I think Bull has found a better way to raise funds for the school–check out his stance in panel one; clearly, he is going to be a background dancer in rap videos. His “getting down” is “dope”! Maybe he’ll even be a rapper himself–
–or maybe not, there’s a limit to how “dope” something can be.
I’m not sure if Greybeard’s idea is as “dope,” only because I can’t figure out what Greybeard’s actual “Pay to Paint” plan is. If the arts classes are being cut, logically that probably means there aren’t enough students taking those classes; asking the few who have an interest to pay to attend seems like a losing proposition.
Of course, you’ll note I used the word “logically” up there. I suppose the purpose of this arc, like all the “school funding” arcs, is not to examine the issue at all but to yell that “taxpayers who want to cut teachers and classes are cheap meanies, because they are mean and cheap!” “Reality-based” only goes so far when you’ve constructed your own reality.
Speaking of art, panel two has the real “artistic” goods. Is that Les wearing a Crazy Harry mask, or Crazy Harry wearing a Les mask? Or is it one of Philip K. Dick’s insectoid aliens wearing an abandoned skin? And why is he/she/it talking to the worst drawing of Alfred Hitchcock ever made? These mysteries, my friends, may never be solved. Not if we want to “pay to sleep” at night.
Son of Stuck Funky 
I think i’ve cracked TB’s algorithm for producing funky-fresh new characters from his limited reference collection (ie, his own ass)!
Science teacher’s name + Crazy Harry’s look + lost bald white-Lennie art school teacher’s job / 3 = new “Jim”.
“Reality-based” only goes so far when you’ve constructed your own reality.”
Well put, BC, well put. Our pal Tom always wants to have his cake and eat it too. Like how he killed off Lisa yet drags her out at least a few times every year in some form or another. He wants to do his little “Bull is a moron and the football team blows” and “miserable Becky hates her life” arcs, then wants the readers to feel some sort of pity for the woefully underfunded school. Perhaps the Westviewian voters are merely waiting for WHS to trim the wasteful, inefficient fat before they vote “yes” because they know it’ll all just be wasted money in the end anyway.
And seriously, is that really supposed to be Klabichnik (or whatever)? Why does HE care about the “art program”? I mean come on, give the little nitwits some scrap paper and felt tip markers, they’re just going to doodle comic book characters anyway and we all know it. And maybe some glue, construction paper and sparkles for Cody and Owen.
I think these guys really need to adopt the Bryan Cranston method of fundraising.
I cannot figure out what pay to paint would be either… Although I will say that cutting a school program likely has nothing to do with the number of students participating (witness my school district, where grade school music, art, and library were going to be on the chopping block if a levy didn’t pass).
Whoever called the at teacher as a real-life Batiuk friend cameo is probably right, this isn’t the Mark Twain impersonator, who is always shown wearing suspenders.
That is the fattest, flattest Bull profile that’s come our way in quite some time.
Actually I’m not sure what Batiuk is trying to do here. It’s true that public schools really do need tax money to have programs, but if they’re in a district that’s mostly low income then in bad times the money just isn’t there (though it’d be more believable if this was happening a few years ago than today).
And the idea of students paying to attend art class? Is that going to cover the cost of the teacher and supplies?
i got idea bathack ,how about u pay us to read this crap strip
So the faculty decides on student fees… not the school board? Maybe the teachers should carry credit card swipes to let kids in the classrooms?
OR… turn Westview into a Charter School and compete for state school voucher students.
I’ve realized what’s up with this comic (besides everything else). The way it’s set up on the last panel it clearly is setting up for a joke, but none materializes.
Seriously, read it and look at it.
“Admittedly, it is a spinoff of what the football team is doing”
And what? In English that basic phrase is used to say “yes I know it is X” and it is always followed with some variation of “but if you consider Y”.
If Batiuk wanted that to be the final word of the strip, why not something like “The one time that football inspired someone to save art”, or if you wanted a joke why not have Bull reply to panel 2 with “you’ll have to paint a very good picture to get the board to sign off on it”?
It’s quite simple, my fellow snarkers. That is Jim Kalibchnik. Bull has the powers of the school board. How? Why?
Because WRITING!
Westview H.S. can’t afford art classes (like anyone in that down-market dump would care), but they can afford ice rinks in the hallways? And 15-ft. ceilings?
Oh, and “‘Pay to Laugh’, Maybe?” is TFH-esque in its awesomeness, BC. Well played.
Gyre – yeah, I was trying (and failing) to come up with a punchline for this…joke. I think you might be on the right track, here. Perhaps Bull could say something like, “Well, I’m glad I inspired somebody. Too bad it wasn’t any of the players.”
Sourbelly – thanks!
Again with the “spin-offs” (as Cody and Owen termed putting a football helmet on their robot last fall). Like someone said in some movie that people keep quoting on the Internet, Batiuk keeps using that word. I do not think it means what he thinks it means.
You know what else was a spinoff? John Darling.
That ended well…
“Again with the “spin-offs” (as Cody and Owen termed putting a football helmet on their robot last fall).”
A second thought, not only did TB reuse the whole spinoff ‘joke’ from that strip, he used the exact same wording. When Cody calls the football helmet robot a “spinoff”, he leads off with “Admittedly, it is” (same word bolded, and everything).
New theory. Greybeard is actually Cody, after being run off the road in Act V by a driver talking on her cellphone. He calls himself Jim in an attempt to blend in, no doubt figuring that none of his old high school teachers are smart enough to realize that he’s not Kablichnik.
Jim: “Pay to paint!”
Bull: “Listen, Crazy, thanks for dropping by, bu-”
Jim: “I am -not- Crazy Harry! I am -not- Les Moore! I am not Cody wearing spirit gum and theatrical hair! I AM JIM SCHLABOTNICK! JIM ISHKABIBBLE! JIM KAPUTNIK! POTREZEBIE!”
Bull: *begins backing away slowly*
Jim: “WARE, SCALE BROTHERS! It has been too long since we utilized the disguise of Jim the instructor of science-y things! Devour the fat one! Consume him now!”
*As one, Reptoid aliens swarm the hallway and eat Bull…having the highest cholesterol meal of their scaly alien lives*
@Gyre – we certainly know Westview is a low income district. The most successful entrepreneur is a 50 year old who looks 80, fat, alcoholic owner of a pizza joint. And people strive to work for him and have their weddings and other special events in his establishment. And live in the apartments above.
“taxpayers who want to cut teachers and classes are cheap meanies, because they are mean and cheap!”
I think that’s actually pretty tangential, really. TB just trades in misery. He talks about all the things that get cut, but nothing relevant to the strip ever is. If he ever showed art classes or choir, perhaps cutting those classes might make a difference, but he never does so. Those items that would seem naturally on the chopping block with the activities he lists, like girls’ basketball or marching band, are magically saved in some manner, whether it’s through an absurdly unrealistic raffle or a pay-to-play scheme that never in fact affects any of the characters in the narrative.
If he wanted to show the real effects of such an economic situation, we’d actually see a teacher we know lose his or her job, and how hard things would be for him or her in trying to adjust. We’d actually see a kid who wanted to play soccer or an instrument in the marching band who couldn’t afford the fee, and was thus left with nothing. We’d actually see the negative results of a school that cuts lunch time, arts, music or physical education. But we never see any of that.
Instead, TB completely blows it, which isn’t that surprising, but is nonetheless striking. We have teachers like Les and Linda, who are rarely seen teaching. Les seems to be on leave half the time and Linda seems to wander the halls and sit in the teachers’ lounge more than she spends time in a classroom. Bull’s the AD and he’s portrayed as incompetent in every aspect of his job. Of all the teachers we’ve seen, the only one who’s actually shown teaching in most of his appearances is Jim, who is so uncommonly shown that it’s plausible this week that Batiuk’s forgotten what he looks like.
And yet when these massive horrible cuts come through that we’re assured are going to lead to layoffs, these goofballs never have a thing to worry about. It never affects them. It’s just something more that they get to whine about.
So I don’t think it has anything to do with some larger point Batiuk is making about school funding or taxes or what have you. It’s just a pretext to get his characters to whine, moan and mope, which seems to be the only thing motivating him these days.
At my daughter’s high school, the art class has an extra fee associated with it. I assume it’s to pay for art supplies, since when my son took the art classes they had no extracurricular activities associated with the class aside from occasionally mounting some of the art in display cases in front of the classroom.