Actually it is. She’s forcibly altering Mary’s violence. Redirecting it towards her, and still doing the right thing. It helps the long term plan of what she’ll do, and still in the short term, quiets her down, if she doesn’t go berserk.
Well spotted. I didn’t pick up on that until you pointed it out. Awesome – I didn’t realize that Sarah’s backstory in Dumbing was actually a Roomies reference.
I’m honestly suprised cell phones were even SEMI-common at this point. Then again I was a baby at the time so I have no idea when they become popularized.
(baby in this tense isn’t literal, just a general term to describe that I was too young to remember them NOT being a thing. I was probably 5 or something)
IIRC this comic first came out about the time cell phones had their first big general public push, but even then they were a common utility among those pulling upper five digit salaries and higher through the late ’90s.
What else is there for the comic to do? That’s kind of the big weakness of Roomies, there’s no real story just following Danny around for like two years as he stumbles through life and fucks everything up.
That last panel & Mary’s hyper-cartoonish expression is the best thing out of this storyline, perhaps after “Picard Poofs”, and after Billie just punching Mary in the face… OK it’s up there in the top ten.
I had to go look it up because I do remember when no one owned a cell phone in any shape or size because I wasn’t rich
This is from a tech site online:
“Somewhere in either Chicago, Baltimore or Washington, someone plunked down $3,995 to buy the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, the first handheld cellphone, on March 13, 1984 — 30 years ago today.
We don’t know who that first cellphone buyer was. At the time, the occasion didn’t register as historically auspicious. After all, in 1984, the terms “cellphone” and “mobile phone” didn’t refer to handheld phones; those terms referred to car phones, which had been around since the mid-1940s. What was celebrated at the time was the kick-off consumer cellular call — made to the great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell — six months earlier.
A handheld portable phone was considered a gimmick, a “look what I got!” rich man’s toy with dubious utility. Measuring 13 x 1.75 x 3.5 inches and weighing 28 ounces, the 8000X was so big and heavy, even its creators had nicknamed it “The Brick.” Plus, you could only use it for a half an hour before the battery gave out. Who would pay a quarter of the average salary in 1984 — more than $9,000 in 2014 dollars — to carry around such a useless load, especially since payphones were everywhere and only cost a dime to use?”
And yes pay phones were at every gas station, 7-11, and shopping area.
Joe’s phone is probably a then-modern clamshell phone rather than the “brick with mouthpiece” kind.
Maybe he WISHES he had the brick kind, so he could dare the girls to guess what the bulge in his pants is. “I’ll give you a hint: it’s got an uptime of half an hour.”
Okay Mary is just really pissing me off now.
“What are you doing to me?” Honestly, something about that bugs me. Like… nothing??? No one’s doing anything to you?????? Danny made a comment insinuating you’re pregnant, for which you decided to strangle him, DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE IS DRIVING THE CAR YOU ARE IN. NOT ONLY IS THAT NOT HELPING YOUR CASE, BUT WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT EVER???? Even if you weren’t in a car, like, strangling someone because they made a disparaging comment about you???? Really????? And of course, you are in a car that DANNY. IS. DRIVING. If no one had pulled Mary away they all would have crashed. I mean, WHOSE PROBLEM WOULD THAT SOLVE???? WTF??????? WHAT IS MARY TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH HERE????????
And then Sarah asks for a phone and is still doing something to Mary somehow??????? What does that even mean???????? Literally no one is performing any actions on Mary. Her irrational emotional responses are not perpetrated on her by someone else, that’s all her.
I’m sorry I’m not laughing at the senseless characterization and storyline here, but this level of irrational stupidity just pisses me off. (Even when intentionally done for comedy I can’t stand it, so nothing against past-Willis personally).
Someone please tell me things gets less stupid soon? Or Mary just disappears and is never heard from again with no explanation and everyone forgets she ever existed, because I’d be good with that too.
Think hard about (a) what Billie seen/heard Mary doing, (b) Danny’s comment about ‘how it’s odd that it isn’t *morning*”, and (c) Mary’s response to the idea of taking her to a doctor.
Now, once you put those clues together, think about how a full-on narcissist like Mary is going to interpret them.
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Actually it is. She’s forcibly altering Mary’s violence. Redirecting it towards her, and still doing the right thing. It helps the long term plan of what she’ll do, and still in the short term, quiets her down, if she doesn’t go berserk.
Sarah: ratting people out to their parents for their own good since 1999
…oh, man, and Mary’s her roommate, too, I’d forgotten about that.
Well spotted. I didn’t pick up on that until you pointed it out. Awesome – I didn’t realize that Sarah’s backstory in Dumbing was actually a Roomies reference.
OMG that’s true. It begins.
Shhhhhh. Spoilers. He won’t get to that part for another ten years.
This is a good point. Anything that distracts her from strangling the driver of a moving car is probably an improvement.
That is a very strangely shaped cell phone.
http://www.freetoberich.biz/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/90s-cell-phones-the-90s-5786057-250-2051.jpg
80/90’s cells. Haha. I got one in late 90’s in a free broken box and took it apart. Facinated meas a kid. heavy things.
All cell phones were that shape. BEFORE.
Flip-phone!!!
Before what, the American Revolution?
Paul Revere and his colleagues had to go out on horseback because cell reception was fucking awful back then
Before? My Cellphone still looks like that…
I wondered why Joe would be the only one with a cellphone. They were less omnipresent in the ’90s, but I wondered why it’d be Joe specifically.
Then I realized, well, maybe it was one of the many things his parents bought him during the divorce.
Then I felt sad.
Plus he has to keep track of all those ladies’ numbers.
Mama,
Ooooooooh,
Didn’t mean to make you cry,
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow,
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters.
I’m honestly suprised cell phones were even SEMI-common at this point. Then again I was a baby at the time so I have no idea when they become popularized.
(baby in this tense isn’t literal, just a general term to describe that I was too young to remember them NOT being a thing. I was probably 5 or something)
IIRC this comic first came out about the time cell phones had their first big general public push, but even then they were a common utility among those pulling upper five digit salaries and higher through the late ’90s.
This came out… probably 2000 or 2001? I remember them as available but not omnipresent. I got my first a few years later.
December 14, 1999.
I love how we’re down to the grand finale week and the comics are still just nothing but hating on Mary.
What else is there for the comic to do? That’s kind of the big weakness of Roomies, there’s no real story just following Danny around for like two years as he stumbles through life and fucks everything up.
Well, this is new ground in that Danny is briefly being cool and it’s MARY fucking things up
That last panel & Mary’s hyper-cartoonish expression is the best thing out of this storyline, perhaps after “Picard Poofs”, and after Billie just punching Mary in the face… OK it’s up there in the top ten.
I had to go look it up because I do remember when no one owned a cell phone in any shape or size because I wasn’t rich
This is from a tech site online:
“Somewhere in either Chicago, Baltimore or Washington, someone plunked down $3,995 to buy the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, the first handheld cellphone, on March 13, 1984 — 30 years ago today.
We don’t know who that first cellphone buyer was. At the time, the occasion didn’t register as historically auspicious. After all, in 1984, the terms “cellphone” and “mobile phone” didn’t refer to handheld phones; those terms referred to car phones, which had been around since the mid-1940s. What was celebrated at the time was the kick-off consumer cellular call — made to the great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell — six months earlier.
A handheld portable phone was considered a gimmick, a “look what I got!” rich man’s toy with dubious utility. Measuring 13 x 1.75 x 3.5 inches and weighing 28 ounces, the 8000X was so big and heavy, even its creators had nicknamed it “The Brick.” Plus, you could only use it for a half an hour before the battery gave out. Who would pay a quarter of the average salary in 1984 — more than $9,000 in 2014 dollars — to carry around such a useless load, especially since payphones were everywhere and only cost a dime to use?”
And yes pay phones were at every gas station, 7-11, and shopping area.
Joe’s phone is probably a then-modern clamshell phone rather than the “brick with mouthpiece” kind.
Maybe he WISHES he had the brick kind, so he could dare the girls to guess what the bulge in his pants is. “I’ll give you a hint: it’s got an uptime of half an hour.”
Not going to lie I love Mary’s cartoonishly over-the-top face in the last panel.
Okay Mary is just really pissing me off now.
“What are you doing to me?” Honestly, something about that bugs me. Like… nothing??? No one’s doing anything to you?????? Danny made a comment insinuating you’re pregnant, for which you decided to strangle him, DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE IS DRIVING THE CAR YOU ARE IN. NOT ONLY IS THAT NOT HELPING YOUR CASE, BUT WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT EVER???? Even if you weren’t in a car, like, strangling someone because they made a disparaging comment about you???? Really????? And of course, you are in a car that DANNY. IS. DRIVING. If no one had pulled Mary away they all would have crashed. I mean, WHOSE PROBLEM WOULD THAT SOLVE???? WTF??????? WHAT IS MARY TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH HERE????????
And then Sarah asks for a phone and is still doing something to Mary somehow??????? What does that even mean???????? Literally no one is performing any actions on Mary. Her irrational emotional responses are not perpetrated on her by someone else, that’s all her.
I’m sorry I’m not laughing at the senseless characterization and storyline here, but this level of irrational stupidity just pisses me off. (Even when intentionally done for comedy I can’t stand it, so nothing against past-Willis personally).
Someone please tell me things gets less stupid soon? Or Mary just disappears and is never heard from again with no explanation and everyone forgets she ever existed, because I’d be good with that too.
Less stupid soon? Well, we get [i]Walky[/i] for a protagonist, so
As for Mary, her only next significant appearance (in available strips) occurs in about three years.
A third of it is her being helpful, another third is her getting (verbally) wailed on by Sal.
Think hard about (a) what Billie seen/heard Mary doing, (b) Danny’s comment about ‘how it’s odd that it isn’t *morning*”, and (c) Mary’s response to the idea of taking her to a doctor.
Now, once you put those clues together, think about how a full-on narcissist like Mary is going to interpret them.
He thinks I did the thing I totally did! He’s ruining my life! KILL HIM!
Originally posted:
December 14, 1999