Maddest of mad props to ComicBookHarriet for carrying us through the last couple weeks!
“Kitchen Reno“? I had to read today’s strip a couple times before I grasped that “reno” in this case is short for renovations. The weird alignment of type didn’t help. What’s with Funky’s stricken expression in panel 2? Home improvement is typically something guys like to talk about. Of course, all that Funky cares about is what all this is going to cost, especially with Holly out there sourcing materials. As the owner of a business that seems to have more employees than regular customers, he’s right to be concerned as to what this is going to cost.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Same here, TFH. My first thought was “what does The Biggest Little City In The World have to do with anything?”, but then I realized it was just the weird Batiuk slang he makes up specifically for the Funkyverse, like “vendo” or “cancero”. It’s a really annoying trait.
This hackneyed premise is pretty annoying too, as “the husband pays for the sins of the wife” trope was tiresome back when Lucy and Ricky were doing it. I assume Holly strong-armed Funky into it by threatening to nag and henpeck and (shudder) withhold sex from Funky until he caved, which as everyone knows is truly the backbone of any long happy marriage. But the upside here for Funky is that when Holly finds him collapsed on the bathroom floor at least it’ll be heated.
One of those HGTV shows my wife watches from time-to-time used “Reno” for renovation. Typed out, I always think of the city as well, but when they say it out loud it makes me think of automaker Renault. Curse them for not keeping AMC afloat!
I like how Funky’s house is getting a “Reno” before Montoni’s, which surely needs it worse.
Home renovation contractors in Reno must really have it rough.
“Yeah, Reno Reno, how can I help you?”
“I’m looking for an estimate on a reno, in Reno.”
“Reno in Reno, OK, what kind of reno are we talking here?”
“East Reno.”
“No, I mean the reno.”
“Oh, you meant reno, I thought you meant Reno.”
Now that I think about it maybe BatYam should visit Reno immediately, as that’s like three months worth of material right there.
Not as bad as the poor Greek blokes who have to explain that they’re Lesbians because the literally come from Lesbos.
Only a problem in English; I doubt it’s the same word in Greek. Though if they get enough English speaking tourists there they might start to consider changing the name. There’s a town in Germany whose actual honest to god name is F*cking, and they cannot keep a city limits sign up on the road for any length of time because tourists steal them. They have voted several times about changing their name, but it hasn’t passed.
I’ve read about this before, but things have changed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugging,_Upper_Austria
If only the word zeppelin had been larger! Batiuk could have said “renovation” and obscured more of the imagery. We could have done without Funky’s scalp and Crazy’s hair swoosh
Or did Funky mean “renal?” Is Holly shopping for some bleeding-edge toilet technology that will supplant Funky’s kidney and bladder functions, cutting down on his bathroom time?
Every time a strip features Funky being nervously anxious about the cost of something I will be motivated to write here to say, yet again, as I did yesterday and before, that FUNKY LIVES IN A GOD DAMNED MANSION OF A HOUSE THAT WOULD HAVE A VALUE OF AT LEAST ONE FUCKING MILLION DOLLARS IF IT EXISTED IN THE REAL WORLD.
YOU ARE A FUCKING MILLIONAIRE. SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Funky has a total pizza monopoly in Westview and if I’m not mistaken he owns the building where “Komix Korner” is located. Thus he is by far the most powerful person in town, like the Pablo Escobar of Westview. With the wave of a hand he could bring Westview to a complete standstill. By now I have to imagine he’s amassed a fortune of tens of hundreds of dollars, at a minimum.
Funky is simultaneously the biggest success and biggest failure in Westview. He owns the town’s central meeting place, but you rarely see anyone eating anything. He has the biggest house in town other than Chester Hagglemore, when the failure of Montoni’s New York should have bankrupted him. He was interviewed by some entrepreneurial success magazine, but he hires anybody who walks in the front door with a sob story, and fails to do basic tasks like ordering cheese. He just had a surgery where his financial worthiness was raised as an issue, but now he’s shelling out for thousands of dollars in non-critical home renovations.
And despite all the ways he is successful, he gets zero respect from anyone. His health is the butt of jokes, when there’s no evidence his health is worse than all the other chunky 55-year-olds in this town. He’s also a generous man who is quick to help others, but he gets no respect or even thanks for this.
Cost shouldn’t even be an issue, because Funky just had a “financial health screening” at the eye doctor a month ago. Which he apparently passed. He should know very well what their finances are, and how much set the cataract surgery set them back. And if it was a lot, then Funky may have a point in wanting to not do unnecessary expenses for a bit. But none of this is addressed, we just get vague sub-sitcom jokes that imply a conflict that we never even see.
It would pronounce better if spelled “Renno” even though that means an extra “n” not in the original…oh, I forgot, Batiuk doesn’t care about making his stuff comprehensible.
Dammit, TFH! Your title today caused me to listen to this song. Now it will be stuck in my head for weeks!
Here’s where my mind went:
All due love and respect to Mott, but here’s where the title came from:
Thanks for clarifying that, TFH. It’s funny that rather than think of a song from this century, my mind flashed back to glam rock from the early 70’s.
Shouldn’t Adeela handle the renovations? Or is her English too good for Batiuk?
New Batiuktionary entry?
Indeed. Todd the wordsmith.
He certainly hammered that one. Or was he hammered?
Meanwhile, gangs of post-inferno survivors roam the streets of Los Angeles, looking for scraps of food, clean water, and gossip blog snippets from the set of “Lisa’s Story.”
At first I thought that was a typo, and he meant to write “redo”