252

Dating
Posted on January 26, 2018 by David M Willis

252 thoughts on “Dating”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    one of the stupidest

    [/went to exactly one prom–the last one–in a bathing suit]

    1. Usayasha

      Prom is only as stupid as you make it

      [/went to exactly one prom, as Batman-in-a-Tux, accompanied by Batman-in-a-Dress and Batgirl-as-Batgirl]

      1. Fart Captor

        Whoa, you are much, much better at prom than I was. I think you may have won prom

      2. Jimi

        Exactly! I just hung out with my friends the whole time and it was fine. We had the best prom photo, in which I was laying down doing a stripper pose.

        1. Jimi

          Wow, RNG picked the worst possible Gravatar for that comment.

        2. Mr. Bulbmin

          Wtf is with people having fun at prom

          I went to one-none of my own, mind you, I was just a freshman given an invite- to accompany a former friend. It was loud and irritating, literally no one could dance without stomping on one another, and enough stupid teenager things happened that we could have made one and a half MTV shows and a Lifetime movie from that one night.

        3. Yet_One_More_Idiot

          What’s with Americans and proms? xD

          I’m English, and we never even have proms.

          (Actually, I think they’re just starting to come into fashion in English schools nowadays…but I left school in 1998. xD Also I went to a boys-only school xD)

        4. LadyIslay

          Pfft. The British have Proms. They’re practically an institution. They just happen to involve lots of Elgar and piano concertos and such.

        5. smparadox

          I always assumed other people had a good time because they were already half-deaf – the same reason they enjoyed any kind of party. I had miserably good hearing, and any DJ or band was torture for me. I went to two proms – the Junior Prom when I was a freshman, and the Senior Prom when I was a sophomore. Then my girlfriend went on to college and someone there benefitted from all the help I gave her feeling safe again after a near-rape when she was younger, and she left me for him.

        6. Inahc

          The earplugs shaped like xmas trees do wonders for noise sensitivity.
          Some places still manage to have music too loud for even that, even before the migraine, but then regular people were leaving for somewhere quieter too.

      3. Erik Worden

        I went to my first prom, which was also my junior prom, on May 4th, 2013. Which was also Star Wars Day. So me and a friend of mine went as an Imperial Officer and a Jedi. I figured I was going to be a laughing stock but I actually got a ton of compliments.

      4. BrokenEye, the True False Prophet

        I’ve never been to any proms, but I’ve been to approximately 1% of a school dance. Stepped in the door, immediately got overstimulated by the loud music and whatnot, and left.

    2. AGV

      Sunglasses included?

    3. ischemgeek

      Prom talk makes me regretful.

      I really wanted to attend…in a tux. It was really important for reasons I couldn’t make sense of (now I know it was cuz I am trans).

      Instead, I let mom browbeat me into a dress cuzshe thoight I would look too queer in a tux. She claims she thought I would regret it.

      Instead I regret going. Instead of having fun and being comfortable, i was … yeah.

      High school was its own level of hell. Glad it is over.

  2. AnvilPro

    Never occurred to me that prom might just be an American thing

    1. Claire

      Every Canadian knows what prom is, we just call it “grad”. And you only get one when you graduate at the end of high school. I have no idea what junior prom is….

      1. Inahc

        my high school also had a dance in, like, grade 11 or something? but I don’t think it was a big deal. not that I would’ve known at that age – I didn’t even know the school had a pot ‘problem’ until after I’d graduated 😛

      2. Undrave

        We also know about it because every American pop culture item that includes a school WON’T SHUT UP ABOUT IT! Pretty sure it’s the same for the whole world. Also what the fuck is a Homecoming Queen and what home is she coming to exactly?

        You Americanos and and your quaint and bizarre gregarious social rituals…

        1. Claire

          Omg Homecoming has always bothered me! Are they coming home….to school?

        2. Yumi

          It’s in part based on the idea that alumni would come back for some part of the events, such as the football game or the parade. I’m not sure how many people actually do–it probably depends on the community. It was kind of expected, at my school at least, that the homecoming king and queen would come back the next year to present the new king and queen with the title usually.

          My school also didn’t have prom king and queen, so homecoming was your only chance to win a crown if you were into that.

        3. Regalli

          So I think the point of it is that alumni come back to visit, but the homecoming court are all high schoolers, and the only time I remember anyone non-student or teacher giving that much of a shit about homecoming was the year a student and teacher both died that Saturday (unrelated incidents, long story.) Always hated the pep rallies too. Waaaay too loud.

        4. Undrave

          I guess it’s a big deal if you care that much about your school? and like… School pride? My high school won a bunch of league championship in football and I never cared.

          It’s like howAmericans seem to care a WHOLE LOT about their Church and stuff… Or like… engage with their neigbhors? I don’t want to talk to those weirdos! If I want to socialize I got friends who share my interests for that… I can barely stand to spend time with my extended family (I don’t hate them, they’re nice people but DAMN do we not have ANYTHING to discuss).

        5. Lokitsu

          For a lot of schools, homecoming is a chance to convince wealthier alumni to donate.

        6. Lumino

          ‘Homecoming’ is the first Football (American Football) Home game of the season.

          I have no idea why it is called that, but they usually make it into a big deal.

        7. Yumi

          That’s really not always the case. There’s usually at least a couple home games before the homecoming game.

        8. Tim

          It’s usually the second or 3rd week in October around here.

        9. Tyce

          Traditionally, homecoming is a celebration of the football team’s first home game after an away game. The team is coming home. It’s as silly as that.

        10. No Name

          As an American, “Homecoming” usually refers to the football team “coming home” after the big game at the end of season.
          As someone with no social life, I could just be blowing smoke.

        11. Yumi

          What?

        12. Claire

          Okay this makes a little more sense. Football isn’t such a big deal here to warrant any special celebration for the start or end of the season. My high school didn’t even have a team. Also mid October would probably be the end of the season (not in the CFL but Rec league wise) because if you play any later than that there would be snow on the ground.

        13. MK15

          Canadian universities have “homecoming” too, or at least Queen’s does. Unlike the US, where it’s usually the first home game after an away game (“homecoming”) the Canadian university football season is shorter, so it’s the last home game of the season.

          Alumni traditionally come back to campus for formal events at homecoming too… though that’s got no connection to “homecoming dances” at US high schools.

        14. WikiDreamer

          This wins the internet imo tonight

        15. Undrave

          Thanks, I guess? :p

        16. Kryss LaBryn

          Right?!

      3. BBCC

        My school called it prom. Once winter started, kids started going all out on fancy ways to ask people to prom – we called them ‘promposals’. The student council liked to help with them and occasionally film them – they were nice people that way (not sarcastic, it was pretty nice of them to help). It was grade 12s only unless you were invited by another grade 12 and I believe they made a Facebook group for the dresses so nobody ended up in the same thing. There was some bullshit tradition about how if you were invited from another school you had to wear something short and simple but people shut that down pretty fast when people got huffy about it so I don’t think it was a big deal. I don’t remember who the prom king and queen were, only that they were generally nice people. I think we had one more dance in the fall anyone could go to when I was in grades 9 and 10 and that was it. They may have happened in my last two years as well but hell if I went.

        1. Nicole

          Your school’s prom situation sounds a lot like mine, except for the weird outfit tradition. Oh also we didn’t elect a prom king and queen which I guess is a pretty sizable difference from the Standard Prom Experience.

          I only remember hearing about a handful of promposals but I went to an arts school so there were a few that involved choreographed dance routines

        2. BBCC

          I don’t even know what was UP with the outfit thing. Pretty much everyone but like 3 people thought it was arbitrary bullshit.

          For reference – we called the actual graduation ceremony ‘grad’ instead of graduation. We went, listened to a lot of speeches, watched a slideshow and then mingled with each other, our parents, and our staff. There were probably parties students threw but hell if I attended any.

      4. leadsynth

        my high school was very small, so there was no separate event for junior prom and senior prom. It was just prom, and all the junior and seniors got to go, along with their guests/dates.

        When I was a v awkward nerdy freshman, a v awkward nerdy SENIOR asked me to prom with him. I went. I was the only freshman at prom that year. There’s a picture in the school yearbook of me doing the Macarena in my blue sequin gown.

      5. S'toon

        I didn’t bother going to my grad.

        I hated high school, and I was an outsider with no friends.

      6. Kay

        Canadian here: we actually had a “prom” because our year was full of utter shitheads (teachers called us “the lost year”), so our “grad” got cancelled. Some of the rich parents paid to rent a hall away from school grounds and a bunch of the popular kids planned the whole thing out. People made a big deal of graduating high school because it was a very conservative, rural area: a lot of my classmates were not going to be attending any form of higher education, so for a lot of people this was the pinnacle of their educational achievements (not to mention all those who *didn’t* graduate because they were just going to take over mom and dad’s farm or fishing boat anyway, or they got pregnant at 16, or went to juvie, or were on too many drugs to finish school). A lot of people spent upwards of a thousand dollars on outfits, hair and makeup; a few rented limos or decked out their tractors all fancy. There were no fewer than four actual marriage proposals (three said yes) during prom, and the after-party lasted three days.

        I’d bought tickets and a cheap little black dress months in advance because my then-girlfriend wanted to go… and then a month before we graduated she dumped me, so because I already had the tickets and outfit I invited a gay friend from out of town who hadn’t been allowed to go to his own grad (because homophobia; this was back when it was okay for school boards to ban gay couples from attending together) and we went in full goth attire, danced with everybody else’s dates, and (along with a group of other freaks-and-losers) got bored early and went off to another room with a TV in it to watch the Stanley Cup finals (and stole most of the food off the buffet tables to take with us). Some of the popular organizers complained about how we’d “wrecked” prom for them for *years* afterwards.

        1. ugh

          bop

        2. Roborat

          Wow, nice avatar, that was quick, that page just came out. (yes, I am aware of the pun)

        3. Roborat

          And now my comment looks stupid because you changed your avatar again. You think I would know better by now.

      7. Roborat

        Junior high grad, if memory serves.

      8. Sudden Clarity Clarence

        > Every Canadian knows what prom is, we just call it “grad”.

        It’s still a four-letter word.

      9. Missymumu

        I’m Canadian and my high school totally had a prom that was separate from grad. It actually never even occurred to me that some places may not have it.

      10. Kamino Neko

        Every Canadian knows what prom is, we just call it “grad”.

        Not in Ontario, we don’t. We had prom. (Hmm…come to think of it, prom was a grade 12 thing, and when I was in school, we still had OAC, so only, like, half the attendees would really be graduating anyway…)

    2. Caesaria82

      As a European who graduated school 15+ years ago, I literally only know the idea of prom from American movies and TV shows.

      We had a dance to celebrate the end of school, like, after school was already over, and our parents and teachers were there too and a big band was playing, I gather that was very much not the same thing lol (tho I did buy a special dress for it). And there was only the one. Ever. Like. The frequency of American school dances (at least on TV) baffles me every time xD

    3. Needfuldoer

      I always thought all those stereotypical 1950s American high school traditions were just stupid fluff. I still can’t make it through Grease in its entirety.

      1. Undrave

        They really feel like 50s traditions.

      2. Roborat

        What, you didn’t constantly break out in perfectly choreographed song and dance numbers when you were in high school?

    4. CJ

      I only know about it as an American pop culture reference.
      In Germany, the graduating classes of Gymnasium used to do a prank run trough the city (making noise and such), a party (without adults and teachers) and the traditional ball (with parents and teachers) and live music.
      The people who didn’t like it didn’t join in (and didn’t pay for) the ball.

      From a Berlin scandal some years ago where a company offering to organize such things skipped with the funds, I deduce that these things have become more elaborate and expensive than in my time.

      1. Khno

        Don’t know where you’re from in Germany, but I think it might differ a lot with the place. A german ex had no prank run (but such things are common in eastern alemanic-speaking France) and no ball, just a party held and organized by the graduating high-schoolers, most of whom where already adults.

        My own high-school just had a concert of high-school leaded local bands in december where any high-schooler could come. I remember having played in one of the other highschool of the city as well that took place in june before final exams.

    5. FacelessDeviant

      Don’t worry, every stupid american thing eventually spreads all over the world.

      For example, we have proms here in Sweden. Theyre called something else though. Like “Student Ball”.

      1. Khno

        We tried to organize one a few years ago where I taught and nobody came, so I’m so sure it will spread, because even if it’s reputed to be an old disrupted french tradition (from Renaissance till the 60’s), I only know of high schools which have hard time convincing summer time is not for romance far from adult supervision…

        1. Khno

          not so sure*

    6. monkyvirus

      Not to worry it’s already infected Britain as well. Though I’m pretty sure some schools had them for a very long time and they used to be called “leaver’s dance/party/disco”. Now it’s pretty much every school and a lot of them actually call it prom which makes me cantankerous in my old age (late-twenties) and want to yell “get off my lawn” which I then remember is also American so I weep into my tea (which, thank God, is OUR THING).

      The complete dominance of America in English-speaking culture started to drive me loopy a few years back.

      Though my own leaver’s dance was a ceilidh because I was in Scotland. So that was awesome. A Ceilidh is like scottish country dancing but basically every scottish person knows how to do it (it’s taught in PE) so it’s a beautiful communal thing with lots of whooping and spinning.

      1. Roborat

        Since it is Scottish, I assume it then morphs into drinking and fighting?

  3. Doctor_Who

    The Canadian equivalent is the Festival of Degrassi.

    1. Undrave

      We call it MarDegrassi now 😉

      1. adjudicus

        How about Neildegrassi?

        1. Roborat

          No thanks, don’t want green stains on my Neis.

    2. Lieutenant Dan

      Ah, the Festival of Degrassi… A high-schooler’s last chance to make bad life decisions and drop the F-bomb on prime time TV.

  4. Yumi

    Panels 4 and 5 are adorable.

    Also, I have watched enough Degrassi to expect Canadians to be familiar with prom.

  5. Big D

    Wait, do they not have proms in Canada? I feel like I’ve seen some dumb Canadian teen drama with a prom in it at one point or another…

    1. Yumi

      This is

      this is an interesting sequence of comments.

    2. BBCC

      We do where I live.

    3. Christine

      My understanding of American proms is that they’re a really big deal. So while we technically have them here, it’s a completely different phenomenon. It was just an expensive, off-site dance for us. (Although I had a classmate who thought that you needed a date to go. Even he didn’t take it super-seriously, as my response to that was to ask him if he wanted to go with me, and that was good enough for him.)

    4. S'toon

      No, we have Grad.

  6. Pablo360

    I have never seen a “porm” in person

    1. Pablo360

      To clarify: Am (unfortunately) American, did go to a high school with a “porg”, but has a terrible disease called “no social life”

      1. Doctor_Who

        Man high school would have been so much cooler if it had Porgs instead of proms.

        1. MM

          What about pogs?

        2. Inahc

          spice pogrom!

      2. Caesaria82

        omg you went to school with a Porg? Was Luke there too? And the blue milk guys and the nuns? Tell me more!

        1. Pablo360

          It was weird, they kept trying to eat my sandwiches, and also they smell awful, they’re definitely cuter at a distance

        2. Tim

          Well when your diet is entirely fish…it doesn’t usually come out smelling BETTER than it went in…

  7. Too Old To Be Cool

    “Nowadays, courtship – or ‘dating’ – imply picking up the girl in the family car and buying her at least a hamburger and a milkshake.”
    – opening to “Guess I’ll Go Home”, released 1962 (I’m REALLY old)

    1. ValdVin

      Remember that it had its own rules:

      “One teen to a malt”

      –Futurama

      1. Scoops

        DON’T DATE ROBOTS!

        1. ValdVin

          Hee hee.

  8. Stephen Bierce

    I never could afford to go. Of course, that was the least of my problems. High School had no romance for me.

    1. Yumi

      It’s funny because I know it’s a big deal for some people/couples, but I never even think of prom as a romantic thing. I just went with a group of friends.

      There still managed to be drama.

      1. Queen Anthai

        Never went to prom; did go to Homecoming my sophomore and senior years. Wayyyy less expensive. Also, the pep rallies were more fun than the dances because we all got to hang out around a giant-ass bonfire.

        Fun fact: 1999 was the last one to have said giant-ass bonfire because those morons (I was ’98) saw fit to throw cans of effin’ silly string in there.

        It didn’t end well.

      2. Bast

        People often complain about drama, but imagine how boring life would be without it.

        1. Roborat

          Yea, there would be nothing to watch but comedies and action movies.

    2. Jamie

      In the weirdest form of anti-drama, I ended up going to my high school prom solely because my crush at the time told me that this other person had a crush on me and no date and I should fix that. So I did.

      That marked the first, and last, time I let someone else do my hair.

  9. Passchendaele

    The cornerstones of their relationship – affection and sarcasm. 😛

    1. Gen

      I can’t wait to see who puts her foot in her mouth more!

  10. ValdVin

    Oh, Ruth…prom is only really odd, making it kitty-corner away from stupid. Like that weird 11-man football we Americans play.

  11. Tacos

    I never even went to my prom. Had two national competition the week before prom and didn’t get back home till the day before prom and was too tired to go.

    1. Regalli

      Similar. Didn’t like the idea of going to something that big and loud and all my friends were underclassmen, anyway. Went to an event the next weekend for theater club where I got to wear a fancy dress, declared that checkbox good enough.

    2. Leorale

      I stayed home with my boyfriend at the time, and we watched Pink Floyd.

      1. Roborat

        Is that what you young’uns are calling it nowadays? Back in my day, we called it watching the submarine races.

  12. DinaWho

    Billie’s panel 5 expression killed me with adorable. Help.

  13. boop

    ahhhh! a pointless yet sweet gesture that costs money! ruth is doing the full-blown romance thing if it KILLS her

  14. General Tekno

    Yep. We only know that Prom is a thing because we all watch American pop culture. Accurate indeed.

  15. Derek

    isn’t this October? Ruth is resistant to cold it seems

    1. Hannah

      When I was 14 I went through a phase where I was convinced I was completely unperturbed by the cold, I‘d go for walks midwinter with frost on the ground with only a t-shirt. Ruth could be going through a similar phase, she is the type to want to appear tough.

    2. Yumi

      She could grab a jacket, but I prefer to just imagine her going, “I am CANADIAN.”

    3. DailyBrad

      Canadian powers, activate

      1. JessWitt

        I learned all about Canadian powers from Scott Pilgrim.

        1. Roborat

          We still haven’t forgiven that bastard for revealing all our secrets.

    4. Cyrus

      Not being from anywhere near Indiana, I looked up Bloomington’s weather. The average low for October is 7°C. That is t-shirt weather.

      1. Needfuldoer

        A low of 44 fahrenheit? Yeah that’s nothing. It’s jacket time when your high is colder than that.

      2. Derek

        7°C is decidedly NOT T-shirt weather you absolute maniac!!

    5. pjeseb

      Ruth has no need for jackets or fur coats. Ruth has an eternal wellspring of hatred for all things American to keep her warm.

      …also, Ruth is Canadian. Your feeble Hoosier autumns fail to impress her.

    6. BBCC

      Ruth is Canadian.

      Can confirm, we’re immune to the cold. I remember like 10 years ago, we had a day that was minus 60 with the windchill and it was blizzarding. Pretty much everything was shut down because it was deemed inhumane to make people go outside.

      1. Inahc

        except in Vancouver, where there’s a Special Weather Statement because.. uh… the rain might get a bit slushy?

        *facepalm*

        1. Gwen

          And then there’s Wilmington, NC, where their plan to deal with 4 inches of snow was to wait for it to melt. Spoilers: it didn’t.

        2. Sunny

          Surely it melted eventually, like when spring came around again. So I’d say that’s a solid plan.

        3. thejeff

          Well, it might not have yet. It’s not spring yet. 🙂

          But seriously, what are they going to do. Have all the snow removal equipment in place and ready when it happens so rarely? Stuff’s expensive.

      2. Nicole

        Oh man I wish I was immune to the cold, I’m always wearing like four layers as soon as it gets even a little chilly. And I’m Canadian but I guess I was late to the meeting where the cold immunity powers were handed out.

        1. Leorale

          I’m Canadian too, and always chilly; the cold got into my bones and never left.

        2. Derek

          Third Canadian here and I tend to get chilly even in summer

        3. Roborat

          Well, that is what you get for living in Iqaluit.

      3. TheGrammarLegionary

        Yeah, it got down to about -45ºC where I live a few weeks ago (for you Americans, actually still about -45ºF) and I still walked 15 blocks to the café with the GOOD hot chocolate. Because the owner stayed open. And was profitable that day. His employees didn’t even call in, it was just business as usual.

        TL;DR: Canadians do not give a single maple-flavoured fuck about the cold.

      4. Shameless

        The weather, it tried to freeze him,
        It tried it’s level best.
        At a hundred degrees below zero
        He buttoned up his vest.

        –Frozen Logger (must’ve been a Canuck)

  16. Cattleprod

    As a Canadian, I think it’s nigh-impossible to not know what ‘prom’ means just from pop cultural osmosis. We get most American shows and movies up here, anything remotely high school related will talk about proms non-stop.

  17. Bagge

    Nervous Ruth is just… ADORABLE!!!

    (So, she’ll most likely break the fourth wall and feed me to wild piranha (which is REALLY HARD to come by in Sweden, let me tell you) me for that comment, but I stand by it!)

    1. Fire_daws

      Nah, if she was feeling like breaking the fourth wall she’d savage Ana (Sue) first just to get maximum impact with minimal effort.

  18. Cephalo the Pod

    Wait, what? We have prom in Canada.

    1. Yumi

      I have seen it on Degrassi.

    2. Mollyscribbles

      Was about to say — I went myself. But with a friend. Who I realized, after he asked me, that I had only referred to by a nickname for the past two years, which made it awkward when I had to give the names for getting tickets.

    3. tim gueguen

      We didn’t in Saskatoon in the ’80s when I went to high school, just dances. I suspect that remains the case in the 21st Century, since I never hear Saskatoon kids talk about proms or see the media here deal with them at all.

    4. Dragonfire

      We have grad over at the west end of the country, not prom.

      1. tim gueguen

        Yep, grad was the only time I remember there being any need to dress up fancy for a high school event.

  19. YggiDee

    We have prom up here, Ruth just happens to be one of the Canadians cursed (blessed?) with our nations’ latent sass. We generally channel all of our anger, malice, etc into our geese in a yearly ritual but a few unlucky humans out there get a dose too.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Do you draw straws, or is it more of a splash-damage thing?

    2. S'toon

      We didn’t have a prom. We had grad.

      Maybe it’s a regional thing.

  20. DailyBrad

    I love these two goofs.

  21. kitty

    so what are you guys’ voice headcannons? if this has already been discussed a lot just ignore me

    1. Needfuldoer

      Dina – Anndi McAfee (Phoebe from Hey Arnold)
      Ruth’s grandfather – Kelsey Grammer (Frasier, Sideshow Bob)
      Jacob – Earl Alexander (Louis from Left 4 Dead)

      1. kitty

        i like these!

        mine are

        joyce – terri hawkes as sailor moon
        amber – rainbow dash
        walky – ethan slater as spongebob in the musical
        sal – sandy from spongebob…the cartoon
        ethan – jean ralphio except like shy and nice

  22. Rukdug

    Billie’s eyes in the middle three panels…so sweeeeettttt. So precious. And Ruth’s nervous smile….aaahhh the feels. This is just, just so sweet.
    …
    Also, kinda hoping Ruth puts on a nice jacket or something so Billie doesn’t feel over dressed and Ruth herself doesn’t feel underdressed.

    1. Rukdug

      Also, just realized my gravatar is very ironic when paired with my comment.

      1. Keulen

        My Mike grav is often that way too. I’d change it but I still remember what happened the last time I tried the grav roulette. I’d rather not lose my ability to comment again.

        1. Rukdug

          Same here. So, with Mary I will stay. Plus, sometimes it feels like I’m subverting her.

    2. Keulen

      I agree, the middle three panels are freakin adorable. And I really hope their date goes well.

  23. StClair

    “S-stupid.”
    “No, you are.”
    “No, you are.”

    (when two tsuns hit peak dere at the same time)

  24. Mad_Academic

    What? Canadians also have prom…. Is this an actual joke, or is it ignorance? I really can’t tell.

    1. BBCC

      Alt text confirms Ruth is just being bitter.

      1. Ansel

        Alt text sounded more like ‘Ruth arrived in America before her (american) school’s prom, so she would have learned, to me. Although, I’ve never heard anyone else think we didn’t have it.

  25. Yumi

    Also, I love buying flowers for people.
    Which is why I would like it if, like, someone would message me back on Tinder.

  26. Roger

    christ this is so cute what the hell i love this

  27. Some1

    Dungeons and Dumbing part 8

    Walky climbed over the walls and lands on the other side, where Joyce and Danny wait for him. He turns to leave and Joyce places her hand on his shoulder.

    Joyce: Walky wait.

    Walky: Yes?

    Joyce: Are you okay?

    Walky: Yeah, why?

    Joyce: What did you see?

    Walky: I actually can’t remember.

    Soon they reach the cabin once again where Dorothy lays. Walky hands the herb over to Cyrus.

    Cyrus Kzar: Perfect, with this I shall make a most wonderful medicine. That can cure any ill!

    Walky: Hey I was wondering…

    Cyrus Kzar: hmm?

    Walky:why can’t I remember my time in the swamp?

    Cyrus Kzar: Ah, yes, I forgot to mention that fact. The truth is no one has ever remembered their time in the swamp. You must face your problems on your own, and in the real world. So the swamp makes it so that it forces you to face your fears without allowing you to actually get past them.

    Cyrus Kzar crushes herb into a glass of water and allows it all to drop into Dorothy’s mouth. She stirs and turns on her side.

    Cyrus Kzar: The medicine will take a while to fully recover her, you should sleep here tonight, and Billie I should look at your leg.

    Billie: fine

    Billie winces as Cyrus examines the wound
    .
    Danny: Can we use the healing spell for that one?

    Cyrus: Not necessary, just go out and place your feet in the pond around back. The faeries their will heal minor wounds if you don’t scare or offended them. But whatever you do don’t fall in.

    Billie and Danny walked for a short time until they reached a glowing pond full of those mysterious creatures that had run away before.

    Billie: this is it, I think.

    Danny: It’s like a Zelda game.

    Billie: Stop being a dork, dork.

    Billie steps forward and places her foot in the water, it is much deeper then she expected and she pitches forward, dropping her entire body into the water and sending faeries scattering. Danny is forced to suppress a laugh.

    Billie: Danny get me out of here before I murder you.

    Danny: is your leg better?
    Billie: Actually it does feel a bit better, like something is massaging it. Wrapping around my leg with its cool tendrils…oh shit.

    Billie is yanked under the water

    Danny: Billie! Guys! Help! Anyone! Dammit I left the uke back at the cabin!

    After a second Danny removes his shirt and dives into the water. He pushes his body downward and sees Billie struggling to breath in the grip of a single tentacle emerging from a fissure in the ground. Grabbing his knife, he hacks away at the tendril until it drops away, releasing its hold. Soon Billie and Danny are back on the shore.

    Billie: *cough* coughs up water

    Danny: are you okay?

    Billie: Not really, what the hell was that!?

    Danny: I don’t know, hey look the faeries are back, and they’re healing your leg!

    Billie: finally.

    Danny: maybe it would have been easier to use a healing spell.

    Billie: Maybe.

  28. MatsuoTanuki

    What am I supposed to do?

    Just sit here and not fall in love with you?

    Can I do anything to conceal it?

    Can I lock up my heart and not feel it?

    Try to hide from the fact that there’s no turning back..

    I’m in looooove…

    You leave me weak, you make me strong!

    All that I need is to know I’m not wrong…

    If love is blind, how do I make you seeeee me?

    You’re my P.Y.T., my cherie amour!

    One look at you and my heart starts to soar!

  29. Inahc

    panel 5: is billie being mean or is something else happening here? I’m confused.

    1. Yumi

      I think she’s like, “This is so sweet I don’t know how to process it quick make a joke.”

      1. Needfuldoer

        She is a Walkerton by osmosis, after all…

    2. MatsuoTanuki

      I think it’s more a case of sarcastic teasing. She DOES appreciate the gesture, but it’s so sweet and kind that it’s at odds with the “Ruthless” persona the other woman projects, so she can’t resist a small joke at Ruth”s expense.

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        Remember when Ruth wore lingerie?

        “Go ahead. Make fun of me.”

        “Oh, I will. Later.”

        1. Inahc

          🙂

  30. Kernanator

    Now kiss.

  31. bleepbloop

    Canadians must have prom! I know the show became awfully United States-itized over the years, but there was always a prom episode of in every other season of Degrassi.

    1. Yumi

      God bless.

    2. BBCC

      Someone on Degrassi asked another when their family moved to America in one of the recent episodes and I said ‘Excuse you?’ at my tv.

      1. Yumi

        What? The only thing similar to this I can remember was the teacher talking to Goldi, and he said, “How long have you lived here?”
        There was a Canadian flag in the background of the shot.

        (Side note, one of the funniest things ever to me in Degrassi was when a senior was talking about how much university was in the US, and they gave a figure that I think was meant to sound high but was actually hilariously low. Haha, we’re so fucked.)

        1. BBCC

          I think that might be what I’m talking about. I may be recalling it wrong. I do remember one of the episodes implied they were in the US. I think some of the characters might have been chanting USA at one point.

          Whatever. The show’s in Toronto and they can pry that from my cold, dead hands.

        2. Yumi

          Ah, yeah, Baaz chanted “USA! USA!” when Yael lied and told him he had the longest penis of the group of friends. But I don’t think that was meant to imply they were in the US; it was just something funny.

          Besides, I’m reminded the show is Canadian every time one of the characters says “about.”

        3. wwwhhattt

          I always find the “about” thing really disorientating. People who
          generally have North American accents, but will suddenly sound Scottish with no warning… it always takes a second before I realise they probably aren’t making fun of me.

        4. BBCC

          Wait do we seriously sound Scottish when we say about?

        5. Inahc

          They must be thinking of Newfies, who pronounce it “aboot”.

        6. Roborat

          Yea, that is mainly an east coast thing.

  32. Marsh Maryrose

    Timeline question: according to Walkypedia (which we all know is inerrant), Ruth came the U.S. to live with Grampa Dirtbag when she was 16. So how did she miss knowing about prom?

    Clearly he would not let her not attend school. Did he let her (or make her) attend some private school where prom is not a thing?

    1. BBCC

      She’s just being snarky.

    2. Marsh Maryrose

      Forgot to read the alt text. &ltEmily Litella&gtNivver mind./&ltEmily Litella&gt

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        Semicolons really <do> matter!

        1. Reltzik

          Lies.

  33. BBCC

    Ahhh, prom, that was certainly a party.

    I went with a friend who people had been telling me I should date every time they saw us together since I was in seventh grade.

    He spent the night ignoring me and flirting with the girl he liked (who iirc had a boyfriend and wasn’t interested) and we both ended up dancing with other people.

    Ah, memories.

    1. Fart Captor

      I hadn’t been planning to go to mine, but a friend found out at the last minute that she was someone’s backup date, and got ditched, so I went with her instead.

      I was very, very timid and in our prom photo they had to tell me to put my arm around her, and you’d think I was afraid I would die if my hand actually touched her. Also I for some reason got a wrist corsage, which I did not realize was weird, dorky looking, and would end up cutting of blood flow to her hand -_-;;

      I’m also very thankful smartphones weren’t a thing yet, or else there would be blackmail video of me in my cheap rented tux and bad haircut dancing like if Urkel was spliced with someone’s drunk uncle at a wedding.

      1. CJ

        Wait, backup date? What’s that?

        1. Bast

          I want to date person A, but if person A says no, I will ask person B.

        2. Fart Captor

          Yeah, and in this case he asked my friend first, so that if the girl he REALLY wanted to go to prom with said no, he’d already have an alternate date, and wouldn’t have to risk spending any time feeling rejected like his back up date did when she suddenly got ditched, and found out WHY >:(

  34. kitty

    here is kitty’s finnish word of the day! pronunciation guide: https://unilang.org/view.php?res=53

    silmälasit (glasses)

    I wonder if Ruth and Bi-llys glasses collide when they kiss?

    1. Gwen

      As a glasses-wearing person who has kissed a number of other glasses-wearing people, we mostly figure it out ok.

  35. Caesaria82

    OMG Billie’s smile when she says ‘flowers’ <333 I love love, you guys.

  36. drs

    “Flowers? I was expecting femurs!”

    1. Reltzik

      “Look, if you’re not expecting me to hand you arrangements of severed sex organs at randomly spaced intervals, then you don’t really know me.”

    2. Bluewind

      Oh my god! I hope Billie shows up to their next date with a bouquet of femurs. It is around Halloween, so she should be able to get a bunch of plastic ones XD

  37. Griffin Raynor

    I guess I can see how it might be awkward to do the sex first and the dating after.

    1. Yumi

      Yeah, I personally prefer to never see the person again after the sex.

  38. newllend(henryvolt)

    Are you telling me that proms are just a American made cultural events only made to us.

  39. Fart Captor

    I did almost exactly this once when I was 25. Only it was even more embarrassing.

    I had recently asked a friend of mine that I’d had a crush on be my date for a wedding, but I wasn’t aware of how that’s something that one might do just as friends. It had taken so much to work up the courage to ask that the possibility she and I hadn’t both understood the word “date” the same way didn’t occur to me.

    In any case she said yes, and not long after (the wedding was still months away) we had plans to go see some movie. I was still foolishly giddy and happy, unable to believe my luck and thinking there might be smooching in my near future, so on my way over to pick her up, I decided to pick up flowers, because that’s something you do when you’re totally dating now, right?

    When she saw the flowers, she let me down impressively gently, but I turned beet red. I’m sure I tried to play it cool, but I’m equally sure I failed. I’m not sure how I survived my embarrassment. Thankfully the awkwardness passed, we had fun at the wedding, and are still friends today. I’m just glad she’s too merciful to tease me about that incident.

    1. Yumi

      Awwww, bb. ;-;

      (Sorry if that’s awkward; that was just my gut reaction to your story.)

      1. Fart Captor

        Lol, it’s okay! If awkwardness was going to kill me, it would’ve happened a long time ago. Though tbh I was expecting more derisive laughter

    2. Bluewind

      I love this story! I’m glad you could stay friends. I bet if the same thing happened to me, she would bolt, so it’s so sweet to see.

    3. monkyvirus

      I have anxiety which means I never would have spoken to that friend again out of embarressment. I actually stopped talking to my best friend for like 10 years because something awkward went down between us (and we’re both younger than 30 so that’s a long freaking time!). Luckily when I reached out to them they were happy to hear from me again 😀

      Moral: Be cool like Fart Captor and his friend, do not be a total dope like me.

      1. Fart Captor

        Honestly, if she hadn’t sent me an email later that week basically saying “you’re not allowed to avoid me out of embarrassment” I probably would’ve thrown myself into the ocean. And it would’ve taken a couple days just to get there.

        If I give off the appearance of being cool, there’s usually a bit of anxiety behind it that I’m desperately hoping will go unnoticed. Apparently it does sometimes! You too can probably manage to seem cool in spite of the internal screaming!

  40. Doopyboop

    Prom wasn’t too special for me, but some things stick out. My friends helped me do hair and make-up so I actually looked kinda pretty for it. My longtime high school crush gave me a dance (he’s gay, I’m a woman, so it wouldn’t have worked out but that didn’t stop my younger self from having a little crush on him for being handsome and sweet), and this female classmate I’d never met before let me hang out with her and her friends because I had no friends my grade level to chill with. She wound up being elected Prom Queen (I def voted for her) and Valedictorian for our class.

    1. Yumi

      That sounds fun. My school didn’t have Prom Queen, but our Homecoming Queen was also voted Nicest Girl in our end of the year awards, and she was the president of the student government and got into an Ivy League school. That’s part of why I’m always perplexed at how these things go down in media where you’re just like, “But who would even vote for this character. And why is this so important.”

      1. Doopyboop

        Aaw~ That’s a good point though, like I think our Prom Queen also went to a really good high end school! So looking at all these movies where the mean girl gets to be voted by intimidating everybody…why don’t they just ignore her? Or vote someone else? What’s she gonna do, she doesn’t have any more power than any other student. It’s similar to how shows like Danny Phantom would have the main character openly mooning over ‘the mean popular girl’ and I’d wonder to myself what’s so appealing other than…the obvious. High school sucks, but media makes it seem a lot more…weird and catty.

        1. Bathymetheus

          With respect to “the obvious” the Northern Pikes (Canadian, of course) had a song in which the chorus was “She ain’t pretty, she just looks that way”.

          I’ve long felt that this contains an important life lesson. No doubt learned the hard way.

  41. Nicole

    Interesting, I’ve never heard of prom being a specifically American or non-Canadian thing. (Although Ruth is from a small town iirc but I feel like they’d still have one? I get the sense she didn’t go or had a really bad time though…)

    I’m from Canada and my high school did have a prom, but I’m not sure if junior prom is really a thing here. My high school had very few dances, I think just a semi-formal when I was in grade 11 and 12, but that was just because people used to get way too drunk and/or high every time.

    Also, these two are ADORABLE.

    1. Nicole

      Ah wait, since other people have said she moved to the States at 16, she wouldn’t have had a reason to go to prom anyway unless her boyfriend was in grade 12

  42. HelenKellersDog

    Billie/Ruth has “tragic ending” written all over it but I seriously hope things work out for these two.

  43. Danni

    there are a lot of “stupid american things” like onion rings, the presidency, the police, the white people

    1. Yumi

      Okay, Canada has stupid white people too.

      1. Mel

        We also have onion rings. I LOVE onion rings!

    2. Bast

      Didn’t expect to see blatant racism here of all places.

      1. Yumi

        lol

  44. PB

    Whoop never mind it’s cute again

    ?

  45. Cmd1095

    Is prom really not a thing in Canada? Huh, alright then. Good for you Canada

    1. DarkoNeko

      Nor in most of the rest of the world

    2. Undrave

      It kinda is something we do but it’s not like… a big deal? Might also just be a cultural osmosis thing? Neither is the whole school pride thing. It’s just a school man, not like you picked it or anything.

    3. BenRG

      It wasn’t a thing in the UK either until we passed the cultural saturation limit of US-produced teen romance entertainment and made the kids over here think it was something that they wanted. Now, proms are a thing that regularly happen in richer schools here in the UK.

      It’s a variant of how we got Black Friday and it’s how I’m expecting Thanksgiving to become a thing here in the UK before long.

      1. Undrave

        Bloody Black Friday… The big American box store were trying SO hard to make it a thing a few years back… nowadays it gets barely any buzz. It’s just a thing that happens.

  46. Nobody

    You should assume that for all American things you haven’t heard of, and most of the ones you have

  47. DarkoNeko

    going to PORN ? not yet

    1. Needfuldoer

      There’s a link to that in the sidebar.

    2. Undrave

      They already had two Slipshine stories.

  48. Arianod

    Well, she isn’t wrong.

  49. BenRG

    I’ve got to say that I’ve never seen Ruth be this sweet before! She’s so desperate to make a good impression on Billie and I think that this is a good thing.

  50. Inspector whatevsman

    They don’t have prom in Canada? I mean, to be fair, neither did my school. But that’s cuz we knew better.

    1. Pidgey

      In Australia we call it Formal. In England (in my parents days) it was school leavers disco. Maybe they just call it something else? Calling on Canadians for answers?

    2. tim gueguen

      If you look at the comments here it seems to be a regional thing in Canada. It’s worth remembering Canada is a wide, spread out country, with all sorts of regionalisms. Classic example, here in Saskatchewan hoodies are sometimes called bunnyhugs.

      1. Roborat

        And the rest of Canada thinks that is the funniest thing ever.

      2. ValdVin

        As a big fan of the Green and White, I searched “roughrider bunnyhugs”, and now they turned off my internet at work.

        1. Roborat

          Wow, they must really hate the ‘Riders where you work.

  51. Poskie

    Look at Billie, she’s so HAPPY :’D

    1. BenRG

      Yeah; that’s why I’m waiting for the shoe to drop from orbit! 😮

      1. Poskie

        Excellent avatar for that comment, my dude.

  52. Pidgey

    These two are so cute!

  53. DocHarleen

    Canadian here, from Toronto (city included for added context, because Billie is either from there or from nearby, I assume, because she loves the Leafs). I have definitely always known the term “prom”. I don’t remember if my school called it something else but I have definitely always thought of it as prom.

    1. Meta

      Ruth is apparently from Kaladar, Ontario: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/03-the-thing-i-was-before/dawdled/
      Not sure if that would make a difference

  54. Dariu55

    Canadian here too. Niagara Falls area, for context. We know what prom is. American culture heavily applies to Canada, especially with so many movies and television with prom. That said, our terrible schools called it ‘graduation dance/party’ for some reason.

    1. Ansel

      BC here, but all the students called it prom. Officially it was our school’s Dry Grad (which makes it sound like there was alcohol at the actual graduation, but there wasn’t)

      1. Inahc

        Yeah, we saved that for after-grad 😉 my friend’s house had three toilets, and by the end of the night they were all being hugged by people who hadn’t learnt their limits yet.

      2. Roborat

        Rural Alberta. Me, and my kids decades later, had both dry grad and wet grad. Wet grad was held out in the country at a secret location at someone’s farm, kids brought in by bus, with parents supervising. Lets the kids drink, keeps the over age troublemakers away, and keeps everyone safe.

        1. Ansel

          We didn’t really call ours wet grad, but yeah ours was out in the boonies near where I lived. I didn’t end up going, I got there and ran into my friends trying to walk out, so we put them in the back of the truck and drove them to the nearest one of their houses, where they were heading anyway, and went home.

          Also, dry grad wasn’t a dance. We voted to have it at the school instead of a venue (some PTA moms were REALLY MAD about that) and had dinner in tents on the tennis court, a small dance area in a multipurpose room, a mock casino in the foyer, and fun things in the gym (velcro suits, adult bouncy castles (one for boffing inside, one with bouncy pillars and wrecking ball to knock eachother down), and one other thing I can’t picture rn). It srarted with a prom parade is this a thing?) at like four, dinner at six or seven, then the event went to seven am or so, at which point they moved us back onto the tennis court to auction stuff with the casino earnings, give door prizes, etc. It took a fucking year so I bailed immediately after getting mine, and only stayed that long on friends’ urging.

          And also most people had a date but it was definitely more of a fun and friends prom than a romantic one. (This sentence is more in reference to threads above than here)

        2. Ansel

          Fuck sorry couldn’t see what a wall of text this would be from the text box on my phone

        3. Roborat

          You know, that sounds like it would have been a lot of fun.

    2. BBCC

      Ontario, graduated nearly four years ago. We had a prom, it was mostly treated as a last party to let us hang out before we graduated. It was fun but it wasn’t the end of the world if you didn’t go or went without a date or whatever. The really super fun stuff was the after prom. People shelled out to share rented cabins and booze a lot in what was basically a party town. With a lot of water bodies. It, ah, has been dangerous before.

      I went to prom, but ditched the expensive and dangerous after prom. Me, my date, and our friend went to my house and we watched a movie on netflix. That was good enough. I think my date went to the after prom but I don’t recall.

  55. ValdVin

    I’m older than Willis.

    When I was the age I went to “the prom”. When did it become “prom”?

    (Wife and I don’t have kids, so nobody to keep me up to date at home.)

    1. Portland

      I’m about ten years out of high school, and it was definitely “prom” and not “the prom” when I attended, so probably more than ten years ago? My sister and cousins, who are about 7-13 years older than me, all call it “prom”. Could be regional?

  56. Delicious Taffy

    I like Ruth’s tank top.

  57. Electriccombines

    *MUFFLED SCREAMING*

  58. VSen

    Dude, as a Canadian who went to prom, and now does makeup for girls going to prom, as well as having a sister who went to prom…..we most definitely have and know what prom is….

  59. Ryan

    This strip is so pure, my skin is clear and my crops have been watered. <3

  60. Bluewind

    They are so cute together. Also, Billie just take the damn flowers minus the sarcasm. It’s a sweet gesture. Plus, they are a symbol for vagina so very appropriate 😉

  61. ugh

    boop

    1. ugh

      boop

  62. Lulu

    And I wasn’t allowed to go to a prom with my girlfriend at that time…
    So proms are stupid.

  63. Fire_daws

    I have no concept of the word “prom”, back in my day it was a disco in the assembly hall.

    1. Roborat

      Did all the girls have big hair and wear retina searing neon colours?

      1. BenRG

        Is it possible for it to be disco without these things?

  64. EFC

    As a fellow Canadian there is totally prom here too, at least in some places

  65. AutobotDen

    Awww, Billie is so touched by Ruth giving her flowers! <3

  66. WhatsInAName

    East Coast Canadian here. We definitely know what prom is, and do indeed hold a similar celebration for graduating students.

    I can’t speak for all schools in the province (or even the area), but we had ‘Safe Grad’: a 12-hour event (approximately 8PM to 8AM) which included a sit-down dinner, a dance, a hypnotist, a mini-casino, and more.

    (The idea of all night is to keep the students safe. It usually takes place in the banquet / meeting area of a hotel, and once you arrive you are not allowed to leave until it is over. So no leaving for, you know, alcohol or sex.)

  67. Kit M. Harding

    We had “boat dance” instead of prom. It was exactly what it sounds like, except it had no grade restrictions– everyone went all four years. Well, unless you missed the boat.

    1. Ansel

      Either my cousin’s prom or the other high school’s prom was on a ‘cruise’ for the night, which sounds more romantic but also more boring to me.

  68. Ragingagnostic

    I didn’t know Ruth was a Canadian…a Canadian who happens to be a jerk and a ginger. Wow, that’s two strikes against her. XP

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