Hey, a sign, and people standing around watching it. That’s sure a good use of comic’s sequential storytelling capabilities-people standing around looking at an inanimate object. I wonder how long before this entire strip is just white text on a black background.
Also, is there anything remotely funny in the sign itself, apart from “haha, people make a lot of money off band candy sales” (which seems to contradict the fact that bands and music departments are always hard up for money)? Yes, haha, hedge funds are an investment option, but pointing that out isn’t close to funny.
Here’s a much better investment option. Get a job where literally nobody pays attention to the quality of your work and milk it as long as you possibly can. Batiuk could definitely give lectures on that.
Is This Strip For Anyone?
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Son of Stuck Funky 
Yeah, I always thought that the candy/turkey/Dinkle memoir/mattress/Lisa’s Story Boxed set sales that the band members went through were to, you know, pay for band expenses and weren’t really for profit.
Besides, after making enough to (say) pay for uniforms, why would the students go out again to make more money? It’s not like they get to keep any of it for themselves.
The Five Man Electrical Band should send TB a cease-and-desist letter for this gross misuse of signs.
Memo–
from: Bottocks
to: Ayers
Subject: OMEC
This week our strips will be a series of “. . . And the sign said. . .” Our readers will get it and gut busting laughter will ensue.
“Investing band candy profits – are cocoa futures for you?”
I know that’s terrible, but at least it’s TRYING to be a joke.
Certainly better than what actually ran.
This doesn’t really appear to be a joke at all. If it is, I don’t get it, excuse me if I seem stupid. I guess the idea is that band fundraising never makes enough money to invest in anything, so hedge funds are a ridiculous idea? Ha ha. No not funny. It reminds me of the Family Circus cartoon where the whole thing was Jeffy holding his belt and saying “My buckle came unbuckled.” Um, what? At least that’s not the norm for FC, but this downward trajectory for Funky is really starting to speed up. Neither drama nor humor. A week long series of Funky washing the windows at Montoni’s honestly wouldn’t surprise me at this point.
How about “Siphoning Band Candy profits. What to do when you get a Grand Jury Subpoena.”
“Tragically ironic hearing loss. Fact or fiction?”
Some wonderful sign work this week by TFH, Epicus, et al. Truly every garbage bag arc has a silver lining.
What about a sign that just has a treble staff line with only a single little square where the notes would be? Would Clefty and Lefty understand that it means “Give it a rest!”? Would Batiuk get his own joke?
The next one is probably going to read “FOOTBALL TEAMS: ARE THEY NECESSARY?”
Visualizing the Gridiron: Marching in Formation in a Post-CTE World.
Is reinvesting school fundraiser money a thing people actually do? It seems unethical to re-invest money that children earned schlepping door-to-door, rather than use it for its stated purpose. Or is that the joke?
If so, it’s a really tasteless joke, considering one of FW’s central tropes is Dinkle selling stupid things door-to-door and exhorting his students to do the same. Is Batiuk suggesting that Dinkle has been running a scam all these years? Is he saying band fundraisers are a fundamentally dishonest endeavor? Is this some sort of potshot at the Not Necessarily Ohio Music Educators Association convention?
I really don’t get it.
What are the chances that he uses the same art with different session names for next year’s music conference arc? And what are the chances that he says “fuck it” and uses the same session names too?
I see Cart Guy from Monday is in the background again. What exactly is he riding on? It’s not a mobility scooter or motorized wheelchair. It looks like an airport shuttle cart, but there’s no room for passengers, unless they’re hanging their legs off the back. His body position suggests he’s fully abled. What is going on here?
Also to Dinkle’s left, I see that Violet from Peanuts is all grown up now. Maybe she’s doing a cameo. And the people to Becky’s right seem specifically drawn, as if to represent real people. Finally, Becky has a hair out of place.
I give Batiuk this, at least he made the background somewhat interesting.
I work at a manufacturing company and that cart looks like the ones maintenance people ride around factories to haul tools.
Tombat should learn from the great Bill Elder and make his backgrounds more interesting because the story in the foreground is always lame.
This seems needed:
“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?” – Five Man Electric Band
And no signs are not funny. Words with a K are funny.
Atomik Komix, Komix Korner, Batiuk and Winkerbean are funny?
The rule is not infallible
Indeed, only Batiuk is always fallible.
This must have been the week when Batiuk realized all the New York Times readers had left.