Dumbing of Age is a webcomic about college life at Indiana University by cartoonist David Willis with themes involving drama or comedy, occasionally with a mixture of both.

David Willis announced at AnimeFest 2010 that his newest project is titled Dumbing of Age, a return to the setting of the original Roomies!

[14] In an interview with The Mary Sue, Willis said that he based Joyce and her family on his own upbringing, with his parents reading the "early 1980s equivalent of Fox News," removing everything that she thought would "corrupt" him, like Scooby-Doo, Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Care Bears, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and The Simpsons, with his family attending a "nondenominational fundamentalist Protestant church.

"[9] Apart from that, he stated that he passively listened to others, following "wonderful people" on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook, hearing what they have to say, and trying to find empathy with others, even if he makes himself "a little uncomfortable" and confronts his white privilege, even revising "false information" at times.

Some said that the "sharp changes between humour and seriousness" are a trademark for the comic,[15] while others have called it interesting and enjoyable, even if it is a source of frustration to see "characters in a different setting.