229

Zoomr
Posted on January 30, 2022 by David M Willis

229 thoughts on “Zoomr”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    Then Sarah is never seen again as she’s stuck at Ball

    1. Deathjavu

      Couple hour drive, that’s at least a few weeks of no Sarah at normal comic pace.

      1. Lokitsu

        Is this the modern version of being put on a bus?

        1. milu

          it’s the modern version of being put on a bus, and also your sister gets into the bus with you?

      2. King Daniel

        Assuming that the comic doesn’t leave IU behind for a chapter or two to follow Sarah—which this wouldn’t be the first time, remember when we left IU for like basically three chapters to follow Joyce and Becky around as they returned to their hometown?

      3. Needfuldoer

        Unless we follow her there, then it’s a couple weeks of nobody else.

        I wonder if Ball State is populated by pallet-swap versions of the main cast, like it’s the McAwesome’s to IU’s Shortpacked?. Maybe that’s where Juanita comes into play…

  2. The Wellerman

    ????????

    This is gonna get UGLY.

    1. Clif

      You mean when Liz promptly hops on the bus back at the first opportunity?

      1. milu

        a super ugly bus ??????

    2. Wraithy2773

      I’d argue that this got ugly the moment that Sarah physically started to drag her sister back to college without interrogating more about what’s going on here.

      …

      Actually, I’d argue it got ugly when we found out that Carla’s parents are fucking Gig Economy Industrialists.

      Seriously, what the fuck, I thought Carla’s parents were supposed to be good parents, not the fucking spawn of fucking satan!

      1. Decidedly Orthogonal

        They can be both. Besides, assuming Carla is the spawn of Satan (she’s cool enough to be) that implies her parents *are* Satan (or at least one is). That speaks /more/ highly to me as their quality as parents. After all, Satan wasn’t the one witholding knowledge nor wildly overeacting to their children’s subsequently ignorant decisions.

  3. Thag Simmons

    Brand Synergy is important, Sarah

  4. alongcameaspider

    So are we gonna actually get to meet Liz’s friends and see if they’re as bad as Liz has implied then?

    1. King Daniel

      Now now; I’m sure that Theodora Wiser, Davy “Runner” Runnerville and his twin sister Sar, Ambra DiNobile, Guinevere Trillingsworth, and the rest are all fine people at heart.

      1. Tsa

        WELCOME TO MCAWESOME’S PIZZA AND CHOCOLATERIA

      2. Thag Simmons

        The RA Tyra Nick, Annie Shih and her roommate Terry Ní Donnell, Eli the Bionicle guy, Jamie Manley, they’re all decent folks at heart. I think.

      3. bcb

        Oh snap, Liz’s school is the McAwesome’s of the Dumbiverse!

    2. Florence

      they’re all gonna be doppelgängers of the cast

      1. Clif

        That would make me happier than it has any right to.

      2. RowenMorland

        Just a third shift from the Mcawesome/whatever-Billie’s-wing-is-called cast.

    3. Thag Simmons

      There was that Juanita character that was posted for this arc a while back, who could be a friend of Liz’s from muncie.

      1. Clif

        Or it could be if Mucie actually existed.

  5. Hazel

    Damn, Sarah! Going above and beyond!

  6. Cattleprod

    The untagged driver can be any Walkyverse character we haven’t seen yet! And ideally I would then name one but I’m totally drawing a blank… Alan? The Buckets of Blood guy? I dunno.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      I can’t even see any part of the driver’s body in the panel, so I’ll admit I’m a bit confused about why the alt-text makes a point of not naming them.

      As for the “Walkyverse character we haven’t seen yet” thing, both Alan and Buckets Guy have shown up already. Maybe it’s Bloodrose, since her whole deal is never being clearly visible on screen? Or it could be Jordan.

    2. King Daniel

      It’s definitely that same truck driver dude as in Roomies!.

    3. Doctor_Who

      I want it to be Sydney, just because they got stuck giving people a ride in stony silence once before.

      It’s Sydney’s side gig when not at Galasso’s.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Sydney wouldn’t bring passengers to their destination, but kick them out across the street (even if it meant driving by and looping back around).

    4. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      I am just sad that it probably means we can’t vote for “zoomr driver” in the Patreon strips.

      1. James the Bruce

        Zoomr drivr.

    5. mrnoidea

      Plot twist: the Zoomr ride-share cars are all autonomous vehicles; no driver. Sounds like something the Ruttens would invest in.

      1. King Daniel

        Give it a few more years, and this’ll be the retroactive explanation.

      2. Thag Simmons

        If autonomous cars ever appear in Dumbing of Age they’ll probably be Zoomers of some description.

      3. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        Opportunity for a “Questionable Content” crossover!

        1. King Daniel

          Faye already canonically exists in the Dumbiverse as an IU student, we saw her with her dad and sister on Freshman Family Weekend. Per word of Willis, Faye’s dad never commits suicide in this universe.

        2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          So since he never meets Faye, Marten is recruited as a secret agent instead of Steve, and must ultimately have the final showdown with Evil Hannelore when she release the virus?

        3. Needfuldoer

          Hanners is the sleeper agent who helps take down her mother’s corporation from within.

          Cosette is the evil mastermind.

        4. Casi

          I’m sorry, i just can’t see Cosette as the evil mastermind. It’s actually Sara, because in this universe, she never got eaten by the Allosaurus

        5. a/snow/mous/e

          Of course, that makes more sense. I just wonder who’s dating whom?

    6. RowenMorland

      Sam and Fuzzy crossover, it’s Carl.

    7. Deanatay

      Sarah: Hey, Untagged Zoomr Driver, I’ll give you an extra 20 bucks if you’ll engage the child-safety locks on the back doors.

      UZD: Why?

      Sarah: And another 10 if you don’t ask any stupid questions!

    8. Alopex

      Self Driving Ultra Car prototype

    9. Lars

      It’s Honey Bun, obviously

  7. RassilonTDavros

    …oh no, Liz has been forced into a car by a hostile relative, somebody better call Amazi-Girl and Sal Nightguy and… shit, we’re fresh out of people who have motorcycles.

    I can’t wait for the twist where it turns out that Liz’s roommate is actually Dana

    1. Thag Simmons

      You could call Asher! He’s not a superhero but he might be able to break somebody’s kneecaps and definitely has a motorcycle

  8. Nono

    Wait a minute, I know what this is!

    It’s the set up for a whacky rom-com road trip filled with wacky misunderstandings, hijinks, and, at the end, they learn about the importance of family!

    You can’t fool me, I know when I’m being Hallmarked!

  9. Jay

    Ah, this reminds me of road trips with family and my brother and I trying not to kill each other after a few hours in the car.

    1. milu

      trying NOT to kill each other? what were you, the Dalai Lama brothers?

      1. milu

        *siblings. look at me assuming people’s gender on the internet like it’s the 1950’s.

        …wait

      2. Jay

        Lol! Apparently just because we’re twins doesn’t mean we don’t want to murder one another after enough close proximity.

  10. PirateTawnee

    Yay! Road trip!

    (I don’t know how far it is from IU to Muncie, but possibly a few strips worth of Willis getting to reuse the car interior to save his precious wrists?)

  11. Sirksome

    Good luck actually finding Muncie the imaginary place that doesn’t exist.

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      That’s the real reason Liz doesn’t want to go back, because they brainwash you to implant memories saying it exists.

    2. C.T. Phipps

      Is Willis allowed to use Muncie? I mean, does he have permission from Kenzerco?

      I mean, they made up Muncie as the setting for their KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE strip.

      Or is it public domain because of 3rd edition?

      1. Corlanthis

        Not for nothing, every time I read the word Muncie, I hear “They made me the Black Prince of Muncie. What was I supposed to do?” In my head.

    3. Amós Batista

      I really thought Muncie was imaginary, after they called the university as “Ball State”. What kind of institute is called Ball State??

  12. Stephen Bierce

    No regrets Coyote, we just live under different circumstance…–Joni Mitchell

  13. newlland(Henryvolt)

    Is there a Zoomer food as well for food delivery?

    1. newlland(Henryvolt)

      Oops I meant “Zoomr Food” don’t now How I made such an obvious mistake.

      1. Sirksome

        You fool. It’s neither Zoomer or Zoomr, but Zoomier Eats. The premier food delivery app. Not to be confused with Zoomer, Zoomr, or Zuner their music and podcast streaming app witch itself also gets confuse with Zoomify the other far more popular music streaming app ironically not affiliated with Ruttech at all.

        1. Clif

          Yet.

        2. woobie

          Hopefully the delivery folk don’t park right in front of the restaurant doors and block normally parked customer’s cars. Grr.

  14. Lumino

    With every new comic, I dislike Liz more and more. She’s not sympathetic, she’s just irritating and distracting from interesting characters.

    1. Rabbit

      I’m feeling the same way at the moment. At first I was curious, but so far nothing has piqued my interest as anything particularly unique to *her* and could probably be explored in a more interesting way through the other characters we have.

      She served her purpose to plant seeds for various characters, specifically Joyce and Joe, but we’ve had the ‘running away’ character in Becky, we have the questioning of faith in Joyce, just less far along.

      I sympathize with her in the same way I do with Joyce, but to a lesser extent because we don’t know anything about her to make me care beyond that. We know all the traumatic stuff that happened with Joyce.

      So far what we know is her friends picked on her for being religious. Which feels kind of weak?

      I love her design, I love that we get to see more Sarah, and we’re not gonna meander through her being on campus and Sarah chasing her down. This is a pleasant turn.

      But I feel like the ‘hook’ for characters needs to be made fairly soon in their appearance to get people invested, like we got with Becky.

      But we didn’t really get that with Liz, which I think is where it comes from for me imo?

      1. Nono

        With this basically being ‘Season 2’ of the strip, we’ve so far gotten Booster and Liz, as well as a promotion for Lucy to main cast.

        I dunno, Liz is kinda middle-ground, I guess. She works for me, especially since she’s a little brattier than Joyce, and I imagine probably combative with others in a way that Becky isn’t (given what little we’ve seen of her non-Sarah interactions).

      2. Andy

        We could see her bringing out more of the overprotective side of the caring older sister in Sarah by Sarah confronting Liz’s friends and forcing them to back down on teasing Liz about her beliefs, which then leads to Sarah understanding Joyce’s position better and being more accepting of Joyce’s beliefs as well as being more on Joyce’s side regarding her shelved conflict with Becky.

        1. Lumino

          I don’t think Sarah will ever be on Joyce’s side of that particular debate because Joyce was WRONG.

          As Dorothy put it “Moral Superiority doesn’t default to you.”

          Now, Joyce and Becky have (for the most part) worked through it, but at that particular moment Joyce was 100% in the wrong.

        2. Andy

          Joyce was wrong in the way she approached that debate, yes, but I’m not convinced Sarah has really been on board with Liz or Joyce losing their faith. I also think that Sarah can be more on Joyce’s side in that she understands better where Joyce is coming from without fully being on Joyce’s side the way many commenters here have been.

    2. JBento

      You’re not allowed to say mean things about characters with an Agatha gravatar.

      1. Sev

        All the characters are precious babbies who must have all the hugs

  15. Rogue 7

    The app is a zoo, Mr.

    1. Clif

      I feel certain that this is the first time the Ruttens have heard that comment.

      1. milu

        i mean, it doesn’t really work if you say it out loud.

  16. Imogen

    Needless bellyaching: I really really wish we could get more Carla in the main story. So many new characters, so few of the old crew.

    1. Imogen

      I don’t even dislike Liz, unlike my lookalike above. I just… we’re neglecting so many characters who desperately need more screentime or more nuance (Malaya, Roz, Carla, to name a few easy picks).

      1. Thag Simmons

        Liz is acting as a catalyst for Joyce and Sarah character development, a fairly effective one at that. I also suspect she’s a guest star for this book rather than a permanent addition to the cast

        1. Imogen

          Yeah, that’s part of why I’m not singling out Liz. I get her utility. At the same time, the reason for having a large cast is so *existing characters* can bounce off each other productively. Ideally, you find ways to make the characters in the roster facilitate that character development.

          I’m not anti-Liz at all. I’m just pro-Carla and Malaya and Roz.

        2. Imogen

          Sorry for the double-post, just, like, Roz would be a great character to put Joyce next to right now, because Roz’s original role in the comic (before getting sidelined by Becky) was to serve as a progressive foil for Dorothy and Joyce, calling them on their BS and sometimes getting called out on her own. This would be a natural time to utilize your Roz, but she’s stuck on the bench.

        3. Nono

          Problem is the slow pace. Carla gets some okay story drips, but moving her up to main cast member probably means getting into heavy issues, and I think that would be a storyline you don’t want to get into right while dealing with Joyce v Becky and Amber finally healing.

          She could finally get a proper Dumbing storyline, but I think the kind of emotional vulnerability we’d need from Carla (instead of just spat fights with Mary) would be A Lot, and there’s probably a time for that.

        4. Rabid Rabbit

          Season 2 is definitely in slow pace mood. I actually did a quick count, and at the end of the last storyline, in terms of number of strips, the equivalent space in Season 1 was the middle of Sarah telling the Dana story, so the middle of Book 2, chapter 5 (Saturday’s all right for slighting). Think how much had happened by then: Dorothy and Walky’s romance had made it to their first fight and recovery (not to mention Walky’s first touching of boobies), Joyce’s encounter with Gash-Face, Dorothy had managed to ambush Amazi-Girl for the first time, pyjama jeans were a thing, the Joe/Roz sex video had happened, Roz had set in motion her plan to set Leslie up with Robin, Danny’s friendship with Amber and the start of his relationship with Amazi-Girl, Billie and Ruth had reached the stage of blackmailing each other over beer, etc., etc., etc.

          What’s really happened in Season 2 so far? Um, Booster’s a bit of a dick who doesn’t realize when they should shut up? Becky continues to be a bit of a dick to Dorothy? There’s unresolved grief going around? OK, I’m exaggerating, but until the Becky/Joyce blowup over atheism, there hasn’t really been that much huge drama, has there? And obviously, we had a surfeit of that in the finale of season 1, and partly it’s that over the years Willis has gone into more and more detail and stopped trying to tell stories quickly (if he ever did — but still, look at the length of chapters in the first couple of years compared to more recent ones), but it is noticeable.

          Though I do find it interesting that two Sarah storylines (both involving backstory for her, at that, if Liz’s existence counts as backstory) are showing up at more or less the same moment in each season. I’m almost tempted to see if there are other correlations and if there’s a deliberate pattern. But I’m not quite that much of a nerd.

        5. Thag Simmons

          A new post-timeskip status quo was established, Joyce got glasses and started a comic, Danny and Sal are a thing now, Ruth went out with Daisy but then hooked up with Jason, Lucy finally got Walky to notice her romantixally. Things are happening

        6. Axel_Grease

          In the beginning we didn’t know the characters well and THINGS had to happen to cause drama and intrigue. If you’ve come this far you’re invested in the characters so there’s more room for subtlety.

    2. Delicious Taffy

      Any excuse for more Carla is good enough for me. She was nearly my pick for the Kickstarter makeout art, until I swerved to Dina at the last second for the sake of color variety.

      1. The Wellerman

        Hey Delicious!

        Speaking of design, wanna swerve by your Newgrounds inbox for something totally non-related? ?

        Also mind if ya put your discord handle to make this easier?

  17. Derek

    I mean, if Liz flat our refuses to explain what the heck is going on, this is the only expected outcome

    1. C.T. Phipps

      Yes, the number 1# question is whether this is serious or just socially awkward.

      1. woobie

        This has been my only question for DAYS.

  18. Florence

    Family dynamics like these are so tricky cause there dynamics in play that neither one fully realises

    Still it’s narratively nice to see Sarah away from the main cast

  19. Kamino Neko

    I dunno, Sarah, the Ruttens are apparently richer than Croesis, so it clearly works for them…

  20. Rabid Rabbit

    If anyone ever doubted that Sarah and Liz were actually related, that last panel…

  21. DarkoNeko

    Carla using her Car(la) power for good !

  22. Viktoria

    So, we’re agreed: Zoomer Driver for next Patreon bonus character?

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      You son of a bongo, I’m in.

  23. tim gueguen

    Don’t confuse Zoomr with Zoomer. Or with Zoomer, the Canadian magazine for active baby boomers.

    1. zee

      Or Zoomers, the generation the main cast is a part of

      1. Roborat

        Or Zumba, the dance exercise craze from the 2000s.

  24. Sirksome

    It’s always a little weird to me that Carla is the daughter of billionaires. You’d think that would come up more. Like why is she even going to IU?

    1. The Wellerman

      Maybe for some niche monetary gain?

      They ARE a tech company, and the mideastern US including IU has like a huge % of all Computer Sci and tech graduates, while receiving only 5% of Venture Capital funding for some reason.

    2. Thag Simmons

      I mean I don’t think Carla’s the type to go to a super prestigious university.

      But yeah, that her parents are the obscenely rich owners of a massive tech company is weird, and that probably won’t go unaddressed forever

    3. C.T. Phipps

      Rich children often go to university for the experience after all. In a better country, we’d have people who go to college for the education and not because they’re afraid of destitution without a college degree.

    4. Delicious Taffy

      How’s she gonna lord her superiority over others if she goes to a rich-kids college? That wouldn’t be fair to anyone.

      1. Regalli

        Besides, I’m reasonably sure the Ruttens are *gasp!* new money. An Ivy League would be TERRIBLE for the Lording Over opportunities.

      2. Thag Simmons

        She’d also definitely hate the typical rich kids.

    5. Clif

      If it was good enough for her parents, it should be good enough for her.

    6. Nono

      Why is Jennifer going to IU.

      Rich people kids don’t always go to big name universities, shockingly.

      1. King Daniel

        Not to mention that, while IU isn’t Ivy League, it’s still one of the largest universities in the US. A minor community college it ain’t.

      2. Thag Simmons

        Jennifer’s parents seem like they’re wealthy, but Carla’s parents seem like they’re in a whole other league

        1. Heather

          Like Jennifer’s parents are probably millionaires and Carla’s billionaires. There’s a bigger gap between them monetary wise than even Jennifer’s has with say a panhandlers her dad apparently bussed out of town (like seriously though I still remember that as she talked to someone I think was a house cleaner on the phone and making a similar face to Sal).

        2. milu

          ok but in terms of what their kids’ education looks like millionaires have a lot in common with billionaires. Like there’s a threshold of wealth at which you’re able to pay for the most expensive college; beyond that, how much more privileged can your education get? Or do i just lack imagination?

        3. Heather

          True, I guess billonaires are just more likely to roll their eyes when their kid drops out of college for the sixteenth time as opposed to lower level millionaires though you might have more of a grip on reality to know such things aren’t a good sign. Whatever it’s a sign of.

          Like I guess in terms of things in general a lower level millionaire has at least a chance of bankrupting themselves into destitution. Billionaires not so much.

        4. thejeff

          The very lowest level of millionaire, maybe. Which the Billingsworth definitely are not. That level doesn’t get you the kind of influence over even local politics her dad apparently has.
          Beyond that level, you really can’t bankrupt yourself into destitution without a lot of work. Bankruptcy becomes more of a tool to limit liability than an actual problem.
          As for education, I guess there’s the step where you can not just pay for it, but bribe the school to take them with a new building or something.

    7. Viktoria

      Because Carla is Trans. And while she can buy her way into Harvard/MIT/etc, she’d be just one of many kids with rich parents there if something goes wrong. At IU, if Mary escalates things or a professor decides to cause problems, her parents can just drop a briefcase full of cash in the President’s office and make the problem go away. That’s much harder if her fellow students are a Kushner or a Bezos.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        So what you’re saying is, for a sufficiently large bag of Benjamins, Mary can be removed. Poimament-like.

      2. Segnosaur

        Askubg Asher woyld probably be easier is they want someobe removed….

        Just sayin…

    8. Axel_Grease

      It seems like Carla’s parents are down to earth and care about her, and would let her go to whatever school she wanted.

  25. BBCC

    Sarah’s been sharpening her older sister skills, Liz. You’ll have to do better than that.

  26. King Daniel

    …Liz! I am appalled! Not wearing your seatbelt? For shame!

    1. David M Willis

      she’s in the middle seat, where there’s no shoulder strap

      if she were on the outer seat, further away from sarah, she could escape

      1. The Wellerman

        I just had a premonition! Juanita is on the other side!

      2. King Daniel

        I mean, I’ve definitely been in cars where the middle seat still has a shoulder strap, if for no other reason than that the middle-seat rider doesn’t go flying through the windshield in a crash. 😛 But ‘s fair, I didn’t realize until now that she was in the middle seat and I guess not all cars have shoulder straps for the middle seat.

        1. King Daniel

          At least some, possibly all of the cars in my immediate family have shoulder straps for the center seat—so it’s not just a Canadian thing. Maybe an old car vs. new car thing? Though that does probably preclude this being a driverless car, then. 😛

        2. King Daniel

          (This was meant to be a reply to Segnosaur below me.)

      3. Segnosaur

        Wait avsec… Shoulder straps for center seatsare not standard on all cars?

        My Hyundai accent has shoulder belts for all 3 seats in the back. Maybe it is just a Canadian thing

        1. Needfuldoer

          Newer cars have them, older ones just have a lap belt. I think they updated the safety regs because if you sit in the middle with just a lap belt, you wind up involuntarily whipping forward in a collision.

          I’ve been in a 70s pickup truck that had lap or shoulder belts for the two ends of the bench seat. There were literally two belts and only one latch per position.

        2. Roborat

          Canadian cars have been built identically to the U.S. versions for several decades now, aside from the different speedometer display. Vehicle safety regulations for both countries are generally identical.

      4. Coco

        Please tell me it’s an old old car otherwise I’ll think this is still allowed in 2022.

    2. Cholma

      I caught that too, but then realized she’s shoulder to shoulder with Sarah, so she’s probably in the middle seat. Perhaps Joyce came along for the ride, just out of our sight? (either that or Carla is there, since she’s the one using the app)

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        Carla also has an app for hiring goons the keep people in cars.

        1. Clif

          Zoom Erelse.

  27. Agemegos

    Is this a felony, Sarah?

    1. King Daniel

      She’s no better than toedad /s

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Yeah, but she’s got the privilege/advantage of being an unarmed black woman with no ties to a fundamentalist cult or other oppressive organization, so she’s actually way more dangero– wait a minute, I think there might be a few very important differences there.

      2. Eldritchy

        She is armed with Sister’s Authority, she is far more dangerous than Toedad and his gun.

        1. misanthropope

          “oh F*** no!”

          – dina, when asked to fight sarah

    2. Clif

      Technically, but only if it goes to court.

  28. Drakkin the Alien

    Can’t help but hear of Muncie and think of the jolly adventurers that brought me to It’s Walky some twenty years ago… It was a KODDT & FAANS crossover that bounced me into another FAANS & It’s Walky crossover 🙂 those crazy days.. so fond memories…

    1. C.T. Phipps

      Haha. I just mentioned Muncie/KOTDT above.

  29. C.T. Phipps

    I am genuinely curious if Liz is just trying to avoid being “outed” as an atheist by her refusal to go to church (and presumably live a lie in addition to her online profile) and the social awkwardness that will ensue or if there’s something more at stake like a lot of people theorize.

    I’d prefer the former but I also would not be at all surprised to find a horrifying secret. Besides, the former is a lot more serious than Sarah is treating it. This is something that Liz is clearly deeply repressed and struggling with and needs a sympathetic era about.

    1. C.T. Phipps

      Ear. Damn you, typos!

      1. milu

        Ducking typos!

  30. Reltzik

    … so I think this is technically kidnapping, and I’m still not sure whether to say “Sarah no”.

    1. Bagge

      Honestly, It’s usually a pretty good bet to say ‘No!’ to both Sarah and whoever she’s interacting with.

    2. Delicious Taffy

      Eh, kidnapping gets a bad rap. The media only shows you the bad kidnappings, but never the times where a good guy with a kidnapping stops a bank robbery

      1. milu

        Many potential infanticides have been stopped by a kid napping.

        1. Reltzik

          Nice sleeper pun.

        2. King Daniel

          I was too tired to see this last night.

        3. milu

          you snooze, you lose!

      2. someone

        I want that to be the plot of a Hollywood movie.

        Some vigilante wannabe kidnaps a teenager with attitude to be his crime-fighting sidekick.

        1. Roborat

          Batman does seem to go through a lot of Robins.

  31. Bagge

    Road Trip!

    1. Clif

      Are you perhaps acquainted with the song 99 Bottles of Beer?

      1. milu

        Is there a game in the US where you have to avoid using the words “yes” or “no”? We called it “ni oui ni non”, it was a classic on road trips with my family.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Yeah, it’s called a trial. Heyoooooo!

        2. milu

          ooooh now that you mention it, this would explain why our parents had us play this game a lot and said, “if the car gets stopped by the police and they pull you out to ask you questions, you have to play “ni oui ni non”, got it?”

  32. woobie

    Liz is clearly plotting murder.
    Sarah also.

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Having a double murder in your car can totally tank your rating as a Zoomr driver.

      1. King Daniel

        On the plus side, your passengers can’t leave bad reviews!

        1. milu

          on the minus side, think of the paperwork to get their insurances to pay for the blood removal!

        2. King Daniel

          See, this is why the Ottoman royals started using silk cords for their institutionalized fratricides.

        3. milu

          I mean, they are known for their luxurious interior design, so that tracks.

    2. Alaric

      I’m pretty sure Sarah’s ALWAYS plotting murder. It’s a testament to her will power that so far it’s remained in the plotting stage.

  33. JA

    Plot twist: The car is a driverless car and there is no driver to tag.

  34. Endplanets

    Shocking to see Carla abuse her corporate account.
    Shocking.

    1. Sombrero

      Do corporate accounts have any other use than abuse? Shocking!

  35. cbwroses

    Just popping to see if anyone made the “It’s leviOsa, not LevioSA” joke, yet.

    1. cbwroses

      IN. Popping IN to see, damn it.

    2. Delicious Taffy

      Hadn’t thought of that, but now I’m just thinking of the old Leviosaaaa parody cartoon.

    3. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      And no one has done the Babylon 5 joke about the brothers ZAthras, ZaTHras, ZathrAS, etc.

  36. RassilonTDavros

    Ah, I remember those pre-2020-ish days when I could think of those books without my mind immediately going to the author’s then-unknown-to-me transphobia.

    (Which, for the record, is pronounced transPHObia, not transphobiA)

    1. RassilonTDavros

      (This was meant to be a reply to cbwroses above).

  37. Rabisch

    This looks really extreme. Liz is very childish and Sarah is oppressed with the role of being older sister. Poor Sarah, WHAT ANNOYING!

  38. Amós Batista

    Bad move, Liz! Never tell your intentions to your opponent.

  39. Sombrero

    Today at WWE: Clinton vs. Clinton (no, not those ones).

  40. Superducked

    Liz: YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!

    Sarah: Fucking try me.

    1. Deanatay

      Sarah: Joyce, hold my Sprite.

  41. Sol

    Maybe now that they’re in a confined space that Liz can’t escape from or easily deflect the conversation they can talk now? Maybe?

    Probably not…

    1. StClair

      Yeah, I have some sympathy for people who were saying last week that maybe Sarah should try to find out what’s really bothering Liz rather than leaping to judgment… problem is, Liz has been deflecting hard every time it even comes up. So, this is what we get instead. 🙁

      1. Sol

        Next five strips are them sitting in grumpy silence. The only thing that changes is the background.

  42. Keulen

    If Liz’s friends back at Ball State are really as bad as she way saying, then maybe she shouldn’t go back there right away?

    1. Keulen

      Also, I though Zoomer was just another term for Gen Z folks.

      1. Inbar Fink

        “Zoomer” as a term in the David Willis Multiverse predate the Gen-Z use of the term. In the Walkyverse, “Zoomer” was a popular brand of talking car Joe and Rachel’s company made after Ultra-Car ‘left the nest’ to go work at Shortpacked. That whole storyline happened in 2010, long before the ‘Zoomer’ nickname for Gen-Z was a thing (people still complained about Millennials back than).
        The Dumbiverse decided to keep the idea of Carla’s parents making a popular tech thing called “Zoomer” but made it more grounded than talking cars (apps and phone OSes) but whoooops! Around 2016 that started becoming a term for something but an Obnoxiously Polite Talking Car!
        I wonder if that term is less popular in the DOAverse cause of the Ruttech connection. Or if people think the term came from that app like with people thinking “Zoomers” comes from “Zoom”

        1. Needfuldoer

          Or they just call everything “Zoomer” as a genericized trademark, like “Kleenex” and “dumpster” except everything gets the name, not just facial tissue and garbage receptacles.

    2. Segnosaur

      Problem is when you are dealing with school, there are time constraints. Classes start on a certain day, and missung a week or 2 of a term (or even a few days) might affect her whole school term.

  43. Spencer

    My headcanon is that the driver is the same guy who was in the truck during Becky’s kidnapping.

    He decided to find a less dramatic career.

    1. King Daniel

      Hey, I already said that above! I even linked his tag!

      1. Spencer

        yeah well

        i said it yesterday on patreon

        so i win

      2. Spencer

        Wait hold up.

        Did Walkyverse Ruth get isekai’d? She got killed by a truck, that’s the most important part.

        My new Walkyverse headcanon is that getting hit by a truck sent Ruth to another world where she went on exciting fantasy adventures with hot monster people.

        1. Thag Simmons

          Dumbing Age: Origins

        2. Spencer

          Oh, FFO’s not actually an isekai. Limp Bizkit and cellphones just exist in Final Fantasy land.

          (the funny thing is, that’s actually been canon since the OG NES game)

        3. Thag Simmons

          That was a riff on Dragon Age: Origins, which is decidedly not an Isekai in any way and is frankly a little lacking in the hot monsters department, but it is a fantasy adventure

        4. Spencer

          Ah. How embarrassing of me.

          I never played Dragon Age, the dialogue seemed a bit too typical Bioware, ie: every single character is the snarky roguish type exclusively written in that insufferable Joss Whedon way, except instead of just having one Funny Guy they all talk like that.

        5. StClair

          In my experience, most Whedon stuff has everyone talk like that (ie, like how Joss Whedon talks). Sometimes characters do have distinctive voices, but…

        6. Spencer

          Everyone sounds stupid in Joss Whedon stuff, they just say the same jokes in different ways.

          That’s bad enough, but imagine all of them being snarky badasses who make comedic threats of violence and glib remarks about their current adventure being crazy/hopeless/impossible, and then every single response to this is “remind me not to get on your bad side” and “ha, I like this one!”

        7. Thag Simmons

          Honestly the main reason I picked it as a thing to reference is the title, which isn’t particularly original in the first place.

        8. Spencer

          The actual joke there is that the world is called ‘Thedas’ because it’s a placeholder for “The Dragon Age Setting” and then they just never changed it.

        9. StClair

          see also Ace Combat’s alternate Earth, “Strangereal”.

        10. Thag Simmons

          Thedas is a great example of a placeholder that nobody bothered to replace, but eh, I’ve heard much worse

        11. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          I thought it was a reference to that Wolverine movie.

        12. Thag Simmons

          Origins is a very common subtitle. Maybe should have gone with Inquisition, that’s much less common

        13. Roborat

          That is why nobody expects it.

  44. Needfuldoer

    Road trip!

  45. Deanatay

    Liz: C’mon, sis, let me stay, we can have wacky hij-

    Sarah: NOPE NOPE NOPE (all the way back to Muncie)

  46. Alan in DC

    Over on QC, there is a well-scripted relationship going on between a trans woman and the male protagonist of the comic series.
    It’d be interesting indeed to see the kind of intimate reiationship that would interest Carla, should the moment occur.

    1. Axel_Grease

      I honestly forgot who you were talking about because it’s not rammed into our heads that Claire is trans all the time. I agree, I think it was handled just right and it adds new dimensions to the characters. In a previous version of this comic, Carla was on the asexuality spectrum, but who knows if that holds true in this universe.

      1. King Daniel

        Sexuality is a constant in the Willis Multiverse, by word of Willis. There is no universe where Ethan isn’t gay, and no universe where Carla isn’t ace.

    2. milu

      Carla is ace, can’t remember if she’s aro though?

      1. Regalli

        Carla is ace, sex-repulsed which is why she does not get Slipshines, and by all accounts homoromantic. (Previous universe her explicitly said ‘homoromantic’ and that does carry over for known quantities – Walkyverse Danny is bisexual via retcons, for instance – but even if not we have the clear indication she was into Malaya, that ‘girls are super cute’ line or something to that extent talking with Ruth during the Mary blackmail, and some miscellaneous suggestions as I recall. But with Malaya and Marcie seeming to be a thing with no indication Malaya or Carla are polyamorous while Marcie’s is purely in the past universe, most of her interactions with Ruth and Jennifer while THEY were dating, and everyone else she regularly interacts with being presumed straight, there’s not currently a niche in the cast for Carla to be dating right now. Tragic.)

        1. StClair

          there have been a few hints that she crushes on Sal a bit and thinks she’s super cool, but like, who doesn’t?
          (besides Malaya, who is wrong)

        2. Regalli

          Yep, and sadly, hovertext says Sal is in fact straight. (I said ‘presumed’ because she interacts just enough with Joyce to put Joyce on the list, and there is a possibility AG’s sexuality doesn’t match Amber’s exactly, but one’s still headcanons and subtext and the other is basically entirely speculative.)

  47. Axel_Grease

    Oh good, more shenanigans instead of talking things out. I don’t find this aspect of the comic frustrating at all, no sir.

    1. ziggy78eog

      Because, “talking things out”, would not generate nearly as much senseless drama, and would diffuse/end the conflict too quickly. If his conflicts end too soon, Willis cannot pad his strip with unnecessary, melodramatic, bs.

      1. milu

        Willis is such a shill for Big Drama smh

      2. thejeff

        “talking things out” isn’t exactly in character for either of these two.

      3. Spencer

        I, too, read character dramas for the explicit reason of characters not being dramatic at each other.

        1. King Daniel

          “What you said, but without so much sarcasm”?

        2. Spencer

          When Becky and Dorothy stood in the doorway as Joyce angrily growled about she was an idiot who believed there was a god who cared about her, I said, and I quote, “I want blood.”

          So far that has worked out swimmingly for me.

      4. Delicious Taffy

        This is just a pet peeve, but I’m fairly sure you’re not supposed to put a comma before the noun after you’ve listed a bunch of adjectives. “Large, brown, noisy cow”, for example. I’ve been seeing a lot of it and I’m not sure what’s up.

  48. ziggy78eog

    Finally, this little arc is going to get wrapped up. Now, I do not hate Liz, I think she has the potential to be an interesting character. She and Joyce can be each other’s mirror reflection of each other, and learn how not to be a pompous, judgemental, b*tch, or a total sloot.

    I also have a feeling that Liz is going to discover that her friends are not going to be the monsters that she imagines them to be, when they find out that she no longer wants to go to Service.

  49. Shadowsnail

    So, the driver is Guns, then?

  50. Beau Kirin Maysey

    “Who wants to go on a

    R O A D T R I P ????”

  51. Wraithy2773

    …it’s okay to viciously hate Carla’s parents now, right?

    Because Gig Economy Industrialists are… like the absolute fucking worst? Are we going to find out they also run a crypto exchange or got in on the ground floor of the NFT scam?

    1. alongcameaspider

      I mean I hate them because they’re billionaires

      It’s always correct to hate billionaires

  52. thumb

    And now you can talk. No, really. You probably should talk. Go on . . .

  53. Decidedly Orthogonal

    Oh alt-text-DyW. Zoomr/Uber/Lyft drivers aren’t inhuman. It’s their corporate overlords. Show the driver some love. (or is it automated?)

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Not Inhumans? Are they Eternals then?

      1. The Wellerman

        Self driving cars? If Carla’s parents also make those?

  54. Jonah Sanville

    hewwo your zoomr dwiver is here

  55. Rikunda

    Round trip sounds expensive… Carla probably did it for free tho to get more attention. Also why didn’t her sister just bite her and run?

  56. MicaXIII

    and then they were dropped into the amazons

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