The CTE is really starting to kick in now and Bull appears to be losing the few marbles he had left, although it’s admittedly really tough to tell unless you’ve been following this crap for a while. Obviously Crazy would have no use at all for an old football video unless it was made from pizza or comic books (was it???), which seems unlikely even in the Funkyverse. Seriously though, this is the darkest CTE strip since the very beginning, back when Bull was dropping things and driving recklessly. It’s amusing to me how even this dramatic moment in the story centers around something so incredibly mundane and stupid. It’s likewise kind of amusing how Bull immediately remembers that Crazy converted his old VHS tapes into DVDs, a fact it took me a few seconds to remember and I don’t even have CTE, as far as I know, that is.
If you’re trying to do a Very Serious Story about mental illness, maybe don’t use a whimsical name like “Brownie Point” in it. Or have one of the characters involved literally be named “Crazy”.
He didn’t leave the oven on or fall asleep in the garage with the car running, he just misplaced an old DVD. The triviality of it sort of undermines the seriousness of the situation a bit.
It’s also funny how while in the midst of a bout of memory loss, Bull has no trouble remembering Crazy Harry’s VHS-to-DVD wizardry from God-only-knows how many years back. Again, it just undermines the entire point, whatever that might be.
It looks like Batiuk finally remembered the symptoms of CTE weren’t just intense couch potatoing. Shame he forgot for two whole years. Maybe he had some kind of CTE from the violent bullying he got in school.
I was just thinking that there’s nothing too pathetic, sad, or tragic that BatWit couldn’t punch up with a good pun or “gag name.” Keep ’em laughing, TommyBoy.
Can you get CTE from facepalming? Asking for a friend..
Substitute “issue of The Flash” for “video” in that last panel, and it gets pretty disturbing.
Ayers’ art has become even more inept than Batiuk’s.
Seems like both of BatHack’s substute artists make the same dumb mistakes he does. Is that by design? Or does Batty hire only shitty artists like himself?
That third panel is like deja vu for me, except instead of “that video”, I was trying to find matches and instead of a stack of DVDs, I had a stack of Funky Winkerbean paperbacks.
This is starting to put me in mind of the torment Lynn Johnston inflicted on Grandpa Jim after his stroke. That’s because we’re Bull’s yelling “BOXCAR!!” away from a cease-and-desist order.
Ah but Lynn did painstaking research on this topic.
https://www.fbofw.com/features/research/index.php?page=stroke
Lynnuck Johnston on the phone with Canadian 911:
“Oh, BLIMEY!! Me grampaw has had a stroke!”
“RIGHT, then! Can you bring him ’round a week from Friday, luv?”
“Why would Crazy Harry do that?
“Because he’s crazy!”
I dunno, Linda, his story seems to check out.
And over at his blog, Batiuk…well, I’ll just summarize:
“Tom Batiuk is one of those one-of-a-kind cartoonists who is not afraid to tackle the big issues head-on, while still knowing that his readers come to him for laughs first, and lectures second. He brings a rare sense of true purpose to the ‘funny pages.'”
–Tom Batiuk
As Sixties Cartoon Spider-Man said about Doc Ock once, his inferiority complex is showing.
One newspaper guy congratulating another newspaper guy…weak. And then he has to print the letter in one of his books…see, my story helped someone, it did!
Gosh, all these problems in the world but it took comics to fix them. Neat.
Lectures are “second?” When would we ever come to a jerkoff like Batty for lectures?
Pretty sure it’s actually puns first (and in this case emphatically not laughs) and smirks second.
Yeah, but I was trying to frame it in terms Batiuk would use. He would never, ever describe his work as moronic word-play and substandard artwork. Too much accuracy, not enough awards.
You absolutely did and did so with great success.
I apologize that my comment came off as an attack on your characterization of how TB would do so. You were spot on! My point was intended to be… yeah, this thing ain’t much more than bad puns and poorly draw smirks. Again, my apologies for that coming across as a criticism of your post.
I lose DVD’s all the time – but I’m not going to pound myself on the head so I have an excuse. Still I must say the author does have a way of making serious things trivial.
Will he hurry and kill some people in a CTE rage?
@timbuys – no offense taken, honestly.