154

Yeah-huh
Posted on February 16, 2020 by David M Willis

154 thoughts on “Yeah-huh”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    Sarah: *whispers* “yell ALL HAIL SATAN and hang up”

    1. Ana Chronistic

      phone-talking spoons are in short supply tho

      1. Michael Lanting

        I don’t get that at all, talking on the phone is so much easier than talking face to face.

        1. Omskivar

          Eh, depends on the person. Personally talking on the phone is a lot more taxing for me; auditory processing issues make it hard to understand speech through the phone, even when the signal is clear, and not being to able to see body language means I have to depend on my unreliable ears to understand the other person.

          Also, why on earth would I talk on the phone when I can text instead?

        2. Felian

          indeed.

          a while ago we needed an answer at work and while it was very clear to me that we’d get it probably in the next few hours (when my text would get a response) my colleague just called that person on the phone and got the answer immediately and i looked at him as if he’d had a magical power.

        3. Geneseepaws

          I totally get that. I understand an auditory hiccough in the listening process. However, I can hear auditory clues in a voice that I cannot glean from a text. Strain in the voice, length of pauses, there is a lot of information there for me, that I can’t see in texts.

        4. Gene

          Ugh. Unfortunately for me, I can’t pick up those clues. I have a hard time just talking face-to-face. Phone calls are agony. Strangely enough, I can hear better on the phone as I get older.

        5. HeySo

          I’m more-or-less on board with Om’s perspective.

          Simply put, it takes more effort to initiate a conversation where you engage directly, but it takes more effort to maintain a conversation where you communicate over phone. Both are taxing in different ways.

          Chatting/Texting is typically the best option, in situations where speed and context derived from tone aren’t of high concern.

        6. Ana Chronistic

          Meant to reply, I experience a HUGE disconnect when I talk on the phone, and also my mind wanders bc, hey, there’s a disembodied voice talking to me and I can’t see who it’s coming from

  2. Laladoria

    Nah…huh…?

    1. Laladoria

      I would also like to say that this is a very cute joyce face.

  3. Stephen Bierce

    *record scratch effect*

    1. Needfuldoer

      *Confused Tim Allen grunt*

      1. A Fan

        I don’t think so Tim.

  4. clif

    Looks like Hanks eyes didn’t lie.

  5. Mra

    I sense a sudden subject change now that Carol is out of earshot.

    1. Doctor_Who

      “Joyce, you’ll never guess how much I saved by switching to Geico!”

      1. Mra

        15% or more?

        1. Jamie

          No, they’re pumping the brakes on that and swapping over to the other thing.

        2. Michael L

          “cpt america I understood that reference.gif”

        3. Needfuldoer

          “Sequels” to their commercials because they’re finally out of new ideas?

          Racism against cavemen?

          Plotting a way to take down Flo once and for all?

        4. He Who Abides

          Oh please, let that last one succeed. Flo is too annoying for words.

        5. Geneseepaws

          Possibly with a more dysfunctional famIly life than Joyce and Amber put together.

        6. Needfuldoer

          They should contract the job out to Mayhem, he finished off Chreyl’s she-shed, after all. Jake should know how to get a hold of him.

        7. DSL

          Where’s Erin Esurance when we need her?

        8. Matthew E Davis

          Can’t be done. They have a thing, apparently.

          https://kyraneko.tumblr.com/post/112294447196/whatnursejack-thewinterotter-kyraneko

  6. Rosicrucian

    So… Hank’s been hiding from his wife that he’s been trying to reach Joyce to tell her about Ross getting bailed out.

    1. carl320

      This isn’t the first thing that came to mind, but it makes more sense. I was thinking it was going to be something about Jocelyne.

      1. Miri

        But he probably wouldn’t share that with Sarah?

        1. DSL

          I think he _did_ share that with Sarah, hence the “you’d better take this from here.”

        2. Some Ed

          It’s *amazing* what people will share with someone they’ve learned is a future attorney, despite knowing that person is only a sophomore pre-law student or worse.

          This is why lawyers have to disclaim “I’m not your lawyer” before you pay them, and everyone else talking about legal issues needs to disclaim “I’m not a lawyer.”

          That having been said, this is not that hugely personal of a revelation. It’s not like the time someone at college responded to the sophomore pre-law student in my dorm unit my freshman year with, “Oh, cool! I’ve been really wanting to talk with a lawyer about possibly having killed someone, but I can’t afford one.”

          Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. More importantly, I’m not your lawyer. Or doctor. (Also, I’m not a doctor. Especially not that kind of doctor.)

        3. Romanticide

          But on this case Sarah is her roomate, and if Hank was going to take a leap of fate it was going to be with her.

        4. Axel

          I don’t think it has anything to do with her being a law student. It was a casual question while he exits the house and gets a little farther from the door/any open windows.

        5. clif

          Yep.

    2. Coma

      Huh, I didn’t think of that. I thought, perhaps Joyce’s mom tried reaching her (for whatever reason, possibly a mean or bad one) by calling from her husbands phone, as she wouldn’t reach her over her own phone, because Joyce wouldn’t take the call and that’s why Hank was surprised and said he only called two times.
      Yours makes much more sense

      1. DarkoNeko

        well, she possibly doesn’t have her own cell phone.

        1. King Daniel

          She does, she’s called Joyce from her own phone before (such as in the ALL HAIL SATAN incident).

    3. DarkoNeko

      oooh maybe.

    4. A Fan

      Except he wouldnt need to hide his reply to that from mom. Nor does it make sense he *initiate* a call to be kept hidden /in front of her/. And now Im just really confused.

      What-choo-talkin’-bout-Willis?

      1. BBCC

        Hank can call Joyce, start a call normally and move somewhere Carol is not. As he’s doing now. Which, incidentally, makes it look a lot less suspicious to her if the call sounds normal at first.

        And he’s definitely not gonna want Carol to know he warned Joyce.

  7. Doctor_Who

    What amazes me isn’t that Sarah is a good phone-talker, it’s that she actually kept on a happy expression right until the end.

    Joyce should just call her up whenever she wants to talk to Sarah, even if they’re in the same room, just for the novelty of seeing her smile.

    1. Ferret

      Nah, that’s not her phone talking face, that’s the face of someone who has worked for any amount of time in customer service without getting fired.

    2. thumb

      Let me share the secret. You pretend the person on the other end isn’t actually a person. Just a set of preset questions and situations that have a set of preset correct answers. Like a school test. And then you don’t have to worry about being sociable. You’re just taking a test. None of the questions really have anything to do with you. You’re not really making a connection. For some of us, and I assume Sarah, that’s easier.

  8. AntJ

    it’s been four years and we’re finally gonna answer this question https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/monsters-2/

    1. Rosicrucian

      Willis has said that Joyce’s story is largely auto-biographical.

      Willis’ parents are divorced.

      1. Jamie

        I didn’t know that. Ouch.

        1. Rosicrucian

          If I’m recalling correctly, Willis’ mom also donated their childhood home to her church and started paying rent to said church.

          So there’s definitely some more shoes that can drop, here.

        2. AntJ

          Found it: https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/1137126078198276097

        3. Sunny

          Well shit.

        4. Ovan_Rebirh

          After reading the post, I’m worried about Joyce as I could only imagine when she learns about what her mother did that things are not going to end well.

        5. A Fan

          What. The. Hell?!?

          When Anthony Jeselnick jokes about religions harming kids I can laugh about it, because the only alternative is to cry. What church would even accept such a donation?. That seems beyond the pale, ethically.

        6. DSL

          Beyond the pale? No argument there. But there are (still) churches seemingly founded on the concept of “give to God all your worldly goods, and by God, we mean us.”

        7. C.T Phipps

          Its funny because Jesus has a big part of his ministry devoted to:

          1. Avoiding Fundamentalism
          2. The Rights of Women (don’t stone them, you asses)
          3. Beware people who use religion for making money.

        8. Romanticide

          When the New Spain existed people couldn’t inherit their entire fortune to the church (the catholic one) it was written on law exactly to curb pissed of parents trying to get at their descendants or people making extremely rash desitions on that part. You could donate a percentage but there was a limit. I think we all can understand this law existed for VERY WELL FOUNDED REASONS.
          Sure at the end the church could get quite some huge quantities but at least something was done… D:

        9. C.T Phipps

          Oddly, this reminds me of KNIVES OUT where the patriarch of the family tries to cut off his psychotically greedy descendants by donating to his saintly nurse his entire fortune.

        10. NotPiffany

          That was my first thought, although the people saying he wants to warn her about Ross also make sense.

      2. abysswatcher1993

        He even stated he had complicated feelings during his mother’s funeral. His thoughts are on twitter in really old posts.

      3. Chaucer59

        I didn’t know that about Willis, but divorce was my first thought.

    2. Zee

      Hank really glowed up since then

  9. butts

    tomorrow’s update, as always, available on patreon

    1. clif

      Must be nice to finally know what happened to Mike.

      1. Keulen

        I can’t be sure since I’m not a patreon subscriber, but I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow’s strip still doesn’t reveal what happened to Mike.

        1. Reltzik

          I’m guessing it involves Verse 57 of Flesh-balls.

      2. Marsh Maryrose

        Who would ever have thought that The Cheese would be involved.

        1. Osaru Sensei

          Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. Long time.

        2. Geneseepaws

          I thought the cheese stood alone… am I wrong in that?

        3. Kat

          Thanks to you, I now have the mental image of a wheel of cheese (cheddar) with a knife facing off against a thousand sand zombies while Godsmack blares in the background.

  10. StClair

    ohhh dear.

    1. StClair

      I genuinely wasn’t sure who was calling, but this does seem to collapse the waveform.

  11. DEAD MEME

    Everybody start betting on what terrible tragedy Willis will unleash onto us.

    1. clif

      What odds are you giving?

      1. StClair

        (1:1)

        1. clif

          (1:1) which way?

    2. Reltzik

      I will bet 1 of my stockpiled Imperial Internets that Willis will temporarily cliffhanger this conversation before its big reveal, and we’re going to get more Flesh Balls singing before we’re clued in.

      1. clif

        Done. There will be no more Flesh Balls in strip until the conversation with Hank is concluded. (Are we betting English Imperial Internets or American Imperial Internets?)

        1. Reltzik

          Norton Imperial Internets. I think they rank above English and American? Whatever, that’s what I have to bet.

  12. abysswatcher1993

    So Hank really was hiding from Carol. He must be worried she is a psychopath.

    1. DailyBrad

      I mean, she was among people raising money to bail out Ross, and has continually defended what he did. Hank didn’t like Ross at the best of times and tolerated him for Becky’s sake, but even that version of Ross is far gone now.

  13. ValdVin

    “…and continue our casual conversation” sounds like a phone call fragment that a hostage would tell when trying to pass information without the kidnappers getting suspicious.

    1. Kamino Neko

      Which is exactly what it is.

      1. ValdVin

        See, if Hank were young enough to do Skype, he wouldn’t have to avoide Carol, and could just blink out the message in Morse Code.

        1. clif

          And if he were Mike he could just yell ALL HAIL SATAN and hang up.

        2. Ryek Hvek

          In another century, I read about a Good Dad, Navy Officer category, who was on hand when his teenage daughter was about to go out on a date with a Cadet from Annapolis (they lived near Baltimore) ~ the young man is getting the meet-the-parents inquisition, only it’s the Mom who is the Inquisitor, while dad sits in his rocking chair saying nothing, idly drumming his fingers on the armrest. Of course the idle finger drumming is Morse code to reassure the cadet the ‘rents aren’t monsters. The daughter went on to marry someone else, but she remembered her Cadet, grateful for the reassurance, becoming a friend of her father, maintaining a correspondence for decades beyond their first meeting.

    2. Bruceski

      The peaches are ripe this time of year.

      1. Ashallter

        Wrong state. Faye’s not there. :p

      2. ValdVin

        I read (before the internet) about a coded telegram conversation between agents, in a hostile nation, many decades ago.

        #1: “Father is deceased.”
        #2: “Please clarify, is father dead or deceased?”

        #1’s followup telegram was censored by the hostile government because it seemed suspicious.

      3. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        “The caged whale knows nothing of the vasty deeps.”

        1. Bicycle Bill

          “Oh, the caged whale.  You want the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night.  Three doors down.”

    3. JBento

      “And this is about the weather, which is nice, and totally not about the fact that we set a psycho on the loose, no sirree, hahaha.”

  14. DailyBrad

    Seems like it’s as I suspected. Oh dear.

  15. BBCC

    YES PLEASE TAKE THE PHONE JOYCE.

  16. He Who Abides

    Spoons?

    1. ValdVin

      It’s a way of describing someone’s ability to handle only certain amounts of often differing demands on their coping / attention / care skills.

      We engineers like the term “emotional bandwidth” for the same concept.

      1. StClair

        and some gamers, “action points (AP)”.
        (“I don’t have enough AP to do that, sorry.”)

      2. Chris Phoenix

        It’s very useful. I explained it to our kid around the time she turned three. Now I can say “You’re really using up our spoons fast. Do you want us to have enough left to go to the park later?” and she often starts behaving better.

      3. Miri

        My problem is my spoons can literally all just disappear… For me it’s more about my ability to speak coherently, walk in a straight line, stand upright… Going from “functional” to “nope, bed. NOW. Need.” in a flash kinda sucks.

    2. Kamino Neko

      Spoons!

      1. clif

        Who has the stomach for spoons?

      2. brionl

        That’s not a spoon, this is a spoooooonnnnn!!!

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iGSAFjzBd8

        1. Keulen

          There is no spoon.

        2. DarkoNeko

          there isn’t enough spoons to go throught the dayyyys

        3. thejeff

          The great Tick-Neo debate.

      3. DarkoNeko

        wow, I didn’t know it became so famous it got its own Wikipédia entry now 😮

        1. Regalli

          It’s had it for a while. That bit in the Origins section about the 2016 article’s relatively new, though. Good overview.

      4. Geneseepaws

        Requests that mr. Bierce play Cream’s Spoonful on the Muzak.
        Because everyone talkin’ about the spoonful.

    3. Sam

      It’s a concept that originally came about for describing what it is like to be running on the energy someone with a chronic illness might have. Some people use forks (an extended version where doing X activity that costs 1 fork recovers 4 forks like alone time for an introvert) or spell slots from DnD (doing a phone call might be an eight level spell, whereas a shower is a 3 so you have fewer for more difficult tasks but more for easier ones and can use higher slots on lower spells but not the reverse) as different people have different problems related to energy but the main idea is to get across that ‘spoons’ aka energy is limited and has to be wisely spent.

      While other people just have spoon factories. It is useful in a variety of contexts.

  17. Lily

    Shout out to comment section for always catching that obvious stuff I always miss because I’m oblivious to like, everything

    1. Lily

      Also, oh dear oh dear oh dear, I hope things turn out alright

      1. Lily

        Also also also, now I have a lot more context on the last page- it was actually him calling, he just wasn’t able to appear so concerned with mrs. brown. I thought maybe she was using his phone but I guess she only snoops so he couldn’t leave a text.

      2. abacuswizard

        “oh dear oh dear oh dear, I hope things turn out alright”

        I am totally hearing this comment in my head in Piglet’s voice from Winnie the Pooh, just thought you might like to know

        1. Diane

          I am hearing it now too, and my inner 4 year old highly approves.

  18. Mr. Random

    As a child with parents who knew how to yell,
    this is the scary quiet talk that scares the beejeezus out of you more than anything else.

    The talk where you know some SERIOUS shit is going on that will absolutely have repercussions and you’re not sure on what the right words are or even if there ARE any right words.

    1. McBogue

      Yeah. My parents separated when I was 11, and I and two of my siblings moved in with my Mom. She had a hot-and-cold running relationship with a guy, and while they never did shouting matches or knock-down-drag-out fights, I did come to fear hushed conversations behind closed doors and the resulting fallout.

  19. Catman

    Concern

  20. JessWitt

    Finally! The stress of Joyce not knowing about Toe-for-Brains out on the loose was nerve-wracking.

  21. Bagge

    Dun-dun-duuuuuuun

  22. Tacos

    Well clearly Sarah gave Joyce the phone because she suddenly realized she was having a pleasant conversation with “a people” and she can’t have any of that. It is the only logical explanation and it can’t be anything else.

  23. Keulen

    Could be a bit of both, alt-text.

  24. Jezi

    There is absolutely nothing pleasant about anything that’s currently going on,

    but

    the silver lining is that, living where I do, I CONSTANTLY see parents choosing their religion over their children. And presuming this leads where Willis’ background and the subtext are implying it might, it’s nice to see at least one making the kinder choice.

    1. C.T Phipps

      It seems to me that the best option is to choose a religion that values your children.

  25. BenRG

    I desperately want to hear Hank’s side of this conversation.

  26. Enaluxeme

    HE WANTS A DIVORCE!

  27. PB

    We’re gonna find out what happened to Mike now, aren’t we.

  28. NinjaNick

    Yeah-huh?

  29. Reltzik

    …. so were the multiple phone calls actually from Carol, using Hank’s phone to try to get past Joyce’s screening? Or were they actually from Hank, who was lying about only calling the two times so that Carol doesn’t know he’s trying to warn Joyce?

    1. DarkoNeko

      Well, clearly the psycho of the couple is Carol.

    2. JBento

      Sounds like the latter.

  30. Mr.Morningstar

    Oh Willis you tease.

  31. DarkoNeko

    “so I’m gonna step away from your ear range to continue this perfectly casual conversation” …smooth Hank 🙂 She may still try to find a way to spy on it tho.

    1. BenRG

      “Of course dear. Please excuse me whilst I trigger my silent hack app.”

  32. Sombrero

    Panel 1 backgrounds are gorgeous, but I’m puzzled by Hank delivering the “I’m going to step out…” line out loud. Wtf is going on there? Or is it that Willis is fed up with us readers not following basic comic strip conventions?

    1. Yumi

      It illustrates that Hank is actively trying to put distance between himself and Carol while trying to appear casual about it (in a way that is clearly not casual).

      1. Sombrero

        Dunno, I thought yesterday that Carol was the one doing the calls, because it would be too stupid of Hank to reveal them out loud and then put a lame excuse with Carol present hearing it all. But now, it looks like he is deliberately calling for Carol’s attention about what he wants to talk with Joyce. It’s weird and out of character for what we know about Hank so far.

        Aaaaaaand yesss… I realize the last one to do this kind of thing in this strip was Mike while not-escaping from Blaine, but I can’t really believe Willis is just pranking us with Mike-references while hiding Mike. He is doing that, of course, but there has to be something more plotwise.

    2. Vulcanodon

      Panel 1 is gorgeous, but I can only see it for about three seconds before it is covered by an ad. Which I can close, but then a featureless white rectangle still covers the content.

    3. Portland

      It looks to me like he’s already on the porch when he says that, so probably he stepped out and then said the line when the door was closed to signal to Sarah that he was moving and wanted privacy.

  33. GrumpyOLdMan70

    “Why would you study law? A woman’s place is in the home.” Yea you can talk to your daughter now.

    1. Geneseepaws

      Oh, so not from Hank. Sure from Toe-Dad. But not from Hank.

      1. thejeff

        I hope not. But Joyce came to school to find a man and study education so she could homeschool their kids. I don’t think she got that just from Carol.

        Hank’s getting better, but there’s good reason to think he’s steeped in the gender role essentialism their church is all about.

        1. Geneseepaws

          Yeah, Grumpy and thejeff might have it right. Hank may have softened, but in the eight or so strips he’s had a FaceTime in, he’s not shown an about face, only a softening of stance.

        2. Jhon

          “So what are we going to do tonight, Grumpy?”

        3. NotPiffany

          I don’t know. Sarah’s expression in panel 4 looks more like an “oh, crap” than a “bite me, jerk.”

        4. BBCC

          I doubt that’s what Hank said, though it might be what he believes. What he said was probably about Toedad being on bail.

        5. BBCC

          Hell, Joyce said herself he enforced the gender roles at play time, making sure she had dolls and Jocelyne had trucks. As Ethan said, it didn’t work, but the intent was to ensure their kids didn’t end up trans.

        6. thejeff

          Not even that necessarily. Trans is just the extreme end in their world view. Outside of “traditional” gender roles in terms of work and family life is bad enough.

          Remember the gender studies class with the fake marriage roles?

      2. JBento

        Lol, Hank was the one who came up with the line “Joyce was raised too well to be a lesbian.” People continue to give him a series of passes that he does not deserve.

        1. BBCC

          He IS doing better and I think he deserves credit for that, but I also think some of this fandom is latching onto that and now wants to say he never really believed any of the bad stuff and CERTAINLY wouldn’t believe any now.

        2. King Daniel

          That was before he took Joyce and Becky back to Bloomington early – against Carol’s wishes – and told Becky that her mother would be proud of what she’d become, and then proceeded to open a bank account with her.

        3. thejeff

          Getting better. He’s really stepped up.

          But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t originally part of the problem and it doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have a ton of crap to work through.

  34. Jay

    DAMMIT WILLIS!

    So many cliff hangers lately…

    1. Spriteless Girl

      I do hope some of them combine.

      1. davidbreslin101

        Given Willis’ Transformers obsession, my reaction to the word “combine” was-
        “Is Mike Dead can be the torso, What Is Joyce’s Bad News can be the left arm…”

  35. thumb

    Next on Dumbing of Age:
    Cut back to Walky

  36. Suet

    Spoons?

    1. clif

      Spoons today. Spoonerisms tomorrow.

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