199

Wearing
Posted on January 16, 2024 by David M Willis

199 thoughts on “Wearing”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    Time flies when you’re self-absorbed!

    1. True Survivor

      Amazing.

    2. Opus the Poet

      Absolutely, also when you’re infatuated, which I think is a first for Carla. She’s infatuated with someone other than herself or Ultracar.

    3. James

      I dunno, that “ten hours” sounds like someone who’s been pretty darn aware of every passing minute.

    4. anon

      how early did she wake up for it to be ten hours lol, i’m surprised she wouldn’t have some camera tech she could set down at a table to see any passerbys whlie she grabbed a snack

      1. morleuca

        That would have been impersonal. She was fully invested in this and needed to see it through herself

        1. thejeff

          Though we do know she’s been back to her dorm to grab Fuckface and the hat and to rig up the display on it. Probably all separate trips.

      2. Ana Chronistic

        We SAW how early she woke up!

        1. Ana Chronistic

          did that code break AGAIN

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-14/02-its-the-love-i-havent-got/knockknockknockknockknockknock/

  2. Taffy

    Ten hours? Goddamn.

    1. HueSatLight

      It might not be a literal 10 hours, depending on how long has passed since the last scene. But still way too many hours. I hope Booster didn’t know the whole time.

    2. Thag Simmons

      Booster is very lucky he isn’t getting extremely murdered for this.

      1. Sparda

        Booster uses they/them pronouns, just fyi.

        1. Thag Simmons

          Whoops, my bad

      2. Pergola

        Carla has blessed us with a new tag to refer to the not-girl person.

  3. Dave Van Domelen

    Isn’t it cold enough to be raining iguanas?

    1. anon

      well, reptiles(?) are cold blooded so it’d be fine in the buildling hopeflly?

  4. Sirksome

    Malaya stopped by or FF has free rule of the campus. Which do ya’ll think it is?

    1. Jeremiah

      Wrong. Fuckface isn’t limited by your human rules of space or time. He is where he pleases, when he pleases, and on the head of who he pleases.

    2. Doctor_Who

      She has no idea he’s there.

      1. Vanessa

        What Duck?

        1. Doctor_Who

          Carla would make an excellent Discworld character. I think she would fit in best among the Unseen University staff, she’s got the right combination of being totally brilliant but so self-absorbed that the rest of the universe barely registers.

        2. Weatherheight

          On occasion, I use the “What ?” phrase and am often saddened that I must explain myself so often.

          I want to live in a world where Terry Pratchett is required reading during high school / post-grammar school.

  5. Jeremiah

    I hope these two remain… Whatever they are even if things with Charlie don’t go well. Their interactions are just hysterical.

  6. True Survivor

    Ohhhh I get – she was destined to be with Booster all along. Right? Maybe?

    1. Dante

      I’m not shipping them yet, but I could be convinced to. Like, tipped over into it? I could easily see them as BFFs as well, but what I’m certain of is:

      They have a strange yet fascinating chemistry together. They will keep interacting, they’ll become close, and it’s going to be really fucking fun for everyone involved (Commentariat included.)

    2. anon

      well, carla has issues but idk if she’s as much of a ‘mess’ compared to booster initially being attracted to ruth and then amber later

    3. Thag Simmons

      Pretty sure Carla likes girls.

      1. DailyBrad

        Yep, Carla’s an ace sapphic. She expressed interest in Malaya to an extent, but she was unaware she was nonbinary at that time, and seemed to cool in her interest by the time she did find out, so it’s not really clear if she’d consider that a disqualifying factor or if she just wasn’t especially serious in her interest and just found her previous insulting behavior hot on some level.

        1. Li

          I’d say this iteration of Carla seemed MORE interested in Sal than in Malaya? I could definitely be forgetting something though, we are talking 13 years of strips.

  7. Amós Batista

    alt text: I thought somebody were shouting her name in the entire conversation

    1. Clif

      alt text: We never doubted it for a second.

    2. Carla's #2 Fan

      I thought it was Fuckface

    3. Pergola

      Charlie will assume that ‘Carla’ is the name of the hat-lizard.

  8. DailyBrad

    Someone’s getting another pie to the face.

    1. AbacusWizard

      I hope it launches out of a trapdoor in the hat.

    2. Reltzik

      … I didn’t think Walky had gotten a first pie to the face.

      1. DailyBrad

        Walky might get one, but Booster’s smugness about it is probably sooner to provoke her pie-flinging.

        1. Reltzik

          I suppose they ARE the readier target…

  9. AlexaSpuds

    Honestly if I spent 10 hours waiting around for someone based on false info I’d send the person who lied to me into outer space with their femurs added to my collection, but that’s just me

    1. Taffy

      That’s misplaced retribution.

      1. Jeremiah

        Maybe, but it would be fell very good in the moment.

      2. Sirksome

        Walky might deserve it. He spent a week leading on a girl he didn’t love.

        1. sdrainbow

          I don’t think “going on dates with someone for a week” counts as leading someone on, regardless of how the relationship status changed at the end of it

        2. Taffy

          ?

        3. Needfuldoer

          I don’t know if I’d go that far. Lucy was trying to speedrun what’s possibly her first ‘real’ relationship, and Walky was taking it slow after his previous relationships fizzled out and spectacularly crashed and burned. She brought all the new relationship energy into the equation, which was an imbalance they might not be able to reconcile.

        4. furubatsu

          He didn’t lead her on though? He said it himself He liked her and that’s literally what going on dates is all about, seeing if you can make like into love. It’s Lucy who turned the intensity to 100.

        5. J.Gawain

          I think there was a little leading on. Definitely not maliciously, but I think knowing someone thinks you love them and letting them think that could be considered leading them on.

        6. thejeff

          It could be taken that way and Lucy could certainly be forgiven for doing so, but I’d put it more as “spent a week trying to figure out how to handle the messed up situation her misunderstanding put them in.”

        7. Nothri

          Okay Walky did not lead anyone on. He’s a dick for not standing up for his girlfriend in the face of his shitty parents. But the dating thing or her infatuation is not his fault.

    2. Masha

      That’s probably what should’ve happened to Carla for showing up and bugging someone on a Sunday morning about a person Carla’s never even talked to

    3. anon

      unless it was some kinda emergency or something required for work or so, i would not wait for more than one hour,

    4. Thag Simmons

      Frankly it kind of is your fault for waiting so long, but if I found out someone had wasted almost half-a-day on a snipe hunt I sent them on, I would definitely consider myself lucky to end the day with all my limbs attached to my body.

  10. AbacusWizard

    That is a sweet hat.

    1. Clif

      Dumbing of Age 14: Just Standing Here Being Beautiful for No Reason.

      1. Tan

        I like yours, but I will also present alternatively

        Dumbing of Age Book 14: The One I Don’t Care About

  11. Max

    He didn’t technically lie. He guessed. He told Carla something that had a small probability of being true.

    1. HueSatLight

      no

      1. Max

        He still had a greater than 0 chance of being right. There may be an alternate universe where Charlie lives in Briscoe.

        1. Clif

          Her fundamental error was in trusting someone who believes that Monkey Master is better than Ultracar. That kind of delusional thinking should have tipped her off right there

        2. HueSatLight

          accidentally being right when lying is not a “guess”.

    2. Bash

      If he had used the word “maybe” I’d give him technically correct.

    3. Thag Simmons

      I love being technically correct as much as the next obnoxious pedant but even I think this is a stretch.

      1. Tesset

        We need PedanticJackass to come weigh in on whether this comment is technically correct or not.

    4. Daibhid C

      Technically Walky didn’t lie, he just said a bunch of words, and it was Carla who interpreted them as being a sentence.

      1. a/snow/mous/e

        https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12608-when-i-use-a-word-humpty-dumpty-said-in-rather

    5. eh, whatever

      He didn’t guess. He bullshat.

      1. clif

        I’ve always maintained that one of the major life skills acquired from the college experience is the ability to bullshit intelligently on demand. Walky may be a natural.

    6. Tan

      He guessed is a perfectly accurate description of that exchange. He also lied, by presenting his guess as factual information.

      1. HueSatLight

        I suspect he didn’t guess. I suspect he picked Briscoe because it’s the furthest away.

  12. Yumi

    You’d think she might have had a seat in the ten hours, rather than just stand there the whole time. (Could we assume she sat down at some point between strips? No.)

    1. Clif

      No! If she wasn’t standing there every minute Charlie might have missed seeing her.

    2. anon

      her tall ness is one of her features. idk if it’d be easy to pick charlie out from a crowd if she was sitting down and multiple ppl passed by tho

  13. NGPZ

    Fuckface is back!!!! From Dina they have learned — INSTANT TRANSMISSION!!!! XD

    1. NGPZ

      *plays “Battle Which Summons Death” from DBZ Kai CD on hacked muzak*

    2. Needfuldoer

      How did she get Fuckface across campus in the cold without killing him, anyway?

      1. eh, whatever

        He only dies if he literally freezes. Ice crystals are really not good for cell membranes.

        1. Needfuldoer

          Just ask frozen chicken!

          (Or Alton Brown. He had a good demonstration with either water balloons or zip bags, and a knife.)

      2. NGPZ

        She didn’t. Fuckface knows Instant Transmission now, he honed in on Carla’s chi

  14. Alongcameaspider

    I mean I’m not sure Walky lied, that assumes some level of intent, we have no reason to assume he knows where Charlie lives

    A more accurate statement would be he guessed in order to get Carla to leave

    1. Jeremiah

      Nah, saying he lied is pretty accurate, he said “Charlie lives in briscoe” as an answer to a “question”, let’s call it that, with the intention of making her leave, when his truthful answer would be “I don’t know where she lives or even who that is leave me alone I am very sleepy”.

      1. DailyBrad

        Yeah, it’s a lie in so far as it was dishonest, not because he was knowingly changing the facts. He misrepresented how much information he had to get out of an annoying conversation, which, was pretty much valid, just also still lying.

    2. HueSatLight

      you just described his intent to deceive and a motivation.

    3. anon

      well he did pick a random one to get carla to go away, so kinda a douchey move

    4. Thag Simmons

      He lied about knowing for certain. It would still be a lie even if he happened to be correct.

      1. eh, whatever

        It’s not a lie, it’s bullshit.

        1. clif

          It also wasn’t random; it was the plausible answer that would get her as far away as possible.

        2. Taffy

          I like this article a lot. Thank you for posting it.

  15. Nono

    I was trying to figure out what time it was. We don’t know exactly what time Carla woke Booster up, except it was ‘very early morning’.

    Assuming it was 5 or 6am, ten hours later would put it at late afternoon.

    1. anon

      it could be hyperbole and she only waited til after noon versus like 9pm, unless she literally woke them up at like 3 am or so

    2. asmodai27

      It was pretty much at the time Walky had to wake up to go to church with Lucy, so my guess is 7 to 8 am, which on a campus and on a sunday morning qualifies as very early !

  16. DiDi

    She waited there for 10 hours? Assuming she didn’t want to take a chance on food or going to the bathroom…

    Girl is flat “down horrendous.”

    1. anon

      the power of thirst/horniness is something lol, tho she did take a brief break to run to get her hat and i assume fuckface

      1. Mturtle7

        In fairness, Carla is very VERY ace, so it’s more like the power of infatuation rather than horniness!

        I would say “the power of love”, but I’m pretty sure Carla would murder me outright for directly associating such a mushy trope with her, so I’ll stick with “the power of infatuation”.

    2. morleuca

      Assuming she’s taking spironolactone as part of a possible hrt regimen, this would be a heroic feat in and of itself.

      1. morleuca

        The not going to the bathroom for 10 hours, I mean.

    3. thejeff

      She did get Fuckface and rig up the sign on the hat at some point during those 10 hours.

  17. Francoinblanco

    sin of omission

  18. Sirksome

    I know Carla is making this more of an ordeal than it needs to be, but the fact Booster can easily help with this and has chosen not to while simultaneously being very smug in their teasing feels mean. Help or don’t, just enjoying someone jump through the hurdles you’ve set is kind of a dick move. Maybe that’s just me being too sensitive though. I get that these interactions are jokes.

    1. Wraithy2773

      I’m sure if Carla had gone about this in a polite, respectful, maybe even somewhat humble manner, then they would’ve helped out fine.

      Instead, she’s approached this like an entitled asshole demanding to get her way, no matter how it inconveniences others, and Booster is entirely justified in how they’ve handled this.

      1. Dante

        Co-signed. Booster themselves all but stated it back when the politics + pie scene (standard USA holiday?) happened, and she’s kept at it.

        Also, Carla insists on behaving like a cartoon character. Booster is just committing to the bit.

        1. Sirksome

          I kind of think this is a bit of an uneven critique. Carla’s default is obnoxious narcissist so Booster was fair to be apprehensive, but they also insulted Carla’s parents to her face in that first interaction too. To me that kind of breaks even. Booster has no obligation to help Carla but I don’t know if they also get a pass to tease her.

        2. ian livs

          As someone with a Cluster B disorder, the way people are watering down “narcissist” is kind of a problem.

        3. Dante

          Amen.

          I may be wording this badly, apologies. Like, I can understand where Sirksome is coming from (re: Booster’s reaction being proportional? Specifically that?) But yeah, every time I see “narcissist” nowadays I wince. It used to happen with “bipolar” and “schizo”, and nowadays it’s the internet’s favorite armchair diagnosis. I can’t with that.

        4. eh, whatever

          It’s Trump’s fault. He has confronted people with the fact that narcissists exist, and now they’re seeing them everywhere.

        5. Pergola

          We -are- everywhere.

        6. David DeLaney

          “… everywhere that _matters_, anyway”

        7. Thag Simmons

          Yeah, and if Carla’s parents weren’t famous billionaires I might feel a little stronger about that.

      2. sdrainbow

        frankly, I’d say if Carla picked even ONE of those three (“polite, respectful, humble”, threading is tough on this comment system) she’d be winning.

        but carla can’t even clear that low bar.

        1. Ed Callahan

          If any of the characters even once picked one of those options, it would torpedo the premise of the entire strip. Sort of like the Titanic, but with U-boats instead of an iceberg.

    2. RassilonTDavros

      They’re really living up to Mike’s legacy.

    3. HueSatLight

      If it turns out Booster found out what Walky did very recently, then her waiting the whole day in the wrong place isn’t their fault. And it’s still very early in the conversation, I don’t think a few seconds is past a line where they aren’t going to help, and are just doing smug teasing and hurdles.

      1. Bash

        Also there’s no reason to assume that Carla would have spent the whole day on this. Most people wouldn’t given up within an hour.

        1. Clif

          Ten hours sounds like a pretty good chunk of the day.

        2. anon

          is that better or worse than being pied in the face lol, other than a friend i can get over it tho i feel like if i was attacked by a pie throwing machine by some entitled rich kid going to the school, they would be in for a lot worse if i was able to get ‘revenge’ lol

        3. HueSatLight

          It’s worse than the pie.

      2. Needfuldoer

        Wasn’t Booster in the room when Walky told Carla the wrong destination? They knew from the beginning.

        1. HueSatLight

          not really in a state of wakefulness though.

      3. DailyBrad

        I mean, their dorm room isn’t big, and I doubt Booster could fall asleep with this conversation happening like 10 feet away. They probably knew the whole time what happened.

    4. Thag Simmons

      I think it is a dick move, but Booster doesn’t seem to like Carla that much and does not seem to want them dating their sister.

      1. DailyBrad

        Who Booster likes and doesn’t isn’t really super obvious, honestly. Like, Booster intentionally fucked with them multiple times now, but they’ve done that to people they do like, too. Like, go back and look at how they treated Amber and how they did express (fleeting, granted) remorse for it.

        They kind of seem like someone who likes pushing buttons with equal opportunity, though they have been gentler on Ethan for probably a variety of reasons.

    5. Derek

      Carla is not entitled to any information about a girl she’s obnoxiously obsessed with for no reason

  19. BBCC

    HEROICALLY!

    1. Lingo

      The longer they waited, the more heroic it became!

  20. Qube

    pictured: two fuckfaces

    1. John Campbell

      And an iguana.

      1. David DeLaney

        +. 1. sir.

  21. Suet

    The difference between a lie and an opinion is a “probably”. Or a reasonable facsimile.

    10 hours sounds enough to consider Carla as Briscoe’s new statue.

    1. Dante

      She’s a colorful Performance Art Piece for sure :’33

    2. HueSatLight

      that’s not what opinion means.

  22. M!a

    Gawd. Girl’s so self-absorbed, she’s swollen to three times her size.

    But, as appears to be Grand Unifying Theory for DoA, she’s cute so she gets away with it.

    Dub, who the hell stood you up for prom?

  23. Queezle

    I kind of feel bad for Carla. A little bit.

    1. anon

      i half expect charlie to actually talk to her and be like “Oh hi, whats your name again” and not notice/process the sign on her head (b/c tbh it could easily be a random brand name too like how ppl wear polo tees)

      1. Pergola

        ‘Carla’ is obviously the name of the hat-lizard.

  24. Cholma

    Carla: The goddess we need, even if we don’t deserve her! (she *does* look divine in that dress)

    1. David DeLaney

      with the hat and iguana added, she looks Divine

  25. sdrainbow

    Carla you can’t simultaneously not be able to tell the difference between Walky and Booster and also be mad that Booster waited 10 hours to help you.

    1. sdrainbow

      well. you CAN. obviously. but I’m going to cite you for it.

      1. Mturtle7

        I mean, I’m pretty sure Carla is the sort of person who would cheerfully WELCOME your citation, and then actively try to engage in whatever behavior she think provoked it as much as possible. She likes the attention!

    2. anon

      well she’s also been talking to booster before and getting frustrated like “what you’re saying i have to disown my family before i can talk to your sister” or so but potential ‘cuteness’ of a ship aside idk how realistic/long it’d be since o ther than not getting ‘attention ‘ from charlie which provoked carla into being desperate for her attention to begin with, idk if she even likes anything about charlie otherwise, would she even find talking to her interesting at all

      imagine if she hated ultra car as a twist lol

    3. Pergola

      Carla knows the difference. Walky is the not-girl version of Amazigirl.

  26. Dante

    Before the comments section crashes into overly analyzing these two, who have like, probably the wackiest interactions (pie to the face, anyone?). BEHOLD.

    RUTH/BILLIE PLAYLIST

    Your Stupid Lockpicking Is Nostalgic

    If I missed anything, please let me know. If you wanna add more, PLEASE ALSO LET ME KNOW!! We can keep adding stuff here ad infinitum. Maybe even until they get back together.

    PS: I’m a bit obsessive with playlists so I’ll be probably fiddling with the order of the songs so they sound cohesive if not played in random mode ;3

    1. Laura

      Ooh, I love it! Thank you!

      1. Dante

        I’m glad to hear!!! Everyone put a lot of effort into it ;www;

    2. milu

      Yayyyy
      I love the title of the playlist ??

      1. Dante

        Thank you so much!!! ;www; I think I’ve also managed to make it more or less sound nice when played in order?? It was a really fun puzzle X’DDD We had a lot of genres!

    3. Nothri

      I hate everything about you by three days grace. Always comes to mind around those two.

      1. Dante

        A++++ choice omg yes

  27. Icalasari

    Booster is right, this is heroic

    Because Walky is no longer going to be the target of Carla’s ire

    1. Icalasari

      Oooh I dig this avatar

      1. NGPZ

        yee!

  28. anon

    lol didn’t expect fuckface to be borrowed, unless mayala’s off screen just watching this go down tho idk if she’d gloat/mock carla for this

    1. Thomas

      Malaya respects Carla for not being fake & let her borrow Fuckface.

      1. Mark

        She sent him over to bring the hat and the sign.

        1. David DeLaney

          the sign has an electric heater attached inside the hat
          which Fuckface is gleefully absorbing the warmth of
          to prevent Carla’s lleged brain from cooking

          this allowed the hat to be walked over to this dorm
          in the iguanas-fall-from-trees weather
          by an iguana under it

          –Dave, just a bubblegum pink hat with a flashing sign saying CARLA, slowly walking across a snowy quad

      2. Pergola

        Whatever else Carla is, she is definitely not fake.

  29. Thomas

    Do characters in this comic ever wear high heels? It seems that Jennifer might wear them. Maybe it’s a type of footwear that Willis has a strong aversion to?

    1. DailyBrad

      I am sure they sometimes must, but it’s also probably not really something most people would want to trudge around campus wearing. On dates, though, sure.

    2. morleuca

      Though please note, this was important enough to Carla that she didn’t just put on a dress, she took off her roller skates.

  30. Steelbright

    I am impressed that she managed to use this time to make a color-changing, glowing neon sign. Though if it’s Carla, I guess it probably only took her 15 minutes.

    1. Needfuldoer

      She probably has boxes of those.

    2. Da Boy

      If she’s been here for 10 hours the boredom must have been killing her.

    3. Mark

      She made it after the posterboard-on-a-stick didn’t work, and has been carrying it ever since.

  31. Needfuldoer

    I like to think Carla’s hat sign is animated, like the neon advertising billboards of yesteryear.

    C—-
    -A—
    –R–
    —L-
    —-A
    CAR–
    —LA
    CARLA
    —–

    1. StClair

      oh I love this.

  32. DailyBrad

    I know the whole point is for her to look silly, but Carla’s still honestly looking damn cute here.

  33. Ray

    Fresh lesbian flag just dropped (Carla) (she in that exact getup including the iguana is the flag)

    1. Ray

      Does she have to be a “”healthy person””. Is it not enough, to be a character, an icon, and a disaster, in this cast

    2. morleuca

      We added green to the lesbian flag?

      1. David DeLaney

        there are irish lesbians!!

      2. Ray

        That’s why she makes for a new one

  34. Crow

    That dress is kinda ugly ngl

    1. morleuca

      I like, but I’m very impressed at her willingness to bare her shoulders.

    2. Needfuldoer

      She rocks it anyway.

  35. thumb

    I don’t know how I’d feel if Charlie turned out to also be Booster. One the one hand, I’d give it a side-eye. On the other hand, it’d be the most incredibly Carla thing to do to Carla.

    1. Daibhid C

      “Yeah, I faked an entire person, including giving myself a whole second class schedule, just to mess with you for some reason. Talking about having a sister before I even met you was all part of the plan.”

    2. Needfuldoer

      They just jump back and forth between both roles fast enough for persistence of vision to kick in, like the Olsen twin.

  36. morleuca

    I think we’ve seen them both in the same place before. Unless everyone time we’ve seen them together no on else was around to notice

    1. Daibhid C

      We have. More to the point, so has Carla.

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/charlie/

  37. DarkoNeko

    hi Fuckface

  38. ValdVin

    Good thing she didn’t setup the laser show.

  39. RF

    Carla’s got it bad…

  40. Yeet

    It’s going to be very funny if Charlie wanders past while they’re arguing

  41. Claire

    I love Booster. Mike with a smile

  42. egg egg

    Fuckface is stealing the show.

    1. Pergola

      I am definitely saving panel one Fuckface in case I ever need a gravatar.

  43. bcb

    Oh my Cheese Carla and Booster are a perfect duo.

  44. Amós Batista

    Wish this strip could be a gif, like in Questionable Content some pages.

  45. wakeangel2001

    I’m betting she’s pretty hangry after all that time…

  46. DashWallkick

    Booster *is* replacement Mike, but I like Booster more. Not quite as much of a direct contemptful asshole, but much more funny about it.

    1. Firseal

      Booster is an alternate company alternate component Mike. He fits in the same places the Mike component does, but he works differently, has different reviews on the cultural interpersonal circles website, and doesn’t take dimes.

      That said, I do not think any situation run through Mike would be the same as if it was run through Booster, even if Booster works in the same niche.

  47. Rabisch

    So, is Booster going to formally introduce Carla to Charlie now or not?

  48. Lingo

    The longer they waited to tell her, the more heroic it became.

    1. UrsulaDavina

      Heroic in the sense that Booster realized how bad Carla’s retaliation will be the longer they waited.

      1. Lingo

        Yep. That’s the joke.

  49. Morleuca

    please tell me we aren’t jumping away again tomorrow

    1. NGPZ

      According to blurry patreon preview, i don’t think so?

  50. tunasammich

    I really want Carla and Charlie to at least be friends lol

  51. UrsulaDavina

    I’m going to assume fuckface can bend space and time to appear were he is needed beacuse I can’t imagine the poor guy out in the cold. Also Booster you may have made a grave miscalculation.

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