Good old TomBat, always right on top of today’s latest fads. Has anyone, anywhere, used the phrase “electronic card” anytime since maybe 1996? Word balloon filling-upping at its very finest. I do like how Cayla refers to Lisa as “movie script” now, though. Hey, it’s progress.
Summer’s extremely irritating habit of making odd, childish noises continues today as she “ulps” in a manner befitting the fine young woman she’s become. Her annoyingness is only topped by her uselessness. God I detest her so much. If it isn’t about her why is she even here?
But Sad Sack Les in panel one more than makes up for Summer’s presence today…it’s absolutely glorious. Look at him, all humiliated and sad, it’s fantastic. Every Les arc needs to end with that drawing. If only that were possible.
Son of Stuck Funky 
You know, normally I feel sorry for Cayla, but her passive-aggressive nagging of her daughters today is really nasty. Hey, you want to talk about forgetting things, did you ever wonder what your kids were off doing all summer when they never came home from college?
Most e-card providers have gone to subscription service now, so it’s more hassle than its worth. I’m sure Batiuk will be all over that in about five years.
Coming next week: Keisha is vexed as she attempts to install the Netscape browser on her new Compaq via the zip drive.
If he forgets the first anniversary, he won’t give a shit the rest of the time.
But Cayla proves to be an insufferable prig, so she and Less deserve each other. I don’t expect my bio kids to remember our anniversary, so I certainly wouldn’t care if my blended family cared.
Wait, is Wright State really hosting the turd pile discussion? http://ow.ly/i/780jo
Les’s sad sack face has nothing to do with Cayla. I guarantee he’s just sitting there thinking “Gosh, I wish Leese was still here, she never got uppity about anything and always told me I was a great writer and always spread the jelly right to the edge of the bread”.
This was from like 2009, when they first started dating. Look how far Les has come.
Ecch…
A fastidious tool such as Les is surely not one to forget his anniversary, especially after just two years.
What an especially awful use of such a cliched cliche.
I suspect that this arc will play out in the following way–
Panel One–Les: well, I admit, I forgot our wedding anniversary…
(A tear is seen coursing down Cayla’s perfect Nordic cheek)
Les: I am sorry you were unable to appreciate my distraction.
Panel Two–Les: But, you must admit–(smirk)–I remembered what was important…
Panel Three–Les: …I remembered what was truly important to our lives. (points to one of many portraits of Lisa all over the house).
(Lisa beams in happiness)
Why is it up to everyone else to remind that goof Les what’s going on around him in the first place? Why has it always been up to everyone else to do that? Even back when Batiuk had a sense of decency and fair play, it was up to everyone else to remind Les what was going on around him. WHY?
Cards? What *#@%ing CARDS? Is Batiuk seriously implying that children are obligated to give their parents (or in this case, parent) an anniversary card? Does anyone in America do this? Does HIS family do this?
Or, more likely, is this a passive-aggressive dig at his son for consistently “forgetting” to send him an anniversary card?
Pathetic losers one and all.
C’mon Summer and Keisha, EVERYONE knows that when your card arrives late you blame it on the post office. In the Batiukverse, it is a totally legitimate excuse too, given that the USPS laid off its only employee in town and is presumably now handling Westview’s mail in Centerville (where USPS property is frequently destroyed by school buses).
Ulp! Mips! Mips! Ziggurat! Beeblebrox! Fnord!
Well, Halloween is just around the corner! That pretty much explains it. So imagine Les comes home to a bedroom filled with candles and pleasant scents to find Cayla wearing some skimpy next-to-nothing and he says “Great! l love it! A voodoo shrine to honor Lisa! Honey, you shouldn’t have!” Sigh. The the kids come home and Mom’s got to explain how Dad’s too caught up in communing with dead spirits to have a shred of compassion for the living, and she all but declares that old Dad’s puerile fantasies about dead chicks are preventing any romance. But the kids or somebody will soon remember to look in that box in the attic, and then some hidden wisdom is going to be imparted through a long lost journal or a dusty VHS tape. So the dead will commune with the living once again and order will be restored, even though it’s a pathetic, haunted, grueling existence for the living. Just like a Japanese horror flick except Lisa’s probably not gonna appear all soaking wet and rotting.
Kids home from college, say they are having major problems, but let’s talk about what’s important — Less! BatHack has never shown that this couple actually gives a damn about each other, it’s nothing but snark city when they talk. What an ugly, pathetic, marriage that is presented. And I haven’t even mentioned that panel one stoops to a new low in how NotLisa is drawn… the worst ever.
Caucasian Cayla aside, what is up with Keisha?? In panel one, look at her rather well drawn, youthful nose and face compared to the last panel where she has morphed into the profile of Principal Nate Green! Stuff like this makes me wonder if Bat-Hack is really that bad of an artist or if two people are drawing this piece of garbage at the same time.
“BatHack has never shown that this couple actually gives a damn about each other, it’s nothing but snark city when they talk. What an ugly, pathetic, marriage that is presented.”
I couldn’t agree more, it’s a really pointless, disgusting relationship. It’s so bad you’d think he was presenting it that way on purpose at this point.
@louder, “BatHack has never shown that this couple actually gives a damn about each other, it’s nothing but snark city when they talk. What an ugly, pathetic, marriage that is presented.”
Yeah, both Les and not-Lisa regret that he didn’t wind up marrying Susan. TB also regrets not going down that road. After all it would be a lot less work to pull a “Vertigo” on Susan than it has been with not-Lisa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_(film)
Jimmy – I love the touch were everyone attending gets a “Lisa’s Legacy” pin. The man must have a warehouse full of them.
@Chyron – ” Is Batiuk seriously implying that children are obligated to give their parents (or in this case, parent) an anniversary card?”
I think the implication is that everyone in Westview naturally keeps Les in the center of their lives. So, yeah, not only are Keisha and Summer supposed to send cards for all Les occasions, but Funky, Crazy, Donna and everyone else are supposed to as well.
Professor Fate: Mrs. B…”Tom, I told you to get that junk out of the garage, we have to put the porch swing away this weekend.”
Cayla, mind your manners!!! You know the only person that matters here is Dead Lisa. Maybe when you eventually die of cancer, you can have your own hommage!! Respect the living dead!!