one requirement is that a sufficient number of people stop voting for the party whose stated objective is to make life as miserable as possible for those at the bottom…

        4. Killjoy

          Or *both* parties determined to make things as miserable as possible…

    2. Dragon

      Nice avatar! 🙂

      1. Opus the Poet

        It appears to be from the Dana Simpson comic “Heavenly Nostrils”. This was the same artist that did “Ozy and Millie” so I have zero idea where the title came from. Anyway one of the maine (mane?) characters is a unicorn.

        1. No Name

          The name of the comic is the last name of the unicorn. She has the name because she sneezes glitter or something. Her sister is “Horrible Nostrils” and she sneezes spiders. And the fact that I know all this just too depressing.

    3. Andrea

      been there, it was a surprise for me and many others

    4. Superdud

      Go study in Europe. A lot of universities are incredibly cheap there, compared to the US.

  34. grantimusmaximus

    Did…did Walky just suddenly get blacker via hair frizz?

    1. Suitora

      He got a bad grade. That’s what Sal’s hair did when she did.

      Basically, he’s learning that he has to make an effort in college, and it’s not like high school where he could breeze through it and make an A.

      1. grantimusmaximus

        Ah. Figured it out after reading above comments, but thanks for the recap!

    2. The_Bionic_Doctor

      For some reason, I think Dotty will think it’s pretty good-looking – although still provide support if he wants to improve his grades… did I mention this look makes Walky’s caramel eve more appealing?

    3. Yet Another Laura H.

      I know there is absolutely no physical basis for this, but in my heart, I just feel like hair frizzes up when you’re stressed. Deep in the bowels of my brain, this is the picture they put next to “frazzled” in the brainbowel dictionary.

      1. Kryss LaBryn

        Well, to be fair, I find that even with my hair in a braid or a bun the more I touch it or fiddle with it the more strands come loose (I don’t use hair spray usually) and the more “frazzled” I look. And I suspect the more stressed one is, the more one touches or fiddles with one’s hair, so it’s a reasonable association to make (it’s one I make too).

        1. Yet Another Laura H.

          I’m torn between saying, “You’re too kind,” and “You UNDERSTAND.” Aside from that, for one reason or another, all the jobs I’ve had, for one reason or another don’t allow for gratuitous potty breaks when things hit the fan, from Christmas retail to dispatch to down-to-the-wire tax accounting. (Why yes, I have a humanities degree from a liberal arts college. How did you guess?) And no matter how tightly you skin back that bun, with flawless hair comes great responsibility. Or need for occasional maintenance, whichever.

  35. Varius

    Why is Joyce’s paper pink?

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      She did so well in the test that she won herself a new car?

    2. Paul

      While it is not necessarily common, in some cases the quiz is a set of questions projected on the overhead and everyone uses their own paper. Joyce being Joyce has the cutesiest school supplies imaginable.

    3. segnosaur

      Perhaps they didn’t actually use an actual printed test (with the questions being given on a uniform paper to every student), but wrote the questions on the blackboard (with every student writing the answers on their own supplied paper.)

      Or maybe its just a lighting trick (she could be right under one of the room’s floodlights, or there is a reflection off of Becky’s shirt.)

  36. Matt

    I know Walky’s hair frizzed just because he was surprised, but I choose to believe that the Walkerton twins just share some kind of inverse luck/happiness so that for one to prosper, the other must be unhappy. Since Sal is doing well, Walky’s life must take a dive.

  37. Dragon

    Really good grades….. or really bad grades? I’m guessing really bad. Buuuut, keep in mind that if you’re going to bomb a test/unit, you generally know you’re screwed at least a few days or a week in advance. At least, that’s my experience.

    1. Eric Burns-White

      I went to high school who took tests basically by means of the Force. He barely paid attention in class and only sort of glanced through the books, and then aced everything he put his hand to.

      And then went on Academic Suspension his Freshman Year of college, because the Force abandoned him to get drunk with the Shining. The first few times he bombed tests or papers, he was convinced he’d gotten A’s right up until he got the paper back.

      1. No Name

        I believe you meant “I went to high school with a kid who took tests”
        To which I must say, “Uh huh, sure, does he also where a magnificent beard now?”

  38. Jules

    Okay, Walky. You know what you have to do now.

    1. ninja_jesus

      Make-out with Jason!

      1. Hoboturtle

        Quickly! Its the only way.

      2. neeks

        Get Danny to tutor you! The potential for awkwardness is infinite! Or it would be if Danny hadn’t been moving on with amber/amazigirl

        “So…is Dorothy still ticklish on the back of her thighs?”
        “I don’t know, but I’ll find out tonight?”

        Or even better, Danny keeps tutoring Sal and she and walky study together so they both benefit from his help.

  39. Ailorn

    He is much cuter like that!

  40. Paul

    Becky is turning into a real jerk.

    1. Hoboturtle

      Nah, shes just jealous of Joyce’s obvious attraction to her.

    2. Spencer

      It probably says something about me that whenever she says something seemingly rude, I instantly relate to the times I try to be irreverent and funny, and not look like a total creep. Yet that’s usually what happens.

    3. Jinxed44

      She’s just really bad at compliments.
      Or really really good at making em backwards.

    4. Starling000

      Yeah but her cleavage is better than mine, sooo….

    5. Kryss LaBryn

      She basically just said she was perfect AND smart so I don’t see how she’s being a jerk here…

  41. timemonkey

    Becky, you say that kind of shit in your head, not outloud.

  42. anonymsly

    Good for you, Sal! A solid good grade in a class you were previously failing, better even than your previous passing/good grade. Hard work and persistence continues to pay off! That’s definitely worth a great smile.

    (Also good for Danny, in a lesser/contributory way. Sal’s grades improved when he started tutoring her IIRC, and now she is Rainbow Road-ing calculus, comparatively speaking.)

    1. takashid

      oh man, i completely forgot Danny has been helping Sal with her work for this class with so much else going on. I’m just waiting for the to explode somehow, most predictably with Amber finding out

  43. Vilja

    So Walky’s hair has been smooth all this time because his state of relaxation is so great it even relaxes his hair?

  44. Gangler

    It’s a visual gag, but last time it had lasting effects. Sal’s hair was curly for days afterward until she decided to go out and straighten it.

    What if Walky’s never had to straighten his hair before and he has to ask Sal where she gets that done?

    What if Walky’s never had to live with curly hair before and this turns into a “Walk a day in my shoes” situation?

    1. Gangler

      Oh, what if Walky completely ruins his hair in an attempt to straighten it on his own using one of Dorothy’s clothing irons or something?

      Then he and Sal bond over it as she salvages what she can out of it all.

      1. takashid

        These are all great ideas. Short term, i want to see what Dorothy’s reaction is. i have a feeling she will like this hair. Hey, maybe Walky will think its fine and leave his hair like this and then a few days later “huh why are people acting more racist towards me/why is mom so upset about my hair?”

        1. Gangler

          Oh, what if Dorothy starts treading into weird fetishization territory? Like the cute little caramel jokes start going a step too far and Walky’s like “Okay, I’m uncomfortable now.”

  45. talantus

    hehey! who’s that in the background in panel 4? ^-^

  46. ChocolateRat

    Sal is so cute here

  47. Dorje Sylas

    The dangers of being “smart”, eventually you stop being “smart enough” and suddenly find that you never developed the skills to actually learn.

    It is also hard to convince smart children of this fact, because they’re smart and are “getting it all” … until suddenly they don’t.

    1. Eukie

      The trick lies in presenting smart children with challenges fit to their level, just as with their peers. This forces them to learn how to to study properly.

      This is somewhat resource-intensive, and teachers can easily torpedo the effort. My maths teachers demanded that I do all the boring stuff I already knew in addition to the new challenging stuff I didn’t know, which was a quick way to make me resent having to learn the new stuff because it meant more work.

  48. LS

    DoA is always kind of an emotional ride. But feeling proud of Sal is the biggest emotion I’ve felt in awhile.

    And Walky…I know that experience. You live your whole life never having to try to excel in academics. And then you reach the point where you do need to try, but you don’t know how to try. I didn’t even know how to ask people to help me try. I spiraled out of control. It was a bad time.

    1. Bagge

      I agree. It’s wonderfully heart warming to see her being proud of what she has accomplished.

  49. Chaz

    So now Walky has to try to seduce Jason to improve his grades, too!

    … Right?

    1. Gangler

      Seducing Jason yielded pretty poor results.

      Getting confused for Danny’s girlfriend however worked wonders.

      He’s gonna have to make an Amazigirl costume.

      1. Jinxed44

        Oh My.
        Danny is bi now.
        This may just be confusing enough to work.

      2. Jinxed44

        “Hello. I look like the girl you thought was your girlfriend dressed up as your girlfriend but with the abs of the man of your literal dreams.”

        “How did you know– “Shh. Teach me math.”

        “… Alright.”

  50. Lawzlo

    Did Walky just fart so hard it messed up his hair?

  51. The Wizard

    -Plays the black card-

    Finally walky, you’re one of us!

    lmao.

  52. GoogerGeiger

    I guess Walky has to have sex with the TA now.

    1. Amazi-Stool

      Having sex with the TA not leading to better grades was exactly the reason that led to Sal’s hair explosion.

      1. xKiv

        That means he has to do it to prevent a time paradox.

  53. David D. Davidson

    No, not a Bad Grade Walky arc! I can’t handle more REALITY!

  54. Synnerman

    Stress induced blow out! Creamy crack to the rescue!

  55. Ray Radlein

    Isn’t that a bearded Gordon McAlpin behind them in the first panel?

    1. Ray Radlein

      Ermmm, second panel.

  56. Safgaftsa

    We need another GIF of this.

  57. tom

    Shipping Walkie and Jason in 3… 2… 1…

  58. Lordess of Madness

    Uh-oh! Walky may have to finally make the dreaded choice between cartoons or work

    1. Bagge

      Dorothy will have a field day with that one.

  59. Ben

    And here, Walky is likely experiencing what happened to me…. the realization that no matter how well you could glide through high school on innate intelligence and basic retention, you will get WRECKED by college level shizz if you try to do the same….

  60. Zaxares

    … Anybody else get the feeling that Jason made a mistake and, in the next strip, goes, “Whoops, sorry guys. Mixed up Walky and Sal’s sheets.”

    1. Bagge

      That would be so cruel!

  61. Anywhere

    tee-hee

  62. beat

    Wasn’t this hair thing with Sal and Walky some sort of black thing? Is this implying that since Walky flunked his quiz he is more black, and therefore black people are stupid?

    1. Gamaran Sepudomyn

      Nah, it’s just that both Sal and Walky have the same reaction to major surprises, and it’s kind of showing just how similar they are.

      1. Gangler

        I mean, the curly hair very specifically marked Sal as blacker than Walky. Walky himself remarked on his relative whiteness when Sal’s hair poofing out lead to Joyce asking about their race. Weird as it sounds to connect the dots, it was because of Sal’s hair poofing out in reaction to the test that she later had to deal with her parents’ racism. There was the whole scene where she got her hair straightened out again while experiencing a minor existential crisis, then Walky teased her about it and she they had the big fight where she dropped the R word and flatout accused their parents of racial favoritism in plain English.

        There’s definitely a racial component to their hair poofing out like that after seeing their test marks. We can’t exactly ignore it at this point in the process.

        1. The_Bionic_Doctor

          yeah, I am hoping for the “walk a day in black shoes” kind of ark, whereWalky sees other people (the best would e his parents) reacting to this… but I seriously doubt this will happen

  63. Raibean

    aaaand there’s Walky’s afro

  64. Charlie

    I wish Walky’s hair could stay like this, it looks really good on him.

    1. Bagge

      Hey, Joyce, wanna comb Walky’s chocolate hair? I’m sure Dorothy won’t mind.

  65. Starling000

    So has anyone pointed out yet that Becky looks kinda April O’Neil-y in that outfit?

  66. SUGauthor

    Alright, I’m calling it…

    Sal is going to thank Danny for the math lessons, Amber is going to see them, it will lead to a break up so nasty that Danny feels no guilt in immediately turning around and sleeping with Ethan. Though before any of that happens Joyce needs to break up with Ethan.

    1. Shadow12000

      Needs to, but wont happen, which will lead to her walking in on them.

    2. anonymsly

      Amber’s already seen them together, IIRC. Playing with Danny’s DS here. It touched off her Must Destroy Sal crusade as Amazigirl.

  67. Shadow12000

    Walky, don’t sleep with the teacher’s aide, it doesn’t work.

  68. Bagge

    It’s a doodle of Gary riding into the sunset on a dinosaur, hand in hand with a strapping stick figure with a bow tie.

    “Gary, noooo, we were going to be man-married”

  69. AnvilPro

    Something wrong with Sal? That’s hilarious!

  70. Crumplepunch

    Did Walky just turn black?

    Tokenism!

    1. Shadow Eagle

      He’s already black.. i think his and his twin’s brains swapped, so as did their issues (or non-issue) with their hair.

  71. Björn

    Wait. Jason is wearing a white vest over a dark blue/grey shirt? That just feels wrong.

  72. Stara

    Becky, it’s just an 83. :p For anyone who wants to maintain a competent GPA (>3.5), a C+ or B equivalent grade is not something to relax about; it’s closer to 3.0. That doesn’t make it a terrible grade, but it’s a startling one that you wouldn’t want to make regular. 90+ is what’s worth that particular joke, to my perspective.

    1. Huttj

      D is for Diploma.

    2. Paul

      “Credit is spelled with C’s and D’s”

  73. Ste Rose

    The number of people using this comic as an excuse to explain how smart they are and how it was ages before they had to do work to complete strangers is quite hilarious.

    1. Stara

      Agreed, though I made a grading comment that was geared more towards standards but can easily read as a “lookit McBrains over here”.

    2. Paul

      Well, the “skate through high school, suddenly have to work in college” phenomenon is common enough that we were warned about it during freshman orientation.

  74. Stara

    About to be an annoying ass:

    I really like Dumbing of Age, but I don’t like the characters’ approaches to academics, bar Dorothy. She’s the only one I know who resembles the effort I see in any way; the rest really don’t seem to care, or have very low standards for themselves. That bothers me, since one thing I immensely value is intrinsic drive and motivation to keep reaching for goal that are just a bit above what you believe you can do with great effort. It’s part of maturity and growth, I think.

    I mean that in all walks of life. Many a person I know *hasn’t* stuck to the academic route: college really was their way to skate to another goal, but in seeking to achieve that goal, they applied exactly the same principles of drive and determination, and not settling for average. Be it something that needs heavy education (like theoretical mathematics) or something less academic (like fighting your way through obscurity and physical limitations to become a successful professional athlete), motivation is key to being more than average. It doesn’t seem like many of the characters have that kind of discipline, which I find disappointing.

    1. Stara

      *that is, cue other grammar/error corrections

    2. OnyxIdol

      You said it Yourself, *motivation* comes first, discipline after. If You’re not motivated, You won’t be disciplined either.

    3. Gangler

      Most of these guys seem to be enrolled in College just as an excuse to move out of their parent’s place. Joyce came here to find a husband.

      Drive, motivation, all that will come once they figure out what their goals are. Dorothy has precise goals that require precise grades of her, which is why she’s employing precise habits to achieve these ends. She’s probably unique for having that much figured out at 18.

      Though even then, some of them will have goals that are less heavily tied to academic success, and their habits similarly will be tailored to the measures of success most pertinent to their goals. Not everybody’s playing the same game, looking at the same scoreboard.

      1. ahuh

        I’d actually love a “Joyce winds up with a really strong and involved academic interest” plotline. And not only because I am amused by the idea of Joyce Brown coming home for break with a bagful of grammars of Altaic languages and The Book of Dede Korkut.

    4. Paul

      I don’t like the characters’ approaches to academics, bar Dorothy. She’s the only one I know who resembles the effort I see in any way; the rest really don’t seem to care, or have very low standards for themselves.

      Have you met any college students? These characters are intended to be believable, not role models.

      1. Stara

        Yeah dude, me and everyone around me. But it may be because I go to an academically established university, where people are largely keen to learn ad prove themselves. I assumed the is WHY people part with thousands of hard-earned dollars for school, NOT to waste time trying to find themselves as they’re losing money.

        1. timemonkey

          For most people it’s their parents parting with thousands of dollars. The studnts themselves tend to go ‘whoo freedom and booze!’

    5. advancecasette

      Like you said, it’s a part of growth and maturity. These folks are like 18 for the most part. Barring Dorothy they don’t even know what they’ll want to do with their lives. The value of education/ an actual desire for knowledge aren’t exactly stressed in American public schools. To a lot of these characters (and most of America’s youth) education is some stressful ugly thing they’re obligated to do-and pressured to excel at- in exchange for a chance at a future. We’re conditioned to believe it’s a very unpleasant but absolutely necessary means to an end. This leads to a lot of people avoiding it/bumbling through school. And for most people it’s something they have to do a lot of while they’re still figuring out who they are, and maybe holding down a job/other responsibilities at the same time.

      *sanctimonious pontificating*

    6. advancecasette

      Like you said, it’s a part of growth and maturity. These folks are like 18 for the most part. Barring Dorothy they don’t even know what they’ll want to do with their lives. The value of education/ an actual desire for knowledge aren’t exactly stressed in American public schools. To a lot of these characters (and most of America’s youth) education is some stressful ugly thing they’re obligated to do-and pressured to excel at- in exchange for a chance at a future. We’re conditioned to believe it’s a very unpleasant but absolutely necessary means to an end. This leads to a lot of people avoiding it/bumbling through school. And for most people it’s something they have to do a lot of while they’re still figuring out who they are, and maybe holding down a job/other responsibilities at the same time.

      *sanctimonious pontificating*

    7. anonymsly

      You don’t like Sal’s approach to academics? Fail, then strive to do better, reach for every method possible to do better from TA office hours to peer tutoring because she refuses to quit or find something ‘easier’?

      You have insanely high standards if that kind of motivation, discipline, and hard work don’t cut the mustard.

      1. Stara

        Actually, I LOVE Sal’s attitude. She doesn’t balk just because she’s face with a mountain. And she celebrates her achievement in something she clearly isn’t being taught well. It’s one of her best traits and something her parents don’t seem to acknowledge. My upset was more for Becky’s remark; following the approach of so many characters to their education, her standards snapped me a little. But not Sal.

      2. Stara

        Oops, yeah, I singled out Dorothy because of unmentioned thoughts, like how she chooses to expand an use her interests instead of jumping through grade hoops. Effort, interest, creativity and motivation. Math isn’t Sal’s deal so I wasn’t thinking of her when I wrote that.

  75. Marvelman

    Is the TA wearing some kind of apron?

    1. Joebo

      That, my good man, is what is called a vest.

  76. Willoughby Chase

    Independent research – not the big stuff by DuPont, but the little stuff where you go read a book and work things out for yourself – is never taught in UK Public schools, where the cossetted youth are spoon-fed and hot-housed to get into Oxbridge.

    Kids in state schools often develop independent study habits because they have to. If these pupils go on to tertiary education, then they can shine and often do. Beyond that, the Old Boy/Old Girl network kicks in.

    Sal’s story is a morality tale; work hard, and you will see the results. But it also speaks of luck where she got lucky with her TA.

    But will this be a Damascene moment when her future life will not be one of drinking warm piss beer late-night under flickering neon lights in empty car lots? Who can say.

    Tune in tomorrow for more exciting adventures in DoA

    Dan-dan-duuuuuun … *fweeep*

    P.S. Love the Becky arc. I hope her future is bright and not dangled before us like the light at the end of the tunnel only to be snatched away? Looking forward to seeing Joyce fumbling through yet more crises in this area. Ah, the innocence of youth.

    1. ninja_jesus

      She may have gotten lucky with the TA, but the TA made it clear that it wouldn’t affect her score one bit. She earned all of that 83.

      Also, she got tutored by Danny, who didn’t get lucky with Sal.

    2. Spencer

      It’s been made abundantly clear that Sal sleeping with Jason had no effect on her grades. She’s earned her success.

    3. John

      It’s been established that Jason has another TA grade Sal’s work. Though that does make me wonder what reason he gave the other TA for that.

      Maybe he got Penny to do it. She assumed they were bonky-tonkin’ anyway, even before they actually were, and her primary objection to that just seemed to be that it wasn’t her that he was doing.

  77. Neonix

    No one questions the new “student” in the room?

    1. Paul

      Freshman course with an enormous enrollment, taught in a big auditorium? No one knows everyone in the class.

  78. Killjoy

    Schools? Teach rote data for regurgitation in place of actual skills? How dare you say such a thing, even if it’s true!

  79. Griffinguy24

    I love Becky’s comment. Mostly because I remember there was a huge comment thread where someone was complaining about how Sal roller skating well made her too perfect. And if this is a “take that!” moment as I believe it is, I must say, well done.

    1. Killjoy

      No kidding.

      “Oh no, a character who can’t be readily pigeon-holed via one of an established set of flaws! How will we know which one is the pink ranger!”

      If there’s one “imparted truth” of writing that makes me want to kick over a desk, it’s the BS about “flaws make the character”.

      1. Gangler

        Would “She can’t skate” really have been that good of a flaw anyway? It’s a pretty minor, generally inconsequential skill that most people don’t have. Unless it lead into some kind of skate-centric story arc where she’d be measured by her skating abilities I can’t see it being a significant source of character depth.

        Though then again, I guess we’ve already seen how she handles a scenario where she’s measured by a skill she doesn’t have through her math class, so even in that scenario we’d just be rehashing a facet of her character that’s already been explored. How she handles being good at something would really be the new territory that’ll show us stuff we didn’t already know about her. Why, when she can skate, does she stand there every night watching her friends skate without participating? Why does she seemingly take no pride in this cool and flashy skill of hers?

      2. Spencer

        Even then, the idea that Sal is flawless is also pretty wrongheaded. She’s not dumb but she struggles with some of her academics and has major issues with her parents.

        You’d think Sal being really good at sports and other physical activities would be a given, what with her basically being Batman.

    2. Tenn

      Well, it was probably long enough ago that it could be a “take that”, even taking The Buffer into account.

      1. David M Willis

        Yeah, I was writing this strip around that time. I was defs thinking “haw haw Sal is also smart and good at math, take that, jerks who call her a Mary Sue.”

        1. Tenn

          Wiigii!

        2. Spencer

          Don’t you understand, Willis? By having Sal succeed at a math quiz after she’s put a great deal of time and effort into learning the course material after repeated failed attempts, you’ve made her into a total Mary Sue! Scathing blog posts await!

        3. Killjoy

          I think you just broke my sarcasm meter… cannot tell which direction the snark in that post is pointed.

  80. Toes14

    So how long before Becky hits on Sal?

    1. Lel

      To quote Dwarf Fortress,
      “It was inevitable”

      1. Gamaran Sepudomyn

        The reaction from Walky will be terrifying.

        *The pun strikes Walky in the head, tearing the brain*
        *Walky has been knocked unconscious*

        1. Gamaran Sepudomyn

          Eegh. I wrote pun instead of joke.

  81. Planken

    So I found this comic at random. and been reading trough ALL of it. I don’t know..Just wanted to make a comment.

    1. neeks

      Welcome to the “caught up” club. We hold meetings at midnight est ish where we refresh the main page waiting for the next strip. Bring your own beer. 🙂

  82. Nope!

    Some of us manage to skate through college for the most part too.

    1. 3oranges

      Yes, I know enough people like that.

      When Walky was being kind of smug about not studying, there were a lot of comments about it being his inevitable downfall. I didn’t really like linking the two like that. Because it wasn’t inevitable, some people do skate through college, but they should still be understanding about people who don’t.

      So this might have been likely, but I don’t think it should be seen as too much of a vindication of anything in itself. It is a good opportunity for some character growth, though.

  83. Deanatay

    Ha, I’ll bet Willis has wanted to draw Walky with kinky hair for a while, now.

  84. LaShawn

    So did anyone else besides me saw the “Fweep!” and immediately thought that Walky was farting his reaction to the test rather than his hair frizzing up?

    Anyone? Anyone at all? Just me, then?

    ::crickets::

    1. Eric

      Nope, I thought he farted too. Then decided that made no sense.

      Although I’m not sure hair curling makes any more sense.

  85. Airyu

    Anyone else want to know who the guy behind sal is? He sits in mainly the same place… http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/surprised-2/

    1. WeezerLuvr3030

      Sunglasses Riker?

  86. wakeangel2001

    so the missing classes and not studying finally caught up to the guy for whom schoolwork always came naturally eh?

    1. Kamino Neko

      It always does. It always does.

    2. Seraph

      That’s first year of college for you.

    3. StClair

      yes, to all of the above.

  87. Resulli

    Bleh. Maybe it’s cuz I’m so used to it the other way but Walky with poofy and curly hair does not work.

  88. Arianod

    Becky’s right, Sal: stop hogging all the awesome!

  89. Tenn

    Poetic justice.

  90. Twilightomens

    This comic made me a little too happy. Ha! Walky fails!

  91. Crazy Dina

    O.O Did mike just randomly show up next to Walky?

  92. Crazy Dina

    Okay, either this one will be assigned a Dinatar, or I’m giving it one. Mainly because I ACTUALLY made a new email address for this one (I tried to see how Plasma Mongoose was told to do her multiple gravitars for an individual email address, but I couldn’t find it. Too bad.)

    1. Crazy Dina

      Does my name have to match my username, or is it purely based on email?

      1. Crazy Dina

        Apparently not. I now have a Dinatar! ^.^
        Speaking of which, how is Dina doing in her class?

  93. NotFred

    Hahahahah!! 😀 Excellent!

  94. Tufto

    This is the greatest page of the comic. Even Billy/Ruth strips or things with Becky and Dina in them aren’t this good.

    This is amazing.

  95. Kaidah

    And I’m finally caught up. 🙂

    Does this mean Walky is going to actually have to apply himself instead of just hanging around in his PJ’s watching cartoons? At least he has the right girlfriend to help him learn how to study.

    1. Crazy Dina

      Ah, a new binger? And I don’t know… he could go either way with his freakout – not studdy and pretend it doesn’t exist, or go study crazy.
      But if his girlfriend can actually teach him how studying works, it could be a bigger help than I got when this happened to me.

  96. Tayo

    he looks like bruno mars in the last panel amirite?

  97. Saelmve

    Oh no! It’s the parents-disappointed-in-me ‘fro!

  98. ThatGuy

    Glad to see it. Keep forgetting Walky and Sal are black/white. Keeping (and originally thought) they were latino.

  99. Vree

    So he’s a reverse Pinkie Pie eh.

  100. Aaron Bourque

    Yeahhhhhh… there’s “nothing” wrong with Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal……..

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