The Fairgoods’ motor tour takes them past the former home for troubled youth where Ann once worked. What’s troubling me is trying to figure out the point of this aimless arc. Darin was raised by Fred and Ann; wouldn’t he know that this was somewhere that Ann once worked? Is TB calling out a Real Place in Ohio? Wonder how the good folks at Lighthouse Youth Services in Cincinnati are going to feel about this?
In order to “lighten” things up a bit, I’ve reworked the last panel so the Fishstick Annie delivers her line using the same jokey delivery she used in yesterday’s strip.
Son of Stuck Funky 
What is a bit troubling to me is how Darin is dressed as if he went to a funeral. Perhaps it’s the funeral of Black Cayla.
She will be missed.
The REALLY troubling thing here is that a few dozen online snarky jag-offs put more effort into creating witty blog comments than the creator of the strip they’re making fun of puts into his daily “gags”. This one reads like he thought it up on a 3am trip to the bathroom. How can he possibly still be getting paid for this?
Kudos for only drawing PART of that horrific car, though. Wise idea, it almost looks like a real car today.
So, Dustbunny is talking to his parents, right? How has he not heard this stuff hundreds of times before?
I mean, if this narrative were directed toward his wife, Whatshername, that would be different. What IS her name? Sheila? No? I give up. She’s doing the documentary film or something about her dead father John Darling, right? The guy Batiuk killed and Leslie wrote about? Other than that, I can’t think of her name or any distinguishing characteristics, other than her big hair. Anyway, as luck would have it I don’t care.
Dagwood’s head is the size of a weather balloon today. And apparently he’s driving now! Annie aged 30 years since yesterday, and still has a death grip on Dagwood’s seat. Sit back, woman!
Enjoying Filler Week? There MUST point to this arc. Right? Right?? Oh, wait. BatYuck. Never mind.
Loved, loved, loved putting today’s punchline on yesterday’s last panel.
Okay, as pointless and depressing as today’s strip is, it’s actually the closest we’ve come all week to having a punchline.
Being trapped inside Tom Batiuk’s imagination would make any youth troubled.
Wordplay about child abuse. Wow.
This is the best possible way to celebrate the marriage of Les and Uhura. A whole week of meaningless meandering by secondary characters no one cares about.
Batominc’s creative methods have become unsound.
The horror. The horror.
The horror in the main of Durblond’s disproportionately gigantic head! Am I right, lazengennamin?
“This used to be called ‘Funky Winkerbean’ and Ann and I were actually notable characters at one point.”
“It was a gag-a-day comic strip.”
“Why did that stop?”
“Long story short… The guy who drew it turned out to be more troubled than readers initially thought.”
Listen up… we have a meaningless week of Durwood and Fred yammering… or Batyuck takes us on the Moore honeymoon trip to Ashtabula.
That’s right. Where did Les and Cayla go? It would be funny if it was some place in Ohio…though Ashtabula does have a mall with an interior-entranced Super Kmart, which is certainly rare.
The problem here is that the old readers of FW will know that the Fairgoods were never a young struggling couple. Fred was a middle aged divorced adult working at Westview when he met Ann there. He was previously married! They didn’t know each other as kids.
Batiuk is revising history giving Fred and Ann a past they didn’t have.
I see the beady-eyed nitpickers of negativism are at it again. It’s called “writing,” people!
But I kid the Batominc, I kid. I’m here all week, lazengennamin.
It’s a metaphor. The “lighthouse” is the comic strip. “The troubled guy who ran it” is Tom. And guess what? We’re the kids who stayed there. But at least we know where we stand. (“Long story short” is today’s gag, since we are so used to “short story long.”)
I’m going to be gone this weekend–no Internet!
I managed to find tomorrow’s strip, though.
Enjoy?
From the Ohio Morning Journal 10-10-12
Lorain Lighthouse United Methodist Church has its next feed the hungry, clothe the needy program Oct. 19 and Oct. 26 at 3015 Meister Road, Lorain. Hours are 10 a.m. to noon both days. A free meal will be served Oct. 26. Clothing will be available for 50 cents per grocery bag.
Batiuk no doubt reads this site once in a while and is being deliberately boring this week to deprive us of snarkable material. Be strong. comrades. Soon the urge for him to feature Les and/or Summer will be too great for him to resist and we will feast once more on their awfulness.
Fred: “This used to be called ‘The Outhouse’…Ann went there often.”
Ann: “It was a place for troubling m-”
Darin: “TMI! TMI!!!”
Ann: “Long story short, I’d never seen that color before. At least, not in THAT conte-”
Darin: “AAAAAARGHH!”
“Batiuk is revising history giving Fred and Ann a past they didn’t have.”
Par for the course, these days. Hey, did you know that Bull only -pretended- to beat up Les? And that Crazy Harry was actually only ever crazy about Tarzan?
Tom has always excelled at sucking the life out of every potentially interesting idea and making it as dull as possible. This “slums of Westview” nostalgia tour proves that he can make even the most boring premises duller than you ever imagined.
The Dreamer: Yet another example of FW readers remembering more of the strip’s history than the author does. Why does he even bother re-visiting these peripheral characters? No one missed or was clamoring for more Boy Lisa, Jessica or the Fairgoods. Instead of focusing on 4-5 main characters people MIGHT care about, we get these strange weeks featuring characters NO ONE cares about. So confounding.