The whole cashier asking for your phone number thing has vexed such great minds as Cosmo Kramer. Batiuk comes thisclose to a successful gag, but typically takes it too far. Today’s strip would’ve worked just fine as a daily; padding it out to Sunday length meant tacking on the cashier’s snide reaction, as well as Funky’s meek compliance.
15 thoughts on “Numbers Games”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
I like how he used the old 555 thing, as if one of Ohio’s area codes might have been too specific. The gag itself isn’t so bad but yeah, it’s kind of a waste of a Sunday strip (relatively speaking). Looks like 2014 is going out like it came in, with all Funky all the time.
And again, we have a reminder that Funky can’t even get away with mild wisecrackery. It’s kinda obvious that Batiuk hates the character because he hates the jokes about his odd name…..a name he stupidly chose on a dare.
I’m just glad we get a different setting than the usual hangouts. And at least an attempt at a joke, rather than the usual pomme de terre bullshit.
The face that says “It wasn’t funny the first eighty-seven times I heard it, and it’s not funny now.” In fact, Funky probably already pulled this joke on her at least fifty of those times.
Ooooh- new running shoes for The Funkman! Looks like more of that weight will be melting back on! (And exactly when did it melt OFF?!)
So is Cory discharged or going to become a lifer? We probably won’t see him for a couple of months.
KSU Ladies are 2-8…a one-game winning streak!
Go Summer!
Nancy continues to reign supreme over FW.
I had to look this up, so here’s what you need to know: Flirting with a young cashier doesn’t become “cute” until age 83. Flunky is, what, 72? This makes him a creepy, dirty old man – nothing more, nothing less. And the only thing “funky” about him at this point is his dandruff, his nose hair, and his “old man smell.”
As if you needed it, this is just one more example of the Bat Boy not really understanding the concept of “creepy.” (See also Dead Skunk Head and Mopey Pete.)
Thanks for the update on the KSU ladies women’s girl’s basketball team! Like everyone else in this nation, I’m a HUGE fan. I’ll bet the gym is packed for every game as “all of Ahia” turns out to watch Summer and Karneesha play! They are playing, right? I’d assume! After all, they both got full rides to Batyuck State. How odd that Batty seems unwilling to touch them and their illustrious college basketball careers with a ten foot vibrator. He made such a fuss over their high school basketball, and over their big scholarships. Then… nothing. Well, other than showing them warming the bench as freshmen, and hinting that school wasn’t going well as sophomores. Aside from that, they’ve pretty much rolled off the table.
I make that exact same face whenever I read this strip.
Funky is in his early-mid 50s, but looks just like his dying octogenarian father.
@Hadda “As if you needed it, this is just one more example of the Bat Boy not really understanding the concept of ‘creepy.'”
When Batiuk does go for “creepy”, we wind up with a character like Lenny, whom most of us actually kinda liked.
Today’s strip – and Funky Winkerbean in general – is a classic example of “write what you know.” Batom® simply can’t relate to the younger generation, probably because he doesn’t know anyone who is currently in their early 20s. What passes for “reality” in Funky Winkerbean is effectively a glimpse into Batom®’s severely limited worldview by his choice.
He can’t do anything else with Summer, Keisha, Maddie, Jinx and Rana because he has no material for them. The same thing applies to Alex, Owen and Cody… thus, the pointless one-shot Luigi’s napkin gags. Put the strip under competent writer/artists like Guy Gilchrist or the Staton/Curtis team, and the strip would probably be along the lines of a Gasoline Alley or Gil Thope in their current form… not spectacular, but not an abject failure like FW currently is.
@TFH — Lenny? No biggie. I’ve already walked it off.
(Whatever the crap that means.)
Wonder what Lenny is up to. Maybe he got that coaching job at IUD College – the one Bullsquat was passed over for.
I think BatRack got Lenny second hand from the Discount B-Movie Villain Warehouse.
“KSU Ladies are 2-8…a one-game winning streak! Go Summer!”
I haven’t been reading this strip long enough to know how Summer got her name. If “Summer Moore” is supposed to be a funny pun, it’s not (which wouldn’t be unusual in FW, of course). If anyone has the answer, I’m curious.
I’m not quite as willing as others to concede that this was a good gag. Maybe I’d feel differently if it was Kramer instead of Funky, but it seems like a dumb joke. “I’m about to buy something and the female clerk asks for my phone number. She must be trying to flirt with me! Yeah…that’s it; twentysomething clerks have a thing for balding, paunchy sad sack middle aged men!”
I think Summer got her name simply because she was born during the summer (July, I think), no pun there.