Funky Winkerbean is a reality-based comic strip that depicts contemporary issues affecting young adults in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner.
What kind of idiot goes into the business of educating teenagers, then changes careers to write a comic strip about teenagers, when he clearly despises teenagers and doesn’t know any teenagers?
Oh, that kind of idiot.
I’ve always liked Owen—no, wait, let me finish!
Owen, as his creator compels him to behave, is a dimwitted, resentful, and callow boy with hardly any redeeming characteristics. He repels me. He’s a lazy student known to plagiarize from Wikipedia and otherwise cheat. He wears a chullo in summer, for crying out loud!
The thing is, I think the poor guy does all that stupid stuff under duress. In the hands of a more capable author than our favorite auteur, Owen and Cody could be interesting.
The Owen I’ve always liked is one that Batominc will never cause to exist.
So we’re left with the bandos getting drenched in the H₂Os on the fields in front of the mommos and daddos who are stupidos sitting on the bleachos. And so it goes.
About the title: In French, you can call someone a species of idiot. It means that not only are you an idiot, you’re your own special kind of idiot.
Update: Here endeth my stint as your guest snarker. It was a hoot, and I hope you enjoyed it (the snarking, not the comic)! TFH takes on Sunday’s bundle of joy, and will announce our next guest then! Cheers! Wait. I mean gloom!
Son of Stuck Funky 
For that matter, what kind of idiot depicts his characters in a torrential downpour all week, then draws them with hair that barely looks damp?
Get a load of Tombat, slipping in a hidden dig at his snarkers today. You see, we’re the “idiots” Owen is referring to there. The horrible weather is FW itself. The tiny crowd in the bleachers represents us. And Owen is Batom, trudging through another joyless comic strip arc, baffled as to why anyone would possibly give a shit. Good one, Tom, I shall consider myself “zung”.
I thought Batom LIKED marching bands, you know? But I guess not anymore, based on how he always portrays everything about it as being utterly miserable and completely devoid of happiness. Can anyone remember the last time anything even remotely positive happened in a band arc? I mean I remember Dinkle would usually be happy after another boffo band performance, but Becky usually looks like she wants to either pass out or die, unless she’s obscured by her rain slicker in which case it’s tough to tell.
If Batiuk is going to demand that we just suspend disbelief and not question the premise, it’s not a good idea for him to point out how dumb the premise is himself.
You know, if you altrened the backgrounds and changed the dialogue slightly this would make a pretty effective Napoleonic War drama.
RAIN IS FUNNY; HA
Our young heroes having passed through this vale of tears come to the end of their trials and tribulations. They bask, they are adored. By who? It is you and I, my friend, the few, the poor, the idiots that bother to follow this miserable gut pile of a comic.
Alternate title: “I howled at my ma in the driving rain.”
Oddnoc, you’ve come close to pointing out one of the major flaws of this strip. It just isn’t Owen who’s unlikeable; the rest of the cast is. They are:
1) Stupid (Owen, Bull, Jessica, daughter of John Darling)
2) Mean (Les, Funky, Owen)
3) Lazy (Owen, Mopey Pete, Crazy Harry)
4) Whiny (Les, Becky. Funky)
5) Insensitive (Holly, Funky, Crazy Harry)
or
6) Any combination of the above.
It’s a sad testament to this strip when the most likeable character is a smoking hoodlum turned quarterback.
Don’t forget 5a) creepy (DSH John)!
Tom Batiuk slipped up here. This is the Funkyverse, where everyone slowly waits to suffer and die. The skies are bleak and the stars are slowly going out. At best, you get cancer.
So, what kind of a Funkyverse actually has students win awards?
dougputhoff: Excellent. May I add…..
6) Cloyingly maudlin – Lisa
7) Relentlessly perky and gritty – Summer
8) Difficult to see with the unaided eye – Rachel’s kid, Harry’s kids, Khan, etc.
I really didn’t like this one. I just went through a marching band invitational sponsored by my daughter’s high school, and the band parents were committed to running the thing all day long so their kids could have that experience. Band parents are the best. They would sit in the rain for their kids and they are not idiots for doint it.