Skip to content
Yay, the Dumbing of Age Book 4 Kickstarter funded in under 12 hours! Of course, there's still a bunch of stretch goals left, like keeping our weekend updates going. Saturdays have already been extended, but we need a little more for Sundays to continue as well. We've also unlocked our second character magnet pledge level, Dina, so now you can pledge to get either her or an Amazi-Girl magnet. Or pledge big to get all of the ones that will unlock by the end of this campaign!
Thanks, everybody!
203 thoughts on “Nuke”
Jen Aside
EXACTLY! JOY!
Kernanator
CE!
(Yes, I know this joke has been made before. No, I don’t care.)
Rabid Rabbit
I’m pretty sure Joyce would be aghast at the idea of using CE rather than AD.
/terrible nerd joke.
Wire Segal
you mean
, don’t you?David M Willis
or danny, 17 years ago
thebombzen
It was all a setup? A longer setup than “Four white mages… it’ll never work”?
DAMN YOU WILLIS
Paul
Someone please explain “Danny, 17 years ago” and the “Four white mages” joke.
LordViking
‘Four white mages’ refers to 8-bit Theater, a (finished) webcomic based on the original Final Fantasy game. In one of the earliest pages a character makes a comment how a group of four white mages can’t work to beat the original Final Fantasy game. Guess who defeat the big bad at the end of the comic’s run many years later?
Richie
And how do you use the three seashells..?
Kelly
And out of nowhere – no build up. And off panel, while the main characters complain about how screwed they are. Cause that is the kind of guy Brian Clevinger is 😀
Black Mage: That’s it, I’ve had enough. This whole goddamn adventure has been nothing but pointless build ups toward pay offs that never happen.
Phyrexian_Rogue
Don’t know about the Danny part, but the white mages is from 8-bit theater, another webcomic with a solid bid for the ‘longest set-up ever’ trophy.
Shiny Book
I think the 17 years ago bit was a reference to the actual beginning of Roomies! (Willis’ first comic). It started in the late nineties, and Danny was pretty religious – like Joyce has been.
The White Mages thing comes from 8-bit Theatre on nuklearpower.com (at least where I saw it). Very early on someone says that bit in an offhand way. It came back in a big way at the end of the comic.
John
Dunno about the latter, but this might help explain the former.
Swoop
Reading this made me uncomfortable.
John
Imagine how it makes Willis feel!
Rex Vivat
The latter would be REALLY spoilery of another webcomic.
Felgraf
8 Bit Theater, a webcomic by Brian Clevenger, had a webcomic that was… *sort of* a retelling of the original Final Fantasy. *Sort of*.
Earlier in one of the comics, Black Mage is reading a nintendo power, and states “Four white mages? It’ll never work.” (This is itself a reference to a VERY OLD Nintendo Power, which, as a challenge, suggested a party of four white mages)
Eight years and *1214* comics later, a team comprised of White Mage, Priest, Shaman, and Healer (The later three being characters that sort of only showed up *for this*), kill Chaos off screen. (Chaos was the final boss of the original final fantasy).
At which point Black Mage pulls out that same Nintendo power and goes “Oh god damnit.”
Making it one of the *longest* joke setups in web comic history, at least at the time.
xKiv
“sort of” in the same sense that freeman’s mind is a retelling of half-life.
Rutee
‘four white mages’ I can do.
————–Spoilers ———– 😀
Very, very, very early on in 8 Bit Theater, as one of the first gags, Black Mage looks at a strategy guide in Nintendo Power for Final Fantasy. The guide suggests a party of four white mages, which Black Mage contends ‘would never work’. Fast forward to the climactic final battle, where our Light Warriors are spent and defeated, and Chaos, the final boss, is defeated by White Mage, Cleric, Healer, and Shaman. 4 White Mages. This is the end of the comic, more or less – it was a joke 8 years in coming. Clevinger is a master of the craft.
Nerd Patrol
Here are the specific comics being referred to:
http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/03/20/episode-007-kamehameha-or-something/
http://www.nuklearpower.com/2010/02/20/episode-1221-longest-set-up-in-webcomic-history/
So technically, it was a little under nine years between setup and payoff.
Rycan
Once someone explained CE and BCE to Joyce, that is.
michaelw777
Maybe. But if she thought about it – she’d realize the dating system hadn’t changed: it’s still based off of the general time-frame of Christ’s birth. Now if we switched to the Chinese or Jewish ways of reckoning dates – then she might be truly aghast. But then, either one of those isn’t really an improvement either: they reflect yet another religion or a philosophy of living, neither of which would satisfy the so-called rational or scientific mind.
Vabolo
Naww, man, she’s clearly LG.
anonymsly
I’d argue NG for Joyce! She’s certainly heading that way, imo.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
So, Becky is a nuclear-level lesbian?
timemonkey
Now she’s radioactive, that can’t be good!
Jacknoir
but if she bites you then you’ll get lesbian related mutant super powers
how could that not be good?
timemonkey
Because I was referencing the Doom comic, and believe me, it’s not good.
Doctor_Who
Hey, cool, I actually just rewatched that movie last night.
*Ahem*. Becky upon seeing how close Dorothy is with Joyce:
“Get away from her you bongo!”
Hoboturtle
Didnt Becky lose her cursing virginity? Or was that more like cursing 2nd base?
Catullus
She did, the “bongo” is just a general filter in the comments section.
Viktoria
Nah, that’s the wordfilter. Bongo replaces another word that was getting overused a few weeks back.
Mr k
Poor Roz….
John
Roz will get redemption, she’s too complex a character.
Cholma
If you’re talking about “bongo”, that’s there because the comment system auto-corrects “b to the itch” to “bongo”
Doctor_Who
I am now disappointed that the filter didn’t correct your post to say “b to the ongo”.
begbert2
I’ve got an ongo I just can’t scratch!
gwalla
Mongo Hedberg
Deanatay
My ‘b’ is ongoing!
user18
All the Joyce feels
AnvilPro
If Becky can do all that, how the hell could R. Kelly ever get trapped in one of them!?
MM
He didn’t have a Becky.
MeghanTheWorldEater
Simple R. Kelly lacks a nuclear arsenal.
Rycan
The idea of Becky having access to a nuclear arsenal is a scary one.
Screwball
“Hey, guess what?! I’m a SUPER-VILLAIN!”
dailybrad
Sexual predators tend to lack courage.
Kris
Be free gay babies! Be FREE!
Plasma Mongoose
“Game over man, game over!”
JustCheetoDust
The knife game is never over!
(I know the quote, I just never get to post or link to that GIF)
Screwball
*Looks at Gif on 1 computer* OK, that looks like something I wouldn’t agree to…
*Sees Gif on home computer AKA the more powerful 1…* O_O’ eep…
Solenoid
People are still picking splinters out of their clothes.
Stephen Bierce
And the Bureau is still investigating.
Urukak
Federally.
Doctor_Who
The Bureau was destroyed in the explosion. It was right next to the closet. The Nightstand and the Credenza didn’t make it either.
JustCheetoDust
That kind of wanton disregard for furniture should be saved for…I don’t know, Spanish announce tables?
begbert2
Or multiplication tables.
MeghanTheWorldEater
So “She nuked the closet from orbit” is totally gonna be the name of the next book right?
Kernanator
Probably not, seeing as that spoils the big twist in the first chapter.
Urukak
Is there actually anyone who buys the books that doesn’t already read the comic, though?
David M Willis
Yes. Some people read exclusively through the Kickstarters, even.
But regardless, I’m pretty sure the title to book 5 is “Hey, guess what, I’m a LESBIAN!”
Urukak
Well, to be fair, they won’t necessarily know WHO the lesbian is.
David M Willis
Becky will be shouting it, so it would take some cognitive dissonance to not understand.
Mr k
She’s an actor in a play, of course. SHe’s playing Joyce.
Urukak
If the human race can be counted on for anything, it’s cognitive dissonance.
Screwball
There is a saying Daniel the Human keeps saying to me…
“Never underestimate the power of Human stupidity…”
Kim
Haha!
Opus the Poet
Becky should be shouting it from off-panel, with a horrified-looking Joyce front and center…
Rowen Morland
Her father didn’t see it coming.
Leorale
This is a great title because college ladies can go home for Thanksgiving and leave the book on their mom’s coffee table. Perfect coming out story
David M Willis
This is an intended secondary usage, yes.
DarkoNeko
…niiice.
Bagge
“She seems to try to tell us something…. I can’t really put my finger on it.”
WaytoomanyUIDs
Awesome 🙂
StClair
Love it.