264

Honour
Posted on June 4, 2018 by David M Willis
It's back!  The Butt-Taco t-shirt returns!  And it is gloriously updated.  For the next two-and-a-half days (as of this writing), it's at an introductory price of $6 off, so get in on that before the offer expires!

264 thoughts on “Honour”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    did he actually get fired tho or is he just deciding not to bother fighting

    like how I would’ve fought my “didn’t come to an absolute complete stop on red” ticket but fuck it I have shit to do and I don’t want to talk to people

    (I mean, I would fight it if my being able to buy food and have shelter was at stake, idk what Jason’s excuse is)

    1. BBCC

      Decided not to bother it looks like.

    2. Sporky

      I think Jason feels guilty and thinks he deserves to be fired. And he’s right about that btw

      1. Helen

        Dunno, it seems to be a culture-dependent thing. A TA hooked up with my classmate while he was teaching her. They started to live together and no-one batted an eyelid. He was pretty strict on her in class, in any case, and she studied all the more. This was actually a fairly common thing to happen and everyone just considered it very normal.

        1. CJ

          When was that? I’m pretty sure nowadays any teacher-student relationship is forbidden (for obvious reasons of misuse of structural power).

        2. Emily

          Might not have been the US, hence “culture-dependent”

        3. CJ

          I was wondering about the time factor. 25 years ago, it probably wouldn’t have been a problem in Germany. I dimly remember a fellow-student who was involved with a graduate teacher (not sure how hierarchies map out here. People tutoring you in maths were students after Vordiplom (i.e they had passed the exams after two years of studies in 4 year programs) while that guy was already graduated and had a teaching/research position leading up to a Dr. rer nat.)

        4. boxbot

          I mean TAs aren’t considered teachers sometimes

        5. Unusually Angry Hippie

          Well, they are Graduate STUDENTS. None of my classes had actual T.A.’s, if you needed tutoring in a particular subject it was provided by students in more advanced version of the class working for credit hours. Nobody minded who they slept with because everyone involved were just students with no real power.

        6. thejeff

          Right. That’s the difference.
          You sleep with a tutor, it’s not a big deal.
          If that tutor has authority over you – for example is responsible for grading your work, then it is.

        7. Miri

          Was he the one marking her assessments/coursework/exams?

        8. David T. Shaw

          That’s what I was wondering. If not, then fine. But if he was, a definite no-no

        9. thejeff

          He was. After their second time, he gave her quiz to another TA, but he apparently didn’t the first time and she certainly didn’t expect him to.

    3. Marsh Maryrose

      It’s the DoA-verse. If Galasso says you work there, you work there; if Penny says you’re fired, you’re fired; if Amazi-Girl needs caltrops, it turns out she’s got caltrops. Don’t logic it too hard.

      1. Bicycle Bill

        Amazi-Girl Is Always Prepared.

    4. timemonkey

      There’s the fact that Sal doesn’t really like him and he’s actually guilty so getting her to lie about it would be a problem.

      1. thejeff

        OTOH, Sal likes authority less, so she might be willing on those grounds.

        1. Sunny

          Other possibilities would include Sal refusing to even show up, or telling them to mind their own fucking business.

      2. Unusually Angry Hippie

        Sal DOES like him though, otherwise she wouldn’t have fucked him a second time after she found out it wasn’t going to affect her grades.

        1. BBCC

          That was an anger fuck and she’s given little to no indication of liking him very much after that.

    5. Needfuldoer

      All the board has right now is hearsay from another TA who admitted to Jason that she made it up “for funsies”. Who knows if they even believe her. Maybe they’re not even going to pursue that lead, and Jason will end up in trouble for skipping too many classes instead.

      1. Shariku

        And honestly we don’t even know that for certain. She could have just made out that she told them ‘for funsies’ just t mess with Jason, and he didn’t get mentioned at all when she was fired.

        1. Unusually Angry Hippie

          He got an email indicating that he was flagged for administrative review or something like that, so she didn’t just make it all up.

  2. Nono

    Nice deflection, Billie.

  3. Doctor_Who

    So Jason is basically Zuko, then?

    1. Tacos

      HONOR!!!!

      1. Tim

        But he’s English, so I actually kinda find it cute that his speech bubbles use the UK spelling.

        1. Norah

          In the Patreon strip, it was spelled “honor”. But someone suggested it should be “Ho our” because Jason is English and Willis agreed in the comments. So we get the British spelling in the regular strip, I guess.

        2. Norah

          “Honour” not Ho our.

        3. butts

          our ho

        4. Deanatay

          No, I think he meant ‘Ho Hour’.

          It’s like Happy Hour, only for hos.

        5. Tacos

          Tell that to Dante Basco.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC445MyM7tQ

    2. Foxhack

      He will be once Becky splats a piping hot pizza slice across his face.

    3. Kernanator

      Weird honor thing, check.
      Relationship to tea, check
      High-strung, check
      “That’s rough, old chap”, check

      All signs point to “Yes”.

      1. Doctor_Who

        Jason needs an Iroh.

        Who’m I kidding, the whole cast needs an Iroh.

        Scratch that. Planet earth needs an Iroh.

        1. Deathjavu

          RIP Mako Iwamatsu ;_;

          voice too good for this world

        2. MM

          I mean, he’s currently working in a shop under the supervision of an eccentric older figure…

        3. 3-I

          Galasso is not Iroh. No. Nooonono.

        4. Noa

          ? I’M HOLDING OUT FOR AN IROH TIL THE END OF THE NIGHT ?

    4. Keulen

      All he’s missing is a scar on his face. And the ability to bend fire too I guess. But other than that Jason’s Zuko.

      1. Khyrin

        Nah, he’ll awaken to his Abductee powers any day now.
        THIS WAS A JOKE. Even over in the other world, he wasn’t an abductee.

      2. Roborat

        Ah, that helps, I was wondering why people were making the Danny Zuko comments. I was confused, as I wasn’t seeing any connection to Grease.

    5. Lingo

      …I don’t remember Grease that well….

    6. darkgloomie

      Zuko’s honor never got him laid. I think.

      1. Deanatay

        Hey, Mai seems to like him. Although I’m not sure if it’s for his honour.

      2. BBCC

        Mai in the episode before the invasion would disagree.

  4. Johan

    I like how he has U’s

    1. Marsh Maryrose

      After all, nothing compares to U’s.

      1. Tacos

        How about W’s?

    2. bearfuz

      Yeah, especially since the “It’s Walky” episode that aired today also features Jason but minus the U’s (“candor”).

      1. Nono

        It’s really weird. I spell things British, but candour is a word that I’d never thought to have a ‘u’ before today. Likely because the only times I’ve seen the word being used had it without the ‘u’.

        1. Deanatay

          Also ‘flavour’, ‘savour’, ‘splendour’, ‘armour’, and valour’.

        2. Deanatay

          And ‘vapour’, apparently.

        3. Dragonfire

          Neighbour and favourite, too!

          (Don’t you go telling me my words are wrong, Firefox spellcheck.)

        4. 3-I

          Firefoux.

        5. The Chosen One

          Firefaux is actually a French bootleg.

        6. Agemegos

          But not “harbor”.

          The other “-our” words are French, but “harbor” is Latin. There’s no such word as harbour in French; the French for “harbor” is havre.

          Somebody ought to remind spelling checkers about this.

    3. Leorale

      In his defence, he has no reason nor licence to spell it incorrectly. Doing so would wound him to the very fibre of his being.

      1. JessWitt

        *clap* Wonderful use of the Queen’s English.

    4. Reltzik

      Sorry, Jason. You fucked a student. “U” and “Honor” no longer go together.

      1. John Merklinghaus

        Damn it: there’s no “Thumbs Up” option.

        Well anyway, well played, Reltzik.

      2. Agemegos

        Bravo!

    5. Liquid Len

      So would Ruth spell those words with the ‘u’? She’s Canadian, after all, and Canadian English uses most of the same spellings as British English.

      Besides, I could see her doing it out of spite for having to live in the US.

  5. Stu

    Wait, I thought the entire point of Jason and Sal hooking up like that was that he did NOT boost her grade as part of it?

    1. DailyBrad

      He didn’t, but grades seemingly were a motivating factor for Sal fucking him, or so he’s convinced. I honestly don’t remember exactly.

      1. Reltzik

        It went:

        (A) Jason makes inappropriate comment revealing his attraction to Sal, who almost bails before he returns to professionalism.

        (B) Sal straight-up kidnaps Jason into a terrible off-hours tutoring session that goes nowhere because Jason can’t tutor.

        (C) During a tutoring session, topic turns to Sal’s dry spell. Sal decides to fuck Jason, mostly for grade. Jason didn’t get the memo that it was for a grade.

        (D) Sal gets a bad grade. Confronts Jason, who says he didn’t know the deal was for a grade and wouldn’t have gone along with that anyway. Sal reveals she was kinda into Jason and wouldn’t have fucked him even for a grade if she weren’t.

        (E) Filled with complete hate and spite for each other, they fuck again, with no delusions on anyone’s part that anyone’s getting a good grade out of it for anything.

        1. BBCC

          I’m not convinced Jason didn’t actually know what she wanted. In the slip shine, his reaction to ‘effort don’t matter – ah’m only being judged against my marks’ is ‘that is not what I meant and you know it!’ which implies to me he knew EXACTLY what she meant by that line and just wanted to say he didn’t later when she was mad at him.

        2. CJ

          He gave her paper to someone else to grade (penny, probably), to get out of the obligation that fucking Sal implied. So he knew quite well what the deal was.

        3. BBCC

          He did that after the second time.

        4. GUIGUI

          No, he did it from the start.

        5. BBCC

          No, he didn’t. This is the first time he mentions it and its after the second time.

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/genuine/

        6. thejeff

          It’s not entirely clear, since it’s never explicitly stated who graded the first one.
          I think the implication is that he did the first one and then passed the second off after she complained, but it’s possible he did the same the first time.

        7. Insanenoodlyguy

          No, went back and checked. “Genuine” strip was after the second time.

    2. Deathjavu

      She thought it was for grades, he didn’t. Hence his “…” before the “yes” and the rest of his response.

      1. C.T Phipps

        Jason seemed to think Sal genuinely liked him and was hurt to find out that she was revolted by him.

  6. Derek

    did Jason actually hand in his resignation or did he just assume he was super fired and stopped showing up to work?

    1. Fart Captor

      I’m guessing that he chose not to dispute Penny’s claim that he slept with a student, so he was just fired.

      1. BBCC

        Probably not fired yet, but when he doesn’t defend himself at the tribunal he most likely will be.

  7. stoodmuffin

    SIR.

    SIR?!

    1. No Name

      He’s a teacher.
      …
      He was a teacher.
      …
      His job was to teach people.

      In any case, he was in a position of authority over her, and “sir” is one of those words you use to defer to such people. Even if they don’t deserve it. Especially if they don’t deserve it.

      1. Felgraf

        When I was a grad student, I will say it felt VERY WEIRD when students called me ‘sir’ or ‘Mr.’.
        … It got stranger once I completed my defense. Being called ‘Dr.’ out loud feels… weird.

        /Think I’ll be OK with “Professor”, though.

      2. thejeff

        It’s also a nice little twist on the “honour”. You almost have to use “sir” when disparaging someone’s honor

      3. Sunny

        He’s her bartender now. There is no higher position of authority!

      4. Roborat

        She isn’t using “Sir” out of respect. More to get a dig in.

    2. jeffepp

      Sir is a versatile word. I take it she didn’t put much tone of respect into it.

    3. begbert2

      He’s British. They’re all sirs. Especially the women.

      1. ewx

        At work I’m much more often called ‘sir’ by my American boss than my English colleagues.

    4. Zee

      The age difference between Billie and Jason is only marginally smaller than between me and my Caribbean studies teacher and we all call him sir. To the point where I didn’t know his name the first couple weeks cuz I came late to the first class. Then again, everyone where I live calls their teachers sir and miss

  8. StClair

    I’m a little disturbed that Billie considers that a thing worthy of hearts.

    1. DailyBrad

      She boned her R.A., so I don’t think she’s particularly hung up on the ethics. That, or she’s buttering him up.

    2. Doctor_Who

      She might be teasing him.

      Or she might be a girl who gives people 20 dollar bills at the slightest sign of friendship, whose best friend is someone she doesn’t want to be seen in public with, and who entered into a “sexy lesbian suicide pact”, suggesting she may not have had a lot of healthy relationships.

      1. DailyBrad

        Walky is probably the healthiest relationship she’s got, which is a little sad.

        Going by her friend with benefits/ex? who she ran into who rebuked her, she’s torpedo’d most anything else, seemingly a lot of it being her drinking problem.

    3. Sporky

      I love how she considers it worthy of hearts and then gives him shit for it two panels later. Never change, Billie.

      …Actually, considering where she is right now, please do change.

    4. thejeff

      Agreed. Even with Billie’s questionable ethics, it seems weird for that response to get the “Aww”.

  9. Passchendaele

    one red’s lager ale stout, then

    1. Deanatay

      I know those! Those are beer words!

      (Only knows most of them from Fallout 4)

  10. Kamino Neko

    I love that you actually spell ‘honour’ correctly in Jason’s speech bubbles. >_>

    1. Fire_daws

      Now we’ve got to teach them to spell ‘aluminium’ and ‘colour’ correctly then erase the term ‘soccer’ and replace it with ‘football’.

      1. Pablo360

        Did you just unironically say “aluminium”? Because as right as you are about “football”, “aluminium” is a disgrace to the English Language, and the English language is pretty fucked up already so it’s really hard to disgrace that.

        1. King Daniel

          “Aluminium” being the official spelling was chosen as a compromise – British scientists would stop spelling one element’s name as “sulphur” if American scientists stopped spelling another element’s name as “aluminum”.

          Also, the American spelling just looks silly when placed next to the name of all those other elements. Why don’t we just start going with “Uranum”, “Plutonum”, “Helum”, etc., then?

        2. King Daniel

          *official international scientific spelling, that is

        3. Liquid Len

          So then “aluminium” is the element, and “aluminum” is just the stuff beer cans are made of… 😀

        4. Pablo360

          Nobody says “a-loo-min-ee-um” so I’m calling bullshit on the international scientific community, they’ve gotten away with too much this time

        5. King Daniel

          A YouTuber I follow from New Zealand (Rycon Roleplays) does pronounce it that way – which often trips him up when he plays an American-made game like Fallout 4, with junk items such as “aluminum cans”.

        6. thejeff

          I remember that from my time in New Zealand.

          Is it specific to there (and maybe Australia?) rather than a common British/American difference?

        7. No Name

          You’re right, nobody says “a-loo-min-ee-um”, they say “al-yoo-min-ee-um”. Note the y. As an American, I could get behind the British spelling in principle, but the standard “al-yoo” pronunciation puts me off. No matter the number of syllables, it will always be “aloo”

        8. No Name

          … to me.
          It will always be “aloo” to me.

        9. Inahc

          wait, how do americans spell sulphur?!

        10. adjudicus

          With an “f” in the place of “ph”. It’s really weird.

        11. The Chosen One

          It’s fonetic.

        12. King Daniel

          You mean fonetik?

  11. Deathjavu

    As deftly as Billie deflects the question why she’s here, Jason knowing she’s not 21 means she’s going to leave disappointed regardless.

    1. MM

      Unless he decides that as long as he’s being selectively honorable, might as well make a sale.

    2. Reltzik

      Again, does Jason know she’s not 21? Not every freshman starts college at 18, and I’m sure Billie has ID saying she’s old enough to drink.

      1. thejeff

        And crow’s feet. The crow’s feet really sell it. 🙂

      2. JBento

        Billie’s ID that says she’s old enough to drink says her name isn’t “Jennifer Billingsworth”, so I’m pretty sure Jason will know it’s a fake.

        1. thejeff

          It’s got her correct middle initial and matches her credit card, so I doubt that’ll be a problem.

        2. JBento

          Oh, so it does. Maybe she only changed her birthdate on it. I was totally misremembering it, thanks.

      3. BBCC

        Plus no everybody in freshman classes is an actual freshman.

    3. thejeff

      Jason decides to act with honour and drag her back to class where she’s supposed to be and winds up going right back to TAing – “Oh there you are Jason. Hand back these quizzes.”

  12. Stephen Bierce

    *a nice Italian opera piece comes on the hacked Muzak, a male aria about duty, hono(u)r and loyalty to one’s dreams*

    1. StClair

      (the rest of the opera – or just his subplot – consists of him getting dicked over and/or killed for believing in such naive drek)

    2. Rabid Rabbit

      You want Ernani, in which everyone goes on at length about their honour while generally behaving with none whatsoever.

    3. DaveM

      Given that Jason is quite British, almost anything from Gilbert and Sullivan could work (they’re almost all about duty and honour).

      1. Kryss LaBryn

        “I am the very model of a modern major math TA”?

        1. Roborat

          “he is using the Galasso’s Pizza (and subs) tune!”

  13. Bagge

    Wow… I’m taking notes here. That is some A+ deflection from Billie to avoid answering an uncomfortable question.

    Panel 1: Aggressively throwing question back
    Panel 3: Followup question, finding something Jason is interested to talk about. A bit of flattering. Probing uncomfortable topic.
    Panel 4: More flattering. Frame it as problem solving. The conversation is now how to deal with Jason’s problems. Even if he doesn’t like what you are saying, the conversation falls back to how HE wants to deal with his problems, not about the question you wanted to avoid.
    Panel 5: Other side of the coin. Challenge the very moral high ground you toted up a second ago. Make him defensive. The conversation is still faaaar away from you.

    I take my hat off. We have seen an AAAAAAAALPHA BOOOONGO at work.

    1. Deathjavu

      Yep, masterfully done. And still ultimately useless, since what she came here for is a drink and Jason knows she’s not 21.

      1. Bagge

        Billie is not good in the long term (more than five minutes)

        But she’s a fudgin’ GODDESS in the short term.

        1. MatthewTheLucky

          As a living nexus of destructive power once said: “It’s always now, so there is no long term, so it can’t hurt me.”

      2. jeffepp

        But, she now knows he can be bought with sex. Even trade, bottle for bottom. Top shelf for ta-tas.

        1. Bagge

          That’s… not a lesson I had hoped Billie would learn.

          But you are most certainly correct that it’s the lesson she learnt

      3. Owlmirror

        I don’t think there’s reason to think that Jason knows her age at all.

        He knows her name, and student ID, and may have some sense of what her math skills are, if he remembers her grades specifically out of all of the classes’, but why would her age be part of what he knows about her?

        And she has an ID saying that her age is greater than the legal drinking age.

        1. Jed!

          For a calculus course, you generally assume the students are freshman, maybe sophomore. They certainly don’t have to be, of course, but the majority will be freshmen, and freshmen are typically around 18. Especially if they start missing classes/assignments, which seem to be something Billie’s been doing that Jason might have noticed (assuming Billie started skipping while Jason was still a TA- I’m having trouble keeping track of the time frame).

        2. BBCC

          Billie’s skipped class before and he’s definitely her TA. I’m not sure he’d super notice. It’s hard to keep track when you’re doing attendance for a large class. And there’s lots of ways to be in intro classes but not freshman (or older than your average freshman).

        3. thejeff

          True, but it’s the default assumption. It would be harder her to convince him she’s 21 than for some other random girl with a fake ID.
          Plus, while he’s never directly interacted with her, I think, she has been associated with the people he has been paying attention to – Sal & Walky. So he may have noticed her a little more than the average student.

        4. BBCC

          Is it really so unusual that it’d make it harder to say she’s 21 or older?

          Also, just checked – the only time he could possibly have seen her interacting with those two have been two strips where both were leaving and only one had Sal and Billie interacting face to face.

        5. geno

          Her fake probably lists her with a different name

        6. thejeff

          geno: She’s got a good fake Id. Real name – matches her credit card.

  14. Bagge

    Also, Jason, quick note about honor:

    If your genitals want to do it, it’s a fair bet that it’s not the honorable thing to do. In the majority of cases, the honor codes are there EXACTLY to tell you not to do what your genitals want to do.

    And a teacher’s honor code is firmly in the square of “Don’t boff students in your office, you bleedin’ wanker.”

    1. timemonkey

      Personal honour codes can be very flexable. Boning a student? Fine. Lying about it? Not fine.

      1. Bagge

        He has not really been known to be supportive of the idea of knobbin’ students
        http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/dangerous/

        1. timemonkey

          No, but he was willing to do it.

        2. Bagge

          Sure, but he has never indicated that he thought it was the honourable thing to do. Quite the opposite.

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/nothing-to-lose/

    2. thejeff

      “Right. Doing it the office is how you get caught. Take ’em elsewhere.”

      More seriously, it’s not an uncommon use of honour. Do the deed. Hide it. Fall on your sword when it comes out.

  15. Achallenger

    I prefer my honor

  16. Ashley

    But, can’t Sal be like “yeah, I didn’t do that English twit”?? :/

    1. Sporky

      Sal has better things to do than stick up for Jason, such as absolutely anything else.

      1. Sam

        Especially because:
        a) She doesn’t like him.
        b) He didn’t give her grades for it despite the implications and him clearly being aware here that it was for grades.
        c) His tutoring style didn’t work for her and he made no effort to listen to her about that, just repeating the same instructions and failing to work with her even when he did try to do the minimum of doing something.
        d) He doesn’t deserve her covering for his lack of self-control and breaking of the school’s policies.

        1. Jago

          Except he wasn’t aware it was supposed to be for grades until Sal got mad at him, at least if I remember correctly…

      2. segnosaur

        I can think of a couple of reasons Sal might lie…

        – She may want to preserve her own reputation.

        – She doesn’t want to be seen as a ‘snitch’.

        Of course, the biggest problem is that the accusation against Jason was made without any proof, or tying things to ANY student. So Sal can’t necessarily defend Jason because, well, in theory nobody knows that they were involved in the first place.

        1. BBCC

          Penny might have provided a name, since she was asked to keep an ‘out of hours’ unscheduled ‘tutoring session’ (quote marked for her view) secret and then later he gave her one of his student’s papers to grade for some reason (it’s almost certainly her who’s the other TA).

        2. BBCC

          On another note, I don’t think Sal really cares about her reputation and she’s not snitching just by refusing to defend him. HOWEVER I can see her lie to prevent him from getting fired if she knows her mom and the Dean are friends. If Jason’s fired for fucking and they know she’s the student in question, it’s not impossible the Dean would tell Linda and then I guarantee all manner of hell would break loose for Sal.

    2. Tacos

      Why? She’d be lying and she doesn’t owe him anything. Plus Jason isn’t going to contest the allegations.

      1. Some1

        I don’t think Sal gives a fuck about lying. There just has to be a reason for Sal to lie. Making a deal would be the easiest method, find something she wants and offer it to her in exchange for silence. There are other darker methods like blackmail, but given that your method of keeping someone quiet should never be larger than the original crime I doubt we’d have to go that far.

        1. Some1

          please note that the above is a joke, I would never suggest blackmailing anybody. I would however, search for a solution that left the largest amount of people happy in the end. I don’t really feel the need to see people punished, especially if they already regret their actions.

        2. thejeff

          Which as I’ve said before is the worst thing about how the University is handling this. Beyond even firing Jason on the unsupported word of another TA caught screwing students. Or the apparent Catch-22 of “You have to bring in the student you were fucking to tell us you weren’t fucking her.”

          They’ve set up a situation where someone even less scrupulous than Jason would be highly motivated to bribe, blackmail or threaten the student into covering for him. I mean, we know Jason and Sal so we know he wouldn’t and she’d laugh at him if he did, but if it actually was someone who’d been doing it for grades or someone he’d manipulated into sex?

    3. Jaime

      I’m too tired to be arsed to go through the archives, but are we certain Sal knows the entire situation here or even knows that her speaking up could help Jason?

      Even if she is aware of the situation, she’s an undergrad and thus probably doesn’t know a lot about grad TAships, associated regulations, and any appeals process. For all we know, she may be thinking the school will take care of it. As an undergraduate, I remember liking TAs but not having even the slightest idea about how that world worked. Nor would I have known what to do if any of them were in trouble with the school.

      In terms of his long-term career, Jason may not be doing a terribly stupid thing here, assuming the loss of his TA salary isn’t going to be a major hardship (and he has a new job now). It’s still early in the semester and, if he just leaves quietly, it’s possible the whole situation will land up being mostly forgotten. If he has to explain it later, he can say something like, “I was having some difficulties of my own, so I took time off from TAing to concentrate on my own studies.”

      Not to mention that, even if it does stay on his record, quitting without a fight could be seen to imply that he is contrite and truly sorry for his actions. Conversely, without him going to the tribunal, the case may be left “open” in people’s minds; there is a lot of evidence against him, but he never responded to the charges one way or another. Some might see that as him being innocent but too embarrassed by the charges to formally pursue them.

      (Note: I do NOT have ANY respect for people who try to strategize how to “get out” of sexual misconduct, especially people in positions of authority like professors and TAs. If Jason had any “honour,” he’d take responsibility and tender his resignation. AND do a LOT of soul-searching about himself. I’m just saying that, pragmatically, he may not be putting himself in the worst position here.)

      1. MM

        It’s far from impossible her brother might mention it at some point soon.

        1. Jaime

          Good point.

        2. segnosaur

          At the very least she will probably suspect something next class, when Jason isn’t there to do the TA work.

        3. Jaime

          Possibly, but TAs come and go – I’m not sure I would have noticed if one of my freshman TAs suddenly went MIA. Sometimes TAs even land up switching between different professors’ classes depending on who needs them when.

          If Sal *does* know what’s going on and isn’t saying anything, I’d be curious to know why. Is she thinking, “Jason did what he’s accused of and so I’m not getting him off the hook” or “Eh, I don’t give a f*ck what happens to Jason?” I mean, either attitude is valid (she doesn’t OWE him anything, after all) but the former makes her a much more sympathetic character, I think.

        4. thejeff

          No reason at all to think she knows. He was with Walky from the time he found out until he started at the bar. This is the next morning.

          But you’d probably notice if the TA you’d boffed suddenly vanished. A little more personal attention gets paid when it’s not just the generic TA, but someone you’ve had sex with.

      2. CJ

        I don’t think Sal knows anything about it. As soon as Penny mentioned she’d thrown him under the bus, he decided they where right to sack him and went on the binge with Walky.

      3. Sam

        She doesn’t know yet as Jason went on his alcoholic binge with Walky and didn’t mention it to her. Walky might bring it up but even if he does, Sal has literally no motivation to speak up to protect Jason, has literally no motivation to reveal herself as the student he slept with or ‘allegedly slept with’ as would likely be said when trying to be fair but we know he did and the only reason for her to really speak up and reveal herself is to try to save his job, but she thinks he is useless at his job as a Math TA so who really bloody cares about that.

        Further, this a hole he dug for himself, and it’s not her job to try to save him from the rightful consequences. He created his own misery by accepting a sexual invitation he knows he should have and could have refused. It’s also of no consequence to her what happens to him since she doesn’t even like him.

  17. BBCC

    Jason, you were entirely unsuited for the field of your choice.

    Billie, your expressions are adorable but everything you say is making me just shake my head and say ‘Oh, honey, NO’.

    1. Bagge

      I think he would have been a decent teacher with proper tutoring and a less destructive departmental attitude.

      1. BBCC

        It’s possible, but at the time of his firing he was still entirely unsuited for it.

      2. Terry

        Actually, I believe that problem was that he was really bad at tutoring. He attempted to tutor Sal multiple times with almost no improvement to her understanding of math. This could be chalked up to her just not being good at math; however, the fact that Danny tutored her once and she showed massive improvement says otherwise http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/nothanks/

        1. Sol Karas

          IIRC she improved a *little* bit before she went to Danny, although not by much (I think it was in the 70s range?) and it was after they had sex the second time, she asked him about it, he said he gave her test to a different TA to mark it. So he isn’t *entirely* useless. I imagine if he actually had training in teaching and not just regurgitating the theories he might actually be able to be a teacher.

        2. BBCC

          Yes, but that was after he stopped tutoring her (I doubt she went back after it was made clear it wasn’t working). He couldn’t claim credit for that.

        3. Bagge

          BBCC: Only too true. But I am not confident that his firing will increase the pedagogic competence of the department.

          Terry: I mean, JASON would have needed tutoring in the art of tutoring to make him a better tutor.

        4. anonymsly

          Yes, it’s almost like he was a math grad student with absolutely no education/training in teaching methods and practices! It’s almost like the only thing he actually knew how to do was math and people assume that means he knows how to teach!

          Because, you know, that was the situation. Expecting Jason to be a good teacher is like expecting Amber to cut herself a break: never gonna happen without actual support and a lot of practice.

        5. Bagge

          I fully blame the department for not training Jason in the art of teaching.

          But that he wasn’t prepared for his job doesn’t change the fact that… it was his job. He was being paid for it. His performance directly (negatively) affected students like Walky and Sal.

          And also worth noting – he was not fired for being bad at tutoring, or at motivating students, or at grading tests. He was fired for dilly-dallying a student. That is honestly not too high a bar to expect even a non-trained math grad student to stay clear off.

        6. BBCC

          I don’t expect Jason to be a perfect teacher with no training. However, since he professes that being a good teacher is important to him after it is made clear he’s not, I DO expect him to do SOMETHING to try and improve instead of doing the same thing over and over. It’s not even that he’s trying and failing so much as he’s not even trying. I would settle for him taking ten minutes to google tutoring tips.

        7. Bagge

          Well… he DID try. That was what the entire tutoring fiasco with Walky was all about. Unfortunately he tried by doubling down on what didn’t work the first time rather than trying new things. And he got a student that was on hard mode.

          Also, he did one thing perfectly right. He asked another teacher for help.

          Unfortunately that teacher was Penny.

        8. BBCC

          I don’t consider ‘tutor someone new the same way that didn’t work before’ to be trying but I do appreciate he reached out to Walky. That was good of him.

        9. geno

          My two cents to you is that all this happened over like a week or two. I have never in my entire life known a human to recognize a problem like that, and course correct without something important (such as getting fired from his job which he found out about yesterday) forcing them to change.

        10. BBCC

          It is true that it’s been two or three weeks, but Jason’s already expressed a desire to change. I know that doesn’t mean automatic change, but I was hoping he’d at least try something to be better than he was earlier. I was hopeful when he reached out to Walky but then he did more of the same. Like I said, it doesn’t have to be a big tremendous effort at course correcting – I’d settle for him googling ‘tutoring tips’ at this point. But saying he hasn’t had a chance to recognize the problem is silly. He DOES know the problem – that he’s not very good at tutoring. I can understand him not knowing what the specific problem with his style is but he can’t reasonably expect that doing the same thing that didn’t work before to work now. That’s why I’m annoyed with him.

    2. Reltzik

      I have no doubt that Jason would have been a good MATHEMATICIAN.

      Just not a good math educator. The two skill sets are horrifically divergent.

      1. BBCC

        Sure, but he’s still enrolled in math. He can still be a mathematician. If that’s the field of choice, I’m not sure how this would tank his chances. If he wanted to teach math at a university level…yeah no, please don’t.

        1. Anonymsly

          I’m pretty sure the TA job was how he funded his grad school, and there’s every chance that no longer being a TA means no longer being enrolled. It’s not unheard of. Which means he’ll never be able to work as a mathematician because he can now never get his degree.

        2. BBCC

          While Jason told Sal he would be kicked from the program if he was fired, he also told Walky that if he was fired, he’d still be enrolled, so he most likely meant the TA program. He’s definitely still enrolled and he has the bartending job now (for however much that’s worth) so I don’t see why he couldn’t be a mathematician.

    3. segnosaur

      > Jason, you were entirely unsuited for the field of your choice.

      Well, technically his “field of choice” was math. That doesn’t necessarily mean he wanted to be a full time instructor/teacher. It could be that he was more interested in actually using his math skills directly (It is sometimes useful in business or academics) but just had to be a TA temporarily as a way to achieve that goal.

      1. BBCC

        He’s still enrolled for math though. There’s absolutely no reason he wouldn’t be able to continue to pursue a career in that. His chances in his field of choice being tanked only really makes sense to me if he’s talking about teaching.

        1. Jaime

          And as I noted above, this might not even “tank” his chances of going into teaching, depending on how he continues to handle it.

        2. BBCC

          That’s true but he seems to think it will.

        3. thejeff

          I actually doubt it’s going to tank his teaching career here at IU for the course of the comic.
          He’s a big enough supporting character to get his own arc and that’s been focused around how he wants to be a good teacher – even if he hasn’t yet succeeded at figuring out how to even start. It doesn’t feel right for that to go to “And then he got fired and became a bartender. The End.”

        4. geno

          ^Don’t put logic logic into a comment section. There’s no place for that here.

        5. Anonymsly

          If being a TA was part of his acceptance into the program, like if Professor Rees (the actual teacher, never actually seen or heard from) is only willing to be a grad advisor to his TAs, Jason’s not in fact enrolled in anything anymore. He be expelled.

        6. BBCC

          Jason’s already said he’s still enrolled.

  18. jeffepp

    I continue to believe that he pronounces it “honoooor”, because that’s how you gotta say it, if you spell it that way.

    1. Fart Captor

      I mean, otherwise you’re just wasting a vowel, really

    2. Sunny

      Isn’t it closer to ” ‘onohr “?

      1. Sam

        As someone from the UK, yes. And I have absolutely no idea how you would say it the way jeffepp is suggesting without being extremely snooty.

    3. Kamino Neko

      Yeah, no. Let’s compare the pronunciation to the spelling.

      There are major Commonwealth accents that pronounce the H (granted not prestige ones), and the ones that don’t are generally consistent about not pronouncing H in that position.

      There are no major US accents that do.

      US spelling uses ‘o’ to represent two separate vowels.

      The Commonwealth spelling uses the ‘ou’ digraph the same way it does in many (not all, but many) other words.

      The American spelling is simpler, but it does not represent the pronunciation better.

  19. DrWattson

    I do appreciate how even Jason’s speech bubbles are British (IE ‘honour’ with a ‘u’).

    1. StClair

      But of course. Otherwise, it just wouldn’t be cricket.

  20. StClair

    “She offered her honour;
    He honoured her offer;
    And all the night long
    He was on her and off her.”

  21. Raen

    …surely it being for grades makes it less “awww”-worthy?

    1. Wizard

      Less “aww”, more “eww”, if you ask me.

      1. timemonkey

        This is a girl who thought an alcohol fueled depression spiral was good because she and Ruth were doing it together instead of separately.

    2. Keulen

      I was thinking the same thing. It’d be actually “awww”-worthy if it wasn’t for grades.

    3. BenRG

      What can I say? It’s Billie: Her idea of ‘twu wuv’ appears to be pretty weird compared to most people!

  22. Leorale

    The interaction between these two is everything I wanted.

  23. Antonio

    Jason gets fired from his TA job due to his absence from his TA job, because he thought he got fired from his TA job.

    1. Reltzik

      It’s exactly like something out of Kafka, or exactly like the opposite of something out of Kafka. I’m not sure which.

  24. Doom Shepherd

    That is… not the type of honor I am familiar with.
    But then, I was the guy who wouldn’t even consider merely dating two women at the same time, even if I hadn’t been intimate with the first one. Totally ruined my parents’ attempt to set me up with a family friend’s (quite nice and lovely) daughter because I’d met a girl the week before.

    So, totally a Real Life example of TVTropes’ “Honor Before Reason.”

  25. MM

    I feel like “selectively honorable” should’ve been a far more popular sobriquet during the days of chivalry.

    1. Bicycle Bill

      “Selectively honorable” in a man is like being a woman of “negotiable virtue”.

      1. Jaime

        Shouldn’t you be busy ranting at Ophelia right about now?

      2. thejeff

        “We’ve already settled that, now we’re just haggling over the price.”

  26. Kat

    I really want to see Sales and Jason interact again. I’d like to see him give an actual apology to her.

    1. Kat

      … Sal. You useless damn phone.

    2. Kat

      Also I just realized I have a completely different name on my phone than I do on the computer. Huh.

  27. newllend(henryvolt)

    Jason is searching for his lost Honor like he’s Zuko. Considering his relationship with his dad that might be more accurate than it sounds.

  28. BenRG

    You know what? I think that the real reason Jason isn’t fighting right now is because he likes being a bartender more than he ever enjoyed being a teacher. He has the skill-set for the former when he demonstrably didn’t have a skill-set for the latter.

    I wonder how many of the girls would have slept with him if they thought that it would improve their grades? He strikes me as the sort who would have a lot of… if not ‘admirers’, at least girls who wanted to try it at least once.

    1. C.T Phipps

      Jason strikes me as the sort of guy who’d get laid quite a bit he kept his mouth shut about anything resembling his actual opinions.

  29. abysswatcher1993

    He is going to be fired for not attending to his classes. Also, the “honor” code thingy doesn’t really work and is quite subjective. It’s better to just be a good person, punch people that are psychopathic jerks, and enjoy your own things without harming others. Screw the honor of samurais, vikings, and lazy math professors!

    1. BenRG

      I think that the administrators will treat his non-attendance as an admission of guilt.

    2. JBento

      Not fighting the accusations IS actually honour. He did it. He’s guilty. They can’t PROVE it, but Jason did a very bad thing that should make him unelectable for teaching.

      1. thejeff

        Yeah, it kind of is. He screwed up and he’s not fighting the consequences.
        More guilt than honor, I think, but it’s something.

        Of course, he didn’t confess on his own, but waited until he sort of got caught, so it’s kind of a passive version.

        1. JBento

          “Be honourable by doing nothing” is the laziest version of honour ever.

      2. Roborat

        He is British, he probably is doing it to protect Sal’s honour.

        1. abysswatcher1993

          I don’t think Jason is that noble. He is screwed.

        2. Roborat

          Yes, he was, twice. Three times if you count what Penny did to him.

  30. Mojo

    Err… I don’t think he has actually been fired yet, he’s kind of jumping the gun.

    1. Fart Captor

      He’s right to do so. Even if he could EASILY keep his job, he did the thing he was accused of, even if his accuser had no idea.

      Accepting the fact that his actions were highly unethical and that he SHOULD lose his job is the right thing to do here

  31. ninja_jesus

    I think Jason the Bartender is much cuter than Jason the Math TA.

    Also, you know who else goes to bars? SAL.

    1. BenRG

      I can’t see Galasso’s as being Sal’s kind of hangout.

      1. ninja_jesus

        It may become a new hangout if she gets kicked out of other bars.

  32. C.T Phipps

    They don’t know Jason had sex with Sal specifically. So it’d be funny if he brought Sal and that got him condemned.

    1. jeffepp

      Oh, don’t forget that Penny had her name from the test she graded, because his honoooooore wouldn’t let him keep his end of the bargain up.

      1. C.T Phipps

        Penny didn’t know he was actually guilty of screwing a student. So its unlikely she knows that test was the reason.

        1. thejeff

          She may have figured if out after the fact though. And may have given a description of Sal, based on the off-hours tutoring, even if it was just intended to harass him.

  33. BenRG

    A weird thought that just dropped into my head: Maybe Jason will be the kick up the backside Billie needs. Whether or not this will impact on her relationship to Ruth is, at this point, unknowable.

    1. Lulu

      It more looks to me that she will cheat on Ruth with him destroying that completely. After all that’s just Billie.

      1. C.T Phipps

        That’s our Billie! *sitcom canned laughter*

  34. FacelessDeviant

    As far as honour goes, thats not half bad.

    1. JBento

      No, it’s ALL bad.

  35. SlothfulCobra

    I don’t think the college even got around to trying to fire him, he just gave up and left when his colleague who hates him said that she was going to turn him in.

    1. jeffepp

      He was given the opportunity to challenge things. If he and the student in question (Sal) came to them and argued the case in his favor. He quickly came to the realization that THAT ain’t happening.

      1. Wright

        But no one ID’d Sal, as far as I know; Penny just said that Jason also did the same thing she was accused of. She thought she was lying at the time. If Jason showed up and denied it, how would they know?

        1. JBento

          The terms of his denial process apparently would require him to bring the student he wouldn’t have boffed, which is preposterous, because the accusation didn’t identify said student. Now, in this particular case he totally did it, so the student in question is Sal.

          But if he HADN’T done it, the denial process would require him to guess which student he was being accused of fucking, bringing them to the meeting, and then proving they hadn’t fucked at any point in time since the semester started, which I don’t even know how you’d go about doing.

      2. Wright

        Oh, forgot that Jason had (presumably) Penny grade Sal’s paper. Yup, so that screwed him.

        1. BBCC

          She was also there the first time they screwed – they kicked her out and Jason asked her not to tell the professor about the ‘scheduling irregularity’. He assured her it was just tutoring but if she’s gonna throw him on his ass for funsies, may as well pick the student he kicks her out of the office for.

  36. Fart Captor

    Penny

    1. Passchendaele

      for your thoughts

      1. Fart Captor

        I think my phone might be haunted

        1. Bagge

          Hi fellow Beckys! Clearly we need more Beckys here.

        2. Roborat

          You missed your chance to make a “Beckys assemble” joke here.

      2. 3oranges

        I hate Brenda, and a bad guy hit me in the shin, and I peed all of my pants.

        1. Puckish Rogue

          Its nothing a little music can’t help.

        2. Marsh Maryrose

          Stop it now!

  37. Reltzik

    Also, what the hell Jason? How can you spend three hours as a bartender and not notice at least five topics that could turn into a publishable math paper?

    1. Lingo

      Like bistromathics! It can power faster-than-light travel, don’t you know!

  38. Classic Appa

    Did Jason actually fix anyones grades? For some reason I thought he hadn’t.

    1. BBCC

      He didn’t fix the grades but that’s what Sal wanted.

      1. Gojira

        She assumed because she did better on the next test, it was because Jason had fixed the grade.

        1. Smiling Cat

          Actually she got mad because she didn’t get a better grade on the next test. He handed it off to another TA.

        2. thejeff

          This is the first quiz after their “tutoring” session. She’s upset about her grade, but he says nothing about handing it off here, but mentions her poor performance.
          The next quiz he does say he gave to another TA, but that’s the one where she’d improved.

  39. Mojo

    I like that he has “Honour,” not “Honor.” He IS British after all!

  40. Wesweswes

    Not gonna lie, I woulda liked some meta stuff with Billie complaining that she could hear the silent u in him saying honor. And he’d be all “you can’t HEAR the u, but it’s there, I’m British after all AND THAT’S HOW YOU SPELL IT, YOU DEGENERATE REBEL!” and while we’re watching them argue, we see that Billie says/spells it with no u in the speech bubble, but he does.

  41. Bill M.

    He has some on ‘er, some under ‘er, and that one time in the closet, it was just a free-for-all… of course, that joke would work better if this was the spoken word and not typed out… stupid brain making that joke and low impulse control typing it out.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.