Link to today’s strip. (Eventually)
Well, thanks to commentator Slager, we now know that Tom Batiuk has hit the end of the road. Not only is this story arc recycled from Crankshaft of nearly five years ago, but as commentator bad wolf pointed out the other day, Tom Batiuk is now mining his own blog posts to fill out Crankshaft. A-HREF notes that Family Circus and Blondie also recycle strips from years past (and I’ll add Archie), but there’s a difference–in those cases, it’s the artwork that’s reused, not the punchline.
Recycling artwork, while lazy, makes a certain amount of sense. If you’ve got a joke about Billy and Jeffy watching television, you’ve probably got a dozen variants of that already drawn, how exactly is it possible to make that fresh? Use one of the old ones–the Family Circus fans won’t mind.
Recycling punchlines, on the other hand seems lazy to a spectacular degree. It also smacks of a certain, shall we say, dismissal of the audience. “The damned rubes didn’t laugh the first time; I’ll just tell it again and maybe it’ll penetrate their skulls. If not, they say three is a lucky number.”
What’s next? What else can he recycle–John Darling stories, perhaps, since those seem lost to history and thus harder to detect, despite the beady-ness of one’s eyes. And after that?
I suspect it’s only a matter of time before comments posted here end up as punchlines. Ooo, I’m gonna keep an eye out for mine, maybe I can ask for royalties!
PS: You’ll note that I haven’t said anything about today’s offering. Once again, it was not available for preview. I may update once it goes live but kind of doubt it, it’s been a long tiring week and it’s only Wednesday. So have at it, folks!
Son of Stuck Funky 
There’s been a lot of deserved talk here about the staleness, contempt for the readers and characters, bad artwork, … well you get the idea of this forty year old strip. I would like to point out that Bill Holbrook’s “On the Fastrack” just turned thirty. Mr. Holbrook has managed to avoid all these problems proving it can be done. I suspect the big difference is that Mr. Holbrook doesn’t take himself too seriously and enjoys what he’s doing.
Another difference between this and Blondie or Family Circus. They’re not story-driven. Kind of a big difference. Be like trying to justify technobabble on Voyager by saying that they had it in Family Matters. Yeah, they did. And Family Matters was a comedy where any science fiction was supposed to be ridiculous.
Strip is up; maybe the doctor wants to ask Funky why his father’s lucidity changes according to the needs of the plot.
At least he’s recycling one of his more benign strips. I mean we could be seeing a character being irradiated or waking up without a limb or dancing with his dead wife’s ghost. So there is that.
I could see today’s “joke” being recycled from “Crankshaft” too, as I know that strip pretty much centers around the general wackiness of the elderly. But knowing what I do about medicine in the Funkyverse, that “the doctor would like to talk to you” is kind of ominous, to say the least. Words no Westviewian ever wants to hear.
Cheers, everyone. *toast*
Hey, I noticed something. The Creeping Darkness is back!
The Creeping Darkness is the new Les’s Yellow Shirt.
Hey, Old Man Beaner, I’ve been asking that question for years.
Oh, I get it. It’s funny because the doctor is wondering why Funky is not also in the nursing home.
That’s it, right? I mean, what else could the punchline be?
I like this new attitude by Pa Winkerbean! He’s like the anti-Crankshaft!
Speaking of Crankshaft: The Kult of Komix has spread to Centerville this week:
Oh good GOD. Are we never to be spared this comic-book onslaught?
BTW, Mr. Batiuk, nice save with the rather awkward “octo-shark” wording, otherwise I’m sure the producers of “Sharktopus” would want a word or two.
—BTW, Mr. Batiuk, nice save with the rather awkward “octo-shark” wording, otherwise I’m sure the producers of “Sharktopus” would want a word or two.—
A successful lawsuit against Tom Batiuk could ensure TEN Sharktopus sequels for years to come! It would keep Eric Roberts employed indefinitely!
Oh great now the Sharknado theme is going though my head.
Bringing his fictional comic book into his other strip…pretty f*cking self-indulgent. If Starbuck Jones was so unpopular and obscure upon its original release, why are they all into it now?