Tuesday! Where we rush into a plot-line that we’ve literally already seen before. I’m not just just referring to when Darrin was born but in the 600 times his delivery was mentioned in the strip since. I mean, no wonder Darrin is having Deja-Vu about it, how many times has he had to sit through the story of his rush to the hosptial?
Odds that Fred is going to pop out of his medical drama to “help with the delivery” are looking pretty darned high from the looks of today’s strip.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Ha ha ha! It’s funny because it’s JUST LIKE how HIS birth happened! Except that no one knew it at the time, because having Saint Lisa be his birth mom only happened later, when TB needed to mine Lisa’s cancer for every milligram of cheesy, cheap pathos he could before she finally died. But still, just f*cking hilarious.
Coming next week: Summer’s trip to the UPS store goes horribly awry when she’s blown to bits by a huge bomb, JUST LIKE when Lisa got blowed up real good at the ol’ Westview post office. Everything old is new again!
Uh, Batiuk, It would only be Deja Vu if the person actually lived through the similar experience. Unless your going to reveal that Daren is Lisa’s gender switched doppleganger, then the phrase Deja Vu will never be appropriate.
Also, it kind of shows just how bad Montoni’s is doing considering they downgraded from the pedo-van in the 1970’s to the shitty American sedan in the…2010s. (Or is it the 2030’s???) I guess Montoni’s is doing less catering these days… Or there are fewer people left alive in Westview. I go with the later.
Wait — Darin was conceived AND born in a van, and yet they didn’t name him after the vehicle of choice? Oh Batiuk, you and your missed opportunities.
Wow. So not only does Batiuk have nothing to do but re-hash his other labor arc, he has no other jokes to make about it beyone “Wow, this all seems so familiar!” I’d say he’s running on autopilot, but that would be an insult to autopilots.
Yes, Jessica, the father of your child delivers pizzas in that car. I hope Ohio has generous medicaid benefits.
Les…Lisa…Birth…Death…Asininity
“It’s as if my whole life is just one hackneyed rehash of stuff that’s already happened in exactly this way. How peculiar!”
It’s as if Batiuk thinks he’d be less of a hack if he lampshades just how much of a hack he is. But no, this just means that he knows he’s no better than ripping off his tired storylines from 20 years ago.
Actually, this is west vu, the feeling that something trite and implausible has happened before.
Ya and after this arcis over we will switch to Cory being captured and held as a POW
Just who took all those documentary photos of Lisa, Les and Tony in their panicky befuddlement, who put them in a photo album, who captioned them and who is in possession of said photo album now?
There are so many references to obscure texts and hidden troves of information in this strip. Perhaps there is some deeper meaning that we are all struggling to understand.
The sepia-toned first panels this week are TB shouting, “hey, everyone! Remember when I did this really edgy, risky teen pregnancy arc?”
I’m sure most of you have the same reaction I do when a new arc begins: I think, Oh GOD, him/her again. Didn’t we just go through something with this guy/gal, and now we’re doing it again?
I’ve discovered I feel that way about every single character in this strip. Sure, some like Bull, Dinkle and the Clown Couple here bring the reaction more forcefully, but I can’t think of any character I’d like to see again.
This “revisiting” stuff just drives (see what I did there?) home the fact that FW has been on a long downhill slide since the death of Lisa. Nothing of any significance or meaning has happened since then. Face it, Mr. Batiuk, the only story left to tell is The Death of Les Moore.
Well it did sort of happen when Summer was born. Darrin or Tony drove Lisa to the hospital but I guess Mr. Batiuk has forgotten about that.
Ha ha, look at them all crammed into the front seat of that tiny van.
I didn’t know Yugo even made a van, but if there is any town where someone would own a Yugo van, it’s Westview.
All they need is a giant Great Dane dog, and they’ll be all set to solve some Mysteries. (“It was the cartoonist all along!”)
As long as you’re going out could you drop this pie off to Funky’s dad?
Darin: “Isn’t it wonderful that you’re going into labour just like Lisa, my illegitimate mother who died of cancer did?”
Jess: “Huh?!?”
Darin: “Why, I decided to move us out of Les’ beautiful house with a ton of room into this cramped, creaky, stinky roach trap above Montoni’s! I never bought us a car! I spent the first decade of our marriage not actually learning anything useful about the world! And now, just think…you’re going to have a baby, imbued with Lisa’s holy blood! JUST LIKE ME.”
Jess: “Darin, the baby is Pete’s.”
Darin: “…*….”
Jess: “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll be going to the hospital and having my unholy baby by myself. You…do whatever it is you do. Have a party! Write a pizza ap! Go wild! Watch the “So your wife is having your former friend’s baby” VHS tape SAINT LISA created for this occasion! C-ya later!”
Darin: “…I…you….WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?”
I’m sure most of you have the same reaction I do when a new arc begins: I think, Oh GOD, him/her again. Didn’t we just go through something with this guy/gal, and now we’re doing it again?
I’ve discovered I feel that way about every single character in this strip.
That’s because they’re no longer characters, but instead markers filling a role in the six or so plots he recycles. Want some smarmy, slightly nasty wordplay? Here’s Linda! Want some misery mixed in with band jokes? It’s Becky! Want that but only with nostalgia or even more hate-the-young? It’s Dinkle! How about misery and poverty? It’s Wally! Want something whimsical? It’s Crazy!
It stuns me to say this, but Les is his best character because Les is really the only guy he’s given two dimensions to.
So while you might think that’d it be cool to see Khan or Maddie or Rana because it’d be something different, it really wouldn’t. They’d be playing the same tired role we’ve seen before, and those roles weren’t interesting the first time.
I mean, look at this storyline. Jessica’s having a baby but the focus is instead on her douchebag husband. Why? Because Ms “My father, John Darling” plays no other role in the strip. She’s just there because Darin needs someone to talk to or react to. And Darin himself serves no role beyond “that third generation guy”.
It’s a long way of saying that whatever it is, we’ve seen it before, which is especially true this week as this is the third time this exact sequence has played out.
“…which is especially true this week as this is the third time this exact sequence has played out.”
And, might I add, this year alone!