Turns out credit for the ‘Goats’ run at the conference championship does not belong to Coach Bushka (and really, could it ever?). Rather, it was Owen’s unlikely heroics (which will be go down in Scapegoat football lore as the “Hail Nanny” play) that sparked the winning streak. In any event, Batiuk actually manages a pretty good punchline today. I’m even prepared to overlook the fact that Tater Tots®, not fries, were the bully jocks’ projectile of choice (probably for their longer range). These three had better hope “our team” goes all the way to the championship, or the bullies will be throwing more than just spuds!
18 thoughts on “Lord of the Fries”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
So, the game officials actually let the touchdown by the mascot stand? Is that remotely possible?
Why doesn’t Bull just position random bystanders near the end zone, then have them run out onto the field and catch passes? That seems just as legal as using the mascot as a player.
Admittedly I’m not up on the rules of football, but if you’re going to portray your comic strip as “reality based” it really ought to include a bit of reality.
If TB had just followed up on the Owen mascot thing immediately instead of f*cking around with FOUR weeks of Dickface, the moronic expository dialog wouldn’t be necessary now, would it? I guess “Lisa’s Legacy”, Les’ anniversary and a week of shitty jogging puns just couldn’t wait. Thus the pitifully piss-poor dialog capped by a sad stupid pun. “Just get knocked unconscious for the jocks benefit”…that’s really tackling the bullying issue there, Pulitzer (nominee) Boy. If this comic strip had existed in medieval times they would have hacked the author’s hands off for wasting parchment.
Figures that the only way the Scapegoats can succeed is by flagrantly disregarding the rules of the game.
Seems like Alex and Owen would know the bullies stopped throwing fries at them, but I guess it’s nice of Cody to tell them again.
Just when I think things can’t get dumber… they do.
Based on his overtly happy smirks, there’s only one way TB will let this end for Owen and that’s to have him COST the Goats the championship somehow. Any other ending would honestly surprise me. He’s just way, way too happy today and BatSmirk will surely balance that out with some misery and suffering, no doubt. Then Batom will have taken a natural story arc…the Goats winning a football title…and turned it into a story about a dipshit no one likes doing something stupid no one cares about. That sounds about right.
1. Owen’s alive! How about that? Too bad we almost forgot all about him thanks to Less and Bull-Frog.
2. Um, Cody? In that first panel, the first eight words of your sentence would have been sufficient. I’m sure they already know what went on!
@louder You said it right. This is just bad writing. Period. This strip is past bad. Going through all THREE of TomBat’s strips via the GNs, I slowly found out that…maybe he was never that good of a good writer after all. Even decades before FW itself went down the toilet. For one example, notice how he does that “character-talks-too-much-by-explaining-every-little-thing-to-the-dumber-readers” thing a LOT. It’s like he was always insulting readers’ intelligence. I can’t believe he’s such a d*ck nowadays! When I used to e-mail him, he seemed like a cool guy. Little did I know…
Why doesn’t he just hire a good *editor* or something? Too proud? Mr. Batiuk, let me tell you something. There is NOTHING wrong with asking for a little help in life. Seriously. We *all* need help sometimes! That’s how you learn and get better at what you’re doing! Like learning math in school! (But I guess that’s neither here nor there…)
I don’t mind the poor pacing or the decision to focus on unlikable jackasses at all costs. What I mind is being asked to accept absurdities as a matter of faith. No wonder he thinks that doing something that would get the school bounced out of the league works…he violates so many rules of story structure as it is, one more piece of errant bullshit isn’t going to matter.
Based on his overtly happy smirks, there’s only one way TB will let this end for Owen and that’s to have him COST the Goats the championship somehow.
I don’t know. I’m given the impression that this is just a case of wish-fulfillment coming out of envy. Batiuk has never liked jocks very much, so in their most successful season, he has the biggest moment be when some random trumpet player who didn’t even want to be there, who was forced into playing, not even bothering to suit up, manage to accomplish something none of the actual players could. Those jocks aren’t so damn special, and yeah, look at them; once they realize how insignificant their talents are, they stop bullying the dorks. Owen could perform just as well as any of them, and he didn’t have to work at it or even give a shit. They’re nothing.
All Batiuk’s missing is Wedgeman coming up to Owen sheepishly and apologizing for what a jerk he was.
I look at it this way because they’re only not bothering Owen or his friends anymore. They didn’t make friends with him or accept him into the jock clique. They just don’t bully them anymore.
If only this was a comic strip about young adults, we would have seen this unusual story develop.
@Charles: They’re only not throwing fries anymore so Batiuk can make his stupid pun work. I wouldn’t read any more into anything that happens in this strip.
Did TB draw today’s strip or did he go to a stock photo service, search for “meetings, tech startup”, and use the worst results?
@Charles, “I look at it this way because they’re only not bothering Owen or his friends anymore. They didn’t make friends with him or accept him into the jock clique. They just don’t bully them anymore.”
It’s not just the jocks that won’t associate with them. Their table is now a bully free zone and the rest of the school would rather take a chance on being bullied than be seen with them.
Yes, because one moronic incident was enough to contain the psychotic rages and adolescent impulses of juvenile delinquents.
What’s with this fat, almost middle aged looking Margaret Cho’esque goth chick Batiuk keeps drawing with Owen and co.?
Inexplicably, Lou Diamond Philips portrays Cody in panel 2
captaincab: That’s Alex, Westview High’s token 31 year old goth chick. Big Metamucil addict. Maybe Owen’s girlfriend, maybe not. Not much else is known.
Epicus: I was going to mention “comic book fan” in regard to Alex, as she’s been seen hanging in the Komix Korner, but I realized that in Westview that’s like saying “carbon based life form.”
I’m struck by Charles noting of the Scapegoats’ successes being due to outsiders. Last year, it was Jarrod, trenchcoat smoker, who led the team to a, well, less humiliating loss than usual. Again, someone pulled out at random who could easily outdo those Boulez Jacques. There does seem to be a pattern forming.