Welcome to the world, kid! The whole damn thing smells like garlic and stale bread. Poor Skyler. It’s almost unavoidable from the looks of today’s strip that he’s going to be a 20 year old dishwasher at Montoni’s, destined to have his wife deliver her baby there, too, shortly after they have their wedding there.
Does anyplace exist in Westview at all any more?! Why is this strip not called “Montoni’s and Moore” ?!
Son of Stuck Funky 
Time for a cuppa coffee
Again with the “my mom” shit, eh Batom? And check out the Afterthoughts…I mean Fairgoods there, shunted off to the corner while Tony of all people swipes poor Fred’s only catchphrase as he babbles helplessly, ignored once again. Hilarious.
Skyler? Ummm, OK, whatever. Man, how can you possibly overstate how doomed that poor child is? Not that we’ll ever know, of course, because as soon as the novelty wears off (maybe an arc or two) that kid will end up in the same limbo as the other half-dozen missing FW kids who haven’t been seen in years. I just automatically assumed they were all hanging out (or employed by) at Khan’s or something.
Well, credit them for not going with any of the Dead Relative Jr. options. On the other hand, Skyler is a name that just says, “My parents already think I’m a super-special snowflake and will do everything they can to inflate my sense of entiement.”
You mean he didn’t name the kid after Les or Lisa? That’s a shock.
Who is standing behind Funky? Why is Funky smirking like that? What on earth is going on with Tony’s thumb? Why is Les smirking at Fred like that? Is he silently mocking him and/or gloating to himself regarding his superior health? Sure looks that way to me.
But someone is missing from the celebration! Cue Summer and her box of videotapes. Lisa has taped a series of messages to her grandchildren! A frantic rummaging ensues to locate a VHS player. “Aw, wook at the wittle baby! (wheeze)” gasps the dying woman as she wags a wizened finger at the camera. “Well kiddo, you made it this far!”
The living grandparents in the room retreat in disgust. Fred Fairgood has a final word for Les. “Fu . . Fu . . Fuck you, sirrrr. . you got nothing to do with this . . “
Les Moore, honorary step-grandfather or sumpin. It’s a safe bet Skyler (really?) is the name of some obscure comic book character, preferably from the 1940’s.
And so, once again, Everybody Comes To Montoni’s. I suppose, as the only community gathering place, that it is as close to a church as this town has. Credit where it’s due, though–this whole arc actually wrapped up in one week, which is pretty rare for something of this (supposed) significance. My guess is that Tom Batiuk really didn’t care about the pregnancy and was anxious to get back to Les or let John Howard lecture us all about comic books.
Speaking of which, Criswell predicts: Sunday will be another comic-book homage in honor of Skyler.
I count two hatchet-faces and six smirks.
Also, I am reminded of the Doonesbury comic when Jeff was born to Joanie and Rick during their Lamaze class — the baby had a thought bubble where he said something like “I hope I’m not related to all these people.” I can only imagine that Skyler is thinking the exact same thing, but even more fearfully.
Again with the “my mom” shit, eh Batom?
Absolutely, and the thing that makes it so atrocious is when you consider just how little time Darin actually spent with Lisa. It’s almost as if he was eager to disown Fishstick as his mom and glom onto someone else. I can only imagine him so blithely referring to Lisa as his “mom” if he really never felt that Anne was his mother. It’s disgusting.
But anyway, today’s a celebration, which means that Lisa needs to be crammed into the narrative! Bring your newborn home from the hospital? It’s time to talk about Lisa! Graduate from high school? It’s time to watch Lisa’s videotape! Get married? Talk about Les marrying Lisa! Climb Kilimanjaro? Gotta credit your perseverance to Lisa! Get engaged? Talk about Lisa’s cancer diagnosis! 30th birthday? Lisa’s got a tape for that!
Sad thing is, I could keep going.
Charles: If I’m remembering this correctly, Darin wasn’t even sure if he wanted to know who his birth mother was at first. Then he learns that it’s Lisa and KA-BLAM….rainbows, hearts and unicorns everywhere. So Ann raises him to adulthood, he meets with Lisa for a half hour, she dies and seventeen years later he’s STILL calling Lisa “mom”? While his actual, legal and otherwise mother is sitting right there? Unbelievably tone deaf and insulting to adoptive parents everywhere.
And get a load of the look on Boy Lisa’s idiotic face as he pretends like he hasn’t heard this tiresome story five million times already. The guy’s wife just gave birth to his son and he’s over the moon about where his birth mother went into labor. I mean seriously, TomBat, perhaps it’s time to consider speaking to a mental health professional about your disturbing and deeply weird Lisa fetish already.