I have no idea what Holly means in panel two. Is she on her knees a lot? Does she scrub a lot of floors, or is her Dorf impression hugely popular at parties? When one says “I’m on my feet a lot” it tends to mean “I’m very busy.” I don’t know the corresponding meaning for knees.
Panel three is the real baffler. I really have no idea what she means. It’s framed as if it’s a punchline, but I cannot find a trace of humor in it–or anything sensible. Her knees want her to die so they can rest? Is that the joke?
Proof positive (as if any more were needed) that this is never touched by an editor.
Son of Stuck Funky 
It appears that the proverbial roomful of monkeys at typewriters produced today’s diallogue..
This is one of those Batom gags regular FW readers will “get” (more or less) only because they kind of know what he was trying (and failing) to do here. FW’s casual reader (singular) will most likely be baffled, though. I’m assuming that the premise here is that Holly is old and decrepit, which is pretty much the entire theme of Act III.
Funky looks disturbed by the way Holly talks about being on her knees, which could mean–ew! Ew! Ew! Quick, give me brain bleach! Make it a double!
I wasn’t going to go there but the dialogue doesn’t preclude that interpretation.
Yeah, that occurred to me as well, but I decided I wasn’t going into that graveyard.
Judging by the way the doctor is looking at her, Holly’s knees aren’t alone.
Sheesh, the doctor just asked two days ago “is there any pain in the leg or ankle?” And she gave a different answer: “No.” Now her foot still “aches a little.” It’s blatantly obvious that Tom Batiuk is just writing whatever gags he can think of, and paying no attention to the story.
This would not be acceptable in a Level 1 improv class. We call it “being jokey.” You’re supposed to build a story first, and let the gags come naturally, not force them at the expense of the story. And this is imposed upon new trainees who are making it up on the spot, not writing it 11 months in advance! This is pathetic.
Furthermore: she hasn’t been off her knees! She was on a cart the Monday morning after surgery! We just saw her getting around Montoni’s on crutches! Again, it’s like the story doesn’t even exist. Batiuk just wants to fill this week with stupid jokes so he can start pimping Dinkle. And we all know why.
If there isn’t already a death metal/ska/blues band named “Pimping Dinkle” somewhere in America, then as God is my witness I will take guitar lessons, master the instrument, gather some like-minded musicians, and form one!
Oh, and today’s final panel is unfunny and wouldn’t even qualify for one of Crankshaft’s “muddled aphorisms.” Can’t wait for tomorrow’s climax, with Funky and Holly wandering around the hospital parking lot because he forgot where the place they ultimately found is located.
I am fortunate to not have had any injuries severe enough to need a doctor’s attention, or follow-up attention. So I speak from ignorance here.
But I can see a rational reason a doctor might ask fundamentally the same question in several different ways. This would be to tease out more context about what a patient feels. Also to prompt them to explain something they had noticed but forgotten to mention in the stressful situation of the office visit. Or to bring up mention of something chronic that they’ve lived with so long they’ve forgotten no, that shouldn’t hurt for most people.
Still, this whole strip would be less baffling if Holly had said ‘Since I’ve been off my feet, my knees don’t ache anymore’; then everything would fit reasonably together.
But I can see a rational reason a doctor might ask fundamentally the same question in several different ways.
True, but what would be the narrative purpose of showing that in the strip? Holly’s injury has never been any kind of story, just a lame pretext for even lamer gags. Holly’s conflict with her mother was a story, but Batiuk dropped it like a hot potato.
W…T…F?
I guess Holly has a symbiotic relationship with her knees. Holly appears to be losing a battle of wits with them. Time to let go and die, Holly. Your knees will appreciate your sacrifice.
Funky looks adequately concerned. It must be a terrible thing to witness your loved one losing their mind.
Folks, where else in the comics can you read crap like this?
“But since I’ve been off my feet, my knees don’t hurt anymore.” There, was that so hard?
“How’s your foot feeling?”
“My knees are great! They want me to die!”
“Wow. OK. We’re going to wheel you down to another ‘ward’ of our hospital.”
Editing? King Features? The organization that let Apartment 3-G devolve into a years-long Alzheimer’s-fueled 1950s repetitive dreamscape — where even from panel to panel facial features had the pliability of silly putty, object permanence was merely a long-forgotten rumour, and space, time, plot, and coherence all had no meaning?
The term “King Features Editor” is, by definition, an oxymoron.
“object permanence was merely a long-forgotten rumour”
With the possible exception, as I recall, of the table lamp in the living room that was dubbed “Lampey” by commenters.
Lampy did float around a bit and pop up in some unexpected locations … but yes, Lampy still probably did achieve something closer to object permanence than, say, Tommie.
Knee slopper.
Her knees don’t hurt any more because…why do I have the feeling we may be for yet another Very Special Storyline?
I… think… she’s saying that since she’s been off her feet she’s also been off her knees so now her knees feel better? I’ve been trying to be generous this week as it’s been mostly a bunch of dumb dad jokes but it’s Friday and this is just bad English and I’m out of generous.
This is what happens when Batuik tries to get another week out of an arc that was already 3 weeks too long to begin with. What dead horse is he going to beat next week? Band turkeys/candy/mattresses? Is he going to tie it into the Rose Bowl parade somehow?
I think it’s going to be nothing but Dinkle and the Rose Parade until it happens on New Year’s Day. It’s disturbing how invested Batiuk is in that. He acts like it’s his own personal Elvis Comeback Special. The image folders on his blog (which aren’t hard to find) are full of photos related to it. I like this one:
I’ll leave it to the group to speculate Batiuk wanted a picture of a papier-mache ass.
Does anybody still watch the Rose Parade? I dimly remember having it on in the background on New Year’s mornings when I was a child, but I haven’t been a child for a LONG time.
I found this article from 2006 which says Rose Parade viewership took a huge dive from about 2000-2005, dropping from 60 million to about 38 million. Various Google searches say it’s still at that level, though. But its viewership skews very old.
That picture no longer seems to appear.
It’s still there for me. It looks to me like he removed a picture called Roses-D. This was the bottom picture in the post “Tournament of Roses Parade – Sneak Peek 5” but is now a missing image placeholder. But Roses-A, the picture of the band director figure’s butt, is still in that folder.
What’s Phil Silvers doing in the masthead?
After reading today’s strip, I had to take a walk to clear out the corncobs.