Well Joyce could’ve been referring to it being a decision of both of Becky’s parents deciding not to give her a phone. Or it could be she didn’t wish to divulge that Becky was a single parent child. I have a couple of friends in a similar position and they typically rather not have to answer why one of their parents isn’t in the picture for their own reasons.
It’s also likely that Joyce’s own experience of having two parents just shapes what she says. I find that I’ve made that exact same mistake, saying “parents’ because I was raised with 2 parents and it was the norm for basically everyone I knew growing up. It’s a hard habit to break.
thejeff
It’s also likely habit from Becky having two parents most of her life. All those decisions were likely mutual (or as mutual as anything in that house was.)
Was it ever established exactly when Bonnie died? My impression was that it was pretty recent.
It could easily just be an artifact of the way Joyce thinks. ‘Parents’ are a singular unassailable entity responsible for decision-making regarding their children’s freedoms. Recall the shock when Joyce saw Hank lie to Carol. So especially if she doesn’t like to think about Becky’s mom’s death (because who would?), I can definitely see her just saying ‘Becky’s parents’ without even clicking that she’s saying anything inaccurate.
Why do people have to phrase things in the most bizarre ways possible?
hof1991
I blame King James for weird Bible references. But people spoke weird then.
Agemegos
The text of the KJV was pretty much normal for the time: a little bit old-fashioned and formal, but basically normal. English has just changed a bit in the four hundred years since it was written.
Delavan
Technically it’s the “kid boiled in its mother’s milk” which opens up a whole range of interesting debates about the intent of the passages… and believe me, this is such a common thing to discuss at temple, lol…
StClair
Version I’ve heard a lot lately is that this is a case of “all these specific dishes are favorite foods of those Other People, who we hate, and so all of their stuff is unclean, don’t you dare be like them.”
Which is a bit different from my personal previous take, which was a food safety manual from before a working knowledge of germ theory: “We live in a desert without refrigeration, so all of this stuff will probably be spoiled before it even hits your table, don’t eat it unless you want to be sick unto death.”
Agemegos
A lot of the less well-known rules don’t make any sense as food safety precautions (e.g. the ban on eating blood), and a lot of obvious food safety precautions aren’t imposed (e.g. cook meat well-done). What’s more, the rules for decontaminating things that have touched unclean things (e.g. brush with hissop, leave until sunset) are hygienic nonsense.
Agemegos
Exodus 23:19 and Deuteronomy 14:21. My King James Version has “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.”
Agemegos
I think it’s on the basis of those verses that icecream and cheese made with rennet are not kosher.
huttj509
Not quite. The ruling was made that for cheese to be Kosher it needed to be made under Rabbinic supervision, to ensure the rennet enzyme added to make the cheese was kosher (not obtained from calves improperly slaughtered, for example). This ruling has made things…complicated…for those who follow the letter rather than just the spirit. Like, artificial enzymes derived from bacteria. Kosher? Did a Rabbi observe the cheese being made? Then no.
As with anything related to modern Judaism and interpretations, there is much discussion and disagreement.
Come on Joyce, just hold Becky’s hand on the ride and you’ll be fine. And in the mean time you’ll continue to fuel the strange feelings that young Becky is having, presumably. Did Becky ever actually say when she started to realize she was gay?
Yes, I’m the protagonist of something and I would like to request a new writer. The one writing a harem hentai was nice, could I have that one back, please?
Harem hentai protagonists are jerks. No sane woman would agree to an arrangement where only a single man gets all the sexual and romantic attention. Unless it’s a polyamory relationship, things aren’t going to work.
HeySo
Depends on how strong the social indoctrination is. It’s why multiple wives was such a consistent thing in many countries, including ancient China. Of course, the actual catalyst for such social practices often derived not just from patriarchal self-indulgence, but also because men were killed off reliably in wars, causing a rather imbalanced population by sex, making having multiple female partners per male partner suitable in many aspects.
That said, most social circumstances related to such practices were extraordinarly toxic and inhumane [ie, treating women as property] and it’s extraordinarly rare to find a harem manga that isn’t as pathetically self-indulgent at the expense of dignity, completely non-self-aware, and written with all the skill one’d expect of a middle schooler.
So yeah- harems can be justified, especially for works set in historical settings appropriate theme. Anything that deserves the label of “a harem manga”, however, is most likely objectively garbage. 😛
Boy oh boy, I sure cant wait for the strip following these memories where Becky’s happiness is ruined by toedad again. Hopefully Willis just has Blaine and Toedad shoot each other at the same time so we never have to see them after this.
Hmm, interesting observation. Becky was saying “Hey Joyce you’re being negative now I need you positive”. Maybe this is Joyce’s flashback and she’s feeling like she could use her own Joyce picker upper.
Hi Willis,
I love the comic! The advertisements always cover the first panel though. Even when I close them, there’s a big rectangle blocking the first panel.
89 thoughts on “Dad says”
Ana Chronistic
“what if we go on one that just goes sideways-side”
auroki
I’d much rather deal with constant upside down then always sideways ones. Personal experience has taught me as such
Proxiehunter
If the ride goes Upside Down you have to worry about Demigorgons and Mindflayers.
auroki
Also true. As a fighter class most of the time mind and int saves typically don’t fare well for me
He Who Abides
Take Iron Will, then. It helps.
auroki
Yeah but I play a Goliath. Ya can only do so much to augment those penalties. Now a warforge on the other hand…
Illithid
Upside down, right side up, whatever. Have a (Mind) Blast. ?
Sunny
Left leg in. Left leg out. In. Out. In. Out. Shake it all about.
John
Don’t feel too special, Joyce. It’s an ensemble cast.
Juanoku
I feel u Joyce
AntJ
turns out Becky needed Joyce just as badly growing up http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/sarcasm/
Nono
Rereading that strip, the weird thing is how Joyce said that Becky’s parents don’t let her own a cellphone.
Parents, plural. Owns, present tense.
I mean, it could just be a retcon, like how Leslie aged downwards over the course of the strip.
Icalasari
Could be that Joyce told a white lie there to not out Becky? Iunno, it is odd
auroki
Well Joyce could’ve been referring to it being a decision of both of Becky’s parents deciding not to give her a phone. Or it could be she didn’t wish to divulge that Becky was a single parent child. I have a couple of friends in a similar position and they typically rather not have to answer why one of their parents isn’t in the picture for their own reasons.
Agemegos
Also here: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/socialized/
“Parents” (plural) and “are making” (present participle).
Eve
It could be that her mother helped make that decision before dying.
Needfuldoer
More than likely just went along with it…
Agemegos
Yeah. I suppose “Becky’s parents command…” always meant “Becky’s dad commands…” long before her mother suicided.
SeaBrightener
There’s a patreon strip that confirms her mother wanted her to go to Anderson (September 2016)
AceZer0
It’s also likely that Joyce’s own experience of having two parents just shapes what she says. I find that I’ve made that exact same mistake, saying “parents’ because I was raised with 2 parents and it was the norm for basically everyone I knew growing up. It’s a hard habit to break.
thejeff
It’s also likely habit from Becky having two parents most of her life. All those decisions were likely mutual (or as mutual as anything in that house was.)
Was it ever established exactly when Bonnie died? My impression was that it was pretty recent.
Schpoonman
She passed last year, during their Senior year.
Tan
It could easily just be an artifact of the way Joyce thinks. ‘Parents’ are a singular unassailable entity responsible for decision-making regarding their children’s freedoms. Recall the shock when Joyce saw Hank lie to Carol. So especially if she doesn’t like to think about Becky’s mom’s death (because who would?), I can definitely see her just saying ‘Becky’s parents’ without even clicking that she’s saying anything inaccurate.
missilentmurmur
‘Parents’ is an institution, an abstract thing, not a specific person
Stephen Bierce
*plays The Pretenders’ “Brass In Pocket” on the P.A. speakers*
Slartibeast Button, BIA
“I’m upside down, my head is turning around” – Allan Sherman
DaveM
I suppose “Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” would be too obvious a choice for the next tune?
brionl
Well, let’s ask Miss Ross what she thinks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ehMxQdCtQ
AntJ
“let’s do a thing I hate to make you feel better” has been one of Joyce’s go-to strategies all along, hasn’t it http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/grownup/
Shane Wegner
Then again, she hates kind of a lot of things.
Agemegos
Meat seethed in milk, shellfish, creeping things that creep upon the earth….
Delicious Taffy
Why do people have to phrase things in the most bizarre ways possible?
hof1991
I blame King James for weird Bible references. But people spoke weird then.
Agemegos
The text of the KJV was pretty much normal for the time: a little bit old-fashioned and formal, but basically normal. English has just changed a bit in the four hundred years since it was written.
Delavan
Technically it’s the “kid boiled in its mother’s milk” which opens up a whole range of interesting debates about the intent of the passages… and believe me, this is such a common thing to discuss at temple, lol…
StClair
Version I’ve heard a lot lately is that this is a case of “all these specific dishes are favorite foods of those Other People, who we hate, and so all of their stuff is unclean, don’t you dare be like them.”
Which is a bit different from my personal previous take, which was a food safety manual from before a working knowledge of germ theory: “We live in a desert without refrigeration, so all of this stuff will probably be spoiled before it even hits your table, don’t eat it unless you want to be sick unto death.”
Agemegos
A lot of the less well-known rules don’t make any sense as food safety precautions (e.g. the ban on eating blood), and a lot of obvious food safety precautions aren’t imposed (e.g. cook meat well-done). What’s more, the rules for decontaminating things that have touched unclean things (e.g. brush with hissop, leave until sunset) are hygienic nonsense.
Agemegos
Exodus 23:19 and Deuteronomy 14:21. My King James Version has “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.”
Agemegos
I think it’s on the basis of those verses that icecream and cheese made with rennet are not kosher.
huttj509
Not quite. The ruling was made that for cheese to be Kosher it needed to be made under Rabbinic supervision, to ensure the rennet enzyme added to make the cheese was kosher (not obtained from calves improperly slaughtered, for example). This ruling has made things…complicated…for those who follow the letter rather than just the spirit. Like, artificial enzymes derived from bacteria. Kosher? Did a Rabbi observe the cheese being made? Then no.
As with anything related to modern Judaism and interpretations, there is much discussion and disagreement.
thejeff
Though that was more of a “Let’s do a thing I hate to make myself look more normal and grown up” than to make Jacob feel better.
Diane
Agreed. I consider this comic more of a better example of “Let’s do a thing I hate to make Becky feel better”.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/sushi/
Kyrik Michalowski
Come on Joyce, just hold Becky’s hand on the ride and you’ll be fine. And in the mean time you’ll continue to fuel the strange feelings that young Becky is having, presumably. Did Becky ever actually say when she started to realize she was gay?
Nono
Forever, probably. It just took being away from Joyce at college to figure it out.
BarerMender
I don’t think so. She realized she wanted to kiss Joyce after being apart for a few weeks, but she never said when she came out to herself.
Icalasari
I love that self aware alt text
Opus the Poet
Yes, I’m the protagonist of something and I would like to request a new writer. The one writing a harem hentai was nice, could I have that one back, please?
insomniac
Look, you don’t want to go down this road.
At some point the hacks writing the storylines here got into some sort of self-parodic political farce, and it’s been getting weirder by the day.
HeySo
Quite the context-appropriate avatar.
abysswatcher1993
Harem hentai protagonists are jerks. No sane woman would agree to an arrangement where only a single man gets all the sexual and romantic attention. Unless it’s a polyamory relationship, things aren’t going to work.
HeySo
Depends on how strong the social indoctrination is. It’s why multiple wives was such a consistent thing in many countries, including ancient China. Of course, the actual catalyst for such social practices often derived not just from patriarchal self-indulgence, but also because men were killed off reliably in wars, causing a rather imbalanced population by sex, making having multiple female partners per male partner suitable in many aspects.
That said, most social circumstances related to such practices were extraordinarly toxic and inhumane [ie, treating women as property] and it’s extraordinarly rare to find a harem manga that isn’t as pathetically self-indulgent at the expense of dignity, completely non-self-aware, and written with all the skill one’d expect of a middle schooler.
So yeah- harems can be justified, especially for works set in historical settings appropriate theme. Anything that deserves the label of “a harem manga”, however, is most likely objectively garbage. 😛
HeySo
*settings appropriate to the theme
Marsh Maryrose
Counter point, from Welcome to Night Vale:
Death is only the end if you assume the story is about you.
abysswatcher1993
Also, the message is mostly for the one communicating it, not for the receiver; and there’s a Mara Wilson secretly living in your house.
DailyBrad
Their friendship is very sweet.
Hark a lizard awaits ye
Boy oh boy, I sure cant wait for the strip following these memories where Becky’s happiness is ruined by toedad again. Hopefully Willis just has Blaine and Toedad shoot each other at the same time so we never have to see them after this.
Emperor Norton II
Before that happens, though, I’m sure we’ll get at least one strip where Becky and Dina wakes up cuddled together.
Kravis
Yes, Joyce.
You’re very “special”.
Just like alll the other people around you…
Opus the Poet
You Can Be Special Too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5-lEzkYC3g
Kravis
No, thanks. I’m fine as I am, douche.
No need for that terrible video.
TemperaryObsessor
Your unique, that doesn’t make you special.
Kravis
*You’re.
DarkoNeko
The problem is, we are mostly seeing this flashback where they’re very close because they’re drifting apart 😐
Delicious Taffy
Which one is gonna get an extended Queen reference about it, though?
Shane Wegner
Hmm, interesting observation. Becky was saying “Hey Joyce you’re being negative now I need you positive”. Maybe this is Joyce’s flashback and she’s feeling like she could use her own Joyce picker upper.
Bagge
D’awwww. Joyce trying to comfort Becky is a thing of beauty. Of course Becky sees right through it, but she still apreciates it.
BBCC
Precious kids.
drs
Becky’s last panel eye change is disturbing.
anybodies
Hi Willis,
I love the comic! The advertisements always cover the first panel though. Even when I close them, there’s a big rectangle blocking the first panel.
BBCC
Hiveworks will take care of them if you report it.
Tan
So Becky’s mom just kinda peaced out after photos?
abysswatcher1993