I feel like I’ve heard that phrase even earlier than 2019, though. It feels like something that I’d hear on an old Super Best Friends let’s play.
S.R.
Oh, the phrase itself is way older than the meme. it was just the “cat can have little a salami” meme that made it more popular.
The Erymanthian
This sentence at the end of the article is blowing my mind a little:
“It’s the end of the year, we’re all broken and trying to just get to 2020 (which … why? It’s just going to be the same kind of stuff), and if we want to laugh at a meme that started by giving cats pieces of salami, as a treat? Well, that’s what we deserve after whatever kind of year 2019 ended up being.”
Yet_One_More_Idiot
The fact that that writer thought 2019 was a terrible year and expected 2020 to be more of the same… ahh, the joys of 20/20 hindsight… xD
Embe13
my internal monologue when i read the line “having x as a little treat” is always a female voice i cannot place, but my feeling is it either comes from one of the Philly creamcheese adds of the late 90s early aughts, or a sex and the city style show (i have a female voice saying something along the lines of “it’s nice to treat yourself to a little treat!” or “some times (something related to dating/one night stands) is nice as a little treat” i
Clif
Thank you, Mac089. I had feared it was from a movie that everyone in the world except me had seen.
deliverything
It is on KYM after all, with some information the article from The MarySue lacks: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cats-can-have-little-a-salami
The lack of the frequently-added “as a treat” may have made it harder to find? Searching for “little a salami”, as kancil said, helped.
kancil
Oh! First time commenting because I have the autistic need to pop in with Helpful Information!
It’s actually probably related to the “cats can have little a salami” meme (frequently reproduced with “as a treat” at the end). I personally saw it morph and evolve in real time, when people started saying things like “X can have a little Y, as a treat”—some maintained the “little a” configuration at first, but it largely dropped off over time as it became more distanced from its source material. I don’t know if there are any convergent evolution lines in play, but the cat meme is definitely one directly traceable source.
Dorothy works for that paper
To extent, so does Joyce (via the comics)
Did Daisy knowingly publish a photo of two of her own employees just because she was too thirsty to realize what she’s doing
AK
…I had not thought about these are your employees angle. Don’t love that.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Unless maybe whichever adult faculty member who oversees the paper said “Why are you not running this article about the protest? Lead with that!” and unwittingly pushed this photo for the lead article. xD
Less of a specific breakdown more of building his whole persona around the fact that cheating ruined his childhood
Li
So, this is a tricky one, because it’s true but I’m not sure it was Willis’s original intent.
Joe DID defend his list to Joyce by specifically saying that “that way, no one really gets hurt” [1], but in context? This strip came directly after Joyce told him she liked her rating because it was the only one based on how he felt about her as a human being, and he was defending not thinking of other people as human beings.
Joyce then challenges him on this notion directly, and the next time he says anything about his list, he’s telling Rachel he “thought [he] was being funny, but [he] wasn’t, so [he’s] stopping” [2], and then we later see him approach Amber specifically to “make friends” and to “learn how to talk to people as people” [3] (go back one comic for the previous line).
At the same time, Joe’s feelings about his parents’ divorce have evolved. Way back in 2013 when Richard first appeared, Joe was kind of blase about his dad’s behavior (“I wish I could say he was like this only after the divorce” [4]), whereas when Richard first tried to tell him that he and Stacy were an item, Joe was much more hostile: “No, Dad. Because you won’t be faithful to her. You will cheat on her and you will hurt her” [5].
I actually don’t think Joe has ever directly connected these two dots, though it does of course make sense that they would be related.
(I also think the fact that Richard has so far stayed faithful to Stacy might ALSO be part of why Joe asked Joyce out: if there’s hope for his dad, then maybe…
But that’s even more headcanon, heh.)
Bonus: Joe has, more than once, talked about himself as being ruinous in a not-quite defined fashion [6][7]. It reminds me of how Joyce sometimes talks about herself, actually, Dorothy, too, has gone on similar little rants about what a bad person she is. In this potential polycule: left side anxiety, none self-esteem.
I am a major proponent of the belief that dude is 100% gender neutral, status neutral, even species neutral.
I am dude, my sister is dude, my dad is dude, even my cat is dude.
We are all as one, and that one is dude.
Enigmatic Jack
Regardless of its usage, Dude abides.
BarerMender
Historical note that might be of interest to someone: The first time I heard “dude” used to mean “man” or “guy” was in 1967, in Middletown, O. I thought it was weird usage, because, up to then, “dude” was a western term for a well-dressed city slicker from back east. Wikipedia says the modern usage goes back to California surfer culture in the early ’60s.
BarerMender
Personally, I’ve never called anyone “dude.”
The Lurker
It was a common saying amoust the Teddies I caroused with back then.
Effie
these days everyone is Bruh
drs
How many dudes would Joe say he’s had sex with?
Heavensrun
Well, there’s at least Joyce, by her own metric.
Dot
I would advise not putting this belief into practice when interacting with trans women. Just a tip.
Manticore
Heh, I came out as a trans woman at work months before I planned because one manager, who didn’t know any better, kept calling me dude in a conversation. I knew that he didn’t know, but it bothered me so much that I came out the next day. xD
Casi
as a trans woman, i agree, but i’m also a Californian surfer girl, i use dude unisex as well. mostly as an intensifier tho
deliverything
Actually, I’m pretty sure Joe’s just using it as an intensifier here, too.
TheLurkerAbove
Yes, dude is mostly an intensifier for me.
GreyICE
Dude is 100% an intensifier. A milder version of “My Brother in Christ” as in “My Brother in Christ, why is there a pizza in the oven with a timer set for two hours?”
Rose by Any other Name
This discussion of the grammatical use of the word dude warms my heart.
Dot
Absolutely under no circumstances call a trans woman “my brother in christ” either
deliverything
Dot: How about something like “my sister in Hecate”? Or whatever other goddess appeals.
Dot
Look just call me “she.”
Risky
She, you got caught cheating on your boyfriend on the front page!
Li
ha. ha. ha.
there, Risky, do you feel better
Jennible
I spent an insane amount of money in life to not be called dude, and i certainly don’t look like one now lol. Even still i mostly just roll my eyes when someone addresses me like that. Not really worth the effort of correcting them unless i know them personally. It’s just kinda annoying is all.
zepangolynn
My best friend had to break his habit of calling everyone dude when he started working at a school with a shall we say highly unusual proportion of trans and nonbinary kids to cis ones, because while some embrace dude, you never know which ones will be offended, so better not to do it at all. He switched to saying human (as in “What’s shakin’, my humans?”), which comes out just pleasantly weird enough to not bother anyone so far.
Sere
I love this
thejeff
“my gentle and of course very modern apes”.
h/t to Gutsick Gibbon
Seralyna
yeah, myself and the other trans women i know all bristle at it pretty distinctly. it doesn’t feel great to hear
Thag Simmons
Yeah, you have to keep in mind that even if you think a word like Dude ought to be unisex, we live in a world where it isn’t and people aren’t always going to interpret it like you do.
Zaxares
Agreed. But I think this is one of those situations where one also needs to analyze intent. For example, back in Australia it’s fairly common for “c*nt” to be used as an insult for an a-hole, regardless of the person’s actual gender. In some circles (often considered as people coming from a lower-class background), it’s even thrown around so casually that it’s lost its pejorative impact and has become just another slang. It would also be unrealistic to expect an entire culture to change in a short time to fit a universal ideal. (It would be NICE, mind you, but I’m being realistic here. These sorts of changes take time, often generations.)
Rose by Any other Name
Fun fact, the c-word is the English pronunciation of “cunnis” which is the latin term for vulva (weirdly, the word vulva is latin for the womb). As such, it is actually the correct word for the labia and other outer structures whereas vagina specifically means the internal canal.
Personally, I’ve been trying to reclaim it as a replacement for p—y since I find the later term both demeaning and gross.
eh, whatever
Yes, except it’s cunnus.
That’s why it’s le con in French – well, it was. These days that means “male dumbass”.
S.R.
Oh, I’ve been doing the same in my writing. I couldn’t find a different term for that general anatomy that I liked- everything is either too clinical, or it’s that one word that I associate with just /so/ much bad writing at this point. This one’s good- short and snappy and matches up well with the various terms for the, ah, other type of frequently-involved-in-smut anatomy.
Rose by Any other Name
@eh, whatever
I don’t actually know latin, I just do a lot of research, so I relied on google translate for the proper spelling. Fuckin google.
@S.R. I know right? Both four letters, both punchy, both start with a C. They’re well matched.
I’m also a fan of “phallus” for male anatomy because it’s fun to say. “Phallus!”
Bobcat
Both my cats think, indeed, that their name is Dude.
716 thoughts on “Date both”
Enigmatic Jack
HUSSY TIME!
Pocky
oh, look at the time!
Doctor_Who
Joyce can do a little hussing. As a treat.
Clif
Out of curiosity, where did the “as a treat” meme come from?
MAC089
Know Your Meme let me down, but apparently Twitter in 2019 is where this came from. https://www.themarysue.com/you-can-have-a-little-new-twitter-meme-as-a-treat/
Songbird
I feel like I’ve heard that phrase even earlier than 2019, though. It feels like something that I’d hear on an old Super Best Friends let’s play.
S.R.
Oh, the phrase itself is way older than the meme. it was just the “cat can have little a salami” meme that made it more popular.
The Erymanthian
This sentence at the end of the article is blowing my mind a little:
“It’s the end of the year, we’re all broken and trying to just get to 2020 (which … why? It’s just going to be the same kind of stuff), and if we want to laugh at a meme that started by giving cats pieces of salami, as a treat? Well, that’s what we deserve after whatever kind of year 2019 ended up being.”
Yet_One_More_Idiot
The fact that that writer thought 2019 was a terrible year and expected 2020 to be more of the same… ahh, the joys of 20/20 hindsight… xD
Embe13
my internal monologue when i read the line “having x as a little treat” is always a female voice i cannot place, but my feeling is it either comes from one of the Philly creamcheese adds of the late 90s early aughts, or a sex and the city style show (i have a female voice saying something along the lines of “it’s nice to treat yourself to a little treat!” or “some times (something related to dating/one night stands) is nice as a little treat” i
Clif
Thank you, Mac089. I had feared it was from a movie that everyone in the world except me had seen.
deliverything
It is on KYM after all, with some information the article from The MarySue lacks:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cats-can-have-little-a-salami
The lack of the frequently-added “as a treat” may have made it harder to find? Searching for “little a salami”, as kancil said, helped.
kancil
Oh! First time commenting because I have the autistic need to pop in with Helpful Information!
It’s actually probably related to the “cats can have little a salami” meme (frequently reproduced with “as a treat” at the end). I personally saw it morph and evolve in real time, when people started saying things like “X can have a little Y, as a treat”—some maintained the “little a” configuration at first, but it largely dropped off over time as it became more distanced from its source material. I don’t know if there are any convergent evolution lines in play, but the cat meme is definitely one directly traceable source.
deliverything
Thanks for being helpful!
Dara
peanut butter HUSSY time
peanut butter HUSSY time
smoochin’ faces ALLA time it’s
peanut butter HUSSY time
Dara
(from The Ethical Hussy, by Joyce Brown, PhD, University of Chicago Press, 2036)
RassilonTDavros
YOU MEDDLESOME HUSSY!
Dara
it would’ve worked too if it weren’t for you
ValdVin
…meddling photographers?
Gigafreak
Dorothy works for that paper
To extent, so does Joyce (via the comics)
Did Daisy knowingly publish a photo of two of her own employees just because she was too thirsty to realize what she’s doing
AK
…I had not thought about these are your employees angle. Don’t love that.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Unless maybe whichever adult faculty member who oversees the paper said “Why are you not running this article about the protest? Lead with that!” and unwittingly pushed this photo for the lead article. xD
Rose by Any other Name
And thus Joyce takes her next step on the road toward Internet Porn Queen.
someone
David Willis: the man drew hussies.
Disastroid
“Hussin’ makes me feel good”
Olofa
Hussytime! Can’t touch this!
Tan
I am here to note that today is the 1-year anniversary of this strip: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-15/01-love-dares-you-to-change/dropped/
Elf grrl
Happy 1-year anniversary!
apricot
Perfect
Tawnee
I scrolled a few strips on from that and came across this lovely exchange.
Sarah : “Polyamory is not a magical solution to all relationship conflict.”
Joyce : “Did someone hit you on the head?”
(I may have not included surrounding context, but it’s funnier this way).
Clif
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-15/01-love-dares-you-to-change/envisioned/
Needfuldoer
*Makes a bookmark for this strip right next to the one where Joe breaks down about how much he hates cheating*
Amara
I remember Joe breaking down about hating divorces when carol came to visit but I don’t remember him having another breakdown vis a vis cheating.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/delight/
zee
Less of a specific breakdown more of building his whole persona around the fact that cheating ruined his childhood
Li
So, this is a tricky one, because it’s true but I’m not sure it was Willis’s original intent.
Joe DID defend his list to Joyce by specifically saying that “that way, no one really gets hurt” [1], but in context? This strip came directly after Joyce told him she liked her rating because it was the only one based on how he felt about her as a human being, and he was defending not thinking of other people as human beings.
Joyce then challenges him on this notion directly, and the next time he says anything about his list, he’s telling Rachel he “thought [he] was being funny, but [he] wasn’t, so [he’s] stopping” [2], and then we later see him approach Amber specifically to “make friends” and to “learn how to talk to people as people” [3] (go back one comic for the previous line).
At the same time, Joe’s feelings about his parents’ divorce have evolved. Way back in 2013 when Richard first appeared, Joe was kind of blase about his dad’s behavior (“I wish I could say he was like this only after the divorce” [4]), whereas when Richard first tried to tell him that he and Stacy were an item, Joe was much more hostile: “No, Dad. Because you won’t be faithful to her. You will cheat on her and you will hurt her” [5].
I actually don’t think Joe has ever directly connected these two dots, though it does of course make sense that they would be related.
(I also think the fact that Richard has so far stayed faithful to Stacy might ALSO be part of why Joe asked Joyce out: if there’s hope for his dad, then maybe…
But that’s even more headcanon, heh.)
Bonus: Joe has, more than once, talked about himself as being ruinous in a not-quite defined fashion [6][7]. It reminds me of how Joyce sometimes talks about herself, actually, Dorothy, too, has gone on similar little rants about what a bad person she is. In this potential polycule: left side anxiety, none self-esteem.
References (1/4)
1. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/04-the-do-list/shallow/
2. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/04-the-do-list/oath/
Li
References (3/4)
5. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/doing/
6. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-13/01-bring-me-to-life-drawing/messed-2
Li
References (4/4)
7. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-15/01-love-dares-you-to-change/established-2/
… sighs tiredly at my formatting oh well
Li
References (2/4)
3. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/circumstances/
4. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/persistent/
Adeptus
Good catch, so she is aware. In the abstract, at least.
Kazuma Shouri
it’s amazing how much changes in 2 days
AntithesisConundrum
o7 godspeed, joyce. own it
Red
Lmao
Red
I kinda love that he’s calling her dude, for some reason that makes me happy
Doctor_Who
I am a major proponent of the belief that dude is 100% gender neutral, status neutral, even species neutral.
I am dude, my sister is dude, my dad is dude, even my cat is dude.
We are all as one, and that one is dude.
Enigmatic Jack
Regardless of its usage, Dude abides.
BarerMender
Historical note that might be of interest to someone: The first time I heard “dude” used to mean “man” or “guy” was in 1967, in Middletown, O. I thought it was weird usage, because, up to then, “dude” was a western term for a well-dressed city slicker from back east. Wikipedia says the modern usage goes back to California surfer culture in the early ’60s.
BarerMender
Personally, I’ve never called anyone “dude.”
The Lurker
It was a common saying amoust the Teddies I caroused with back then.
Effie
these days everyone is Bruh
drs
How many dudes would Joe say he’s had sex with?
Heavensrun
Well, there’s at least Joyce, by her own metric.
Dot
I would advise not putting this belief into practice when interacting with trans women. Just a tip.
Manticore
Heh, I came out as a trans woman at work months before I planned because one manager, who didn’t know any better, kept calling me dude in a conversation. I knew that he didn’t know, but it bothered me so much that I came out the next day. xD
Casi
as a trans woman, i agree, but i’m also a Californian surfer girl, i use dude unisex as well. mostly as an intensifier tho
deliverything
Actually, I’m pretty sure Joe’s just using it as an intensifier here, too.
TheLurkerAbove
Yes, dude is mostly an intensifier for me.
GreyICE
Dude is 100% an intensifier. A milder version of “My Brother in Christ” as in “My Brother in Christ, why is there a pizza in the oven with a timer set for two hours?”
Rose by Any other Name
This discussion of the grammatical use of the word dude warms my heart.
Dot
Absolutely under no circumstances call a trans woman “my brother in christ” either
deliverything
Dot: How about something like “my sister in Hecate”? Or whatever other goddess appeals.
Dot
Look just call me “she.”
Risky
She, you got caught cheating on your boyfriend on the front page!
Li
ha. ha. ha.
there, Risky, do you feel better
Jennible
I spent an insane amount of money in life to not be called dude, and i certainly don’t look like one now lol. Even still i mostly just roll my eyes when someone addresses me like that. Not really worth the effort of correcting them unless i know them personally. It’s just kinda annoying is all.
zepangolynn
My best friend had to break his habit of calling everyone dude when he started working at a school with a shall we say highly unusual proportion of trans and nonbinary kids to cis ones, because while some embrace dude, you never know which ones will be offended, so better not to do it at all. He switched to saying human (as in “What’s shakin’, my humans?”), which comes out just pleasantly weird enough to not bother anyone so far.
Sere
I love this
thejeff
“my gentle and of course very modern apes”.
h/t to Gutsick Gibbon
Seralyna
yeah, myself and the other trans women i know all bristle at it pretty distinctly. it doesn’t feel great to hear
Thag Simmons
Yeah, you have to keep in mind that even if you think a word like Dude ought to be unisex, we live in a world where it isn’t and people aren’t always going to interpret it like you do.
Zaxares
Agreed. But I think this is one of those situations where one also needs to analyze intent. For example, back in Australia it’s fairly common for “c*nt” to be used as an insult for an a-hole, regardless of the person’s actual gender. In some circles (often considered as people coming from a lower-class background), it’s even thrown around so casually that it’s lost its pejorative impact and has become just another slang. It would also be unrealistic to expect an entire culture to change in a short time to fit a universal ideal. (It would be NICE, mind you, but I’m being realistic here. These sorts of changes take time, often generations.)
Rose by Any other Name
Fun fact, the c-word is the English pronunciation of “cunnis” which is the latin term for vulva (weirdly, the word vulva is latin for the womb). As such, it is actually the correct word for the labia and other outer structures whereas vagina specifically means the internal canal.
Personally, I’ve been trying to reclaim it as a replacement for p—y since I find the later term both demeaning and gross.
eh, whatever
Yes, except it’s cunnus.
That’s why it’s le con in French – well, it was. These days that means “male dumbass”.
S.R.
Oh, I’ve been doing the same in my writing. I couldn’t find a different term for that general anatomy that I liked- everything is either too clinical, or it’s that one word that I associate with just /so/ much bad writing at this point. This one’s good- short and snappy and matches up well with the various terms for the, ah, other type of frequently-involved-in-smut anatomy.
Rose by Any other Name
@eh, whatever
I don’t actually know latin, I just do a lot of research, so I relied on google translate for the proper spelling. Fuckin google.
@S.R. I know right? Both four letters, both punchy, both start with a C. They’re well matched.
I’m also a fan of “phallus” for male anatomy because it’s fun to say. “Phallus!”
Bobcat
Both my cats think, indeed, that their name is Dude.
Adeptus
That’s adprable