A few things strike me as funny about this strip. I think it’s funny that a year or so ago, when Batiuk wrote this, he thought everyone would go straight from social isolation to meeting back like normal, with nobody wearing masks in between. And in all that time never thought maybe that he should have the artist go back and draw masks on the characters.
The second thing is that the CDC this week specifically mentioned singing in a choir indoors as something you should still wear a mask while doing, even if you’re vaccinated.
Oh, yeah, the “old person doesn’t know how to use technology” “gag” didn’t strike me as funny much at all. CBH takes over tomorrow. I wonder how many weeks of Funky monologuing at AA she’ll have to endure . . .
Zoom and Gloom
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Son of Stuck Funky 
I fully expected today’s strip to be a redrawn comic book cover where Flash had fallen off his Cosmic Treadmill, as capstone to Funky’s saga of not breaking his Discman.
I assumed Funky’s treadmill mishap was going to transport him to an alternate reality where he’s still married to Cindy, Montoni’s has branches in all five NYC boroughs, and the Discman is cheap and in common use. So begins the strange saga of “Winkerbean of Two Worlds,” which inspires an elderly Batton Thomas to quit reading comics.
I’d like to know when they were meeting on Zoom. Dinkle only got the job a couple of weeks ago and was shown having them practice in person until 2am.
Yeah, good call. This one seems awfully haphazard and thrown together by Sunday strip standards.
Not to mention insulting to Battyuk’s readers…if such a thing is possible. Is it possible, even conceivable, that TB thinks people WON’T remember how the period of mid-March to mid-April was dominated by Dinkleberg’s worming his way into the St. Spires choir loft and sending the ladies on chocolate-selling crusades, all done without a mask in sight? Even Bull Bushka would have recalled this and called “shenanigans.”
Also, what is a young Roger Ebert doing next to Lillian the Lizard’s right claw?
“Also, what is a young Roger Ebert doing next to Lillian the Lizard’s right claw?”
And here’s another example of TomBa’s complete disregard of his own universe. Lillian is supposedly about the same age as Crankshaft (possibly even slightly older). Somehow she’s totally unaffected by the ten-year time jump that aged the entire FW cast as well as Crankshaft, Jfff, Mindy, and Pmm.
Batiuk is being intentionally vague about how much time has passed. All we know is that it has been long enough for all the pandemic stuff to happen and then go away again. Was it weeks? Months? A full year? He’ll never tell us.
It really is comical how he assumed it’d all be in the past by now. As I’ve said before, the optimism there kind of surprises me. The stupidity of it doesn’t, of course, as that’s a constant.
This is one hell of a weak-ass Sunday strip though, isn’t it? He tried to stretch it out with that bogus double-panel but this is just a Tuesday or Wednesday strip at heart.
Maybe this one is even more out-of-date than it seems. Or would Batiuk decide that an “It’s Pat” reference would be lost on his fanbase?
It is a humorous thing that elderly people are not well-versed in the latest of technology, no? Kindly laugh now.
He made nearly the same joke in Crankshaft three weeks ago, but with FaceTime instead of Zoom. Given his lead times, I assume he hadn’t heard of Zoom at that point.
I want to see what Chuck Ayers face looked like when he got the script from TB and saw that it called for a whole panel of nothing but Dinkle’s lower half ascending a staircase.
It’s cute how he managed to shove the organ in there even though this arc stopped being about the organ a month ago. Yes, I am aware that I said “shove the organ in there” and I apologize.
Well, at least he’s not nude.
I’m not a violent person, but each character in today’s strip is especially punchable.
Ayers could make a fortune licensing his art for custom boxing equipment.
Since we’ve jumped ahead several months at the minimum, did The Big Dink ever fulfill his destiny and march in Pasadena on New Year’s Day?
As an aside, my mom is 72 (God protect her) is as anti-technology as it gets and even she has this whole Zoom thing figured out for her club meetings… So Batiuk needs to find another gag already…
Does this comic strip even deserve the nickname Funky Cancercancer anymore?
You want a Lisa’s Story rehash? Because asking a question like that is how you get a Lisa’s Story rehash!
Join what site? Zoom is an app that you download, and you join a meeting, not a site. Lillian, you aren’t as tech-savvy as you want to make out, but fortunately nobody else in the strip will notice.
Also, does this mean Pat has been unable to rehearse with the others? That could be a problem for performing, you know.
What’s with the huge space-burner Funky head?
I’m confused. Is Discman-loving, iTunes-hating, and apparently selective Luddite TomBa making fun of non-tech-savy senior citizens?
At least Lillian is somewhat closer to being on-model today.
Also, shut up Lillian! Maybe Pat ran down her tablet talking to her family because they love her! Because she didn’t betray her sister!
Nice of them to include a Morlock in the choir (last panel, far right).
Placing my bet now that Monday begins with a ‘new’ arc and the AA meeting vanishes into the ether (or the chloroform, that would work too).