226

Happiest
Posted on July 31, 2021 by David M Willis

226 thoughts on “Happiest”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    I still foam at the mouth over screencaps, which are somehow ENORMOUS when done from a phone and e-mailed, and the phone never tells you said screencap is like 2MB and the e-mail never tells you there’s a 500MB quota bc something something I.T. said

    actually Joe, Joyce cares very much about food not touching, also

    also Joyce DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG

    1. Demoted Oblivious

      It’s ok Joe. You’re not the only one thinking about it now.

      1. Clif

        Can we focus on what’s important? Amber prefers laptops to cellphones. As do all right thinking people.

        1. Demoted Oblivious

          Whose lap top are we talking about here? Because there are a great many laps that I’m rather meh over, but I could really get into others…

        2. Felix

          Amen. But my desktop is still my favorite.

    2. Heather

      Joyce cares about things being kept in their easily identified if restrictive and boring boxes. She sometimes gets upset when things are more complicated than that: food, people.
      Relationships?

    3. Wraithy2773

      Amber is a monster for using her goddamn phone for screencaps. There’s a printscreen button! There’s also a Snip tool default on Windows that lets you crop out and copy a portion of your screen! It is 500x more convenient than using your phone for that nonsense!

      1. Yumi

        Bro, I think you might not understand what taking screencaps on your phone means…

        1. Wagstaff

          Hey, has anyone seen Milu? I don’t think she’s been here for weeks. Sure hope they’re OK…

        2. Yumi

          No idea why this is a reply to my comment but.

          Wasn’t Milu talking about going off somewhere for work? And WiFi would be a 30 minute (not 30 feet) walk away.

        3. Wagstaff

          *they’ve been here for weeks.

          DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT!

        4. Yumi

          It can definitely be frustrating to get someone’s pronouns wrong, but usually a simple correction is enough. People have varying thoughts on even including a “sorry”– as a they/them, I personally appreciate a quick “sorry” along with the correction, but not one that there’s any expectation I’d reply to. Now, the “DAMN IT!”s here? That would make me uncomfortable, and I think sort of does here even just witnessing it.

          When a self-correction is accompanied by a berating of self, it can put it on the person who was mis-pronouned to be like, “It’s okay.” or “Don’t worry about it.” or something, and that’s really not fair. That’s why some people don’t even like a “sorry” thrown in.

        5. Wagstaff

          Thanks for sharing. But I do not intend those dammits implicate anyone as much as I intend them to reflect my struggle against widespread binary indoctrination, against indoctrination of all kinds, really.

          It’s just so frustrating and even agonizing to know that your brain is constantly lying to you.

        6. Yumi

          Fair enough, but you know what they say about intentions. And really even with those intentions…the point stands.

        7. Wagstaff

          Thanks for understanding. There can be any number of reasons behind people’s actions and speeches that are seemingly out of line. In fact, one of the most important ways we are able to distinguish actual meanness from apparent meanness is giving people the opportunity to explain themselves.

          Anyway, I miss Milu, and I hope they come back soon!

        8. Yumi

          Oh, I still think it was out of line, though I never thought it was mean.

        9. Wagstaff

          Woops. I meant “seemingly ill-intended”.

        10. Yumi

          Oh, well, I never thought it was ill-intended.

        11. GUIGUI

          I know for a fact that I once tried to take a screencap of an overlayed translation with the goolge translation tool and it simply did not allowed that. I had to take a picture of the phone with an other phone. I would never have to deal with that kind of foolery on my computer.

        12. Ana Chronistic

          Phones are one thing, I have these bozos taking photos of their LAPTOPS, of normal ass WEBPAGES

        13. Kryss LaBryn

          One of my husband’s relatives “sent” us a little questionnaire for a family calendar they were putting together.

          They very carefully typed up all the questions, printed them out, TOOK A PHOTO, and emailed it to us as a jpeg.

          It was upside down. *facepalm*

          I did not bother with it.

        14. Ana Chronistic

          *froth*

      2. Needfuldoer

        I take photos of screens with my phone all the time. Sometimes it’s the only way to capture an error message on an airgapped system.

        (Seriously my work phone’s about 80% full of error message and URL screen photos.)

        1. Ana Chronistic

          Fine but this is of websites!! Which can be done on a personal computer!!! For my personal grievance ?

      3. Reltzik

        Yahbut does she record vertical video?

        1. JBento

          She, in fact, does not.

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/04-is-a-song-forever/conceded/

  2. plasticwrap

    Does our little fun die have an oral fixation?? Hahahahaha

    1. butts

      yeah, an Oral Roberts fixation

      1. BarerMender

        Ewww!

        1. Demoted Oblivious

          Oral Roberts is a university!? Who in the hell thought that was a good name for a school?

        2. Yumi

          Presumably, Oral Roberts.

    2. Thag Simmons

      Joyce Brown, Future Pornlord

      1. Wagstaff

        She might just have to become a Porn Demigod first.

      2. Moonie

        She did draw on all those whiteboards.

    3. Kyrik Michalowski

      I wonder if she has actually put any thought into her saying “cocksucking” or not. Does she realize what that is and actually thought about it? Or is she just parroting stuff she has heard?

      1. Wagstaff

        I wonder what’s worse to her: the meal she delivered to Sarah or cocksucking.

        1. Kyrik Michalowski

          Give her time, she might learn to enjoy them both. :V

        2. Deanatay

          HAS she delivered it, though? She’s still carrying it here…

      2. Lanie

        I mean, it doesn’t take much imagination to guess what cocksucking means if you know what cock means, so the most important question is really if Joyce has put to memory the meaning of the word cock.

        1. Yumi

          A friend of mine didn’t learn the word “dick” until freshman year of college when she heard her roommate say it, and she wasn’t even raised in a religious household or otherwise denied access to, like, media or other kids. But she did know the word “cock,” and in the conversation where she told me about learning “dick,” argued that there didn’t need to be more than one slang term for a penis.

        2. Lanie

          Assuming they were American, I am impressed they managed to never stumble across the word, especially in high school.

        3. Yumi

          Yup, she’s American. We went to the same high school and college, and when she was telling me this the the college dining hall, I was like, “I have failed to properly prepare you for the many words you will encounter.”

        4. Miri

          I like to think you then calmly started reciting a very long list of words. Then told her that if you did the same for female genitalia you might well be asked to leave since the male words tend to be viewed as puerile/silly/relatively mild insults, whereas the female ones are often Serious Insults. Because of that thing where women are evil temptresses using our vile wiles and our evil succubus pleasure zones to destroy humanity one man at a time (y’know, unless we’re chaste property – virgin daughters or meekly submissive wives who are functionally incubators for The Heir, also child-rearers and house-keepers. Maybe wage supplementers depending on social status… But not actual people, and not allowed pleasure. HISTORICALLY, of course… ?)

        5. Geneseepaws

          Thank you.
          I’m sorry you had to say it.
          It winds me up that you said it, that you needed to, and that it is still spot on, and that it is so necessary that you continue to say it. And that there are still bongos and politicians out there who haven’t processed it.
          So thank you for saying it again.
          Arrrrggggh, it winds me up it does.
          Dear men, women are not out to get you, they are not superior to you, you do not need to fear them. But by all that is here, above, and below, they are your full equals. Get it! Get with it! And grow up!

        6. Segnosaur

          Its not surprising she never heard the word “dick” before… Most people just say “detective”.

          What?

      3. fridge_logic

        She’s been reading Amber’s slashfic, she could know of/ have fantasized about literally any sexual act by now.

      4. Bicycle Bill

        Like George Carlin said about ‘cocksucking’ (and the other four-syllable one we all know) in his “Seven Dirty Words” routine —
        “Those are… those are heavy-weight words. There’s a lot going on there, man! Besides the literal translation and the emotional feeling. They’re just busy words.”

  3. RassilonTDavros

    It’s like I’m looking into a mirror

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Anyway, as requested by RacingTurtle and mrnoidea… called it.

      1. RassilonTDavros

        Shoot, link doesn’t work. Hang on… called it?

        1. Clif

          Amber is not continuing with asking them to leave. She is now considering more important matters.

        2. Demoted Oblivious

          To be fair, they just asked R.T.D. to remember the comment from yesterday. Also, while Amber may not be using the best word choices, an animal behaviorist might still read her performance as dismissive. She’s seemingly trying to ignore JJ and is actively creating a dialogue about an inane topic completely tangential to why J or J approached her. Which would likely read as discouraging to anyone around Amber being remotely aware of her feelings. (I’m calling you both out here JJ)

  4. Proto_Eevee

    Bro she said cocksucking! Talk about character development…

    1. Clif

      Who knew developing your character could be so easy.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      But her ‘F-bomb count’ is still stuck at zero.

      1. Bicycle Bill

        try that again … F-bomb count

        1. Wagstaff

          Looks like Billie IS Top of the Class in SOMETHING after all.

        2. Demoted Oblivious

          Cool. It’s a pity Joyce isn’t on there with a documented ‘0’ though. It seems like she would be a decent baseline for the rest. (and maybe some nonverbal one-off character). Also, I’m guessing this is maintained manually, unless there’s a published script with each comic (like schlock did) that I’ve missed all these years. (honestly I don’t know why more comics /don’t/ include text only scripts. It would help both fans AND authors search the comic, and increase accessibility for low/no vision readers.

        3. John

          Joyce is actually in there, but the code that generates the bars doesn’t display a bar for a character until they have at least one F-bomb attributed to them. But Joyce has an assigned color (the orange of Walkyverse-Joyce’s customary T-shirt), and I keep her appearance count updated, which I don’t bother doing for the other characters that don’t have an F-bomb to their name.

        4. Demoted Oblivious

          Thanks for the follow-up. Your job would probably be way easier with an available text script. Ah well.

  5. Nono

    C’mon Joyce, if Joe was that shallow why were you texting him as a confidante?

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      She doesn’t need to be in the right to be angry and confrontational with Joe. She can do that when she’s wrong too.

    2. Spencer

      Joe is shallow because Joyce relied on him for something of enormous importance to her, and Joe not only helped to the best of his abilities but did so with zero understood contradiction of his role as Manly No Feels Sex Bro, and then when Joyce came back and assumed that pulling some humanity out of Joe meant he was actually good all along only for Joe to stonewall any attempts at emotionally engaging with her until she came clean about Ryan and Joe’s contributing to that miasma, something that Joe has at least nominally walked back on, that’s why Joyce thinks he’s shallow.

      1. Meagan

        Wait when did Joyce tell Joe about what happened with Ryan?

        1. Rabid Rabbit

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/04-the-do-list/object/

  6. King Daniel

    I see Joe and Joyce are proceeding to have a deeply personal conversation, right here.

  7. Yumi

    No, no, I think it’s important that Joyce say “cocksucking.”

    1. Jamie

      Yeah. This. This is a surprise. Not sure if I like it yet.

  8. Wagstaff

    *plays “Filthy Gorgeous” by Scissor Sisters on Voxola PR-76*

    1. Stephen Bierce

      Better than “Freeze Frame” by the J. Geils Band.

  9. ian livs

    Damn. Y’know, I’m years out of my fundie phase, but I still couldn’t say that so loudly without stuttering. lol

  10. MrSmith

    I don’t normally talk about how cute things are because, to me, cute gets overused but damn Joe and Joyce are being particularly cute at the moment

  11. jeffepp

    But you did
    But you did
    But you did
    And, I thank you

    1. NickG

      RIP Dusty.

  12. Linda

    Dumbing of Age Book 10: SEX SEX SEXY COCKSUCKING SEXY SEX

    1. Tan

      11, but otherwise you stole my post

      1. Clif

        DOA 11: It’s Easier to Type On My Laptop.

        Particularly if the phone keeps getting taken over by pop-up video ads.

  13. Kyrik Michalowski

    I did not expect that out of Joyce, but here we are.

    Also Amber’s message going on the background is a little sad. I feel the same way but I recognize that it is an issue.

    Also why the hell did you two go to Amber for advice and then ignore her while she is talking?

    1. Clif

      Particularly when she’s talking about how to be happy.

      1. justin8448

        Ooof. That hits kind of hard.

  14. Thag Simmons

    New Joyce Swears just dropped

    1. Demoted Oblivious

      Cocks are male birds, and yeah, their attitudes can be pretty sucky.

      1. Wagstaff

        Joyce seems like the kind to love domestic animals of all kinds, including chickens.

        I’m sure she’s just dying to play with a cock!

        1. Demoted Oblivious

          Are you implying that she might butcher her own poultry, choke-the-chicken, as it were?

      2. BarerMender

        Yes, male birds. But the erect penis twitches much like a bird walking, so the transfer of the concept.

        1. Demoted Oblivious

          When have you seen an erect penis WALKING?

          Also, as the penis twitches, the eye flails all over the place above the fixed base. When a bird walks (I’m imagining pigeons here, predators don’t have a notably weird bird-walk) their eyes remain stationary until the head snaps forward to a new static position, all of which occurs above a moving base.

    2. RassilonTDavros

      Personally, I kinda want Joyce’s first f-bomb to be directed at Carol.

      1. Thag Simmons

        That’d be real fucking satisfying.

      2. Geneseepaws

        Or Mary. Sure enough, Carol, but Mary is so much more convenient to the cause.

      3. Demoted Oblivious

        Y’all aren’t wrong. But there comes a point for some people, that it simply does not matter what you say to them. They simply don’t register the meaning of the words coming out of your mouth, and remain permanently fixated on an idea in their head. Verbal confrontations, while remaining necessary for the speaker to establish boundaries, are often less than satisfying because you know the recipient can’t actually hear you.

  15. Jonah Sanville

    at least the cocksucking is sexy

    1. Wizard

      If it isn’t, you must be doing something wrong.

      1. Some Guy

        “Hey, watch the teeth Babe!”

  16. Tandel

    Little disappointed Cocksucking isn’t the title for the day’s strip.

    Joe actually looks… disappointed? Dismayed? that she said it. Maybe it’s just shock.

    1. Linda

      To me it seems more like “you said it and now I’m thinking about it”.

      1. Steelbright

        Exaaaactly.

  17. BBCC

    Yeah, I’d ignore the hell out of this too if I were Amber, but since I’m not, it’s super funny.

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      Amber needs to invest in a human repelling device and use it to druve these 2 into the hallway. There they can argue until they are blue in the face

      1. Clif

        Walky’s busy elsewhere.

      2. Some Guy

        No, Amber needs to invest in a fucking therapist and a giant bottle of gabapentin.

        1. Wagstaff

          I’d be careful with that last one. Just because that stuff’s legal, that doesn’t mean it can’t fuck you up.

        2. Some Guy

          It’s a comic strip.

        3. Wagstaff

          A comic strip where somebody almost died by taking antidepressants with alcohol.

    2. Nono

      Who cares less about other people’s drama, Amber or Sarah?

      1. Jamie

        Amber, hands-down. How is this even a contest.

  18. tbf

    Amber should write a utility to automatically save the contents of Print Screen into a PNG file.

  19. Kravis

    Fuck, fuck, fuck
    Mother, motherfuck
    Mother, motherfuck-fuck
    Motherfuck, motherfuck
    Noinch, noinch, noinch

  20. DailyBrad

    I am glad I wasn’t drinking anything when I read this.

  21. Grimey

    C’mon. A “I CARE ABOUT YOU!”/“I CARE ABOUT YOU TOO!” exchange.

    C’mon.

  22. Diane

    And soon, Amber will just watch their conversation devolve into “Now….Kiss”

  23. Formedras

    Screenshots. One key on PC or hold two buttons on phone? PC, easy.
    If you need to crop, then maybe phone has an advantage.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Print Screen leaves a bitmap on the clipboard though, you still have to open another application, paste, and save.

      Snipping Tool is great, but you need to run it.

      Macs had a three-key shortcut to instantly dump the whole screen to a MacPaint or PICT file thirty years ago! Come on, Microsoft, get it together!

      1. Geneseepaws

        This. So very, very, very much this.

      2. Demoted Oblivious

        I’m no apple fan-boy (penguin power), but props also to them for figuring out their core UI design 40 years ago and commiting to it.

      3. TheLurkerAbove

        Win+Shift+S to invoke Snipping Tool immediately.

        Win+PrintScreen to save the entire screen to your user/pictures/screenshots folder.

        This does require Windows 10.

      4. Jenny Islander

        In Firefox I just right click anywhere on the screen, choose Take Screenshot, click’n’drag to create the shot, then click either Copy or Download. Easy peasy.

      5. RowenMorland

        I think Windows has it default set to put your screenshots up onto One Drive so if you haven’t turned that off then it is just the one button.

  24. BlackScarabFilmZ

    Yeah, but sometimes your phone can’t take screenshots of certain apps, so a computer is better unless you have to futz with the hardware acceleration settings so you can take a screenshot of Netflix.

    1. woobie

      Then you need a phone from somewhere else.

  25. Chris

    Is Amber deliberately ignoring the conversation behind her, or is she genuinely not noticing it?

    1. BenRG

      I think that it is a case of her talking about her problems and everyone else ignoring her because their own problems are coincidentally reaching critical mass at the same time!

    2. Keulen

      I thought at first Amber was just trying to answer their questions from yesterday’s strip and they’re ignoring her because they’re too busy arguing. But now I’m not so sure.

  26. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    Joyce: Since when have *you* have character Development?!

    Joe: Since when have you have *emotional* development?!

    Amber: *Being a hard ass Mood.*

    Joe and Joyce is a dynamic that never ceases to amuse me. It’s some of the best of this entire strip.

  27. Yotomoe

    Fun Fact! My laptop keyboard has like…a handful of keys that just don’t work cuz I kept it in the bathroom when I showered. (Yeah I brought it in to play music. I didn’t know the steam would damage it!) so now I prefer using my phone to my laptop. Though my desktop is the best of both worlds.

    1. Demoted Oblivious

      On many models replacing a keyboard is actually remarkably straight forward. It may be worth checking your specs and the cost of a replacement.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      If you head for your closest Goodwill or other thrift/resale shop, you can probably find a second-hand USB plug-in keyboard for around five bucks. Stick it into one of your laptop’s USB ports and you’re good to go.

  28. Yotomoe

    Anyone else finding this kinda attractive or just me?

    1. Wagstaff

      Attractive, kinda. Elated, definitely!

    2. Keulen

      Yeah, I’m enjoying this. Joe and Joyce arguing like this has me shipping them even more than I already was. And I like that Amber just keep talking about her phone and laptop while that’s going on.

    3. ValdVin

      Oh, you’re by no means alone in that department.

    4. Deanatay

      AND THEN THEY ALL FU-MMPHG!

      *stuffs Yelling Bird into canister, sticks in pneumatic tube labelled “Madagascar”*

      1. Demoted Oblivious

        I miss yelling-bird and sweet-tits. Was also really hoping pint-size would remain in his anthro body, but I understand that Jeph wants to go somewhere with that.

        1. misanthropope

          pintsize as winslow’s evil twin creeps me the fuck out.

    5. zee

      Nope, definitely not just you

  29. Teddae

    amber’s right though. it IS easier to type on the laptop. i hate typing on my phone so much. i wish phones these days still had actual buttons instead of a flat screen.

  30. Cmasta1992

    I feel like I need to draw Joyce giving doing a Slipshine now. Is that allowed? Will i get I’m trouble? What are the rules

    1. Cmasta1992

      Rule 1 is to proofread before hitting Post Comment jfc…

      1. Demoted Oblivious

        Rule 2 is to not talk about fight-club.

        1. Clif

          Rule 3 is to ignore Rule 4.

        2. He Who Abides

          Never speak of Rule 5.

          Oops.

        3. Demoted Oblivious

          Rule #6 is you must post it to Imgur and share the link in the comments.

        4. Demoted Oblivious

          [edit] that should be Rule #0.

    2. Wagstaff

      Yotomoe does it. I don’t see why not!

    3. Joyfulldreams

      PLEASE DO THIS.

    4. cmasta1992

      Joyce makes an ironclad argument [NSFW]

  31. Calibus

    Oh fuck. Ambers the right person to talk to about joyces problems.

  32. Tawnee

    Is this how we learn that the Whiteboard Ding-dong Bandit couldn’t easily get the whiteboards clean afterwards, and had to employ a little spit n’ polish? Did it awaken something?

    Let’s read on!

    1. brionl

      If you accidently write on a whiteboard with a permanent marker, take an erasable marker and draw over it. Then you should be able to wipe both of them off.
      There may be a bit of shadow left over.

      1. BBCC

        Oh no. Not this again! XD

        (The arc in question had this same suggestion among others in the comments roughly 15 zillion times per strip. AG just told Joyce there were dozens of ways to remove them.)

        1. Clif

          This works particularly well if you have dozens of erasable markers with which to mark over the permanent mark.

      2. Bicycle Bill

        Acetone (fingernail polish remover) will also work.

      3. Wingless

        Make sure it’s dry erase though, wet erase doesn’t do it the same.

  33. Catt

    I refuse to believe Amber wouldn’t be able to do a screencap on a laptop in less than a second

    1. Pearl

      By taking a photo of it with her phone.

      1. Segnosaur

        You know i have actually done that.

        I was testing a software application that was generating an error. I needed to capture the error to log it, but whenever i tried the print screen button or the snipping tool the error popup would vanish. So, i took a quick picture of the screen with my phone.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      She could do all that and more. Remember when she hijacked the printer in the computer class in like the third week of first semester?

    3. Needfuldoer

      PrintScr
      Win+R
      pbrush
      Enter
      Ctrl+V
      Ctrl+S
      Enter

      That shouldn’t be too hard to macro.

      1. Demoted Oblivious

        You are correct. It /shouldn’t/ be. But in basic Windows it *is*.

    4. Deanatay

      She said only that it was ‘quicker’ on a phone. Not that it was impossible anywhere else.

  34. Beau Kirin Maysey

    Amber: “Are you both finished with your frankly baffling cross-talk? I’m finding it’s still draining my social spoons, just at half the rate.”

  35. jimbotherisenclown

    Joyce has the same energy as Season 4 Sypha here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn40jVORaG4

    1. Wagstaff

      I’m only just picking that up too!

      By the way, just where did you get that alluring avatar?

      1. StClair

        From here, I expect.

        1. Wagstaff

          *drools from awesome aura of pure SAUCE*

          Seriously, someone should make this an actual game!

          Why isn’t Taco Bell on the roster?

  36. Anastasia

    Please be when Joe finally admits to caring for Joyce. I need to see Joe be cute ><

  37. He Who Abides

    They’re gonna kiss, by Monday.

    1. Sol

      Don’t give me hope.

    2. HeatherJean

      And bone by Thursday.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        And Friday, they’re in love

        1. Yumi

          Fuck that’s good

        2. Demoted Oblivious

          Satur-DAAAAAAY, wait

        3. Deanatay

          Sunday always comes too late
          But Friday never hesitate

  38. woobie

    So, the opposite of what Amber is saying is to stop looking at the phone.

  39. BenRG

    Poor Amber! I wonder how often she tries to express herself and explain her problems only to have an audience who are entirely focused on themselves?

    Joe, meanwhile, is wondering if being aroused by Joyce when she’s in this mood is a good or a bad thing. Joyce, on the other hand, seems likely to kiss him out of a tension and annoyance overload!

    1. deliverything

      Please forgive my aromantic ignorance, but do people really kiss “out of a tension and annoyance overload”? I’d assumed that was just something that happened in movies.
      Then again, I never understood the appeal of squashing one’s lips against another person’s (and how do you even figure out whose nose goes where?), so maybe the concept’s perfectly reasonable somehow.

      1. Sam

        It only makes sense if there is underlying attraction that can be acted on. You will likely not kiss your absolute archenemy that you find repulsive as sin and have no physical or emotional attraction to.

        But if someone is overloaded with emotion, acting on their attraction can be the emotional outlet they end up taking because emotions need to stop, releasing them must be done in any way possible ASAP.

    2. Segnosaur

      Is joe actually aroused now?

      I know he probably has a general attraction to joyce, but he seems to be more worried about joyce’s situation, and was taken aback by her swearing.

  40. Eldritchy

    Amber turns around, sees them smooching and wonders
    “How did that happen?”

  41. Wraithy2773

    …what the fuck, Amber.

    Screencaps with your phone? With your PHONE?!

    You’re a compsci student, you have to have the snip tool on your computer, or at least printscreen to shove into GIMP or some other freeware photoshop alternative! Only complete monsters take screencaps with their goddamn phones!

    1. Yumi

      Are you…talking about taking a picture of the screen with your phone? Or? That’s the only way I could make sense of this anger, which is otherwise being directed at a very common practice.

      1. Yumi

        Or, rather, do you think that’s what Amber is talking about doing.

    2. Wagstaff

      I can only hope her math skills will compensate for such a lack of figuring out time saving shortcuts on her devices.

      If not, oh well…..

    3. Eldritchy

      Doesn’t she mean taking screenshots of what’s On the smartphone?

    4. StClair

      I have heard it said that phones (and other consumer electronics) have now been simplified and been made user-friendly enough that it can no longer be assumed that young people are more tech-savvy than their elders; both are equally confused and at a loss when something doesn’t “just work”.

      1. Needfuldoer

        They do, and it bugs the shit out of me because they’re dragging real computers down with them. “No, I don’t need error codes! Just throw a “oopsy there was a pwobwem, sowwy” message up on the screen, maybe add a frowny face too, why not!” Gah!

        Amber’s right that smart devices can take screenshots almost instantly by holding a couple physical buttons; I haven’t seen them get taken that fast since the pre-OS X Mac days (when Command-Shift-3 dumped the screen to an image file, complete with digitized camera shutter sound). Even Snipping Tool isn’t that fast (but it’s still a vast improvement over the old way).

        1. Zaxares

          Fluffy yet entirely useless error messages are a huge pet peeve of mine too, speaking as a geek who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s. “Oops, something went wrong!” Yeah, I KNOW something went wrong. What I NEED is more information about WHAT went wrong so I can solve it!

      2. Eldritchy

        Very much this, I come from a generation where personal computers were only starting to get popular in my country and we had to do a lot of own learning and work,. Reinstalling the operating system, fixing problems etc. etc. Nowadays the computers are reliable enough that your average user doesn’t really have to know much to operate one.

  42. Rabisch

    Joyce is so rude with poor Joe. She should know that he’s totally obsessed by family. Her bad humour is making her really angry and susceptible. Poor Joe, he looks so sad hearing Joyce say such words… Also, I admire Amber’s capacity to ignore their quarrel.

    1. Needfuldoer

      But he’s cursed to only ever be the thing he was before, or so he’s told.

      1. Schpoonman

        Tall Rachel is one of the worst.

  43. Moon

    she’d hate that i was shocked she knows what oral sex is for just a second

    1. Delicious Taffy

      She’s done it plenty in the time skip. Virtually, of course, under the protective shield of the RP Asterisk.

  44. Bagge

    That’s five bucks you owe her, Joe.

    1. Amos Batista

      Ow year, you remembered that.

  45. Delicious Taffy

    Free writing prompt: Joyce and Joe slow burn romance set in a Wild West frontier AU that also happens to include a Stable Time Loop.

    1. Demoted Oblivious

      Is… is that a non-collapsing time loop, .. or a time-loop set in a stable with horses?

      1. Delicious Taffy

        It’s both and neither.

  46. Lone Duck

    For all the folk upset that Amber is taking screencaps with her phone instead of PrintScr, I would like to point out that this in line with Garbage Roof mentality. Besides, if you want to put a laptop screencap on your phone, taking the picture with your phone is the quickest method. Plus it trolls all the internet types that would get upset.

    1. Eldritchy

      Future Adeptus Mechanicus recruits are protesting against sacrilege.

    2. Kavonde

      I just… You press the power button and the volume down button at the same time. That captures your phone’s screen. Why do people think she’s talking about photographing her laptop screen?

  47. Varangian

    My girl Ambs out here dropping knowledge while these chumps just yell over each other about the things they DEFINITELY would NEVER WANT TO DO TO EACH OTHER, especially BLOWJOBS, Joyce, Joe has NEVER imagined you giving one

    1. Schpoonman

      And Joyce has certainly never wondered just what Joe looks like doenstairs, nope, no way, no how, not ever, certainly not after her ascension as the Ding Dong White Board Bandit, and DEFINITELY not after getting a faceful of Joe-in-boxers earlier today.

  48. darkoneko

    Amber “WILL YOU TWO SMOOCH IT YOU ALREADY”

    1. Deanatay

      *Joyce and Joe suddenly start making out*

      *Amber takes screencap on phone, then on laptop*

      Amber: See, quicker.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Then she turns to them like “So, what was it you needed, again?”

  49. TheFlamingonator

    I think Amber would be THE HAPPIEST with some noise-cancelling headphones right about now

  50. Hinoron

    Congratulations on graduating from age 8 maturity to age 10 maturity, Joyce.

  51. Alan in DC

    Reading the strip early this morning before getting out of bed. Laughed out loud at Joyce. The Mrs asked me what was so funny, so I showed her.
    Didnt find it humorous one bit.
    DoA – obviously for discriminating readers.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      I mean this particular joke doesn’t really land properly if you’re not a regular reader— it’s only shocking if you know what Joyce is generally like. That’s less a criticism and more a natural consequence of this being a serialized dramedy that’s been running for a decade.

  52. ETP

    Joyce’s glasses are really going to her head.

  53. Wakeangel2001

    this is the worst setup for step-sibling porn I’ve ever seen

    1. chuckroast

      Worst or best?

  54. Jammy

    My new favorite side game in the comic is pretending certain dialogue bits are going to be very inappropriate titles for the current chapter/book. Guess which one I picked today.

    1. JohnnyO

      Maybe for the Slipshine printed edition

      1. Wagstaff

        Hmmm…. appetizers….. I wonder what delicious creation awaits us in the near future….

    2. Jammy

      Honestly, half of them make a good punchline for the game, so there’s hardly a wrong answer.

  55. Josh Spicer

    Joyce said cocksucking.

    Like an adult.

    1. Needfuldoer

      One word down, six to go!

      1. Bathymetheus

        Are there only seven deadly swears?

        1. Wagstaff

          Thirteen if you’re a sailor!

  56. Gash

    Yep the whole trio here is looking particularly stupid and maybe demented this time around.
    Kinda weird how people can go from complete smartass to braindead within the same person, and within a short timespan, then just ramp back up to normal.

  57. Rani

    There should be a character tag for all of those words Joyce just used.

  58. Steelbright

    I’m just over here actively cackling over how this has all played out.

  59. Lis

    Amber is channeling me so hard right now

  60. JA

    Oh shi-, Joyce did it. She said sex. And cocksucking.

    I think we’ve made a breakthrough.

  61. Steelbright

    Definitely projecting my own experiences, but for this whole Joe/Joyce interaction I’ve been really relating to Joe here. And that is a weird place to be, given….you know, Joe.

    I can just see it in his head: that thing where there’s this person you care about, and you know rationally that your ideological differences & sexual preferences would probably not mesh well, but a part of you is still interested, despite yourself, because of the slight chance it might be kinky and glorious….

    I guess key here is that you can still respect someone while feeling this weird kinda way about them. And you can still respect them while wishing they hadn’t said “cocksucking” because now you DEFINITELY have that image in your head

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