Seriously, doesn’t that second panel conjure up images of Benny Hill racing around in fast motion? (Here’s a more appropriate one.) I hereby nominate it for the prestigious BChasm Award for “Funniest Thing I’ve seen in this Comic Strip in Living Memory.” Remember, though–it’s only a nomination.
My (minor) quibble with this one is the word “challenging.” I think what Funky means is “interesting,” or “engaging,” since clock-watching and falling asleep aren’t making the exercise routine more tolerable. “Challenging” would typically mean to a trainer, “harder, more difficult.” Which she has dutifully achieved for him, ha ha ha. I’ll hazard a guess that Tom Batiuk thought “interesting” would be too belittling to the exercise folks, but still–hey, if I can’t find something to pick at, I’m out of a job!
Anyway: the third surprise single from Tom Batiuk means that the bases are now loaded. What will happen tomorrow? Will we get another single, or a foul ball that hurls into the stands and knocks the hotdog out of Sluggo’s hands? Or a genuine grand slam home-run?
Wow. I’m actually looking forward to reading Funky Winkerbean. And they say there are no miracles.
Son of Stuck Funky 
I call bullshit on this one. If anyone can keep his footing on an oil-slickened surface, it’s Funky. And wouldn’t have been equally as effective if she just cranked the treadmill up to a higher speed instead of ruining it just for the sake of humiliating Funky yet again?
Great title today BC, although you liked it more than I did. The oil can is just too much IMO. Love the “nomination” gag too, as I never fail to mention that.
I’m just happy that there’s finally someone in this strip that seems to despise the principal characters as much as I do.
The tenor of this strip is so unlike the relentless ennui served up daily. It’s not funny, just absurd.
BC: That final panel Les is my favorite punchline for all FW strips. Batiuk could throw that in every day and I would applaud him.
What happened to Becky and her self rightous mom? And the shrouded homosexual speaking to Principal Nate at the Prom? And Wally and Buddy and their engagement? And Jarod and Bull? And Pete with his comics, and even Les with his horrible screenplay issues? Why is it always coming back to a poolu drawn, multi-panel Pluggers episode?
I have to admit… this is the first Funky strip I’ve ever read which provoked a full-blown belly laugh. 🙂
Well Beckoning, the thing is that this just doesn’t fit with the current FW. Could you really see Cayla or John just pulling out a can of oil and spilling it in front of someone like this today? I really can’t.
Now if this were maybe twenty years ago, I kind of could. If FW is trying to go back to twenty years ago, then it fits. But if it’s trying to have melodramatic grimness and contemplation of navels, and it has things like this suddenly happen, then it doesn’t fit.
Well, as Act III has plodded along, Funky has kind of emerged as the “comic relief” in the strip. I guess it’s made it easier to use him in an arc where “reality” is bent for the sake of a cheap gag as opposed to someone like Les, who is never funny anyway. The comic relief in FW is provided by a obese and badly-aging character who drank himself into failure and thoughts of suicide and then was in a coma after he was in a car accident after dropping his senile father off at a nursing home. It’s exactly that kind of total insanity that keeps bringing me back.
The jarring thing here is that up until now Fitness Girl has seemed to be a somewhat detached yet vaguely interested person who was just “doing her job” as they say. Until today, when she maliciously begins spewing oil everywhere as she has apparently had enough of Funky and his moronic antics. THAT is the plot thread to follow, but TB won’t do it, obviously.
Perhaps it’ll be found out that Fitness Girl is related to Cell Phone Woman and is trying to get back at him for leaving her to die…thereby restoring the grim tone we’ve come to expect.
Funky: “We need to make this more CHALLENGING.”
Ponytail: “…sir, jogging is the only thing you ever do anymore, besides wearing an apron and granny glasses while ignoring your customers at Montoni’s.”
Funky: “Hey, no fair! You left out the way I neglect and belittle my wife’s feelings about her son!”
Ponytail: “My point is, your body is now so innately used to jogging that you’ll never find it challenging, treadmill or no. At best, I could turn on some music or a TV in h-”
Funky: “EVIL TECHNOLOGY!!!”
Ponytail: “…*….um, you realize both those things existed before you were born, right?”
Funky: “Bah! Look at me! I’m obviously 8,000 years old. You evil, stupid young person!”
Ponytail: “That does it. I will now attempt to murder you!”
Funky: “Wow! Just like Jess’s father, John Darling, who was murdered, who Les Moore wrote a book about, was murdered!”
“I call bullshit on this one. If anyone can keep his footing on an oil-slickened surface, it’s Funky.”
He’s doing the Montoni’s Mash, the latest dance craze in Westview.
OTOH, I’m beginning to like this girl……………..
I would guess that this is just a dream sequence, except that would be incredibly stupid.
But it’s incredibly stupid if it’s real, too, so who knows?
This is definitely a funny strip, but the nature of FW is such that I expect one of those seagulls Tony cleaned down in Florida to come crashing into the treadmill oil slick tomorrow.
Did fitness girl steal her right shoe from Jeremy Duncan? That thing is huge.
For all we know, Funky could be describing how the exercise session made him feel to someone stupid enough to take him literally. If this is the case, Barbie is getting the wrong idea about Ponytail….who looks for all the world like the girl Elly Patterson had to fire for stealing.
She first claimed to be a masochist. Now, it seems, she’s also a sadist. Ooo, this is starting to get good.
Monday – Mildly amusing
Tuesday – Mildly disturbing
Wednesday – Mildly Batshit Insane
We’ve got three more days of this. Where do you figure he’s going?
I don’t know. The way he’s going, it’ll be
Thursday – Mildly horrifying.
Friday – Hecliff level surreal, but with none of the charm.
I sense pending litigation but then again I think that Funky enjoys her abuse.