John
April 3, 2012 at 1:01 am
Cody: “…do you ever get the feeling that we never look forward to anything good? We merely mildly anticipate the absence of bad things?”
Note the date on John’s comment above: it’s from a whole year ago, when Cody and Owen last enjoyed a wedgie-free week due to the fact that the Seniors were out of town. Flash back a little further: to the beginning of the 2009 school year…
You’re already doing the math: Cody and Owen would by now be part of the Senior Class. Of course, it’s certainly likely that, being morons, they’ve had to repeat at least one grade. Still: surely they’re not still mere freshmen? Do the Westview Seniors pick on all the underclassmen, or just these two?
I’m kind of concerned about these two loners who, every school day (except for the week of the D.C. trip), endure intimidation and abuse from the Seniors, are belittled by their teachers, and after school head to the Komix Korner to play (probably violent) video games. Could Batiuk be getting ready to add school shootings to his Serious Topics résumé?
Son of Stuck Funky 
Happy Easter, everybody!
“It’s just harmless hazing. It’s what high school seniors traditionally do, they beat the hell out of hapless underclassmen. What is the big deal? It’s just broad physical comedy is all. It’s not like I ever drew a hall monitor’s desk with a vintage machine gun bolted to it or anything of that nature”…(discreetly slides Act I collection under sofa with foot).
The indecipherable Act III timeline strikes again. Just a few days ago I was wondering how these two dopes were still haplessly toiling away in the same classes they were taking four or five years ago. Turns out it’s just another timeline thing, or as they call it at Batom Inc. World HQ, “a delivery vehicle for the annual “high school life: it still sucks” arc”.
Cody and Owen may appear to be permanently stuck in some sort of really dull, witless and tiresome time loop where the exact same premises and gags play out exactly the same way year after year, but don’t forget that a few years ago Owen was given a snazzy new hat to wear. So there has been some character progression there.
If Batiuk did school shootings, there would be so many levels of ridiculously ham-handed bullshit that he probably WOULD be cancelled.
“Could Batiuk be getting ready to add school shootings to his Serious Topics résumé?”
I got that feeling a couple of weeks ago.
Or maybe he could have Westview ban dodgeball like they did in Windham, NH.
After all, the schools no longer teach these kids to handle life, just to be self-esteem laden burbpussy wusses.
Today, Lisa rises from the dead! Alley-frickin-looieya! She steps out of the TV and brings peace to all of Ahia! LISA IS RISEN! YOU BET YOUR SWEET ASS SHE HAS!!
Horseplay? Food fights? This is what he thinks teenagers fear when it comes to bullying?
Tom, when you go to voyeur, er, “research” your HS arcs by hanging out at an actual high school, you just spend it hiding out in the “teacher’s work room” with the “vendos”, right? Right.
Some of us were actually bullied in school. Badly. And frankly? The stuff you fixate on isn’t anywhere NEAR the stuff we actually dreaded.
Know-nothing jerk.
I’m conflicted. As a former victim of bullying and a mom who worries what her kids will face in school when they get older, I’m insulted that Batiuk continues to treat this topic as lighthearted fun. On the other hand, I know that any attempt on his part to treat bullying and the tragic consequences thereof with the seriousness it deserves would be infuriating. Funky Winkerbean: the Morton’s Fork of the comics page.
Batyuck as a know nothing jerk?
I’m shocked.
@ Señor Tortilla: Judging on how Bautik handled homeland terrorist bombings in the 90s, the shooter would wear a mask and never be revealed (a correlation with most of the gays in the Gay Prom Arc?), be carrying Wild West revolvers in his arsenal, Les’s old machine gun, and be a big follower of Rush Limbaug.
On the subject of today’s strip, good to see Bautik’s still wanting to milk the misery out of these boys at the expense of their education timeline. Of course, I still feel a bit peeved he’s throwing aside the exciting not-explored-yet territory of college life and military training for yet more of comic writer Pete’s superhero-lateness fantasies & Les’s talking-down to his ignorant students, but I suppose I should expect no less from Bautik these days.
I should write my own little comic spinoff telling of what the sentient computer’s doing now. Maybe he managed to find a better life working with JJ Abrams or something.
“Could Batiuk be getting ready to add school shootings to his Serious Topics résumé?”
No, that would mean that Tom Batiuk is up on current events. I figure in five years after the fact, Batiuk will proclaim that he is doing an edgy, topical series of strips on gun issues that have already long since been resolved.
..and it will be just as lame as it would be if it were done now.
Do the Westview Seniors pick on all the underclassmen, or just these two?
Are there any other underclassmen, other than these two? The only other ones I can think of that even have names all graduated last year. If there are others, I sure can’t name them, and I can’t be bothered to keep the names of these two straight.
When the seniors aren’t pounding on these two weenies, the teachers still do. Small payback for being obnoxious, smartass, little slackers who waste class time with their idiocy.
For those here who were bullied, I’m terribly sorry to hear that, and hope all is well now. If you need me to kick the ass of one of your former tormenters, just say the word. I’d be more than happy. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Heck, the fact that Alex mysteriously materialized within Westview’s halls a couple of weeks ago should’ve been our cue that Cody and Owen won’t be entering their ACTUAL life stage anytime soon.
Come 2020, the one remaining newspaper with the one remaining print comics page will have Cody and Owen speaking with undisguised horror of receiving a “wedgie”.
Then they’ll retaliate with a pot of blackstrap molasses, because that’s TOTALLY what a modern teen keeps on hand AND thinks of as a solution to bullying!
Yeesh.
TB has written himself into a corner. We don’t know *any* students besides these two and the stuck-in-a-time-loop thing is hard to ignore for a strip that prides itself on being in “real time.”
Usually going to the same school for 8 years means you come out with a PHD.
Well of course these guys aren’t seniors, even though it’s been over five years since they were freshmen. If Batiuk graduated these two goofs in two months, he wouldn’t have a single character he could use as a high school student. So these guys are doomed to a revolving door life as bullied underclassmen.
Btw, Westview High just keeps getting better and better, huh? Don’t you wish your kids went there? They casually tolerate, indeed, even promote constant bullying. The teachers don’t teach, nor do they create an environment conducive for learning, much less one that makes the kids want to learn. Instead, they either insult their students or let them flail and fail by themselves (seriously, where was the faculty adviser in the robot storyline, and in the TV strip earlier this week?). There’s not a single kid that has a good, respectful relationship with any of the teachers. It’s amazing.
And I’ll echo an earlier point in this thread about sending everyone to Kent State. What was the damn point of doing that if they’re never going to be featured? Hell, if you don’t want to show those kids, Batiuk, just send them to Arizona State or Florida or something so there’s no reason to expect to see them ever again.
@TheDiva, thanks I had never heard of Morton’s Fork. Your one post was more informative than the entire run of FW.
I can’t wait for the March 2014 arc where Westview High does an awesome Harlem Shake video, led by perpetual freshmen Owen and Cody.