Oh, Becky, I’m sure you can relate to this. It’s not like you took over your mentor’s job or anything.
These arcs seem like nothing but fan service in the weirdest way, so it seems a little weird to imply that it’s a useless degree or whatever’s going on here. Also, if you graduate and can’t find a job, you’re not an out-of-work music educator. You’re a college graduate.
Sorry, this is the best I can do with the material. Even the art is especially boring. Hey, a doorknob! Hey, Dinkle’s face seems to be melting away from his eyes! Whee.
Where Are They, Again?
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Son of Stuck Funky 
Priceless!
I like the idea that Dinkle would take in a lecture on how to be unemployed. And that the lecture would be held in a locked ward,
Paying for a seminar about your unemployment prospects is still a better use of money than buying the Lisa Trilogy.
Another good one!
Weird how the door to enter this session has a key-code handle. “Can’t let the unwashed into THIS seminar!”
No, can’t let the washed-up out of it!
“Session 301: What to Do When Your Band Director Predecessor Won’t Stay Retired and Keeps Lingering Over Your Shoulder”?
Incidentally, how many of this week’s strips will include the phrase “Music Educators Conference”?
Not to mention signs that use white print on black poster board. Tomorrow’s clever sign? “Teaching Your Band to Play a Recognizable Form of ‘Paint It Black.'”
Speaking of getting too personal, why are Dinkle and Becky so close together? They look like they’re jammed into a closet in the first picture, and fused together in the second.
And why must Becky look like an ugly teen boy all the time? That haircut of hers went out of style 30 years ago.
Given that it’s the same hairstyle Lisa and Summer had, I’d say the answer is either that Batiuk is really into women with that hair (almost as much as pinned up shirt sleeves, evidently), or that hair is hard to draw.
He has a fetish for circa-1991 Demi Moore….
And why does the Ohio Music Educators Association deserve so much attention, anyway? I looked at their website, and they have dozens of presenters and speakers. Batiuk’s not the keynote or the MC or anything. He’s barely mentioned. Which makes sense, since he’s not a music educator.
I know he drew some illustrations for them, but sheesh, does that really deserve a week of mentions in Funky Winkerbean? We also had a week about a stupid pizza box monster, because a restaurant hired Batiuk to draw a placemat. A friggin’ placemat! Which was then re-used in the strip! How cheap and lazy can you get? Then there’s the endless namedropping of Kent State, another client of Batiuk’s.
Is this man so desperate for validation that the most ordinary freeance jobs deserve this much attention? Maybe you draw a guy in the background with an OMEA t-shirt or something. You don’t devote an entire week’s worth of content, in a national, general-interest media property, to something this specialized and local. Can you say “conflict of interest”?
Yes, to all of this, yes. He craves validation and recognition.
Shilling for his pet causes, favorite restaurant, and his alma mater allows him easy fodder for weeks of pointless strips requiring no effort on his part.
Batiuk is his own pet cause. Maybe the word we’re looking for is “narcissism.” Seriously, Batiuk, I love ya. You make my problems look as insignificant as your imagination.
Bro, at this point the entire Funkyverse is broken down to 1. Les, 2. Pizza, 3. Comics, 4. High School Band…
I’m just glad it isn’t one of the other three today
This particular strip would be a great launching point for an arc about funding the arts but it’s clear that Batiuk will have another stupid sign tomorrow and forget this one.
That would be worthwhile and meaningful. Something that could never happen in this strip.
Could also be a commentary on teacher salaries. Or student loans.
What, unemployed musicians are given free workshops? Is there a workshop on busking laws?
Another week of “mail it in” strips. Given that the Funky Winkerbean universe is limited to a few set themes (comics, OEMA, movie or, alternatively, documentary making, Kent State, making fun of Funky, and the Cult of Lisa The Dead Cancer Chew Toy) I wonder if there’s a pattern to the sequence they’re visited. Any thoughts on this possibility?
Stupid, not funny and bad artwork – almost a carbon copy of yesterday down to the weird angle of the sign. I’d call this mailing it in but at least mailing it in implies some kind of effort.