Funky Winkerbean, 4/17/11
This latest plot development may be more weighted down with grim Funkyverse backstory than any we’ve yet encountered. For those who don’t keep up, or who continually purge Funky details from their mind so that they can continue to feel pleasure: the blond dude is Darrin, who was the baby Les’s sainted dead wife gave birth to as a teenager and gave up for adoption. His blonde wife is Jessica, whose father was a newscaster and the star of John Darling, a strip that Tom Batuik created with Marvin auteur Tom Armstrong; the strip was cancelled and was wrapped up in hilarious fashion when a crazed gunman murdered Darling. Later, back at the Funky mothership, Les solved the murder and made it the subject of his first book, which was a complete financial flop. Fun!
Jessica and Darrin somehow managed to escape the awful gravitational pull of gloom that is Westview, but are now returning voluntarily because Jessica wants to make a film about the death of her father, which will presumably do about as well as Les’s book. Anyway, the best part is that they have to live with the Moores (because everyone in town is far too depressed and/or cancer-ridden to build new houses) and Darrin will have to get a job at Montoni’s (because it’s literally the only functional business within a fifty-mile radius that doesn’t require an MD with an oncology specialization as a prerequisite of employment).
Curtis, 4/17/11
I fine it hard to believe that Gunk has, in all his years of paling around with Curtis on the comics pages, never been taken to an American movie. But I’m even more baffled that horror connoisseur Curtis can’t see the potential in the movie plot Gunk outlines. A respected scientist is transformed as a result of his obsession into a grotesque, enormous mollusk — a monstrous nightmare-thing that, in an appalling twist, his insatiable colleagues consume alive? The visceral horror combines with allegorical themes to make Flyspeck Island a shoo-in as winner of next year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. (Wait, do they not speak English on Flyspeck Island?)
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 4/17/11
Perspiring visibly, the cop was so fixated the sordid sexual encounter he had planned for the evening that he couldn’t focus on his job! Sordid R-rated film starring Harvey Keitel or Nicolas Cage … or wacky comic that appears in family newspaper around the country?
This entry was posted on Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Barney Google & Snuffy Smith, Curtis, Funky Winkerbean. | 88 responses to “” Artist formerly known as BenApril 17th, 2011 at 11:05 pm [Reply]
@Rocky Stoneaxe (y85): Mann Tools? Say no more!
Chip WhittleApril 17th, 2011 at 11:07 pm [Reply]
Mary Worth: I know it’s immature to be distracted from the world’s awkwardest date here, but I can’t help looking at the restaurant doors in the first panel and seeing Mechani-Cook, the Giant Robot Chef, Wonder of the 1939 World’s Fair. He was there between the Long-Distance Telephones, the Milking Machine Carousel, and the Incubator Babies.
Artist formerly known as BenApril 17th, 2011 at 11:09 pm [Reply]
(Wait, do they not speak English on Flyspeck Island?)
Having Gunk as our only example does pretty much make it impossible to tell.
JaquandorApril 17th, 2011 at 11:10 pm [Reply]
Please tell me that you weren’t able to sum up that much of the “Funky Winkerbean” mytharc, complete with reference to spin-offs, from the top of your own head. Please tell me that writing those two paragraphs required you to do four days’ worth of research into old FW strips (and, apparently, a “John Darling” strip), all the while coping with the emotional toll of said research by draining multiple bottles of bourbon. Because if you actually knew all that stuff, well…I think your exposure to the Funkyverse may be reaching levels that will soon result in you visiting one of Westdale’s many fine oncologists.
Pappa VictorApril 17th, 2011 at 11:12 pm [Reply]
And I still have a closet full of Lisa’s clothes that I bet would fit Jessica! Try them on! No really, I insist.
Uncle LumpyApril 17th, 2011 at 11:13 pm [Reply]
Flyspeck Island is a Scientology enclave. It’s all so clear now!
NekrotzarApril 17th, 2011 at 11:14 pm [Reply]
I am fascinated by the idea of the authors of Funky and Marvin working together: I imagine a strip in which the expression life is crap is taken both literally and figuratively.
NekrotzarApril 17th, 2011 at 11:16 pm [Reply]
@Pappa Victor (#5):
Is Jessica going to fall to her death from a bell tower?
April 17th, 2011 at 11:23 pm [Reply]
Funky Wankerbean: Of course Les has plenty of room for guests. Everyone else has died. But the excitement won’t begin until after he warns his guests to stay out of the basement. He won’t explain why. Jessica, being young, blonde and new, will go down there during the next night-time power failure, never to be seen again! She will die not from cancer but from an overdose of the carcinogens Les stores down there. Les will then write a book about her tragic disappearance, while Montoni’s customers remark upon the strange new flavors of the pepperoni and sausage pizzas.
Wax Tom CruiseApril 17th, 2011 at 11:23 pm [Reply]
When I first saw the term “red-headed”, my sordid mind skipped over the idea of a red-haired girl and straight to the idea of a penis head. Curse you John Rose for making me think of the sheriff’s red-tipped dick.
Maggie the CatApril 17th, 2011 at 11:25 pm [Reply]
@Agony (y#131)– My flogging suit, what else?
Naked Bunny with a WhipApril 17th, 2011 at 11:28 pm [Reply]
You may be confusing Flyspeck Island with Mypos, and really, who can blame you?
Fester MorgensternApril 17th, 2011 at 11:33 pm [Reply]
Hi, it’s the grammar and spelling Nazi! In the “Curtis” commentary, “paling” should be spelled “palling”.
Frank Lee MeidereApril 17th, 2011 at 11:33 pm [Reply]
@Chip Whittle (#2): Now that you put it in context, there’s a certain similarity to Boilerplate, too.
Naked Bunny with a WhipApril 17th, 2011 at 11:34 pm [Reply]
It’s not often you see a character in Snuffy Smith asking for a masturbation break, but there it is. Quite a way to ring in Holy Week, I gotta say.
Baka GaijinApril 17th, 2011 at 11:42 pm [Reply]
Snuffy Smith: The title panel got me thinking that a Beetle/Sarge-like thing going on between Snuffy and the Sheriff. All those floaty hearts right next to Snuffy’s name. Just sayin’.
Maggie the CatApril 17th, 2011 at 11:45 pm [Reply]
@Baka Gaijin (#17): That would explain Snuffy’s subconscious need to keep going to jail. He just can’t quit th’ Sheriff!
ChanceApril 17th, 2011 at 11:48 pm [Reply]
Re: Curtis: I can’t stand it when even a property’s creator can’t be bothered to keep track of the continuity he establishes.
Frank Lee MeidereApril 17th, 2011 at 11:49 pm [Reply]
@Aviatrix (#Y107): I recall something about the whales going back to Jupiter, but the details are vague.
In any event, here’s the third instalment: “It’s true, they’re hard to find.”
chisteryApril 17th, 2011 at 11:49 pm [Reply]
FWinkerbean This has to be one of the saddest Sunday strips yet from Batiuk. Summer’s ecstatic “YESSS!” is just…heartbreaking: “Yes! Someone else will now know this claustrophobic hothouse of doom. Someone else to help dilute the poisonous neediness of my dad. Oh, thank God! Now there’s going to be someone else for him to stare at, for him to fret over, for him to obsessively check up on a hundred times a day. Now I just might be able to escape.”
Hurry, Summer! Pack your dufflebag! I hear the 2:37 Greyhound downshifting on Main Street right now.
S. StoutApril 17th, 2011 at 11:56 pm [Reply]
@Naked Bunny with a Whip (#16):
I…I can’t stop laughing. I had some snark of my own but I can’t even remember it now.
Baka GaijinApril 17th, 2011 at 11:59 pm [Reply]
@Liam (#Y51): “”That was the third time that Liza has mentioned determined. I wonder what she wants. It better not be a piece of my pie because that is one fight she will lose,” Drew cluelessly ponders.” I’m sure we’ll be seeing this again at the end of the week. Ha ha.
@Black Drazon (#Y86): ““Let’s not ruin this wonderful meal with talk of housing and wants, Dr. Cory. Let’s just take up our spoons, dive into one another’s eyes and enjoy this wonderful meal of Roast Box together.’” Damn, another COTW contender.
@Naked Bunny with a Whip (#16): Damn! A brilliant post right before mine. Aviatrix’s CC Theorem 25…
Also, the English lessons appear to have blown over. For now.
AviatrixApril 18th, 2011 at 12:05 am [Reply]
@Frank Lee Meidere (#20): I may need to send this to my mother. I may be inspired by this to have conversations with my mother. And take notes!
Maggie the CatApril 18th, 2011 at 12:09 am [Reply]
Monday’s A3G- Aren’t “passion” and “drive” in this context pretty much the same? How could you not have some drive for that which you are passionate?
Rana the Pedantic Wet BlanketApril 18th, 2011 at 12:18 am [Reply]
@Frank Lee Meidere (y#113): I agree with both your observations. What I tend to see a lot of, in my students’ writing, is a combination of ignorance and not caring.
What I mean by that is, first, they are unaware of the “proper” way of spelling, punctuating, and writing grammatically correct sentences. They lack the skills to do these things, whether or not they desire to. That I can fix, as can they, if properly motivated.
Second, when I say they don’t care, I mean that there are two attitudes operating here, and it’s not always easy to distinguish between them. The first, which most people who care about these things assume is the default, is that students write badly because they don’t give a rat’s ass about writing well. That’s indeed true for some of them, and the adage about horses and water applies.
But others don’t care because they don’t know that they should care. They assume, ignorantly, that the way that they write is acceptable and normal, and that writing differently is either not something they are capable of, or that it’s for a different sort of person than themselves (such as teachers, scholars, experts, etc.)
The idea that one might pick and choose different modes for different audiences is an alien one to many of them – indeed, teaching to the test tends to reinforce their mistaken assumption that there are only two ways to write – artificially, for the test, and authentically, for themselves. The notion that one might choose different modes and still be authentic is strange to many of them.
Related to this is the way that they’ve been socialized to think that their own ideas don’t matter much – what matters is their ability to parrot back other people’s ideas accurately, without distorting them with their own interpretations. So, again, the result is a lack of interest in tailoring their message to specific audiences, because they assume that no one is interested in their thoughts aside from their friends, and their friends don’t demand proficiency in writing skills.
So you combine all these things and you have people who write badly and reluctantly, with scant desire and little incentive to improve their skills (outside of grades, a mealy carrot at best). I’d write badly under those conditions, too.
Jake MorgendorfferApril 18th, 2011 at 12:24 am [Reply]
It seems pretty clear to me from this strip that Snuffy and the Sheriff are having a torrid affair.
Rana the Pedantic Wet BlanketApril 18th, 2011 at 12:24 am [Reply]
Whoa. Long comment is long!
Apologies. I’ll try to think of something more snarky and comics-related when I shake off this grading fit.
mdblancheApril 18th, 2011 at 12:25 am [Reply]
I thought “Children of the Corn Lilies” was Flyspeck Island’s most exceptional horror movie. Oh, wait. It’s actually its most exceptionally horrifying documentary.
Mr. O'MalleyApril 18th, 2011 at 12:31 am [Reply]
According to my wife, the name of the realtors in the Sunday Jumble is a species of hint, shout-out, in-joke, etc.
ElkMeadowApril 18th, 2011 at 12:32 am [Reply]
Jessica and Darrin are excited about not having to pay room and board for the next while. The documentary? That’s just how they knew that Les would spring for it. Wander around for an hour or so a week, wave a camera around, sit in the library, and it will be a year before Les catches on, and it will be time to move, unless Jessica becomes preggers with Lisa’s grandchild, and then there will be no leaving that address.
Hi Dingo!
For once, Tony becomes the voice of reason. However, if Dexter gets the ticket and turns it in, what if he decides to split the winnings with his sister and leave Tony and Holly out?
Drew is out on one date with Nurse Liza. For most people, one date ends with one date, yet Jeff is worried about his son’s romantic history. Jeff, I’d worry more that Drew is still living at your place, no regular job in sight, other than subbing for doctors at the hospital. (Do they really do that? Call in a substitute, as if the hospital was a school and the doctors were teachers? And did I use the right word “was” or is it “were a school”?)
Silhouette CrusaderApril 18th, 2011 at 12:50 am [Reply]
I stopped reading Snuffy Smith after the fourth panel. I assume it was some sort of anti-Irish, anti-Catholic thing?
Frank Lee MeidereApril 18th, 2011 at 12:51 am [Reply]
@Rana the Pedantic Wet Blanket (#26): Oh, man. You do get it. The core “bullet” being this: “But others don’t care because they don’t know that they should care.”
I just now got a “Farewell” e-mail from one of my students mentioning this very thing. And it’s the same thing I hear from so many: they’ve never understood why “essay writing” and “English” are important for anything other than school. They literally do not know that it can be useful in any other way.
And because they live so thoroughly and uninterruptedly in their subculture silos, and because their most common forms of communication is not only immediate, but also under 100 words long (Twitter being restricted to 140 characters), the result is that they’re not getting the opportunity to learn the importance of disciplined communication on their own. They see no need for anything longer.
In essence, they see no need for any form of communication that isn’t aimed at their friends. I’ve even heard students bitching because their place of employment won’t use Facebook to communicate with them.
Even e-mail, a medium that still allows for lengthy communications, has been abandoned by the young. E-mail accounts are what you need to join social networks and other sites where you can get down to the serious business of talking to your friends. But actually using e-mail? That’s for Pluggers. (“A Plugger’s Twitter account has an “@” sign in it.”)
Shave EzraApril 18th, 2011 at 12:54 am [Reply]
Wow – the authors of Funky and Marvin did a strip together! Was it all about diaper cancer?
Maggie the CatApril 18th, 2011 at 12:57 am [Reply]
@Frank Lee Meidere (#33):
Don’t all Twitter-ers have an “@”?
AviatrixApril 18th, 2011 at 1:08 am [Reply]
@Rana the Pedantic Wet Blanket (#26):
The idea that one might pick and choose different modes for different audiences is an alien one.
There was a recent post Language Log post with a sample of student writing, and the student’s lack of a personal voice supports you completely. Do these kids write the same way in a 4chan posting, a Facebook status update and an e-mail to Grandma?
Jim NorthApril 18th, 2011 at 1:10 am [Reply]
@Nekrotzar (#7): Aw, man, I just stepped into the comments section to make this exact joke. Except with stronger language, of course. I’m afraid there’s only one recourse. Duel at dawn. Marvin’s diapers at ten paces.
@Courtney (#9): That they are! TOAST! *clink*
tubbytoastApril 18th, 2011 at 1:14 am [Reply]
Oh deah, spam on 9!
AviatrixApril 18th, 2011 at 1:15 am [Reply]
@Rana the Pedantic Wet Blanket (#28): Yeah Rana. If you can’t say it in 140 characters, there’s no point in saying it. (Oh Gods, that will be the prescriptive mantra of the next generation. “Passive voice is bad, don’t split infinitives, and keep it under 140 characters.”
Mr. O'MalleyApril 18th, 2011 at 1:18 am [Reply]
Monday Jumble: Is this going to be a series? |N|I|G|H|T| |O|F| |T|H|E| |L|I|V|I|N|G| |D|E|A|D| doesn’t fit. Oh, I know what it is!
Rana the Pedantic Wet BlanketApril 18th, 2011 at 1:20 am [Reply]
@Aviatrix (#36): Judging by the emails, forum posts, and assignments I see, pretty much, yes. There may be a lack of profanity, but the same “style” (I hesitate to call it such, since it doesn’t seem to be intentional) I see in online comments threads on YouTube and the like are very much in evidence.
There was actually an interesting conversation about this on one of the steampunk sites I frequent. A new member had posted something expressing his frustration at not getting responses to his posts, and one thing that came up pretty soon was his failure to punctuate or capitalize any of his comments. So a bunch of folks stepped up to gently badger him into making the attempt to communicate in a more pleasing manner (steampunks are big into polite formalism, to the point of overwriting sometimes); some of them showed him how to do it, while others explained why he should make the attempt. It was fascinating to watch, especially since it was very clear at first that he was bewildered that this was even an issue.
Rana the Pedantic Wet BlanketApril 18th, 2011 at 1:22 am [Reply]
@Aviatrix (#39): That’s what multiple tweets are for. ;)
(Seriously, though – among my over-educated peer group, multiple sequential tweets are not uncommon. But then, we tend to use Twitter as a sort of group chat, rather than as a microblogging platform.)
Rana the Pedantic Wet BlanketApril 18th, 2011 at 1:23 am [Reply]
@Aviatrix (#39): If it weren’t for the “keep it under 140 characters” part, you’d have described McEldowney’s approach in a nutshell (or a tweet).
Ah, there we are. Comics-related snark. *contented sigh*
DaveyKApril 18th, 2011 at 1:26 am [Reply]
As one of those who doesn’t keep Funky Winkerbean details in my mind, it’s nice to know that I can count on the fact that everyone appearing or mentioned in today’s comic will die of cancer sooner or later. That way I don’t have to remember Funky’s past. Or read it in the future.
LisaApril 18th, 2011 at 1:30 am [Reply]
The most terrifying part of this latest Spiderman plot is the striking similarities between Spiderman and my five-year-old son. I had assumed he would grow out of his naiveté, laziness and desire to go to bed dressed as a superhero, but now I fear there is little hope.
Rana the Pedantic Wet BlanketApril 18th, 2011 at 1:32 am [Reply]
@Rana the Pedantic Wet Blanket (#41): The thread, for those who are interested. The relevant discussion takes place here, here, and here (where the conversation really takes off).
AviatrixApril 18th, 2011 at 1:37 am [Reply]
@Rana the Pedantic Wet Blanket (#43) & @Lisa (#45): I remember when I was twelve or so I found my mother’s ancient copy of Fowler’s Modern English Usage (1st edition). I was fascinated by the almost alien language it described, and spent a while trying to comply with all its strictures. Do you think McE’s mom had one of those and he never outgrew that stage? Any chance he lounges around the house in his Spider-Man pajamas, too?
Rana the Pedantic Wet BlanketApril 18th, 2011 at 1:41 am [Reply]
@Aviatrix (#47): Nah, I suspect he’s got a pretty little ballerina costume he likes to wear instead.
Oh, GAH. Why did I think that thought, just before I am about to go to bed?!
Frank Lee MeidereApril 18th, 2011 at 1:42 am [Reply]
@Rana the Pedantic Wet Blanket (#41):
There was actually an interesting conversation about this on one of the steampunk sites I frequent.
Steampunk! I even use one of the steampunk themes for my iGoogle page.
And you’re right: steampunkers do tend to be very formal, and are generally highly motivated to write well. I suppose that’s because the genre has a major intersection with literature. The same is probably true of gothic and vampire subs. But subcultures arising from graphic novels and video games don’t have that intersection.
One long-neglected classic of the steampunk genre is Keith Roberts’ quiet, mid-sixties gem, Pavane. Ignored by many in favour of more modern and flashier stories, Pavane is best considered as “Pastoral Steampunk.” And the little twist he throws in at the end is quite intriguing.
TangerineApril 18th, 2011 at 1:43 am [Reply]
Wait, Darrin and Jessica are ~married~ now? Last I paid attention, they were trying to get Teen Pregnant together. Or Cancer Pregnant–however it goes in the Funkyverse. So there’s got to be a catch, right, to this marrying-high-school-sweetheart happy ending? My money is on Darrin being a whimsical man-child who is quietly suffocating in his marriage; he will solve this by making a play for Summer, a la ‘Juno’. Who can Summer get Cancer Pregnant by, tout suite, so this storyline can play out as it’s meant to, with Jessica adopting Summer’s child alone as part of a bittersweet Adoption Circle of Life?
Rana the Pedantic Wet BlanketApril 18th, 2011 at 1:46 am [Reply]
@Frank Lee Meidere (#49): Ooo. I’ll have to hunt that one down.
AuroraApril 18th, 2011 at 1:52 am [Reply]
Judging by the alignment of Gunk’s beady eyes, I guessed him to be a scientific experiment that went wrong. Fortunately he seems harmless enough.
Frank Lee MeidereApril 18th, 2011 at 1:54 am [Reply]
@Rana the Pedantic Wet Blanket (#46): What a civilised group. And while I didn’t read all the posts, I’m guessing he’s not native English: the mistakes are those common to foreign-language students. But that also helps explain the willingness to learn. Or — not “explain” it, because lots of native-English speakers are willing to learn — but that certainly isn’t surprising, because the foreign-language students tend to be the most motivated to learn to communicate.
AviatrixApril 18th, 2011 at 1:56 am [Reply]
@Rana the Pedantic Wet Blanket (#46): That was fascinating. It’s like it never occurred to him that he could emulate the literacy around him, or there was some purpose to all these extra keystrokes other people made.
Frank Lee MeidereApril 18th, 2011 at 1:56 am [Reply]
@Aurora (#52): So that wasn’t a rendering defect on my screen? The kid really does have one eye over the other? Thanks for confirming that. I’ve never seen this guy before, so I wasn’t sure what to think.
Chip WhittleApril 18th, 2011 at 1:57 am [Reply]
Hey, you know how we haven’t thought about Dilbert in a while?
Turns out Scott Adams is trying to beat Batiuk and McEldowney in the comic-strippers-we-just-sigh-and-shake-our-heads-about competition. Also he wants you to know he’s a certified genius.
Frank Lee MeidereApril 18th, 2011 at 2:05 am [Reply]
@Chip Whittle (#56): That’s sad. I used to really like him. At least, I liked him through his comic.
By the way, here’s a more direct link to the interview.
AviatrixApril 18th, 2011 at 2:09 am [Reply]
@Chip Whittle (#56): Okay then. I think the next step in the progression is to find him wandering naked in the desert, carrying an intoxicated iguana.
This GuyApril 18th, 2011 at 2:16 am [Reply]
@Frank Lee Meidere (#57): Yeah, I agree. It’s been a good strip, despite the crappy art (one comment I read after the first controversy was “Hey, at least Dave Sim can draw.”) I don’t know, though, if Adams can be one of those douchebag creators whose quality of work overshadows their douchebaggery.
Dr. WeirdApril 18th, 2011 at 2:41 am [Reply]
FW
Keisha’s mom seems to have lost her teeth in the fashion of everyone else who smiled in the last couple of days.
But more to the point, how can she pine over a lost opportunity when she has NEVER TAKEN IT? I think we’ve seen more thought balloons about her insecurity over the relationship than actual SPEAKING WITH LES about what she wants. They aren’t high school students, they can come out and say what they want. I’ve seen more assertive romantic endeavors from characters in harem manga!
KarMannApril 18th, 2011 at 2:59 am [Reply]
4/18 MT: Once again, JackelRod gives us (by which I mean “me”) a ridiculously easy way to completely change the meaning of the strip. And all for the better, of course!
KarMannApril 18th, 2011 at 3:02 am [Reply]
4/18 S4th: Umm, weren’t you guys (read “y’all”) just talking about Prince Valiant hairstyles catching one?
KarMannApril 18th, 2011 at 3:03 am [Reply]
@KarMann (#62): By which I mean, of course, “catching on”. It’s idiomatic. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
Mr. O'MalleyApril 18th, 2011 at 4:02 am [Reply]
@Rana the Pedantic Wet Blanket (#46): Since, it’s a quiet Sunday night, I guess I can go off-comic along with yez others. In a previous generation, ham radio operators used to communicate in a terse code full of specialized abbreviations. However, it wasn’t based on the way they talked, it was because Morse code is not a very efficient way to communicate.
Since many people who entered the computer world in the early days came out of ham radio, it would be interesting to see if things like IMHO and YMMV go back far enough to link in to that. Of course a reluctance to type more letters than necessary is virtually a Unix feature, but that may just come from the use of a 150 baud modem. I don’t know how much archived email is around from the 1960s and 1970s to test my hypothesis.
However, I’m not talking about the phenomenon you’re talking about, which I think is only peripherally related to the conventions of Usenet and earlier online communities.
PS For anyone who is thinking of objecting because I am talking about email from before the existence of Arpanet, please back away from the keyboard or I will reformat your post with TECO. Wikipedia lists the first email system as 1965.
BadAssNinjaApril 18th, 2011 at 4:38 am [Reply]
I am unironically disturbed that Gunk’s nearly vertically aligned eyes change location on his face twice in line three. He has gone from deformed freak to Lovecraftian nightmare.
Jack ParsonsApril 18th, 2011 at 5:56 am [Reply]
Curtis: Having watched several foreign pornographic films recently, I know exactly what will happen in the Japanese version.
ComicmamaApril 18th, 2011 at 6:31 am [Reply]
A3G: Tommie? Passion? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Lesser WharkApril 18th, 2011 at 6:42 am [Reply]
Phantom: the Sunday Phantom was once home to the most awesome and well-drawn insanity outside Prince Valiant. It also had a faster plot than its daily counterpart. (Seriously, compare developments in one Sunday strip to a week’s worth of dailies.) So, if you merged the two, surely you’d make the daily strip more like the Sundays? Why did they instead decide the Sunday strip had to lose its edge and join the dailies in mediocrity? Why did they slow the glacial and brain-dead daily strip (which already moved at a snail’s pace) in order to synchronise the Sunday strips with it?
Rocky StoneaxeApril 18th, 2011 at 6:50 am [Reply]
@Mr. O’Malley (#64):
For anyone who is thinking of objecting because I am talking about email from before the existence of Arpanet, please back away from the keyboard or I will reformat your post with TECO.
Curse you, Tampa Electric!
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/TECO-ENERGY-INC-Company-History.html
Rocky StoneaxeApril 18th, 2011 at 7:01 am [Reply]
@Courtney (#9):
Courtyney? Did you name yourself — or should we blame your parents?
PowersApril 18th, 2011 at 7:35 am [Reply]
Fun fact: John Darling once appeared on the Muppet Show. (At least, he did within the comic’s continuity.)
Rocky StoneaxeApril 18th, 2011 at 7:50 am [Reply]
@Shave Ezra (#34):
Wow – the authors of Funky and Marvin did a strip together! Was it all about diaper cancer?
Showing the cancerous backside of an infant in John Darling would have been risky — since it might have brought down the wrath of To Catch a Predator’s Chris Hansen on them. So the ass they used actually belonged to Tom Batiuk:
http://healthsymptomspictures.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/diaperrash.jpg
One-Eyed WolfdogApril 18th, 2011 at 7:51 am [Reply]
Can anyone help me find this Werewolf Cheerleaders movie? It’s not playing at my local theatre.
Rocky StoneaxeApril 18th, 2011 at 7:55 am [Reply]
@Rocky Stoneaxe (#71): NSFW (Hope I’m not too late!)
FlummoxicatedApril 18th, 2011 at 7:57 am [Reply]
You forgot one small detail in your Funky Wankerbean recounting: that Darrin, who somehow managed to earn an MBA, has exhausted all employment opportunities elsewhere and is now forced to return to Westview, where the only employers are the pizza place and the school.
And in Monday, we have a sad, mopey thought-bubble from one of Les’ lady friends. Thought bubbles really help the readers understand the screwed up mental state of a character in the comics milieu – see For Better or For Worse, Mary Worth.
tb4000April 18th, 2011 at 8:04 am [Reply]
SF: A lampshading of the plotline is always funny.
Ned RyersonApril 18th, 2011 at 8:05 am [Reply]
A3G: Those “headphones” are funny.
queek, source of Cuteness, Kawaii CommandoApril 18th, 2011 at 8:33 am [Reply]
Bizarro: o that is so much win and geekery.
DT: X-Men marks the spot.
Mutts: and so starts another Green Anvil week!
Pluggers from Mass. I would have *killed* to see this strip with a same-sex couple, just to imagine the Pluggers a weepin’ and wailin’.
I giggled at RwO, and facepalmed at the pun in Speed Bump.
other than that, it’s a Snarkless morning.
queek, source of Cuteness, Kawaii CommandoApril 18th, 2011 at 8:34 am [Reply]
aaaaaaaaaand I killed another one.
GroovymarlinApril 18th, 2011 at 9:03 am [Reply]
Just a clarification for you, Josh. The proper name for the strip by Tom Batiuk which you start today’s post with is “Smirky Cancerbean.” Carry on.
ohyesApril 18th, 2011 at 11:24 am [Reply]
Wait… couldn’t Les provide resource assistance and a job referral, even if the young couple didn’t live with him?
“And if you don’t move in here, I will eff you up!”
Rana the Pedantic Wet BlanketApril 18th, 2011 at 12:08 pm [Reply]
@Frank Lee Meidere (#52): The poster’s from Florida, and apparently people talk like he writes – at least, that was his explanation.
Rana the Pedantic Wet BlanketApril 18th, 2011 at 12:17 pm [Reply]
@Mr. O’Malley (#63): Well, we do know that abbreviations like IMHO go back to the days of the telegraph…
Frank Lee MeidereApril 18th, 2011 at 2:11 pm [Reply]
@Rana the Pedantic Wet Blanket (#81):
Oh.
I see.
So, not foreign born, then, is what you’re saying.
Okay. I’m not scared. Nope. Not at all.
Mysterious Shirtless LawyerApril 18th, 2011 at 4:00 pm [Reply]
“he had luscious lips … and a purty little mouth”! Also known as the Hootin Holler Get Out of Jail Free card!
sakApril 18th, 2011 at 5:38 pm [Reply]
*Cut, move, crop, done* We finally have the plot for the sequel to Private Snuffy Smith. ” The story of a backwoods sheriff finds himself unable to bring evidence against the community’s greatest criminal when he finds himself hopelessly infatuated with him. The criminal ruthlessly takes advantage of the situation and goes on a crime spree. Will the sherif’s heart or sense of justice win out?” Hallmark made for TV movie here we come!
SideshowJonApril 18th, 2011 at 5:47 pm [Reply]
I did some research on that John Darling thing, because I honestly couldn’t fathom it being true. (interesting link from Onion AV on comic strip deaths here).
I gotta say, if Batiuk didn’t find his calling in cartooning, he probably would’ve been a serial killer. I can understand why Ed Crankshaft is so bitter; his Creator-God can and certainly will give him a dramatic painful death the moment his readership falls below a certain level, ending his comics existence with his ungrateful heirs smirking smugly at his funeral.
LiamApril 18th, 2011 at 8:53 pm [Reply]
Slylock Fox-Those are terrible satellites when the solar panels that they have are unable to keep them powered.
FrancisApril 19th, 2011 at 12:01 am [Reply]
Have you ever actually tried to say anything with your tongue hanging out of your mouth, Snuffy Smith-style? It is physically impossible. The logical conclusion is that they’re really in a hillbilly version of “The Matrix.”
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