He’s offering to share gross-out humor with her. He sees her as an equal! Cool! She should reject his offer with potty humor in retaliation. Best buds forever.
Note that we haven’t seen any panel where Walky’s hand is near his nose. From this we can conclude that he always keeps a booger handy for emergencies.
did I miss something? what indicates that charles has an agenda here? he’s encouraging his kids to be nice to other kids, that’s regular parental behavior
We’re already biased against Chuck, so it’s easy to read him encouraging his kid to befriend the rich girl as attempted social climbing.
It might not necessarily be that, but people aren’t inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt
Sirksome
Bah! I wish Chuck was selfish enough to encourage his kids to suck up to the rich kid for social gain! He’s just going through the motions. How expected. Where the eff’s Linda at? She would be all over this opportunity!
DudeMyDadOwnsADealership
Linda already gave birth to that rich kid meeting her husband for the first time. A piece o’ that action already gotten.
zee
God that’d be a funny theory to run with
Sadly we already know billies mom is Chinese. If Linda were the secret mom she’d be 100% mayonaise
Blue
How is that possible? She had twins and also a secret baby all in the same year? Without her husband knowing?
DudeMyDadOwnsADealership
Oh, yeah. Linda was Jennifer’s *Godmother* correct?
Also, wasn’t she Korean on her non-Billingsworth side?
Ereb
Agreed. Although it does leave a bad taste in my mouth that the comment section is both blaming him for wearing sweat pants, and for ~ohhh, social climbing. Billie tagged along with them because she is a child, all by herself, and got foisted on them – and he dares to treat her with kindness and help her socialize with his kids. And Walky might not have done so without encouragement.
Would we be scrutinizing Joyce’s dad like that, if we saw him in a flashback?
Chuck is an enabler to Linda at this point like Joyce’s dad is to her church and Joyce’s mom. For one thing Chuck is Black himself, and how that interacts with Linda’s racism and racism’s respectability politics at large is convenient to forget, because it doesn’t fit a neat abuser narrative.
GeekyWarrior
Yeah I don’t get this negative reaction at all. He’s literally just being polite to this kid that wandered up to his kids.
Sirksome
That is actually a big peeve of mine with people against Charles. I’m not big on Chuck here, but he gets a lot heat for that comment against Sal’s hair and I think people ignore his black experience. Just talking from my own black life experience with black women, my mom, friends, ect. Black women spend a lot of time and money getting their hair straightened and as a black dude that can usually get a good cut for 20 bucks in 20 minutes, you gotta support your women when they have their hair done. So you better say you’re daughters hair is pretty when straightened. She probably spent over a hundred bucks on that! But if you say it’s better natural you get heat anyway by implying she wasted her time and money. You can’t win!
So yeah! I can give Charles a pass on that, because there’s a lot of unfairness in regards to society’s perception of black hair even today in 2022! Especially women’s hair. What the fuck is he supposed to say in that situation?
That rant being said. Charles is still mid as hell! I don’t trust him!
Yumi
I was almost going to agree with you, and then I went back and looked at that strip, and it comes off worse than I was remembering.
“What the fuck is he supposed to say in that situation?” idk, not that. The “*YOU* look so pretty when…” part isn’t good, imo.
BBCC
That would make sense if Sal had had her hair straightened before she talked to him. Definitely tell someone their hair looks good! Saying “Too bad” when your daughter’s wearing her natural hair and how pretty she looks when it’s straightened though? Dick move.
zee
Yeah speaking as a black woman who has relaxed her hair in the past, if my dad saw me with my hair fully curly again and said “you look so pretty with it straight” (note the wording, “YOU”, not “it” looks pretty straight, or your hair looks nice straight, intentionally or not he is ascribing her beauty to her hair texture, that’s called texturism) i would at best, write him off as a dumb boomer and walk away, adding more distance to our relationship.
Charles defenders sometimes skip over internalized racism and the intense amount of misogynoir a lot of black men have towards black women. Look at the Tori Lanes defenders/ Meg the Stallion issue, it’s an acknowledged phenomenon that a not inconsiderable chunk of black men, fucking hate black women. I’m not saying Charles would go as far as to defend a woman getting shot for absolutely no reason, but he probably does have an implicit bias there. We also need to keep in mind that Charles is half black, and that can also intersect with his experiences and mindset, especially if his mom was the white one.
So, tl;dr no being black doesn’t give chuck a pass for the hair shit and it wasn’t a compliment because sal’s hair was already curly by then. What the fuck was he supposed to say? “Oh well your hair looks nice either way”, “do what you want with it”, or even the ever present option, fucking nothing.
Sirksome
I don’t think it was a compliment. I just know from experience the mistake made because I’ve made it myself and seen it made many, many times. It’s a pitfall I think a lot if not all black men can fall into and just writing the man off as a dick kind of hurts to see cause black men don’t get a lot of slack in society in general.
It feels like it’s on Charles to be perfect in that moment when he’s most likely absorbed the same internalized racist perspective many black men have. I’m not sure if he’s a misogynist or if I was for that matter. But when you grow up knowing your mom has to spend hours a week in a salon just to keep her job, usually sitting there with her. It’s understandable to me he would say something like that, not intentionally trying to be a dick. Admittedly I wasn’t as old as Charles is, and probably still am not, so maybe he arguably should have known better in that moment.
I used to think when you see a black women in your family straightened there hair, and you say it looks better that way you’re trying to reaffirm the effort they put in. At least that’s what I thought once. I didn’t know Charles is half black though. That adds some context.
But to feels like he’s been judged for what was a honest mistake he probably wasn’t even aware he made. It feels harsh.
Sirksome
I kinda of love this conversation though. My mom and aunt used to help at the churches salon like decades ago now and this reminds me of back then.
thejeff
But he didn’t see her with it straightened and tell her it looked better. He didn’t even hear her say she was going to get it straightened and tell her it looked better that way.
He saw her with it curly and told her she was so pretty the other way. That’s completely different from complimenting someone when they actually do it.
Also, in the real world – it’s a minor bit. Quite likely insignificant. In this story? It’s an intentional clue dropped by the author to inform us. It’s a significant detail. It matters.
Tan
The next time a female acquaintance puts on a few pounds, you should definitely tell them “You looked a lot prettier when you were skinny” so as to be supportive of the money and effort they spend on dieting.
Bysmerian
The only mild defense I can wrestle up for Charles is that he may also associate the straight hair with before his daughter went down what he saw as a bad path; it’s clearly not as straight as she and her parents are starting to really clash. So he might also associate it with a sort of innocence.
There may also be internalized racism at any point in this thought process; make no mistake, Sal was put in that position in great part by Linda being an absolute drumset of a human being, and he has been complicit in it even if he doesn’t realize it. He’s still thoughtless *at best*.
Roborat
I used to have a pet peeve, was a cute little bugger to. But when it got big my dad took it to live on a farm upstate.
Blue
I agre with Sirksome, it was a shitty comment to make but I think people get on his case too much.
Pilgrim
The DOA comments section has always contained more projection than observation. You get used to it after a while.
Mostly how the first thing that came to mind when he learned her name was the fact she lived in a mansion and then just the whole top of panel 3 (but mostly the smug I brow raise when David starts trying to befriend her). I could be reading into thing though.
Darara
My first thought on the house remark was that ‘up on the hill’ gave me the impression he thought that was a long way for a little girl to walk alone.
I don’t like the Walkertons either, but this is pretty innocent behaviour. And Linda is…. less terrible than Carol.
Taffy
If Charles would ever act as more than an extension of Linda’s shitfuckery, maybe people wouldn’t be so quick to side-eye him.
DudeMyDadOwnsADealership
Yeah, Fidget may not have been as despicable as Professor Ratigan and they all were Ratigan’s orders, but he’s still an accomplice.
Same for Marge Simpson to anything Homer or Bart did to Society lately.
Same for LaFou to Gaston being a walking pile of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
A jackass’s enabler is a willing part of their jackassery whether they understand it works that way or not. Heartfelt intentions don’t come with the perk of excusing you from the kind of accountability that applies to literally everyone else…
Blue
I mean here he is being a good dad in this chapter and people can only focus on the alleged social climbing.
DudeMyDadOwnsADealership
True…But ya gotta admit, his being a good dad here also is a situation that doesn’t interfere with his wife’s climber agenda and also kind of helps to serve it as well.
Best part is, I don’t think this flashback really has anything to do with Mr. Walkerton whatsoever, but rather is about how Billie met Walky…..So not only is Chuckiw Walkerton but a background prop in this situation, but Poor Lil’ Shotgun Sally as well.
In my book Charles would then do a bad job at social climbing:
1- a kid going alone to school is not rich enough to make someone climb by making her acquaintance
2- a kid going alone to school is not cared about enough to make someone climb by making her acquaintance
thejeff
Mostly that second, I think.
Mind you, I’ve never been quite sure why Jennifer was going to the local public school anyway.
khn0
is it public?
I don’t remember the former flashback well enough.
Yeah, I was thinking that too. XD Her expression doesn’t give the impression she’s actually disgusted, so my guess is that she’s still in that kid phase where they know that something is supposed to be disgusting, but they don’t actually GET why it’s disgusting.
I love the detail of Billie’s wide smile in the last panel, even as she screams “Ewww”. And, of course, baby Sal is ADORABLE.
But, uh, I gotta ask to see if this is just my Walkerton Parent Hatedar colouring things – is anyone else getting Social Climber vibes from Charles here?
I mean I have a low opinion of Chuck already, I don’t also need him to be a social climber to dislike him
Taffy
And I don’t need to add honey to a PB&J, but it sure does add to the enjoyment.
Thag Simmons
I don’t actually like honey on PBJ
Taffy
That’s not suspicious. I’m sure it’s a coincidence that the 7’3″ reptilians invading Earth right now, they just haaaappen to melt into sand if they so much as touch honey. Not at all worth investigating.
191 thoughts on “Big house”
Ana Chronistic
aww, Walky’s offering a snack =D
?
Ana Chronistic
oh WALKY’S telling, I thought that was Sal snitching
Thag Simmons
Walky never did figure out restraint
Geneseepaws
He’s offering to share gross-out humor with her. He sees her as an equal! Cool! She should reject his offer with potty humor in retaliation. Best buds forever.
Doctor_Who
Note that we haven’t seen any panel where Walky’s hand is near his nose. From this we can conclude that he always keeps a booger handy for emergencies.
ThunderNight
never know when you might need one
DailyBrad
He also might just be fucking with her, but he might be a little young for those kinds of mind games.
King Daniel
“Based on a true story”??
Clif
I’m told the comic is autobiographical.
King Daniel
Which is strange, since so far intelligent automobiles have been strictly confined to in-universe fiction in this comic.
Clif
Do we actually know the truck wasn’t intelligent?
Opus the Poet
Truck-Kun comes for all of us eventually.
Clif
Eat at Arby’s.
Roborat
Well, if I am going to get Isekei’d, I want to be able to chose what world I get sent to.
The Wellerman
AWE how cute!!! ?
*plays “Simple and Clean (Music Box Version)” on Hacked Muzak*
Sirksome
The booger of fate connects them!
Clif
How romantic.But that’s snot how it works.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
He nose that. She nose that.
Everybody nose that. 😉
Deanatay
Walky and Billie, right? Na’ Sal?
brumagem
Billy’s first smile
True Survivor
Kids are not your ticket in with the rick and powerful, Charles. Jesus, what is this the 1830s?
True Survivor
Rich. Not Rick. There’s a ‘Dick’ joke in somewhare.
Thag Simmons
The Rick and Powerful sounds like a Rick and Morty episode title
RassilonTDavros
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand dick jokes.
Clif
I’m told that this is a popular theory among the connoisseurs of dick jokes.
crys
did I miss something? what indicates that charles has an agenda here? he’s encouraging his kids to be nice to other kids, that’s regular parental behavior
Thag Simmons
We’re already biased against Chuck, so it’s easy to read him encouraging his kid to befriend the rich girl as attempted social climbing.
It might not necessarily be that, but people aren’t inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt
Sirksome
Bah! I wish Chuck was selfish enough to encourage his kids to suck up to the rich kid for social gain! He’s just going through the motions. How expected. Where the eff’s Linda at? She would be all over this opportunity!
DudeMyDadOwnsADealership
Linda already gave birth to that rich kid meeting her husband for the first time. A piece o’ that action already gotten.
zee
God that’d be a funny theory to run with
Sadly we already know billies mom is Chinese. If Linda were the secret mom she’d be 100% mayonaise
Blue
How is that possible? She had twins and also a secret baby all in the same year? Without her husband knowing?
DudeMyDadOwnsADealership
Oh, yeah. Linda was Jennifer’s *Godmother* correct?
Also, wasn’t she Korean on her non-Billingsworth side?
Ereb
Agreed. Although it does leave a bad taste in my mouth that the comment section is both blaming him for wearing sweat pants, and for ~ohhh, social climbing. Billie tagged along with them because she is a child, all by herself, and got foisted on them – and he dares to treat her with kindness and help her socialize with his kids. And Walky might not have done so without encouragement.
Would we be scrutinizing Joyce’s dad like that, if we saw him in a flashback?
Chuck is an enabler to Linda at this point like Joyce’s dad is to her church and Joyce’s mom. For one thing Chuck is Black himself, and how that interacts with Linda’s racism and racism’s respectability politics at large is convenient to forget, because it doesn’t fit a neat abuser narrative.
GeekyWarrior
Yeah I don’t get this negative reaction at all. He’s literally just being polite to this kid that wandered up to his kids.
Sirksome
That is actually a big peeve of mine with people against Charles. I’m not big on Chuck here, but he gets a lot heat for that comment against Sal’s hair and I think people ignore his black experience. Just talking from my own black life experience with black women, my mom, friends, ect. Black women spend a lot of time and money getting their hair straightened and as a black dude that can usually get a good cut for 20 bucks in 20 minutes, you gotta support your women when they have their hair done. So you better say you’re daughters hair is pretty when straightened. She probably spent over a hundred bucks on that! But if you say it’s better natural you get heat anyway by implying she wasted her time and money. You can’t win!
So yeah! I can give Charles a pass on that, because there’s a lot of unfairness in regards to society’s perception of black hair even today in 2022! Especially women’s hair. What the fuck is he supposed to say in that situation?
That rant being said. Charles is still mid as hell! I don’t trust him!
Yumi
I was almost going to agree with you, and then I went back and looked at that strip, and it comes off worse than I was remembering.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/appointment/
“What the fuck is he supposed to say in that situation?” idk, not that. The “*YOU* look so pretty when…” part isn’t good, imo.
BBCC
That would make sense if Sal had had her hair straightened before she talked to him. Definitely tell someone their hair looks good! Saying “Too bad” when your daughter’s wearing her natural hair and how pretty she looks when it’s straightened though? Dick move.
zee
Yeah speaking as a black woman who has relaxed her hair in the past, if my dad saw me with my hair fully curly again and said “you look so pretty with it straight” (note the wording, “YOU”, not “it” looks pretty straight, or your hair looks nice straight, intentionally or not he is ascribing her beauty to her hair texture, that’s called texturism) i would at best, write him off as a dumb boomer and walk away, adding more distance to our relationship.
Charles defenders sometimes skip over internalized racism and the intense amount of misogynoir a lot of black men have towards black women. Look at the Tori Lanes defenders/ Meg the Stallion issue, it’s an acknowledged phenomenon that a not inconsiderable chunk of black men, fucking hate black women. I’m not saying Charles would go as far as to defend a woman getting shot for absolutely no reason, but he probably does have an implicit bias there. We also need to keep in mind that Charles is half black, and that can also intersect with his experiences and mindset, especially if his mom was the white one.
So, tl;dr no being black doesn’t give chuck a pass for the hair shit and it wasn’t a compliment because sal’s hair was already curly by then. What the fuck was he supposed to say? “Oh well your hair looks nice either way”, “do what you want with it”, or even the ever present option, fucking nothing.
Sirksome
I don’t think it was a compliment. I just know from experience the mistake made because I’ve made it myself and seen it made many, many times. It’s a pitfall I think a lot if not all black men can fall into and just writing the man off as a dick kind of hurts to see cause black men don’t get a lot of slack in society in general.
It feels like it’s on Charles to be perfect in that moment when he’s most likely absorbed the same internalized racist perspective many black men have. I’m not sure if he’s a misogynist or if I was for that matter. But when you grow up knowing your mom has to spend hours a week in a salon just to keep her job, usually sitting there with her. It’s understandable to me he would say something like that, not intentionally trying to be a dick. Admittedly I wasn’t as old as Charles is, and probably still am not, so maybe he arguably should have known better in that moment.
I used to think when you see a black women in your family straightened there hair, and you say it looks better that way you’re trying to reaffirm the effort they put in. At least that’s what I thought once. I didn’t know Charles is half black though. That adds some context.
But to feels like he’s been judged for what was a honest mistake he probably wasn’t even aware he made. It feels harsh.
Sirksome
I kinda of love this conversation though. My mom and aunt used to help at the churches salon like decades ago now and this reminds me of back then.
thejeff
But he didn’t see her with it straightened and tell her it looked better. He didn’t even hear her say she was going to get it straightened and tell her it looked better that way.
He saw her with it curly and told her she was so pretty the other way. That’s completely different from complimenting someone when they actually do it.
Also, in the real world – it’s a minor bit. Quite likely insignificant. In this story? It’s an intentional clue dropped by the author to inform us. It’s a significant detail. It matters.
Tan
The next time a female acquaintance puts on a few pounds, you should definitely tell them “You looked a lot prettier when you were skinny” so as to be supportive of the money and effort they spend on dieting.
Bysmerian
The only mild defense I can wrestle up for Charles is that he may also associate the straight hair with before his daughter went down what he saw as a bad path; it’s clearly not as straight as she and her parents are starting to really clash. So he might also associate it with a sort of innocence.
There may also be internalized racism at any point in this thought process; make no mistake, Sal was put in that position in great part by Linda being an absolute drumset of a human being, and he has been complicit in it even if he doesn’t realize it. He’s still thoughtless *at best*.
Roborat
I used to have a pet peeve, was a cute little bugger to. But when it got big my dad took it to live on a farm upstate.
Blue
I agre with Sirksome, it was a shitty comment to make but I think people get on his case too much.
Pilgrim
The DOA comments section has always contained more projection than observation. You get used to it after a while.
True Survivor
Mostly how the first thing that came to mind when he learned her name was the fact she lived in a mansion and then just the whole top of panel 3 (but mostly the smug I brow raise when David starts trying to befriend her). I could be reading into thing though.
Darara
My first thought on the house remark was that ‘up on the hill’ gave me the impression he thought that was a long way for a little girl to walk alone.
Nono
People are very determined not to like Charles.
I don’t like the Walkertons either, but this is pretty innocent behaviour. And Linda is…. less terrible than Carol.
Taffy
If Charles would ever act as more than an extension of Linda’s shitfuckery, maybe people wouldn’t be so quick to side-eye him.
DudeMyDadOwnsADealership
Yeah, Fidget may not have been as despicable as Professor Ratigan and they all were Ratigan’s orders, but he’s still an accomplice.
Same for Marge Simpson to anything Homer or Bart did to Society lately.
Same for LaFou to Gaston being a walking pile of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
A jackass’s enabler is a willing part of their jackassery whether they understand it works that way or not. Heartfelt intentions don’t come with the perk of excusing you from the kind of accountability that applies to literally everyone else…
Blue
I mean here he is being a good dad in this chapter and people can only focus on the alleged social climbing.
DudeMyDadOwnsADealership
True…But ya gotta admit, his being a good dad here also is a situation that doesn’t interfere with his wife’s climber agenda and also kind of helps to serve it as well.
Best part is, I don’t think this flashback really has anything to do with Mr. Walkerton whatsoever, but rather is about how Billie met Walky…..So not only is Chuckiw Walkerton but a background prop in this situation, but Poor Lil’ Shotgun Sally as well.
DudeMyDadOwnsADealership
“Chuckie Walkerton”
Sometimes I hit the wrong keys…
khn0
In my book Charles would then do a bad job at social climbing:
1- a kid going alone to school is not rich enough to make someone climb by making her acquaintance
2- a kid going alone to school is not cared about enough to make someone climb by making her acquaintance
thejeff
Mostly that second, I think.
Mind you, I’ve never been quite sure why Jennifer was going to the local public school anyway.
khn0
is it public?
I don’t remember the former flashback well enough.
Darkoneko
she’s ewwwing awfully cheerily 😀
Stephen Bierce
*thinks which version of “Big Love”–Fleetwood Mac’s or Lindsay Buckingham’s solo?*
Needfuldoer
I’ve always liked the version on The Dance better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9fwmKrfZyo
Stephen Bierce
Nothing wrong with that.
RassilonTDavros
I like how Billie seems to genuinely find the booger hilarious.
StClair
Kids.
Zaxares
Yeah, I was thinking that too. XD Her expression doesn’t give the impression she’s actually disgusted, so my guess is that she’s still in that kid phase where they know that something is supposed to be disgusting, but they don’t actually GET why it’s disgusting.
BBCC
I love the detail of Billie’s wide smile in the last panel, even as she screams “Ewww”. And, of course, baby Sal is ADORABLE.
But, uh, I gotta ask to see if this is just my Walkerton Parent Hatedar colouring things – is anyone else getting Social Climber vibes from Charles here?
Taffy
He’s definitely working that angle, no doubt about it.
Thag Simmons
Kinda, but I feel that might be unearned. Lotta this would be normal behaviour for a parent introducing a kid to a classmate
Taffy
That’s how they get ya.
Thag Simmons
I mean I have a low opinion of Chuck already, I don’t also need him to be a social climber to dislike him
Taffy
And I don’t need to add honey to a PB&J, but it sure does add to the enjoyment.
Thag Simmons
I don’t actually like honey on PBJ
Taffy
That’s not suspicious. I’m sure it’s a coincidence that the 7’3″ reptilians invading Earth right now, they just haaaappen to melt into sand if they so much as touch honey. Not at all worth investigating.
Thag Simmons
Honey’s fine it just doesn’t belong on PB&J