Today’s strip was not available for preview. Rumor among industry insiders is it was pulled at the last minute when editors realized it was an extremely explicit and detailed portrayal of Les and Cayla engaging in their traditional “Les and Lisa” roleplaying. Those in the know say that the original strip and all its printings have been burned, and the ashes dumped into the deepest part of the sea. Those unfortunate enough to witness the strip are being given the best counseling and seeing eye dogs available.
So here’s today’s strip. You know what is one of the best things about comics as a medium? I’d say it’s how you can pair funny or engaging writing with exciting, dynamic visuals. Or you can just have two unattractive people in a bland, boring house stare silently at a TV while you copy and paste in jokes from “Funniest Football Banter of All Time, Volume 3”.
Coming up tomorrow-the nightmare continues, only this time with the talented and witty Epicus Doomus in charge!
Son of Stuck Funky 
Looks like TB was that one guy who liked Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football. I’m not surprised.
Yeah, but can Batiuk make a football joke using a Plantagenet dynasty reference? WE THINK NOT!
I’d watch a War of The Rose Bowl. “A receiver! A receiver! My endzone for a receiver!”
Game being played today at Bosworth Field!
How lazy is it to have terrible wordplay, and you can’t even have your characters deliver it?
I don’t know why he just doesn’t show the TV screen and leave out his characters entirely. And honestly, this kind of wordplay is pretty much the core of Crankshaft, so using it in this strip is especially lazy.
Kudos, @spacemanspiff85, on a stellar inaugural guest author stint!
Yes, well done!
Thirded!
Thanks. 🙂
This forced attempt at humor based on a double meaning is awful even by TomBa’s standards. Picture the action he’s describing. Is he trying to emulate a Monty Python sight gag by employing his usual “tell don’t show” formula?
Wow, Funky lives in a mansion.
Summary of today’s strip:
P1: Furniture and an improbable camera angel.
P2: Furniture and two puds in a chair.
P3: More furniture and two puds in a chair.
P4: Curtains, furniture and two puds in a chair.
P5: Imagine that, Westview would fit right in with http://www.mcmansionhell.com and Funky is one of its most infernally cursed residents.
P6: Furniture and two puds in a chair.
P7: Furniture and two puds in a chair. One of the puds stirs. Viz., the pud named Holly idly massages her jaw while the pain from her abscessed tooth flares. Glancing over at her husband, she wonders how long until the low doses of strychnine finally finish their work.
I so do love autocorrect. Reminds me of the time I was going on at length about the Dessert Museum in Tucson.
Bonus points for calling them “puds”.
Yeah, it’s bad and all, but Lord knows it could be worse. Every time one of his long tiresome mega-arcs winds down it feels like you’ve just been beaten with a pillowcase full of padlocks. Perhaps it’s a strategy to make the reader “appreciate” pitiful gags like this one. In any case, it works, sort of.
Im not as up on my football terminology as I should be, but is “tackle box” a phrase commentators use?
Also ” the sideline is challenging”. How does a whitewash line on the ground challenge something?
You might occasionally hear the phrase “tackle box” when listening to football commentary. You make a good point about the “sideline” comment, but in this case it refers to the coaches on the sideline.
You will also hear a lot of bad grammar, but nothing so egregious as the sentence, “They say their quarterback is like having a coach on the field.” I don’t think that Terry Bradshaw could like mangle English so badly.