Link To Today’s Debacle.
Today’s strip is unavailable for preview. Just a hunch, but my guess would be that it will involve a lot of stupid “couple’s banter”, as it’s the only way Les and Cayla can communicate. Unlike Les and Lisa, who shared a psychic bond that made words (other than “Spanky”) totally unnecessary. Lisa would have simply crossed her arms, blinked and sha-ZAM…reunion organized! But Cayla…meh.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Actually, I think Les would’ve told Lisa the reunion was in the park. And then when she got there (despite the fact that they weren’t in the same class), Les would be the only one there, sitting on Their Bench. And then he’d smirk and say “You’re the only one I want to reunite with”.
Spaceman–right now, Tom Batiuk is shaking his fist at you, shouting “How the hell did you guess?!”
Cayla is surprisingly snappish in this one. Either she’s got a lot of resentment built up over the years, or the writer had to find a way to keep this thread of Les panicking about the place going until the weekend.
Am I mistaken, or is the first use of the word “fart” in comic strips? If so, I can’t think of a more appropriate venue for its debut.
Yeah, Cayla, you’ve only been married to this guy what, three years? Plus however long you were dating? Shame on you, that’s way too soon to attempt gentle teasing (or heavy-lidded snide comments, which is the Westview equivalent. You need to have at least a Stage 3 tumor before presuming to that level of familiarity.
(See yesterday’s comment, re: Cayla letting Les walk all over her.)
Cayla has two modes: doormat and smartass.
That look in panel 3. Two things:
1) Cayla isn’t the one who royally screwed this up. It’s dipshit Les, so he should appreciate a suggestion. Or maybe he’s upset the suggestion wasn’t Montoni’s.
2) If my wife made that comment, I would at least chuckle or give her wry smirk and head nod as if to say, “Yeah, no shit. We ARE old farts now.” But I’m not the most specialist snowflake, and maybe I have a sense of humor.
A joke about flatulence in a family comic strip? What is this world coming to?
I have a strong feeling the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram will run an old strip tomorrow instead of this scatological business. To avoid further controversy, the comics editor will offer a little fib, apologizing in print, “Today’s strip did not arrive before press time. Please enjoy this ‘Funky Winkerbean Classic’.”
Some astute readers will be suspicious once they recognize the editor’s unintentional oxymoron. “Funky Winkerbean” and “Classic” are contradictions in terms.
Given how many times he and the others have had to tell people that they don’t qualify for the senior’s discount, I can almost sympathize with Les. I stop feeling sorry because he’s a whiny bitch who got himself into a fix because he’s what Engineer from TF2 would call a dumb mother-hubbard.
More passive aggressive jabs by Cayla
Well, that wasn’t good, but it wasn’t too bad either. Always good to Les get taken down a bit, and the classic smirk at the end just completed the gag.
My fav Les face was when he was dressed up for Halloween and was walking the halls with a big smirk on his face.
Tell Les it’s in the park, while Cindy secretly plans the reunion at another location. Les gets to mope on the bench while everyone else enjoys a Les free reunion.
I was at Montoni’s the other night and you’ll never guess what I saw on the menu. Les Moore’s face…
That doesn’t specifically have anything to do with today’s strip, it’s just one of those days where TB inspires me to think of a slightly better gag than he did.
Amazing. I think Tom Batiuk is the first person to ever crossbreed the fart joke with pun humor….and fail at both!!!
Good for you, Les, you insufferable, humorless grouch and simpering, incompetent idiot.
A few days ago someone posted an archive link to the Ghost Lisa/airplane story line, worth a look if you also want to see just how drastic a change Cayla’s now fully Caucasian face has gone through which we see in today’s strip is compared to back then, really insulting. Is she supposed to be a tan Lisa now? Batiuk’s makes himself look really bad with this stuff.
captaincab: Prior to that, Cayla had an Afro hairdo. He did an entire week centering around having her go with the dreads.
The changing faces of Cayla (all from Sunday strips, where TB is responsible for color):
Wow – edgy! Bats uses “fart” in a daily comic strip. A regular Terrance and Phillip he’s becoming. Ah-hahaha.
@Epicus Doomus
Thanks for posting that. Yeah, and if you look at the Airport storyline strips, she’s sporting the same mini dreds and looks like she could be Nate Green’s sister. Aside from the fact it’s pretty disturbing Batiuk did this to the character, this probably could have been avoided if he’d just stuck with the strip’s original art style. As I’ve said before, if he and his apparent occasional temp artist/s can’t be bothered to draw the characters in the “realistic” post 2003 style, then he should just go back to the original art because at least it was clean, consistent and looked good.
That 2010 Cayla has to have been drawn by someone other than the person who drew the other three. The coloring and shadowing is so much richer and more detailed. In fact everything about that panel shows more effort than the others.
Jim in Wisc.: Apparently he drew so many bricks in the early part of that year that he ran out of red ink, so he dropped lips from the strip entirely. Or so the legends say….
Forgot to say thanks to billytheskink for posting those comparison pics.
What the actual fart‽ I think Mr. Batiuk has forgotten that his author avatar Les is supposed to be approximately 2 decades younger than Mr. Batiuk’s actual age. All those time jumps may have affected his thiotimoline electrolytes.