“Yeah, John really supports me during marching band season.” Bullshit. Unless by “supports me” you mean “complains to our friends about our nonexistent sex life“. When have we ever seen John lift a finger to “support” her, during marching band season or any other time? He can barely support himself: he runs a business that discourages casual shoppers and is not accessible by the disabled, he turned down a chance to acquire valuable inventory, and his store serves as a clubhouse for local misfits.
14 thoughts on “Skunk Head’s Little Helper”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
I’d leave a comment, but you’ve said it all.
Damn, what does it say about this strip when the most functional relationship is between a mopey asshat writer and his dead wife?
look how batty can’t even make drawings same from one panel to next , Wally gains funkys upper fat body , back ground is moving around like Apt 3D art
Wally will gloat over his engagement in front of Beckers, who will fall into a reality-based funk, totally despondent, over Wally and Rached, and then yada, yada, yada….*girl fight*.
Look at Wally, brazenly rubbing Becky’s face in Rachel’s two-armedness. He sure has come a long way since those dark pre-Buddy days, hasn’t he? Still, after all TB has put Wally through it’s sort of nice to see him getting something to gloat about for a change.
And one again we see that wry sarcastic banter is truly Westview’s language of love. There’s something extremely disconcerting about Becky in panel three, prodding DSH with her remaining elbow like that. “Help him out during the holidays”…LOL, yeah, that huge single customer stampede must have really worn poor John to a frazzle.
“We wanted to stop by when we heard you were working up here, Becky. I just wanted to specify that so this fat sack of shit doesn’t start to think we like him or anything.”
I guess the strip is implying that Crazy Harry had to be let go do to inappropriate touching while engaged in his “Crazy Harry Dance.” A one-armed woman easily takes up the slack.
“Yeah, John really supports me during marching band season. He doesn’t talk about comic books or their contents during that stressful time…which means he doesn’t talk at all, and that helps me deal with the stress of those eleven months and twenty-two days.”
@Rusty–now that you mention it, it does seem odd that when Holly went to Crazy for advice, he didn’t offer to go to the shop and check if his collection was still there.
And that hilarious bit of physical comedy. Hohoho, because watching a wife elbow her husband in the side is just so funny!
(after the awkward silence following John’s shockingly mean-spirited, inappropriate sharing of dirty laundry)
Rachel: “So, if you both are here, who’s watching the kids?”
Becky: *brow furrows* “….kids?”
John: *blank, uncomprehending stare*
Rachel: “Um, yeah. Your children. It’s the day after Christmas so they can’t be at school…um…who’s watching them?”
Wally: “That reminds me, didn’t you have a son?”
Rachel: “What are you tal….OH MY GAWD!”
Wally: “….and didn’t I have a dog? ….*….Buddy?!?”
*meanwhile*
“Christmas is always fun with you, Evil Granny Roberta!”
“….*….just call me Grandma, okay?”
@John
If Batiuk had a minimal amount of competence he would just show that the families of Westview had an arrangement where they would watch each others’ kids as a favor when the parents went on a chore.
I mean, that’s what my neighbors did with their kids. My parents wanted to go to Wednedsay night Bible study, the folks down the street watched us. The folks down the street wanted to go to the Farmer’s market, my parents watched their kids.
But that would involve Batiuk having to think about parent-child relationships and (SHOCK! WARNING!) write about kids younger than teenagers. And that’s bad.
And possibly admit that husbands should Do Their Husbandly Duty and support their wives as much as he makes it clear he thinks all non-Lisa women should Shut Up And Do Their Wifely Duties.
But that would involve not being a sexist git.
Nice to see Becky lending a hand.
You know, if he had John say it with a smile, it would have been unbearably smarmy, but not as bad as this. He’s actually resentful that his wife might need him at some point in her life and that a marriage is not always a reciprocal arrangement.
Well, I have to admit that that does accurately reflect the emotionally immature attitude that I’ve always felt John entered into with his marriage to Becky. I’ve managed to talk myself into disliking this strip less!
But yeah, where was John ever shown taking care of the children, or doing anything, in fact, in support of Becky’s band responsibilities? I just vaguely remember that one time where he had to provide snacks for a get-together-party-type-thing and half-assed it with a six pack of beer and some M&Ms. I think that had something to do with the band.
But we were supposed to see that as charming, rather than dysfunctional, which means that Batiuk probably doesn’t think John’s being an immature putz through all this. I’ve just talked myself out of disliking this strip less.