Oh goodie! I get a Dinkle arc. Having to scrape together some kind of humor or commentary for Dinkel arcs is ‘always enjoyable.’ But it gets tedious trying to remember everything that has happened to Dinkle in Act III that has slowly morphed him from a unique and bombastic caricature of a passionate band director into just another bland, smug, Westview Pod Person.
Please note, while Dinkle claims that teaching piano is ‘always enjoyable’ he doesn’t look like he’s enjoying it today, and…spoilers…he doesn’t seem to enjoy it all week long. Maybe in Westview the words ‘always’ or ‘enjoyable’ mean something very different than what’s listed in the dictonary?
Son of Stuck Funky 
Maybe don’t gripe out loud in front of your student?
Like Funky with the pizza, Les with the writing and Pete/Boy Lisa with the comic books, it’s another FW character who loathes doing the thing they love the most. It’s all a thankless ordeal in the Funkyverse.
Think Batiuk is revealing something about himself?
Haiku of the Day
Turns to the fourth wall
“Curse this Sysiphean task!
Curse these wretched kids!”
If I were paying for piano lessons, I’d be danged sure the phone stayed with me for the hour.
Smart kid. He knows enough to Google everything Dinkle tells him.
Ugh. Dinkle again. Every time he shows up my first thought is “oh yeah, Dinkle is still in the strip”. At the very least, “Dinkle gives piano lessons” is a more or less “new” Dinkle premise, which is something, I suppose. Because after all, it is nearly band turkey season and all.
It’s hard not to read panel 1 as highly sarcastic, given how miserable he looks in panel 2.
While this looks a lot like the start of a miserable weeklong “kid’s these days, amirite?” humor vacuum of a story arc… I derive some small satisfaction from seeing the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest band director” reduced to giving piano lessons to uninterested elementary schoolers out of presumed financial necessity.
“Kids these days, always playing on their cell phones, and…. that’s all I’ve got.”
Dinkle could have it worse. He could be selling band candy door to door full-time. Or would that be better? I’m still not sure.
This isn’t a public school, Dinkle.
You can take the phone away, Dinkle.
You can refuse to conduct the instruction if he has the phone out, Dinkle.
You’re an adult, Dinkle.
You can act like an adult, Dinkle.
Hopefully this won’t be a week of Dinkle working in his Claude Barlow biography which must be thousands of pages long since he has been working on it through all three acts of FW
Or even worse it’s close enough to Thanksgiving so it could be a week of memories of selling those frozen Band Turkeys
Not holding out much hope for this week
I just realized that the wheelchair ramp arc concluded without us ever seeing a character in a wheelchair.
Who wants to bet a Shiny Nickel that we’ll never see that ramp in use?
I got a tarnished dime that says the ramp goes the way of the veteran’s reserved parking spot and the wide-enough-for-tables sidewalk.
The ramp goes away after the first older non-disabled person trips over the edge in the dark and sues Montoni’s. Then so does Montoni’s.
“Oh, wow, Mr. Dinglebewwy, wook at this news cwip! They’ve put a hannicap wamp in fwont of Montoni’s Pizzewia! Isn’t that gweat?”
Are we supposed to enjoy this shit?
No.
“morphed . . . from a unique and bombastic caricature of a passionate band director into just another bland, smug, Westview Pod Person”
Spot on! This metamorphosis is particularly fascinating since Dinkle has consistently been presented as overbearing and nearly omnipotent. Is TomBa now farming out the scripting to interns who’ve never read the strip?
One of us! One of us!
Great idea positing a guest appearance by Winthrop from “The Music Man”. Maybe we can work Harold Hill and Marian The Librarian in as well to liven things up, but I wouldn’t hold out too much hope.
Directed to J.J. O’Malley’s contribution.
Harold “Music Man” Hill and Harry “World’s Greatest” Dinkle face off in the Battle of the Band Directors, only on Pay-Per-Westview!
Dinkle looks like Dick Cheney with hair.
Dinkle is less charming.
Well, Dinkle actually is a pretty funny band teacher sometimes, it’s just that he’s always there. And you know Becky can’t just lock the door because she has to hold her tuba at the same time.
What the fuck does Dinkle care? He’s getting paid for the hour regardless if the kid is paying attention…
Who is Hairy Dickinkle speaking to here ? And what would Flunky Wankerbean be without a falling leaf?