I mean she’s done her best to protect her homies in the past, and that was really good.
Without any motherfuckers to fight, she’s basically Mermaid Man huh? Well I’m still SpongeBobing for her. Once she gets back into SOME kinda super hero action, it’ll make perfect fan game material! ^^
Okay, so, I looked up both “SpongeBobing” and “SpongeBobbing” on Urban Dictionary because I have no idea what the hell SpongeBobing is supposed to mean in this context, and… uh… I’m still fairly sure those definitions are not what you mean here, even so…
(There are a bunch of UD definitions for just “SpongeBob,” but only the one each for adding “-ing” to the end of it.)
LordViking
In SpongeBob (the cartoon series) there is a character called Mermaid Man, who is basically Adam West’s Batman.
SpongeBob (the character) is the biggest Mermaid Man fanboy there is.
So from context ‘SpongeBobing’ would mean being the biggest fan / obsessing over her.
What is she even doing here that’s worth getting mad at? Not asking confrontationally or something, I just am genuinely not sure if I am missing something.
She’s always been a square about underage drinking, with Joyce and Dorothy but also she almost broke up with Danny over it. They’re largely adults, this isn’t really a big deal, but AG is Amber’s projected sense of control so we get “that’s illegal people can’t do that”
Bash
She used underage drinking as an excuse to fight Sal, so it didn’t make her look good when most of her social circle thought it was fine.
Person with DID here to confirm that it is not possible – the alter may THINK they’re sober because they didn’t engage in drinking/drugs, but they’re still going to be impaired by it. In other words, we’re very likely going to see drunk Amber AND drunk Amazigirl, and if Walky is there by any chance, things will get *messy*
I’m really amazed at all the underage drinking happening in this comic lately but, eh, I didn’t have my first actual sip of alcohol until I was 21 so clearly I’m the outlier here.
Same, I was also a goody-two-shoes on that front. I didn’t go to enough parties in college to get much of a sense of how strictly that rule was followed.
As a Brit it amuses me greatly to see all the agonizing about 18 year olds drinking. The first week of university here is historically drunken carnage.
It’s way weirder to me that such a thing is viewed so positively anywhere.
Like, I get drunk and party too. It’s the absolute worst possible use of my time and I kinda dislike how casual everyone is about kids getting sloshed just because it’s normal in most of the world. Like, adults make horrifying decisions under the influence, teens have way less impulse control already and most people I knew who partied in HS ended up in very dangerous situations because of it. And it’s not just a US thing; German teens came to my school and did enough drunken property damage that they had to fill in the pool permanently.
(Mind you, not that I’m against seeing it in the comic because it happens and I enjoy seeing the hijinks and it’s a good narrative tool, I just think that drinking with the primary intent to get trashed in real life should be viewed as the concerning behavior it kinda is.)
Doopyboop
Agreed. My friends engaged in underaged drinking and it wasn’t exactly a great thing for them.
Rabid Rabbit
It’s more the “Everywhere else, we expect people to do this at 18, so it’s just precious to see Americans get all worked up about it until the kids are 21.” In much the same way that Canadians find it hilarious American high school students come to Canada and feel so daring because they’re going to drink, because it’s LEGAL, and get drunk on one American beer, which is… well, anyway. Colored water.
It’s not really about positive or negative; it’s more about… well, wait, why are you not allowed to drink when you’re allowed to vote? You’re adult enough for this, but not for that? (And, while we’re trading in stereotypes, wait, it’s legal for you to have a gun, but not to drink? I mean, I’m happy you’re not currently drunk while wielding your gun, but still…)
Add to that the argument that the later you make the legal age, the more likely it is that people will go overboard once they have the right, because they’re not used to it…
Scotch
To be fair, the only consequence of alcohol in a still developing brain is more than the poor impulse control. It’s simply bad for your brain. Which is probably true for all ages, but particularly when your brain is still developing (latest studies suggest until 30-35 years of age).
When I grew up the legal drinking age for beer was 16, btw.
Yumi
When the drinking age was 18 in places, there were a lot more young people in drunk driving accidents, so it seems like people were still going overboard. But also, when young people drive to Canada to get drunk because it’s legal there (which a ton of people do at 19 here)– that doesn’t seem like a great setup.
I don’t really know people who get worked up about underage drinking; it seems more like it’s expected, honestly. Which is also a weird general viewing of breaking a law, but I do agree it’s a weird law, so.
In the US we have the driving age at 16 and the drinking age at 21 which means people have 5 years to get used to driving everywhere before learning how to drink without getting drunk and also how to get around without driving.
Morleuca
I grew up in a border town. Oddly enough I didn’t go across to the Rocket or the Frontier until I was 21. And really I’d rather go into Montreal and go to Hurley’s.
I’m a lifelong teetoal Brit who only ever went to the pub in uni because that’s where the SF&F club met (Shout out to Edinburgh Skiffeysoc if anyone’s out there!) and America just strikes me as fundementally weird about alcohol. It sometimes feels that on some level they still wish making it completely illegal had actually worked, rather than making everything worse.
Laura
I hear ya. Just because harm reduction works to reduce harm, doesn’t mean the substance isn’t still harm.
That didn’t make much sense.
For me, alcohol, loud noises, crowded rooms full of people talking, fluorescent lights… they basically all just mean the same thing: migraine. So I have a hard time thinking of alcohol as anything other than poison.
Laura
That didn’t make much sense either. I just meant that, for a person with TBI who’s prone to migraines, lots of things that other people don’t think is a big deal (such as the sound of overlapping voices from multiple conversations at once, or fluorescent lighting, or the smell of whiteboard markers) provoke a visceral revulsion and fear. And so does alcohol. For me, anyway.
I grew up in a progressive house. I never had a lot to drink, but it also wasn’t some huge mystery. I drank all of a handful of alcohol from 19 (canada legal age) until my late 30’s when I started drinking a very little more socially.
I didn’t have any from when I turned 21 until about a year later. Just didn’t have time at that point.
I’d been drinking occasionally since I was about 16, I made and sold fake IDs in high school, they weren’t great but the drinking age had only been 21 for a few years at that point and nobody really cared or looked closely, the fakes were good enough to give them plausible deniability.
I still think the 21 drinking age is idiotic and should be repealed.
Admittedly my college experience was decades ago, but I’m kind of amazed by how little underage drinking there is in this comic.
We have 2 serious alcoholics, one of whom isn’t drinking anymore. Other than them we’ve had maybe a dozen occasions with drinking?
i think i tech had a sip of wine when i was a kid but overall i’m not into most alcohols, maybe like half of a margarita before you taste an alcohol but i can see the temptation of doing things you were never allowed to do as a kid if you have the opportunity to live in a dorm. if anything i’m surprised (legality aside) that hte older students wouldn’t resell alcohol to the youner ones at a huge markup lol
Is this the first time we’ve seen them talk to each other aloud? As in, one of them says something and the other responds? I don’t remember any others.
147 thoughts on “De facto”
NGPZ
*plays “Low Rider” by War on hacked muzak*
Needfuldoer
When you fall asleep watching TV and George Lopez reruns wake you up at 2:30 AM.
NGPZ
Lopez + French Roast = Perfect Morning <3
Amós Batista
Hacked Muzak is going badass this week ?❤️?
Opus the Poet
?Indeed.
jeffepp
Called it
shadowcell
alternate title, Dumbing of Age Book 14: I Suspect I Have Already Made the First Bad Decision of the Night
Jo_cubstar
You beat me to it
Nymph
This one is better, for sure.
Woop de doop
Absolutely agree
True Survivor
Amazi-girl: Civil War
Decidedly Orthogonal
Them cussing each other out doesn’t seem particularly civil.
True Survivor
That is good. Thanks for the smile.
Schpoonman
Ugh, Amazi-Girl sucks so much.
NGPZ
I mean she’s done her best to protect her homies in the past, and that was really good.
Without any motherfuckers to fight, she’s basically Mermaid Man huh? Well I’m still SpongeBobing for her. Once she gets back into SOME kinda super hero action, it’ll make perfect fan game material! ^^
HueSatLight
drunk AG calls Mike, ruining his witness protection. She then has to fight the Park(?) crime family.
staszu13
Park most likely. That’s a Korean surname, it’s established Asher’s grandpa is an alleged organized crime figure.
PedanticJerkass
Okay, so, I looked up both “SpongeBobing” and “SpongeBobbing” on Urban Dictionary because I have no idea what the hell SpongeBobing is supposed to mean in this context, and… uh… I’m still fairly sure those definitions are not what you mean here, even so…
(There are a bunch of UD definitions for just “SpongeBob,” but only the one each for adding “-ing” to the end of it.)
LordViking
In SpongeBob (the cartoon series) there is a character called Mermaid Man, who is basically Adam West’s Batman.
SpongeBob (the character) is the biggest Mermaid Man fanboy there is.
So from context ‘SpongeBobing’ would mean being the biggest fan / obsessing over her.
DailyBrad
What is she even doing here that’s worth getting mad at? Not asking confrontationally or something, I just am genuinely not sure if I am missing something.
NGPZ
She’s a superhero who hasn’t seen action in months, and it’s getting to her.
Soon she’ll be fighting a billionaire’s combat robot and discovering the truth about oversimplified logos.
Taffy
She’s being a hall monitor.
Nymph
Truuuuu
DashWallkick
She’s always been a square about underage drinking, with Joyce and Dorothy but also she almost broke up with Danny over it. They’re largely adults, this isn’t really a big deal, but AG is Amber’s projected sense of control so we get “that’s illegal people can’t do that”
Bash
She used underage drinking as an excuse to fight Sal, so it didn’t make her look good when most of her social circle thought it was fine.
Daibhid C
She’s trying to change and not managing it completely and instantly. Around here, that’s the ultimate crime.
Lia
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/hostage-2/ reread car chase and think about your words and deeds
Animedingo
Im sure thats fine
HueSatLight
drunk knife game
HueSatLight
also; not a keg
Amós Batista
The room is getting more and more crowded. They will regret they needed it keg-sized.
StClair
Oh, this will end well.
anon
It would be interesting if Amber got drunk and somehow “amazigirl” is sober (I mean id on’t htink that’s physically possible but who knows)
Meeks
Person with DID here to confirm that it is not possible – the alter may THINK they’re sober because they didn’t engage in drinking/drugs, but they’re still going to be impaired by it. In other words, we’re very likely going to see drunk Amber AND drunk Amazigirl, and if Walky is there by any chance, things will get *messy*
Doopyboop
I’m really amazed at all the underage drinking happening in this comic lately but, eh, I didn’t have my first actual sip of alcohol until I was 21 so clearly I’m the outlier here.
RassilonTDavros
Same, I was also a goody-two-shoes on that front. I didn’t go to enough parties in college to get much of a sense of how strictly that rule was followed.
Yumi
I just never had an alcoholic drink, but it was pretty common around my college… amd many colleges.
DailyBrad
I mean, Billie and Ruth in the first semester set a high bar, and no one’s gotten anywhere near it since.
As for me, quite a few people I knew drank as early as halfway through highschool, so in a way, a lot of this seems pretty unsurprising by comparison.
Shakes
As a Brit it amuses me greatly to see all the agonizing about 18 year olds drinking. The first week of university here is historically drunken carnage.
Bittersweet
It’s way weirder to me that such a thing is viewed so positively anywhere.
Like, I get drunk and party too. It’s the absolute worst possible use of my time and I kinda dislike how casual everyone is about kids getting sloshed just because it’s normal in most of the world. Like, adults make horrifying decisions under the influence, teens have way less impulse control already and most people I knew who partied in HS ended up in very dangerous situations because of it. And it’s not just a US thing; German teens came to my school and did enough drunken property damage that they had to fill in the pool permanently.
(Mind you, not that I’m against seeing it in the comic because it happens and I enjoy seeing the hijinks and it’s a good narrative tool, I just think that drinking with the primary intent to get trashed in real life should be viewed as the concerning behavior it kinda is.)
Doopyboop
Agreed. My friends engaged in underaged drinking and it wasn’t exactly a great thing for them.
Rabid Rabbit
It’s more the “Everywhere else, we expect people to do this at 18, so it’s just precious to see Americans get all worked up about it until the kids are 21.” In much the same way that Canadians find it hilarious American high school students come to Canada and feel so daring because they’re going to drink, because it’s LEGAL, and get drunk on one American beer, which is… well, anyway. Colored water.
It’s not really about positive or negative; it’s more about… well, wait, why are you not allowed to drink when you’re allowed to vote? You’re adult enough for this, but not for that? (And, while we’re trading in stereotypes, wait, it’s legal for you to have a gun, but not to drink? I mean, I’m happy you’re not currently drunk while wielding your gun, but still…)
Add to that the argument that the later you make the legal age, the more likely it is that people will go overboard once they have the right, because they’re not used to it…
Scotch
To be fair, the only consequence of alcohol in a still developing brain is more than the poor impulse control. It’s simply bad for your brain. Which is probably true for all ages, but particularly when your brain is still developing (latest studies suggest until 30-35 years of age).
When I grew up the legal drinking age for beer was 16, btw.
Yumi
When the drinking age was 18 in places, there were a lot more young people in drunk driving accidents, so it seems like people were still going overboard. But also, when young people drive to Canada to get drunk because it’s legal there (which a ton of people do at 19 here)– that doesn’t seem like a great setup.
I don’t really know people who get worked up about underage drinking; it seems more like it’s expected, honestly. Which is also a weird general viewing of breaking a law, but I do agree it’s a weird law, so.
Opus the Poet
In the US we have the driving age at 16 and the drinking age at 21 which means people have 5 years to get used to driving everywhere before learning how to drink without getting drunk and also how to get around without driving.
Morleuca
I grew up in a border town. Oddly enough I didn’t go across to the Rocket or the Frontier until I was 21. And really I’d rather go into Montreal and go to Hurley’s.
Daibhid C
I’m a lifelong teetoal Brit who only ever went to the pub in uni because that’s where the SF&F club met (Shout out to Edinburgh Skiffeysoc if anyone’s out there!) and America just strikes me as fundementally weird about alcohol. It sometimes feels that on some level they still wish making it completely illegal had actually worked, rather than making everything worse.
Laura
I hear ya. Just because harm reduction works to reduce harm, doesn’t mean the substance isn’t still harm.
That didn’t make much sense.
For me, alcohol, loud noises, crowded rooms full of people talking, fluorescent lights… they basically all just mean the same thing: migraine. So I have a hard time thinking of alcohol as anything other than poison.
Laura
That didn’t make much sense either. I just meant that, for a person with TBI who’s prone to migraines, lots of things that other people don’t think is a big deal (such as the sound of overlapping voices from multiple conversations at once, or fluorescent lighting, or the smell of whiteboard markers) provoke a visceral revulsion and fear. And so does alcohol. For me, anyway.
Decidedly Orthogonal
I grew up in a progressive house. I never had a lot to drink, but it also wasn’t some huge mystery. I drank all of a handful of alcohol from 19 (canada legal age) until my late 30’s when I started drinking a very little more socially.
NGPZ
I mean if it counts, as a teen I would sneak extra sweet wine at every passover when i still celebrated traditionally XD
i drink sometimes, but cannabis is my go-to on account of leading to FAR less body burden :/
VicMortimer
I didn’t have any from when I turned 21 until about a year later. Just didn’t have time at that point.
I’d been drinking occasionally since I was about 16, I made and sold fake IDs in high school, they weren’t great but the drinking age had only been 21 for a few years at that point and nobody really cared or looked closely, the fakes were good enough to give them plausible deniability.
I still think the 21 drinking age is idiotic and should be repealed.
thejeff
Admittedly my college experience was decades ago, but I’m kind of amazed by how little underage drinking there is in this comic.
We have 2 serious alcoholics, one of whom isn’t drinking anymore. Other than them we’ve had maybe a dozen occasions with drinking?
anon
i think i tech had a sip of wine when i was a kid but overall i’m not into most alcohols, maybe like half of a margarita before you taste an alcohol but i can see the temptation of doing things you were never allowed to do as a kid if you have the opportunity to live in a dorm. if anything i’m surprised (legality aside) that hte older students wouldn’t resell alcohol to the youner ones at a huge markup lol
RassilonTDavros
The alt-text beat me to it.
Dean
Start as you mean to go on, Dina.
Agemegos
What bad decision do you suppose Amber has in mind?
Decidedly Orthogonal
Foursome!
cbwroses
Threesome with Walky and Dorothy?
Wrestling match with Sal?
Drunkenly hit on Ethan?
Drunkenly chat with Ethan?
Drunken nighttime parkour?
Bogeywoman
Fist fight with AG
Qube
there’s an “AA” joke I don’t think can work until more bad decisions are made around alcohol
Cholma
Hasn’t every college student ever already taken that title, Mr Alt-Text?
Rowan
Yesss, I want to see Amber hang out with the gals
Corronchilejano
Is the next slipshine getting six protagonists in the same room?
Jamie
Oh good, they’re talking to each other. /j
Decidedly Orthogonal
They’ve been communicating for some time now.
Dr. Sharks
Is this the first time we’ve seen them talk to each other aloud? As in, one of them says something and the other responds? I don’t remember any others.
Nedlum
Well, there was “Friends?” “Friends.”
thejeff
From my quick look earlier, that “Friends” was the last time we saw AG doing the Voice.
Needfuldoer
And that’s a shame, because it’s a banger.
John Campbell
The next couple pages have Amber doing the Voice.
Dara