Well, at least there’s no more Dinkle in today’s strip. We do have seven panels of a guy watching TV, which isn’t the most engaging thing for a comic to depict. And we have a gag that could’ve been told in just one or two panels, or even in Crankshaft, for that matter. And it’s a complaint that probably gets made repeatedly on every sports radio station in the country on Mondays. But hey, no Dinkle, so things are looking up.
Speaking of looking up, we all have ComicBookHarriet’s return tomorrow to look forward to! For her sake, I hope this “no Dinkle” trend continues.
This Strip Should Be Under Review
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Son of Stuck Funky 
And why does he have a toddler’s arm?
He ran out of pretzels.
A challenge by a coach to a call on the field can’t be challenged by the opposing coach. Add football rules to the list of thing TomBa doesn’t know. (Full disclosure: I am not a football fan but even I watch enough to know this isn’t a thing.)
Also, what’s with the autumn leaves today? Yesterday’s installment showed a snowstorm with about a foot of snow on the ground.
Good call re: the leaves. This is obviously an outtake strip that didn’t make the initial cut, most likely due to the really shitty artwork, especially in that last panel. Since when does FW run football gags in January anyhow?
That is the first thing I noticed. It’s obvious this was supposed to run in the fall but yesterday’s strip showed a full on blizzard.
Batty loves his blizzards, but last winter was mild, and so far this winter has been mild too.
Sure it can – it’s in the rules, right under the rule that says that mascots can enter the game without having to wear the required helmet or padding. Anybody else remember that strip?
There would be no point to challenging a challenge. If the original ruling was correct, the first challenge would have failed, and the call would have been upheld. Reviewing the same play again isn’t going to tell you anything new. There is no Court of Appeals in the NFL.
I think today’s strip is worse than ignorant: it’s intellectually dishonest. It tries to make the replay challenge process look tedious, by depicting a scenario that can’t actually happen. And by having two of the five panels just reiterate what the previous one said.
Is this Funky or Morton? I can’t tell. And the bald spot isn’t helping. (Notice how Les has all his hair and no bald spot. Because Les.)
Burchett drew Les as significantly balding compared to how Batiuk had previously drawn him. After Ayers took over the art, Les’s hairline has made a miraculous recovery.
In fact, they’re all pretty inconsistent, but Les’s probably has the largest disparity, excepting Gross John’s curiously vanishing bald spot.
I’ve forgotten Bull, whose hairline would often drift about 10 inches within a single strip. But at least that was consistent with Bull’s character, as his height and weight would also wildly fluctuate in all the strips he was in.
Also notice how Les is always stick-thin, despite exercising much less than Funky and having a diet that seems to consist of nothing but Montoni’s, hot dogs, and peas.
Funkenstein is a good 10-12 years late to the party with this joke, but at least it’s an honest-to-god attempt at humor…
If this was the worst the strip got, it wouldn’t even be worth criticizing honestly.
I’m sorry, did we skip ahead to Act IV while Dinkle was parading around the streets of Pasadena? Funky looks like he’s in his 70s in this strip.
“Holly would have been so disappointed…over what a crotchety old man you’ve become.”
Nice posturing Funky, but you’ll keep watching… just like you watched the Browns lose game after game year after year… just like we all still read this comic strip day after day year after year…
See, that would actually be a worthwhile gag. The old “I’m never watching this team again” / “what time is next week’s game” bit. Which would be especially apropos for fans of the Cleveland Browns, one of the most frustrating teams you could root for in any sport.
Do anger and rage issues cause extreme Crankshaftormation?
It’s time for America’s least favorite game show: “Morty, Funky, or Cranky?”…
Or as George Carlin called it, “Asshole, Jackoff, Scumbag.”
Though if I were a contestant on the show, I would have Crankshaft as the Asshole and Mort as the Scumbag. Funky is unquestionably the Jackoff.
“The game where nobody wins…especially not the viewing audience!”
In recent decades, we football fans have come up with one goofy little trick for watching games: Record the game, go do something else for an hour, and then start watching. You can skip all the commercials and challenges and just enjoy the game. Advertisers hate us!
Meanwhile, pursuant to our conversation about Mary Worth yesterday, Karen Moy remembers the First Rule of Drama: Get your characters in trouble. Preferably big trouble.
A rule that is almost always averted in FW. Even when characters get in big trouble — their wife dies, for example, leaving them to raise a small child alone — Batiuk can’t stand the tension and runs away from it. Moy… well, she dove right in today.
Yeah, she took the plunge.
Indeed. Not only has Moy apparently killed off a major character, she’s done it in a context that makes her title character indirectly responsible for the death. It’s going to be interesting to see how Moy has Mary deal with the consequences of her repeatedly pushing Wilbur and Estelle together.
Contrast with how the rest of the FW cast processed Bull Bushka’s demise.
Even if it’s just a fake out, ala’ Darin and Pete Steal Pens, at least it looked great.
The only time I’ve ever been tempted by the “Buy a copy of this strip” ad.
Two recent strip deaths to compare and contrast between FW and MW is among Aldo Kelrast and Bull.
In MW, before and after Aldo’s death, the characters had words and actions which were more aligned with how actual humans behaved.
Bull’s daughter was nowhere to be seen for his funeral. Cindy was, though. That was important.
ps: I don’t think Wilbur’s dead.
“We interrupt this story to tell you that pro football is tedious. Coming up, next, Week 4 of ‘Dinkle receives congratulations for being in the Rose Parade.'”
“Dinkle receives congratulations” is the halftime show.
Football fields are for band directors!