Oh God, another terrible, terrible pun. About an issue that’s received quite a lot of serious treatment, both in the strip and in the “real world.” I’m not sure how to react about the constant reporting about the rise of bullying incidents in our schools, but it seems at the very least to be a subject requiring some sensitivity. A terrible pun made at the expense of the victims seems pretty low, even for Tom Batiuk. The “bullying arc” with Alex, earlier in the Spring, actually seems to have handled this issue better. …Uh, I’m guessing it did. I really don’t want to go back and read it again.
And let’s just skip over yesterday’s episode, wherein you’ll recall that Bull used a bit of the ol’ bullying himself, in order to receive his gruel in a more timely manner. Just like we’ll skip over the fact that lunch is being served at all, given that it was cut from the budget last week. I think someone must have given continuity a wedgie!
Okay, this post might seem a bit of an overreaction to an awful pun, and I’ll admit that. The thing is, when you proclaim that your work “is a reality-based comic strip that depicts contemporary issues affecting young adults in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner,” making an insensitive joke like this makes it appear that the words in quotes above are just a cheap slogan, to be swept aside by the first dumb wordplay that saunters down the street and winks at you.
Son of Stuck Funky 
In panel 2 today, the part of Bull will be played by Winnie The Pooh.
Not only is it a terrible, terrible joke, but it required a lot of work to set up. That anti-bullying-themed prom sounds like it was a real hoot, too, glad it happened off-screen. They’ll never be able to top that “Gay Rocks In Camelot”-themed prom from 2012 anyway.
Last week some unknown guy was lamenting the lost of sports, gym and lunch due to the “budget cuts”. So naturally today we see the gym/sports coach merrily wolfing down his school lunch with nary a care in the world. Way to adhere to that week-to-week continuity there, Pulitzer (nominee) Boy.
“A reality-based comic strip that depicts contemporary issues affecting young adults in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner”…yeah, but for the other 50 weeks out of the year it’s a giant pile of hacky idiotic drivel featuring “jokes” so dumb they wouldn’t draw laughs on a pre-school playground during a nitrous oxide leak. A sixty-plus year old man writing gags about wedgies and getting paid for it…still! FW: the single most inexplicable thing in the history of the entertainment business.
Wait, where’s the missing third panel, in which Les has been shoved facefirst into the garbage can? Because that’s the only logical and comical conclusion to this lunchroom banter.
And what the hell is going on with their seating positions between panels? Does Les keep moving his chair around to make it harder for his bullies to smack him in the nose?
I’m not sure what would be worse: Batiuk not treating the issue with the seriousness it deserves, or Batiuk trying to treat it with the seriousness it deserves.
Principle Poop?
That pun hurts to read. My eyes are crying here. And wasn’t Bull a bully until Batiuk decided he was actually protecting Les (funny that I don’t remember ever seeing a real life bully doing that)?
From the Westview High School student Handbook:
5. Bullying
i. No bullying.
ii. Unless it’s Cody and Owen, because that shit be hilarious.
Batiuk’s file folder labeled Puns That Won’t Fit In Crankshaft saves the day again. Off to the comic book store for the rest of the day!
Over at the National Association of Music Educators‘ site: a new Halle Dinkle strip; in color, no less. TB cranks these out even more infrequently than posts to his blog.
Cafeteria trays in the teacher’s lounge… that’s pretty darn sad.
On a brighter note, though probably not intended this way, Kablichnik’s line comes across as the sarcastic reply of a man who despises his two maladroit coworkers. Of course, Jim despises everyone, but being perhaps the only person in Westview spiteful of the smirk and punny show sitting at the table with him is noteworthy.
FW needs more of this.
Tough Anti-Bullying Laws? Like what? Is he going to have some brown-shirts patrol the halls and beat up dissidents? Is he going institute a Brazilian style death squad? Is he going to do public stoning of lunch room bullies with tater tots? I’m really worried that last year’s prom has turned Nate into a totalitarian. Pretty soon he’ll be attending prom meetings in full Idi Amin military gear.
@westviewoncologist
Maybe they should get a hall monitor with a machine gun. to mow down the bullies.
See if Charles Shulz had any talent, like Batuik, he would have retconned Snoopy fighting the Red Baron to Snoopy being just a dog. And trudeau would retconn Uncle Duke to being really dead or never having had died.
The official FW site has undergone a “makeover” of sorts. It’s still pretty much the same and still pretty much useless, but at least there aren’t any impossible-to-remove pop-ups anymore.
As I was checking out his cast of characters, I came across a face (several, actually) I didn’t immediately recognize. One that really stood out was “Sally Kearns, WHS girls’ basketball coach”. Really? Looks like there’s a new “most obscure” FW character ever. Anyone remember her or what might have happened there?
Geez, the one thing he takes down is the Funky Cast page with the model sheets (that had been without a pointer for a couple of years).
At least now i think we know whether or not Batiuk reads the comments here.
As someone who was severely bullied IRL at high school (twice physically injured to the point that I had to go to the doctor. Still bearing mental and emotional baggage), I’m so glad that we have Tom Batiuk around to reveal that teen bullying is actually just wedgies, food fights, and horseplay!
……creepy quack cartoonist.
not to do with today’s comic, but my daughter is in Marching Band, and I had to go onto the website to order shoes. They carry a line of “Dinkle” band accesories, with young Dingkle as the logo. I thought I was going to vomit.