More bizarreness in yesterday’s vein. And like yesterday’s episode, if Mr. Batiuk is going for “wacky” he’s still missing the mark. There should be a punchline in panel three, rather than a flat statement.
It’s as if Abbott said, “The baseball players’ names…well, Hu’s on first, Watt’s on second, and Ida Noah’s on third,” and Costello said, “Hey, those aren’t real names.” And…scene! Okay, folks, that’s a wrap!
This is the first time I can recall seeing Pa Winkerbean speak, other than the “Father’s Day in the Food Court” Sunday episode of a couple of years ago–and all he did then was repeat himself over and over. (Those wacky Alzheimer’s people!) I must say, Funky and his dad are looking more and more alike. I guess that’s easier to draw. Though I’ve never seen Funky as relaxed and at peace with himself as Pa in panel three.
Also, is it just me, or has 2014 really been Funky’s year so far? He seems to have featured in more stories than in the last couple of years combined. Not that I’m complaining too much, because as we know, there are far worse characters he could feature….
Son of Stuck Funky 
It can’t be weed; he would NEVER exhale so quickly. Uh, I read that somewhere…uh.
Nope, it isn’t you, BC. The last time I recall seeing this much of the Winkerbeans was during the car crash arc and that one was more or less one continuous arc, not a bunch of stand-alone arcs like this. But yeah, it DEFINITELY could be A LOT worse, as anyone who’s survived three or four months worth of non-stop Les can tell you. I don’t want to jinx it or anything but the recent lack of Les could be an ominous portend of evil things to come.
Two entire days and all he’s established is that Pa Bean was never a smoker. Sigh. By the time we find out WHY he’s smoking, it’ll be Saturday. Not that it matters to me, I say anyone who’s lived in Westview as long as Mr. Winkerbean has is entitled to smoke whatever the hell he wants whenever he pleases.
My father was a smoker for a significant portion of my childhood–but he took great care never to indulge the habit in front of myself or my brother, for fear he’d be a bad influence. So yeah, I could see how Funky might be kept in the dark about his father’s smoking–assuming that anybody in Westview takes time to consider the feelings of others, which hey, I guess that could happen without any of us knowing about it too, why not?
Panel 3: Someone call Madison Avenue, Tom Batiuk has created the new Joe Camel!!! Pa Winkerbean. Smooth Flavor!!
Smoke ’em if you got ’em.
Light ‘er up!
Would it be humorously offensive or offensively humorous if it turned out that Funky’s old man was actually faking his Alzheimer’s all this time out of spite for Funky and when his idiot son wasn’t looking was living it up like an old tomcat with his peers and debating Sartre with the staff?
On one hand, after all of that pathos and tearjerking it’d be insulting for the author to go ‘ha ha, just joking’. On the other hand, I love seeing Funky humiliated by non-Les people and someone in this strip making the best of a negative circumstance would be a nice change of pace for this strip.
As soon as he finishes his smoke, nursing home bad boy Pa Winky’s going to wheel himself over to the dining room and intimidate the other residents into handing over their Metamucil.
“But dad… those are menthols!”
I’m guessing Winkerbean the elder overheard another resident talking about ‘cancer sticks’ and thought, “That cancer thing everyone is always talking about getting is now available in stick form? This I gots ta try.”
For crying out loud… Today’s Crankshaft literally recycles word for word Batiuk’s July 14, 2013 blog post.
How many author stand-ins does he need in his work?
@bad wolf – I don’t know which is more disturbing – that TB directly copied his blog quote for Crankshaft or that you recognized it as a direct quote from an 8 month old blog entry. Nothing gets past the beady-eyed nitpickers on this site.
Whoa… in his Fedruary 21 blog post, TB says that Joe Walsh wrote the foreward for the Complete Funky Winkerbean volume 3.
The Joe Walsh? And I used to think he was cool…
@billytheskink – I believe Batiuk and Walsh were classmates at Ohio State (or some school in Ohio).
I find Funky’s shock a bit over the top. Now, if it were, “But you never killed and dismembered anyone,” it would be more in line with that much emoting.