Having Wally as a member of the Westview Submarine Band gives Batiuk license to recycle all those band jokes from Acts I and II. While I enjoy a good band joke as much as the next euphonium player, the gag’s gotta make sense, and this one really doesn’t. The “spit valve” (properly called the “water key”–a trombone has no “valves” of any kind) is at the very end of the outer slide, and at no point in today’s strip do we see it anywhere in the vicinity of Buddy’s paw.
Son of Stuck Funky 
I was in band for years. I didn’t play trombone, but we never had a problem keeping the accumulated water off of each other.
no wonder everyone in battyville are batty , only thing to do is high school band concerts followed by pizza an top off the fun with comic books
You think Buddy hates it when you accidentally empty your spit valve on his paw? Just wait and see what happens when you accidentally empty your spit valve on his Maw!
I thought Buddy was a service dog, but I guess I was wrong. Typically, well-trained service dogs don’t get all irked with the people they’re supposed to be helping.
beckoningchasm, Batyuck only has the ability to depict two expressions…smirk or irk.
You’re ignoring the possibility that Wally reached over to empty the spit on Buddy, because Wally is a dick.
Anyone else think that the band gazebo roof has suddenly gotten seriously ornate?
Today’s strip made me think of Mr. Holland’s Opus, which featured a similar “emptying the spit valve on someone’s foot” gag. It was funnier there.
Antonio: Smirk or irk…I like that. “Smirksome”.
Yeah Wally, I’ll bet Buddy does indeed really hate that, you f*cking slob. What a crass, witless boob. He probably also hates having to sit among a blaring, tuneless brass band as they butcher the classics, too. If Wally doesn’t get that dog some hearing protection, stat, Buddy’s going to go deaf and require a service cat, who will no doubt be named “Chum” or “Pal” or something clever like that.
Buddy’s really earning his snausages here. In panel 1, it looks like it’s taking all his accumulated canine effort to block the horrendous music he is forced to endure.
While turning against his own charge probably would guarantee a dose of lethal gas, even Buddy has to realize that he goten the short of the shaft when he got selected to the job.
Being a soldier, I’m sure Wally would understand being bitten to death by Buddy. Sometimes you just gotta go Full on Charlie Sheen from Platoon and frag your C.O.!!!
You know, if Tom Batiuk wants band jokes, here’s one I just thought of, and I’ve had a couple of beers!
1st panel: Other Trombonist: Hey, I think you were a bit off–we’re supposed to be in B-Flat, and you sounded B-Natural.
2nd panel: Wally (smirking): Sorry, pal.
3rd panel: Wally (still smirking): Honestly, “Natural” felt pretty good!
Okay, it’s not funny, but it even uses Wally’s character, and it shows how he’s trying to resume his life.
But I guess that’s not the point of this comic that depicts young adult problems in a non-adult way, or whatever it says on the website.
One of the instruments I’ve played over the years is the trombone, and you’ve got to be seriously inattentive to empty your spit onto someone, as in, doing it intentionally inattentive.
I’m surprised at the crowd that’s appeared to listen to a trio of trombonists, if the size of the gazebo is any indication. There can’t possibly be a full band under there, could there? Never mind that the sides of the gazebo ensure that the audience only sees the tops of the performers’ heads.
Further proof that life sucks in the Batiuniverse…the only forms of entertainment are pizza, comic books, girls’ high school basketball, high school marching band, and community orchestra.
Batyuck makes life in North Korea seem like paradise in comparison.
Check out the look of sheer, unbridled joy on Wally’s face in panel 1 as he is transported by the music. Well, that’s what passes for sheer, unbridled joy (and music!) in Westview…
Wow, a spit valve joke. I bet that’s been on a post-it note on Bat-ick’s desk for MONTHS. “Note to self: use spit valve joke to prove to readers you are still funny!”
We follow an entire week of weak material regarding Wally suddenly wanting to improve his life via education with, um, a non sequitur about how in Westview, three amateur trombonists under a gazebo are pretty much the only game in town when it comes to weekend entertainment. Hoo-kay….
How bad is it when a creature who joyously licks his own genitalia, sniffs and eats who knows what crap on the ground, and is, well, a dog will become visibly angered by a drop or two of his owner’s saliva on his paw? Westview bad, that’s how bad.
And then there comes the sad realization that Wally and Rachel are probably my favorite couple in this strip….
Rusty: Anyone else think that the band gazebo roof has suddenly gotten seriously ornate?
The gazebo is based on a Real Place in Ohio: it’s modeled on the one that stands in Uptown Park Square in Batiuk’s hometown of Medina, OH.
“He hates it when he wakes up from a nap and realizes I’m still here.”
tfhackett: Has he always rendered it in such loving detail? If he spent the time used mastering the gazebo and the bandbox by instead writing coherent plot lines, it would shut a lot of us up.