Push The Button, Frank

Link to today’s strip.

I don’t follow sports, so I have no idea which team is represented by the button on Funky’s hat.   (Almost wrote “hate” there.  Whoops!)   Whoever it is, it must not be a team that Tom Batiuk likes because–duh–he’s adorning Funky’s hat and not Les’.  Simple logic.  Besides that, what team would want their insignia highlighted by appearing in Funky Winkerbean?  No team, that’s who.

Speaking of Les, isn’t it just amazing that there’s Les, same age as Funky, looking thirty years younger, and wearing a regular old running outfit too–not festooned with layers of clothing to protect his delicate fat from the onslaught of winter, like someone we could name.

Funky’s expression in panel two seems to show him melting, like a man made of mashed potatoes softening up because too much butter was added.   While he shifts from panel to panel, unable to hold a coherent form, Les, lovingly rendered as always, smirks punchably.  His face looks like a taunt to everyone unfortunate enough to bother with this comic strip.  Go ahead, punch as hard as you like, go so far as to break your monitor, Tom thinks.  I’ll keep drawing more and more Les faces.  Tom smiles to himself.  Because the only person I hate more than Funky is you, dear reader, you denier of prizes.

21 thoughts on “Push The Button, Frank”

  1. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to see Les Moore die more than I want to see him die in panel two today. There’s something about that headband that just amplifies his usual obnoxiousness. Look at him, smugly judging Funky with that smirk of superiority on his stupid bearded face. What a loathsome piece of garbage. Why does he always have to be around, lurking there on the fringes of other character’s arcs? Even his steam puffs are annoying.

  2. It’s the Cleveland Browns! As if they need the unfortunate endoresement of Funky Winkerbean after their terrible crash-and-burn season.

  3. I’ve always found it stupid how Les is always draw lean and mean, even though he probably has the same exact diet as Funky and Funky’s been shown exercising a lot more than him.
    It is pretty awesome, though, that Funky’s making a rehab joke while prominently displaying the Browns logo. If I didn’t think Batiuk wrote these a year in advance I’d actually be impressed.

  4. I suspect Funky’s choice of team has less to do with any fondness (or lack thereof) for the Browns and more to do with the fact that even Tom Batiuk didn’t trust himself to draw a passable rendition of the Bengal’s logo.

  5. Looks like Goatee Boy finally got that lobotomy. But why is he wearing a skirt with leggings? Wottafag.

    Fungul Wankerbone is wearing a Cleveland Browns hat. That’s for the benefit of the three or four people in the universe who didn’t know what a fruggin’ loser he was.

    So who are these two guys again? Ellie and Annie?

  7. Great. A man in a permanent state of rehab and a man in a permanent state of being a smug, oblivious and judgmental dickhead. What a lovely sight.

  8. Hell is jogging for eternity with Les in the snow and never losing weight or improving your fitness.

  9. The Cleveland Browns, BTW, are set to unveil a new logo this morning. As crappy as it will be (the classic Brownie Elf is not to be included in the design) it still won’t be the decrepit, Frank Bolle-esque melting disembodied head of the Funk Man.

  10. @Nathan Obral: They should have used the “CB” in block capitals logo they’d proposed in 1965. Granted, that would make’em look like a CFL team but it’d beat what they have and what they’re planning all hollow.

  11. If only the real Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank could riff this strip… just for one day.

    “Push the button, Frank.”

  12. The one thing I do like about these Les and Funky jog in the wintertime strips is Les’ thick white headband. It allows me to imagine that he has some severe head wound that required wrapping his head, Crimean War-style, in a gauze bandage.

  13. Noticed that the first nine comments all have a “thumbs down” vote this morning. Wonder if L’Auteur Glorieux came a-lurkin’ earlier.

  14. “Punchable” is my new favorite word, esp. when it comes to Les. Speaking of, I think ol’ Les has a portrait of himself at home that looks 75, roughly Funky’s age by all appearances.

  15. Man, you guys and your paranoia about TB. “He’s trolling the comments! He’s using fake names! He’s downvoting us! He doesn’t understand basic story structure!”

    At best only one of those things has much credibility.

  16. Digging the MST3K love today. Funky actually looks kind of like Frank in the last panel, maybe someone could doctor the last panel so Les looks more like Dr. F and Funky has a Frank coif? haha

    Man, Funky is just doomed by Batiuk to be fat forever no matter how long he jogs and works out.

  17. It’s also pretty hilarious having your alcoholic character making dumb jokes about rehab.

  19. @Captaincab – your wish is granted, long live Jambi.

    I’m struck by how much more intelligent TV’s Frank looks compared to Funky. While Frank is supposed to be an imbecile, Funky looks downright devolved.

  20. Maybe this is a tie in to the shocking reveal of the Browns new helmets?

    More likely a tie in to the new Dawg Pound logo, which “has a new design of a smirking Swagger dog” according to that ESPN link. TB’s influence is perhaps greater than we first feared.

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