Told them
Posted on October 12, 2025 by David M Willis


Tags: dorothy, hank, jocelyne, joyce

203 thoughts on “Told them”

  1. Animedingo

    New from Hasbro

    1. Ray

      You can tell it’s Mattel; it’s swell!”

      1. Needfuldoer

        From TYCO, of course.

        1. Yet_One_More_Idiot

          Joyothy (Jotty?) ships by Tonka. Made to be unbreakable. ^^

      2. Olofa

        It’s Kenner! It’s fun!

        1. Ray Radlein

          +1

    2. tim Rowledge

      Waiting for the Lego(™) version

    3. YourCousinJay

      hasbro could never

      1. YourCousinJay

        nvm i’ve been told Daisy Doyle exists

    4. Decidedly Orthogonal

      I thought GalPals(TM) were made by Hitachi? Doesn’t everyone know that?

  2. Doctor_Who

    Joyce needs to level grind some more if she wants to earn that ™.

    1. True Survivor

      Is that how intellectual property law works? I was wondered why judges wear wizard robes and now it all makes sense.

    2. Schol-R-LEA

      My guess is she more likely to be teeth grinding, instead.

    3. Reltzik

      Grind, or scissor, or something like that.

      1. Owlmirror

        But it’s been said (in the comments) that Real Lesbians™ don’t do that!

        1. Nymph

          lmao that certainly has been said, yes.

        2. Astariel

          Fortunately, Joyce and Dorothy are Real Bisexuals(TM).

        3. Nymph

          Probably*

        4. Reltzik

          They’re NEW lesbians. Decent odds that they’ll at least try.

        5. Nymph

          And it’ll be awesome because then they’ll get to spend random bits of their day telling strangers that scissoring is actually definitely a thing lesbians do and it rocks.

  3. mindbleach

    Oh my god, they weren’t roommates.

    1. Mari

      Oh my God and they were suitemates!

    2. Andrusi

      …I had genuinely forgotten that they weren’t.

      1. mindbleach

        33 steps.

  4. Dave Van Domelen

    She doesn’t have to say “tee em,” you can just tell from the tone.

  5. JamieSabriel

    Gal Pal[tm], my new pet name I demand all people I date forever to call me

  6. Taffy

    No one cares about Dorothy’s parents, Joyce.

  7. Sirksome

    Don’t trust parents. Especially in this comic.

  8. Nono

    For a real jumpscare: clink on the Hank tag and look how different he looks in this strip compared to his first appearance.

    1. Taffy

      It’s called aging, and everyone does it. Hank is just more proficient than the rest of us.

      1. Nono

        Dina and Alice will probably still look very similar in their 30s. Asian genes are powerful.

        1. eh, whatever

          Rather, destroying your collagen is a white-people thing, somehow.

        2. Nymph

          I mean, most people aren’t rotting by their 30s, but I assume they’re already older than that unless they had Dina problematically young.

      2. bubba0077

        Joyce’s parents are the only ones in the comic not on a sliding timescale.

    2. Doopyboop

      The divorce made him age a lot.

    3. biomanzilla

      You can do that with every character who was there at the beginning of the comic.

      1. Nono

        Some like Ruth really haven’t changed that much.

        1. Leorale

          She did grow irises though.

    4. asp55

      At least part of that is that this is the first run (I think) where we’ve seen Hank wearing glasses instead of contacts.

    5. JWK

      No offense, but artists’ styles change. I’m re-reading a manga right now where the characters from a couple years ago look very little like the characters now. The art style evolved, sometimes to increase production or help coloring or other things a clod like me can’t imagine.

      1. Jon

        Or for that matter, look at the webcomic “A Girl and Her Fed”. KB Spangler’s initial artwork was mostly outlines and sketches, indicating her characters without any great detail. Before she turned over artwork to Ale Presser, though, her style had evolved to complete character figures in detailed settings (and in color – from the initial art, I’d never have guessed that the ghost of Ben Franklin was supposed to be blue).

    6. NGPZ

      that I did, and holy SHIT

      as expected, having Carol as a wife has aged him horribly :0

  9. Tan

    When you go from friend of Dorothy to friend of Dorothy.

    1. Owlmirror

      I think you mean “Friend of Dorothy™”.

  10. Dot

    Man. I just really don’t like these two together romantically. The punchline totally kills this strip for me, it’s just the same sugary sweet shtick we’ve seen from them over and over and over and I’m sick of it.

    1. Sirksome

      Perhaps it’s a talent to manage to make every couple immediately obnoxious in this comic?

      1. Dot

        They aren’t though! Becky and Dina are great, Danny and Sal are great, Billie and Ruth were amazing. Compelling romantic pairings are possible in this strip! This isn’t one of them.

        1. Poot-pootington

          yeah, I agree. I love Dinah and Becky navigating their own respective awkwardness and griwing close. Billie and Ruth, too, despite that “mutually assured self-destruction” energy

        2. Sirksome

          I’d argue it’s only obnoxious here because they’re very much in the honeymoon phase since they’ve only been openly dating in a time frame of hours. Less than 2 days really. Every couple was cutesy sweet like this their first few days except maybe Bille and Ruth which was cutesy abusive. That juxtaposed with Becky being sad and Joe left in the wind and Walky shitting away his emotions kinda taints the good vibes but that really just boils down to perspective. A week out in comic are we even gonna care anymore?

        3. Dawn

          I like Joyce/Dorothy a lot (have been shipping em for 9 years) and always hated the Billie/Ruth relationship so…definitely disagree there.

          I do adore Becky/Dina and Danny/Sal though!

        4. Astariel

          Yes, they are all good relationships, but Joyrothy is the best!

        5. Dot

          Please conduct your squeefests over DoJo somewhere other than my replies, thank you.

    2. pjeseb

      I mean, I wouldn’t really call this strip “sugary sweet.” https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-16/01-not-so-smooth-criminals/butifitwas/

      Considering the amount of people calling the ship tainted and unsalvageable because of cheating or whatever, it seems like a weird take.

      1. Dot

        You can see me in the comments of that strip actually saying it was a good one 😉 one of the few times I’ve found them likable… because it WASN’tT the same gee whilickers wholesome shtick again.

        1. pjeseb

          I guess I just don’t find their relationship as one note as you do. I find it pretty similar to Dina and Becky’s, honestly: generally wholesome with moments of awkwardness and/or horniness that you’d expect from people their age.

          It sounds to me like your problem is more to do with Joyce and Dorothy as characters than as a couple. Like, for the majority of the comic’s run, their primary traits have been sugary sweetness (Joyce) and bland perfection (Dorothy). Especially when together.

        2. biomanzilla

          There’s been opportunities for both of them to drop those traits. At the beginning both Joyce and Dorothy’s stand out traits were their idealism (Joyce’s faith in God, Dorothy’s faith in America) and that idealism has been shattered. But it hasn’t resulted in the personality changes you’d expect.

        3. eh, whatever

          What personality changes did you expect? I don’t see a reason to expect any.

        4. biomanzilla

          They don’t have to go full emo like Ethan, but I expected a little disillusionment with the world and people in general. The entire life path they had at the beginning has been irrevocably altered and they don’t even seem that bothered.

      2. Priv. Priv.

        people seem to find this ship somehow the most toxic and also the most boring thing at the same time its fasinating. I enjoy it but I think its the lacknof interal conflict which we shouldbe getting soon.

        1. Nono

          Nah, most boring ship was still Lucy/Walky.

        2. justin8448

          I like how that relationship eventually ended, and what both characters came to realize about themselves as a result.

          But I agree that every strip of them together was a slog.

        3. Ado

          I think part of it is just, the strip is trying to do a lot of things at the same time right now processing the fallout, so there’s a lot of real world time passing while comic time stays pretty fixed in the honeymoon phase.

        4. Reaver

          There’s a undercurrent of “How dare Joyce like a girl that’s not Becky” throughout all of this from people that kinda gives me the ick.

          “How dare Joyce not consider Becky’s feelings”

          Cuz Becky’s personal feelings should not matter in Joyce’s love life X.X

          She can care about how Becky feels, but other women are not off limits forever cuz the person she’s always seen as her sister is not someone she wants to mack on.

        5. Dawn

          Becky feeling hurt is a valid emotion, but that’s not Joyce’s fault at all and people should NOT be mad at Joyce for hurting Becky. This is Becky’s trauma to work through, hopefully with a therapist. She shouldn’t feel unworthy and unlovable because her best friend (who loves her more than anyone else) loves her as a sister. Joyce did nothing wrong in regards to anything with Becky. Calling her out for betraying Joe is valid, but Becky? No.

        6. Reaver

          Absolutely, like why are we focusing so much on how BECKY feels? Joe got like 3 comics before he got left in the dust!

        7. The Big One

          Becky is a character i actually care about.

          Besides, I think this comment section and the subreddit try to make Joe out to be the “victim” of Joyce no longer repressing her queer identjty enough to where the comic itself doing it would be redundant.

        8. thejeff

          It’s possible to stop repressing your queer identity and come out as bi without cheating, as Danny emphatically pointed out to Dorothy awhile back.

        9. Dot

          Joe isn’t the victim of Joyce accepting her gayness, but he is a victim of Joyce cheating on him. lol.

        10. Donovan

          yes that’s the only possible read of what people are saying

        11. Yotomoe

          Wow the “victim” in quotes for the guy who was cheated on.

        12. thejeff

          But that’s not the commentariat, that’s the comic. We’re focusing on how Becky feels because that’s what the comic has been focused on.

          This has actually been a complaint of the relationship paladin side all along

        13. Clif

          The comic is ongoing with a sizable cast. Not everything can be focused on at the same time. It’s clear we are going to get back to Joe.

        14. Rowen Morland

          It’s always interesting to see mass drama inspired in people over things you don’t really read as issues.

        15. Ed Callahano

          It’s more a case of mass drama regarding something that only exists as pixels on a screen.

    3. AMagicalDuck

      Yes we get it. You don’t need to comment this on every single comic they’re in

      1. Taffy

        They don’t have to not do it, either.

        1. Dot

          Please use she/her pronouns for me. I do not like being called they or them.

        2. Taffy

          Sure thing, lieutenant.

        3. Clif

          You should stop sugarcoating things and tell us what you really believe.

      2. Dot

        You don’t have to read my comments or reply, you are fully capable of just scrolling on by.

      3. Donovan

        Please comment it on every single they’re in.

        1. Dot

          yes boss!

    4. Arianod

      Couples in their honeymoon phase can and will be obnoxious like that.

    5. Big Z

      Somehow Joyce has managed to go from “forget what they were doing due to horny” to “forget what they were doing due to thinking about how the parents are going to react on like day two of dating”, which is also kinda on brand for Joyce speedrunning all the stereotypes if we use this as a proxy for the U-Haul joke.

      1. Clif

        Surely no-one would make jokes about a revered institution like U-Haul.

  11. Qube

    I like to imagine that every time I do The Thing™, it sounds like there’s extra reverb and perhaps a vine boom attached to it

  12. Nono

    Just think Joyce, if you had hooked up with Becky instead you wouldn’t need to worry about if your girlfriend’s parents would like you!

    Haha… ha.

    1. Rowan

      Made me snort out loud in a coffee shop

    2. Nymph

      Good joke. A+ joke.

  13. RASSILONTDAVROS

    The real question is whether Joyce said “trademark” or “tee-emm”.

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      She got lessons from Brun over in Questionable Content who knows how to articulate an ellipses.

      https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3230

      1. Quinn

        I miss Brun. Well her and several other characters that got sidelined.

        1. Nymph

          I also really miss Brun.

          Honestly one of my big complaints about QC is how often non-white characters get completely sidelined into obscurity.

        2. Big Z

          As much as I still like QC, that seems to have been exponentially worse since the Cubetown move. There are certainly a lot of colors of sentient robot on that island, but not a whole lot of colors of humans.

        3. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          Especially the Real Estate Chameleon…

  14. Sirksome

    Cut to Mr. and Mrs. Keener showing up to campus with rifles, ready to risk it all!

  15. Poot-pootington

    you know, I get this is a drama/humor comic, and that they are both *very very* young. But Joyce’s narcissism and selfishness right now is eating at me. Her sister is going through a rough time, she just utterly destroyed both Becky and (probably) Joe. But she seems so unaware of it. Are teenagers like that? Was I like that?…hrm

    1. pjeseb

      First of all, yes, all teenagers are assholes.

      Secondly, if you think Joyce is unaware of Jocelyne’s situation or Becky’s feelings then I don’t know what comic strip you’ve been reading because it’s not this one. Seriously, I am baffled that you could come away with that conclusion.

    2. Sirksome

      I gotta slight problem with this take. I think it’s holding Joyce and Dorothy to an unrealistic standard. They both feel plenty guilty, but are they supposed to not enjoy being together? That’s just not how life should work. Joyce has a right to be happy. Even if some are hurt or don’t enjoy them being together. It might be selfish but so what?

      1. Folus

        Greatest relationship advice I ever learned: sometimes you just gotta be selfish.

        ..I mean, I haven’t actually had any significant relationships since then, but I’m sure that’s unrelated and it’s totally still good advice….

    3. Anonymous

      At least in front of Hank right now, I posit (benefit of the doubt?) that this can be attributed to compartmentalisation.

      What comes to mind is someone with a looming (big) deadline who has a meal with a friend and tries not to think about the deadline at all, talking and laughing and acting normal and taking the chance to relax, before returning to being alone and their ongoing panic-mode.

      Especially for with her father, Joyce both rarely sees him in person (wanting the interaction to be positive) and doesn’t want him to be alarmed or act unpredictably from seeing her distracted or in panic-mode (not wanting the interaction to be negative, especially for potential sibling fallout).

      She thus (I think) has strong incentives to push everything non-immediate to the corner of her mind (shelving it until later) and wholly focus on the current conversation and having a fun reassuring conversation with her dad, before she has to face those matters again later.

      Before sending this, I went back and looked again at Joyce’s expressions when looking at (and thinking about) Becky in “Hand-wringing” and “Dad pizza” (linked below). These reassure me that (at least in this respect) Joyce is not currently being callous towards Becky; keep in mind that in a sense, Joyce taking on this Hank-conversation is at the moment “what she can do for Becky” instead of having stayed out of it and left Becky to (hopefully) entirely block it for her.

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-16/01-not-so-smooth-criminals/handwringing/

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-16/01-not-so-smooth-criminals/dadpizza/

      1. Nono

        I think Joyce isn’t unaware but Dorothy proximity does make them both act a bit more tactless than they should.

        When Becky sorta-confronted them in their room they just kinda slipped into ‘mushy-gushy’ mode around each other while Becky was barely holding it together in front of them.

        1. Ado

          Yeah, agree here.

        2. StClair

          Same.

        3. Dot

          Their romantic relationship started with them getting carried away in a moment and they have not since been able to dial that tendency back.

        4. Proxiehunter

          In the what, two days (three maybe?) that it’s been going on for? Maybe give them some time without a whole bunch of other issues demanding their attention to try and dial back.

        5. Proxiehunter

          Went back and double checked the timeline, it hasn’t even been 24 hours yet.

        6. Dot

          It has been several months of real time. I do not feel it is unreasonable for me to ask them to please find a new shtick.

    4. Ado

      Strong infatuation, *combined with* fulfilling a deep need you had denied yourself for many years, *as a climax of* a year of exhilarating yet traumatic awakening through which you re-evaluate *your entire life* thus far, in your first year as an independent human, is an intoxicating elixir.

      There’s just only so much intensity that people can take, decent or otherwise, teenagers or otherwise, without going on the fritz a bit. Joyce is a decent human who is making understandable mistakes in extremely intense circumstances.

      Remember also how little comic time has elapsed. We’re still in the first week, I assume?

      While Joyce is behaving selfishly, she is not behaving narcissistically at all. Joyce is excessively admiring Dorothy as opposed to demanding admiration from people, etc.

      Agree with pj that Joyce is intensely aware of these other feelings, and at times is going out her way to try and remedy them. She’s prioritizing her own desires more, for sure, but far from exclusively.

      1. Jon

        “Remember also how little comic time has elapsed. We’re still in the first week, I assume?”

        The Smooch happened yesterday. This is still maybe fifteen, twenty minutes after they found out you can’t unpublish a newspaper, best I can reconstruct it.

    5. The Queer Agenda [frog memes]

      Did you skip the entire Joyce outing herself to their father to pull aggro away from her sister thing?

    6. kdmw

      I think many people pretend to be cheerful in front of their parents if they don’t want them to worry (it’s me, I’m many people)

  16. shadowcell

    pfft another girl toy that doesn’t come with its own batteries

    1. deliverything

      Sarah might know where she can get some.
      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/share-2/

  17. Anonymous

    This prompts me to think about Dorothy’s parents also learning
    (around the same time)
    about Dorothy’s captured-in-newspaper-as-at-a-protest
    and not-planning-to-be-president-any-more.

    I personally can’t currently speculate on whether their strong “we’re sure you can be president” sentiment (I paraphrase without checking the archive) is (an unintentional-pressure attempt to be) a loving “we support whatever you want to do” or contains concrete expectations of greatness, in which case there could be a possibility of a “slumming it” reprise
    (suspecting Joyce to be a bad influence, or otherwise subconciously associating the learned-at-about-the-same-time relationship with Joyce as associated with disapproved developments).

    1. biomanzilla

      So far, the Keeners have been generic Good Parents™ whose attitude towards Dorothy was always “You can be anything you want to be, sweetie :)”. Willis used to argue with people who said they were too supportive of her, but since it’s been revealed that Dorothy apparently wanted to be president without ever seriously considering what she’d have to do to get and/or succeed in the office, I think those criticisms turned out to be justified.

  18. C.T Phipps

    I am hoping for the twist of Dorothy’s parents to be that they’re furious Dorothy is giving up her Yale offer.

    1. Bryy

      Yeah. This is gonna be it.

    2. Dot

      Be nice for them to have an opinion that isn’t “you can do whatever you want to do sweetie :)” for a change

      1. Donovan

        now lets not get crazy here

      2. nadamás

        Why? Isn’t that a good thing that they are supportive of her.

        1. Nymph

          That isn’t true support. That’s nonsensical fluff at best, and a humoring brush-off at worst. It doesn’t mean anything and it doesn’t really help either.

          You can’t just “do whatever you want to do” you have to work for it. You have to make choices, sometimes sacrifices, and sometimes you still can’t do it. They’re not great supportive parents if all they ever said to their daughter’s very lofty ambitions was “you can do whatever you want to do”.

          She doesn’t have to go to Yale, or be president, but I do hope they get worried about her suddenly altering the course of her life for some girl she met 6mos ago without even giving them a heads-up or a rationale for it.

        2. Dot

          Yeah if a precocious and studious child suddenly abandons a lifelong dream of going to one of the most prestigious universities in the country, *after getting in*… that should set off some alarm bells for a reasonable parent. Liked at minimum it warrants a check-in.

        3. C.T Phipps

          Dorothy’s reasons would be kind of black comedy too.

          “I don’t want to profit off my personal tragedy.”

          “How the Heck do you think you’d be elected? You have to use every advantage!”

  19. Mona, Just Mona

    “Joyce, how did you do that thing with your mouth?”

  20. Schol-R-LEA

    Toxic Yuri Status: RHABDOLITE

  21. Morrison

    Man Friend next on her wish list

  22. IntangibleMatter

    I use the ™ symbol so much that I have the unicode codepoint for it memorized. u2122.

    1. AbacusWizard

      Or on a Mac keyboard: option-2

      1. keithcurtis

        Typing uncommon characters is one of the few places where there is any objective qualitative difference between Mac and PC anymore.

      2. deliverything

        In Windows, you can hold alt while typing 0153 on the keypad (if your computer doesn’t have a keypad, this doesn’t work). In Linux, press ctrl+shift+u, release, then type the unicode in hexadecimal (2122 in this case) followed by space or enter.

        1. deliverything

          Oh, turns out, in Windows, you can also hold alt while typing numpad + followed by the hex unicode. Don’t need the keypad for the code itself, which is good because it doesn’t have the digits a to f, but I couldn’t get it to accept the + key from the main keyboard, with or without shift.

        2. John Campbell

          On my Linux machines, it’s just Compose t m. This may require using xmodmap to assign a Compose key, but that gives those extra keys Microsoft made them add to keyboards a reason to exist, and it allows typing all kinds of things with easy mnemonics rather than having to memorize Unicode points or arbitrary Option codes.

    2. StClair

      I have a few special characters at the top of a text file on my desktop, for easy copy-pasting. (There’s other stuff further down, sort of a generic “notes”.)

  23. Nura Calise

    Dorothy’s parents think Joyce is a friend of Dorothy’s not a Friend of Dorothy

  24. Shiro

    I can’t tell if panel 3 Hank is lowkey dismissing the relationship, or considering whether he can give a girlfriend a shovel talk like he would a boyfriend

    Although I’m also not sure if Hank is the shovel talk type. Maybe the gentlest possible version of one

    1. Tofusmith

      Honestly I just think Hank feels like they’re being kind of immature and annoying about this, which… can’t completely disagree with, but for other reasons

      1. Shiro

        Such is the affliction of all 18-year-olds, I fear

  25. biomanzilla

    Still one very big elephant in this room, waiting to be acknowledged.

    1. ADLegend21

      Joe’s not THAT big.

      1. Dot

        He’s pretty big!

        1. Nymph

          And he never forgets!

  26. Li

    These two adorable doofuses…

    1. Sirksome

      Heard too late you weren’t feeling well. Hope you’re doing better. These two are adoofable.

      1. Li

        Aw, thank you, Sirksome.

        Yeah, it’s just. Been almost a full year of unemployment. I opted to go back to school, and I’m just in the Most Precarious phase of that, before I can properly apply for scholarships to help with the financial burden. Just community college for a couple semesters, thankfully, so that part’s okay, but I’m continuing to burn through my savings for another couple of months.

        I reached out to former coworkers to let them know I was still looking, I did a big round of applications this weekend, including for internships and part-time things I could do while continuing to get my degree. I also applied at Trader Joe’s, and I plan to apply at a couple of other slightly farther-away stores that I *know* are hiring, where I could use my Japanese knowledge. 🙂

        I’ll be okay. <3 Thank you for checking in, it's very kind of you.

        1. Dot

          I hope things go well for you! I’ve been in that position before and it’s never fun.

        2. Li

          Thank you, Dot. ❤️

    2. Li

      (Yes, there are other things going on! I care about other characters and their feelings. I still like the last panel.)

  27. NGPZ

    I’m still worried about Dina… T~T

  28. Cmasta1992

    Oh yay…these two…

    I would rather see what Blaine is up to in Hell

    1. Miroku2235

      You and me both.

    2. anonymsly

      Thirded. I am already *so tired* of seeing ‘we’re so cute aren’t we cute we’re just the cutest don’t you love us how about now how about now how about now we are just SO CUTE’. Trying WAY too hard.

    3. RASSILONTDAVROS

      He hasn’t shown up since the time skip, so I’m preeetty sure he’s disqualified from the Patreon poll.

  29. ValdVin

    Huh. I didn’t know Joyce took the class where they teach you how to speak in subscript and superscript.

  30. M!a

    I hear the new Gal Pal™ has three speeds and is rechargeable…

  31. Kyulen

    If I remember correctly, Dorothy’s parents are some of nicest and most accepting parents we’ve seen so far. I’m sure they’d be fine with their daughter dating another woman.

    1. biomanzilla

      Now comes the twist that the Keeners are extremely lesbophobic. They’re perfectly okay with every other sexuality, mind you, just not lesbians.

      1. kdmw

        Dorothy and Joyce should be fine then, since they appear to both be bi!

    2. Tan

      Lots of folks seem nice and accepting right up until you cross the line they aren’t okay with, and while the chances are low, you really don’t know until after you’ve already crossed it. This has come up before with regard to… Literally every time a character has hesitated to come out to someone they care about. And probably will again.

      1. Rowen Morland

        I thought El Goonish Shive hit that point pretty well in The Secret of Sam.

  32. biomanzilla

    Everyone’s criticized how they got together, but I just don’t think Joyce and Dorothy make a good couple, period. And this is coming from someone who did ship them at the beginning of the comic. Like, every relationship Dorothy’s been in so far has been based on “Dorothy is brilliant and amazing and perfect and I need to change everything about myself for her” and the first two tries predictably didn’t work out. And it’s even worse with Joyce, since Dorothy’s entire relationship with her, even as friends, was Joyce being taught that she’s always wrong and Dorothy’s always right, and if she’s ever in doubt she should just stop asking questions and do what Dorothy tells her. It’s a power imbalance that exacerbates their respective character flaws of overdependence and being overcontrolling.

    At this point, I’d prefer it if Dorothy dated Jennifer, Sarah, Roz, Joe, even Becky—anyone who we know won’t blow more smoke up her already smoke-filled ass.

    1. Rowen Morland

      There is a big difference between this and her previous two partners. Dorothy was buying that “I am great” line herself. Now she isn’t.

    2. Psi baka onna

      I agree that they’re a bad couple but for slightly different reasons. Dorothy has always mothered/infantilised Joyce whereas Joyce kept treating Dorothy as a secretary. The power dynamics are all over the place so I just don’t see this lasting beyond the honeymoon phase.

      1. Bleuryder

        I kind of agree with this. To ke its always felt like indirectly, and maybe even not on purpose, Dorothy has molded Joyce to her liking. I’m not saying she did this maliciously, just that to me it felt like that. Like other commenters mentioned it feels like she’s infantilized her, and I hope they eventually address it (which to be fair, this comic has never disappointed me in that regard)

        1. Dot

          Dorothy has acknowledged this:

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/04-the-only-exception/actuallaundry/

          It’d be cool to see that come up as a point of contention and anxiety for Dorothy as their relationship progresses.

      2. Ed Callahano

        Well, given the sliding time scale, the relationship is safe for the next decade or so.

    3. Rimwalker55

      I sort of agree? Dorothy has always been too much the ‘Mom’ of the friendship. Their relationship is all butterflies and fireworks right and needs change to become long term. OTOH Joe and Joyce meshed very closely and helped each grow. Joe has been become a Nurturer and I kind of like that in him.

      1. Nymph

        What’s the difference between “mom” and “nurturer”?

        Like, I know IRL that they aren’t necessarily synonyms, real moms can be shitty as hell and nurturing comes from all kinds of places, but in your description there you suggest that Joe being a Nurturer is fine, but Dorothy being the Mom is bad.

        So what’s the difference that makes one fine and one bad for you? Genuinely asking.

        1. Dot

          Shot in the dark here but I think the point trying to be made here is that Joe is more nurturing of Joyce’s natural growth and development, while Dorothy takes more of an active hand in shaping the way Joyce has been developing. YMMV if that’s totally accurate, but that’s my reading of what Rimwalker is saying.

        2. Psi baka onna

          I think it’s all about framing. When Dorothy has a meal with Joyce, she tries to get Joyce out of her comfort zone and comments on Joyce’s prefences (see the mac and cheese talk re adding pepper) whereas Joe makes sure that Joyce is comfortable, telling the servers to prepare Joyce’s food how she likes it without prompting or judgement. Its been a while since I read the strips to properly compare them but that’s what comes to mind.

  33. Kim

    Hank is surprisingly enjoyable in this. 🙂
    There’s a lot of Jocelyne in him, I think ?✨

  34. Rabid Rabbit

    …I’ve never wanted to have a Brown avatar before, but I kind of really want the panel 3 Hank eyeroll.

    Now I just have to wait for the next avatar roulette and hope I remember this comment to determine if Willis spies on the comments enough to make that sort of thing happen. Though of course having said that aloud, I assume he’d deliberately make sure I didn’t get it.

    Anyhow, panel 3 eyeroll-Hank ought to be an avatar.

    1. BorkBorkBork

      Or you could just do what some of us do, and make a Gravitar.

  35. Amós Batista

    I adore Joyce and Dorothy together, but the trail of destruction they are leaving is incredible.

  36. darkoneko

    Hawk please get yourself a scarf or something.

  37. Solka

    And then Joe shows up and propose the polycule thing to Joyce’s dad

    1. Astariel

      Joe wants to be in a polycule with Joyce’s dad? Who else would be in it?

      1. thejeff

        Obviously it’s the same polycule with Joyce, just with him as the hinge between the two.

        And yeah, that was my first thought reading that post too.

  38. BCGeiger

    I kinda’ get the feeling that Joyce’s dad has something he wants to tell them too. Something … significant.

    1. Dot

      This whole time he’s been carrying around the bombshell that Jordan came out to him as trans. Jocelyne can’t help but be a little annoyed that she got pre-empted.

      1. BCGeiger

        There was also that ‘I’m between churches’ comment a few episodes back.

        1. Dot

          I feel like that is information Joyce already knew? Hank was already on the outs with the Browns’ former church.

        2. thejeff

          But before that comment she probably assumed he found another one. Or was at least actively trying – getting his fix of Jesus every Sunday. If he hasn’t been looking, that’s bigger.

        3. Vulcanodon

          IIRC they had moved churches before. When your religion is tightly wrapped it’s fairly common.

  39. Jernacious

    Is Gal Pal in the same range as the Good Guys? Are we going to get a Joyce slasher doll in an upcoming Chucky story?

  40. Vulcanodon

    I remember Dina wasn’t too worried about it.

  41. Steamweed

    Danny got himself a Sal Pal.
    The computer majors can get a Hal Pal.

  42. Amós Batista

    Joyce in last panels is the most dorkable face ever

  43. ElderlyMarxist

    my bias towards becky is making me very irritable towards joyce rn. like i enjoy their cutesyness usually but after so long building up to the becky reveal for joyce to just be like ‘eh i’m gonna stay here with my dad & my gf’ seems. eh. i do not like it.

    1. Nymph

      She should have left the sister she’s actively trying to shield from her dad to go check on the bestie who made it pretty clear she wanted to be Away From Joyce right now?

    2. Dot

      Becky doesn’t want to be around Joyce right now and there is nothing Joyce can say or do right now to make her feel better.

  44. Pappenheimer

    Not sure I understand why actual humans are so worried about which fictional characters, i.e. Kirk/Spock, Harry/Draco, Spongebob/Squidward*, etc., get together.
    Is the Ship of Theseus where Theseus and Pirithoos finally start dating?

    *Gods I hope Rule 34 is NOT in effect on that one. And I will never ever check.

    1. Nymph

      Because it’s fun for us. It’s a fun hobby that we do with our free time. The same as caring if a fictional character lives or dies in the story or does something morally reprehensible.

      It’s a little deeper than that in truth. I could point out how it started primarily as a way for queer people to see themselves in media where we were and still often are woefully underrepresented or misrepresented. I could point out how nice it is to see characters you see yourself in to end up happy and cared for. Mostly, though, it’s just a particular way of consuming fiction that doesn’t do any harm.

    2. Nymph

      Also great Ship of Theseus joke. Really good.

    3. Yotomoe

      “Why do people have so much personal investment in the media they consume”
      It’s hard to explain. It’s probably just a level of sympathy/empathy where you either put yourself in the character’s shoes or just want to see them succeed despite knowing they’re not real.

      1. NGPZ

        yeah like there’s a growing body of evidence which suggests that the human brain responds to fictional characters very similarly to how it responds to real people,

        and interestingly it also suggests that consuming a diverse media diet can actually decrease bigotry in ways more or less analogous to that of having a diverse group of friends in the real world — hence one of the reasons we say representation matters

        1. Pappenheimer

          This may help to explain religion.

    4. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      TWiL that the Wikipedia page on “Ship of Theseus” contains none of its original text.

  45. Felian

    my standards are so low, i’m thinking of “Hank is still talking to them, not leaving and not shouting“ as a good sign??

    1. Axel

      It IS a good sign. He seems unlikely to do anything mean or violent (which is the bare minimum, but toedad and shitty grandpa of ruth couldn’t pass that standard re: their non-straight wards) and considering he’s walking along with Dorothy too, seems like he’s on his way to accepting it more.

      If you thought it was like, amazingly loving parenting for him to be tolerating them, then your standards would be too low.

    2. Yeet

      he’s not going to tell joyce’s mother, there’s no “you’re going to hear about this later” type shit, and he’s still taking them for pizza… so it’s positive, albeit not effusively

  46. Suet

    you know what else comes without batteries and is sold separately? stickers.
    that’s right, time to make a gal pals™ collection of Joyce and Dorothy stickers

    if Jeremiah and Deborah aren’t fine with the new development, I am allowed to put myself through that wall

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