I’m admittedly as beady-eyed and nit-picky as anyone here at SoSF, so maybe my opinion is somewhat skewed. That said, Lisa’s silly little “prayer” comes across as being rather selfish and short-sighted to me. After all, how did she know back then what would become of Frankie? Perhaps he would have changed his ways and become, oh I don’t know, an ordained minister or a first responder hero or a devoted family man or whatever. Typical Lisa…me me me, always self-absorbed in that annoyingly cloying way she had (and still has despite being dead). In any event, as Nelson Muntz might say, “Haw haw! Your prayer went unanswered!”.
So what did Frankie do, exactly, to merit this non-stop sneering and eyebrow-cocking? His attempt to “cash in” on one of Lisa’s many tragedies? Les did it a few times. Cayla was practically boinging off the walls when the movie check arrived. Summer even went as far as to suggest a 3-D version of “Lisa’s Story”. What makes that any different? I get the feeling that any “outsiders” who dare to enter Westview get chased to the city limits by a group of pitchfork-toting sneering fat guys wearing pizza shop smocks in an old-fashioned car as “Dueling Banjos” plays in the background. What a bunch of hostile pricks.
But forget all that nonsense, as none of it matters anyway. The big news today is that Montoni’s appears to be selling T-shirts! I simply MUST have one, although because I’m not a XXXXL I doubt they’d be carrying my size. If Batom doesn’t start hawking these on his site he’s both lazy and stupid, because he’s sitting on a gold mine with those.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Ouch. She must really have hated those leopardskin seats.
Quick question: if this wasn’t the holy writ of the Saint Lisa of Westview (gone but not forgotten, and just in case you were in danger of forgetting here’s another holy relic to remind you how insufferable she was), would anybody in their right mind think that the self-dramatizing, angst-ridden maunderings of a navel-gazing, dizzyingly narcissistic teenager should have any bearing what-so-freaking-ever on what two grown adults choose to do? Teenage girls’ diaries aren’t exactly renowned for being masterpieces of clear-eyed, unbiased reportage, Tom. I’d sooner take Hunter S. Thompson’s word for it, giant lizards, dive-bombing bats and all.
Montoni’s isn’t selling shirts, that’s the lost and found.
If this is a wrap, save for a smirkfest on Friday leaking into Saturday, then TB never gave us a hint of the promised coercion. Just circumstances that lead to Durrwood being conceived. Lisa still comes off as a cheap date, as they used to say in Ohio back in the 70’s.
VHS tapes… a screen play… telephone calls from beyond… ghostly images, guest appearances at parties and now a proxy manifestation through boy Summer.
I wish Lisa would just stay dead
Boy Summer, the son Lisa never had.
Writing is like praying? Cool, let me try it…I pray this idiotic, unrealistic, heavy-handed, maudlin, pathetic attempt to address a real and tragic problem for many women ends soon before it can embarrass itself any farther.
TheDiva: That’s a real, real lot to ask for from any god.
Whoops, too late, Lisa! Is this really the ammunition that’s supposed to get Frankie to back off with his reality TV project? How is this even a plan, especially with Darin and Frankie in the same room together as they’re hearing this secondhand excerpt together? (Quick — someone film their joint reactions! And then pass me that joint to help numb the pain of reading this crap.) On the plus side, I really want to smack Darin in the face with a shovel today, so congratulations on that, Batiuk!
This little twenty-first century version of Our Lady Of perpetual Visitation’s VHS gospels is tacky, but it is a quick way to go all “in your face” on Frankie and Paul Schaffer’s separated-at-birth twin – but best of all, it wraps up this incredibly bad story line!
What the hell is the matter with Lenny? He should be taping all of this. This is exactly the sort of family conflict that makes for reality-TV-show gold! Now I understand Team Lisa’s cunning plan: to take Frankie’s dull concept and spice it up! Woo hoo$!$!$!
I believe in Batyuck’s fever swamp brain, Frankie = SoSF.
Dear lord this is some of the worst dreck I have ever read. The saddest thing about it is you just know TB is thinking, nailed it!
MerryPookster:
Dadada-da dah.
Dah-da-da!
Ghostbusters!
“Dear lord this is some of the worst dreck I have ever read”
No more unbelievable than this morning’s episode of Crankshaft, which ignores the fact that plug doors don’t open when pressurizec.
I am now convinced that anyone involved with the creation for either of these two comics has lived his or her entire life in delusion.
And I’m officially lost. Frankie is watching some boy read a book “supposedly” written by one Lisa Crawford saying she doesn’t want him to meet his child.
So what?
She had Frankie agree and sign papers giving up his rights to the child so she could the baby up for adoption and Frankie complied with the adoption requirement. He avoided contact with child until it became an adult. No, the meeting didn’t go the way Frankie hoped, but he DID meet his son and now realizes the boy is a loser (just like his mom was).
It’s a win for everyone, I guess, except for those who actually follow this strip.
Uh-oh Frankie. Jessica sees your Guy Smiley Muppet mouth and counters with her Bert-level angry Muppet uni-brow.
This pleases the green pitcher.
“If writing is like prayer”
It isn’t.
And that isn’t writing, either Mr Batiuk.
“What the hell is the matter with Lenny? He should be taping all of this.”
Roberta Blackburn’s husband would be.
But seriously. Every time TB refers back to Lisa, we realize she is about about as much of a troll as Les is. Crikies! The whole cast consists of trolls. The only character who isn’t is troll is Susan, and she hasn’t been seen in two years. And TB wonders why we hate his strip.
And why is Lisa right? I mean, that’s incredibly short-sighted for her, and if she was so bent on Boy Lisa never seeing Frankie, then she could have (under the Roe v Wade ruling) a legal abortion, even moreso, since she could claim it was under rape.
“In other entertainment news, the smash hit reality series FRANKIE AND LENNY MEET REALITY has entered its eighth record-breaking season. This year, they’ve got jobs as Hollywood stuntmen, hah-hah! Personally, my favorite was season 6, when they were performers in Cirque Du Soleil, though I know my wife prefers Season 3 when they were part of Benedict Cumberbatch’s entourage. Looking back, I don’t anyone could have predicted the show would last this long, especially during the two episode first season, when poor Frankie was rejected and humiliated by his brat of a bio-son Darin. This rejection would turn out to have unexpected consequences, as it turns out Darin and his…um…”Step Father”, disgraced former Hollywood auteur Les Moore, forged documents as part of an insane scheme to make Frankie look like a rapist. The discovery of the hoax and the resulting backlash lead to mass burnings of LISA’S STORY and made Les Moore’s infamously bad script for a film adaptation the most toxic property in Hollywood.”
“The only character who isn’t is troll is Susan,”
Susan was a bunny-boiler in the making. I get the feeling if she had stuck around, it wouldn’t have been pretty.
“Les broke up with Cayla? That means we’re automatically and innately a romantically involved couple and I must kiss him!” *crazed, fixed grin*
(Insert Picard facepalm here)
Nothing from “Montoni’s” but luckily Luigi’s of Akron, the inspiration for this monstrosity, does indeed have t-shirts and (lucky for Summer) hoodies available. In fact i’m pleased to discover they now have the Pizza App Durwood’s been working on for three years! Life imitates crap.
Interesting choice of word: “gets” as opposed to”has.” The latter tends to have a more negative meaning. Maybe Lisa is telling more than she knows.
If writing is like praying, Batboy is an atheist.
Please don’t compare us atheists to him.
So now that the words of St. Lisa have been read to Frankie – what next? Will he trun into a pillar of salt? What? How is this suposed to stop him? As I noted on the NJ comments page this boils down to “My Mom says go away”
Ohhh, Frankie is getting really P.O.’d. Punchtastic action is bound to be moments away. Yes? Maybe? Pleeeeezze?
I think Batiuk has finally managed to make feel an emotion for this story I had not expected. I am actually feeling sorry for Frankie.
So this is Batiuk’s new catch-phrase: “It’s called praying”
Sgt. Saunders: That might be interesting, thus it’s in clear violation of FW Rule #1.
“So how powerful is this Saint Lisa?”
“All powerful, all-knowing, Saint Lisa rules the Funkyverse.”
“So if Saint Lisa didn’t want Frankie to meet Darwin…”
“Wouldn’t happen.”
“Then Summer is…”
“Lying?”
“Yes.”
“Yes… Her book is a tattered copy of “Fear of Flying.”
If this ploy doesn’t work, they can always turn to the 30-year old diary entry in which Lisa attests that Frankie once used the N-word in 1983. That oughtta discredit him once and for all.
Lenny: “What are we watching here? Out-takes from Boys Don’t Cry?”
Viet Cong Guellirra Readel say: “We wourd have NEVEL have attack South Vietnam if we knew sterrpid Ohio State Nationarr Gualdsman at Kent State tly to KIRR Batyuck and miss talget!”
I can’t say for sure, but I think the edgiest document directors have learned to screen their work without a “Ha, ha, take THAT you big doodie-head!” expression. Takes the coolness out of it.