I think the assumption is that Joyce does know about the whole birds and bees thing. (She just think its morally wrong to actually engage in premarital hanky panky.) Remember, she has been writing her own personal erotic fiction (something that would require at least a basic knowledge.)
Now, there was the comic where she was having a fantasy about Ethan “giving her tummy his thing”, but given the fact that it was a dream sequence, I think her mis-information can be attributed to the way dreams don’t always reflect reality.
Chronos
Have we seen an excerpt of Joyce’s erotic fiction? There are plenty of examples of people making “erotic” fiction on the net that had no clue how it works.
Do I think Joyce knows? Ehhh…I guess? She *did* take biology in the past, so she might have a basic understanding.
Rabid Rabbit
She also almost watched the Roz & Joe video, and the screen shot we saw means she at least has a sense of certain positions. When she googled “strap-on”, she was able to identify it, plus all her looking up of ding-dongs for her banditry. Then there was her encounter with Other Jacob.
Needfuldoer
I bet a Joe-equivalent is going to start appearing in the Julia Gray universe in the not-too-distant future. He’ll have a bit part at first, but like Klinger on M*A*S*H he’ll gradually work his way up to principal cast.
Rei
you have to remember this is a pivot from the original “Roomies” in the sense that it’s the series without Aliens and secret government stuff. considering THAT joyce was at least familiar enough with sex that her dark self knew it intimately, she knows what sex is, wants it, but mentally denies herself access to the full info most of the time.
Tomn
Let me assure you that basic knowledge of human biology is by no means a prerequisite for anyone writing erotic fanfic, or even erotic fiction in general. Check out the site βMen Writing Women.β
Some Ed
To be fair, most of the porn I’ve read with supposedly and apparently male authors at least had a basic understanding of how male biology works, they just didn’t have any comprehension of women, chemistry, or physics.
I have read some porn which raised questions about the author’s understanding of any biology. Some of this seemed to have a better grasp on female anatomy than male anatomy and did not make use of any adjectives or descriptive words in relation to the male’s “thing”, or exclusively used the not very descriptive adjective “manly” in connection with this mysterious item, which suggested to me the possibility that the author may have been a woman, or possibly a girl.
All of that said, I’ve read enough train wrecks to want to stay very far away from any suggestions about where to go to find some truly horrendous porn.
Demoted Oblivious
Men Writing Women is brilliant. ? Thanks for sharing!
Does she know about the birds and the bees? Who would have taught her, Carol?
Chris (the other one)
Oh god. I feel for her, if all she knows is the mechanics. Someone who is a good, talented, and knowledgeable lover (may or may not be shit-for-brains there) will abso-freakingly ROCK…HER…WORLD.
It’s Biology 121 (although I’m not entirely sure, how those numbers work)
Miles
Varies with school but typically 100 level is either entry level or remedial, and higher hundreds numbers mean more advanced while higher tens and ones mean different classes in the same department.
Clell65619
Unless things have changed drastically since my time in school, remedial classes were in the 0xx series. (Frequently called ‘the bonehead’ curriculum and usually populated by those who likely didn’t get into school for their SAT scores, but for the ability to move an oblate spheroid in the proper direction and manner)
100 series classes were Introductory for the field of study, usually starting with 100 for the intro class and 1xx for further study in the same series.
Chris (the other one)
So… you’re saying Basketball players are smarter?
Agemegos
Not what I took from that. US and Canadian gridiron football, and various Rugby footballs, use prolate balls. It is bowling that uses oblate balls.
I’ve been confused about this. Joyce has been arguing Creationist talking points, but doesn’t believe in God anymore, which….is confusing. How has she given up the one, but not the other?
Slartibeast Button, BIA
When you have made such a profound change to your worldview, it can take time to work through all of the implications. Time you may not have to spare given how difficult things can be at such times.
Rainhat
Combination of stuff. 1) she wasn’t saying she still believes the stuff she was describing to Dina. She was describing the doublethink necessary to pass regular exams while being homeschooled. Dina (who had just been shouting about wizardry) took it as her still believing it, which is honestly gauche 2) She and Becky share that as a common background. She leaned into it just then for that reason.
C.T Phipps
I wouldn’t be surprised if Joyce has just decided not to actually change her opinion on how the world works from this point. I’ve known plenty of friends who in the face of uncomfortable worldview changes, just decide to stop learning.
Some Ed
While I don’t disagree with the prior respondents, I’m pretty sure Joyce is of the belief that Becky still believes, and so is going along with crap she no longer believes while around Becky to try to maintain what connection they still have.
I’m not sure how much Becky actually believes and how much she’s trying to maintain a connection with Joyce. But Becky came to her beliefs through a rather different process and didn’t have a distinct disillusionment event as far as I’m aware, so it’s really tough to say for sure what Becky believes.
thejeff
Joyce isn’t yet ready for Becky to know that she doesn’t believe anymore. Becky knows how closely Joyce’s faith is tied to things like the Fall and Original Sin and thus to creationism. If Becky learns that Joyce isn’t still opposed to evolution, she’ll realize or at least question Joyce’s faith, which Joyce isn’t ready to deal with.
Becky on the other hand pretty clearly still believes in God, but has easily dropped all the anti-science stuff they were taught (Or at least all of it she’s recognized and she’s happy to dump more as she finds it.)
thejeff
Remember she’s been taught not just Creationism as religion, but also the Intelligent Design pseudoi-science arguments. She’s seen and believed all the evolution and old earth debunking claims.
It’ll take some time to work through that and figure out what parts of what she was taught don’t make any sense.
Agemegos
I preferred her “without Original Sin it’s all a LIE” phase.
Intelligent Design without an intelligent designer seems like a mass of contradictions, and believing in it seems like an uncomfortable exercise in cognitive dissonance.
thejeff
It does and it is, but it’s not likely to snap all at once.
Miles
The world was intelligently designed and created by the universe.
Well, at least the universe used sound engineering practices.
Demoted Oblivious
Stars that go nova too fast because they’re sized/fueled wrong, blackholes that destroy everything, a life bearing planet that regularly kills the life upon it, people, gamma ray bursts. The universe didn’t intelligently do anything, let alone apply proper engineering practices. The universe *happened*, and continues to do so.
T’were you fascetious or not, I couldnay let it be.
Approximately every month or so I take great issue with “Intelligent Design”
who would “intelligently” design people with uteruses to be unable to control the expulsion of blood and mucosal tissue even after literal decades of doing so when human infants are able to learn how to control whether or not to urinate or defecate
(“intentional” design I might buy, but it’s a shitty intent, if so)
Prof. Brock seems like the type who got stuck doing the whole group project himself, and left everyone else’s names off the copy that got turned in unless they contributed.
Chrissy
I would have done this if I had ever been in that situation, hands down.
Panel Four put me in my emotions. Itβs like they both know that they have an undeniable chemistry as friends, an awkward attraction that COULD go somewhere, and yet they both also have zero clue what to do with each other.
You don’t have to be intelligent to be a female Fox News Anchor. You do have to be attractive, and preferably blonde.
You do have to have a pretty high tolerance for selling your soul, though, and Joyce fails that test super hard.
MrSmith
Well I’m not going to denigrate someone simply because they work for an organisation I don’t agree with but a quick look at some of their bios shows that, at the very least, a college degree does seem to be the minimum requirement
Demoted Oblivious
Also, beyond MrSmith’s point, if you *are* going to denigrate someone because of where they work, why would that be a gendered principle?
thejeff
Because the organization itself is biased along gendered lines. There’s a decent case to be made that their female news anchors are picked to be photogenic in a way very differently than their male news anchors. And yes, blonde.
Hm. . .What do we know about what happened 6000 years ago? I’m sure that there are human records somewhere.
*googles*
`4100β3100 BC: the Uruk period, with emerging Sumerian hegemony and development of “proto-cuneiform” writing; base-60 mathematics, astronomy and astrology, civil law, complex hydrology, the sailboat, potter’s wheel and wheel; the Chalcolithic proceeds into the Early Bronze Age.
3500β2340 BC; Sumer: wheeled carts, potter’s wheel, White Temple ziggurat, bronze tools and weapons.[2]
First to Fourth dynasty of Kish in Mesopotamia.
Sumerian temple of Janna at Eridu erected.
Temple at Al-Ubaid and tomb of Mes-Kalam-Dug built near Ur, Chaldea.
3000 BC β Tin is in use in Mesopotamia soon after this time.
3500β2340 BC β First cities developed in Southern Mesopotamia. Inhabitants migrated from north.
The cuneiform script proper emerges from pictographic proto-writing in the later 4th millennium.
Mesopotamia’s “proto-literate” period spans the 35th to 32nd centuries.
The first documents unequivocally written in the Sumerian language date to the 31st century, found at Jemdet Nasr.
Dams, canals, stone sculptures using inclined plane and lever in Sumer.
Urkesh (northern Syria) founded during the fourth millennium BC possibly by the Hurrians.
The Courtyard was introduced to Mesopotamia.[4]`
Okay so a LOT was happening and being learned back then. And that was just in Mesopotamia.
So humans are smart, have always been smart and marching forward and learning.
It’s odd to think that I would have a easier time convincing people of this fact about this time period then I would during the European Medieval ages.
Where so many have the preconception that everyone wore brown, everything was awful, life expectancy was in the low 40s, and no one could read their own language nor the language of the church.
That “own language” bit is a myth. Of course most people could read and write enough to keep track of their business. Literacy was defined as being able to read Latin, which, of course nobody has time for that. The only way we got literacy rates up was by changing the definition of the word to something useful. But a smith who can’t write down what he’s promised to make for how much and what he’s already been paid isn’t gonna last long. Neither is a farmer or any other kind of worker. They didn’t have a payroll department or bank keeping track of things like that for them for free
But im pretty sure nobody could read the language if the church… there wasn’t even a church 6000 years ago?
thejeff
There were plenty of churches 6000 years ago. No Christian Church of course.
There’s significant evidence that literacy even in the local vernacular was rare, even among the nobility, much less the peasants. High among the clergy of course, who were often used as scribes when necessary. We have things like documents where a majority of signatures are just “marks” – they couldn’t even sign their own name.
Most workers didn’t need to write or keep accounts in anything like the modern sense. Even the smith would just remember the things he needs to make and what he was promised for them, rather than keep records. Larger scale merchants doing shipping and the like certainly would.
*Strip wherein Joe, who up until now has mostly only had transactional conversations with women and specifically keeps himself sealed shut because exposing feelings about anything leads to heart ache and despair, pays Joyce a completely unprompted compliment that’s the first piece of positive reinforcement about her glasses that wasn’t Dorothy momming super hard about it*
Oh, no, don’t mind me. I’ll just sit quietly while this plays out.
201 thoughts on “Weight”
Ana Chronistic
they gonna babies SO HARD
Johan
In 10 years after marriage.
Nayann Martinelli
And since they are in Biology 101, maybe Joyce will even learn how the whole flowers and bees thing actually works :-p
Doctor_Who
She surreptitiously checks the index for “tummy wand”.
Clif
She finds a reference to a belly button healing wand and is confused.
Segnosaur
I think the assumption is that Joyce does know about the whole birds and bees thing. (She just think its morally wrong to actually engage in premarital hanky panky.) Remember, she has been writing her own personal erotic fiction (something that would require at least a basic knowledge.)
Now, there was the comic where she was having a fantasy about Ethan “giving her tummy his thing”, but given the fact that it was a dream sequence, I think her mis-information can be attributed to the way dreams don’t always reflect reality.
Chronos
Have we seen an excerpt of Joyce’s erotic fiction? There are plenty of examples of people making “erotic” fiction on the net that had no clue how it works.
Do I think Joyce knows? Ehhh…I guess? She *did* take biology in the past, so she might have a basic understanding.
Rabid Rabbit
She also almost watched the Roz & Joe video, and the screen shot we saw means she at least has a sense of certain positions. When she googled “strap-on”, she was able to identify it, plus all her looking up of ding-dongs for her banditry. Then there was her encounter with Other Jacob.
Needfuldoer
I bet a Joe-equivalent is going to start appearing in the Julia Gray universe in the not-too-distant future. He’ll have a bit part at first, but like Klinger on M*A*S*H he’ll gradually work his way up to principal cast.
Rei
you have to remember this is a pivot from the original “Roomies” in the sense that it’s the series without Aliens and secret government stuff. considering THAT joyce was at least familiar enough with sex that her dark self knew it intimately, she knows what sex is, wants it, but mentally denies herself access to the full info most of the time.
Tomn
Let me assure you that basic knowledge of human biology is by no means a prerequisite for anyone writing erotic fanfic, or even erotic fiction in general. Check out the site βMen Writing Women.β
Some Ed
To be fair, most of the porn I’ve read with supposedly and apparently male authors at least had a basic understanding of how male biology works, they just didn’t have any comprehension of women, chemistry, or physics.
I have read some porn which raised questions about the author’s understanding of any biology. Some of this seemed to have a better grasp on female anatomy than male anatomy and did not make use of any adjectives or descriptive words in relation to the male’s “thing”, or exclusively used the not very descriptive adjective “manly” in connection with this mysterious item, which suggested to me the possibility that the author may have been a woman, or possibly a girl.
All of that said, I’ve read enough train wrecks to want to stay very far away from any suggestions about where to go to find some truly horrendous porn.
Demoted Oblivious
Men Writing Women is brilliant. ? Thanks for sharing!
ValdVin
Does she know about the birds and the bees? Who would have taught her, Carol?
Chris (the other one)
Oh god. I feel for her, if all she knows is the mechanics. Someone who is a good, talented, and knowledgeable lover (may or may not be shit-for-brains there) will abso-freakingly ROCK…HER…WORLD.
MacareuxMoine
It’s Biology 121 (although I’m not entirely sure, how those numbers work)
Miles
Varies with school but typically 100 level is either entry level or remedial, and higher hundreds numbers mean more advanced while higher tens and ones mean different classes in the same department.
Clell65619
Unless things have changed drastically since my time in school, remedial classes were in the 0xx series. (Frequently called ‘the bonehead’ curriculum and usually populated by those who likely didn’t get into school for their SAT scores, but for the ability to move an oblate spheroid in the proper direction and manner)
100 series classes were Introductory for the field of study, usually starting with 100 for the intro class and 1xx for further study in the same series.
Chris (the other one)
So… you’re saying Basketball players are smarter?
Agemegos
Not what I took from that. US and Canadian gridiron football, and various Rugby footballs, use prolate balls. It is bowling that uses oblate balls.
Tandel
If so, the saga would be nearly two decades in the making.
Spencer
It would be Babies MacIntyre but that’s for Becky and Dina.
C.T Phipps
“Listen, Joe, I don’t believe that anymore! I just don’t believe this nonsense about it being millions of years old.”
“What?”
Jon Rich
I’ve been confused about this. Joyce has been arguing Creationist talking points, but doesn’t believe in God anymore, which….is confusing. How has she given up the one, but not the other?
Slartibeast Button, BIA
When you have made such a profound change to your worldview, it can take time to work through all of the implications. Time you may not have to spare given how difficult things can be at such times.
Rainhat
Combination of stuff. 1) she wasn’t saying she still believes the stuff she was describing to Dina. She was describing the doublethink necessary to pass regular exams while being homeschooled. Dina (who had just been shouting about wizardry) took it as her still believing it, which is honestly gauche 2) She and Becky share that as a common background. She leaned into it just then for that reason.
C.T Phipps
I wouldn’t be surprised if Joyce has just decided not to actually change her opinion on how the world works from this point. I’ve known plenty of friends who in the face of uncomfortable worldview changes, just decide to stop learning.
Some Ed
While I don’t disagree with the prior respondents, I’m pretty sure Joyce is of the belief that Becky still believes, and so is going along with crap she no longer believes while around Becky to try to maintain what connection they still have.
I’m not sure how much Becky actually believes and how much she’s trying to maintain a connection with Joyce. But Becky came to her beliefs through a rather different process and didn’t have a distinct disillusionment event as far as I’m aware, so it’s really tough to say for sure what Becky believes.
thejeff
Joyce isn’t yet ready for Becky to know that she doesn’t believe anymore. Becky knows how closely Joyce’s faith is tied to things like the Fall and Original Sin and thus to creationism. If Becky learns that Joyce isn’t still opposed to evolution, she’ll realize or at least question Joyce’s faith, which Joyce isn’t ready to deal with.
Becky on the other hand pretty clearly still believes in God, but has easily dropped all the anti-science stuff they were taught (Or at least all of it she’s recognized and she’s happy to dump more as she finds it.)
thejeff
Remember she’s been taught not just Creationism as religion, but also the Intelligent Design pseudoi-science arguments. She’s seen and believed all the evolution and old earth debunking claims.
It’ll take some time to work through that and figure out what parts of what she was taught don’t make any sense.
Agemegos
I preferred her “without Original Sin it’s all a LIE” phase.
Intelligent Design without an intelligent designer seems like a mass of contradictions, and believing in it seems like an uncomfortable exercise in cognitive dissonance.
thejeff
It does and it is, but it’s not likely to snap all at once.
Miles
The world was intelligently designed and created by the universe.
Well, at least the universe used sound engineering practices.
Demoted Oblivious
Stars that go nova too fast because they’re sized/fueled wrong, blackholes that destroy everything, a life bearing planet that regularly kills the life upon it, people, gamma ray bursts. The universe didn’t intelligently do anything, let alone apply proper engineering practices. The universe *happened*, and continues to do so.
T’were you fascetious or not, I couldnay let it be.
Ana Chronistic
Approximately every month or so I take great issue with “Intelligent Design”
who would “intelligently” design people with uteruses to be unable to control the expulsion of blood and mucosal tissue even after literal decades of doing so when human infants are able to learn how to control whether or not to urinate or defecate
(“intentional” design I might buy, but it’s a shitty intent, if so)
Blindness
It’s always the opposites that make the funnest couples, and those two are about as opposing as you can get without putting Malaya and Mary together
Keulen
These last few strips have got me shipping them again.
Agemegos
I have never bandoned this ship since the trip to find Becky’s social security card.
happyblinker
It’s Joe and Joyce season.
Pablo360
my favorite ship, Joeyce
Chris (the other one)
hmm, don’t think I like that name…I prefer JoJo.
King Daniel
and doesn’t that smart, Joyce?
King Daniel
Oh! Sal!
…now I kind of wish I typed my comment in an accent. π
Bobcat
Angry night texts resume.
“When are you going to deliver your part?”
“When are YOU going to deliver your part?”
“AAAAAAARGH!”
Blindness
Gravitar win…I can actually see him doing just that to colleagues
Needfuldoer
Prof. Brock seems like the type who got stuck doing the whole group project himself, and left everyone else’s names off the copy that got turned in unless they contributed.
Chrissy
I would have done this if I had ever been in that situation, hands down.
woobie
Joe knows what part he wants to deliver….
Johan
Yay Joe!
Yup
Panel Four put me in my emotions. Itβs like they both know that they have an undeniable chemistry as friends, an awkward attraction that COULD go somewhere, and yet they both also have zero clue what to do with each other.
Wack'd
SIX THOUSAND YEARS OLD
SURE YOU THINK THAT’S OLD
SIX THOUSAND YEARS OLD
BUT WHAT DO YOU KNOW
Anon A Mouse
IN MY DARKEST HOURS
I’M TALKING LIKE THIS
FOR I AM
SIX THOUSAND YEARS OLD
BBCC
There is no right way to answer that Joe. XD
crow
I love the color scheme here.
C.T Phipps
“You looked like a future Fox News Anchor.”
MrSmith
Well she is attractive and intelligent so it would also have worked
Jon Rich
You don’t have to be intelligent to be a female Fox News Anchor. You do have to be attractive, and preferably blonde.
You do have to have a pretty high tolerance for selling your soul, though, and Joyce fails that test super hard.
MrSmith
Well I’m not going to denigrate someone simply because they work for an organisation I don’t agree with but a quick look at some of their bios shows that, at the very least, a college degree does seem to be the minimum requirement
Demoted Oblivious
Also, beyond MrSmith’s point, if you *are* going to denigrate someone because of where they work, why would that be a gendered principle?
thejeff
Because the organization itself is biased along gendered lines. There’s a decent case to be made that their female news anchors are picked to be photogenic in a way very differently than their male news anchors. And yes, blonde.
Miles
Attractive and can lie with a straight face for 8 hours every day, and not getburned out by it all in a week.
Suet
Vis Γ vis Last Thursdayism? Could be worse.
“Thanks, they also bring out the grump in me”
Stephen Bierce
*plays The Beatles’ “Carry That Weight” on the hacked Muzak*
William Leonard Reese Jr.
Hm. . .What do we know about what happened 6000 years ago? I’m sure that there are human records somewhere.
*googles*
`4100β3100 BC: the Uruk period, with emerging Sumerian hegemony and development of “proto-cuneiform” writing; base-60 mathematics, astronomy and astrology, civil law, complex hydrology, the sailboat, potter’s wheel and wheel; the Chalcolithic proceeds into the Early Bronze Age.
3500β2340 BC; Sumer: wheeled carts, potter’s wheel, White Temple ziggurat, bronze tools and weapons.[2]
First to Fourth dynasty of Kish in Mesopotamia.
Sumerian temple of Janna at Eridu erected.
Temple at Al-Ubaid and tomb of Mes-Kalam-Dug built near Ur, Chaldea.
3000 BC β Tin is in use in Mesopotamia soon after this time.
3500β2340 BC β First cities developed in Southern Mesopotamia. Inhabitants migrated from north.
The cuneiform script proper emerges from pictographic proto-writing in the later 4th millennium.
Mesopotamia’s “proto-literate” period spans the 35th to 32nd centuries.
The first documents unequivocally written in the Sumerian language date to the 31st century, found at Jemdet Nasr.
Dams, canals, stone sculptures using inclined plane and lever in Sumer.
Urkesh (northern Syria) founded during the fourth millennium BC possibly by the Hurrians.
The Courtyard was introduced to Mesopotamia.[4]`
Okay so a LOT was happening and being learned back then. And that was just in Mesopotamia.
So humans are smart, have always been smart and marching forward and learning.
It’s odd to think that I would have a easier time convincing people of this fact about this time period then I would during the European Medieval ages.
Where so many have the preconception that everyone wore brown, everything was awful, life expectancy was in the low 40s, and no one could read their own language nor the language of the church.
Keulen
Reminds me of this article in The Onion: Sumerians Look On In Confusion As God Creates World
raultsi
I <3 this so much. Thanks
Daibhid C
Well, of course no-one could read during the Dark Ages. It was dark.
Miles
That “own language” bit is a myth. Of course most people could read and write enough to keep track of their business. Literacy was defined as being able to read Latin, which, of course nobody has time for that. The only way we got literacy rates up was by changing the definition of the word to something useful. But a smith who can’t write down what he’s promised to make for how much and what he’s already been paid isn’t gonna last long. Neither is a farmer or any other kind of worker. They didn’t have a payroll department or bank keeping track of things like that for them for free
Miles
But im pretty sure nobody could read the language if the church… there wasn’t even a church 6000 years ago?
thejeff
There were plenty of churches 6000 years ago. No Christian Church of course.
There’s significant evidence that literacy even in the local vernacular was rare, even among the nobility, much less the peasants. High among the clergy of course, who were often used as scribes when necessary. We have things like documents where a majority of signatures are just “marks” – they couldn’t even sign their own name.
Most workers didn’t need to write or keep accounts in anything like the modern sense. Even the smith would just remember the things he needs to make and what he was promised for them, rather than keep records. Larger scale merchants doing shipping and the like certainly would.
Spencer
*Strip wherein Joe, who up until now has mostly only had transactional conversations with women and specifically keeps himself sealed shut because exposing feelings about anything leads to heart ache and despair, pays Joyce a completely unprompted compliment that’s the first piece of positive reinforcement about her glasses that wasn’t Dorothy momming super hard about it*
Oh, no, don’t mind me. I’ll just sit quietly while this plays out.
Sporky
You can’t fool me β you’re having a feel