Whoa! Tread lightly, sporto! Today’s punchline is kinda funny, IMHO, but also problematic, given Batiuk’s well-intentioned, if incredibly hamfisted, treatment of Wally’s PTSD earlier in this strip. But it’s consistent with TB’s inconsistent, have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too ethos: bullying’s funny (until it isn’t), and PTSD is a serious topic (until it can be worked into a punchline). Can cancer jokes be far behind?
9 thoughts on “Hero and Goat”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
I have to agree. I wouldn’t go as far as to call it good or anything, just less terrible than usual. The endless re-hashing of previous events is as annoying as ever though, but then again Batom always assumes his readers have the attention span of a sand flea.
It’s funny that Batiuk keeps having strips and storylines like this, even though he’s now the big anti-bullying crusader. I’m guessing he realizes how few people read his strip.
Today’s young people will go to great lengths to share a bad pun.
The bullying aspect of this story is a little strange, as it implies that the best way to avoid the wrath of those idiot jock bullies is to allow yourself to be pummeled on their behalf. Which might work if FW was still a gag-a-day satirical strip portraying a wacky fictional small suburban high school, but it ain’t that no more.
It’s funny because Owen has suffered both physical and mental damage as the result of Bull’s incompetence.
Q: Owen is suddenly Edgar Poe. I thought he was supposed to be an idiot? A: Well, he is, but Batom himself has to speak through Owen to let us readers know just how much the kid is suffering offscreen. Har.
My first impulse would be to state that he’s suffering from the after-effects of a concussion Super-Excellent Coach Bushka told him to walk off. (My guess is that Bull would tell someone to walk off a severed spine.) My second impulse would be to ask Les 2.0 how HE’D handle being chased down by a behemoth intent on crippling him. My third impulse would be to ask why Batiuk would think anybody would find any of this amusing.
Whoah. By the looks of Panel 1, like Alex is ready to consumate their relationship right now in that lunch room. I guess every goth girl secretly lusts to jump the football hero.
This actually brings up something that Batiuk has really dropped the ball on (see what I did there!)..Are Owen and Alex an item? I would think even Batiuk would have common sense to complete an obvious plotline like that. Then again this is the guy that can’t even show two panels worth of Summer and Keisha’s college life.
again we see that success in the Funky World only causes pain and must really be avoided if one is to live a happy life. (Except for Les of course who has rose pedals scatted in his path everytime he gets off of the porch swing. even if it’s to go get a sandwich.