196

Sarcasm
Posted on October 31, 2014 by David M Willis

196 thoughts on “Sarcasm”

  1. Opus the Poet

    Love Sarah’s comment to Becky.

    1. anonymous

      Becky’s response was intriguing. Did she actually listen to what Sarah was saying?

      1. AgentKeen

        Yeah, I’m… I’m still trying to piece that bit together.

        1. TheZachariah

          Yeah, I think she did. She just genuinely cares about Joyce and knows how messed up her upbringing was?

        2. ThatGug

          She’s probably one of those many people who placate their family on their church goings and constant prayers and stuff. And is just a normal girl (Normal meaning someone who might be religious but not crazy about it like Joyce parents. )

        3. David Herbert

          I think it’s more that she’s one of those people who does short, quick answers around people she’s unfamiliar with.

        4. auo> mous

          I would think so. But you never know.

  2. Doctor_Who

    “Without me she’d be on like her fifth human skinsuit by now!”

    1. MrSirk

      Times that by ten then you’d be in a fair range.

    2. Cthulhu's Intern

      “She’d be on Dick #1,000,000,001.”

    3. 4th Dimension

      Without her she would be doing something terrible like chasing and stalking Danny.

      Roomies reference.

    4. Lume

      “Now it’s only been two!”

  3. Jen Aside

    Is it Angry Birds Transformers???

    If I know Willis, it is.

    1. pyrophobia

      They probably have a Dexter & Monkeymaster version in this universe.

  4. MrSirk

    I’m ready for Becky to become a regular character.

    1. hof1991

      Becky’s only here for a day or two, so we’ll be seeing her for a couple months our time. Then it’s back to Christian college for her.

  5. liahansen

    pff, Angry Birds, what is this, earlier in 2014?

    1. Barf Ninjason

      All the likes. Best comment ever. Would read again.

    2. -Sentinel-

      You know pop culture is moving fast when you say stuff like: “February called, they want [X] back”.

      1. das-g

        Wait … don’t we still have, like, 3 months till February? How can it want back anything already now?

        1. Lume

          LAST Feburary

  6. piemanpie24

    Becky should only speak in the titles of things that she has been denied by her parents.

    1. Mr k

      “Lesbian sex!”

      1. liahansen

        well I should hope her parents haven’t been giving her that

        1. Mr k

          Unless her mom is Raygo from Kill la Kill

        2. liahansen

          I have only a vague idea of what that means and am perfectly content with that.

    2. Communist Canada

      She and Howard would really hit off then.

      1. Cephalo the Pod

        “Game of Thrones!”
        “Angry Birds!”
        “Game of Thrones!”
        “Angry Birds!”
        “Game of Thrones!”
        “Angry Birds!”

        *Cut to outside view of motel*.

        1. Catullus

          …

          I ship it now

        2. Wack'd

          Their kids would have very, very red hair.

        3. pyrophobia

          And a double helping of freckles.

        4. Chris

          Naw. It should be MaryxHoward.
          My O T P.

        5. Lanval

          In the Game of Angry Birds, you collapse the structure or you die.

        6. ThatGug

          There needs to be a co op mode in which you gain great benefit from the other player but you know you have to eventually kill them off to win the game. the only question is will you betray your partner before they betray you?!

        7. Kaoy

          That… why isn’t there games with mechanic all over the place yet?

        8. ezrast

          Because human nature ruins it. There are some board games that are “cooperative” but still leave a single player as the most winningest winner (Legendary is the first example that comes to mind) and it’s never a compelling model. More competitive gamers defect immediately in order to “win” by doing better than the other players (even if the game tells them they lost), and everyone else ignores the competitive side and then is frustrated when the game says that that even though they won, somebody else won more. Everyone focuses one objective or the other and is annoyed when the other side of the game gets in the way.

        9. nkh

          Wildly popular counterexample: Munchkin.

          (Granted, it doesn’t REQUIRE or even have any mechanics to explicitly reward cooperation in the early stages of the game, but every game I’ve ever played has involved people forming temporary alliances with one another, which are then suddenly-but-inevitably betrayed once someone gets near winning.)

    3. Pantheon the Mantheon

      Inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!

      1. Dorje Sylas

        I don’t see a Smartphone as required part of those.

        There are good reasons not to give even a freshman collage child such a device and its associated data charges. A “feature” cellphone and some from of non-cellular fablet sized device would do.

        1. Betty Anne

          I can understand keeping the fablet away from her, because anything that sounds like it’d make her more fabulous runs the risk of making her gay, but otherwise, don’t you think that’s a bit limiting to a collage child? I suspect they’re probably still 18 years old and capable of getting a work study job to pay for the bill, even if they ARE pasted together from pieces of other children.

        2. pwisva

          Pure perfection.

  7. Communist Canada

    Backy can’t have a Phone? Haven’t she and Joyce been calling back and forth on multiple occasions?

    1. CRtwenty

      She probably has a land line in her dorm at school. With a receptionist that transfers callers to the room after vetting them. Her school is prolly old school like that

      1. Roborat

        Hell, they are not even that modern. They take a message, put it in a container, then place it in the vacuum tube system, where it is whisked to her floor, where an 80 year old matron hand delivers the message to here room.

    2. synnerman

      Cell phone. Becky probably has access to an old fashioned land line.

      I’m just reminded of when I read _Less Than Zero_ a couple of years ago and the characters were talking about “running home to catch a phone call.”

    3. Dedlok

      There are such things as dorm telephones. Also landline telephones.

    4. Yotomoe

      Backy? And i thought Walky was a bad nickname.

      1. Marianne

        Here in the UK, “backy” is slang for rolling tobacco. This leads to the amusing slang term “wacky backy” for cannabis.

        1. MeHael

          A Walky talky about the wacky backy?

    5. Rutee

      Um, landline?

      1. Clif

        They were an amazing invention where you could talk as much as you wanted without paying for air time.

        1. Kaoy

          Er… Maybe after cell phones became common and they were forced to find a way to compete. A quick ride in your personal Way Back Machine to the Grand Ol’ Year of 2000 will tell a very different tale.

          You want to call OUT OF STATE for HOW LONG? Who are you? Mr. Rockefeller McMillionaire?

    6. Dorje Sylas

      There’s always those old fasioned “feature phones”, anyone remember those? They played mp3s and some even super compressed video.

    7. turbanous

      Looking back at Becky’s appearances she has a flip phone. So maybe she is bored of playing Tetris.

      1. Communist Canada

        Thank you. That’s what I was talking about. Becky is shown on a wireless phone multiple times.

        1. Gigafreak

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/becky/
          She’s only ever shown using that phone in her own dorm room. So it might very well be a cordless landline phone.

        2. TheCerpent

          Yeah, if you look at the various scenes with her on the phone, some of them show her supporting it with her shoulder as well as the keypad buttons. She probably has a cordless landline phone with a callerID display at the top.

  8. Plasma Mongoose

    Joyce is SANE?! EGADS!

    1. Opus the Poet

      Whodathunkit? Sane within certain parameters of the word “sane”.

    2. Wack'd

      More like “not as insane as she could’ve been.”

    3. Deanatay

      Remember, she’s “the most socially well-adjusted of her group”. So, comparatively, yeah.

  9. Wack'd

    Man, we’re all about the Roomies! homages in the alt text this week, aren’t we?

    1. Clif

      What was (is) the reference to this time? Cause it went totally over my head.

      1. Wack'd

        Sarah’s first appearance in Roomies! and second line of dialogue ever. See here.

        1. Clif

          Thanks.

    2. AgentKeen

      I’d say it’s because he started doing the last SP! storyline, but he probably made this strip a few months ago.

      1. Wack'd

        Second-to-last, actually.

    3. Trae Dorn

      Thank you – I was desperately trying to remember why that exact line was so familiar.

  10. Itama

    I see an awkward friendship in their future.
    United in the cause of keeping Joyce sane, and NOT sucking a million dicks.

    1. Yotomoe

      “We dicks are gonna get sucked one way or another, Joyce. WE’LL BE WAITING…”

      1. MrSirk

        Oh my god they’re talking to her now!

        1. N0083rP00F

          Aaaand now you have me thinking about the latest project by Pintsize.

          and just for that extra bit of weird – second last line from the old lady that swallowed a fly.

      2. Gigafreak

        THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR…

        ROBO-VAC!

  11. Kernanator

    The image of an even worse Joyce is quite frightening.

    1. Yotomoe

      I believe at that point Joyce’d be one of those people who kills in the name of her lord.

      1. Viktoria

        Honestly, that’d be an entirely reasonable response to how she was raised. Her parents should be brought up on charges.

      2. begbert2

        As opposed to just punching people in its name like she does now.

    2. sun tzu

      Just look at “Roomies”-era Joyce.

  12. Mr k

    Come on, I need some drama with Becky. I bet she ran away from home and is trying to admit to her crush on Joyce.

    1. Yotomoe

      Joyce would be pretty cute if I didn’t find her personality so unnatractive.

      1. Mr k

        Well, at least she’s getting better. My least favorite character is Ethan, for getting in a stupid relationship with someone he knows he can’t love. Even Danny is brighter than him.

        1. Roborat

          Well, he can love her, just can’t have sex with her.

      2. adam Black

        If she just transferred that excess affection for jesus and religious fundmamentalism to something healthy like Doctor and Comic Books; I think she would be very date-able. Sure she’s a freak, but shes a happy good-natured freak. I can work with that

        < suddenly realizes that what Willis did with Transformers ( probably ).

      3. timemonkey

        Huh, that’s my exact feelings about Amber.

    2. the last guy

      Yes, I was thinking like the same thing. I really want to discover Becky learned things about herself while at her school. Things that Joyce will be unsure how to react too.

      1. adam Black

        It would be cool of Becky was a lesbian.

        1. cesium133

          I’m starting to wonder if Willis was throwing a hint here: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/related/

        2. Opus the Poet

          Then Joyce and Becky move to Iowa and get married… and live not-unhappily ever after.

        3. Em

          Whoa shit I didn’t even think about that.

    3. newllend

      that’s what we theorize

  13. Mr. Random

    That is both terrifying and sweet.

  14. Yotomoe

    You shoulda seen her before. She was always speaking delusional nonsense and smeering her feces on the wall. Then again it was kindergarten.

    1. Khaner

      Dude, I stopped smeering shit on the walls in my sixth month. Not freaking Kindergarden

      1. Catullus

        The statute of limitations on that is like three.

      2. newllend

        ya at that point most people move on to smeering a combination of drool ,paint, and piss on walls and that would get you an A in art for being creative.

  15. jams

    Do people actually wear outfits like Sarah’s? I usually wear my sleeveless shirts underneath my long sleeved ones, but I do not know how to fashion.

    1. David M Willis

      I may have stolen this one from Azumanga Daioh’s Miss Sakaki.

      I also stole her name for my cat.

      1. liahansen

        so what you’re saying is Sarah is secretly a huge fan of Azumanga Daioh and keeps a Chiyo-chan plushie with her at all times?

        1. liahansen

          yes, yes, I think that is what you are saying.

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          But are her pigtails detachable?

        3. AustKyzor

          You better believe they’re detachable!

        4. Kaoy

          You just damned Willis to weeks of redraws to make this canon within this storyline.

      2. Jupiterror

        So THAT’S why it looked familiar

      3. CapedLuigisYoshi

        I still think it’s weird how we never really learned Sakaki’s given name over the course of the entire comic.

    2. a4lbi

      Yea, I do when I have a cute spaghetti strap and it’s cold out. LAYERS ARE WARM

    3. Aubri

      If a small shirt like that is a bit too boob-y, it’s fashionably agreeable to wear a long sleeve shirt underneath. Well, it is as an adult, I dunno about that newfangled high school shit.

    4. AgentKeen

      I wear short-sleeved t-shirts (and, more rarely, button-up shirts with the sleeves rolled up) over long sleeve shirts semi-often.

      I also lack any sense of fashion, so.

  16. Emperor Kiva

    Sarah that includes mentally killing her. I’m happy that Joyce is happy. Please don’t have another sad Joyce until next month.

    1. meghantheworldeater

      You do realize how close next month is right?

      1. Emperor Kiva

        Then I mean after November.

        1. meghantheworldeater

          That’s better 🙂
          Now if only the Willis would actually be so kind.

        2. ArendJK

          Well Doesn’t Willis do his comics several months in advance?
          So if you ask now, you’d only be asking for no sad Joyces during for November of next year

      2. Deanatay

        He meant a _in-comic_ month – so, a few years, our time.

        1. Emperor Kiva

          That works too. I can only put up with sad Joyce for so long.

  17. Mkvenner

    Well that’s a plus in Becky’s favor.

  18. newllend

    great another completely sheltered girl who needs deconstruction into the normal world, this wont be a pain in the ass…are we shore these two aren’t Amish?

    1. ArendJK

      Yes.
      Getting Homeschooled by a Fundamentalist Christian can do some strange things to a person

      1. Kirt

        The Amish at least get a week where they’re allowed to go crazy before re-joining the church.

  19. Communist Canada

    What would all the characters go as for Halloween?

    1. Khaner

      Joyce doesn’t celebrate Halloween. She celebrates Jesusween.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y52CN1_z0tw

      1. Jen Aside

        My co-worker has been making a stink about how she doesn’t “celebrate” Hallowe’en. I pointed out, “You wear jeans on Casual Friday, don’t you?”

        “Yes, but that’s not celebrating.”

        “You don’t have to ‘celebrate.’ It’s just you do stuff because you CAN.”

    2. Catullus

      Walky would plan out an elaborate D&MM-themed costume, but wouldn’t ever get around to actually putting it together.

      Mike would probably be something pointlessly offensive, like an ISIS member.

      Dina would be a dinosaur.

      Amber would try to think of a costume that would most differentiate her from Amazi-Girl, and likely end up not settling on one at all.

      Billie would probably buy a “sexy whatever” costume. Joe would probably do the same.

      Danny would be a quietly earnest Robo-Vac.

      Dorothy would be something reasonable, and well-made, but not especially creative.

      The rest of the main cast probably wouldn’t dress up, for one reason or another.

      1. kelticat

        Carla as Spider-something or Shtickshift.

      2. 4th Dimension

        Joe as sexy RoboVac?

      3. Lume

        What are you talking about? Mike wouldn’t be there, he’s be paying our mothers a nickel.

      4. Leorale

        Danny as quietly earnest Robo-Vac is my favourite!

        Amazi-Girl goes dressed as Amber.

        Dorothy and Walky use a store-bought couple’s costume of Dexter and Monkey Master, respectively.

        Joe goes as something macho that allows him to parade about in his underwear, like Sexy Fireman or something.

        Mary, if she’s the kind of Christian that can celebrate Halloween in the first place, goes as a rather beautifully crafted princess. She spends the evening scowling at everyone’s Sexy Whatever costumes.

        Ethan goes as Nightwing, Howard as Picard, and Sierra wears cute animal ears simply because that’d be fun to draw.

      5. Lumpy Frogsnuggler

        I found Dina’s costume. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvHzTnfZUjY

  20. caramelundqueer

    That, “Yes, Maam!” makes me think Becky’s a bit more self aware than we thought.

    1. OnyxIdol

      This.

  21. Yotomoe

    I just want there to be a scene where Billie or Amber (or any of the larger girls) to be leaving the shower in the buff and Joyce just says ” Oh my god…Becky. Look at her butt”

    1. chris73

      Yes!

    2. Khaner

      She knows what to do with that big fat butt.

      1. Itama

        “wigglewigglewiggle”

        1. Khaner

          *stupid recorder hook*

    3. Wack'd

      That doesn’t sound like a thing that would come out of Joyce’s mouth! She would be trying to keep Becky from seeing the sinful, sinful hindquarters.

      Maybe someone else can say it to her. But not Joyce.

      1. Deanatay

        Covering Becky’s eyes – while looking herself.

        1. Yotomoe

          And biting her lower lip.

  22. Rosicrucian

    I almost get the impression that since Becky is even more restricted by her parents than Joyce is (Christian school, no phone, etc.) she has realized “This is BS” sooner.

    1. Mr k

      She ran away from home, probably.

      1. Clif

        She ran away from home and joined a secret government organization that spies on their fellow Americans.

    2. Kelly

      yeah, that response is making me think along those lines.

  23. Zak

    I almost feel like if this was a different comic Sarah might fistbump Becky at the end of this strip

  24. Twinkle Toes the Berserker

    I get the feeling Becky kind of went through what I went through in whatever passed for high school in her homeschooling group. I get the feeling she watched the news once or twice, and had this realization that someday she was going to have to live in that world, and she was uber not prepared.

    Of course, I was in public school, so my solution was to hang out with the goths and stoners. I can’t see how Beck would have done that.

  25. Black Bumblebee

    Plot twist: Becky has come on a surprise visit to tell Joyce that she’s pregnant! That would probably make Joyce break, though…

    1. kelticat

      Well Becky is expected to get her MRS degree. This would just result in it arriving sooner.

    2. Deanatay

      LESBIAN pregnant?

      1. Bagge

        American sex ed…

  26. Gangler

    Interesting. So Becky’s got a bit of the rebel in her. I bet she’s one of those people who phrases her religion’s limitations as “I can’t do this” or “I’m not allowed to do that”, viewing those aspects of her religion as shackles put on her by her parents.

    She might actually be surprisingly sympathetic to Joyce’s forbidden adventures. The fascination she holds with the cell phones she’s been denied quite likely also extends to areas like sex or even secular social circles. Just waiting to go out and experience the world to her own content as soon as her parents ease up on the leash.

    1. Khaner

      Or she was using the phone as an emergency vibrator.

      1. Gangler

        I feel like Sarah would’ve mentioned that more explicitly.

      2. David

        “The way my phone looks, your birds were really angry. Long time?”

        1. pyrophobia

          +1

    2. kelticat

      My guess is that she realized what Walky realized after the first time he woke up in Dorothy’s bed.

      1. Nono

        http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/06-strange-beerfellows/cuddles/

        Erections?

  27. Mike

    I’m expecting Becky to announce she’s pregnant or getting married or running away from her past.

  28. walls

    She looks a lot different from the first strips.

    1. Bill

      It’s been something like three and a half years since Willis drew Becky in the first month of strips.  Like any artist, his style has changed in that length of time, and I’d be amazed if it hadn’t.

  29. Shark

    becky is 2qt

    1. Opus the Poet

      A half-gallon?

      1. Clif

        for pints.

  30. Bagge

    Sarah has now interacted more than an hour with Becky without coming to hate or loath her. This is a new experience that is confusing and frightening.

    1. tinfoil theory

      Becky has secretly been an android this whole time.

    2. Dorje Sylas

      It’s easy to “interact” with someone who buries themselves in Angry Birds for 59 minutes. Asuming the “Hello I’m Joyce’s friend Becky and I want to surprise her,” lasted no more than 60 seconds.

  31. TheZachariah

    Snow White, that’s a good barometer for sanity.

  32. Orangey

    I want to know what Becky’s deal is. I really want to know. She’s not giving much to go on so far!

  33. Jesse

    What the fuck is a becky?!

  34. Saaaam

    I got it. Becky is made of scorpions and will unleash her arachnid brood when all drama is at a new peak.

  35. Gadgeteer Smashwidget

    I… don’t quite get that last panel.

  36. Taigan

    Let’s all hope that Becky didn’t check Joyce’s browser history.

    1. Dean

      She would probably assume that Joyce mistyped ‘pictures of ducks’.

      1. Gigafreak

        “Darnit Joyce, Matilda is a HEN, not a COCK!”

  37. Nightsbridge

    Huh. I thought that Becky would be the herald of a regression in progress for Joyce. Maybe I was wrong. Hopefully I was wrong.

  38. Lume

    D’aawwwwwww

  39. Sir Robin

    I bet it’s Becky who turns in the Anti-Joyce and snaps and sucks 500 dicks instead

  40. Pinja

    I’m a little confused: She is what gave Joyce an anchor to the mainstream reality but she is even less trusted by her parents than Joyce and Joyce says she was the best socialised of her homeschooled peer-group?

    She’s not going to be the prejudiced religious b-word because Mary has that locked down and it seems unlikely she would be when Joyce isn’t.

    I can only assume she’s gone mad with college freedom and/or contrasts with Joyce’s inability to break from her backwards upbringing.

    I’m intrested to see which way Willis will play it.

    1. Bagge

      They are friends. That’s what she was to Joyce, growing up.

    2. caramelundqueer

      Becky’s parents don’t even trust their daughter with a cell phone. My guess is that even if in reality Becky’s actually much more well adjusted and equipped to handle the real world than Joyce her parents never even considered letting her go to a liberal college because they are just that controlling.

      1. caramelundqueer

        And I’m guessing Becky is probably well adjusted DESPITE her upbringing.

        1. Knightsky

          People are forgetting that int he very first strip, Becky made a poop joke. She’s probably okay, despite any parental baggage.

  41. Lume

    Wait wait wait- did Willis have a Becky too? Who was s/he?

  42. Nono

    Wait, so when Joyce went, ‘C’mon Becky, pick up your phone’ in earlier strips…. she was banking on Becky answering a corded landline phone?

    Okay, that makes more sense that Becky can’t answer it all the time.

  43. Crumplepunch

    “yer not ‘zactly snow white yerself, sister”

    That’s… racist?

    1. Nono

      See an above comment, it’s a homage to an early Roomies! strip.

    2. auo> mous

      Sarah said it.

  44. Jimmy

    Wait, is that Sarah’s version of a complement to Becky? If so, very nice!

  45. Bagge

    Becky thinking: “Now, can I please play some more Angry Birds before Joyce returns or are you going to stare suspiciously at me this whole time?”

  46. Man from Sarcasmania

    We have a beautiful language where I am from, and Sarah is one of our greatest poets.

    1. Clif

      I was going to be a twit and ask if that made you a Sarcasmanian, but I see from your name that it did.

  47. Arkadi

    “An’ proud of it!”

  48. Arkadi

    Here’s what a conversation between Becky and Howard would be like:

    “Angry Birds!”
    “Game of Thrones!”
    (Repeat to infinity)

  49. OmegaDez

    Becky looks “old school” compared to everyone else. Like her style didn’t evolve where the rest of the cast’s did.

    Or maybe it’s just me? It’s weird though. I was thinking about her the other day wondering if we’d ever see her again.

    1. airyu

      Her eyes look really off to me.

    2. Gigafreak

      Becky hasn’t received extensive screentime in a long time, and therefore hasn’t been drawn very much in a long time. Thus her design hasn’t been iterated on in a long time. If you want to see the opposite happening, check out Jacob’s first Shortpacked appearance and compare it to how he looks less than a year later. That took one year. Becky’s been gone for two. She’s missed out on a lot of design evolution and refinement.

  50. Resulli

    I get the feeling that Becky isn’t quite as innocent as Joyce. Not to say she’s sinful or anything but I get the feeling she isn’t as holier-than-thou as Joyce tends to be.

  51. Anderhail

    I think Becky will be a fun character to watch interact with the cast. They have begun to settle into a comfortable mindset with how they view each other, and it’ll be interesting to see how the rest react to Joyce when she lets down her guard. You’ll note Joyce actually gave Sarah a friendly teasing with no thought to it, and that in the previous strip Sarah was a bit nonplussed at the shift in Joyce’s actions and speech. Even though I look forward to more of Becky, I am really looking forward to how the rest of the cast starts to view Joyce as more than just the earnest, confused fundie-girl she has been showing them so far. Though that I have a feeling things are gonna get… wobbly when Becky meets Ethan. On the other hand the thought of Joe meeting Becky the first time is hilarious, for although Joyce is trying to be better, she does have a genuine streak of violence.

    On a different note, I feel that Willis style gut-punches to the feels lie in wait on the topic of Ryan. Especially if Ryan meets Becky without anyone else being around, whether or not he knows about her friendship with Joyce. Because even a temporary insinuation of friendship towards her would be horrible.

  52. nothri

    I….I have this disorienting sensation that Becky might not be as terrible as I thought she was. Or Willis is trying to butter us up so she can be even worse than I originally imagined.

Leave a Reply to meghantheworldeater Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.