In any other strip–Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, even Mary Worth (prior to its Wilburization)–this would be a sweet moment. Imagine if Linus found out that Peppermint Patty had deliberately thrown a game so that Chuck could have a win. That would be great, and Linus’s response to Patty’s question would be the same as here.
But this isn’t a strip where sweet things happen. Mawkish things, treacly things, things filled with bathos, sure, those happen all the time. But genuine nice moments are as rare as Becky’s mom.
Here, Summer’s sly face in panel three suggests not so much a sentimental secret, but the desire to make Les keep thinking he’s been losing his mind. I kinda like that she has that ambition, honestly.
PS: We know why this entire week is here, right? It was a recent commentor (I can’t remember who, sorry) who pointed out that the nominees for the Academy Awards are going to be announced very soon. Who wants to bet that “Lisa’s Story” will have a few entries? So, a week of Lisa-a-Go-Go. Gotta keep Lisa in the public eye, even if she’s poking that eye with a stick!
Son of Stuck Funky 
I got the reference! Let me give Les the finger six times!
You knew Les was going to be OK? Have you MET this man?
She’s doing something nice for Les Moore so, no, of course she’s never met him.
Is panel 1 a tribute to Louie Anderson? He was tremendous as the mom in Baskets (I mean that sincerely).
Good call by, um…Summer, I guess? Don’t spoil Les’ delusions. It’s all he has left. Everything else he’s done in his life has been one abject failure after another. Including you, “Summer.” Good luck with your 10th year as a freshman.
“Right now, I’m a freshman in my fourth year at UCLA, but my goal is to become a veterinarian because I love children…”
Julie Brown in “‘Cause I’m a Blonde”
What she could teach Summer Moore!
Earth Girls may or may not be easy, but BillytheSkink is one of the best!
Oh, she graduated six years ago. Finished her Masters, and her Doctorate, and is now a tenured professor at Kent State with a house, husband and family a few miles from the campus. She hasn’t told Les about this for two reasons: first, he’s never stopped talking about Dead St. Lisa long enough for her to tell him the good news; second, she doesn’t want him to know she’s escaped Cancerdeathville, lest he try to drag her back into the pit.
On the basis of what’s been shown in this week’s strips, there’s no logical basis for Ewing to ask this question today.
Ewing had no idea that Les “didn’t know” it was her who was filling the feeder (a task which needed to be explicitly written out twice, by the way). Summer never said anything to Ewing about what Les said about the subject, other than that the birds were coming after Lisa died. That’s it.
How does he always find new ways to completely fail at making high quality work.
“…then I knew Tom Batiuk was seeing that dozens of devoted followers view his strip every day. I knew he was going to be okay. So, are you going to tell him the only followers he has are all viewing his terrible, terrible strip ironically?”
(smirking) “No….I don’t think so.”
I liked this so much I had to bring it to life:
Ha! Thanks, BJr6K, for being the Ayers to my Batiuk!
(Ugh, I think I insulted us *both* with that analogy. Uh, thanks for being the Bridgman to my Moy? Is that better or worse? In any event, I genuinely thank you for this piece of art!)
My pleasure. And no offense taken, I appreciate the sentiment.
This strip in Act III could have quite accurately been renamed Enablers.
Hey, maybe we’ll learn that it was also Mrs. Ewing who called Les at Houston’s Intercontinental Airport to warn him not to get on the plane. It’s OK, Summer won’t tell…
Once again a series of strips that makes no sense. We’re asked to believe that Les, a 50+ year old man, would somehow think that the ghost of Lisa would be able to fill the bird feeder with actual bird seed on a daily basis and wouldn’t be curious about where footprints in the snow came from and returned to.
And who bought the bird seed, was it on his Visa bill, or did Lisa pay cash?
Summer is walking away from Mrs. Ewing and ending the conversation without any common decency. Mrs. Ewing was performing an act of kindness. No “nice talking to you”, “nice meeting you”, or “excuse me, I have things to do.” Summer just turns and walks away. Rude!
I guess Lisa didn’t cover proper etiquette in the Holy Dead St. Lisa tapes.
Have you MET Lisa? She’s one of the rudest, most self-centered people who ever lived. So that would be perfectly in character.
Tell me about it. I just reread the strips that @billytheskink mentioned in his post.
Lisa allegedly calls Les to beg him not to get on the plane. Les disbelieves that the call came from Ghost Lisa and boards the plane anyway. Several strips later, a couple of airplane mechanics discuss the good fortune of an anonymous woman calling in a phony bomb threat that canceled the flight. There turned out to be a crack on the engine’s trunnion mount.
Why didn’t Lisa make the anonymous phony bomb threat first? If Lisa convinced Les not to board the flight, was she willing to let the plane crash? Hundreds of people could have died. 😨
Lisa: All the simple plebs can die. Who cares as long as my beloved Les is safe.
How selfish!
Why would Summer tell? The more off-kilter she can keep creepy Les, the more chance she has of inheriting the Taj Moore-Hal outright. Then she can flip it for enough cash to move to a place where komix are for kids and cancer is not a religion.
This strip perfectly encapsulates Funky Winkerbean in all its creepy, gaslighting, passive-aggressive glory.
By the way, how many years have passed since Mrs. Ewingstone stopped filling the bird feeder? How would this topic even come up again?
I said it already this week, but: it’s like Les is four years old. His own child, who was only 5 years old when her mother died, is engaged in protecting him from it.
Even though it was 25 years ago. Even though refusing treatment was a choice Lisa made and Les supported. Even though Les is supposedly “OK” according to both himself (in the infamous “it’s OK for you to go” strip) and Mrs. Ewing. Even though he seamlessly raised Summer as a single parent. Even though he supposedly wrote the most moving memoir about it in all of literary history. Even though he spent years getting that dumb movie made. Even though that process bombarded him with all kinds of triggering reminders of Lisa being alive, and traumas like wanting people to make Lisa’s life into a porno movie.
But I guess I’m just a beady-eyed nitpicker.
That should say “people wanting.”
I think it was CBH, doing a deep dive into Crankshaft’s Kent State arc, who pointed out that Pam was still protecting her father from the truth of how close she came to the violence that day, and about her student protest history. This when her son was university age himself, and to whom the truth might have been useful and enlightening.
Particularly egregious in the case of Crankshaft who enjoys disturbing other people’s feelings and equilibrium, but is apparently a fragile flower himsel.
If there’s one thing worse than the Lester Moores of the world, it’s fucking constant shameless enablers like Cayla, Summer, Mrs. Ewing, Masone Jarre and Marianne Winterse, the “I GOT THAT REFERENCE!” lady, that obnoxious wink-and-a-nod white-haired producer lady from the first Lisa Movie Production, Jerome Bushka, everyone involved in the Lisa’s Legacy Foundation, the list goes on…
This is the heart of the Mary Sue experience. Everyone in the world exists to please Les and give him every single thing he wants. No matter how petty, illogical, or contrary to their own interests. Same for Dinkle, same for Funky, same for “the bullpen”, same for Batton Thomas. They all get everything they want handed to them at all times. It sucks you out of the story, because Tom Batiuk is so busy rewarding himself that he never bothered writing a story.
It’s funny because Lester is still watching them both from the window and he always knew from day one it was his next door neighbor yet he choose to reject this reality to substitute his own Lisa Ghost story… So even if Summer did tell him the truth, Les is still fully vested in perpetrating the lie…
Give credit to you for doing something nice? Hell no!