143

Birthday stuff
Posted on April 19, 2021 by David M Willis
I'm just about out of the original run of Book 3, so the Dumbing of Age Book 10 Kickstarter is giving me a chance to reprint it!  The reprint of Book 3 will have a new cover, presented to the left!  There's a number of ways to pick it up along with your Book 10 during this Kickstarter campaign:
  1. You can put down a pledge for it via the TEN AND THREE (either plain or extra) tiers
  2. You can get Book 10 plus Book 3 and last year's Book 1 reprints by pledging for the TWO REPRINTS AND A BABY ( either plain or extra) tiers!
  3. If you've pledged for one of other tiers (like for the magnets and such) and want the Book 3 reprint, add $20 to your pledge and let me know the dilly in your address survey later!
Just 9 days remaining!

143 thoughts on “Birthday stuff”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    is Billie the name of the wall now

    1. Doctor_Who

      Ruth named her Maple Leafs poster Billie, because both always let her down.

      1. Skater Girl

        And yet she still loves them.

      2. Clif

        The walls name is Wallace Wala Waller, or Wally for short.

      3. JA

        Daaaaamn…

    2. Thag Simmons

      Maybe she named the Cricket Billie

      1. King Daniel

        I thought we’d collectively agreed that it was Tag, the Cricket?

        1. Thag Simmons

          Tag Billingsworth.

        2. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

          I love this joke, but I also still love Lettuce as a name for the cricket. I am torn

    3. RassilonTDavros

      Pink Floyd’s The Billie

    4. Yotomoe

      Well Billie’s not tagged so it can’t be the wall. I’m gonna call her wall Pink Floyd for now.

    5. Ob

      Billie is the name of her left hand now.

      1. Ana Chronistic

        She’s not looking at her hand

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Yet.

      2. milu

        Is Ruth left-handed?

        1. Needfuldoer

          IIRC she is.

    6. Demoted Oblivious

      Oof. Yeah, this one hit hard today. Like my head against a Billie.

  2. Proto_Eevee

    Now that she’s 21, Ruth has graduated from depression to schizophrenia.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Ironically enough, it’s been over 21 years since Alt-Ruth died at this point.

      1. Yusaku777

        Ruth faked her death, moved to a small town in West Virginia, changed her name to Clarice, and became a dominatrix.

        1. Opus the Poet

          Someone call Hogan, we just had another crossover.
          http://crossovers.dragoneers.com/

        2. JA

          I understand that reference.

  3. Sirksome

    Why exactly is it the RA’s responsibility to give a shit about anyone’s birthday to begin with? Also you can never go wrong with the basic ass balloons and a cake approach.

    1. BBCC

      I don’t think it’s a formal responsibility so much as it is a thing Ruth did. Unless RAs do ‘community building’ stuff as well as rule enforcement and resources?

      1. NotThatDrew

        I’d imagine it depends on the size of the dorm more than anything else. For example, I remember the RA of the dorm I lived in would pop his head in and tell people happy birthday on their respective birthdays, but we had maybe 60-70ish people there at most.

      2. Madock345

        They do. They’re supposed to organize one or two optional community events a week, like movie nights or whatever.

        1. Chris Phoenix

          Not in every time and place – my RAs were there if you needed them, or so I was told – but I never did, so they were just like the other residents as far as I could see. But this was in 1989ish so things may have changed.

        2. Ryan

          Community building is a common responsibility for RAs, though it depends on the school.

          The main reason RAs have birthday duties is because they have a list of all their residents’ vital stats including birthdays. With great power comes great responsibility.

    2. Rex Vivat

      I feel like I should mention, you can totally go wrong with a cake if you don’t know the person’s medical issues and/or tastes.

      1. HeySo

        Which is why it’s important to have a designated cake disposal specialist in the dorm. I humbly nominate myself, if anyone still has that position to fill..

        1. He Who Abides

          I’ll fight you for that position.

        2. Clif

          There can be two specialists.

          Let them eat cake.

      2. ELLIOT

        Also, I’m allergic to latex and my partner has a balloon phobia. You can go wrong with balloons too!

        1. Needfuldoer

          Do foil balloons count?

          (Yeah balloons are a frivolous waste of helium, but we can inflate it with air and stick it on a dowel.)

        2. Clif

          For some reason I originally read balloon phobia as balloon fetish.

          One time, someone told me that when a girl blows against resistance, for example blowing up a balloon, the vaginal muscles also clench. Inexplicably, this stuck in my mind, but never in circumstances where you would think I might want to bring it up.

    3. AGV

      The hallway was Ruth’s personal Animal Crossing

    4. Keulen

      I actually have no idea if my any of my college RAs did this birthday stuff, since my birthday has always been during the winter break.

  4. Thag Simmons

    Well, she actually does!

    It’s a horrible, terrible, no good very bad idea, but it is an idea!

    1. Clif

      You say that, but it all makes sense once you know that Jennifer is Mike.

  5. RassilonTDavros

    ? ouch

    1. Clif

      We’re all going to be surprised when Rebeca’s voice answers from the closet.

      1. King Daniel

        I thought she already nuked it? From orbit?

        1. Needfuldoer

          That was her own closet. There’s a whole world of other closets she can nuke!

        2. Clif

          That was Becky’s closet.

        3. Clif

          Oh, wait. I see what I did.

          Pretend that I originally typed Jennifer and not Rebeca.

  6. King Daniel

    *sings Happy Birthday to Ruth, now that it’s legally no longer copyrighted*

    1. Thag Simmons

      Oh shit right, things are entering the public domain again for the first time in a century.

      1. Thag Simmons

        Whoops, misremembered that, it was like a twenty year gap, but everything entering the public domain is like a century old.

        1. SeanR

          All hate Sonny Bono and his widow. No love lost for Disney, either.

        2. Needfuldoer

          Note: his widow (and successor in Congress) Mary, not Cher.

          But don’t let the mouse off the hook either. They’ll hyuck’in do it again!

        3. Clif

          Proud Mary Keep On Burning comes to mind.

          And one for the Mouse.

      2. RassilonTDavros

        Actually, Happy Birthday entering the PD was the result of a lawsuit.

        1. Thag Simmons

          Of course it was.

      3. SeanR

        Except it took a judge to determine that Happy Birthday SHOULD have been in the public domain for a while now, when the company claiming ownership tried to charge a documentary film company for the right to use it, in a documentary film about the song.
        All hate Warner Brothers.

    2. Stephen Bierce

      *followed up with “It’s My Party (and I’ll Cry If I Want To)”*

      1. Stephen Bierce

        *or perhaps Average White Band’s “Cut The Cake”*

        1. AbelUndercity

          (Sneaks in No Time to Be 21 by The Adverts.)

  7. Cholma

    Ouch. The Feels™.

  8. Bagge

    Great, I’m sad now

  9. Mordecai

    I think I might enjoy the melancholy strips the most.

  10. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    Yay, codependency?

    1. Amos Batista

      I’m sure some character commented this term some books ago.

    2. SeanR

      I think it was more codespondency.

  11. BBCC

    What a wonderful way to wake up! Searing emotional pain!

  12. StClair

    🙁

  13. electriccombines

    Oh rad! Misery! B)

  14. Johan

    Awwww depressing comic week!

  15. Rycan

    You don’t have your alcohol, you don’t have your Billie, but at least you still have your depression. What can you do?

  16. Sirksome

    Actually considering Ruth’s history and with the knowledge of how depressed she can get I’d say she’d doing pretty good.

  17. Yotomoe

    https://i.imgur.com/pLTb7Va.png
    Latest page of Walky’s Harem shenanigans. At this point it almost feels like an obligation <3 It just feels unfair to any characters I haven't done yet.

    1. Clif

      YAY! Should we start a list?

      1. Yotomoe

        I already know who’s next :3 I may also double dip.
        there’s no way I’m only using Billie, Joyce or Amber only once

    2. Delicious Taffy

      You make-a the good a-faces.

      1. Yotomoe

        I’m honored.

    3. milu

      Ooh, washing machines. They’re like really big vibrators
      I don’t believe sarah wears lipstick usually, so I would have to assume she put it on especially in order to seduce Walky, although of course she would pretend to have bumped into him by accident ^^

      1. Yotomoe

        It’s based on early DOA where she was consistently depicted wearing purple lipstick. In fact I think she may still have a lip gloss or something. Having said that it is kinda hot imagining she put it on today cuz she planned to “use” it. Her and Joyce on the same wavelength.

    4. darkoneko

      “urgh, fine” lol

    5. Jhon

      I now understand why Walky puts off doing laundry as long as possible.

    6. Sam

      Your artstyle is super cute and I like how you keep the characters mostly in character for it.

      1. Yotomoe

        Thanks I try! Whenever I do fanart my foremost thought is…what is something character specific that overlaps with what I wanna do. Like…what’s the main appeal of this character and how can I play into it. I don’t like it when people take a character for fanart and then write them completely generically because they only like them surface level.

        1. Yotomoe

          Joyce going after Walky is based a bit more on the Walkyverse, especially the lipstick as she tried to kiss Danny with it on a few occasions. (plus I still sorta ship them from back then)
          Personally I just find Billie really attractive and I sorta love that “I’m hot and I know it” attitude of hers so I figured I could have my cake and eat it too with her showing off and getting rejected.
          I’ve always liked Sarah’s purple lipstick and so I decided to go with the same punch line as Joyce’s (which also does a good job of associating them with each other). But I just really liked the way Sarah phrased “I’d be like an obstacle course for him”

          Sorry I’m gushing but I actually really like thinking about this sorta stuff with character specifics.

        2. Sam

          It’s cool dude, and I get what you mean, there’s a lot of ‘fanart’ that leans entirely into being ‘hot’ but in doing so, doesn’t actually work with the character’s personality or actual traits that make them appealing so it is like, why did you even use this character for it?

          The best fanfiction I have read (just generally) was a Naruto one where the writer just got ever single character’s personality so on point. And they were doing three different Naruto fanfictions at the same time with wildly different concepts.

  18. Mr. Random

    I feel like she’s stable…
    but also her meds MIGHT be messing with her head.

    1. Yotomoe

      I dunno. She seems to be a few horses short of stable.

      1. Clif

        It’s just another brick in the wall.

  19. Cole Lecter

    Nothing starts a birthday like an existential crisis.

  20. Some Ed

    My ex had this conundrum a certain amount. Then she had a similar thing happen when she was changing jobs, since she always used to organize the farewell parties.

    For her birthday, she usually waited until the last day for them to order a cake, and then called around to all the vegan bakeries that do gluten free (since they had both vegans and gluten free people in the office.) After asking *both* of those places, she put in an order with one of them.

    For her farewell party, she decided she didn’t care enough to do her own farewell party, so she just let it fail. They *did* pull something together at the last minute – standard food delivery with food that almost managed to have no ingredients she could’ve eaten even if it wasn’t mixed with all the other stuff she couldn’t eat. If *she* was the one who was gluten-free, they’d have managed that feat.

    Though, to be fair, there was water at her farewell party, so she could at least drink something.

  21. Cmasta1992

    Uh today is my birthday too. So I dunno how I feel about this

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Happy (based on your username) twenty…..third?

      1. King Daniel

        A birthdate of 1992 would make it a twenty-ninth birthday, I believe.

        1. Cmasta1992

          Taffy is stuck with me in 2015 haha

        2. Needfuldoer

          2020 was about five years long, that’s probably where the disconnect is.

        3. Cmasta1992

          Thank you for the bday wishes! And you to milu down there

        4. Fist_of_Life

          as some one facing down a 30th birthday in a few months due to my 1991 birth year, I can confirm that it would in fact be a twenty-ninth.

        5. hof1991

          Sadly, my username doesn’t reference my birthday. I had three kids by 1991. But they were young kids.

        6. Needfuldoer

          Ooh, I remember that existential crisis.

      2. milu

        Well I’m pretty sure it would make this their seventeenth birthday actually. Happy birthday Cmasta!

    2. Jhon

      So sad that this is your birthday comic.
      But there will be other birthdays and other comics.
      We hope.
      Damn you Willis.

      1. Clif

        Always glad to see a post punctuated properly.

  22. Varangian

    There is no pain, you are receding
    A distant ship, smoke on the horizon
    You are only coming through in waves
    Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying
    When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse
    Out of the corner of my eye
    I turned to look, but it was gone
    I cannot put my finger on it now
    The child is grown, the dream is gone

    I have become comfortably numb

    1. Thag Simmons

      Goddamnit I can’t even read anything from the Wall without thinking about the fucking Doug Walker “review”. It has lodged itself in my brain and it will not leave

      1. Delicious Taffy

        It’s a shame that guy never uses his actual talents for anything good.

        1. Needfuldoer

          Some of the skit-era reviews were okay, but all the shit that came to light in the ‘change the channel’ controversy tainted it.

          It’s kind of like watching modern Cinemassacre. The first 100-ish AVGN reviews are a mid-2000s Internet touchstone, but since the movie flopped it’s obvious that James has delusions of grandeur and just doesn’t care anymore.

        2. Yotomoe

          I know it’s reprehensible but I actively avoid negative news because I’m sick of “I have to hate this now”. AVGN I think is still consistently good and even though I don’t really watch NC anymore I still have a soft spot for the pre-skit era episodes. Although Nostalgia Critic is like Cinema Sins in which you have to take his reviews with a grain of salt because their foremost desires are for comedy and not actually being good reviewers.

        3. Mr D

          I thought the only reason James still did AVGN nowadays was because a big youtube company bought up his channel so he can feed his children via AVGN and the other skits.

          Mind you I still love AVGN

        4. Needfuldoer

          Yup. Screenwave does just about all the writing, gaming now, and James is basically just an actor and mascot for the Cinemassacre brand. I think his passion project, the AVGN movie, bombing killed his motivation.

          Bootsy, Kyle, Kevin, and now Mike are all gone.

      2. Varangian

        Oh no, I was just riffing off Yotomoe calling the wall in Ruth’s room Pink Floyd and also like how Ruth looks here! What has the Internet done—

        *googles it*

        Oh god dammit, Internet!

    2. Amos Batista

      *epic perennial two-guitars solo*

  23. foducool

    “Say, other Ruth, what do you say you grab a hockey stick and go physically maul some dormitory residents?”
    “We that sounds like a great idea, Ruth, let’s get on to that and happy birthday”

    1. justin8448

      A+ Archer reference!

      1. Throwatron

        Reference? No, that’s just tomorrow’s strip, verbatim!

        1. Clif

          Spoilers!

  24. Arianod

    Ironically, she does.

  25. Bogeywoman

    The time for Australian birthday tradition has come!

    ♫ Whyyyy was she born so beautiful, was was she born at Alll?
    Because she had no say in it, no say in it at aalllll ♫

    So DRINK chug-a-lug,
    DRINK chug-a-lug
    DRINK chug-a-lug
    DRINK!!

    1. Bogeywoman

      …y’know I’m starting to see why alcohol addiction is such a big issue here.

    2. Needfuldoer

      I really hope Ruth doesn’t relapse now that she can legally drink. Meds + booze = uh-oh, and we’ve already seen her climb out of that pit.

  26. Rabisch

    Good to see Ruth is ready to move forward and can’t wait to start the date with a girl she don’t know ♡. I’m seriously afraid she will talk about Jennifer all the time!

  27. Juanoku

    GIVE HER HER BILLIE BACK

  28. Keulen

    Seems like a fitting song for Ruth here.

  29. darkoneko

    Oh no I’m sad now

  30. BenRG

    I do wonder to what degree Billie was the thing that let Ruth basically function as RA some days (or at least, that is what Ruth tells herself)?

    1. Clif

      Billie was the only thing keeping her alive some days. Now Billie has been replaced by drugs. We’ll see which one was more effective, now that Billie has left just like Grandpa Sir predicted.

      1. thejeff

        I’m going to say that Jennifer didn’t leave as Clint predicted. She left – or Ruth did, but the reasons will turn out to have been different.

        Clint can’t be allowed to be right.

        1. Clif

          No, no. Billie left. Jennifer is Mike.

        2. King Daniel

          Willis confirmed it, after all.

  31. Council

    Aww. That’s weird.

  32. Needfuldoer

    Aw, Ruth… 🙁

  33. Alex

    Such feels.

  34. Billifer Jenningsworth

    Great. Now I’m depressed.

  35. Clif

    Somehow, I feel that Ruth couldn’t be this depressed if she only knew that Willis had promised that Dina would be on the cover of all the DOA books from now on.

    (Kickstarter Update #3 – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dumbingofage/dumbing-of-age-tenth-book-collection/posts/3144165 )

    Of course he didn’t promise she would be alive or even inside the book, just on the cover.

    1. Needfuldoer

      It’s the best she can do.

      1. Clif

        Oooff!

  36. raultsi

    all RAs ever did for me was take away my beers

  37. misanthropope

    damn you willis

  38. Freya Liu

    …well now I’m sad.

  39. Sean

    I’m having trouble with the RSS. I don’t get any posts for weeks then I get a whole bunch at once (but not all the ones missed). I use Theoldreader. I know this probably isn’t the best means of addressing technical issues but I just wanted you to be aware this is happening for at least one RSS use.

  40. Krista

    It is MY birthday today and this is extremely relatable.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Happy birthday!

    2. Amos Batista

      Happy birthday. I wish 1kk dollars in your account.

    3. BBCC

      Happy birthday!

  41. Emily

    Do the DOA characters have known birthdates?

    1. Needfuldoer

      We’ve seen a few go by (Dina and Sarah especially), and we’ve worked out the timeline for season 1, so they should cross-reference.

      IIRC they’re consistent across both universes, so dates listed in Walkypedia should be applicable.

    2. Needfuldoer

      (Crap, I read “birthdays“.)

      DoA’s on a floating timeline, pinned to “this year”. (I guess season 1 is “last year” now.) The characters’ birth dates will always be something like ‘January 14th, (Current year – character age)’.

      This can get confusing when referencing their Walkyverse incarnations, who did have specific birthdates and aged more or less in real time. For example, Walkypedia lists IW!Joyce’s birthdate as May 5, 1979, so she would turn 42 this year. Even if we presume DoA!Joyce’s birthday is also May 5th, she’ll only turn 19 despite being 18 when the comic began a real-world decade ago.

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