Nice as that introduction is, Epicus, I don’t know if my return is triumphant. Even so, billytheskink is here for a couple of weeks of wading through the marsh that is TB’s latest “substantial idea”.
Last week’s slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow build up continues in today’s strip. I guess this is supposed to build suspense while we wait for Wally to become uncomfortable enough around Adeela to win an award or at least generate a Tuesday Arts & Entertainment section quarter-page story about how Funky Winkerbean is more serious than Sherman’s Lagoon.
But there is no suspense in this strip. There is only Dilbert’s brother, the Human Bowling Pin:
Son of Stuck Funky 
Yeah, because just being in the same room as someone with a headscarf would be enough to cause Wally to totally lose it. He’s obviously made a ton of progress.
I would love to hear Batiuk’s line of thought for this arc. “You know what must be difficult for someone with PTSD? Being in the same room as someone with a headscarf, who may or may not be Muslim!” *runs the imaginary bases*
Batiuk: “This is a serious issue affecting ‘young people’! I’m about to ride the PIPELINE to a Pulitzer Prize! Fuck that ‘incredible honor’ bullshit.”
I have no firsthand knowledge about this, but given that both our allies and our adversaries in Afghanistan and Iraq were Muslim, I’m not understanding why a headscarf would be a trigger for Wally. Surely there are Muslims in Northeastern Ohio who he would have seen in the past ten years. I run into people every day in Philadelphia who wear even more distinctively religious clothing (veils are not uncommon).
Just “Adeela?” Is that name sui generis in Cuyahoga County?
Her full name is Adeela T. Muslim.
She’s a Brazilian soccer star…
Batiuk shoulda named her Akeelya. It would make Wally’s inevitable meltdown more understandable.
Billy, I consider it a triumph when I can find anyone willing to attempt to find the humor and/or rage in two weeks of premise-flogging. You’re all heroes in my book. FW isn’t even glacially paced anymore, now it’s like some sort of really long term erosion.
Speaking of heroes it’s Super Fluous Man, the Pulitzer committee-baiting superhero writer who creates decades of content by repeating the premise over and over again. As was firmly established in yesterday’s Sunday installment, Adeela (typing that is gonna get real old real fast) is indeed on the class list, whatever the f*ck that is. Why even waste the Sunday space on the weekly arcs if you’re just going to act as if the events of Sunday never happened?
Coming tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: Adeela’s presence on the class list is confirmed by multiple sources. Wally’s post-PTSD dimwitted optimistic affability continues to be threatened.
Dondi was often repetitive.
Yeah, yeah, Adeela is late to class. That doesn’t excuse the irritating wryness of Professor Forehead.
Hey, Professor Forehead finished in 2nd place in the “Les Moore Look-A-Like Contest” during the Lisa’s Legacy 5K in Westview! COLLECT $25!
Did the professor individually check everybody in class off against the, uh, class roster? That makes about as much sense as anything around here, in that it needlessly pads out threadbare ideas and poorly drawn characters. I can absolutely imagine TB spending the first fifteen to twenty minutes of a 45 minute lecture on introductions and lame jokes.
My first thought was that Batty got the idea from The Simpson’s, but I was wrong. They spelled it Adil, not Adeel.
http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Adil_Hoxha
Gentle German Jesus, I’d hate to have to hear the roll call for that class:
Shoddy Research: Here!
Glacial Pacing: Here!
Minstrel-Show Caricature: Here.
Clunky Moralizing: Here!
Being Convinced That It’s 1973 And A Bit: Here!
Naked Lust For Recognition: Here!
Absence Of Talent: Here!
Duning-Kruger Effect: HERE!!!
Sense Of Fair Play: Absent!
Wait a minute…there’s an M. Night Batiukmalan “TWIST” here! Adeela has PTSD and will go off when she sees Wally in his Army tunic!!!!
As much as I would really enjoy seeing this irony play out, I think the story line is going to be a glacial build up of potential tension caused by outward appearances that turns instead to show that two people can get past stereotypes and accept each other as friends..
Not unlikely. Moreover,Todd can just sit back and wait for the phone call from the Pulitzer Foundation.
Wally and Buddy are so popular the only empty seat in the class is next to him. Probably because he can’t wash the stink of Montoni’s out of his jacket.
Ruh Roh… This is smalltown Ahia and everyone keeps telling me these days that we can’t have no immigrunts anymore for one reason or another. This is gonna get ugly… …Until of course our intrepid heroes at Atomikkk Komixxx dream up some kind of award-winning diversity tolerance comic hero…
Extra credit for TB making the new girl as dumpy and sexless as possible instead of giving her the standard 38-28-34 female template, lest we have a repeat of this little snafu: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-45331730
I’m going to let this play out for a week before I start snarking on it. That is, if we can get farther than “Adeela with a headdress sits next to Wally” before Sunday. I’m guessing that the fact that he’s focused so much on her name means there is some pre-existing relationship between Wally and Adeela that pre-dates her walking into a random classroom and sitting next to him. As stated before, the mere fact that she’s a muslim shouldn’t bother Wally.