Hodie Hauserit (Today’s Strip)
Shout out to Google Translate for giving cartoonists and bloggers alike the ability to communicate in a dead language using surely incorrect grammar.
Show of hands, who remembered that EMU was Bull’s alma mater? Just you in the back? You realize we all know you are lying, right?
Actually, EMU was mentioned as Bull’s alma mater in recent memory, back in March of 2012. Apparently, they not only changed the school motto since Bull went to school there, they changed the name of the whole school from Eastern Midwest University. Still, on the scale of retcons this strip has seen, this is practically perfect continuity. In fact, this Tuesday’s strip featured another very nice call-back to those 2012 strips, Bull’s interest in free EMU t-shirts.
Daily Emo paraprosdokian (Greek and Latin are the same thing, right?):
“I sense a rising anti-intellectualism in this nation, don’t you?
The other day I was hanging floss out on the line to dry, this guy comes to our house says ‘I’d like to read your gas meter.’
I said, ‘whatever happened to the classics?'”
– Emo Philips
Son of Stuck Funky 
So, Owen was able to understand that Latin and type it correctly and get an accurate translation? Um, okay. And since when do football teams have mottos? Schools do, but I guess Batiuk thought nobody at OSU would get his harsh zinger if he wasn’t specific enough.
I am extremely disappointed that Batiuk went this entire week without anyone referring to The Enormous Midwestern University. Maybe he was afraid that’d be too obvious.
So if TB reminds the readers in Monday’s strip that Bull is a proud EMU graduate, Bull’s excitement over their arrival at WHS and the free stuff they gave him makes more sense. Yet, in typical BanTom style, he waits until the very last panel to reveal this somewhat relevant information. I guess he just got so caught up in his little revenge fantasy he forgot to include the one single brief detail that might have made an actual story out of this disjointed rant about how much those cheating snobby big time state schools suck. Or he’s a lazy hack who doesn’t give a f*ck, which is probably more likely.
I wonder what the Westview motto is? “Misery Loves Company”?
@TheDiva:
The Westview motto is just the address for the hospital. You can never learn it too early.
“Another thing about Enormous Midwestern University is that their motto is…” vs “And EMU’s motto is….”
Why does he not edit his writing? Is there no one editing for him? So stilted and awkward. But I guess that’s the fun!
Oh, like the black guy would give a shit now about making a good impression.
Yeah. That’s why Bull’s such a dumb son-of-a-bitch. He went to a party school like Strawman Heights Institute of Technology. Also, way to twist the knife in alluding to sports scandals, Tommy Boy.
Ignoring the usual unfunniness of today’s “joke”, HOW is OwenーOwen The Idiotーsuddenly a genius bilingual translator of random Latin phrases?
Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot it’s called “writing”!!!
@Mason Jarr: He probably sees relying on editors as a sign of weakness. Meanwhile, the whole point of this mess is probably going to be lost on the average reader. Oh, sure, they know that he’s against party schools but since they don’t know WHICH school is being singled out for condemnation, he falls short somewhat of the mark.
As the old saying goes, “Can’t read, can’t write… Kent State.”
Northeastern Ohio is pretty much all scarlet and gray territory, and it’s been more pronounced in the past decade (and ESPECIALLY with tOSU’s national championship last month). Way to play up to the only scant fanbase your comic actually has, Batom®… but then again, only blind, blue-haired subscribers to the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram bother to read Funky Winkerbean unironically.
Batiuk’s personal motto is “Ego sum stultus.”
Is the punchline in that last panel a reference to the Penn State scandal? If so, Jesus Christ.
“Another thing about Enormous Midwestern University”
Wasn’t a school named Enormous State University used in the Tank McNamara strip a few years ago?
@Saturnino–yeah, someone said that on the Curmudgeons site a few days ago, and that appears to be true. I’m not sure what i’m more surprised by, that Tank McNamara’s still around or that FW is using its jokes.
Lazy joke? Half-plagiarized? Veiled swipe at a local U? Finally thinking up college-related jokes two years after sending the senior class off, never to be seen again? Again, TB misses huge opportunities to talk about the real problems with universities to make some very weak tea. Man, when he’s not trying for a Pulitzer it’s pretty obvious.
Let me just point out that “DUI” was played for big laughs less than six months ago, followed by Mason Jarr making a joke about where he went to school about two weeks ago, followed by this. Yeesh.
Από μόνη της, αστείο Όουεν για κατηγορητήρια ήταν ελαφρώς διασκεδαστικό, αλλά η βαριά πρόζα που προηγήθηκε επισκίασε εντελώς την πενιχρή κωμωδία.
I can’t understand a word you’ve said the whole time.
For mine own part, it was Greek to me.
@Mason – my own theory is that Tom Batiuk draws the strips, including the word balloons, a year in advance. However, he only writes the dialogue shortly before it goes to print. So, he looks at what he wrought all those months ago and thinks, “Well, I sure left myself a big enough word balloon…guess I got to fill it all!” Hence the massive over-writing.
BatHack McRonin: “Haha, this is funny because big schools are not K*nt State. And they’re full of lazy mouthbreathers and bedwetters who get invited to parties. And the football team is full of criminals who get arrested all the time an’ stuff. Stupid people who get arrested. Because stupid football players are stupid an’ stuff. So this is funny. Haha!”
Me: “You do realize that there are a lot of black guys on the football team, don’t you? In effect, you’re making a rather broad generalization about the intelligence and criminality of minorities. Some would consider that a bit racist.”
BatHack McRonin: “I can draw great bricks. And you don’t even have a published, syndicated comic strip. That means you’re unemployed.”
@Hadda Mae Kapupe: And if it ain’t Batiuk saying something like that, someone is else bound to simper “Where’s YOUR comic strip?”
I just can’t believe he didn’t bring up the Bull/EMU connection right at the start. I mean why wouldn’t you? It wasn’t like Monday’s strip contained all kinds of crucial and hilarious dialog that he just couldn’t cut or anything and he doesn’t exactly shy away from establishing a premise either, so WTF? It’s not just a poorly-told story, it’s completely ass-backwards.
@Paul Jones: That’s the standard retort from the 2 or 3 surviving non-ironic FW fans. I must have missed the memo declaring that you can’t say anything bad about a comic strip unless you publish your own. Must have been on the same memo saying you can criticize a bad movie unless you run your own studio, and can’t criticize a restaurant unless you are an internationally recognized chef.
Okay, let’s try this, using the February 4th dinner each time.
@Jim in Wisc. I thought Batiuk’s motto was “Dicitur autem legam.”