146

Fifteen
Posted on September 10, 2012 by David M Willis
Dumbing of Age is two years old today!  And I've also been drawing webcomics for 15 years as of today.  This brings two thoughts to mind.  1) Holy shit, dudes.  2) Jesus, I am old. To celebrate, there's the new BringBackRoomies.com site, which will rerun all of my older material in "best reading order" from start to finish, day by day, starting today.  Those fifteen-year-old old comics will be published much larger than previously, there'll be comics that've never been published before online (including today!), there'll be commentary as I apologize for how terrible they are, plus stuff won't be thrown around in random chronological order like the crappy old site (which still exists for now, don't worry).  So be sure to check that out every day for the next several years. Oh, and sweet stuff is also happening in Shortpacked!, because that old universe is actually still going, despite this new universe's existence. I keep busy.

146 thoughts on “Fifteen”

  1. David Herbert

    Isn’t Danny nice remembering to call his mother and let her know everything’s fine.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Are you sure she wasn’t the one who called him?

      1. Yotomoe

        or that she isn’t just always on the line wasting millions of dollars in phone bills cuz she wants a constant update?

        1. Thor

          Wasting millions of dollars in phone bills is such an anachronism.

  2. Kernanator

    Ahaha, Roomies reference.

    1. Rognik

      Yay, mythology gags! Although I am mildly disappointed Joe isn’t climbing the walls.

  3. Wonder Wig

    Is wimmens how Joe says womens with a New York Jewish accent?

    1. Sigma Octantis

      “women (not ladies) of a particular type. That is to say, whores, trollopes, groupies, etc.
      I hope to meet some horny wimmens down at the truckstop tonight!”

      Source : Urban Dictionary

    2. Somebody

      That’s just douchey! They’re not “whores”, it’s just an excuse for guys to be misogynistic! Urban Dictionary is full of brainless shitheads who have no idea what the fuck they’re talking about.

      1. MatthewtheLucky

        What if you’re going to a brothel adjacent to said truck stop?

    3. Narf

      Why would Joe have a New York Jewish accent? He went to high school with Danny, which would suggest that he’s, you know, from Indiana (unless I’m remembering wrongly and Danny is from New York).

  4. Doctor_Who

    Nice shout out to the first Roomies strip. Danny’s mom can see other universes! Or she just knows Joe very well.

    1. GrrArg42

      Knows him?! Like, that he likes colorful shirts.. right? Like what kind of toppings he liked on pizza when he and Danny did sleep overs as kids… r-right?

      1. alex

        excellent avatar.

        1. GrrArg42

          Avatar?! Where? I don’t want to be stabbed by giant blue people!!

        2. Aizat

          You don’t want to be master of the four elements? WHAT IS WORNG WITH YOU MAN?

        3. Yotomoe

          or attacked by a person with the abilities to control the 4 elements.

        4. GrrArg42

          I don’t want to be beat up by the Chem AP class again! Why won’t they just leave me alone. Come on Mr. Lemur, we don’t need those poopy heads anyway.

        5. Aizat

          Especially if that person knows spiritbending.

        6. thomas0comer

          I use all 109. Stupid “classical” system. Fire isn’t even a material, it’s a chemical reaction.

        7. begbert2

          Fire is so a material: plasma. The four (five) types of bending are solidbending, liquidbending, gasbending, and plasmabending. (And deus-ex-machinabending.)

        8. Plasma Mongoose

          I rather not have people practice plasma-bending actually.

        9. gangler

          It’s the time of troubles all over again.

        10. lordphulish

          And then the fire nation attacked

        11. GrrArg42

          Also.. thanks! Props to The Order of the Stick (OOTS).

      2. Ancestral Hamster

        Maybe “Danny’s Mom has got it going on …” *eg*

        1. Gregory

          The regards are his wang. Possibly in some sort of box.

    2. zfshiruba

      Mike knows Danny’s mom.

    3. Bill M.

      Considering Joe’s calling her by her first name, not Mrs. (or Ms. depending upon her marital status) Wilcox… I bet he knows her biblically.

  5. Wack'd

    The third panel cracked me the hell up.

    Also, love the blocking in the first two panels.

    1. Resne

      Might I suggest some Krazy Glue.

  6. Mkvenner

    Dude pants. Now!

    1. Luke

      Now I’m confused.

      1. Wonder Wig

        Joe telling someone to put on pants? Blasphemy!

        1. Aizat

          This is madness!

        2. Raiser

          THIS.

          IS.

          A really lovely strawberry torte. Care for more wine, sir?
          …what. “Designated driver”? You live across the street!
          …I see. Tell me, do you recall the name of the Greek country of warriors who lead roughly one thousand soldiers from the assembled states to victory over an invasion three times their size by funneling their enemy into a much smaller pass at Thermopylae?

          …yes, the one that got a Frank Miller movie made out of a book based on it. Apparently, in the famous scene oft parroted from the movie, in the book, the main character only whispered his line; in the movie, he shouted it. I honestly can’t recall the name of the country, though.

          What’s that? …Oh, right, right. Thank you.

          SPARTAH. *boot*

  7. Yotomoe

    And all the newcomers won’t get the REAL joke.

    1. SplashBoogie

      Eh, give ’em fifteen years.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        That’s a pretty harsh sentence for not getting a reference joke.

        1. Aizat

          Hey, at least it’s better than ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON!

        2. Luke

          THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!

        3. Aizat

          Yes, it is an UNACCEPTABLE CONDITION! UNACCEPTABLE!

        4. GrrArg42

          I DON’T KNOW WHAT WE’RE YELLING ABOUT!!!

        5. Mrelegos

          Don’t worry. Give it some time on the internet and you’ll be slinging references with the best of em.

        6. GrrArg42

          …i love lamp…

    2. Rognik

      Hurray for archives, though. Newbies CAN catch up, but it can’t be found directly yet.

  8. NCP19

    I can only assume Joe knows Danny’s mom’s name due to some…intimate interactions.

    1. Wack'd

      No, no, you’re thinking of Mike.

  9. littlespeck

    I feel this strip was to tell us how little time has really passed

    1. Wack'd

      No, see, the original Roomies! comic this is based on had the line “we just moved in all yesterday.” The mention of the time scale is part of the homage.

  10. junker359

    Two weeks in two years… at this rate it will only take 206 more years for the freshmen to graduate 🙂

    1. Rokku

      Yeah, that was my thought too. Well, more ‘holy crap it’s only been two weeks?’

    2. Rex Hondo

      And now it’s time for the 2 year, 7 month timeskip!
      Because only hacks do timeskips in nice rounded numbers.

  11. Plasma Mongoose

    The only window climber around these parts is Sal.

    1. Kernanator

      Mongoose! We thought you were dead!

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Not dead, just obsessively playing Saints Row The Third, I being playing the game with the relentlessness reserved for WoW basement dwellers.

        1. Aizat

          I know the feeling though I played FF7 and SRW Alpha Gaiden.

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          This is how I feel about Saints Row III:

          SRIII >> SR2 >>>>>>>> GTA:SA >> GTAIV

          SRIII would have scored even higher but they reduced the customisation compared to SR2.

        3. Aizat

          Don’t forget that they killed Johnny Gat.

        4. Plasma Mongoose

          That doesn’t help but I love the temp weapons like the Shock Hammer.

        5. zfshiruba

          Or Amber

    2. ASmellyOgre

      You know what that means…

      1. Kernanator

        Sal and Joe?

        …I can dig it.

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          …and if they find some bones, Dina can join in. 😀

        2. Aizat

          Oh, they’ll find a “bone” alright.

        3. Plasma Mongoose

          Dina might have trouble though, she’s used to digging up bones not burying them.

        4. Yotomoe

          She can look at it as digging up bones and then burying it then digging it up the burying it…

        5. GrrArg42

          A game of hide the femur? So unsanitary.

        6. Yotomoe

          However, Dina, like many people, needs them to live.

        7. Aizat

          Well, at least it’s better than a game of hide the cash. I swear if I ever find the mo-fo who hides my money, I’ll flip him off…..a cliff.

        8. GrrArg42

          We haven’t seen Ruth in a while… is she busy … femur-ing?

    3. Yotomoe

      Sal’s been catwomaning in for some lovin’ with Joe.

    4. SkepticJ

      Is this Eri?

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Yes it was Eri but in time you see this reply the avatar will have changed.

        1. SkepticJ

          School Rumble Forever (though the ending was very bizarre)!

  12. ArkhamTexan

    Never change, Joe. Never change.

    1. N0083rP00F

      On second thought, change and shower daily Joe … daily.

  13. Uncle Rylon

    At the rate of one week per year, in seven years, they’ll be done with the first semester.

    1. Raiser

      And I thought MY first year dragged on!

    2. milk experiment

      And in 2226, they’ll be graduating. Yaaay!

  14. Grassy Noel

    Doctor, everyone’s mum knows Joe very well.

    1. Aizat

      I thought they know Mike very well.

    2. Plasma Mongoose

      Grassy Noel, you got your characters mixed up.

      1. Grassy Noel

        Yes. It’s been a long while.

        1. Grassy Noel

          I expected better from myself, but alas

  15. Yotomoe

    Joe always has his rape face on.

    1. Aizat

      Good thing he’s not a depraved bisexual.

      1. GrrArg42

        … but he IS! He would definitely prefer two girls at a time than just one. I bet Joe is a TRIsexual. And not the kind with the colored streamers from the handlebars and foot pedals. Those are for kids anyway.

        1. Aizat

          Well, at least he’s not a quadsexual.

        2. Wack'd

          What would he do with all of them?

          …

          Don’t answer that.

        3. GrrArg42

          Mario cart?

  16. Christopher S

    so two years = two weeks? holy wow.

    1. Aizat

      Comic book time at its finest.

      1. Wonder Wig

        It takes about 30 seconds to briskly read one, so 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, 52 x 5 x 2 = 520. 520 x 30s = 15600s. 15600s/60 = 260m = 4.333 hours and that’s why I don’t have a gf.

        1. Yotomoe

          I thought it was cuz they were all jelous of your wonderful wig.

        2. Wonder Wig

          THey all wantsis my wig, but they can’t have it! It is my PRECIOUS!!!

    2. Wack'd

      So it’d take roughly nine more years for the semester to end.

      1. Joebo

        Assuming there are no further time-jumps, yes.

        1. begbert2

          If there are no further time jumps, two years only equals ten days.

    3. Joebo

      With a four day time jump, yes.

  17. brasca1

    Two weeks! I wish my first two were that exciting. I guess I missed out on a lot being a commuter.

  18. Aizat

    Joe reminds me of that guy from Shaun of the Dead somehow.

  19. Uniqueantique

    If this were any other comic I would quit reading it, I’d say, well now this is a cheap trick to get us to keep reading old stuff and I’d go off and find new strips.
    However, because this is Willis, and because I read Roomies et al until present day: and becasue I do have gaps from the Keenspot era: Hell no, I’m not going anywhere. Looking forward to the ‘re-enactment’ as it were. 🙂

  20. Kernanator

    “Yeah mom, college is fine. No, no drama, everything’s been pretty quiet. Really.

    1. gangler

      Now that you mention it, college actually has been pretty quiet for him. He deals with a roommate with an active sex life and he had that uncomfortable exchange with Sarah, but all in all pretty uneventful.

      1. Yotomoe

        I think you left out the…most important thing…

        1. GrrArg42

          … Mario cart? It’s the Mario cart, right?

        2. Yotomoe

          what the heck’s a mario cart?
          now mario karts on the other hand…

        3. vlademir1

          My lord, you mean to say you’ve forgotten cartridges? Or is it that you’ve forgotten “cart” was a typical shortening?

          Either way, I have to assume from that you don’t collect classic console games. 😉

    2. Yotomoe

      “Well there was that superhero but I mean…nono every college has one. It’s no big deal…Mooom, you’re so old school! All the coolest Colleges have them, I swear!”

      1. Shade

        I played Mario Kart with a Superhero Mum!

        That’s nice dear.

        1. thomas0comer

          Let me know when you move on to Gran Turismo.

  21. Aizat

    Does Joe has the hots for Danny’s mother?

    1. Joebo

      Well, she is a woman.

      She is also a mom, which is usually Mike’s territory.

  22. Wack'd

    Hi Willis! Yeah, the anniversary is fine. I just checked the Shortpacked! update and am now adjusting to the new Walkyverse site.

    …Yes, Eric knows the anniversary is today. Why do you ask?

    1. Kernanator

      Nice one.

      1. Wack'd

        If only there was a webcomics equivalent to climbing through windows I could make a joke about!

        Hacking the site, maybe?

  23. Regalli

    Sharon! She has a name now.

    In this continuity, anyway.

    And it only took fifteen years for that!

    1. Aizat

      Shaaron? I thought her name was Karen.

      1. Wack'd

        Sharon is Karen.

        1. GrrArg42

          Joe likes Karen for Sharon? How sweet.

        2. Raiser

          *badum–tish*

  24. Aeron

    Isn’t this like the third or fourth time you’ve redrawn this (more or less) exact strip? 😛

    1. Regalli

      Fourth, fifth if you include the first panels of the big anniversary continuity cavalcade when the Shortpacked! cast moved in together (First strip of Roomies, final strip of Roomies, and when his and Billie’s son was born in Joyce and Walky being the other ones). Could be missing one, though.

  25. K. Ivan Ruppert

    I like how Joe uses Danny’s mom’s first name.

    Stay classy, Joe. Don’t ever change.

    1. David

      Yeah, I had to figure out her name just so I could do the joke, after an intensive search to make sure I hadn’t already done so at some point. So I asked my pal Cindy what a good mom name would be, and hers won.

      1. Pyr05

        The mom’s name of Sharon reminds me only of Sharon Osborne.

        1. Wack'd

          My mom’s name is Sharon! That’s really goddamn creepy.

  26. GWRando

    Love the call back to the beginning of Roomies right there…

  27. vlademir1

    You know… I’m now trying to remember if it was established in DoA what Joyce’s feelings are on The Sound of Music…

  28. andrew

    HoHoHo i see what you did there

  29. Bill

    I guess Joe needs to keep his shirt off to keep his attractive image up. When he’s fully dressed the girls will pay more attention to what he says.
    Can’t have that! 😛

  30. Kirt Dankmyer

    I thought we weren’t supposed to talk about The Other Strip. 🙂

    And yes, we know DoA:Roomies::Ultimates:616 universe 😉

  31. Touch of Grey

    I misread Sharon as Sauron.
    And then I was really confused for a few seconds.

  32. Shazam

    Willis I understand if you don’t want to answer this, but I was on an archive binge and I was wondering, what beliefs if any do you hold?

    1. David

      I believe the children are our future.

      Teach them well and let them lead the way.

      1. Shazam

        You know I’ve read that about Six times over and have no idea if it answered the question as I intended. Probably my own fault.
        I meant more do you have any religious beliefs, I know you were raised fundamentalist but I’m not sure from what I’ve read from you in the comments if you’re religious or not now.

        1. Hotsauce

          He also wants to show them all the beauty they possess inside.
          If you know what I mean.

        2. Narf

          I think he was obliquely side-stepping your question, something you completely failed to notice. Heh.

      2. begbert2

        I believe that Skynet is our future.

        We’re all doomed.

      3. Wack'd

        And remember, my friends, future events such as these will affect you in the future!

    2. Gregory

      I believe that he believes in you.

  33. OliveLoaf

    That is a great callback.

  34. Charles RB

    I see what you did here.

    And it was awesome

  35. Marshall Erickson

    Joe, some things will never change.

  36. BrokenEye, True False Prophet

    It’s only been two weeks????

    Man, web comic time is surreal.

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