172

Know who
Posted on February 25, 2025 by David M Willis

172 thoughts on “Know who”

  1. Sirksome

    Tony is Walky’s hypothetical brother from another timeline.

    1. Thag Simmons

      Isn’t that Beef?

      1. Opus the Poet

        Nope, Beef is a different character.

        1. Smallmoon

          Explaining the joke: In the Roomies!/It’s Walky!/Shortpacked! side of Willis’s oeuvre, Beef and Walky grew up together, because Sal was swapped at birth as a ploy to distract The Head Alien from how powerful the Walkerton twins were.

        2. Chris

          Yep, that helps.

        3. Ed Callahan

          Yeah, that whole storyline got pretty convoluted.

      2. Ray

        “Gentlemen, I give you the future… Beef!”

        1. ValdVin

          You don’t expect us to swallow this tripe!

      3. Needfuldoer

        >Grunt<

      4. Tan

        I should like to note for the record that it is possible for a person to have multiple actual brothers, let alone hypothetical ones

      5. mindbleach

        Shocked houses lean back then explode.

    2. JD

      yeah and in another timeline walky knocked up tony it’s the wild west out there

  2. NGPZ

    brotha from anotha motha XD

    1. Jeremiah

      Technically it would be the same motha.

      1. Taffy

        Linda didn’t give birth to Tony.

        1. Airyu

          Your pfp is amazing

        2. Airyu

          *icon?

    2. APW

      Does that make them… Step-away-brothers?

      1. APW

        (come on, gravatar lottery, you can do better)

      2. Steamweed

        Huh. English doesn’t have a good monosyllabic term (like “step”) meaning we’re related only by dint of our parents almost mixing DNA.

  3. Blibdoolpoolp

    Joyce’s dog-whistle joy squeals never cease to entertain and cause irreparable ear damage.

    1. Jeremiah

      Better that the usual dog whistles you get on the internet.

      1. Opus the Poet

        +1?

      2. Clif

        Mmm.

      3. Steamweed

        Purest truth, sir.

    2. Needfuldoer

      Is Joyce excited, or is it just tinnitus?

      1. Steamweed

        Memorex wasn’t made to handle this.

  4. Jeremiah

    Better get used to it Tony, she is now your firmed too.

  5. Laud

    Should be interesting to see what Tony thinks of Joyce, since he’s very no nonsense, and she’s entirely nonsense.

    1. Airyu

      I think he’s more “no trickery and dishonesty” than “no nonsense.” And Joyce isn’t trickster nor dishonest. (She’s lied before sure but I don’t think she’s dishonest as a person)

      1. Nymph

        I think “no buffoonery” is in the same category as “no nonsense” tbh.

    2. Needfuldoer

      Malaya respects Joyce’s sincerity, for what that’s worth.

    3. Mark

      Joyce has lots of sense. And nonsense. She contains multitudes.

    4. Steamweed

      Joyce doesn’t do buffoonery or manipulative status-seeking. Hijinks, yes, but not for status. Very different than a Raidah-type.

    5. Leadsynth

      If I were Sarah, I’d be upset that Joyce has called Tony a “boyfriend” already. I know Tony doesn’t have time for buffoonery, but that doesn’t mean that he and Sarah are an official couple already, does it? Although I guess Sarah introducing him to her group of friends does lend some official-ness to it.

  6. Thag Simmons

    Alright Joyce, don’t scare him away now

  7. Grimey

    Oh Joyce.

    If only you knew how serious Walky was being.

    1. Rose by Any other Name

      Walky line I wish was there:
      “No, like, they were boyfriend and girlfriend back in the day. It was super gross.”

      1. Thag Simmons

        Hell, they were married

      2. Steamweed

        Walky could also have said “My Mom divorced his Dad before marrying my Dad.”

        1. Clif

          But that wouldn’t have been as funny.

        2. Steamweed

          Absolutely. Walky’s gotta be Walky.

  8. Yumi

    Geez, Joyce, it’s like you don’t even care whose dicks have been in Linda Walkerton.

    1. Jeremiah

      See it’s hard to tell because she is already a gigantic dick.

      1. Wizard

        Dicks inside dicks? A dicktryoshka, if you will?

    2. Sirksome

      “Whose dicks have been in Linda Walkerton?” Is the title of the DoA spin off focusing only on the adults.

      1. Rose by Any other Name

        Ironically, it features no Slipshines.

      2. Opus the Poet

        ?+1 could be much worse!

      3. morleuca

        do the whole thing in the style of “Who Killed Laura Palmer”

    3. Shakes

      The real dick was inside her all along.

      1. Miri

        … Wait, the surprise comic ending is that she secretly had a lost inflexible dildo stuck up her bum all these years (flanged bases are important if you’re going to do that) – and that’s why she acts like she has a massive stick up her bum? She literally, in effect, does?

        1. Yumi

          That would be a medical emergency. How would she poop?
          …Oooh, she’s full of shit.

        2. eh, whatever

          That would be awesome, but it’s called “death by intestinal obstruction”…

        3. eh, whatever

          …so it’s not terribly likely, I meant to say. Try not to die by intestinal obstruction, I can’t recommend it.

  9. RassilonTDavros

    Tony is about to have the most interesting day of his life so far.

    Whether he wants to or not.

    1. Thag Simmons

      He did punch out his former teammate who was pretending to be a supervillain and harassing women the other day, which might rank above meeting your new GF’s high energy dork friends

    2. Steamweed

      How many days, or hours even, will pass before Tony gets his first A-G sighting up close?

      1. thejeff

        Didn’t she already show up when he confronted Paul? Or, more accurately he interrupted her confrontation with Paul

        1. Steamweed

          Yeah, he started pummeling the Paul-idjit just before she could get there.

  10. butts

    so, like, does Sarah realize that she just implicitly included Joe amongst her friends

    1. PoliVamp

      For the time being, and subject to revocation

    2. KM

      She’s already doing law, heaven forbid she be able to speak without caveating everything when she’s off the clock

    3. DailyBrad

      They are on fairly okay terms as of late, so while he’s not going to be topping any favorites lists of hers, I think she’d consider him at least sort of a friend for the time being.

      1. Aura

        I want to make a joke about him topping a favourite of hers, but I don’t think that would be very reflective of the Joeyce dynamic

        1. Steamweed

          He might be _on_ top in any given mashup, but he’s definitely not _the_ top.

      2. Nono

        Sorry, I read Joe and topping in the same situation and my mind immediately went places.

        1. Steamweed

          Joyce putting whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on portions of his anatomy? Yeah, I envisioned that scene too.

          …what? You didn’t? Ahh, my oops.

        2. deliverything

          But if she put the sprinkles in the cream, that’d be different foods touching, and if she didn’t, they’d likely fall off.
          A more sensible topping would be mac and cheese. That way, she could have her comfort food on her comfort dude.

        3. Wizard

          Could be a little tricky getting the temperature right. Hot cheese on skin doesn’t sound fun, but cold macaroni doesn’t taste very good.

        4. Steamweed

          Also, cold ice cream could cause rejection-type reactions. But whipped cream can be room temp and still stay semi-solid for a while.

        5. The Lurker

          Yeah, I went there. Bad Lurker! Bad!

  11. Charles Phipps

    Meanwhile, Jocelyn is being dragged away to a Bulmerian/CIA blacksite.

    1. Jeremiah

      Could you cut it off with these jokes about Jocelyn suffering for being at the protest? Fell pretty in poor taste even if you don’t mean it that way and it doesn’t any tondo with the current strip.

      1. Jeremiah

        *anything to do

      2. Charles Phipps

        Okay.

        A bit of gallows humor given I’m attending RL protests.

        1. Laura

          May the force be with you.

        2. Laura

          Seriously. Stay safe out there. :~|

        3. Opus the Poet

          I wish I could loan out my skull to protesters. When I was hit with the truck I landed face-first from an estimated height of 12-16 feet with only skin damage from my forward momentum. It’s a durable skull that does yeoman service in protecting my brain from getting totally scrambled, with only one TBI in 66 years of use. It even protected me from a 2-hand swing with a baseball bat. One slight dent, and some skin abrasions, but otherwise no damage.

        4. Clif

          And your ability to recall the word you want is flawless.

        5. NGPZ

          yee yee

          BTW I heard somewhere that for social movements, it is a rather good idea to be carrying a brick around

          you don’t necessarily gotta use it, just make sure people can see it ;)

        6. Laura

          Um… that can be a good way to get arrested…
          Possession of a “weapon” and all that…

          Good thought, though. I used to carry around a braided nine-foot leather whip for just that reason, walking home from classes at night. Just so the frat boys would know to give me a 9-foot radius…

        7. NGPZ

          guess it all depends, here in CA it’s perfectly legal to carry around bricks and stones as a means of self-defense, heck in some schools here teachers will actually have a whole bucketful of stones in the class in case of a shooting

        8. Nymph

          I can’t find a single thing saying that carrying around a deadly weapon with the intent of using it as self-defense is legal. It’s also unwieldy and still going to get you arrested at a protest. Standing out at a protest in any way is deeply unwise.

        9. Deanatay

          Some might say that attending a protest at all is “deeply unwise”. Yet, when the situation calls for it, one MUST protest.

        10. eh, whatever

          Stunned European here.

        11. Taffy

          You’d wouldn’t be stunned if you had ducked. That throw was incredibly telegraphed, you had plenty of time.

        12. Nymph

          Yes. But staying out of jail to protest again is useful and bricks are not (in this scenario).

        13. Nymph

          Genuinely surprised that basic protest safety got treated like I said “don’t protest” – absolutely DO. Get out if you can and march, sit in, be heard and be present – but don’t be the idiot who gives the cops their reason to charge the line. If you want to go protest, do yourself and your fellow protestors a favor and look up a guide on how to blend in with other protestors rather than standing out.

        14. NGPZ

          Mind you cops aren’t the only thing you have to worry about in the US — there’s also the matter of counter-protesters who often carry things much worse than sticks and stones

          Brick or not, if all else fails, there should be at least one person there who’s willing and able to knock out a Nazi if it’ll prevent further violence.

        15. Decidedly Orthogonal

          Thank you. ✊

      3. Nymph

        Jocelyne* jsyk

    2. Taffy

      That’s not interesting.

      1. Charles Phipps

        I mean I would hope it would end with yet another surprising collection of Amazi-Girl, Sal, and Dorothy plotting a daring rescue.

        And overthrowing the dictator of Bulmeria.

        Because reality sucks as does realism. Go for silly cartoon heroes saving the day from kidnappings and crazy shooters.

        1. v.gay.person

          No no, they plot a daring rescue, fight their way through It’s Walky! style, make it to the lair of the Bulmerian Dictator and Jocelyn has him tied up, having defeated him offscreen with several barely-recognised background characters

        2. Charles Phipps

          I would read Jocelyn, AGENT OF RESIST.

        3. Nymph

          Jocelyne*

        4. Nymph

          It’s Jocelyne*

  12. AbacusWizard

    Some folk say he’s a terrific athlete.

    1. Aura

      Everybody loves the Tony McHenry
      (Making a bit of an assumption there that Tony has his Dad’s last name, unless it’s been mentioned and I forgot?)

      1. JD

        it’s an accurate assumption! his full name is anthony mchenry jr.

        1. Nymph

          That sounds like a burger, I’ll take two.

        2. Steamweed

          Sarah agrees with your taste and would like to be part of that sandwich.

      2. AbacusWizard

        everybody! everybody! everybody! everybody!

    2. Effie

      some people call him a space cowboy

      1. CianM1301

        Some call him the gangster of love.

        1. Mark

          Some people call him Maurice.

        2. OBBWG

          Wheet whoo!

  13. Thing2

    Mouse over text: so in fact a totally unrelated brother.
    Our family has totally unrelated kids!

    1. Clif

      I had an Uncle I was totally unrelated to, although my mother’s sister married his brother and my father’s brother married his sister.

    2. Miri

      Well, their parent’s favourite child is their completely unrelated sister who their parents never had any legal responsibility for.

      1. Leorale

        Sometimes the language just lacks a concise word for what people are to each other.

        My husband has an important relative, no blood relation, where he calls her a foster-sister and she calls him a cousin, because there isn’t a word for “our moms were besties, and when I was like 8 and you were 14, your mom died and my mom adopted you”.
        Her kiddos are now our nephew and niece.
        Your move, English language.

  14. Chaucer59

    Oh my God. Sarah made Joyce squee.

  15. HueSatLight

    Tony and Walky are already the best of buds.

  16. Sirksome

    Imagine how much influence they all have now by knowing Tony! That’s how it works right? The main DoA gang (which should really have a fun group name) are now the most powerful friend group on campus?

    1. Nymph

      I humbly suggest:
      – The League of Extraordinary Dumdums
      – The Fantastic 8-or-so
      – The B-Team

      1. Mark

        Eight Skilled Freshmen

    2. Schpoonman

      If it were a cliche high school anime.

      So kinda.

    3. thejeff

      Between Carla (for money/influence and tech), Amber (for hacking) and AG and Sal for muscle, they’re already a pretty solid adventuring party.

  17. Pocky

    *dogs barking in the distance*

    1. Opus the Poet

      *Howling in Pain*

  18. IntangibleMatter

    Something something horde of dogs something something

  19. Shakes

    It was kind of Sarah to say “friends” instead of “friends*”

  20. Rebecca

    SHE CALLED THEM HER FRIENDS, SHE’S ARCING, THIS IS NOT A DRILL, SARAH IS FINALLY ARCING

    1. DailyBrad

      Yeah, I don’t think she’s just laying it on thick, I do think she authentically considers this group her friends, even if some like Joyce or the I-don’t-think-is-present Dorothy, she wouldn’t have been overly resistant to do so before this.

  21. Aura

    Last panel: Is that fog breath from Joyce’s inaudible to human ears squeal we can see rising in front of her? I think there might be a little trail to the triangle smile

    1. Steamweed

      Yup. Visible breath in the cold air, coming from Joyce. Also a bit coming from Sarah.

  22. Derek

    I went to university and got a degree and I don’t think I ever found what my Dean’s even was or if they had a family. is this a US thing? or maybe I’m just oblivious

    1. Derek

      **what my Dean’s name was

    2. Taffy

      I learned the name of our Dean of Admissions at the start of this semester, out of necessity. I accidentally signed up late, y’see, and had to email her about it. That’s as far as that information is likely to ever get me, and I don’t expect I’ll remember it after midterms. Unless you’re planning to do something that directly involves high-level faculty, you will never need to know anything about them.

    3. Nymph

      It’s an American media thing, my genuine guess is that it’s a holdover from the high school dramas that a lot of college-age dramas are modeled on. In high school, you would almost certainly know if the principal’s kid was in your class, but by college there’s basically no shot.

    4. Yumi

      The dean’s family on their own, no, but being a star football player AND the son of a dean, I could see that making news. I probably wouldn’t recognize the person– barely recognize any professional athletes from my city’s teams– but I would know some names. And a lot of people care way more about sports than I do.

    5. Kyulen

      I remembered the name of the college president when I went to college, and the professors who taught my classes, but I don’t think I ever bothered to remember the deans or any other people in higher-ranking administrative roles at my college. And I’m an American. Maybe other American college students cared about such things, but I never did.

    6. Nerrin

      Yeah, I’d say it’s a bit more of a fiction thing than a real thing. That said, even relatively “nameless” people in positions of authority can be very useful first contacts to leverage, and/or serious threats to bring down upon others you don’t like. He’s a big fish in a small pond, but there’s still everyone else in that pond who has to swim carefully around him. And also the different ponds network and can get you access to bigger ponds and the metaphor is getting away from me now.

  23. BBCC

    Oh god, keep Sal away from Tony before I turn into a frenzied shipping monster.

    And have fun, Tony, you’ll be hearing that noise all day. Keep a Tylenol handy.

  24. Suet

    a hello ending with an exclamation point? charming.

    there shall be no self-sabotaging from Sarah as long as Tony doesn’t get the Malaya treatment

  25. thumb

    The way Walky says this with what looks like a genuine smile…
    Don’t know if that was on purpose, but it’s sending me.

  26. Steelbright

    I actually really appreciate that Sarah introduced the group as “her friends.” Being aware of that really shows some growth for her

    1. Laura

      It’s ’cause she can’t actually remember their names individually…

  27. Icalasari

    Still has that touch of snark to remind us of who she is

  28. Arianod

    I won’t say “I knew it”, but I always suspected it.

  29. Rabisch

    How can an image of pure happiness, like Jouce in the last panel, be somehow scary? I don’t know, but it’s hilarious. I wonder if Sal knows about the dean and her mother’s past relationships.

    1. Schpoonman

      Beats me.

    2. eh, whatever

      Teeth.

  30. jflb96

    I love how that’s Walky’s one reference point for who the guy in charge of his university’s faculty is

  31. DashWallkick

    Joyce gained someone to befriend who is Sarah’s new ‘ship,’ she is all hands on deck.

    1. Effie

      and recently she was all hands on dick

  32. CianM1301

    If Joyce keeps up the squeeing any longer, it’ll shatter any glass within a 30ft radius.

    1. Banana Slamma

      Not really. You have to match the frequency of the specific glass and sustain the note at volume. Science.

  33. AnonGrouch

    Pretty sure Joyce is a memetic scp Tony, you need amnestics not tylenol.

  34. Buck Ripsnort

    I’m a little out of it, due to the prescription flu medicine my doctor gave me having more kick that weed, moonshine, funny fungus or possibly heroin (haven’t tried all those for the sake of comparison, just to reassure you), but has Walky’s mom officially banged more guys than Cartman’s mom, or are we still in tiebreaker?

    1. thejeff

      As far as we know, it’s just Charles (her husband) and Dean McHenry (her ex-husband). Walky’s just a little weirded out by knowing about it.

    2. Schpoonman

      I really hope my caffeine kicks in soon, because I work in five minutes and I somehow interpreted that as you calling Tony Cartman.

  35. Matrix

    Lol lmao even

  36. AGV/Ruby

    I love this strip wholeheartedly

  37. anonymsly

    Love the real smile on Sarah and KUDOS to the art – it’s very easy to tell the real smile (here) apart from her earlier fake smiles.

  38. Steamweed

    Last panel: I know that’s visible water vapor from Sarah’s breath, but I choose to see it as a faint wisp of steam coming from Tony’s ears, as they are imperceptibly ravaged by Joyce’s ultrasonic squeal.

  39. Charles Phipps

    Tony is like a combination of the TV show and Tom Cruise Reachers.

    1. Steamweed

      I feel Alan Ritchson is way more Reacher-ish than Tom Cruise.

  40. nicoleandmaggie

    Which dean? Arts and Sciences? Engineering? Undergraduate students? This is important for me understanding the hierarchies.

    1. thejeff

      He’s always just been referred to as “the Dean” – which suggests some top level role for the whole university. More like a university President by a different name?
      Other than that our only clue to his official role is that he brought Robin to Leslie’s class to address Roz’s porn video way back when. That could hint that he’s in charge of that department? Or possibly of undergrads?

      1. Amelie Wikström

        The way he speaks for “this university” in that encounter has always led me to think he’s the boss of the entire thing.

      2. Steamweed

        The campus top boss is the President or Provost. The Deans are the rest of the “C-suite” admins, plus the academic department top admins. Maybe Dean Anthony McHenry, Sr., is the Dean of Student Life at Indiana University. (Overseeing the dorms, RAs, etc)

        1. thejeff

          That’s why I said “More like a university President by a different name?”

    2. HueSatLight

      Doylian guess, DoA IU is different than RL IU, and he was meant to be like the chancellor.
      Watsonian guess, dean of (undergrad) students, since that’s the dean the kids would most likely have any “contact” with. Like a welcome speech at freshman orientation, mass emails about shootings or to forbid free speech, etc.

  41. Amós Batista

    Joyce is steaming.
    Yes, not stimming. Seaming.

    1. Amós Batista

      Joyce is steaming.
      Yes, not stimming. Steaming.

      1. Yumi

        Maybe she stims by steaming.

  42. Charles Phipps

    The alt-text seems aimed at me.

    Probably because it is.

    😀

  43. HueSatLight

    The One Where Liz Returns

  44. hane

    Wait? *we* can hear sounds beyond audible frequencies?

  45. motorfirebox

    Triangle mouth has noticeable curvature along the upper surface, internal pressure appears to be spiking IT MAY BREAK CONTAINMENT

  46. edwardpig

    i just realized Joyce has a real Pintsize vibe going in that last panel (original chassis Pintsize, obvs).

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