Saved by the Bull

OK, well, props to Owen, I guess: he actually does show a little courage today, standing up to Wedgeman and his henchmen. Naturally, were Bull not standing behind him in his Mr. Clean pose, the bullies would be on him like Crazy Harry on a Montoni’s slice.

21 thoughts on “Saved by the Bull”

  1. Now, Bull Bushka will show these kids how to properly beat up on a defenseless dweeb.

    After all this is the man who patented the intimidation moves that made Les Moore involuntarily urinate on himself.

    Bull Bushka is practically the Paganini of bullying.

  2. And the moral of the story is: the only way to stop bullying is to get somebody bigger to bully the bullies!

    (In honor of Roger Ebert, I would like to share a favorite quote of mine from his Napoleon Dynamite review, which fits Owen and several other characters in this strip: “[He’s] the sort of nerd that other nerds avoid.”)

  4. Why is Cody ushering the bullies off? 

    TFH sez: Why is Pete looking on in panel 3? 

  5. Every Friday or Saturday I see the new FW and I think to myself “now THIS one is definitely offically the worst arc of the year so far”. And every week I’m correct, too. This is a prefect example of how TB can take any story and manage to distill it down to its dullest essence. The stilted, awkward dialog, the way the lead character doesn’t actually do anything, the reliance on the same old tiresome tropes, the prior, irrelevant references to fictional 1940’s characters: another perfect FW storm, all coming together to create a “story” you’ll have completely forgotten five minutes from now. AND he gets f*cking PAID for this! It’s the most confounding and inexplicable thing in the entire history of entertainment, regardless of the medium.

  7. Basically all the snark I’ve been able to come up with relies on injokes. Since Wedgeman’s hair was recolored, he looks remarkably like a guy I knew a few years ago. He was 2 feet taller than me and covered in fists. It’s a fitting part.

    It makes the story pretty enjoyable, too. Imagine him speaking with a deep southern drawl, in the dumbest bubba voice you can imagine. Like, assuming you didn’t imagine all the students talking that way.

  8. Thanks, Skunkhead. Your weirdly suspicious Bull Bushka blow-up doll actually did the trick.

  9. So, where did the huge bald badass black guy come from? A nearby penitentiary? I don’t recall him appearing in previous strips. I guess TB needed to add another stereotypical bad guy into today’s strip to make the whole bullying thing really resonate with the suburban white crowd. Bully for you, Tom.

  10. Bighead McBlackguy is Barry Bonds. Needs work these days. Bull has grown about a foot taller today. He’s not there to break up the fight. He wants to kick Chullo’s ass too!

  11. Also, these goofs have been physically assaulting Punk Alex on a daily basis. Why didn’t he collar these guys instead of just making a face at them? Stupid “writing.”

  12. sourbelly–maybe Batiuk really went to town on the old model sheets and that’s “Eddie”? Or better yet given Alex’s age, it’s “Monroe”!

    [img]http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/images/ng-eddie.jpg[/img]

  13. Sorry, “Monroe”!
    [img]http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/images/ng-monroe.jpg[/img]

  15. Epicus, substitute “Spider Man” for “FW” and your statement still holds true for the most part.

  17. OK, so when does the disgusting romance between Punk-Alex and Chullo wearing Owen begin? Two weeks from now?

  18. Monroe at 33 = Urkel, Raj from “What’s Happening”, or the Black version of Act II Les.

  20. Bull’s face is a mask of fury not because of the bullies, but because 40-year old Alex is wandering the halls of Westview High again. Who does she think she is, Harry Dinkle?

  21. Now, too bad TB ret-conned Bull into a non-bully cause this could have been interesting–how the Act I Bull is now the Act III anti-bully. Or maybe Cody could show up with Les’ former water-cooled machine gun and spray lead death all over the place.

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