All good things must come to an end; so too must all excruciatingly dull things like this week’s reno convo. As Funky Winkerbean has pivoted from “depicting contemporary issues affecting young adults” etc. etc., we see more situations that are likely drawn from what’s been happening in Batiuk’s life the last couple years. Having one’s home renovated actually does hold some comic potential, and this arc got off to a promising start Sunday, where we saw Funky and Holly interacting with the contractor at their house. It might have been kinda fun to see the job actually being done, and maybe have Holly finding ways to continually and inadvertently drive up the price tag, adding to her husband’s consterenation. Instead, the rest of the week’s been taken up with these two commiserating.
Write What You (Ren-)Know
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Son of Stuck Funky 
Nice ham-fisted analogy there, Tom. All I know for sure is that if you’re barely surviving a bathroom renovation, you probably did it wrong. And note how it is indeed the same day, which wasn’t really a certainty as recently as yesterday. Also note a customer at Montoni’s paying for something, which you don’t see every day.
He could have shown Funky sitting on the can reading the newspaper. Panel 2 shows a saw blade cutting through the floor and then panel 3 shows a bewildered contractor saying “ oops!”
I guess this means neither “Renos” nor surgery are like Funky Winkerbean, which I’ve never survived gratefully.
Also note how Harry wishes Funky good luck with the you-know-what, as if he’s not going to be hearing all about it every step of the way during his daily visits. Everything is just so off-kilter and weird with this one.
Using “reno” in any context other than describing a town in Nevada is not a real thing, IMHO. (great work this week btw!)
Don’t forget Elvis Presley playing Clint Reno in his film debut, 1956’s “Love Me Tender.” Fun Fact: the picture’s working title was “The Reno Brothers,” which Battyuk probably thinks is an HGTV reality show.
I would agree, but for a certain TV show I wish I had never been subjected to…
I’m guessing TB heard it on Love It Or List It and ran with it as if it was a thing outside of the imaginations of the show’s chyron operator, which we all know it is not.
Shouldn’t it be “Renos are like Surgos…”? This from a guy who’s gone through both in the past month or two and has done nothing but kvetch, whine, and make bad jokes while people try to make his miserable existence more bearable.
A competent cartoonist would indeed have had this past week’s dailies show Holly’s shopping and some comical construction chaos (just copy jokes from the Three Stooges’ “A Plumbing We Will Go”), and then used the Sunday strip for the Funky/Crazy countertop confab. Everything these two said for the past six days could have easily fit into one Sunday strip with one bad pun.
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but I almost want there to be a complete tour of the new and “improved” Chateau Winkerbean tomorrow, just so our six days of sloughing through (apparently) one very repetitive day-long conversation won’t have totally been in vain.
A competent 6th-grader in middle school Creative Writing class would have shown Holly shopping and some comical construction chaos.
Teacher Tom would have scrawled “Pretentious!” on that kid’s work and given him an F.
As others have mentioned, home renovation or repair presents a gold mine of comedy possibilities. But TomBa has adhered to his credo “Tell, don’t show”. It is the one fixed star in his universe.
Funky talks about “surviving” surgery? How many times has he had surgeries where his, uh, “life” was in jeopardy? Would it count if the surgical staff wanted to kill him over his drama-queen attitude?
The 2010 car wreck-time warp-coma was probably the only time Funky was in the hospital with his life in jeopardy… though the jeopardy was from the car accident and whether or not he had surgery is not really stated.
This “reno” bit induces a gag reflex similar to that induced by “solo car date”.
For those that want a walking tour of Batty’s hometown, check out this video of the ice festival that is being featured in Crankshaft. You will see Les’ gazebo and the area around “Montoni’s “
Doh! Try this:
This strip has been so miserable so far in 2021 that I’m ready for an extended Les arc.