So, it’s Battle of the Bands Gets Rained On season! Woo hoo!
I can’t really muster the enthusiasm required to express shock that today’s strip features a lame pun. I would have, but our auteur decided to have the punster ask if his audience got it. Get it? Batominc, you sucked all the humor out of your own comic strip by belaboring the point. Get it? You won’t show us any real action at the Legacy Run, but this you’ll pound into the earth.
It’s like you took a joke and repeated it until you got hoarse. Talk about beating a dead horse! Get it? Hoarse—horse? I slay me!
OK, so panels 1 & 2 were boring. Let’s move on to panel three. Ah! The horror! Oh! The humanity! The woman in the magenta dress has smirked so hard that she developed a severe Tessier 7 facial cleft. (Note to the squeamish: do not do a web search for that phrase.)
Son of Stuck Funky 
Oh no, he’s not going to trot out the moldy old “rain during WHS’ Battle Of The Bands” gag, is he? Those gags worked in pre-Lisa Act I because FW was a satire then with the central premise of the band arcs being that Dinkle was a lunatic who took pride in performing in any weather regardless of how miserable or dangerous it was for the band members. Now, though, the band is led by a dry, cynical, somewhat depressing one-armed woman who appears to really dislike the job. Which lessens the humorous aspect of the premise considerably, if not entirely.
Unless he’s doing yet another “day in the life at WHS”-themed arc, in which case why? It certainly can’t be demand. Although I’d prefer it over another lame band arc featuring the bland bore with the pinned-up sleeve, I must admit. I guess he has to cater to that part of his audience (guffaw) but these gags were worn out twenty-five years ago.
A few Lisa Legacy strips and now a “rain on band day” story. I wonder if he needed to buy some time for different ideas so he put these back to back.
Welcome to Westview, where causing and enjoying the suffering of others is the only means of entertainment.
What I want to know how the devil does giving Jim a ticket to “Battle of the Bands” count as getting even.
The only way a “Battle of the Bands” storyline could be ay interesting is if a Sandy-esque superstorm hit Westview. But would TB have the guts to do it?
Where did she pull that ticket out of, her sleeve? Instead of trotting out “Battle of the Bands” in the rain for the 40th year in a row, why not devote the fall to a long form story on the cynical loner playing quarterback? Nah, screw that, he has a music educator’s fanbase to serve.
Well look at it this way. The run only took about three or four days total, so we get through this and we’re past the yearly return. And we have four teenage characters plus two in college and a few 30-somethings. Batiuk can’t stop time forever, sooner or later almost every one of his favorites will be dead and he’ll be forced to look to the younger generation for plots.
Mwahahahahahaha!
What the hell is Jim trying to do with his hair? Is he going for a reverse “Rogue” from the X-Men? Can he only afford trial size packs of Just for Men? Did his attempt to dye himself platinum blonde go awry?
Yes, Jim will be there at the Battle of the Bands just so he can crack his lame puns, but the joke’s on him — no one will be able to hear his jests over the roaring monsoon. But, wait, Jim already suspects it’s going to rain, so why would a free ticket influence his attendance? Oh boy, we’re in for some wackiness now!
Battle of the Bands! Becky’s going to be busier than a one-armed paper hanger. Wait . . .
Remarkable analysis of the transaction by Uncle Lumpy on today’s Comics Curmudgeon.
I’m sure this is the kind of strip Tom Batiuk talks about when he says he does FW a year in advance. In fact, I can fully believe he just churns out a half dozen of these “Band competition rained out” arcs and just files them away for the future. There’s nothing contemporary in the story that would prevent it from being used any time in the next ten years.
Aside from the fact that the story and the characters are boring, there’s nothing wrong with that; I’m sure most cartoonist have a generic story or two salted away for those times when deadlines loom. I feel certain that “Funky gets a new car” story was one of those…since Les had to teleport over from Africa to comment on it.
How has there never been a battle of the bands story line where the superstitious governor of some drought-stricken breadbasket state offers to host the annual Battle of the Bands in a desperate attempt to bring rain to his agrarian constituents?
Wait, I just implied that this story line would be more interesting if it took place on a farm. Good grief…
Jim!!! There’s a tarantula on your head!!! GAAHH!!
I recommend today’s Comics Curmudgeon to everyone. There, Uncle Lumpy goes to town, and that town is Westview, with a Think Piece on Westview’s economy. Spoiler alert: The value of Snark is established.
Provider One bets 5 Montonis that the rain will remove Becky’s smirk!
I just read the Comics Curmudgeon. Fascinating. The underpinning of Funkian society is an economy of misery. There could even be a derivatives market so expectations of future misery could be traded and savvy traders could hedge against shortages of miserableness.
Ah, yes, the well-established fact that Jim Kablichnik’s major character flaw is parsimony!
…..no, seriously, was this established before? Does it even deserve the mega-smirk running gag status attributed to it in the final panel?!? Jim hardly ever turns up! Who IS this man?!?!?
Also, I note that while Tom in utterly incapable of drawing Becky’s face the same way from panel to panel, as usual the rolled up sleeve is -nailed-, man.
@Oddnoc – well done, sir…well done!
The Rowdy Reviewer doesn’t even talk that much out of the side of his mouth and I kind of like the guy.