224

So you agree
Posted on July 27, 2023 by David M Willis

224 thoughts on “So you agree”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    Walky wouldn’t be flunking if he majored in memes lol (minor in The Avengers, I guess)

    also, once again, Walky profiting by doing the jackest of shit

    1. clif

      Wait? The train stayed on the track? There was no wreck?

      Damn you Willis! What am I going to do with all this popcorn?

      1. Opus the Poet

        Too early to string it for Christmas tree decorations?

      2. Amelie Wikström

        Everybody reached so far for the wrong conclusions they ended up pulling the train back on track

  2. Thag Simmons

    alright, fission mailed, gg guys

    1. UrsulaDavina

      Fission is actually a good word to describe this situation

  3. Doctor_Who

    Task failed successfully.

  4. Stephen Bierce

    They say that Breakin’ Up Is Hard To Do~oo

  5. Yearofthecat

    Success but at what cost?

    1. Archieve

      Panel 4 Walky realizing the whole plan was pointless.

      1. Vanessa

        Has Walky learned anything though? Proably not.

        1. Bash

          What lesson is there to learn here?

        2. Leorale

          “Don’t do this”?

        3. MM

          I think it’s been very educational for Charles on the subject of Transformers reproduction.

    2. Freezer

      On the one hand: Sal would be right to be pissed that he nearly goofballed something she’d already set right.

      On the other: She got to watch him get reamed out, while remaining the innocent party.

      1. Steamweed

        Maybe she’ll be so hopped up on this sheer novelty that she’ll drag Danny up to the roof (later) for garbage roof sex.

  6. shrub

    Of course he hasn’t learned anything

    1. Bryy

      You misspelled she.

      1. Taffy

        The fucked up part is that regardless of pronouns, everyone at the table has learned about Transformers reproduction, whether they wanted to or not. So the idea that someone hasn’t learned anything is an outright malicious lie designed to bring about the end of civil discourse.

        1. Azhrei Vep

          Hey now. I don’t think Amber has a learned anything about Transformers reproduction, and she’s definitely at the table.

      2. shrub

        Fair point

  7. C.T. Phipps

    Whew. Crisis averted. Linda is back to being the best parent!

    1. Joshua Kronengold

      I mean, no, because Dina (and her parents) are still in this strip.

      Linda is noticably better than several other parents in this strip, but that just means she passes a low bar; she’s differently messed up than her Its Walky counterpart, but still kinda messed up.

      1. Taffy

        Okay, but “in Linda’s opinion” felt implied there.

        1. Needfuldoer

          In her own opinion, was she ever not the best parent?

        2. clif

          I believe that to be the point.

  8. RassilonTDavros

    Welp, mission complete. Walky has truly Dumbed of Age.

  9. Sirksome

    Glad this whole fake girlfriend plan worked and definitely didn’t plant any worrying seed of a potential relationship crash and burn!

  10. Yotomoe

    AGHHHH MY STOOOOCKS.
    I’M GOING BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUST

    1. CMasta1992

      The Rise and Fall of Yotomoe

    2. UrsulaDavina

      Its the boom and bust cycle The market was rigged buy silver and gold by that I mean Dina and Becky and Dina and Dotty’s parents as solid ship assets.

      1. Thag Simmons

        Amber and Walky is also just not a great investment. Like it had promise once and even after it crashed there was still some hope, but once the details of the split came out that should have been your sign to bail.

        1. thejeff

          Sure, but you could have made a bundle over this last week if you’d timed the swings right.

      2. UrsulaDavina

        Also the whole buying gold thing is stupid investment.

      3. Laura

        *Plays “Fear the Boom and Bust” on the hacked car stereo:*

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

    3. Thag Simmons

      We’re lucky the entire market hasn’t crashed

    4. Sirksome

      This is why you don’t invest in risky startups. I put all mine into the Dina and Becks 500. It’s not really even investing, you’re basically assuring growth from investing in the top 500 partnerships. It’s slow growth, but it’s stable.

      1. UrsulaDavina

        There is always volatility in the market but if you’re going to gamble… I mean invest, I suppose Dina and Becky is one of the more stable stocks

      2. CMasta1992

        The DB500 was such an obvious success there was no value. You can’t get any buyers or sellers. It’s just something that exists. If you’re gonna play the game you may as well gamble a little bit.

        1. Needfuldoer

          The trick is to watch where all the rich jackasses invest the bulk of their money. They’re certainly not going to let those funds fail!

        2. clif

          You would think, but in the long run there is always a bigger jackass.

        3. Regret

          The system doesn’t require that its followers are safe, just that it has enough followers.

        4. thejeff

          Unless they can sell first.
          If you’re always following them, you’re buying higher and selling lower.

        5. Needfuldoer

          True.

          They get to write their losses off, too….

        6. Freemage

          That’s why I continue to invest in DannyXSal. DXS at least has all the elements of a stock that could go the distance; as yet, there’s been no red flags. A yellow one, in the form of Linda’s approval, I suppose, but betting against a solid ship just because of an outside factor is, in my opinion, just as risky a bet.

    5. Needfuldoer

      Bamboozled by another rug pull!

  11. UrsulaDavina

    Technically what Amber did was criminal hacking a government system… but sins of the father much Linda? Piss off.

    1. MisterJinKC

      It’s a private college, not government, correct?

      1. UrsulaDavina

        No IU is a public institution run by the State of Indiana also hacking private institutions is illegal as well.

  12. CMasta1992

    I’m counting this as a win. I’m not even gonna question it.

    1. Bin

      For Sal I guess.
      Meanwhile Amber just confessed to hacking to a lady who wants her expelled. Granted Walky would get hit too because he benefited but just say he was unaware of it / he leaves for some other reason.

      1. James

        She’d have to prove it beyond “I was told in a private conversation”, wouldn’t she?

  13. Animedingo

    Ok but

    This proves thats not the reason he was failing

    Arguably had more to do with dorothy

    1. UrsulaDavina

      No it’s more likely Walky was lazy and or not prepared for college or being on his own. Also If he as ADHD and doesn’t have medication he probably was not use to such a loose strucutre. I think Linda controlled his life and controlled his scheduale to a fairly high degree. So without that rigid structure and routine it caused him to spiral. This isn’t always the case but I’ve seen it happen to a few of my friends who have ADHD.

      1. Serendipity

        Laziness does not exist.

        1. UrsulaDavina

          I had to look this up the book seems interesting. So I rephrase Walky was directionless. The other points I made though I stick by.

        2. AY

          My therapist lent me that book nearly a year ago and I still haven’t gotten around to finishing it because, you guessed it, ADHD keeps driving me to other things lol

        3. Leorale

          Solidarity. I have a really good-looking book on ADHD but I forgot about it partway through and now I don’t know where it is.

        4. BBCC

          I disagree with this. Sometimes I AM lazy (as in I just plain ole fashioned don’t feel like doing something) and that’s okay. I don’t think that’s the case with Walky failing in math though.

      2. Devin

        Control by Linda doesn’t have to factor into it for ADHD and a looser structure in college to be the cause.

        The urge to blame Linda is not unreasonable, but in this case not necessary for an explanation.

        1. UrsulaDavina

          Given that Linda demanded Walky send her copies of his college report cards and claiming him to be her scholar and her plans for Walky to become pre med indicates to she probably does factor into this.

        2. Devin

          I’m not saying she couldn’t possibly, but speaking as someone who’s had the described experience, the parental control aspect is not required for the same outcome. Especially since as Needfuldoer pointed out, he never learned how to study because good grades came to him easily until college moved past what he already knew. Also familiar territory for me.

        3. Needfuldoer

          He also never learned how to study because good grades came to him by default (up until college started moving past review material).

        4. Regret

          On the other hand, ADHD doesn’t have to factor into it for Linda’s excessive control and a looser structure in college to be the cause.

  14. Wendy

    THIS SHOULDN’T HAVE WORKED but the fact that it did is somehow the funniest outcome

    1. NGPZ

      FUCK YEAH!!!!! ??

    2. UrsulaDavina

      Did it really work though? I thought the plan was to expose Linda as a racist and that her dislike of Lucy was because of it, and that didn’t happen. All that happened is that Linda is ok with Walky dating Lucy beacuse in comparison to Amber anyone is better. It’s like to Linda Walky is better off eating a sour cream and green olive sandwich then eating a straight up turd on moldy bread. Neither of which Lucy and Amber are but that’s just Linda’s perspective I assume.

      1. Just an Armadillo

        The goal of the scheme was to get Linda to approve of Lucy in spite of her closeted racism by presenting her with the worst possible choice of white girl imaginable as a horrifying alternative.

        1. Vanessa

          Apparently all Walky needed to do was show up with Lucy though.

        2. Proxiehunter

          But he didn’t know that Sal was going to be there at all or the her dating the white boy . . . damn those typos the right boy would get their mother to listen to Sal or that Sal would even try to convince their mother Lucy was an alright girl for Walky to be dating.

          I’m not saying that Lucy’s (remember, this was her idea) convoluted scheme was the best idea but Walky had no way of knowing that all he had to do was nothing.

        3. Leorale

          Yup. The hijinks were totally irrelevant to Linda preferring Lucy. Sal had already put in a good word and fixed it for them.

          (Granted, normally Linda wouldn’t listen to Sal, she just did today because of Wonderbread over there. But still! Walky and Lucy should thank Sal, not their wacky shenanigans.)

        4. UrsulaDavina

          I guess I gave this stupid plan more credit then it’s worth, beacuse I’d that’s the case it does not solve the underlying issue.

      2. Mark

        “Expose Linda as a racist” is what the comment section wanted, craved, lusted for. What Walky wanted was the quiet enjoyment of a relationship with Lucy.

        1. Leorale

          He did advertise “we’re solving prejudice!”

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/solving-2/

        2. Leorale

          If Walky had wanted quiet enjoyment, he could’ve just not mentioned Lucy to his mom in the first place. (That may have been his original desire, when he suggested that Lucy run away.) But he also wanted to be commended for his good job at choosing ladies, and then he got excited about wacky hijinks, and now here we are.

  15. NGPZ

    Linda is known for being manipulative and abusing her children, so I wouldn’t take her at her word.

    Mission completed!

  16. cbwroses

    So how likely is that Linda and/or Charles will pick up on what he had originally tried to do by inviting Amber vs we cutting to something else tomorrow?

    1. Random832

      I’m worried they’re going to decide that it means Sal and Danny’s relationship is also fake.

  17. JA

    All’s well that ends well!

    …right?

    1. Bin

      Walky: Don’t jinx it!

  18. Derek

    and everyone at the table continues not to question how or why Walky changed girlfriends in the span of a few hours. this is really wacky sitcom bullshit of the worst sort. eugh

    1. Nono

      I mean Sal’s probably figured out what he was doing.

      1. Twitcher

        I’m betting Charles will, too, but will decide not to tell his wife. Linda is just the right amount of irrational so as not to question this.

    2. Regret

      You don’t ask your loved ones what’s up with the new bimbo every second hour while said bimbo is there. That’s just not polite.

  19. HueSatLight

    I bet these juvenile antics convince Linda he’s a responsible adult and doesn’t need mothering.

  20. DailyBrad

    Well, all’s well that ends well… sorta.

  21. Bin

    Lady… YOU have a criminal family.
    And Sal also distracted Walky’s TA with her own T&A.

    Speaking of, I hope Jason shows up.

  22. Rose by Any Other Name

    I hear ya, Amber. I hear ya.

  23. StClair

    “What did we learn, Palmer?”

  24. Nono

    Criminal family?

    Wonder what Linda thinks of Amber’s step-brother who was involved in an on-campus sex scandal.

    1. Nono

      Joe, not Faz.

    2. temporaryobsessor

      Well his dad is a doctor. But he’s kind of a screw off and a player himself.
      On the other hand no piercings or tatoo’s and not part of a gang.
      He’s not white but he had lighter skin than her kids.

      1. Nono

        Don’t most US Jewish people consider themselves white?

        1. Leorale

          I’m US Jewish with light skin, and I don’t. (I’m Ashkenazi.)

          Light-skinned Jews are provisionally white — ie, the real white people will tolerate us as long as things are going well for them, with reminders that we’re very much guests who are here on their terms… until things start going badly for the real white people, and then they come kill us.

          Like, I have a lot of white privilege currently, and I do appreciate that cops see a little white lady and want to protect me instead of shooting me. But I’m still not really white, everyone who hates BIPOCs also hates Jews, and I’m ready to run for it.

        2. Miri

          See, I’d say that I’m really white. Just “white, other”. And that “other” would almost definitely matter to racists because they’re generally also xenophobes, and intolerant of other heritage-type differences…

          But when I get the “where are you from?” questions, people are generally guessing France, whereas my sister often has them thinking Russia/Middle East (if it were triangulated, I think our heritage would average out about Mediterranean. Iraqi-Jewish, approximately Polish (pre-Poland), Spanish via Turkey to escape the Inquisition…). She can get a more hostile approach… I generally just go with British. Apparently I have at least one French doppleganger and this has thrown people… Or many people use the same excuse.

          A half-Malaysian friend apparently sometimes gets the charming “What are you?” Rather than “Where are you from?” though ?

          So definitely something to be said for passing privilege.

        3. Miri

          (But I’m at least 3rd generation British on one side… so White British is also true?)

        4. temporaryobsessor

          I think his tan skin tone and dark hair would be a slight problem for Linda.
          If he were a blond haired, blue eyed, and pale skinned like Dorothy I don’t think Linda would factor in his Jewishness. She’d just be weighing his player recent past and lack of life goals against his doctor dad.

        5. temporaryobsessor

          Sorry I guess I don’t know Dorothy’s eye color.

  25. MisterJinKC

    So “Sally convinced me she was a good choice for you before you even arrived. ” sounds like it’s settling up that she isn’t racist, but rather makes snap judgements based on her gut without any evidence or desire to look for any.

    1. Vanessa

      Her racist snap judgments lead her astray but she has the potential to grow and learn? She’s impressed by Danny being such a suave nerd too not just by his whiteness, if he were a pierced and tatted up white guy working retail she would certainly hate him.

      1. Steelbright

        Yeah this seems like a good take–after all, she can be prejudiced in many different ways that kind of overlap and may even cancel each other out in different circumstances 😛

    2. CMasta1992

      This is kinda where I’m leaning. We’ve lead to Linda being racist or colorist but over the course of this, it’s feeling more that Sal was the “problem child” and Walky was the “smart one” and the color was coincidental. She accepted Lucy with very little pushing and she pretty rightfully went Mama Bear against the girl who stabbed her daughter.

      Not saying we should throw a ticker tape parade for her but Linda seems a bit less shitty than we pegged her for

      1. MM

        I wouldn’t call screaming about Amber being “feral” to Amber’s face when Amber is arguably being the calmest person in the room “rightfully going Mama Bear.” More importantly, I don’t think the problem/golden child dynamic disproves the colorism when it still seems pretty closely tied to how Sal became designated the “problem child” in the first place.

      2. BBCC

        She only cares about the stabbing because she wants to use it to get Amber expelled because Walky got kidnapped.

      3. HueSatLight

        I would not call agreeing to provisionally tolerate Lucy “acceptance”. Nothing she’s done is inconsistent with an unconscious racial bias.

    3. Chromatic Roses

      if willis goes the “this black woman was incorrect about the fact that she was on the receiving end of prejudice” route that would be. fucking terrible and i have enough faith in willis to presume that’s not true. the fact is that people are way more complicated than “alt right white supremacist” and “saint of anti-racism”. linda’s snap judgment was ABOUT lucy being black, and therefore not good enough for walky. you can’t act like snap judgements aren’t rooted in prejudice, especially when there was LITERALLY nothing about lucy that would imply in any way that she was bad for walky. she was literally standing there and being perfectly polite

      1. thejeff

        Also, the reason she’s rethinking her take on Sal is that Sal showed up with a nice white boy.

    4. Needfuldoer

      We know she’s prejudiced, but we don’t know exactly how bigoted she is.

      1. Taffy

        She’s at least bigoted enough to decide her word being law is more important than Marcie getting to maybe use her vocal cords ever again just because her parents maybe crossed an invisible line without debasing themselves with pointless paperwork. Whether or not it’s confirmed the surgery/whatever would definitely work and the only problem was time and money, Linda definitely would have done the same thing in either scenario.

        1. BBCC

          She’s hated Marcie since she was five and we saw her treating Sal and Walky differently for the same behaviour at a similar age.

    5. aelfwine

      Making snap judgment based on racial prejudice is still, you know, a form of racism.

      Like, that’s what prejudice IS, making judgments prematurely.

      Being willing to drop the racist prejudice on second consideration, is more likely to mean simply that Linda’s racism is unconscious rather than deliberate, not that she isn’t racist.

      1. James

        Racism isn’t really a thing people ARE, it’s a thing people DO.

        …and Linda has been super duper racist to her own children and others.

    6. Felgraf

      Yes but those snap judgement are possibly, clouded by (potentially unconscious!) racism.

      Racism isn’t mustache-twirling assholes going “NYAHAHAHA, THOSE PEOPLE WITH OTHER SKIN TONES ARE INFERIOR”. Or, it isn’t just that.

      It’s honestly better to think of being not-racist like being good: It is not an intrinsic state. It is a thing you work towards. The point at which you believe that it is a thing that you ARE and no longer need to work on/think about/try to do, but just your intrinsic state of being—

      iissssss when the problems start.

      1. NGPZ

        THIS.

        Strictly speaking, the whole not-racist / racist binary is moot.

        In today’s framing, there are several layers to systematic racism, and there’s anti-racism, there is no “non”. And in fact one of the greatest challenges to fighting systematic racism is within the thick “outer layer” as it were — the widespread, incorrect idea that one can simply opt out of systematic racism without having to think critically about their place in it.

        1. Bryy

          Yup.

    7. Chubsius

      Sometimes your gut is full of poop, and makes you act like a real butt.

    8. Twitcher

      She’s racist, but can’t admit that to herself. Sal quietly called her out, and that made her accept Lucy.

  26. Just an Armadillo

    Uhh, okay then, mission accomplished, all according to plan! Bad romcom schemes have won the day!

  27. Reltzik

    … very subtle, Walky.

  28. Taffy

    Walky might be up on his memes, but I’m apparently not. Is there a meme here?

    1. Vanessa

      Not that I can tell!

    2. NGPZ

      Memes are like airborne yeast particles — I can’t always perceive them, but I just always assume they’re present at any given moment.

      1. Taffy

        It doesn’t help that so many “memes” are just a completely normal sentence without any distinguishing inflection or interesting context.

    3. Nymphie

      “So you agree” is from Mean Girls. It took me amoment since Walky is facing the opposite direction than Regina George

      1. Taffy

        That’s exactly what I mean though, it’s such a normal-ass thing to say. I was staring at the strip, desperately looking for some kind of anomalous choice of words or hand motion or anything, but apparently it’s nothing more or less than half a movie quote from a movie where people talk normally. That’s why I was confused.

        1. Mark

          Well, I didn’t see it either, for the same reason. This is where we’ve come to: we’re awash in “memes” simply because it’s fashionable and people are looking under every rock for something that could just possibly be a meme if you squint at it.

        2. NGPZ

          Yup. I therefore propose the Fundamental Theorem of Memematics:

          That any work can be broken down into a sum of memes that work together to achieve the desired gestalt for it’s audience.

  29. Yotomoe

    o3o Yeah all my kinks are pretty unfeasible in real. And also might be dangerous.

    1. Taffy

      What is danger but spicy safety?

    2. Angel

      yeah some online kinks/fanfics/art does seem like it’d be impossible or deadly

      But maybe with enough imagination/roleplay it can help with some (or who knows, maybe in 50 years from now we’ll get to see it in vr headsets XD)

      1. Taffy

        Hell, VR Chat is super customisable and can take full-body input AND connect with sex toys, so even if you can’t get the IRL tactile sensation of like, getting fisted with a handful of bees and having the bees left in there, you can go buy a fist-shaped toy and some of those little vibrating pellet things and have your VR partner remote-control your toy to realistically do something pretty similar.

        Or so I hear.

      2. Dr. Sharks

        Some kinks have “fantasy-only” as an intrinsic part. As in, the people with the kink are aroused by a fantastical scenario involving their kink but would be disgusted by the same scenario enacted in real life. Fetishes are not necessarily only realized by IRL actions. Sexuality is weird.

        1. Yotomoe

          Personally I’m extra virgin olive oil so I have no idea which kinks I’d enjoy in real and which I wouldn’t. I mean most things I’m into are things I’m not into and im into them because I’m into the idea of being made to do them, ya dig?

  30. Dr. T

    It supremely irks me to see Linda continue to call Sal by a name she has often objected to.

    1. KM

      Has she really objected to people calling her Sally before? Where?

      1. TulipKitten

        I just checked the history, and there hasn’t been any comic where she tells her mom to call her Sal. You’d think it would be there.

      2. Amós Batista

        There’s a strip that she get angry because Danny has called her “Sally”. I get the URL, it’s a one that she are using very scandalous clothes and playing Mario Kart in Danny’s video game.

        1. Vegetalss4

          Searching through the archive for early strips I found it here
          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/sally/

          She certainly was rather insistent that she wasn’t a sally then, but that was the day after the parent visit day where she tried having curly hair and a conservative dress in the failed hope of getting parental approval, so it might have been a particularly sore subject that day.

        2. Mark

          Consider that she may object to “Sally” because her mother calls her that.

          I’ve been wondering: does her birth certificate really say “Sally [Middlename] Walkerton” or is “Sally” in turn a diminutive? Are there two “Sarah”s here?

        3. Dr. Sharks

          TIL Sally is “short” for Sarah. Except it’s the same number of letters and the same number of syllables, so it is neither easier to write nor easier to say. What the heck? I thought Robert->Bob, William->Bill, and Richard->Dick were the weirdest ones, but at least they get shorter.

          Real question: anyone who goes by one of those shortened names, how did you decide to go with that instead of the longer version? As soon as you learned that, for example, Bob was short for Robert, did you just say “Yeah that makes sense, I’m gonna rewire my self-perception around this now.” No judgment, I’m legitimately curious.

        4. Uly

          If there are two Sarahs in a small town before widespread use of last names, it makes sense to call one Sarah and one Sally or Sadie.

          If there are several Roberts, it makes sense that one is Robin and one is Hob and one is Bobby and one is Bert and so on.

          Many people acquire their nicknames in childhood – it has nothing to do with their self-perception, just what other people call them. And lots of people are called different things by different groups of people. Again, nothing to do with your self-perception needing to be “rewired”.

        5. KM

          Heck if you’re Chinese you also get used to maybe having a western name and a Chinese name and said Chinese name being also pronounced in multiple dialects+ standard Mandarin

        6. thejeff

          Yeah, most commonly it’s the parents that name a kid “Robert”, but call them “Bob” throughout childhood.
          Sometimes kids will pushback against a childhood nickname during adolescence and either use a different short version or the full name. Part of switching to an adult identity.

          Elizabeth-> Betsey (or Betty) is the one I always thought was weirdest.

        7. Miri

          I submit Daisy, short for Margaret (French Marguerite = Daisy, translation). Also Peggy, short for Margaret (Margaret > Maggie > Meg > Peg > Peggy). And Molly and Polly, nicknames for Mary.

        8. Mark

          Heh, my mother’s diminutive for me was six syllables longer than my actual name.

        9. BBCC

          Her full name is Sally Elizabeth Walkerton. It’s not short for something in her case.

        10. KM

          Yeah I guess she was just mad she already introduced herself as Sal and Danny just assumed Sally and like vegetal said this was particularly sore spot that day. I don’t think she has that much objection otherwise. Danny strikes me as the kind of person that probably uses Daniel when he’s feeling fancy so maybe didn’t get it

    2. TulipKitten

      Honestly, I’m wondering if it’s meant to be symbolic for how some transphobic parents will engage in deadnaming. I mean, if Carla’s parents called her something else, the shittier parts of the fanbase would latch onto it. Although, that argument kind of gets thrown out the window since Jocelyne is regularly called by her deadname.

      1. KM

        I don’t see how the situations are at all comparable

        Jocelyne is still closeted, no one who calls her by her deadname actually knows that.

        On the other hand I genuinely cannot recall any scene where Sal objected to being called Sally. And I’d think it’s very normal for parents to use a name they gave their kid and not the nickname friends use

      2. Leorale

        Doesn’t seem like a deadname, as nobody has ever expressed that these two don’t want their mom to call them Sally or David.

        As a narrative technique, it nicely implies that Linda is not in touch with who her kids really are as people, since the names she gave them don’t actually suit their personalities.

        In-universe, it’s like when your pals give you a nickname, your mom doesn’t automatically adopt that nickname instead of the one she gave you.

    3. Yotomoe

      I dunno I figured it’s the thing where your parents and close relatives call you something different than your colloquial name. I mean Walky similarly goes by Walky but that’s his last name so it’d be weird for her to call him that and not David.

    4. Nono

      She prefers Sal but she’s never objected to Sally, probably because it’s just ‘what my mom calls me’.

      Like I do the same where the name I go by to friends and even work is different from what my parents call me. It happens.

      1. BBCC

        She objected when Danny called her that, probably because it’s what her mom calls her, but if she ever asked her mom to stop, she lost that battle. We have no evidence of her asking her mom to stop though.

        1. James

          Probably because she’s very aware she would lose that battle.

  31. Golden Yak

    Mission accomplished.

    1. Kitschensyngk

      You might put an asterisk next to that.

  32. CrazyJ

    So instead of having to turn in all his graded work to Linda, Walky just had to break up with a girl whom from his parent’s perspective he has been dating for an entire afternoon because that girl is apparently the cause of Walky failing some months ago. I wonder if Linda even knows or cares how insane she sounds.

    1. Wraithy2773

      100% she doesn’t care.

      1. NGPZ

        As is pretty much standard for abusive parents (and alt-right trolls), she believes whatever she needs to in order to make her child wrong somehow at any given moment.

      2. Archieve

        Now that’s she’s somewhat calm she’s looking for someone besides Walky to blame. Doesn’t matter who as long as she doesn’t have to acknowledge her parenting flaws. It’s her kids fault when they fail but her accomplishment when their on the “right” path.

      3. Bryy

        I mean, Linda literally just said “if you were not distracted by a girl that clearly loves you”.

    2. HueSatLight

      She didn’t say he doesn’t have to report his grades to her.

  33. Icalasari

    Is… Linda all there, mentally?

    1. NGPZ

      While I sincerely hope dementia or something else claims her, nah, I in this particular instance I think she’s just not being candid.

    2. Taffy

      Are you asking if she’s stupid?

      Because yes, she’s absolutely a moron.

    3. Angel

      well she just did find out her ‘perfect student’ was failing

      Tho technically walky was flunking while/during he was with dorothy leading to their ‘pause/breakup’, so amber wasn’t rly a ‘distraction’ tho even if lucy seems better in comparison i imagine she wouldn’t want walky to date nayone til he can prove his grades are ‘better’

      1. Icalasari

        More how all over she’s been since that point

    4. Amós Batista

      I don’t think so She’s just a entitled mother.

    5. Bash

      I’d say she has anger issues that cloud her judgment, as well as huge blind spots regarding herself and her kids.

  34. Angel

    well, let’s hope lucy wouldn’t also be considered a ‘distraction’ tho i feel like ‘making up’ with lucy in time for her to join for dinner would still make it awkward

  35. TulipKitten

    I fucking love Walky’s face when he realizes that his plan was incredibly stupid, and got him in huge trouble.

    1. MM

      I’m not sure there were any realizations going on there so much as a total reset.

  36. Steelbright

    This conversation went from zero to sixty to…zero again? HMMM

    1. Mollyscribbles

      It’ll probably speed up again soon; it just paused because Lucy is a non-issue compared to everything else going on.

    2. Woof McGee

      yep – no real drama. No real bombs dropped. This meeting could have been an email.

  37. Gilthwixt

    This whole episode just leaves me really confused – is Linda that delusional or does she genuinely not realize Sal robbed a gas station at knifepoint and caused Amber to have a panic attack in “self defense” (I know she was no longer in danger when it happened).

    1. Zero

      That’s the only part that matters when she’s talking to Sal.
      When she’s talking about Sal (which is her possession), that’s the only part that doesn’t matter.

    2. Bash

      If you weren’t there and you don’t know the specifics of Amber’s situation, you might not realize it was a panic attack caused by an abusive parent.

      1. BBCC

        You don’t really need to know the why’s of the panic attack to realize it’s the state she was in when she stabbed Sal.

  38. Bo

    “a good choice” cool, status quo including that Linda is still pretty shitty

  39. justin8448

    I hope that Lucy joins them for lunch next.

    And I hope that Amber also stays for lunch, on the grounds that she was promised free food. And everyone just else rolls with it.

    1. Mollyscribbles

      They realize that if they tried asking her to leave or otherwise engaged her in conversation she might start talking about Transformers mpreg again or worse.

  40. Taffy

    No, ya know what? If I cared so little about my own child that grades mattered more to me than them actually learning, I think I’d view their grade-hacking “girlfriend” as an asset, not a liability.

    1. CMasta1992

      Having done the Walky life where I just breezed through HS and the first part of college before absolutely crashing in Engineering I can tell you that if your parents only know you as a star student that first F is going to misplace a ton of emotions. And I didn’t even fake a relationship on a triple date with my twin sister when I had that conversation.

      *ALOT* is going on in this interaction

      1. NGPZ

        It. Never. Gets. Any. Easier.

      2. Rectilinear Propagation

        This is so painfully true.

    2. Zero

      I mean, it’s not that dissimilar to her suggestion a short while ago.

    3. pope suburban

      Having had parents like that, it’s crucial that they get to preserve their illusion that they did it all on their own- because, of course, the only reason you achieve anything is because of them, and not your own hard work or native skill. This would vex them considerably, because they might get the appearance of what they wanted but they will have a much harder time lying to themselves about it when they want the credit.

      1. Joy

        Mood.

  41. Now

    THE PLAN WORKED I’M DYING OF LAUGHTER I’M DEAD THANK YOU WILLIS

  42. Amós Batista

    It was so easy for Linda has said she prefer Lucy.
    Better keep the guard on *side eyes ?*

  43. Proto

    Friendship with racism ended.
    Now “yelling at my kid” is my best friend.

  44. Bryy

    Amazing mental gymnastics there, Linda.

  45. DarkoNeko

    She’s immediatelly putting the responsability on Sal if it fails later eh ?

    1. Da Boy

      Most likely, fortunately Lucy is a reasonable girl unlikely to get Walky into anything catastrophic so it… should work out?

  46. Suet

    It’s messy to think that Walky succeeded because Linda think Amber was Walky’s partner during the “flunkie” era, thus perceiving Walky’s love life as a game where you subtitute love interests like players

    Irreproducible fetishes, Amber? Not with that attitude.

  47. Rabisch

    Walky’s face in the 4th panel… Priceless.

  48. Juanoku

    Goddammit i was hoping this would be the chance that walky grew a backbone and talked back
    Guess I’ll have to keep hoping

  49. Chasey

    So that didn’t go as badly as it could’ve gone, but we have yet to see any longer-term consequences. Linda was (is?) trying to get Amber expelled, I thought, and Amber has revealed she hacked Walky’s grades. Does she take this info to the dean or does she let it slide because it saved her son from flunking out?

    1. Da Boy

      I guess it depends on if revealing this information would affect Walky or not.

      1. BBCC

        Probably. Even if she says he didn’t know, he’ll be under scrutiny for his grades and it’s very possible he gets expelled too because I don’t see Walky lying and saying it wasn’t the plan (though he might also say he changed his mind and she proceeded anyway, just planning and attempting it might be enough to get him kicked out of school).

        1. Da Boy

          It’s possible she could make a deal behind closed doors, all hush-hush but people would probably ask questions. Also Joe’s Dad Is pretty rich so when he starts asking question Dean would get nervous.

  50. Chubsius

    Imagine if Linda asks Danny to tutor Walky. Danny might be too nice to say no. Or Danny might bring up adhd and freak them out again

  51. Buli-Buli

    So, something just occured to me.

    Assuming nothing narratively important happens after the pizza arrives, Sal is currently riding a confused emotional high after becoming her parents favored child with respected opinions.

    What are the chances this is the incentive for the “spontaneity” Sal was looking for?

    On a similar note, I also just realized that Lucy willing skipped out on a date.

    1. Schpoonman

      They gon’ fuuuuuuuuuuu

  52. Dot

    How the fuck did this plan actually work

    1. Diane

      The plan never worked. It was done before the plan was implemented. Walky was just late to the party of realizing it was done.

    2. Alongcameaspider

      The plan was pointless, Sal had smoothed things over for Lucy/Walky before Walky and Amber even walked in the door

  53. bejouled

    Oof. My now-husband’s grades also suffered in college because it was unexpectedly harder than high school, and his parents ALSO said it was because he was distracted by me.

    The difference in his case was that he was already medicated for his ADHD, and had gotten through highschool by just studying more and more until he remembered everything (thanks to the meds). But because of that had never learned to step back and break down problems into smaller steps so he actually *understood* what was happening. And in college the “just work harder” strategy hit its limit.

    So like Walky, but opposite.

    1. Joy

      Dorothy is like this but without the meds. :0

  54. Dan

    If Walky was a clever man he could play off EVERYthing Amber said as part of the act. To convince his mother to give Lucy a chance. Thus erasing the whole “fixed his grades” bombshell… Walky however is not a clever man so congrats Sal. YOU are now the favorite.

  55. poyo

    oh wow, this backfired in a way i hadn’t even predicted !!! hilarious !!!!

    1. Daibhid C

      I’m not sure what you mean by backfire. The plan was to get Linda to agree that Lucy was good girlfriend material. That happened. It didn’t happen because of the stupid plan, which has been revealed as totally unnecessary, but it still happened.

      Now if Linda was somehow saying “I was all set to give Lucy a chance because of what Sally said, but nope, you’ve convinced me that Amber is The One” that would be the plan backfiring.

      1. DailyBrad

        It backfired in putting him under additional academic scrutiny and getting screamed at and humiliated in public in a traumatic way, but yeah, he did ultimately end up getting his goal, even if it proved to be unnecessary.

  56. HueSatLight

    Not especially significant to today’s strip, but I was wondering if I was misremembering some of Walky’s struggles with Calc. Amount of skipping, order of events, sort of things. I have problems when I link too many strips in one post, so strip names are in the parentheses.

    Mon, Sept 20th. Walky skips the first time, (missed-2)
    Wed, Sept 22nd. Class not shown, but Walky attended and took quiz. First appearance of Arnold (interrogation)
    Fri, Sept 24th. Quizes returned, Walky surprised to get a 26. (badscore)
    second and third appearance of Arnold (showercaddy and second patreon bonus for Jan 2015).

    Mon, Sept 27th. Walky attends class, tears up assignment to hide his score (gotthis). Jason recognizes him after class and notes his “proficiency has slipped as they moved out of review material” (admirably)
    Wed, Sept 29th. timeskip
    Fri, Oct 1st. class not shown, Walky present outside class before and after, probably attended.

    Mon, Oct 4th. Walky skips class because of grades. (latenight)
    Wed, Oct 6th. Walky skips. (bone) Forth appearance of Arnold (skip)
    Fri, Oct 8th. timeskip

    Mon, Oct 11th. Walky attends class. receives a bad grade (tintin)
    Wed, Oct 13th. Walky skips (hellmouth)
    Fri, Oct 15th. Class cancelled. (doublechecking)

    – Amber hacks his grades around this weekend, I didn’t pinpoint when –

    Mon, Oct 18th. Walky plans on skipping, Mike gets him to go at Amber’s urging (newleaf). He sees he’s getting a C instead of F, (deadman/minimum). Mike observes he doesn’t know how to study, so his problem is not actually solved. (hiding/technically)

    So his grade first dropped because they were moving into new material, not just from skipping, but probably a combination of the two. At least twice he mentioned his mother as potentially punishing him. It’s not shown how he passed his midterm, he didn’t get an automatic A, but he got some allowances, at least scheduling. Before the abduction Ruth does tell him she’s found some resources to help him. So potentially he does have experience with better options than skipping class or mocking his TA, for getting through challenging material.

    1. thejeff

      Thur Oct 21: Took the midterm on schedule
      We don’t see that he passed it, since that’s the last chapter before the timeskip, but he did take it. And apparently passed the class.

      Before that, on Mon, Oct 18th, he tells Amber that he’s been studying all day and that AG set up a timer on his phone to poke him in the brain about it. (onetruelove)

      1. HueSatLight

        found another mistake 😛 Grades hacked on the 13th, Walky was present at first, and asked her to change them back. (fraud-2, scooch)

  57. HueSatLight

    ope. that’s what I get for only skimming MWF.

  58. bcb

    Walky ? Maria Strongwell from Rain
    People with shitty parents who break off their fake romantic relationships with their friends.

  59. Laura

    Just in case anyone else is having work/procrastination/avoidance anxiety like me, I’m’a play “Serenity Lofi to Keep you Safe” on the hacked muzak
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-DJquV-T98

    Unlike usual, this is ACTUAL elevator-music dentist-waiting-room muzak.

    Speaking of muzak and elevator music, I find it extremely unnerving to hear passages from songs by Ministry and Nine Inch Nails played as background chords before the start of NPR news radio, like “All things Considered”. It’s just wild, because NPR usually plays “Dad music,” and now that 90s music, rather than being subversive and transgressive, is tinged with childhood nostalgia for middle-aged listeners.

    The other day, I entered a supermarket and heard “Give it Away Now” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (considered obscenity when it came out) playing over the PA system. I was dumbfounded.

    1. NGPZ

      Thanks Laura, feeling better, albeit still a slight headache here.

      Right now, working on several game coding commissions, this will suit me well. ?

      1. Laura

        Good luck, NG!

    2. Eagle Rock

      I also find it weird when anti-status-quo songs show up in muzak situations. Then there was the guy playing and singing Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man” inside the baggage claim area at an airport, and being ignored by security. I gave him $10 for his chutzpah.

  60. Romanticide

    Kudos to Sal to putting the effort though.

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