Speaking of St. Lisa, panel 1 seems weirdly evocative of the cover of the first Lisa’s Story book.
I hope you all enjoyed your nearly three-week respite from Les (I know you enjoyed it). Today he’s back, and if you thought his marriage to Cayla meant he’d finally stop talking about his dead first wife, well– oh, you didn’t think he’d stop? Neither has Les stopped thinking that his wry, nonsense-logic brand of observational “humor” is funny to anyone but himself. What has changed is that Cayla, rather than rolling her eyes at Les’ mentions of his late bride, has taken to physically and verbally abusing him each time Lisa’s name comes up. The fact that we see Les in the bathroom taping his ribs before this action takes place suggests that the abuse is ongoing. Notice in the last panel how he’s gone from a smug wiseguy to a pathetic, cringing little milksop.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Yay Cayla! Yay Cayla! Now kick him in the ball sack.
Is that “smoking bun” reference regarding the underwear bomber’s buttocks? WTF? How long ago did that actually happen and why on earth is Batiuk dredging it up to make another horrible pun? Dear god this strip sucks.
Yeah, she’s not Lisa. Lisa died. Of Cancer.
In panel one, if Les is bandaging himself because of increasingly violent jabs from Cayla, that means two things: 1-Les is incapable of learning new behavior, which means that yes he is Tom Batiuk; and 2-Cayla joins my list of favorite characters in Funky Winkerbean.
She’ s only in fourth place though, so keep up with those jabbings!
If Cayla makes life a living Hell for Les (more so than it is for every other Westview resident, anyway), then maybe something good will come out of this marriage after all.
Hey, asshole! You don’t like getting elbowed in the ribs? Then you should have married Becky instead.
What has changed is that Cayla, rather than rolling her eyes at Les’ mentions of his late bride, has taken to physically and verbally abusing him each time Lisa’s name comes up.
Sadly, no. He brings her up after she physically abuses him, which means both that she’s not kicking his ass for it, and that he uses it as a self-pitying coping mechanism for whenever Cayla does something he doesn’t like.
I like Cayla’s last line, though. Wish it was said with a scowl or a ravenous smile instead. “I’m gonna remind you that that bitch is in the ground every time you even think of bringing her up.”
Otherwise, yeah, first strip featuring their married life together and Les mentions Lisa. There’s something seriously wrong with TB.
Les’s “jokes” were already old and stale when Steven Wright told them.
Les and Cayla have a seriously f-ed up relationship here. They are the new Lockhorns, seriously.
Cayla hitting Les is the closest we’ll ever get to fanservice in this strip.
today an elbow, tomorrow a frying pan, hopefully in a few weeks she’ll smother him in his sleep with a pillow.
I’m sure the “Lisa did this, Lisa didn’t do that” chatter goes on in the bedroom too. Look for Goatee Boy to get more than an elbow one of these days. And imagine a life of Les punning all day. Welcome to Hell Crayola. At least Principal Nate keeps her serviced.
And in the title panel today, who’s the Chinese girl whose head could fit in a coin slot?
Seriously, though. What is worse for a second spouse to hear than constant comparisons to the first? Would a real second wife still be sitting on the couch next to him, smiling after his last remark? Kinda doubt it. Yank it back another quarter inch or three, Tommyhack.
Look how many pages of comics they get in the Westview paper.
And what if you shout “crowd” in a fired theater? Or “the” in a fire-eater crowd? (I can has Pulitzer nau?)
I’m usually not for spousal abuse, but in this case I think it is very much warranted.
Just remember the rule, though: Wife gets beaten — pickets, lawsuits, firings, jail terms. Husband gets beaten — Slapnuts funny!
Who’s that person sitting next to Less?
Wife gets beaten — pickets, lawsuits, firings, jail terms. Husband gets beaten — Slapnuts funny!
Hey! If he wants to take on a controversial topic…!
Les elbows Cayla in the ribs when she’s not sufficiently deferential to Lisa and Les’s devotion to Lisa. Roberta sees this and immediately gets Les arrested for spousal abuse. Les gets indicted and put on trial. But wait! He’s defended by a woman who was inspired (and continues to be inspired divinely!) by Lisa when she watched her in a courtroom all those many years ago defending John against his charge of selling underage kids violent pornography comic books. So she’s become a lawyer and will defend Lisa’s widower with her life if she has to! There will be many defenses brought up, but none discussed any more than a panel except for the one that Les is a complete wuss and there’s no way in hell he could have ever hurt former college athlete Cayla with an elbow. This will be done with a misapplied “You have to take the victim as you find them” argument.
And yes, I know the whole thing is completely unbelievable and not how the legal system works, but that’s the beauty of it! That’s JUST what we’d expect from Tom Batiuk!
This is an excellent first step. Next, she needs to brain him with a large crowbar, lay his corpse out on a tarp, cut him into many small pieces and bury him under that f*cking front porch of his. Then she can relax.
I still feel that “Totally Obnoxious Les, The Man Everyone Hates” would be a preferable direction for this strip. Then we’d get to see different characters assaulting him EVERY DAY, which, IMO, would be a vast improvement over whatever it’s supposed to be now.
Les’ first date with Cayla: Vivid hallucination of Lisa watching each and every thing he does, smirking and quipping.
Les’ proposal to Cayla: Was mostly about the illegitimate pregnancy and long, painful death by cancer of Lisa.
Les’ wedding with Cayla: Kicked off with Les watching one of the 100 zillion VHS tapes Lisa left with strict instructions to be watched on EVERY significant life event EVER by EVERYONE IN WESTVIEW.
Les’ married life with Cayla: Includes lots and lots of comparisons between Lisa and Cayla, holding Lisa as superior in every way.
*******************
In conclusion, Tom is one sick, sick, puppy.
Les getting beat up? I’m not complaining.
By the way, is it just me or does Lisa have a somewhat masculine frame?
For all of you praising Cayla: she married Les. Case closed.
By the way, is it just me or does Lisa have a somewhat masculine frame?
Somewhat. I think Batiuk should revisit whatever desire led him to draw Lisa doing a self-exam, and draw a panel of Holly helping Funky check his prostate.
You’re welcome.
Via @blindcomics: An edited version of today’s #FunkyWinkerbean by Humanoid Female on the Something Awful forums.
I’ve read a few forum today about FW and am surprised about all the spousal abuse talk. Nobody should ever be for spousal abuse, but here we are talking about a character that is so despised, that total HOSTEL dismemberment should be the order of every day for him. People really need to keep things in perspective. Les deserves semi trucks rolling over him. Today we rejoice that Cayla inflicted some well earned pain on his crappy ass.
It has been my experience that competing with ex-husbands is a piece of cake, while dead husbands, having been sainted, are invincible.
That said, if I had to constantly hear the dead guy tossed at me like Les scatters Lisa’s figurative ashes all over Cayla, I’d have been gone some time back in early 2011. Maybe even sooner.
And who is this new girl playing Cayla? She needs to work on her stoned look. In the first panel she looks genuinely stupid (oh, yeah…she married Les…right…)