133

Whoop!
Posted on July 6, 2018 by David M Willis
The It's Walky!: Year Zero book is now available in the online store! It's 112 pages of the first It's Walky! storyline from way back in 2000, plus its 2004-2014 redraw!  Get the book clean or get it signed/doodled in! S'up to you.

133 thoughts on “Whoop!”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    the bar looks good for being “21 and older”, it’s good that it takes care of itself at that age and maintains proper hygiene and shit

    1. Ana Chronistic

      TRUE LOVE makes hanky-panky ok thanky

      1. Deanatay

        As long as you don’t show any of the naughty bits.

    2. Phil

      I am however curious as to how it manages to be multiple ages at the same time.

      1. Yumi

        It contains multitudes.

      2. Screwball

        Parts got replaced? The newest part is 21 years old? The pizza (and sub) place HAS been around since their parents went to that Uni…

        1. foamy

          A Pizza (and Subs!) of Theseus?

        2. Bicycle Bill

          Wonder how many people are going to understand that reference?

        3. foamy

          It’s fairly well known, so I imagine quite a few :p

        4. Fred

          Don’t ask me, I’m too busy shipping characters.

        5. smparadox

          I didn’t. I’ve never even “heard” of the ‘Paradox of Theseus’! I don’t know any of the 4 “causes” that it deals with and have no idea of it all!

      3. Tacos

        Magic.

  2. AnvilPro

    Joyce has that advice ever worked for you?

    1. cbwroses

      That depends on if she gets with Jacob. If she does, then obviously it was true love.

    2. Fart Captor

      She’s never had any students OR hanky panky, so I doubt it

      She’s still very right about the first part

      1. thejeff

        Joyce is a romantic. True Love excuses everything. (Except sin, but that’s okay cause you’ll get married, since it’s true love.)

        Which, I could probably say I agree. I’m just more cynical about anyone’s ability to identify True Love up front and distinguish it from lust or an infatuation.

        1. Jay

          I think that’s a large part of what Joyce is going to have to learn here. She’s still stuck, to an extent, in fairy land where true love conquers all etc. She needs to learn and grow more before I think she is at all capable of distinguishing true love from infatuation or lust.

    3. Deanatay

      Joyson OTP anyone?

      1. Ana Chronistic

        Was searching for something else but this is better…? http://www.itswalky.com/comic/isnt-it-past-your-bedtime/

  3. butts

    still rockin’ the bowtie, I see

    good on you, jason

    1. cesium133

      Of course. If he got rid of the bowtie, Galasso would realize he doesn’t work there.

      1. Roborat

        If he got rid of the bowtie, Galasso wouldn’t even recognize him.

    2. Reltzik

      Huh. Still rocking the old avatar.

      Thought you’d have changed it after yesterday.

      1. butts

        look i was on a plane

  4. SailorCakes

    True love hanky-panky for the win

  5. Doctor_Who

    Wait…there ARE circumstances in which Joyce would condone hanky-panky of the pre-marital variety?!

    Or was she just assuming they’d squeeze a wedding in there somewhere?

    1. Marsh Maryrose

      If it’s true love it ends in marriage. Obvs!

      1. Freemage

        Actually, she can point to a theological basis for that reasoning. For Paul, and for a non-trivial portion of Christians, the act of sex makes you ‘one flesh’, and therefore if the wedding happens afterward, it’s really just mortals acknowledging what God has already decreed. Of course, sleeping around Joe and Roz style is completely a non-starter, because the second person you sleep with is, essentially, a case of adultery.

    2. Wraithy2773

      She’s been pretty supportive of Billie and Ruth, who are definitely not married and were in trouble for boning.

      She’s also going “it’s okay to bone students if it’s true love” without adding the “but only if you’re married” qualifier.

      Joyce is seriously in a fucked up mentality here. It sounds romantic on first blush, but… yeah, no, this shit is seriously unethical.

  6. Cerberus

    Oh Joyce, no.

    1. Bagge

      …but if they love each other it’s romantic!

    2. Rabid Rabbit

      Let’s be honest, Joyce thinks Wuthering Heights is romantic. Or would, if she’d been allowed to read it.

      1. Rowen Morland

        Wuthering Heights is plenty romantic and what you want for life for the % of humanity that that works for, but pretty terrible if tyrannously applied to the rest.

      2. Deanatay

        She probably read the abridged, PG-13 pocket-book version with a sanitized ending.

        1. Rowen Morland

          Less dog hanging in that one.

  7. Icalasari

    Jason, as long as you don’t serve her, you can surely let her stay to talk

    …Then again maybe he just isn’t in the mood for Joyce

    1. Bagge

      A bartender should pay some respect for the queen of the drunks.

      1. darkgloomie

        Not unless she’s paying.

    2. Josh Spicer

      Eh. Depending on the state even having an underage person at the bar is illegal. Not sure about Indiana, but if it’s like Iowa, then you can order but not sit.

  8. Stephen Bierce

    Cigarettes and Whiskey And Wild Wild Women!
    They’ll drive you crazy! They’ll drive you insane!

    1. thejeff

      Warm beer and cold women, I just don’t fit in
      Every joint I stumble into tonight
      That’s how it’s been

      1. Roborat

        I like liquor and whores
        Liquor and whores
        Cigarettes and dope and mustard and baloney
        Liquor and whores

  9. Passchendaele

    This is possibly a very accurate summary of Joyce overall?

  10. shoeboxjeddy

    Oh no, Joyce has been watching too much Riverdale…
    Or Dawson’s Creek…
    Or The OC…
    Or… shit they all have a storyline like this…

    1. Yumi

      Or Degrassi.

      And these shows are set in high schools.

    2. Vee

      doa reveal coming in 2025: joyce has secretly been a big fan of teen dramas all along

    3. Needfuldoer

      Or the entire fall lineup on The CW.

    4. Kamino Neko

      The banging-a-teacher plotline on Riverdale didn’t work out like that, though…only Archie thought the ‘we’re in love!’ thing justified it, and the only reason Sheriff Keller wasn’t called on ‘Grundy’ is he got all…Archie-ish about it…

      Then she got put on a bus, then killed off at the start of next season.

  11. laladoria

    He knew that was coming.

    That or he just doesn’t want to face anyone that recognizes him, in which case you shouldn’t work somewhere that the students frequent, Jason! C’mon, I thought you were smart!

    1. BBCC

      Really? Why? 😛

    2. BenRG

      Jason didn’t get himself the job, Walky did, remember? Jason has had remarkably limited agency over his actions and career for some time now!

      1. laladoria

        I didn’t say he got it for himself, but he didn’t have to keep it.

        1. BenRG

          I suspect that Jason has decided that he is now in a ‘ride the tiger’ scenario and as little boat-rocking as possible on his part is likely a good idea!

  12. Dana

    Joyce is a true romantic.

    1. Bagge

      So is Billie

      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/honour/

      1. ValdVin

        Tangential q: Is that red, heart-filled “Awwwww” of Billie’s the only time Willis has used color in his speech bubbles?

  13. Bagge

    I love the second panel where Joyce suddenly realizes that she’s breaking the rules

    1. butts

      BREAKING THE LAW

      BREAKING THE LAW

      1. Needfuldoer

        RAKING THE LAWN

        RAKING THE LAWN

        1. JoeCovenant

          WALKIN’ THE DOG!
          WALKIN’ THE DOG!

    2. Yumi

      Joyce was one of those kids that would shield their eyes while walking by the the alcohol section of the grocery store. (I also may have averted my eyes myself in such a situation.)

      1. Marisa Mockery

        I didn’t dare walk down the booze aisle till I was a teenager…still avoid it out of habit…

        1. anonymsly

          I do too. Unless I’m actually going to buy booze, I still skirt that section. And I’m almost 40.

      2. Rabid Rabbit

        I was deeply disappointed when I wasn’t allowed to hand the money over at the liquor store. See, we each got to go out grocery shopping once a week with our parents, and the great thrill was getting to pay. Except in that one store where you couldn’t.

      3. foamy

        Every now and then there’s a comment here that really drives home the discrepancies between what I grew up with and what other people have. Grocery stores here in Alberta don’t, and haven’t since at least 1923.

        1. thejeff

          Down here it varies from state to state depending on the local liquor laws.

          Here the groceries sell beer and wine, but I’ve been in states where they’ve got hard alcohol as well.

      4. Roborat

        I was in awe the first time I went into a grocery store in Arizona and saw the wall of beer and wine, with the hard stuff in the corner. Why the fuck can’t Alberta be this progressive. Last year my daughter had the same reaction.

        1. foamy

          Here’s a scary thought for you: Alberta is one of the Canadian jurisdictions where you have *more* choice in what liquor you buy and where these days. It just ain’t in grocery stores.

          There was a big fight over whether that would be allowed when they privatized liquor sales, back in the day… at least we don’t ban liquor on planes any more. :v

  14. Schpoonman

    Jason: “Oh thank god, another easy shut down. Oh god she keeps coming back.”

  15. BBCC

    That hissing noise I just made was NOT human.

  16. Tacos

    Did Joyce not think about she said? She’d be OK with a teacher fucking a student as long as it was true love?

    1. Oz

      I think that’s exactly what she said. You know, because true love makes everything ok, and also true love is more important than your job or your studies or the law.

    2. Zee

      Listen it’s been long enough for you to know by now that that is a very Joyce thing to say

    3. Roborat

      Of course. As long as it is wuv, twu wuv, it is all good.

  17. Bickendan

    …
    She didn’t include marriage in that equation at all.
    “No hanky-panky before marriage… unless it’s true love!” Is this what she’d say to a friend?
    Has she become this progressive?

    1. BBCC

      I imagine her definition of true love would automatically include marriage. And she’s probably accepted that while marriage may be a necessity, others don’t see it that way (similar to how she no longer tries to talk to Sal about how smoking is bad for her – she’s gotten used to it, basically).

      1. BBCC

        * Necessity in her world view, anyways.

    2. Wraithy2773

      I don’t see this as that progressive, honestly.

      Sure, yeah, Joyce is okay with pre-marital hanky-panky if it’s True Love. She’s also okay with massive power disparities between couples if it’s True Love, the kind of power disparities that have been abused for ugly ends. Because if it’s True Love, everything’s okay!

      It’s still a really childish, problematic subject, and Joyce’s blanket statements here just make me wonder what else she thinks “True Love” could justify.

      1. BBCC

        I think Joyce is going to be disabused of the notion that love is only ever a good thing and can never ever ever harm anybody.

      2. thejeff

        Well, if it actually is True Love, then it is okay. Because if it’s True Love, then they won’t abuse those power disparities.
        Of course it all falls apart because we don’t have any reliable means of identifying True Love.

        1. Inahc

          ehh, loving someone does not make one immune to hurting them.

          plus, they might abuse their power via nepotism, which isn’t great either.

      3. Zee

        Yknow that just made me realize, Joyce is totally the type of girl that would fawn over the “romance” (I use that word loosely) in Sara J. Maas and Coleen Hoover books.
        Okay maybe not the first one cuz even she would recognize that being drugged and touched while forced to dance isn’t romantic at all.

        1. thejeff

          I don’t know those, but I believe she’s fawned over the romance in Twilight.

  18. DailyBrad

    I love that he’s got the eye-twitch of pure annoyance.

  19. JessWitt

    It isn’t the ”joycest” of comics unless she makes a dramatic face.

    1. Keulen

      The best Joyce comics are the ones where she makes those faces, definitely.

  20. Harvest Time

    God, I love Jason’s little twitch at the end there.

  21. Lingo

    “Ah yes, True Love, the old get-out-of-jail-free card!”
    “Sir, she’s underage, you’re still going to jail”
    “I said, ‘TRUE LOVE THE GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD'”

    1. Nud

      But only AFTER you are married.
      Obviously

      1. Wraithy2773

        Nah, she’s been fine with Billie and Ruth getting down pre-marriage, and obviously Jason and whatever student he boned (from Joyce’s perspective) aren’t married. Joyce is 100% in on the whole “True love makes any action okay no matter how illegal/injust/immoral” thing.

        1. Roborat

          Yup, teachers and students, pets, whatever.

  22. stoodmuffin

    Oh. Joyce. Oh you precious boob.

  23. Wraithy2773

    Jason, just use the Seltzer as a spray bottle to get her to go away.

    And… yeah, “don’t do that thing that you obviously shouldn’t do because of power disparities or personal violations or other shit like that UNLESS ITS TRUE LOVE THEN EVERYTHING’S ALRIGHT”…

    …got a feeling she’s applying that mentality towards Jacob too. How much of a difference is there between “You shouldn’t sleep with a student under your care, whether a TA or an RA, UNLESS ITS TRUE LOVE” and “You shouldn’t try to break up an apparently healthy relationship so you can get with one of them UNLESS IT’S TRUE LOVE”?

    1. abysswatcher1993

      Joyce isn’t having good role models with half his family being bigots, her best friend being a mess, Ruth being almost suicidal, her roommate being an antisocial that used her for a payback plan, her pastor being an homophobe, and Jesus being a chill socialist.

      1. ischemgeek

        Joyce definitely doesn’t have good role-models, but I’m going to lay this wholly at the feet of the pastor and her community back home. Conservative Christianity definitely weaponizes romantic fantasies for young girls – everything men and boys do is acceptable if it’s for the sake of True Love. Sleeping with a student, hitting their wife for talking to a man, controlling their daughters, etc.

        Seriously, conservative Christianity simultaneously tries to convince girls that men (in general) are rabid animals with no capacity for self-control (and the truly scary thing is that they genuinely believe that – they’re not just making excuses for bad behavior, they think it is in the nature of men to be sexually predatory and violent) and that any reprehensible thing a man does is fine if it’s done for love. And it works because brainwashing is a hell of a drug.

        (Source: I grew up in the gun nut community in Canada, and it operates v. similarly)

        1. abysswatcher1993

          Mike was right, society is indoctrinated to always forgive white men.

          Also, it doesn’t help that most men Joyce has known are jerks : Joe originally wanted to get into Joyce’s pants (until the beat down, character developement and an epiphany), that guy that drugged her and tried to rape her and kill her friends with a knife, Becky’s dad who entered a campus with a shotgun, her big brother is an asshole that thinks millenials are entitled, etc.

          Walky was a jerk towards her at the beginning and she still doesn’t consider him truly a friend, and Mike is Mike.

          I think only Ethan and Jacob have been gentlemen with her and the other girls, but one is gay and the other is already in a relationship.

        2. BBCC

          Well, she’d also probably put Jocelyne in the ‘good’ category too since she’s not out to Joyce yet. Also her dad (who, while he was a jerk, is putting in the effort to try to be less so).

        3. Jhon

          Not a shotgun, dammit.

        4. Roborat

          I have noticed that the gun nut community is very often also the conservative religious community.

  24. BenRG

    Today’s strip is basically a reminder why ‘Joyce’ and ‘sweet’ seem to be synonyms!

  25. Purblebirb

    Aaaaaaand THERE’S our Joyce!

  26. abysswatcher1993

    Joyce, are you aware that your last statement doesn’t apply outside of college? Jason could end in jail in that scenario.

    Jason on the other hand knows that Sal only loved like 15 minutes of sex and nothing more. Sometimes a one time only is a one time only, Jason.

    1. Sol Karas

      I mean, technically, it was twice 😛

  27. CJ

    Poor Jason, the last comment really depresses him.

    1. BenRG

      Actually, I think that it is the Joyce-on-a-bungee-cord that’s tiring him out at the moment.

  28. Rabid Rabbit

    Huh. You know, all this time I thought “hanky-panky” was a verb.

    1. thejeff

      Much like “fuck” it can be many parts of speech. Not quite as versatile though.

  29. buddy

    oh man david i hope you know that about a hundred people read that tag as ‘joy-cest’ :/

    1. Deanatay

      Don’t be silly! That’d be, like, her and Jocelyn…

      …

      *guzzles brain bleach straight from the bottle*

  30. Defensor

    Isn’t Jason entitled to a hearing of some kind? It seems very odd he would be fired without the administration talking to him first.

    1. Schpoonman

      He was told that he’d have to mount a defense with the student in question, and he’s not going to try considering he’s 100% guilty.

      1. woobie

        Even though there IS no student in question as far as anyone knew.

  31. Jaime

    I feel like I’ve said this before, but I think it bears repeating:

    TEACHERS HAVING “HANKY-PANKY” (to use Willis’ words) WITH STUDENTS IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA.

    I’ve gotten in bad situations when I’ve just tried to be friends with some of my students – and posted about this on past strips. As I have said, the last time I tried to be friends with one of my students, they seriously tried to take advantage of that, to the extent of calling my cell phone to ask for recommendation letters and trying to corner me at home. (YES, I KNOW, I screwed up but I handled it, wrote her the letters, and re-established boundaries.)

    Right now, I have an older student who is just WONDERFUL. I would like nothing better than to have a beer (or a glass of wine) with her and just shoot the sh!t. But I’ve learned my lesson – the power differential is just too much. I teach undergrads, and I know that when you get to the graduate school level it’s kind of different because you may be teaching people who will be your colleagues one day.

    I DO feel like Willis has been exploring the concepts of respect and power. I respect my students, so that means not making friends with them, because there is too much potential for manipulation. Jason didn’t “get” that. While I have been attracted to some of my friends (I went into a lot of detail about that in the posts on yesterday’s comic), ultimately I respected my friend and his partner too much to try to break them up.

    Basically, I think it is NOT COOL to be a d!ck.

    1. ischemgeek

      Agreed!

      When I was in a teaching role, I didn’t socialize with the students outside of class or office hours. I also learned the hard way that I needed to make sure I scheduled office hours during the times that another grad student was also holding her office hours so I’d never be alone with a student. Juuust cuz some students have watched too much porn and think sex for grades is common and normal.

      (Not saying it doesn’t happen but in the real world you’re wayyy more likely to make your TA/prof highly uncomfortable and have them do as I did, which is report it to a superior and hand off your papers to another TA. Which will have the consequence of getting you pulled before the academic disciplinary committee for attempted cheating and sexual harassment. If the TA is like me and relatively naive at the time of the incident, they’ll also wind up saying, “What the actual fuck?!” a lot throughout the whole scenario because what the actual fuck).

      Note to student people: That ^^^ is how an ethical TA handles a proposal of sex for grades from a student. I had no choice but to report it officially, cuz thing is if I don’t report, it creates a doubt about whether or not I took advantage of the student. Because since I’m the one in the position of power, why didn’t I report if nothing happened? If it came out that happened after the fact and I hadn’t reported it, that would create suspicion (especially if, as in the case of the student in question, after the incident the student devoted his efforts to learning study skills and managed to pass the course with a fairly decent grade- attempt to initiate sex-for-grades followed by a marked if gradual improvement in grades from a D to a B LOOKS frigging suspicious as hell). That suspicion – and to be clear, given circumstances and power dynamics it’s a very reasonable suspicion – would’ve damaged the trust I build with other students. So I reported, and dealt with the fallout of basically having the situation be a running joke among my peers and having official policies changed because of my reporting of the situation. But at the end of the day, I reported and it was known I reported, which combined with the fact that I proactively handed his reports to someone else meant that I earned a reputation for integrity even at personal cost.

      My efforts to be respectful of boundaries and ethics – including taking the risk to report an incident to my superior knowing fully well the institutional response was going to be, “What were you doing alone with a student?” as opposed to “why did he think offering sex for grades was a reasonable response to his first D?” and never mind that his request for the meeting was made under the pretense of wanting to review the report. Anyway, that I reported and launched the scandal myself rather than trying to sweep it under the rug made me trusted by my students enough that I was the TA of choice to report sexual harassment to by students. I had students not even in my section come to me to report, because they knew I’d do something and not sit on it, and that I wouldn’t try to shame them out of reporting so the uni had better stats. I had a reputation for being a difficult feminazi among the admin, but that’s a reputation I’ll take happily to earn the trust of my students.

      Anyway, for student people: If you hear of a TA doing anything less than reporting the situation and handing the papers off to another TA in the event that a student tries to initiate a sex-for-grades scheme, your TA is probably not being fully ethical. Because ultimately ethics aren’t just about what you do, but they’re also about how what you do can be interpreted and construed by others. It’s not just about not acting badly, it’s also about avoiding the perception of acting badly to earn trust among those around you.

      1. Oz

        I think it’s a bit effed up that you can’t be alone with a student. What messed up society is this where suspicion taints everything. It’s sad.

        1. Freemage

          It’s the fault of the folks who do take advantage of closed doors and secrecy to commit horrible acts. The cost of power pretty much must be accountability, and that means making sure you can demonstrate you are acting in a conscientious manner.

          It’s not that every TA will abuse a student’s desperation–most would never even think of it, and would reject the idea if put forward by the student. But those who do rely on secrecy and ‘privacy’ standards. Just like domestic abusers take advantage of the castle doctrine, and abusive clergy and doctors hide behind various forms of ‘confidentiality’.

        2. thejeff

          That’s the problem. It’s not suspicion tainting everything – which seems to imply the suspicions are the real problem, but the actual long history of covered up abuse.
          Obviously only the bad guys need those safeguards, but we can’t tell which ones they are.

          Does that generally apply to professors in college to? It would seem more difficult, at least as I remember school. Professors often had their own offices. Or you’d need to work with them in lab or something.

        3. ischemgeek

          Most profs I know would meet with students in their offices but leep the door open. As a queer TA I knew the institution would jettison me much easier than a prof so I took no chances.

        4. Jaime

          That is precisely what I do; I’ll meet with students alone in my office (or classroom) but keep the door open all the time. I *think* I may have swung it almost shut a very few times when the student coming to see me started crying, or was telling me some very personal information (like coming out to me, for example). I am also openly Queer and I teach Queer Literature, so I have had students come out to me more often than you’d think.

          (@ischemgeek: I am lucky enough to work in a very Queer-friendly school; we actually have a school-wide Queer faculty and staff club, and at least one person I know of in upper administration is openly “out.” But I’m also an Assistant Prof. (albeit an untenured one, so far) and not a T.A., so I’m in a slightly more secure position than T.A.s are.)

          This is something few people tell you or talk about when it comes to being a teacher – it comes along with a sometimes dehabilitating amount of responsibility and isolation. I mentioned my current student with whom I’d *like* to be friends. If we’d met each other shopping, or on the subway, or something, we probably *would* have made friends. We have a LOT in common and she is also just very intelligent and interesting as a person. BUT…I KNOW from experience that’s always a bad idea, at least at the undergrad level. So I meet 100+ people every semester, some of whom are close to my own age, and emotionally connect with some of them, but really can’t ever be friends with any of them.

          Since professors (especially female-presenting professors) are often seen as parental figures, I also have had students have major meltdowns in my office and/or share some very personal information with me and ask for help. I once had a female student come to me because one of her male professors (NOT anyone in MY department!) was harrassing her. I have had students confess to being victims of abuse, being homeless, having family members die (not in an “I can’t take the final tomorrow because my second cousin twice removed died” way but in a “my mother died and I can’t stop crying” way), having mental health challenges… I could keep going. It gets overwhelming sometimes, but by my standards I’d be a pretty terrible professor if I didn’t try to support and help my students any way I can. H3ll, just last week I got an email from a student who is undocumented and worried about deportation and asked me what kind of resources the college and I might have to help them.

          When it comes to the issue of “hanky panky” – again, it is NEVER cool to do that with students. EVER. End of story. However, I understand how things can get complicated. In general, I’m pretty clueless about if someone is hitting on me or not, so I’ve probably avoided some uncomfortable situations. However, even I have noticed when students will occasionally make provocative comments, which I usually just pass off as a joke. (Some of that is boundary-testing as well, or sometimes male students trying to negotiate being in a class run by a female professor.) There is also some genuinely well-meant stuff that could be badly misinterpreted. For example, last semester one of my students told me after a class that she really liked my “personal style” and that I always looked “really nice.” (I have multiple piercings and tattoos and while I tend to tone down the “gothiness” at work, my work clothes still kind of have that aesthetic.) I *know* this student wasn’t hitting on me. She was actually really shy about saying that but wanted to say something nice. I’ve actually more than once complimented a student’s hair (if they changed their hairstyle or colour to something really cool) or clothing (if someone came to class wearing a “Akira” t-shirt, or something).

          I guess, on one hand, that could be seen as inappropriate. As a professor, I’m not a disciplinarian (that is a BIG reason why I teach college and not K-12 students). My teaching strategy is to engage and interest my students, not to be a fearful authority figure (I’m a big fan of “horizontal pedagogy”). So, on one hand, if I have a student who is wearing a Godsmack t-shirt and I say, “I love your shirt! Godsmack is one of my favourite bands! Have you ever seen them live? I have, and they put on an incredible show!,” I’m creating some personal connexion between the student and me beyond “You are my professor in a required class.” I’m also being a *person* trying to be friendly to another person.

          BUT – I would NEVER invite this theoretical student to a Godsmack concert, nor, if I ran into them at one, do more than quickly and nicely say hello and then go to the opposite side of the arena and avoid running into them again.

          tl;dr – Teaching is HARD and things can get VERY complicated. To any students reading this: your professors and T.A.s probably work harder than you know. I’ve worked a *lot* of jobs in my life and, while I LOVE teaching and never want to have to leave my college, it is, flat-out, the hardest job I’ve ever had.

          (I’ll rant about how under-paid and under attack K-12 and college teachers are in the U.S. another time – this is already a wall o’text.) 😉

        5. Leorale

          On keeping the door open: my dad is a retired clergyman, and had a similar policy to keep the door open. (He would never have done something inappropriate, nor did he want the appearance of evil.) If I recall correctly, they specifically taught him to keep the door open in seminary, and I’m sure it saved him some extremely awkward situations.

  32. Eldritch Gentleman

    Joyce would be taking that back faster than Pharaoh taking back his promise to release Jews from Egypt if she knew that the “True Love” is Sal.

    1. BenRG

      I’m… not sure of that. If anything, I suspect that Sal is probably going to be grateful that Joyce doesn’t know and thus can’t engage in bone-headed if well-meaning interference.

    2. Freemage

      Why? She adores Sal, and would completely understand why Jason would be ‘smitten’ with her (never mind that their relationship was closer to #@^3-fssking). She’d simply start trying to encourage him to live up to the pedestal that she puts Sal on.

      If anything, getting a ‘nice boy with good manners’ as Sal’s True Love would be a top-grade project for Joyce.

  33. JBento

    Way to screw-up the landing, Joyce.

  34. Vulcanodon

    Joyce figures things out in iterations, swinging from side to side as objections are raised until she has a new path. I can’t criticize her for that since we all do it to some extent but that is the reason we take philosophy classes – to work out rules for ourselves in advance and minimize the number of real-world missteps.

    Speaking of which I’m pretty sure that given a couple hours privacy, she’d set aside every rule for Jacob.

    1. thejeff

      I think it would take longer than that – they’d have to date awhile first, but yeah, I suspect it would be pretty easy for the right person to seduce Joyce. The key would be not to try, but just to let her do it herself. 🙂

  35. Blackbird

    Panels 3 and 5: Even Jason has to check out that Joyce booty…

  36. Cmd1095

    Truly, the joycest of comics

  37. Romanticide

    Joyce talking with the bartender is not 21+ only.
    And just remembering how odd it was when I was asked for my id at a wedding on my late twenties.

  38. Arianod

    “I came from the past to tell you to stop the hanky-panky.”

  39. Potatamoto

    I…have to disagree with the alt text. A slipshine featuring an encounter between Dumbiverse and Walkyverse Joyce would be Joycest.

    1. Reltzik

      But what level of character development for both? For the Walkyverse, are we talking Roomies Joyce? Pre-year-0-amnesiac Joyce? Pre-anti-Joyce Joyce? For Dumbingverse, are we talking pre-Ryan Joyce, or pre-Becky’s-out Joyce, or pre-Toedad-Joyce?

      Obviously the only solution is to have all of these versions simultaneously. …. oh, and Anti-Joyce too.

      1. Potatamoto

        That’s almost too much Joycest…almost…

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