157

Ibuprofen
Posted on December 22, 2024 by David M Willis

157 thoughts on “Ibuprofen”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    which ones are Jordan covering, I wonder

    1. Ana Chronistic

      what if they’re made sausage-fest

    2. Alongcameaspider

      I’m betting he draws porn

      1. Sirksome

        I bet he did something even crazier and is romantically linked to a minority that possibly practices a different religion. Or maybe he’s gay, has dyed hair, or got a tattoo. We can mix and match.

        1. APW

          Gay might fit into “romantically linked to a minority”, just saying

        2. Azrael

          Well, Joyce is kinda doing the “romantically linked with a minority” thing already, and worse for a fungelical, he’s JEWISH! Space lasers! SPACE LASERS!

        3. Felian

          Is the Jewish bit really worse? i’m not even sure. The fundies i grew up with had a creepy fetish for judaism. It basically sums up as: “Wow, you’re God’s chosen people, yet we look down on you because WE understood that Jesus is the messiah and YOU didn’t. But you are so inspirational, Israel is so fascinating (This is where the bible stories happened!!!), let us steal some of your customs and pretend they were ours anyway!”
          I didn’t realize how cringe that was until i left the church…

    3. HueSatLight

      Jordan’s probably an animorph.

      1. Meagan

        Thanks for the actual lol.

      2. Ana Chronistic

        oh, so Carol’s a Yeerk Controller?

        1. Taffy

          Don’t Yeerks need functional brains to control?

        2. Shade

          I mean maybe she’s eaten instant Maple and Ginger oatmeal.

        3. Ana Chronistic

          I thought they just needed a live body

        4. Shade

          They do need an intact live brain to like spread themselves over. But they don’t need to be sapient since in one story they were infesting horses to sneak onto a base. They just seem to prefer it. So yeah, mostly.

          There are a couple things we do know the host body needs to meet. A warm internal temperature, a central nervous system (there was an alien species they couldn’t use as a host because they had a distributed one) and to be of a certain size (Visser 3 registered disappointment that cats were too small) whether that’s body size or brain size is never clarified.

    4. Davus

      I’m betting he’s gay.
      That or his parents were overbearing and/or assholes and he cut them off.

      1. Throwatron

        I honestly think that would be the coolest outcome, now that you’ve mentioned it. He didn’t cut them out because of anything about him that they specifically disapproved of; he just, like, realized independently that they were wack, without needing an inciting incident. It probably isn’t that, but given how those things usually happen in this strip, that would honestly be a different sort of gut punch out of nowhere.

      2. Needfuldoer

        Sounds like “correct him by being overbearing” is exactly what they did, which led to him going low- or no-contact.

        “All I’m saying is, we squeeze too hard, and we create another Jordan situation.”
        -Hank

        https://www.dumbingofage.com/squeezing-2/

    5. NGPZ

      could be porn, could be queerness, could be tattoos, could be support of Bulmeria, could be advocate for science-based sex-ed

      for all we know he could be a pastor who made the “mistake” of encouraging church-goers to give to community instead of just church

      there’s a reason why you see as much open contempt as you do towards the religious right

      if there’s anything they’re consistently good at, it’s making enemies ?

    6. Heather

      Catholic Priest.

      1. Heather

        Though seriously I do ponder over the idea he’s still religious just “the wrong kind” (be it even as mundane as a different flavour of Christianity or something else!)

    7. Armepos

      Joyce’s dad said they moved a lot because they had political differences with each temple they went to, hinting at even more crazies than them. Maybe Jordan pulled a Percy Weasly and is like an ultra-mega-fundie.

    8. HueSatLight

      Married a Bolshevik and got sent to Siberia.

      1. NGPZ

        I’m ready with vodka, a thick Slavic accent and desire to crush US capitalism!

        >:D

    9. CianM1301

      My bet’s on furry.
      Also, accidentally reported the comment, mb.

      1. Ana Chronistic

        Hank seemed okay with that

        (not the reporting the comment, that’s negligible)

  2. darkoneko

    hahahahhahahahahahaha

    1. darkoneko

      Well, Carol’s fears, mostly.

      1. EmperorGreed

        Nah, Hank’s fears too. He was deep in the same culty branch of Christianity as Carol, and the rest of the family for that matter.

        The real difference is that when faced with those fears, Hank realized he feared his kids being in danger, unloved and unhappy more than them practicing these “heathen” ways, and more than being wrong. Carol… didn’t.

        1. Bryy

          Carol didn’t even think she was wrong.

        2. Throwatron

          “Didn’t even think she is wrong” is almost a full, one-sentence summary of every mom in this comic. There are, like, probably less than 5 good ones.

        3. Taffy

          There are exactly 7. Amber, Dina, Dorothy, Mike, Sierra, The Casey, and Bold Marzespo all have good moms.

      2. NGPZ

        The fears of all reactionary fundamentalists, really.

        Unholy unholy unholy is the Parasite of Hosts.

        WE shall drain their White Gods of ALL their glory.

        WE never give up on our struggle no matter what.

        WE are the sum of all their fears.

        WE are their ultimate, undying NIGHTMARE.

        For WE need not be as gods, to turn the world inside out. ?️

  3. mindbleach

    “All Our Parents’ Fears Are Being Made Manifest” is a peak book title.

    1. TheStranger

      1) sorry for reporting. Fat thumbs.

      2) that NEEDS to be the book title.

    2. Armadillo

      This may in fact be the best book title comment I’ve ever seen.

    3. NGPZ

      BookTitle.upvote ++

      ^^ <3

    4. Opus the Poet

      Yes if this commenting system had upvotes, that would get all the thumbs.

    5. DJTsurugi

      100% down for a book title here! ~<3

    6. Leorale

      Came here to make sure somebody said this, and was not disappointed.

    7. Kimi

      It needs to be a series title. There are several different genres of parental fears. Some might be a bit more rational than others, like fear of getting caught up in gun violence in the USA or fear of your children having a hard time with life. Even those two examples can easily go to the extreme and have the parents’ reactions cause more issues than help, ie: overprotectiveness or pushing so hard for your young child to achieve things that they burn out.
      Of course, you could also write it as not a self help book for parents and instead have it for the kids of those parents.

    8. Michael Steamweed

      An excellent title for the eventual Omnibus.
      Dumbing of Age: All Our Parents’ Fears Are Being Made Manifest
      The Complete Collection
      All 782 volumes

  4. Sirksome

    2 out of 3 fears down. Still waiting on the third.

    1. Sirksome

      Actually there’s probably way more than 3.

      1. Ray Radlein

        Clowns.

        Maybe that’s what Jordan is doing

        1. Alan

          Jordan went to Pinfall City and Joined the Clown Corps. He fights crime.

          He’s actually friends with Amazi-Girl on MaskBook, the superhero social network.

        2. Ana Chronistic

          Oh, come on, Masktodon is RIGHT THERE

    2. FinalGwen

      As Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf once said, two out of three ain’t bad.

  5. BBCC

    It’s what they deserve.

    1. True Survivor

      Hank may not have been the best father, but he always had a good heart, and he seems to be really trying. Plus, I don’t think we want all of their fears manifesting, as that presumably involves one of their children dying and like air-breathing sharks with cockroach legs or something.

      1. TCS

        didn’t think i was gonna unlock a new fear today, but here we are

        1. Kimi

          I think the last time I heard that statement, it was related to a human-centipede like mannequin.

      2. Michael Steamweed

        Sounds like a thing for the Oglaf comic.

      3. Meeks

        Gyo reference spotted. God I hated reading that book haha – the only Junji Ito story to ever give me nightmares

        1. True Survivor

          I actually had no idea Gyo even existed. I looked it up to write this reply just now, and I really really wish I had not done that.

  6. Doctor_Who

    Burber Derber is fine, but doesn’t their campus have an Applebapples or a Wendings?

    1. Pinkie

      Probably the taco place Johnny Cash sings about in Ring of Fire

    2. purblebirb

      I assume its named for 9 Chickweed Lane?

      1. Michael Steamweed

        I thought you were just making that up, but then I looked again. Yeah, that is the 9CL family name.

    3. CianM1301

      They should at least have a Sbubby. How else would they Eef Freef?

  7. Queen Anthai

    I really love how you draw Jocelyne’s “dry wit” face.

    1. ian livs

      Seconded. She’s a treasure

  8. Ash

    I love this strip so much. Aces.

    1. Michael Steamweed

      They might have an ace or two, but I think most of them are definitely sexual.

  9. Reltzik

    Well, all their kids are still alive, so probably not.

    … wait, do we know that they’re all still alive?

    1. Bryy

      Pretty sure Jordan is alive.

  10. Dara

    burber derber has strong eef freef energies

    what even is it

    1. Deanatay

      Agree, want to try their food, even though I strongly suspect Willis just pulled the name out of his ass.

    2. Deanatay

      Although, ‘Berber’ is the name of a group of North African tribes, so maybe it’s North African food?

  11. IntangibleMatter

    These kids are going for 100% disownership by their mother and I am here for it!

    1. Opus the Poet

      +1!

      1. Bryy

        It’ll be interesting if we ever see Carol again. I can maybe see us seeing her once more.

    2. Daibhid C

      I’ve not heard the word “disownership” before. It’s a good word. Like “disownment”, but with the added sense that she’s relinquishing “ownership” of them, because she totally thought she had that.

  12. Opus the Poet

    This all their parents’ fears made womanifest. Which is even worse than manifest, because of woman’s sinful state of tempting Adam into sin.

    1. Leorale

      It’s always bothered me that Christians are mad at Eve for sharing.

      Like, God says, you eat this fruit and you’ll die. (Technically true, since they’ll get banished from Eden for doing it, but not a direct immediate result.)
      The snake says, “look, I’m eating the fruit, and I’m alive.”
      And Eve tests it on herself! She tries the fruit, and she doesn’t die. It’s tasty times.
      And then Eve is like, “woah, cool, I gotta share this” and shares some tasty non-death fruit with Adam.

      And for this we’re supposed to be mad at her forever! She’s just a very responsible scientist.

      /cheeky reimagining

      1. NGPZ

        heck like why did God not think to lock up anything which could potentially poison his newborn human children, just sayin that ain’t really responsible for a Heavenly Father XD

        1. jflb96

          Why didn’t Pandora and Epimetheus seal and bury the pyx? Why didn’t the Jedi teach Anakin about Force healing? Why didn’t the Emperor explain his actions to his sons better while he still had twenty-one of them?

          It’s a prequel. You can’t have a prequel not end where the real story began.

        2. NGPZ

          A lot of the Bible honestly seems like embryonic stage Star Wars where early on George Lucas had some *terrible* ideas, so yeah that tracks XD

        3. HueSatLight

          Going mythology nerd for a second, it’s like someone took a pretty decent* and rewrote it as fanfiction, jamming it into their incompatible worldview. Like the Jedi are Christians mostly concerned about converting all the sinners to space-Christianity.

          *at least internally consistent. “Adapa and the South Wind” aka “Adapa and the Food of Life”

        4. Daibhid C

          “Your God person puts an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says, do what you like, guys, oh, but don’t eat the apple. Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting ‘Gotcha’. It wouldn’t have made any difference if they hadn’t eaten it.”
          “Why not?”
          “Because if you’re dealing with somebody who has the sort of mentality which likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them you know perfectly well they won’t give up. They’ll get you in the end.”
          —The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams

        5. Daibhid C

          Or alternatively:
          It was God who made the serpent,
          And the woman and the man,
          And there wouldn’t be an apple,
          If it wasn’t in the plan.
          –“It Was On a Friday Morning”, Andrew Pratt

        6. Needfuldoer

          “What does God need with a starship?”

          – James T. Kirk

        7. Mark

          I like to think it was a test, and humankind passed. He wanted free moral agents, not robots or puppets, and He got them.

      2. Icalasari

        Heck, double checking and Adam was apparently right there. So he knew the whole deal and where the fruit was from anyways. So what, he gets off scott free?

        1. Mark

          I’ve heard it said that this is a love story. That Adam recognized the fruit, believed what God had told them, and took it because he didn’t want to be parted from Eve no matter what.

      3. Amelie Wikström

        On the list of things that don’t make sense about the tree of knowledge story, the “therefore all women are evil” moral is like, fourth from the top. But maybe putting it directly after the “therefore all humans are born evil” makes it extra clunky

      4. jflb96

        They were already going to die in Eden, or there wouldn’t have been any point to the Tree of Life. Getting kicked out just made the intervening bit less pleasant.

      5. Michael Steamweed

        A bad scientist. She didn’t publish.

        (unless we count genesis itself, which is not anywhere near a proper journal format.)

  13. Chaucer59

    Good to see Jocelyn getting all the choice lines.

  14. DashWallkick

    Jocelyn’s older sibling aura was the funniest part of her appearances and it’s held up when she returns.

    1. Needfuldoer

      She’s still the older sibling, so that tracks.

      1. DashWallkick

        Transitioning is big! I could easily see it changing the dynamic, shuffling the deck a bit and making Joyce struggle with seeing her as her sister because of how long the older “brother” relationship became normalized. I’d have loved to see that version of this comic but gosh Joycelyn is fun to watch tease.

        1. Needfuldoer

          I liked the bit where she leaned on Joyce to hold her up, just like she did last time she visited. Like I said in the comments then, it’s like her way of saying “yeah this part’s different but I’m still me”.

  15. Veronica

    The magic of soundless comics means Jocelyne has already mastered voice masking I guess.

    1. Throwatron

      I’m kind of assuming she hasn’t? If anything, her writing is most likely closer to her “true voice,” if I know writers at all.

    2. Needfuldoer

      She’s probably been practicing for at least as long as she’s been on HRT.

      1. thejeff

        Probably quite a bit longer.

      2. Veronica

        Which is, what, a few months? (If I’m remembering the extremely confusing Comics Time going on here)

        And that assumes what she’s practising is….good

    3. Dante

      Voice training can be done before HRT and it would be a really neat way for her to express herself in the shitty situation she was in (even in secret.) No physical evidence like objects or changes in her appearance. Just waiting for moments when the rest of the family wasn’t around.

      1. thejeff

        Yeah. Which would be most of the time, since she had an apartment of her own. She could do voice training and even start to build up a wardrobe and things relatively safely.
        HRT would over time become too obvious to hide, once she started that step.

    4. Akane

      She could also do voice surgery as well.

      1. thejeff

        Probably not on the budget she describes.

    5. Dana W

      Been trying for 25 years its still a battle.

  16. DailyBrad

    Why do I get the feeling Dorothy’s kinda digging Walky in the costume?

    1. Throwatron

      Because you possess pattern recognition, and thus recognize that she is a huge nerd XD

    2. Taffy

      She’s even grabbing his titty in the first panel, I think.

    3. Akane

      I doubt it.

  17. DJTsurugi

    see Joyce, Dorothy has it right, do like her, learn from your future paramour. ~<3

    1. Risky

      She may be seeing Joyce touching Dorothy and thinking that covers one of mom’s darkest fears.

  18. Acher4

    Is Dorothy back?

    1. Mark

      She’s right there.

      Okay, yes, I think she’s found a new purpose, at least for now.

      1. Mark

        Good to see her looking happy again.

        1. Acher4

          “Good to see her looking happy again.”

          Same 🙂

  19. Throwatron

    i think we all could use a lil womanifestation in our world 🙂

  20. CianM1301

    I see Walky’s making no further attempts to hide his civilian identity now that he’s been thoroughly tummy-punched. Is this the end of Nightguy? Or will he just stick to having Nightguy only come out at night?

  21. Kas

    had the thought “i feel like the way willis is drawing expressions has really been popping off lately”, remembered The Buffer, and followed that up with the thought “oh shit so what does his art look like NOW-“

    1. Needfuldoer

      Head on over to Tumblr and Bluesky to find out! The buffer may be almost a year ahead but he still posts preview panels and character models, all relatively spoiler-free.

  22. Taffy

    Dorothy shouldn’t get to meet any more characters until she’s murdered one of the ones she already knows. It’s unrealistic for someone like her to know more than the exact amount of people she knew before this strip.

  23. Julie

    I know that the Incelerator is in another panel now, but I just wanted to point out that in Canada we have a historical precedent for attacks on women on a college campus by a self-styled incel vigilante, and that this arc might not be as funny and zany for some as it is for others.

    1. Nono

      It hasn’t really felt funny to me either, Willis probably knows what he’s doing but if toning down political comics with Robin when Trump won was the right thing to do, misogynistic villains can have a timing issue as well.

      1. Julie

        It was a double whammy for me when I realized this arc started less than 2 weeks after Dec. 6. I guess that’s probably not a well known date outside Canada? (And I know the comics are queued up months in advance.)

        (For anyone genuinely not in the know, google Dec. 6 Ecole Polytechnique; CW femicide, misogyny, mass shooting.)

        1. Taffy

          This is the first I’m hearing of it, possibly because it happened in another country, fully four years before I was born. Not the kind of thing they taught at my schools.

        2. Julie

          For us it’s an annual memorial day for the fourteen victims, as well as a day of awareness for violence against women. My university cancelled classes for it each year. It was one of the worst tragedies Canada has ever experienced.

        3. Taffy

          Pretty fucked up how my first thought was “Only fourteen?”, as if that’s not a lot of people for one guy to murder. 9/11 happening when I was in 2nd grade (about 8 years old) seems to have skewed perception to some degree.

        4. Julie

          He meant for it to be way more. But yeah, we’ve been through some pretty fucked up times this generation.

  24. Kyulen

    I hope sometime in a future we get to see Jordan, and find out what fears he’s made manifest for the Brown family parents.

    1. Michael Steamweed

      He draws web comics and porn on Patreon and Slipshine. The half-dozen comic lines are collectively called “The Caulkyverse” and feature a post-high school young general contractor handyman character nicknamed Caulky.

  25. Charles Phipps

    I think the Incelerator is an interesting character and would like to see more of them in the context that the guy trying to be a media influence and as wacky as the “heroes” is a good pitch for an antagonist. I find him a lot more interesting than Mary for example even if he’s less realistic and more dangerous as a kidnapper.

    1. Michael Steamweed

      Hell, it’s possible we might see a romantic pairing between Mary and incel-idiot.

      1. Deanatay

        Now now, mustn’t misname people, it’s offensive.

        It’s pronounced “Incel-er-bater”.

        1. Taffy

          His suit jacks him off.

      2. Charles Phipps

        I’d love to see Jocelyn redeem him with the power of her love.

        1. thejeff

          Ick.

  26. Needfuldoer

    “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

    “Neither did I until about two hours ago!”

  27. thumb

    wait until they find out about Joyce’s not-quite-platonic relationship with the atheist who taught her how to masturbate.

  28. Michael Steamweed

    Joyce: Not only that, but Dorothy showed me how to jill off. And I’ve done pre-marital hanky (but not panky) with my Jewish boyfriend.

    Jocelyne: Yes, those are definitely on the parents-fears list.

  29. Deanatay

    Not true, Jocelyne. Joyce doesn’t yet have an undercut or a nose ring.

    1. FlamestAndLight

      big emphasis on Yet (i wanna see it not just because I’m gay and require more undercut and nose-ring rep . . . okay actually yeah that’s the only reason)

    2. Da Boy

      Someone’s gotta introduce her to metal music, Joyce would be stoked to wear all black with chains and metal studs

  30. staszu13

    What is a Burber Derbert?

    1. HueSatLight

      Joke version of Erbert & Gerbert

    2. Pergola

      Burber Derbert? It’s kinda like a Henway.

  31. Adept

    Is this the first time Joyce owns up to being an Atheist?

    1. Taffy

      Yes. She’s definitely never mentioned it before.

    2. Needfuldoer

      To someone in her family, yes I believe so.

      1. thejeff

        She told Carol during the argument over selling the house.

        1. Needfuldoer

          You’re right, she did!

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/memorized-2/

          It bounced right off though, because obviously Joyce was just lashing out. *eyeroll*

    3. Ilucuthen

      She tried to tell her mom when she visited, but I don’t think her mom was really interested in entertaining that idea.

  32. Barf Ninjason

    My own name is Josh and I have a brother named Jordan, and that makes Joyce’s family’s names feel a wee bit weird to me. She’s like the little insane sister I never had. Also, I get why Jocelyne would wanna go with a more feminine name, but I’ve always thought “Josh” would be a cool name for a girl. It’s a little odd but it doesn’t reek of masculinity like “Steve” or “Dave” would. Also also, Joyce and Dorothy being accidentally gay for each other like some kinda Three’s Company mix-up bit is my favorite subplot.

    1. Taffy

      Cool “guy” names for gals would definitely include Josh. I’ll add to the list Damon, Kyle, Howard, Buster, and Oliver

  33. wakeangel2001

    Remember, if your parent’s fears are becoming manifest, but everyone is happy, it’s because your parents are bad people

    1. thejeff

      Maybe. Definitely here.
      Parents aren’t always wrong though and teens can get themselves in a lot trouble while having a good time.

  34. HueSatLight

    I figured it out, Incelerator is Tony. They’re never seen together, he’s just significantly better at disguises than the main characters. Only Beef knows.

  35. Marrow

    AMEN, and AWOMAN

    1. NGPZ

      lel

  36. HueSatLight

    All the Jordan talk, everyone’s forgotten John is possibly faking going on mission trips. Only four more days in January.

  37. Yakumo

    I’m not going back to through the whole chapter, but I’m pretty sure Jocelyn has the best sum up in it.

  38. Felian

    “it’s nice meeting you as Jocelyne” is a nice way to phrase it. It IS nice meeting people *again*, this time *for real*, after you’ve only met their carefully put-together facade! <3

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