Dinkle gleefully tells Crazy Harry and Richard Nixon of that time when he made such a nuisance of himself that the builders of the new Westview High School had to resort to extraordinary measures to be rid of him.
Below is a strip (date unknown, likely from Act II) illustrating why the contractor was justified in kicking Harry’s ass off the site:
Son of Stuck Funky 
Look at the delight in Dinkle’s eyes as he brags about what a hugely annoying asshole he is. And some folks wonder why we here at SoSF have grown to hate these characters so much.
That old strip is nearly as bad. I see he was still bothering to obscure Dinkle’s face back then. Smart move. I suppose there was a reason (ha) that Dinkle was writing music at a construction site and also a reason why Westview needed a (ahem) “performing arts center” (is it still around?) but fortunately those little nuggets of FW trivia have been long forgotten. Although I bet you anything that Lisa had something to do with getting it built, guaranteed.
So, Harry was a huge nuisance to people trying to do their jobs, probably endangering himself and others in the process, and as a result was forcibly removed from the vicinity. This is the joke.
….Really, I’ve got nothing. But at least I’m willing to admit it.
Harry took out a life insurance policy on Lisa to pay for the performing arts center.
Oh BTW: In Milwaukee there’s a place called Arts’ Performing Center….it’s like those places near the Cleveland airport.
Right. Harry was a belligerent asshole when shit was being built. He’s still a belligerent, albeit more boring, asshole now. It is to laugh.
What this convention really needs is an open bar.
I suppose there was a reason (ha) that Dinkle was writing music at a construction site and also a reason why Westview needed a (ahem) “performing arts center” (is it still around?)
You’ve forgotten about the Harry L. Dinkle Performing Arts Center?
Performing arts center. But no post office.
“Banned from the site” is what will happen next week, when (I’m guessing) you have to register to post at Comics Kingdom. Batiuk is laying down the law!
Haha, get it? He did something stupid, it had realistic consequences, and now he’s telling some other people!
Comedy gold.
that can’t be the lovely Mrs les Moore in that flashback ?
flappy–I believe it is, only then she was still black.
OK.
Harry leaves his house to go back to the band room.
Meanwhile, Buddy the companion dog sees him and begins to chase him.
They run and run, eventually arriving at the train tracks where Crankshaft just made his bad joke.
A train flattens them both.
That Sunday strip has to be from 2002, the only year within the last 15 or so in which January 27th fell on a Sunday (also Becky hadn’t adopted her middle-aged-mom haircut yet). Yet they didn’t name it after Harry until May 2008. What was the official name of the performing arts center in the meantime? WHAT WAS IT?
Okay, so Cayla used to be black; that’s since changed. She has a lousy sense of humor; on that, some things never change.
“Banned” = “Band!” Do ya GET it?? Oh HO! Dinkleberry is talking out one side of his mouth, which is BatCode for “I’m saying something REALLY funny, so LOOK OUT!!!” I think BatHack is testing us to see how long we can stand this lame, unfunny crapola.
Saw the flashback of the “witty banter” between THE Harry Dinkle and, um, CRAYOLA??? Is it just me, or is it really jarring to see early pictures of Cayla when she was brought into the strip to be The Wisecracking Black Character. I’d like to have been one of those moths living inside BatDreck’s pointy little head when he decided to pair Goatee Boy with Cayla, but not If she was going to be all BLACK like that. Hilarious, yet disturbing, the way he shamelessly Caucasianized her and thought nobody would notice. “I’m gonna do it real gradually. First the hair. Then the facial features and skin color. Haw, you’d have to be some kind of beady-eyed nitpicker to catch me doing this. I really wanna be edgy with this big interracial relationship, but I don’t want to show one if my characters with a [whispers] *Negro*.”
Not having to do with today’s strip, but I await the day Batty pays homage to this comic’s cover.
Man, he’s looking more and MORE like Crankshaft every day!
The construction must have been the last time a tax increase passed in Westview.
He calls it a construction site for a performing arts center, others call it a titty bar. Ol’ Funky Beard there knows what I’m talking about.
Wow!! Tom Batiuk, he has expertly captured the impression and feeling of being at Conservative Washington, DC banquet with Dick Cheney!!! Right down to the malicious grin of evil in Panel 3.
In fact, might I suggest a new direction for this strip?…Let’s call it “Dick Cheney and Friends” Could give Mallard Fillmore and Doonesbury a run for their money.
TFH: Somehow the “performing arts center” escaped my memory. I assume the center never books comedians, either.
The Wankerview High School Harry Dinkle Performing Arts Center and Pizza Palace is a lovely auditorium. Only problem is the goddam sprinkler system keeps coming on randomly during performances.
He calls it a construction site for a performing arts center, others call it a titty bar. Ol’ Funky Beard there knows what I’m talking about.
Becky had a hard time dancing on the pole with just one arm.
I’m calling this for Comment of the Week:
**Haw, you’d have to be some kind of beady-eyed nitpicker to catch me doing this. I really wanna be edgy with this big interracial relationship, but I don’t want to show one if my characters with a [whispers] *Negro*.”**
May be a typo up there…whoops!