In case you were wondering if there was literally any point to the Adeela storyline beyond “hey, my characters are eating Thanksgiving dinner with MUSLIMS, look how progressive and bold my writing is”, today’s strip should prove to you that no, there really wasn’t. This story was somehow dragged out for the past month (at least? I forget) and yet Batiuk somehow still couldn’t finish off this week with anything relevant to it, and instead just has another “old people are idiots/hilarious” “gag”. Batiuk couldn’t have a strip where Adeela thanks her hosts, and then maybe one where Wally cracks wise about how he’s glad he didn’t get a new partner?
I mean, why is Holly talking like this to her guest she just met? “Yeah, my father-in-law’s mind might be going. Or maybe he’s just trying to be funny, staring into space and looking extremely confused and disoriented. Either way, we’re just going to talk about him like he’s not a real person as we leave the room. The men are upstairs reading comics, and we’d better hurry if we’re going to provide them with enough cookies and chocolate milk”.
What is the “trick” even supposed to be here? I really can’t stand this typical Batiuk “wordplay” humor where he just switches two words around, but I really hate it when it’s in the service of mocking senility, which he’s been doing a lot of lately.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Hi Tom Batiuk, stop shoveling crap at us through the strip and pretending it’s hot plattered groat-clusters! The little red arrow is pointing to “E” and you know what that means….
I’d say he’s resting on his laurels, but that would imply winning an award at some point. Maybe “resting on his laurels nomination”.
At this point, the only award Batiuk is capable of winning is one for longevity. If he just keeps cranking out the crap for a few more years, he’ll get his “lifetime achievement award” and maybe then we can be spared.
Look here, Pulitzer (nominee) Boy, dementia doesn’t just come and go. He’s either demented or he isn’t, f*cking pick one. He’s actually ignoring the continuity he was already ignoring…ponder that one for a minute. Everything about FW is completely paradoxical and only makes sense within it own deeply boring universe and even then it’s sketchy.
Panel two Adeela looks less “Muslim” and more “lady in front of me in line at the Polish deli counter”, but that’s to be expected after having to draw her every day for six or seven weeks (by God this thing has been going on forever). Your hand gets tired and suddenly she’s put on ten or seventy pounds. This one is even worse than Wednesday’s comedic abortion, as Holly turns Morton’s condition into a punch line AND implies that the family believes he’s faking Alzheimer’s just to break their balls a little. No wonder Adeela is smiling politely and eyeballing the nearest exit. Who wouldn’t be? An old guy falling asleep after Thanksgiving dinner could be funny, but goofing on a dementia patient never is unless Les gets dementia someday, which is a loophole worth establishing just in case.
Has Mort stopped smoking again?
I guess Batiuk once again was ahead of the curve in “tackling controversial issues”! That, or the American Cancer Society nominated him for an award.
When I saw the masthead featuring Mort from panel two here, I literally said “Oh God” with such palpable disgust that I surprised myself.
I guess I’m saying that I’d like to see less of the old people that Batiuk jams into almost every sequence. Just fucking retire Mort and his friends, Cliff Anger and his biddy, Dinkle and every other retired teacher and of course, fucking Crankshaft. The strip will instantly become better for it.
Of course they can’t tell, they aren’t very smart. And Morton hates them, for obvious reasons.
He’s probably wondering why Ed Crankshaft is a bus driver AND a stroke victim at the same time.
So is Mort just an active senior and jazz musician when other people aren’t around? Because Looney Tunes already did that joke, Tom.
As I mentioned yesterday, what the heck could Adela and Rama even eat? Nothing here was halal. Did Funky magically find a halal butcher shop (kosher butcher would be acceptable too) and get a properly slaughtered turkey? And religiously observant Muslims, (and Jews) would never eat at a strangers house on a whim like this as they cannot be sure that the food was prepared properly.
This story has to be the dumbest one yet from crapmaster Batty. Complete stupidity all in a desperate attempt to win awards and burnish his diversity cred.