…He’d actually be really good at that. I don’t even mean tabloids, like, can you picture him in an interview? His specialty is asking biting questions to make someone squirm, and the tougher his target the better. Give him a mike in an election year and watch the ratings roll in.
My username is from back when I was saying we should have something mostly following Daisy, Dorothy and Billie writing for the school paper. I guess I’d allow Mike in there, too.
He’d be in cahoots with Wikileaks and Anonymous, but would also fuck over activist groups if they got too full of themselves.
It would be great. He would be like John Stewart at his most effective, but with more lasting shame.
Doctor_Who
Stewart is amazing, but too good natured. Mike is pissed off basically 24/7.
Know who Mike would be? Spider Fucking Jerusalem. That guy once talked six politicians into committing suicide using only a telephone. His columns tore down two presidential administrations. He carries a Bowel Disruptor gun that makes people who annoy him crap themselves.
That’s Mike.
StClair
Don’t forget the Chair Leg of Truth.
Gigafreak
It is wise and terrible.
TrueVCU
Do not offend the Chair Leg of Truth
Sheason
I’ll tell you exactly who Mike is.
Jeremy Paxman.
Paxman is the brick the BBC throws at corrupt politicians when they want to take them down a few notches. It is a proven fact that he hates that you – yes, you specifically, whoever you are – share the same planet as him.
Exhibit A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rEqiC8ItM8
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Paxman is the undisputed heavyweight of BBC journalism. 😀
Mike could do well as a journalist, it’d allow him to channel his assholery to the greater good. However, I always thought he’d derive the most personal pleasure from psychiatry. One is a shallow screwing of an entire population of people, while the other would be a deep, penetrating screw of a single person.
I feel like I remember reading something he wrote about this, but can’t remember if it was in one of the books, on Tumblr, or where . . .
Viktoria
IIRC, it’s based on when he created the character. Walky has dots bc he looks odd with whites at this point, but newer chars like Dina get the more realistic eyes because that’s Willis’ current style.
Emily
Dina isn’t new. She’s been around a really long time. She was just dead in the other universe for most of it.
Gigafreak
Joyce, Mary and Billie had sclera from the start, all the way back in Roomies. They’re consistently drawn with eyelids even in black and white, and the sclera become visible when they appeared in the occasional colored page back then. Dina and Ruth also consistently had visible eyelids, suggesting the presence of sclera– but Ruth was bespectacled and Dina was asleep in Roomies until the start of It’s Walky, so it’s hard to tell. Sarah was an odd case in that she had consistent eyelids but not sclera in the colored pages.
Meanwhile, Amber– one of the newest characters– has no sclera. Go to the page where she changes into the Amazi-Girl costume during the Whiteboard Dingdong Bandit story to see it, as she is otherwise rarely barefaced.
I remember reading something about why some characters do or don’t have sclera, but “age” doesn’t seem to have much to do with it. Maybe it was more about how “this is just how David Willis always drew them” instead?
Deanatay
Actually, he’s drawn normally non-sclera’d eyes with sclera, and normally sclera’d eyes as beady. It seems to be a context thing for Willis, depending on what emotion he’s trying to convey. Here, it’s lazy, comfortable teasing.
No see that’s just all part of his master plan to somehow ruin their day! Mike wins in the end!
I want him to stop existing forever. He’s a complete fucking chode and has no place in an even remotely grounded series like DoA.
Solenoid
A remotely grounded series acknowledges that complete fucking chodes, unfortunately, exist.
Spencer
And when those guys routinely harass the people around them, assault people in public, steal from their roommates, and convince abuse victims that they’re exactly like their parents, they tend to not be allowed to hang around anymore, yet everyone just passively accepts Mike’s continued presence.
Solenoid
Huh. That mystifies me a bit, too. I’d like to see Mike go too far for someone’s liking at least once. Just to get the realistic reaction out of someone else in the cast. Since this is a remotely grounded series, he’s not going to get off scot-free forever… if only because he’d grow boring if he did. I don’t see him upping the ante and getting away with it.
Amazi-Girl beats people up all the time! You can’t mention the fact that he beat up Joe once! Also, he lives there and goes there! If he wants to hang around you, there’s little you can do to get rid of him. Lastly, as you say it’s remotely grounded. Remotely. A girl dresses up and beats on bullies. Mike and people’s acceptance of him are not that absurd.
I used to love Mike because he revealed what was wrong with people. He was mean to them and he was RIGHT! Recently he’s just sorta being a dick, however he his commenting on the unreasonable expectation of becoming President.
Spencer
Amazi-Girl is a costumed vigilante, mentally unhinged, and a minor celebrity in a college. The moment the authorities are contacted, she’s done.
Mike is a disgusting shithead who makes a point to actively harass everyone for his personal amusement. He assaulted Joe in public, with witnesses. More importantly, I don’t care what Mike wants, I want the characters to react to him they should act towards the scumbag. Inform the school that they’re being constantly harassed by some blond asshole, fucking break his nose. I don’t care, I just want him gone.
“he his commenting on the unreasonable expectation of becoming President.”
If you by commenting mean “actively discourages”. I’m sure a woman who wants a high profile career has never before been told that her expectations are “unreasonable”. I’m sure it’s not part of an active patriarchal structure to discourage women from reaching high office in large and small ways. Especially not with an undertone of slut shaming.
“So you want to be president, huh? Seems pretty unlikely.” – that would be commenting (still a bit assholy, but not that different from Walky’s reaction to Joyce’s plan to be a housewife).
“So you want to be president, huh? Let’s take a photo of you in a private moment and put it on internet so it will be readily available for anyone who wants to work against you at any point of your career, and let’s make sure you understand the implied undertones that you want make it because you have a boyfriend and is therefor an irresponsible slut.” – that’s active discouragement, bullying and edges close to career sabotage.
Chrissy
Bagge: YES. In before someone tries to say that Mike isn’t slut shaming, he’s just making it possible for others to slit shame
Chrissy: Yup, the mechanism is similar to Doxing. The goal is to make the victim feel vulnerable and restrict her behavior while still keeping a sliver of legitimacy. “Come one, I didn’t do anything bad. Those were just photos. I can’t help what other people used them for.” The key point is that Dorothy has no say in how he takes and uses photos of her.
timemonkey
While I agree with you guys in general and agree that Mike is an asshole and not contributing much these days, remember, right now they’re in his room. If he wants to be an asshole at Dorothy now he can, right now she’s invading his private space without his permission.
I’m not saying he’s not aasshole, or that he’s not slut shaming. I’m just saying he has a point. He doesn’t care about Dorothy’s sex life, but he knows she cares about her public image. Her actions/relationship with Walky is at odds with her EXPECTATION to become President. Mike is exposing that cognitive dissonance and in the most asshole/indirect way possible is trying to get her to resolve it (while having fun).
…that’s not how shared dorms work. She is in Mike’s AND Walky’s private space, and you can make a case that Walky is overstepping the bounds by inviting her, but to leap from that to say that Mike is allowed to harass her is just bizarre.
He IS allowed to ask her to leave or to contact the RA, though, and if he truly has a problem with Dorothy being in their room, rather than just being an asshole for its own sake, I really hope he will do it.
Bagge
Garrett: then I suppose my question is: So what? Why should Dorothy care what he thinks about her career plans? What does his motives matter if they don’t justify his behaviour?
To take another example, Blaine tried to teach his daughter to be strong and independent, but that doesn’t justify his abuse or change the fact that he is the worst thing in the Dumbiverse.
Chrissy
There is a world of difference between being justified in your FEELINGS and justified in your ACTIONS.
Personally, a lot of people like Mike due to Shortpacked!
Gigafreak
Dumbiverse Mike hasn’t gone through anywhere near the character growth that Walkyverse Mike has. Dumbiverse Mike very occasionally “hurts to help,” but he is far more often just wantonly being an asshole, mainly helping people by accident rather than by intention.
I figured that it was because he never actually harms anyone (except Joe, but that was obviously on orders), and his unvarnished insight is unnervingly useful to have around.
Plus, Joyce seems to trust him, and that’s good enough for me.
Chrissy
Mike is the furthest from reality of all the characters (possibly even including Amazigirl), and he has caused more pain and sadness than MARY. “Oh, but he’s doing it for their own good!” Remember that Mary often thinks she’s doing thinks for people’s own good too. This is the only Willis comic I’ve read, and so far, Mike does not fit in this universe. Everyone else is a complex, flawed character, and so far Mike is one dimensional. Just a complete abusive dick “for people’s own good”?
That’s what he wants, actually. Mike’s a masochist.
No, the best retaliation against a person like Mike is to ignore them. Easier than hiding the body, anyways.
N0083rP00F
Hey, it’s a university campus. There is no simple hide when you have so many means of complete disposal. Either the buckets of Dermestidae or tanks with voracious Nephropidae as well as access to things like this https://www.science.mcmaster.ca/~accelerator/images/KN.jpg
You have this realistic cast of characters and then this asshole to whom the rules don’t seem to apply.
No one in the cast would let another character get away with what he does and the people in comments come down way harder on other characters for way less.
They come down less hard because they think he’s funny. Also there’s no point in reacting to him, he thrives on your discomfort and anger. That’s what makes him so different and why hating him is pointless, he actively wants you to, if you give it to him he’s getting exactly what he wants, no other character functions like that.
On one of the sites I follow they have a running segment about used cars titled “Nice Ride Or Crack Pipe”. Well, here we have “Nice Ride AND Crack Pipe”!
Clearly the solution is to get him to hook up with Sierra. Maybe she’ll be a good influence on him? … Or at least it’ll clear one of the rooms for a night.
262 thoughts on “S’nice”
Jen Aside
just so long as her first broadcast words aren’t “fucking shit”
Screwball
“…fuck you San Francisco…………………………………..Well, that all went well…”
Jen Aside
…was that comment too subtle?
Screwball
Was going for ‘Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy’ actually. Guess it didn’t work… :$ 😛
TrueVCU
Mike getting a headstart on a journalism career
Viktoria
…He’d actually be really good at that. I don’t even mean tabloids, like, can you picture him in an interview? His specialty is asking biting questions to make someone squirm, and the tougher his target the better. Give him a mike in an election year and watch the ratings roll in.
MeghanTheWorldEater
Can that be a spinoff to DOA?
Scoops
Yes.
My username is from back when I was saying we should have something mostly following Daisy, Dorothy and Billie writing for the school paper. I guess I’d allow Mike in there, too.
Kathleen
He’d be in cahoots with Wikileaks and Anonymous, but would also fuck over activist groups if they got too full of themselves.
It would be great. He would be like John Stewart at his most effective, but with more lasting shame.
Doctor_Who
Stewart is amazing, but too good natured. Mike is pissed off basically 24/7.
Know who Mike would be? Spider Fucking Jerusalem. That guy once talked six politicians into committing suicide using only a telephone. His columns tore down two presidential administrations. He carries a Bowel Disruptor gun that makes people who annoy him crap themselves.
That’s Mike.
StClair
Don’t forget the Chair Leg of Truth.
Gigafreak
It is wise and terrible.
TrueVCU
Do not offend the Chair Leg of Truth
Sheason
I’ll tell you exactly who Mike is.
Jeremy Paxman.
Paxman is the brick the BBC throws at corrupt politicians when they want to take them down a few notches. It is a proven fact that he hates that you – yes, you specifically, whoever you are – share the same planet as him.
Exhibit A:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rEqiC8ItM8
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Paxman is the undisputed heavyweight of BBC journalism. 😀
Exhibit B: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwlsd8RAoqI&t=4m10s
JustCheetoDust
Or making creepy coffee table books.
N0083rP00F
You mean like this?
https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6220/6305491510_42c655f890_z.jpg
Deanatay
Mike could do well as a journalist, it’d allow him to channel his assholery to the greater good. However, I always thought he’d derive the most personal pleasure from psychiatry. One is a shallow screwing of an entire population of people, while the other would be a deep, penetrating screw of a single person.
You know, like, your mom.
N0083rP00F
Why not both – sort of a cross between DrPhil [burnitwithfire] and The Colbert Report with a side order of Judge Judy.
Bill
He’d be the type of journalist who would lead off an interview with a question like “when did you stop beating your wife?”
Knifleman
Those eyes in Panel 2. Gaaaaahhhhhh.
TrueVCU
How Becky longs to make those eyes with Joyce
Doctor_Who
You know things are intense when the girls with the black bead eyes develop sclera.
airyu
I wonder how DW picked which characters would have tiny eyes and which wouldn’t when designing them.
saltchocolate
I feel like I remember reading something he wrote about this, but can’t remember if it was in one of the books, on Tumblr, or where . . .
Viktoria
IIRC, it’s based on when he created the character. Walky has dots bc he looks odd with whites at this point, but newer chars like Dina get the more realistic eyes because that’s Willis’ current style.
Emily
Dina isn’t new. She’s been around a really long time. She was just dead in the other universe for most of it.
Gigafreak
Joyce, Mary and Billie had sclera from the start, all the way back in Roomies. They’re consistently drawn with eyelids even in black and white, and the sclera become visible when they appeared in the occasional colored page back then. Dina and Ruth also consistently had visible eyelids, suggesting the presence of sclera– but Ruth was bespectacled and Dina was asleep in Roomies until the start of It’s Walky, so it’s hard to tell. Sarah was an odd case in that she had consistent eyelids but not sclera in the colored pages.
Meanwhile, Amber– one of the newest characters– has no sclera. Go to the page where she changes into the Amazi-Girl costume during the Whiteboard Dingdong Bandit story to see it, as she is otherwise rarely barefaced.
I remember reading something about why some characters do or don’t have sclera, but “age” doesn’t seem to have much to do with it. Maybe it was more about how “this is just how David Willis always drew them” instead?
Deanatay
Actually, he’s drawn normally non-sclera’d eyes with sclera, and normally sclera’d eyes as beady. It seems to be a context thing for Willis, depending on what emotion he’s trying to convey. Here, it’s lazy, comfortable teasing.
The Kojie
Much bedroom eyes. Panel 4, however, contains bathroom eyes.
Kris
New story all about Mike trolling c’mon!
Planken
Well. Yer picture be makin’ that comment.
Doctor_Who
She’s already planning on running as an atheist, Mike. The crack pipe can only improve her chances, as she’ll get votes from all the drug dealers.
Kris
Finally the fringe minorities will get some representation in the White House.
DuckDuckMoose
Yeah, see, the nation will probably accept a premaritally sexual president and a crack-smokin’ president before it gets around to electing an atheist.
Tunasammich
I’m pretty sure we’ve already elected a few of those XDD
Spencer
I want Mike to die in a fire.
He’s not funny anymore.
Em
Was he ever? He’s a complete asshole, who gets off on ruining lives.
Kris
And bondage. I’m pretty sure he also gets off on bondage.
saltchocolate
Wow. It’s not like they’re naked, or cheating on spouses, or anything. I don’t know that a single life will be derailed by this.
Nena
I hate Mike. I hope he gets the shit kicked out of him.
Spencer
No see that’s just all part of his master plan to somehow ruin their day! Mike wins in the end!
I want him to stop existing forever. He’s a complete fucking chode and has no place in an even remotely grounded series like DoA.
Solenoid
A remotely grounded series acknowledges that complete fucking chodes, unfortunately, exist.
Spencer
And when those guys routinely harass the people around them, assault people in public, steal from their roommates, and convince abuse victims that they’re exactly like their parents, they tend to not be allowed to hang around anymore, yet everyone just passively accepts Mike’s continued presence.
Solenoid
Huh. That mystifies me a bit, too. I’d like to see Mike go too far for someone’s liking at least once. Just to get the realistic reaction out of someone else in the cast. Since this is a remotely grounded series, he’s not going to get off scot-free forever… if only because he’d grow boring if he did. I don’t see him upping the ante and getting away with it.
Garrett
Amazi-Girl beats people up all the time! You can’t mention the fact that he beat up Joe once! Also, he lives there and goes there! If he wants to hang around you, there’s little you can do to get rid of him. Lastly, as you say it’s remotely grounded. Remotely. A girl dresses up and beats on bullies. Mike and people’s acceptance of him are not that absurd.
Garrett
I used to love Mike because he revealed what was wrong with people. He was mean to them and he was RIGHT! Recently he’s just sorta being a dick, however he his commenting on the unreasonable expectation of becoming President.
Spencer
Amazi-Girl is a costumed vigilante, mentally unhinged, and a minor celebrity in a college. The moment the authorities are contacted, she’s done.
Mike is a disgusting shithead who makes a point to actively harass everyone for his personal amusement. He assaulted Joe in public, with witnesses. More importantly, I don’t care what Mike wants, I want the characters to react to him they should act towards the scumbag. Inform the school that they’re being constantly harassed by some blond asshole, fucking break his nose. I don’t care, I just want him gone.
Bagge
“he his commenting on the unreasonable expectation of becoming President.”
If you by commenting mean “actively discourages”. I’m sure a woman who wants a high profile career has never before been told that her expectations are “unreasonable”. I’m sure it’s not part of an active patriarchal structure to discourage women from reaching high office in large and small ways. Especially not with an undertone of slut shaming.
“So you want to be president, huh? Seems pretty unlikely.” – that would be commenting (still a bit assholy, but not that different from Walky’s reaction to Joyce’s plan to be a housewife).
“So you want to be president, huh? Let’s take a photo of you in a private moment and put it on internet so it will be readily available for anyone who wants to work against you at any point of your career, and let’s make sure you understand the implied undertones that you want make it because you have a boyfriend and is therefor an irresponsible slut.” – that’s active discouragement, bullying and edges close to career sabotage.
Chrissy
Bagge: YES. In before someone tries to say that Mike isn’t slut shaming, he’s just making it possible for others to slit shame
Bagge
Chrissy: Yup, the mechanism is similar to Doxing. The goal is to make the victim feel vulnerable and restrict her behavior while still keeping a sliver of legitimacy. “Come one, I didn’t do anything bad. Those were just photos. I can’t help what other people used them for.” The key point is that Dorothy has no say in how he takes and uses photos of her.
timemonkey
While I agree with you guys in general and agree that Mike is an asshole and not contributing much these days, remember, right now they’re in his room. If he wants to be an asshole at Dorothy now he can, right now she’s invading his private space without his permission.
Garrett
I’m not saying he’s not aasshole, or that he’s not slut shaming. I’m just saying he has a point. He doesn’t care about Dorothy’s sex life, but he knows she cares about her public image. Her actions/relationship with Walky is at odds with her EXPECTATION to become President. Mike is exposing that cognitive dissonance and in the most asshole/indirect way possible is trying to get her to resolve it (while having fun).
Bagge
…that’s not how shared dorms work. She is in Mike’s AND Walky’s private space, and you can make a case that Walky is overstepping the bounds by inviting her, but to leap from that to say that Mike is allowed to harass her is just bizarre.
He IS allowed to ask her to leave or to contact the RA, though, and if he truly has a problem with Dorothy being in their room, rather than just being an asshole for its own sake, I really hope he will do it.
Bagge
Garrett: then I suppose my question is: So what? Why should Dorothy care what he thinks about her career plans? What does his motives matter if they don’t justify his behaviour?
To take another example, Blaine tried to teach his daughter to be strong and independent, but that doesn’t justify his abuse or change the fact that he is the worst thing in the Dumbiverse.
Chrissy
There is a world of difference between being justified in your FEELINGS and justified in your ACTIONS.
Plasma Mongoose
Personally, a lot of people like Mike due to Shortpacked!
Gigafreak
Dumbiverse Mike hasn’t gone through anywhere near the character growth that Walkyverse Mike has. Dumbiverse Mike very occasionally “hurts to help,” but he is far more often just wantonly being an asshole, mainly helping people by accident rather than by intention.
Doesn’t make it any less hilarious, though.
B.D
I figured that it was because he never actually harms anyone (except Joe, but that was obviously on orders), and his unvarnished insight is unnervingly useful to have around.
Plus, Joyce seems to trust him, and that’s good enough for me.
Chrissy
Mike is the furthest from reality of all the characters (possibly even including Amazigirl), and he has caused more pain and sadness than MARY. “Oh, but he’s doing it for their own good!” Remember that Mary often thinks she’s doing thinks for people’s own good too. This is the only Willis comic I’ve read, and so far, Mike does not fit in this universe. Everyone else is a complex, flawed character, and so far Mike is one dimensional. Just a complete abusive dick “for people’s own good”?
Rycan
That’s what he wants, actually. Mike’s a masochist.
No, the best retaliation against a person like Mike is to ignore them. Easier than hiding the body, anyways.
N0083rP00F
Hey, it’s a university campus. There is no simple hide when you have so many means of complete disposal. Either the buckets of Dermestidae or tanks with voracious Nephropidae as well as access to things like this https://www.science.mcmaster.ca/~accelerator/images/KN.jpg
Pinja
He was never funny
You have this realistic cast of characters and then this asshole to whom the rules don’t seem to apply.
No one in the cast would let another character get away with what he does and the people in comments come down way harder on other characters for way less.
Fuck Mike.
zaratustra
well he IS a white male
timemonkey
They come down less hard because they think he’s funny. Also there’s no point in reacting to him, he thrives on your discomfort and anger. That’s what makes him so different and why hating him is pointless, he actively wants you to, if you give it to him he’s getting exactly what he wants, no other character functions like that.
Stephen Bierce
On one of the sites I follow they have a running segment about used cars titled “Nice Ride Or Crack Pipe”. Well, here we have “Nice Ride AND Crack Pipe”!
Regalli
Oh, Mike, you really are the worst.
Clearly the solution is to get him to hook up with Sierra. Maybe she’ll be a good influence on him? … Or at least it’ll clear one of the rooms for a night.
MM
Why would you want to do that to Sierra? D:
airyu
That’s what I was thinking; poor sweet Sierra.
Regalli
Yeah she really deserves better than Mike, I was tired and forgot letting well-adjustedness rub off on Mike would require her spending time with Mike.
Opus the Poet
How high off the ground are they? He could just “fall accidentally” out the window and they delete the pictures off his phone…
airyu