291

Memorabilia
Posted on July 10, 2022 by David M Willis

291 thoughts on “Memorabilia”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    BJ, you blew your line

    “I KNOW”

    1. Taffy

      Hehe. You said “BJ” and “blew”. ?

      1. Clif

        I was just wondering how long the line was.

        1. Shadowsnail

          It was a monologue in a Kevin Smith movie.

  2. The Wellerman

    Oh my. I’d hate to see what kinds of things could break THEM up. ?

    1. True Survivor

      I know they are adorable, like two swans touching heads to make a heart with their necks.

      1. The Wellerman

        No I mean like, if these kinds of exchanges are just everyday to them, whatever is gonna break them up must be like weapons-grade cringe. ?

        1. Nono

          Ruth declares that Kylo Ren is the worst.

        2. Zach

          I know a woman who named her child Kylo Ren.
          I tried to talk to her about the books, she had no idea what I was tanking about.

        3. Taffy

          Well, did you have your stance on? It’s a common oversight, don’t worry if you did.

          (your typo says “tanking” so I made a video games joke)

        4. Yumi

          If it weren’t a reference to the character it is, I wouldn’t mind the name Kylo, you know, in the context of all the people who feel pressured to come up with unique takes on baby names because of Mormon mommy bloggers.

          As it is though, and as the full “Kylo Ren”… yeah. I’ve known one girl named Hermione (and saw her reading the Harry Potter books) and a couple kids named after Naruto characters.

        5. brionl

          Hermione was an actual British girl’s name.
          It just wasn’t very popular until recently.
          I say recently, even though it’s been 25 flingin’ flangin’ years since the first book came out.

        6. Yumi

          I mean, yeah, I know.

        7. Needfuldoer

          I wonder if the pendulum will swing the other way once all the kids given uncommon names (and names that sound common but have an unintuitive spelling) grow up and start naming their own kids. Kaitelynne spent her entire life correcting everyone else’s spelling, she doesn’t want that for her own kids.

          Suddenly we’ll have elementary school classes with multiple Ashleys, Tylers, and Jennifers in them again.

        8. Taffy

          An annoyingly “unique” name doesn’t accomplish anything except making the parent(?) feel special for five minutes. Name your fuckin’ kid Pricemart Deli Sandwich for all I care, as long as it’s spelled in a way that other people can at least intuit. “Aeysch’llyeighy” is gonna grow up hating you for bringing them into existence with that name.

        9. thejeff

          Both extremes are annoying. You don’t want to be the kid with the weird name (or the weirdly spelled one), but you also don’t want the same name as a half-dozen other kids in the class.
          How to pick as a parent what names is going to be the right amount of common a decade or so later?

        10. Smallmoon

          @Taffy :I see that name written down, and I’d confidently pronounce is “Ash Shel-Ay-Lee… and then realize that I inserted two extra phonemes.

        11. Needfuldoer

          @Smallmoon @Taffy My first instinct was to pronounce it “Aechyually”.

        12. Schpoonman

          Took a while for the kids reading the books to grow up and start having kids of their own.

        13. Yumi

          I think kids with unusual spellings of common names get the worst of both worlds because there’s still a good chance they’re going to have someone in class with a name that’s said the same, but they’re also going to get their name misspelled, and not on keychains, and possibly mispronounced when read. “Rieleigh” threw me off the first time I had to write it down for a kid, and there have been other names that I’ve had to read a few times trying to figure out how I might pronounce them, and then I’m like, “Ooooh, I get it!” Maybe that’s what the parent was going for and maybe the kid likes it, it’s just not my favorite trend.

        14. Freezer

          At least those are the character’s actual names those kids and named after. Unlike the generation of “Khalesis”…

          I swear I had a pavlovian screaming response every time I saw someone naming their daughter “Khalesi”: “THAT’S NOT HER NAME! THAT’S HER TITLE! YOU’RE NAMING YOUR CHILD ‘QUEEN!!!'”

        15. Devin

          How sure are you that that wasn’t intentional though? It’s not like this is unprecedented, Queenie was a thing about a hundred years ago, and Duke is still in use as a name today.

          Not saying this particular choice isn’t a bit weird, and I feel like naming an actual person for a piece of media is a bad idea in general, but I think it’s possible you’re assuming too much about intent and knowledge (or lack of).

        16. keithcurtis

          “King” is a given name already. I went to school with one. Rex and Regina mean King and Queen respectively. It’s not that odd. Naming your kid after a made up name in a novel is perhaps a bit weird. Unless you name them “Wendy”. 🙂

        17. Yumi

          “YOU’RE NAMING YOUR CHILD ‘QUEEN!!!’”

          …Yeah, so? While I think it’s a bit weird to name your child something that’s, like, obviously after and linked to a fictional character, objecting to a name on the basis of it meaning something like “queen” is…dumb. Actually, I think Khalesi/Khaleesi is better than Daenerys for naming a child. Neither of them is up there for me, though.

        18. Needfuldoer

          Wait, so Regina King’s name means “Queen King”?

        19. Chasm

          Wait hi hello sorry, is this a Mormon thing? Is this why my Mormon sister-in-law gave all her kids unusual names?

        20. Yumi

          Well, there are other contributing things as well, but it definitely seems common among Mormons. And a lot of successful mommy bloggers/momfluencers/whatever are Mormon, so then there’s additional impact from that as well.

        21. stellatedHexahedron

          Actually, I think this might be foreshadowing. If this argument was about something Billie really 100% cared about and not performative clique stupidity, Ruth’s disarm here could’ve easily blown up in her face instead of knocking Billie out of Fight Mode.

        22. stellatedHexahedron

          or, hell, even just the exact same argument but in public

    2. Ryan

      Are we not seeing that here? We are flashing back to the time period in which they mysteriously broke up.

      1. Bathymetheus

        Vaguely relevant trivia:

        “Austin”, as in Austin Powers is from the same root as “austere”, and means scant, or lacking.

        1. Bathymetheus

          Sorry Ryan. The above was meant to be a reply to Freezer.

    3. Decidedly Orthogonal

      Hush you. Be like the wildlife observer. Don’t interfere with the DyW or they may startle and change the buffer to fuck with us.

  3. Sirksome

    I mean Jen’s gay too this insult war is just a feedback loop.

    1. King Daniel

      Ruth’s actually bi, as is Jennifer.

      …I wonder if Jennifer’s constant bi-erasure is what led to the breakup?

      1. RassilonTDavros

        Eh, while Ruth’s certainly expressed frustration with it I kinda doubt that that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

        1. Laura

          When did Ruth express frustration with it?

        2. Laura

          She’s acting really homophobic here, though, too. Like using “gay” as an insult, as if it’s “worse” to be a gay nerd than a regular nerd. And calling her girlfriend gayer than her, in a pejorative way.

        3. Wereg

          I didn’t read this as homophobic. My housemates, partner, and I call each other “gay” with some frequency. It’s seen as a joking ribbing since we’re all bi/pan and very much comfortable with each other.

          With Jennifer… I can kinda see the case for it being homophobic, what with the bi-erasure and all. I can also definitely get why this kind of thing would make someone uncomfortable, but it’s not a particularly uncommon thing in queer relationships of all sorts.

        4. Laura

          Ok, that makes sense. Thanks, Wereg! 🙂

        5. Wereg

          🙂

        6. FlamestAndLight

          Seconded what Wereg said. My wife and I say “gay” a lot but like I’m nonbinary and neither of us is strictly attracted to a single gender. Like if you see someone pretty you might say “wow i’m so gay” even if you aren’t actually gay. Gay has sorta become a catchall, especially in certain circumstances.

      2. Dot

        lol bi people can call themselves gay

        1. The Wellerman

          Yuppers.

        2. King Daniel

          Fully aware (bi here too), but on the other hand I almost feel like Jennifer’s current attitude of “I’m in a REAL relationship now, with a BOYFRIEND” had to come from somewhere—and combined with her history of bi-erasure…

        3. Devin

          It isn’t new, iirc she directly said bisexuality is only a thing in porn (I know I usually provide citations but I can’t remember who that conversation was with and I’m not combing through every strip she was ever in for this). She’s always resisted fully accepting that she’s bi, that’s practically tradition for her at this point.

        4. Mild Lee Interested

          This one?
          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/03-the-thing-i-was-before/borderline/

        5. Needfuldoer

          Like I said yesterday, she projects her insecurities on the rest of the world in order to justify them to herself.

          She’s desperate to be “NoRmAl”, so anything not “nOrMaL” is a shameful secret. But that’s okay because everyone else has their own shameful secrets too! You just don’t talk about them, because talking about your secrets is for nerds.

      3. Sirksome

        Yes, bi is gay. Gay can be used as kind of an umbrella term for lgbtq in general. At least I’ve seen it used that way and am comfortable myself using it in reference to myself.

        1. Chaucer59

          I’m bi and occasionally call myself queer. But gay? No way. Gay men have been telling me I’m just in denial for years, but I’ve had more long-term relationships with women than men. Also, I have lesbian friends who get really pissed if anyone calls them gay. Not all of them, mind.

        2. ktbear

          I am with Chaucer on this one, I am neither gay nor lesbian thank you very much, I’m bi. End of story.

        3. Sirksome

          Everyone has the right to be referred to with their preferred term. My point is that the term gay is also used to reference the queer community as a whole. So a bisexual, a lesbian, a gay man, a trans person, all next to each other would be considered a group of gay people. Some people do prefer the term queer in that instance, I’m just saying as a bisexual myself I wouldn’t be bothered by being put in that group and in reference to the comic Jen calling Ruth gay also applies to herself since they are both canonically bisexual and thus in the overall gay community.

        4. aelfwine

          Perhaps, but it’s the first I’ve heard it used like that (that ‘gay’ includes bi people or trans straight people) and I think you might confuse other people who likewise have never heard it used like that.

        5. Sirksome

          I can understand that. It feels kind of like common knowledge to me especially in media and news.

        6. Opus the Poet

          Yeah, the umbrella term I’m used to as someone on the far side of 60 YO is “queer”. Unless it’s being used as a perjorative “gay” only refers to male homosexuals. Of course everything could have changed last week.

        7. thejeff

          A lot of it is change over time and most of the rest is context. The use of “gay” as an umbrella term has largely been replaced with other more clearly inclusive terms – LGBTQ or the reclaimed queer.

        8. thejeff

          @Opus: I’m not quite that old, but I remember a lot of talk about “gay rights” and “gay marriage”. The change away from that is relatively recent – last couple decades at most. Queer has somewhat taken that mantle, though some still don’t treat it as reclaimed.

          I think gay started out as a synonym for homosexual as a whole and by extension applied to all the identities fighting and/or discriminated against under the same banner. Of course it also got used exclusively when applied more individually – bisexuals were covered under “gay rights”, but saying an individual bisexual was really gay implied that bisexuality wasn’t really a thing.

        9. Sirksome

          @thejeff my experience has been the opposite in some cases. I knew people in my college lgbtq support group that hated the term queer because of its derogatory origins when applied to homosexuality and trans identity ect. This is actually a rather interesting discussion point still in debate today for which term is better or acceptable since at least here in the comment section “gay” seems a bit contentious.

        10. Victor

          It really is used as a term of bi erasure though. I’ve been told by a gay man that “Bi people aren’t real, they’re just in denial that they’re really gay.”
          So yeah. I’m not really comfortable with “gay” including bi, let alone my heteroflexible self.

        11. Comic.phile

          Yeah, I agree with you on this. Call me queer, fine, yeah I am. Gay, no. That’s the same as calling me straight. And there is sooooo much bi-erasure, little things like that contribute to it.

          Billie is irritating the flip of of me here for multiple reasons. There’s nothing wrong with being a nerd for something, either.

      4. Big Hamburger Meal

        This ain’t erasure lol. Bi people call each other gay like this all the time. Sometimes I think the comments here are too quick to pick things appart and assign them some malevolence or social transgression that isn’t there.

      5. Decidedly Orthogonal

        Ruth still seems to love Ms.Billingsworth (no hatred and a peaceful approach) post skip. But little teases in the totally wrong direction are also some of DyW’s stock in trade.

    2. Taffy

      Constantly calling my partner gay is a big part of our relationship lasting this long.

      1. The Wellerman

        ? Awe. How are you and Ms Taffy doing these days anyway?

      2. zee

        Lmao same. Gay and nerd. That last panel is basically an average exchange

    3. Bryy

      Jennifer doesn’t actually consider herself gay, I thought.

      1. Needfuldoer

        She thinks bisexuality only exists in porn, and she’s into guys. If you ask her about her relationship with Alice, she’ll say “everyone messes around with their friends a little, that’s normal”. If you ask her about her relationship with Ruth, she’ll glare at you and walk away.

        I’m not— I mean, everyone thinks about girls, like, eventually. I’m not different.”

        Introspection is not her strong suit. The closest we saw was “A date with a girl. Huh.”

  4. RassilonTDavros

    …goddamn, have I missed this couple.

    also Ruth’s facial expressions are really good here.

    1. Rose by Any Other Name

      I know, right?
      Love their dynamic here. Stupid argument over nothing leads to fondness and love.

      1. Clif

        I missed it too. Willis is giving us this so that it will hurt more when it ends.

        And people say Mike is dead.

        1. milu

          …Willis is Mike?

        2. Clif

          No but Mike has no existence outside of Willis except for what Willis evokes in the reader.

        3. milu

          …so Willis is Mike.

        4. Needfuldoer

          Now all I can think of is the ending to Duck Amuck but with Mike in Bugs’s place.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJBeih6JZrs

    2. Mark

      Ruth’s artless smile in the last panel is worth all the time I’ve spent reading DoA.

  5. Taffy

    Ruth is the best character, accept no substitutes.

    Wait sorry she suplexed an old woman and pretended to threaten people in a catroonish fashion. Which means she’s even hotter, holy fakeout no remorse!

    1. Clif

      Carla is the best character …

      Fixed that for you.

    2. Taffy

      [Groundskeeper Willie voice] Liked it the way it was.

      1. Needfuldoer

        [Scruffy the Janitor voice] Second.

    3. zee

      Based take, W, king shit

  6. Sirksome

    I know this relationship is ultimately pretty toxic but this is still 10 times more interesting than anything Jason has brought to the table. I really don’t want to overly bash the gent since I’m sure he has his fans, but he’s just so boring.

    1. Thag Simmons

      This relationship is what these two characters are built around, not surprising that it’s more interesting than the rebound.

    2. Taffy

      His whole thing is being a boring drag.

    3. AlexanderHammil

      Jason being boring despite whatever actually happens to him is the entire point of Jason across all universes.

    4. DailyBrad

      I like him fine, but with Ruth, he hasn’t really had a lot of material yet, so I am undecided. Like, yes, obviously Ruth/Billie-Jennifer is more exciting, but it’s also had a hell of a lot more time to develop, so of course it is.

      That, and it’d be hard to top, “Go Leafs” as far as moments go.

    5. C.T. Phipps

      I mean, I’d rather them be boring than depicting an abusive relationship.

      And in “current” time, they’re hitting each other so, yes, abusive.

      1. Clif

        Their relationship started with Ruth throwing Jennifer (aka Billie) across the room. But there is an important difference between a twisted relationship and an abusive one.

        1. milu

          not to mention, an important difference between a twisted relationship and a fun and interesting one to read about.

          …sorry, i have just been informed that, actually, no

      2. Seralyna

        I would rather the story depict that relationship than a boring one, personally. Like, the point of fiction is that it’s a place where those relationships can be shown off and dissected.

        Of course, there is no need for every single relationship to be interesting, but yknow.

      3. thejeff

        They both get turned on by the fighting and provoke it specifically for that purpose. There are risks in that, since it can cross the line into non-consensual and they don’t seem to have put any boundaries in place to guard against that, but I don’t think it’s necessarily abusive.

    6. justin8448

      I’m a fan of watching Jason occasionally wander back and forth between lawful neutral and lawful evil in a variety of situations. But yeah, watching Ruth and Jennifer together is a lot more entertaining.

      1. Laura

        Or chaotic/evil, in the case of his dalliance with Sal. True, she jumped on him (twice: the second time after it was clear no easy grades would be forthcoming) but it was still up to him to say no. And he shouldn’t have creeped on her or used derogatory language toward her (something about her getting with the “local hoodlums,” IIRC) in the first place.

    7. Comic.phile

      I’d so much rather boring, stable, and reliable than explosive, dramatic, and angry IRL.

  7. Lux

    Just checking since I’m bad at reading situations: Jennifer’s being SUPER toxic here, right?

    1. Taffy

      I wouldn’t say so, no. This seems fine.

      1. AlexanderHammil

        Yeah, this isn’t the toxic stuff so much as the constant pushing Ruth to drink and swinging wildly from supporting her improvement to demanding she self-immolate to prove her love. This is more garden-variety self-hatred.

    2. Sirksome

      Honestly it’s hard to tell. This is their standard dynamic.

      1. The Wellerman

        Which means whatever’s gonna break them up is gonna be SO BAD by comparison, we might just need umbrellas. And blast shields.

        1. Laura

          I think THIS might be what breaks them up. Ruth calling Billie a nerd. Recall that it was Joyce’s asking if Billifer were autistic that sent Jennifer into a rage that she took out physically on Ruth, and on Ruth’s door.
          Billie cannot abide anything that questions her fragile “cool kid” self-image. She’s terrified of the cracks in her facade.

        2. Yumi

          Hm. I really disagree with the interpretation that “it was Joyce’s asking if Billifer were autistic that sent Jennifer into a rage.” She seemed okay in the strip immediately following that question. Then she was forcibly removed and then had an encounter with Mary, then she began her attack (door then Ruth).

        3. The Wellerman

          Yeah, true, although I very much agree with Laura’s second point — Billie is someone who is bent on maintaining her position in social hierarchies and will not risk anything that could compromise it. Even if there isn’t a social pyramid wherever she goes, she’ll start one up and put herself on top just because she’s so used to thinking this way. ?

        4. Laura

          Yeah, you’re right, Yumi – I oversimplified. I just meant that Joyce’s asking Billifer whether she was autistic started off the chain reaction that culminated in her assault on Ruth.

        5. Laura

          Meanwhile Billifer just started stewing and getting madder and madder, until finally Mary’s taunting that Mary was “too cool” and Billie/Jennifer was not, that lit the match.

        6. Joy

          What about Walky repeatedly implying that she’s a terrible person “as a joke”?

        7. Needfuldoer

          I think the encounter with Mary served to remind her that she’s not being genuine.

        8. Laura

          Maybe so.

        9. Warcodered

          It is interesting Billy’s face doesn’t really look like she’s joking.

        10. justin8448

          Ruth is remarkably skilled at pushing Jennifer right up to the point of having to face difficult truths about herself. But Jennifer is equally skilled at clinging to her false self-narratives.

          Not that Ruth is necessarily trying to push Jennifer. But two people being totally open and vulnerable and honest with another person can prompt that sort of thing.

        11. Joy

          It’s more that she’d already had a really intense day and then Mary set her off, I think?

    3. DailyBrad

      It’s hard to tell if she’s doing that or just being really tsundere. She’s prone to both. Ruth’s deliberately egging her on, in any case.

    4. Ladymissfit

      In this speceific instance, not really? It could easily develop to something toxic but she’s just concerned about being seen as a “nerd”

      1. Clif

        You have to read between the lines. This is flirtation. For them.

      2. anon

        If billie is attracted to ruth, wouldn’t that make her a nerd for nerds? ?

    5. Chris Ashtear

      No, its a give your partner shit way of flirting. I love it.

      1. Taffy

        Sometimes you have to call your partner a war criminal and/or accuse them of being rude to dogs. It’s just what love is.

        1. Nova

          Or calmly explain to them why they smell.

        2. Clif

          I can close my eyes and still smell the hair of the first girl I was ever engaged to. I’m pretty sure it came from the particular shampoo she used.

        3. milu

          Have you ever gotten a whiff of that same scent on someone else, or on a literal flower even, and been yanked back in time?

          love it when that happens.

        4. Clif

          It was an unusual enough shampoo that I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that scent from anyone else and certainly not from a flower.

          Now if I walk into a bookstore filled with new books and poor circulation, the scent pulls me back in time to that little bookstore in the town I grew up in where I first discovered Analog Science Fiction Magazine. I believe they were serializing Dune at the time. I would have been about 14.

    6. Morhek

      To herself? Yes. She has a fixed idea of who and what she is, and refuses to countenance the idea that she might not be that and so suppresses it. She’s doing the same in the “modern” storyline, cutting out everything she doesn’t want to admit almost surgically and changing her friend circle and pretending This Is Who She Is, but it’s all just window dressing. And I’m willing to bet part of why she and Ruth break up is because that’s what Ruth tells her, and why she got so mad seeing Ruth do the same – pretending she’s okay and not hurt and putting up a front, which is exactly what she got shit for doing.

      1. Clif

        She might suppress it, but she’s still got a Kylo Ren sword.

    7. Vanessa

      Jennifer/Billie is being her usual mean, self-hating abusive self. This is still the girl who stuffed her childhood best friend into a locker because she’s the jock and he’s the lowest rung on her social-climbing ladder, a nerd. And she continues to be mean to him and his girlfriend present-day for the same reason.

      1. Clif

        She has not been mean to Lucy. She gave her some good advice to motivate her to lock Walky down. Now it took Dorothy to finalize the deal, but it’s Walky, to coin a phrase.

        1. justin8448

          It seems to me that Jennifer has been condescending to Lucy and dismissive of her. But I suppose that’s not quite the same as being actively mean.

        2. Mturtle7

          Don’t let me derail the conversation here, but may I just say, that was a VERY elegantly executed title drop! Well done!

    8. Fay

      I honestly can’t tell if she’s being joke-y mad or is getting legitimately upset with Ruth here.
      Playful if the former(because Ruth knows it and is going along with the bit), kinda toxic if the latter(because getting that angry over your partner lightly teasing you is yikes-y, and if their “light teasing” is legit upsetting you you outta actually communicate that).

    9. Nicoleandmaggie

      I, personally, would not want to be in a relationship with this dynamic. I would not butt in unasked if I witnessed this conversation and Ruth were a close friend. (Whereas I would say something if I’d witnessed some of their other interactions.)

    10. zee

      I mean, nah? This is a playful argument, my boyfriend and i have done this before just without the angry face. Standard couple shit

      1. Taffy

        A woman has furrowed her brow and spoken loudly. We’re gonna need the orbital lasers for this one.

  8. C.T. Phipps

    If this is what passes for sweet between them, I really am glad they’re broken up.

    1. Clif

      A single flaw doesn’t define an individual. I’m sure that you are a really nice person in all other respects.

      1. milu

        ooh, burn =P

        1. Clif

          Shush.

  9. poyo

    q-q

  10. DailyBrad

    Cute banter, but admittedly, I’m starting to make peace with them being done. I’m moreso concerned by how repressed Jennifer often is these days. That’s going to be a problem.

  11. Joyfulldreams

    For people who are like “this is incredibly toxic” do you not….understand how banter works?

    1. Ladymissfit

      Depends on how genuine billie is in her anger and how it develops. It could very easily become toxic

      1. Taffy

        Depending on whether I’ve already pulled the pin on this hand grenade and how long I hold on without throwing, it could very easily explode in my face.

        1. Vanessa

          Lol these are not people who live healthy lives, who bicker and kid each other. These are people who almost killed each other the other day and almost killed themselves several times. Look at Billie’s face, that is the same face she had on when she was breaking down her ex’s room to assault her. In another universe where Billie too gets mental health care and on legal medication maybe this is fun banter.

        2. Taffy

          Why do you think I don’t know the events of their relationship? I’m well aware of what happened, I just don’t care because they’re hot and I want them to make out. I’ve always been very transparent about this stance.

        3. Nova

          Bless you, Taffy XD

        4. The Wellerman

          Pure hypothetical, how much would you for a 3D model of them making out?

        5. Clif

          I assume that either the words “pay,” “offer,” or “sell your soul for” were missing in that sentence.

        6. Opus the Poet

          This is why this comments section needs reaction emojis.

        7. milu

          I assume Vanessa meant to respond to Joyfulldreams

        8. Ladymissfit

          It’s a bit hard to read partly due to how volatile they can be but that’s the gist lol

        9. Taffy

          They’re lovely.

        10. milu

          Ruth & Billie are goals actually

        11. Clif

          Are goals the opposite of guise?

        12. Taffy

          What is this, a soccer match on Halloween?

        13. milu

          @Clif
          Goals are opposite each other.

          @Taffy
          * Hockey. Go Leafs.

        14. Opus the Poet

          I was alive and a Leafs fan the last time the Leafs won the Stanley Cup. That should give you an idea of how old I am.

      2. Needfuldoer

        Yeah, she’s taking it personally while Ruth does a bit.

    2. Diana Nock

      To be fair, Billie does look actually angry. I’ve had mock-angry yelling jags that confused the hell out of my friends.

    3. Tan

      This is clearly banter on Ruth’s side. IS it banter on Billie/Jennifer’s side? Looking at her face and posture? Knowing everything we know about her attitudes on these subjects?

    4. Sam

      It’s banter on Ruth’s side.

      On Jennifer’s side, it is actual self-denial and anger which is not healthy.

      Banter kind of needs it to not be an actual sore point on both sides. This doesn’t bother Ruth at all. It bothers Jennifer A LOT.

    5. Bryy

      Considering this is Billie…. yes. It is.

    6. Raven

      Billy doesn’t look like she’s bantering to me. At least, not up until the last panel. She looks genuinely *angry* that Ruth would call her a nerd. That she can’t be the normal mainstream one in the relationship.

    7. Comic.phile

      Well yes, and it is banter on Ruth’s side. But look at Billie’s face, she’s angry, I don’t think this is banter for her.

  12. Diana Nock

    That final panel broke my heart a little, knowing this is their last night as a couple. Well played, Willis.

    1. StClair

      Same. 🙁

  13. Kirtro

    *Bi nerd

    1. Taffy

      Being bi is like being gay both forwards and backwards, and even sometimes off to the side over there hello who is this intriguing individual, naturally.

      1. Cmasta1992

        And twirling twirling twirling towards the middle of the Kinsey Scale

        1. Taffy

          I turned the Kinsey Scale into the Kinsey Pretzel.

        2. Nova

          Kinsey Jeremy Bearimy

        3. Yumi

          I’m the dot over the i.

        4. The Wellerman

          Does said Pretzel look like a “69” ?

        5. Taffy

          It looks like a pretzel.

        6. The Wellerman

          Hey now, pretzels can come in all kinds of shapes, sizes and orientations. ?

        7. Opus the Poet

          ?mmm, pretzels.

  14. newlland(Henryvolt)

    Willis is doing a damn good job of making you miss these two before you remember this arc is going to end at some point and we’re going to haft to go back to the present where they’re well on their way to moving on.

    1. Clif

      Oh, we remember just fine.

    2. Needfuldoer

      “well on their way to moving on.”

      Are they?

      Are they?

  15. alongcameaspider

    What is a jock but a sports nerd?

    1. Taffy

      But enough talk! Have at you!

      1. newlland(Henryvolt)

        I almost didn’t notice that you probably changed your gravitar just for that one line. I commend you for it.

    2. misanthropope

      yeah, theres a thing that lots of people like, that they like A LOT MORE than most people do. they talk about it ALL THE TIME, in jargon. indisputably a tribe of nerds.

      came reasonably close to having the heck kicked out of me, the first time i expressed that thought 🙂

    3. Needfuldoer

      Nerds decorate their places with fandom stuff, dress up as their favorite characters, and talk about their fantasy worlds with terminology nobody who doesn’t follow those stories will understand.

      Sports jocks decorate their places with team stuff, wear replica jerseys of their favorite players’, and talk about games with terminology nobody who doesn’t follow those sports will understand.

      Completely different!

      1. thejeff

        Billie does have a bit of a point though. I’d think of “jock” as the athlete, not as just a fan. As such, she’d be more of a jock than Ruth.

        1. Clif

          What are you talking about? Femer collecting is practically an Olympic sport.

      2. Schpoonman

        I’m just thinking of the meme with a dude going OFF about World of Warcraft, and then ending with “…and that’s how I feel when you won’t shut up about sports.”

    4. Keulen

      I tend to consider “jock” as people who tend to play sports more often than just a fan of sports, but yeah some sports fans could definitely be considered nerds, they’re just nerds about their favorite sports teams and such.

  16. Roe

    Oh no

  17. Raen

    Bi nerd… bi *jock*… seriously how the hell did these two break up?

  18. Ty34er

    1) The term is prep.
    2) They are so problematic.

    1. Taffy

      Nah, they’re fine.

    2. Nova

      I mean yes, but not because of this exchange. This is just bants.

  19. mrnoidea

    Jennifer. I have a semi-shitty pro tip for you.

    Just tell Ruth that she’s reminding you of Walky with her banter.

    Wonder how Ruth would react to that.

    1. mrnoidea

      (Beyond that, all these blows to Jennifer’s pride are probably what convinces her that she needs to change. Ruth seems to take too much of her own pride via proving Jennifer she’s a nerd, despite the obvious anger.)

    2. Vanessa

      Girlfriend, you remind me of my best friend all through grade school, the one who had my back every day, the one who cheered me up with jokes when my parents where mean to me, the one who watched cartoons and all the Star Wars movies with me over and over again … the one who is now the target of all of my self-loathing.

      1. justin8448

        Oof. That’s a lot to process.

  20. Suet

    Of all things, it was Grim Reaper?

    *plays Ain’t by Neil Cicierega on the white lightsaber*

  21. Beau Kirin Maysey

    cannot honestly legitimately tell if this is the conversation that escalates into the breakup, or one later on… These two are just so volatile by default

  22. cbwroses

    This strip tickles me so much.
    I love it.

    1. The Wellerman

      i didn’t know it was possible for a strip to do that. where does it tickle?

      1. cbwroses

        Tickle is a slang term my dad liked to use for stuff that made him laugh.
        I imagine it was short for saying something like “that tickles my funny-bone”, but that’s just a guess as I never asked.

        1. Taffy

          That is indeed the longer phrase.

        2. The Wellerman

          Oh i know. I was just trying to make a joke. I do not know if it worked.

        3. Clif

          Not this time. It sounded too close to an actual question.

  23. Nova

    For all the people so convinced that Jennifer is a shitty person for:

    * Measuring her worth by how well she fits a very specific demographic.
    * Hating the parts of herself that do not fit into that demographic.
    * Desperately clinging to her self-delusions.

    I encourage you to reconsider the flashback about how she met Walky and any other time her homelife was mentioned. Her parents are plainly not great parents. She can be cruel, hateful, and even abusive… but it doesn’t come from a vacuum. I encourage you to give her five minutes of the same benefit-of-the-doubt you give your favourite traumatized DoA character.

    Jennifer was taught very early that she was only worthy of affection when she was worthy of praise. It turned her into a shitty person, sure, but that’s pretty much what that upbringing does to people. Most of it’s grounded in self-hate and I think it’d be interesting to see people try to see the good in her.

    Or, like, don’t. I’m not your parent. 😛

    1. Ladymissfit

      I mean yeah but seeing good in her also requires her learning and trying to better herself, which she’s done very little off so far. Like yeah I’m very aware she’s got very real and serious issues with how she was raised and thought but she’s had plenty of opportunities to learn as well.

      1. Nova

        I mean, I think she’s done a LOT of trying to better herself. She just doesn’t have a good idea what “bettering herself” should look like if she wants to actually be happy or a good person. It’s very normal for people to go back and forth (success then failure over and over) when they’re trying to grow and find themselves.

        I think she’s a really well-done character.

        1. Ladymissfit

          No disagreements there

        2. milu

          In the words of Jeannette Winterson:
          “Why be happy when you can be normal?”

        3. Clif

          Wasn’t she the author of Why be Happy When You Can be Boring and Apples are Fruits Too?

    2. MisterJinKC

      People DO see the good in her. The problem is that she doesn’t like it when the good isn’t part of her desired image and she becomes abusive in response.

      As for her upbringing, you’re right. It was manipulative and abusive. It explains WHY she is abusive and hateful. It explains the reason for her behavior, but does not excuse it. She IS a shitty person. She has been better at times, and may eventually (hopefully) heal. But she is still responsible for her actions, much like Ross was. He was raised in a fanatical super conservative religion which was as abusive as Billie’s parents easily. That doesn’t excuse his kidnapping and murder of college kids.

      1. Nova

        Never said it excused it or that she wasn’t responsible for her actions. Even repeatedly agreed that she’s a bad person.

        Just asked people to give it a go looking at her from the other direction. She’s a great character despite being a bad person, imo.

    3. Fay

      Your last paragraph made me realize what might be the reason these two broke up: Ruth showing Jennifer unconditional love.

      1. Fay

        Since it’s Halloween, I wonder if there’ll be an instance of Jennifer relapsing and drinking, and Ruth responding in a kind/understanding way, only to have Jennifer flip out at that.

  24. Caro

    I do find myself taking Ruth’s side here. ‘I hate you’ can only get a relationship so far, Billie doesn’t seem invested in making things work

  25. PirateTawnee

    Lesbian foreplay is weird.

    1. PirateTawnee

      Actually, I’m dumb, they’re both bi, and straight foreplay is weird too, can I flag my own comment?

      1. Taffy

        Foreplay in general is weird, like just hit ’em with the bag of jelly beans and get to it.

        1. The Wellerman

          May I ask, just what flavors are these jelly beans? ?

        2. Clif

          Traditionally liquorish.

        3. Laura

          I saw what you did there.
          Liquor-ish. 😉

        4. Clif

          Sh!

      2. Nova

        You can, but since it takes like ten flags to get it removed I don’t think it’ll have the desired effect. Being able to remove things with a single flag was both too great a power and too difficult to avoid accidental removals.

      3. The Wellerman

        Yes you can, but since last time I checked Willis raised the threshold even higher to who knows what, so good luck.

        1. Clif

          I suppose it would be possible to keep flagging yourself until you disappeared as a test. Unless the count is of flags from different internet locations. You’d have to keep doing reloads to see if you had disappeared yet.

      4. Mturtle7

        As a humble scholarly ace who has spent a great deal of time studying the weirdness of allosexuality, I appreciate your self-awareness @PirateTawnee.

  26. Axel

    Cheerleading is super a sport and not necessarily a fandom (I’m sure there are cheerleaders who hate their teams but still join cheer)… but also no I wouldn’t call her a jock either

    1. pig

      Oh for sure, I was a cheerleader in middle school for both football and basketball and I did not give a damn about either of those sports.

  27. Devin

    Love that present tense on being a cheerleader. Not in denial at all. Nope.

    1. Laura

      Once a cheerleader, always a cheerleader. It’s a way of life.

  28. Juanoku

    LOOK AT THEM
    WHY DID YOUR BREAK THEM UP
    I’M SO PISSED

    1. Needfuldoer

      We’ll soon find out!

  29. Laura

    Depending on the metric (total number of sports injuries leading to ER visits vs. number of catastrophic injuries) both cheerleading and football could be seen as equally dangerous. Cheerleading is the most dangerous sport typically played by girls, and football is the most dangerous sport typically played by boys.
    See, e.g.:
    https://cheerleading.lovetoknow.com/Is_Cheerleading_More_Dangerous_than_Football
    https://livehealthy.chron.com/dangerous-football-cheerleading-2966.html
    https://www.verywellfit.com/cheerleading-stunts-and-injuries-3120259
    As of 2015, there was an average of 1 cheerleading death per year, but more extreme stunts and aerial acrobatics increase its danger by the year.

    …Not quite sure how they compare to the danger of hockey fandom, though. Ruth seems to take hockey “hooliganism” as sport very seriously.
    I think that’s why she says she loves Billie so much. ‘Cause Billie is just as vicious as she is.

    1. Yumi

      Interesting. I just happened to be looking up concussion rates in youth sports earlier tonight (it related to a show I was watching). As you might expect, football (majority boys) was first. Then girls’ soccer, then boys’ hockey.

      One thing that was notable about cheerleading according to what I read was that while generally concussions were more likely to occur in competition than in practice, this wasn’t the case with cheerleading, where more concussions occurred during practice.

      1. The Wellerman

        Woah, makes me wonder if Jennifer ever got any concussions herself. Even if she just ran into a lot of potential ones, in light of her physical banter with Ruth, Jennifer must REALLY be able to take a hit! ?

        1. Laura

          Or have a TBI predisposing her to fits of rage and more serious injury with each subsequent impact.

          There’s no such thing as “being able to take a hit.” It’s all just delayed damage, when people appear to have a lot of “chin”. It’s all just cumulative trauma on top of trauma.

          TBI does NOT make you stronger.

          The idea of being able to “take a punch” makes my skin crawl. Nothing against you, NG, sorry, I don’t mean to cause a controversy. I just think it’s a notion that needs disabusing.

        2. Laura

          Not to mention a predisposition to alcoholism, depression, and memory and perceptive distortion.

        3. Laura

          Fear of disability and self-doubt after injury is as pernicious as fear of being called a nerd.

        4. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

          This is the first I’m hearing the idea that having concussions lets you take hits better, and I agree that “having lasting damage makes your body take less damage later” is not a real thing.

          I have heard of “being able to take a hit” in two more-legitimate ways. One is knowing what to do with your body to lessen the impact on critical areas. The other is having the willpower to keep fighting when injured. Neither are “your body is less prone to injury.”

        5. Laura

          Oh, that makes more sense. Thank you for clarifying the term! 🙂

        6. Taffy

          Wait, are you telling me that getting beaten up doesn’t work like a vaccine against larger injuries? This is a lot to take in, I might need to make some phone calls.

        7. Joy

          These are all really good points!

        8. Geneseepaws

          Well, she did run into a tree with a car. That could be a bit of TBI.

        9. Opus the Poet

          How many trucks died trying to take out Billifer? When that number exceeds zero let me know she can take a hit as well as I can.

        10. Laura

          You’re superman, Opus!

    2. Minkey93

      Wait… wouldn’t combat sports be more dangerous? I can’t imagine MMA or Boxing are less dangerous than Football/cheerleaders. For either gender.

      1. Laura

        I think it has to do with high school sports. Boxing might be included in that, but probably not.

  30. Ari

    Fictional relationships don’t have to be healthy in real life for it to be okay to enjoy reading about them, and it’s also possible for a couple who once had a disaster of a relationship to work their shit out. I also feel like people here tend to not understand that being too much of a recovery fucker can be just as detrimental to your mental health as denying you have any problems.

    ugh why did we lose this ship instead of becky/dina, at least the narrative acknowledges that ruth/billie had problems instead of presenting a relationship focused entirely on one party’s needs as Much Healthy Very Representation

    1. Eldritchy

      The greatest sin of fiction is not being Evil/Toxic, it’s being Boring.

    2. Spriteless_Auntie

      Dina is such an agreeable person and Becky puts Dina on such a pedestal, that I can’t really imagine them breaking up. There would need to be a reason, on camera, for me to even believe it.

      Bruthly, on the other hand, I can see how they would tear apart as soon as the camera is off them. But they’ve gone cold for each other before, they started cold actually. The question to me is: Is this just another bipolar swing in their relationship? Will they get back together again? The seeds to the answer are in quantum flux until I know exactly how they broke up. Why they broke up is… well they have problems yeah.

  31. Illjwamh

    Never understood people who are utterly terrified by the very idea of POSSIBLY being a nerd.

    Like, it’s okay to be interested in stuff?

    1. Clif

      Careful. That’s what a nerd would say.

    2. Bryy

      Imagine being told your entire life that there is a correct way to LIVE. Not BE, but LIVE.

      1. Taffy

        Pff. Who needs to imagine it?

        1. Clif

          The world is filled with people wanting to tell you how to live. Fortunately, they all contradict each other.

        2. Taffy

          Exactly. If everyone has a different (loud, angry, often violent) opinion on what you should do or be or want, why listen to anyone at all? Yeah yeah, limitations of environment and all that stuff, but it’s more important to be You than it is to make every single other human on the entire planet happy with who You are. Which is to say, maybe carry a crowbar or something just in case someone gets irrationally upset at your miniskirt and unshaven legs. Just cuz you’re queer doesn’t mean you have to be a pushover.

          (Disclaimer: For legal reasons I am not advocating for the use of a crowbar against bigots, no matter how funny it would be to watch somebody go all Gordon Freeman on some red ball cap-wearing hiveminder. I am also using the Royal You, rather than the Specific You, so none of this is targeted at anybody. Please be nice, Mr. the Feds.)

  32. Bagge

    Wow, second panel Ruth is wonderful

  33. Ray Radlein

    Wait, where is the sports memorabilia? I only see stuff for the Toronto Maple Loafs

  34. Bryy

    Seeing Billie being this toxic and hateful makes me hate Mary even more.

    1. Laura

      why?

      1. Clif

        It’s Mary. Why do we need an excuse?

        1. Taffy

          >Agatha stubs her toe on the doorway because she just woke up and hasn’t got all her motor functions going just yet
          >MAN, fuck Mary, so sick of this b-o-n-g-o.

    2. Rabisch

      Because she was not wrong in wanting Jennifer out of their floor and is better for everyone if Jennifer is far away from Ruth?

  35. Rabisch

    Reading this, my only thought was that Ruth deserves better. Now she’s with Jason, he’s not perfect and maybe their relationship will not least. But he’s still a huge progress. Also, I’m more and more sure the breakout happens because Billie did something stupid.

  36. Nick Piers

    Awww, that’s sweet. I think these two kids are gonna be in it for the long run.

    What? What do you mean “flashback”? What do you…oh.

  37. Geneseepaws

    Ok, I can see this Arc is going to rip my heart out, beat it with a hammer, then drop it on the floor, and leave a HUGE mess to clean up.
    Just saying I can see it coming, cause it’s already started.

  38. Ashley

    oh no, but hate leads to the dark side

  39. Adept

    See, Billie has always been fucking terrible. Maybe there will be a redemption arc, but she’s always been one of the worst people in the comic.

    1. Daibhid C

      I’ve never been a huge fan of Billie, and her self-loathing anti-nerd stance is and has always been toxic nonsense, but there are two people here going “I’m not the nerd, you’re the nerd”, and the difference is that one of them is actually upset about this, and the other one finds this amusing.

      1. Daibhid C

        I can kind of see the position that this is some kind of “couple thing” that makes sense to them (or I would if we didn’t know this is the lead-in to them splitting up), but I can’t see “this is toxic and that’s entirely Billie’s fault“.

  40. AlexaSpuds

    Awwwwww this is so cute
    IRL I look like Billie but in my last relationship I totally used to egg my ex on like Ruth here when she had light or mild stress sessions so instead of spiraling by herself she’ll throw the anger and fear at me so we can reach the end goal of her realizing she’s stressing out over nothing, her calling me an idiot and a bongo, and then us kissing and hugging.
    if she has a really bad stress episode I’d take a different approach but luckily for her those were rare, and I hope they still are cuz when it was bad it was baaaad.
    sucks she had to move cross country with her parents, otherwise we’d still be together (and I would’ve probably proposed to her after like 1 and a half/2 years of being together like a true uhaul lesbian)

    1. Joy

      :3

  41. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    In my opinion, Billie was a jock in high school, doing an organized athletic team activity (that led to having incredible leg strength and flexibility). In my high school, cheerleading was also competitive, and there were cheerleading competitions in addition to the cheering at football games. I wonder how competitive Billie’s cheer was. Billie also fit the worst jock stereotypes, including stuffing people into lockers.

    I also think Billie’s Star Wars fandom makes her a nerd. She can be both!

    Ruth is also absolutely a nerd and embraces being at the weird kid lunch table in high school. I’m not sure if I would call her a jock for being a sports fan, though. In my mind, jocks are about doing athletic activities, not just being fans of watching other people compete.

    For Ruth, I think this is playful banter, and I don’t think she has any problems with them both being nerds. I get the feeling Billie is entirely too serious here, even after all the events with her Forest Quad neighbors.

  42. Deviant

    Maybe silly terms like “jock” or “nerd” is more fitting for movies from the 80’s than real categorization tools. People are more complicated than that.

    That, or they both are nerds, clearly.

  43. Jdorr

    While Billy seems the more likely candidate given her open anger here to Ruth’s calm smiles, I’m going to guess the break up is going to come from Ruth. Don’t quite know why, just a hunch

  44. Robert

    I swear to god if this break up occurred over star wars and nerd culture wars I’m out….I see enough of these Grumpy McGrump Grumps in my daily life on facebook and random message boards to use as justification for my dependancy on anxiety pills for the rest of my life.

  45. poyo

    toxicity be damned, i always thought they were cute T-T

  46. Ragingagnostic

    Cheerleaders are NOT jocks. Cheerleading isn’t a sport. It’s an adjunct to a sport. It’s the halftime show not the main event.

    1. zee

      Nah it’s a sport. The intense physical training and requirements and concussion statistics fulfil the quota of “sport”

      1. zee

        Ballet is also a sport. A badass one too.

        1. thejeff

          I’d put ballet and cheerleading more in the performance category than sport myself, but I guess it’s a matter of how broad you want to make the definition.

        2. alongcameaspider

          I’m not sure about ballet but I know there are cheer competitions

          If you want to classify sports as being competitive in nature

      2. Yumi

        Also, I guess this person has never heard of competitive cheer.

    2. Taffy

      Not every sport has to have a ball in it, slugger.

    3. Laura

      Cheerleading is just as much of a sport as gymnastics, only more so.

  47. Smooti

    … my worry is that the break up was because Ruth got too nice and stopped wanting to do the mutual destruction thing. It feels like this argument is more “playful” on Ruth’s side than Billie’s.

    1. Raven

      that would tally with Jennifer attacking her for daring to act like she’s happy that Jenifer seems to be doing well in her new life

  48. seen2much

    How to blow a “Jock’s” mind?
    Tell them Fantasy Football is just a TTRPG like D&D.
    It’s got Stats, Depends on Random events, and usually when you get together with your frineds to play it you have Junkfood.

    1. anon

      i’ve heard of it but never got into it. how would they even decide. I imagine ppl would be salty if there was some ‘official site’ just doing a lottery thing to decide the score or some kinda advance simulation where someone with a team of the ‘worst’ players end up winning that day or week or so, unless there’s small groups all playing with each other than a whole international/national kinda site signup (i do remember ppl placing bets on fantasy as well not just the superbowl which also sounds weird but it’s their money i guess)

      1. Yumi

        I feel like I barely get fantasy football, but this is still so funny to me. Just to drop some relevant quotes from Wikipedia:

        “Fantasy points are awarded in weekly matchups based on the actual performances of football players in real-world competition.”

        “Fantasy football is often played in small groups of mutually familiar individuals who may or may not be playing for money. However, online fantasy contests, particularly those run by daily fantasy companies, regularly involve large groups of people who otherwise do not know each other contributing to a shared betting pool.”

  49. John

    Yeah, this seems like a totally healthy relationship.

    Also, Billie, just embrace being a nerd. Nothing wrong with it.

  50. Needfuldoer

    Oh no it’s Billie’s worst nemesis: not neatly fitting into social cliques.

  51. anon

    i’m sure cheerleaders have proper physical skills and all that, but skimpy uniforms and stuff aside, is that ‘real’ motivation towards any teams playing? Maybe as a young team but i feel like if i liked a sport/was on a team i’d wanna concentrate with my teammates rather than being cheered on by ppl, cheerleader or not

  52. Darkoneko

    oh no

  53. Ragingagnostic

    I don’t know what Billie’s problem is. The big blockbuster films that come out each year are based on fandoms that would have gotten little boys beaten up for their lunch money 30 years ago. Her chosen area of interest introduced 1970s audiences to a female character who was tough, intelligent, decisive, forceful and strong while wearing her hair up and in a floor-length ballgown. Go, Leia!

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