Westviewians’ “every silver lining has a cloud” mentality takes no holiday. Just as the summertime county fair comes with “an undercurrent of melancholy“, Christmas – Christmas, the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – ebbs away too soon. I guess that’s why Les and Cayla are taking down the Taj Moore-hal tree a little early this year (last year they left it up almost four weeks after Christmas). Of course, those greedy amoral morons who run the department stores manage to milk Christmas profits year round.
Snarkers, it’s been a pleasure as always bringing the FW commentary to you these last few weeks. Tune in tomorrow as Mr. Oddnoc steps up to the plate! Swinging a chainsaw!
Son of Stuck Funky 
Cayla, Les just entered the room. That’s why the nice feelings ebbed away.
Uh yeah Cayla, that Christmas-y feeling does tend to wind down in early January. Now I wonder why that is? I like how you have to know that Les is once again being an unfunny cynical smart-alecky dick in order for the joke to even make sense. It’ll never be funny, though. And what the hell is BanTom babbling about here? Every department store Xmas display was in the dumpster by 9am on the 26th and the Valentine’s Day displays were good to go by ten. So nice try, Tom, but next time maybe think it through a little more.
As are we, Cayla, as are we.
There’s something especially unpleasant about a pompous, self-righteous douche like Les lecturing about “keeping Christmas in our hearts all year round.” It’s like having Mel Gibson speaking at your Anti-Defamation Leagues meeting.
That artwork on the Christmas tree is Tom’s best work in years!
Has anyone seen my anodyne bromide? I’m sure I set it down here somewhere. Oh, there it is.
The problem is not just that Batiuk doesn’t realize that stores are filled with stuff for Valentine’s Day by now. The problem is that he still thinks that Les is a lovable and sympathetic character.
Meh. Batom® is mad at someone for stiffing him somehow. Big whoop. I really don’t even care about it because he used his self(ish) portrait, St. Les the Righteous Smirker, to speak on his behalf.
Besides, Batom® hasn’t portrayed a church or anything spiritual in the entire history of the strip. So whatever.
Whenever the strip is set so the last panel is for Les to deliver a wry observation with that smug pompous expression, I want to track TB down and scream at him, “You’re not Oscar Wilde damn it.”
“That artwork on the Christmas tree is Tom’s best work in years!”
Clip art is great stuff.
I bet the book Les is sitting down to read is Lisa’s Story.
The more I think about it, the Funkyverse is a world where Christianity and Christian principles don’t exist in any way. You try to do the right thing, and you either get punished by
a higher powerBatom® himself or scooted off to comic strip oblivion while the bad, morality-deprived people always prevail and retain their lead character statuses in the strip.Batom® only needs to out himself as either an agnostic or an atheist… and his entire body of work would finally make some sense to both the reader and the snarker.
Did we get a visit from TB today? i noticed almost all the comments have at least one thumbs down.
@Nathan Obral:
I’ve always seen the world of FW and CS as being more of a gnostic situation, with all of life being suffering and the universe being ruled by a cruel god that’s out to get you. When you have multiple punch lines about having to hide your happiness from the universe lest it strike you down, and the wrath of god unleashed at a wedding, it’s hard to see it otherwise.
@Dolz: I blame the guy doing the minstrel show stuff about Cayla and Nate.
TFH sez: please read my comment below.
@Paul Jones, I wouldn’t be surprised, but I just couldn’t pass up a chance to get a dig in at TB. Whoever it is, it looks like they have several accounts.
Readers, I apologize for some asinine and unfunny comments that appeared on this post earlier today. That person has been banned.
It wouldn’t surprise me if such comments were a “false flag” operation, so that Tom Batiuk could say, “Of course any artist has to listen to his critics…but as you can see from this comment, my critics are all hateful racists. I feel secure ignoring these people.”
Note: I don’t think the comments were left by Tom Batiuk himself.
We don’t tolerate that Comic Kingdom comment section crap over here. All we ask is that you stay on topic (the strip itself is always fair game), refrain from personal attacks and refrain from being obnoxious or offensive just for the sake of it. It’s not asking for a whole lot IMO. Otherwise all are welcome.
Wow, I missed all the hubbub in today’s comments…and I’m pretty glad I did. I’ve got a feeling I know who the banned poster was (unless it was somebody who only showed up for the first time today), but I don’t want to name any names in case I’m wrong…