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Have I Discovered ‘The Big Slap’?
Remember the SOSF April Fools Day joke from this year? Where I pasted up a bunch of fake strips insinuating that Les Moore had done a hit and run on a pedestrian outside Westview High? Remember how a part of that joke was that the plotline was later referenced in the famous ‘Skunky Funkybuns’ stand up sketch?
Well…
In the words of the eternally funny Tim Negoda (Dan Ronan):
“I wanted to take on bigger issues and make the strip more real, honest, and gritty. So, I decided to take a big risk. I published a weeklong series of strips about Skunky and the Gang dealing with their school becoming racially integrated. This was quite controversial, because, at the time, schools had already been racially integrated for a while, and I did not realize that. The story line was a big slap in the face for the African American community, but it was a big step forward for me as an artist. “
I was flipping through my Volume 2 of The Complete Funky Winkerbean, and what should I find in August of 1977?
Finding this arc at first has me in gleeful hysterics. Tom had actually run a three-week arc on school integration?! AMAZING! Had Dan Ronan known? Probably not. But a hilarious find nonetheless.
Then I did my due diligence and found that the arc was, rather than a tone deaf slap in the face to the African American community, actually a ripped straight from the headlines Ohio controversy.
“In 1977, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Robert Duncan ruled in Penick v. Columbus Board of Education that the Columbus school district kept African-American and white students in separate schools by creating boundaries that sent African-American students to predominantly African-American schools and white students to predominantly white schools. Following the ruling, the Board began busing to create a desegregated school district. ” Teaching Columbus.
To say this was divisive and messy is a massive understatement. Even today the debate still rages regarding the effect of the decades of race quota based busing that ended in the 90’s. Was it pointless and costly? Did it drive white flight? Are schools resegregating now? And in our hyper online era of doom and gloom about MUH DIVISIONS IN SOCIETY, I think looking at controversies like this can be a stark reminder that the only reason we imagine the past as more peaceful and united is because we have forgotten it.
Godwin’s Law strikes again!
Batiuk doesn’t make his opinions on busing as a concept known in his arc. Maybe if you squint he’s mildly in favor. He’s deliberate in drawing plenty of black extras in every situation, to show an integrated society, but that’s it. Some might criticize him for being a fence sitter. But I think he made the right choice to make his stand on the issue not for, or against, but elsewhere. Poking some sardonic fun at the controversy, and also putting a strong emphasis on the stress on students and teachers when schools become political circuses.
The only slap in the face here is the creeper cop leering at the girls.
33 thoughts on “Have I Discovered ‘The Big Slap’?”
This is … not bad! As usual, it doesn’t reach the heights of say, Doonesbury or Bloom County or Pogo, either as humour or as satire. But it’s still a reasonably good job, finding some wry grins in a topical story — as those three other strips so often did so well. (Yes, I know Bloom County didn’t exist yet at the time this sequence was published.)
And yes, I’d say Tom is pretty clearly on the side of integration, without making the strip into a polemic. So points for him there, too.
I don’t think he’s picking a side at all. And that’s fine: I don’t think the point was to pick a side, and it doesn’t have to be. I think the story just explores how large-scale political decisions affect individual people and schools. And, how people like Dinkle and John Darling try to exploit such situations to their own ends. It does this well, and mixes in some of the usual Act I whimsy. I liked the bit about sophomores not dissolving in the toilet.
I agree, this was nicely done. I was in school when forced busing came to Cleveland and I think he captured the overall feelings at the time.
With act 1, he got his opinion across without bashing you over the head with it.
Related to the Batiukverse: FW/CS strip edits I’m not proud of
What should’ve happened when Cindy pulled that dick move by parking in a handicap spot in 2002 after being forced to wear glasses
Minbirds: We have come to shit on your head.
Crankshaft: GET THE FUCK OUTTA MY HOUSE!
Act III Les/Dick Facey without hair looks WAY TOO MUCH LIKE Walter White of Breaking Bad
Walter White: I AM THE ONE WHO SMIRKS!
What I think would happen if Chien met Mary Worrh
Chien! So hot, and yet STILL a childless cat lady!
Les looks good bald. Chien goes by Charles now.
Batty most likely based his arc on the Cleveland School District which also had court ordered busing.
People don’t like being reminded that the system is rigged…. especially when they benefit from it. It makes them see a rebuke to their claims of innocence in the form of people of color.s
The strip where John Darling interviews Coach Stropp is genuinely excellent, to the point where I’m not sure I could praise it enough. It is irreverent in exactly the right way, demonstrating a keen understanding of and humorously skewering both the racial stereotyping of football positions (which persists, perhaps even more strongly, today) and the shallow level of interest and understanding that a dolt like Coach Stropp would have in busing and school integration.
TB could write interesting and incisive stories about “important” things when he was willing to let his adult characters wear their flaws as flaws. They adults in this story arc are dumb, churlish, feckless, lazy, dishonest… and the strip presents them as such… and it works! Just because it’s funny doesn’t mean it doesn’t tackle the topic in a meaningful and insightful way. Really makes you wonder what happened to the guy.
that’s a very good point. The strip just lost all ability to question anyone’s behavior. It went from being equally critical of students, parents, and teachers, to being critical of basically no one. Except its unsatisfying cardboard villains like Roberta.
What I like about Act I is that every character (save maybe Dinkle) had the capacity for both unexpected depth and also viscous jokes made at their expense. The sitcom nature of it meant that Coach Stropp was free to be a stupid misogynistic asshole, yet, you were happy to see him and felt for some of his suffering.
Rather than labeling them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, he let them just be, warts-and-all. Kinda like real people.
And that is why act 1 features more realism than his later acts where he tried to be more realistic.
He got it into his head that he was doing people wrong by making them laugh.
CS 8/01:
What did they edit out of that strip’s first Word Hindenburg?
Dan Ronan knew exactly what he was doing. There was just no way he was not a regular FW reader well-versed in Batiukism. It was just way too on the nose. In the “Skunky Funkybuns” clip, you can hear at least one audience member who clearly gets it, which I find totally amazing. What are the odds on that?
That said, early Act I BatYam really did have a way of making things lite n’ breezy, which was more palatable when real gags were involved. And by “gags” I mean, you know, jokes that took him several minutes to write, as opposed to the mere seconds he put into his latter-day “prestige arcs”.
My favorite Skunky bit is the line about how “the strip went on like that, for a while”. We all know “a while” in the Batiukiverse means “years and years on end”.
That bit is a master class in writing and delivery. Every single word — and pause — is there for a reason, and carries weight. Every single performance choice, from wardrobe to voice to body language, supports the piece as a whole.
Dan Ronan had a bright, bright future ahead of him. Gone way too soon. RIP, Dan.
I watched it again today. The man was clearly intimately familiar with FW, Tom Batiuk, and probably Lynn Johnston too. Tim Ne-go-da…Tom Bat-i-uk…I mean come on. For someone that young to have that kind of grasp on the Batiuk philosophy was just amazing. I would have happily watched an entire Tim Negoda show, if only that were possible.
Isn’t “Batiuk” only two syllables, though? I thought it rhymed with “attic”.
Close enough.
I’m missing something on the 9/6 reprint. What does “find it’s closed out” mean? And why are cops registering?
I think it’s an Ohio phrase for “the easy A class you wanted to take is already full.” And every registering students has a cop accompanying them to “keep the peace.”
Yep, that’s it. But that was more of a college thing. For high school, it was very unlikely there wasn’t a spot for you. Maybe in some of the vocational programs, but not academic classes.
Today’s Funky Crankerbean:
How does burning old tires generate that much-oh yeah, it’s called writing or whatever
Related to the Batiukverse: more edits that I have no pride in while making them
Since I saw the original of the strip, I decided to make this edit with Ed and the chainsaw covered in blood, and Lillian’s head replacing the pumpkin
Fun fact: “Heartaches” was sampled as “It’s Just A Burning Memory” for the album “Everywhere at the End of Time” by Leyland Kirby/The Caretaker
What if: Funky used the Little League Reunion as a excuse to get drunk?
Les without glasses looks terrifying
I loved the first one with Jason/Leatherface Ed, but the last one where Lillian is about to put Les out of his misery had me laughing so hard I was crying. Great job.
Ooh, a new Match to Flame today.
As I alluded to earlier, the other major story arc weaving in and around all of the others during this period was the one about Les having a sporto for a daughter and his trying to support her athletic travails and triumphs on a stage completely alien to him.
From the introduction to The Complete Funky Winkerbean Vo. 13
And… that’s it. That’s the entirety of the post. (And he typo’d “Vol.”. Because proofreading is for chumps.)
But, hey, at least he calls Les an athletic supporter. (Look, I have to get my entertainment where I can.)
Apparently Dinkle is part-timing at my local high school.
WATERTOWN — The Watertown High School Marching Band has the opportunity to perform in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland in 2026. To help offset the cost of the trip for students, the WHS Music Department will hold its first-ever mattress fundraising event on Aug. 10 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in the WHS Commons, 825 Endeavour Drive.
During the sale, high-quality mattresses manufactured in Janesville and Watertown will be sold at deep discounts with onsite financing available. There will be adjustable bases, luxury pillows, and mattress protectors for sale. A portion of proceeds from the sale will go directly to offsetting trip expenses for marching band students, while the remainder will fund the band’s transportation to and from the airport.
Today’s Funky Crankerbean
Final Day of the Rehashed Canadian Wildfire Week
I had a fever dream today that somehow involved Jess Darling, Who’s Father John Darling, Was Murdered, overdosing on something, and had to require medical attention
There’s a lot that can still be said about Act 1 for sure. With modern values I did felt a twinge of cringe with jokes making light of black students dealing with the increased police presence. I’d say that jokes may not happen today, but with how lightly ICE agents were treated I could see everyone being happy once they get their Montoni’s at the end of the day I guess.
Batiuk’s blog has definitely felt on the short end of updates. Fewer “Cover Mes” or other news. Take 431 of the latter was interesting in showing a panel of the baby Daughter of John Darling having none of his shit about watching his show, with Tom commenting “aw, is it no wonder she loves watching his show?” while showing a late FW strip with her and her mom nostalging over it. Just goes to show how wasted that barely anyone addressed how much of an ass John was in later years.
I’d say it’s also worth calling attention to our first all-new Crankshaft this week. WIth the mask collection Lillian’s friend group amassed; how many of them were regularly been using superhero themed masks; would they accept them as gifts from grandkids or in grand Funkyverse tradition were all these old people still comic fans too? And are you sure you don’t still need those?
No animal prints. No sports logos. No company logos. It’s either colors, plain patterns, or comic books.
OK Tom.
Today’s Funky Crankerbean:
During the pandemic, I only wore two or three variations of the masks (the colors were teal, light blue and black)
Great find and thanks for the research too! Though my favorite bit was the reminder of Dinah Shore and Burt Reynolds’s 1970s tabloid-fodder romance. Sexed-up her squeaky clean “See the USA…” image quite a bit, dating the era’s male sex symbol, 20 years her junior.
Oof, it’s gonna be a rough week over in Crankshaft. It’s only Monday, and we have Skip visiting the Komix Korner to find Batton Thomas Creator Of The Comic Strip Three O’Clock High.
Everything about that sentence screams “DEEP HURTING”.
Son of Stuck Funky 
This is … not bad! As usual, it doesn’t reach the heights of say, Doonesbury or Bloom County or Pogo, either as humour or as satire. But it’s still a reasonably good job, finding some wry grins in a topical story — as those three other strips so often did so well. (Yes, I know Bloom County didn’t exist yet at the time this sequence was published.)
And yes, I’d say Tom is pretty clearly on the side of integration, without making the strip into a polemic. So points for him there, too.
I don’t think he’s picking a side at all. And that’s fine: I don’t think the point was to pick a side, and it doesn’t have to be. I think the story just explores how large-scale political decisions affect individual people and schools. And, how people like Dinkle and John Darling try to exploit such situations to their own ends. It does this well, and mixes in some of the usual Act I whimsy. I liked the bit about sophomores not dissolving in the toilet.
I agree, this was nicely done. I was in school when forced busing came to Cleveland and I think he captured the overall feelings at the time.
With act 1, he got his opinion across without bashing you over the head with it.
Related to the Batiukverse: FW/CS strip edits I’m not proud of
What should’ve happened when Cindy pulled that dick move by parking in a handicap spot in 2002 after being forced to wear glasses
Minbirds: We have come to shit on your head.
Crankshaft: GET THE FUCK OUTTA MY HOUSE!
Act III Les/Dick Facey without hair looks WAY TOO MUCH LIKE Walter White of Breaking Bad
Walter White: I AM THE ONE WHO SMIRKS!
What I think would happen if Chien met Mary Worrh
Chien! So hot, and yet STILL a childless cat lady!
Les looks good bald. Chien goes by Charles now.
Batty most likely based his arc on the Cleveland School District which also had court ordered busing.
People don’t like being reminded that the system is rigged…. especially when they benefit from it. It makes them see a rebuke to their claims of innocence in the form of people of color.s
The strip where John Darling interviews Coach Stropp is genuinely excellent, to the point where I’m not sure I could praise it enough. It is irreverent in exactly the right way, demonstrating a keen understanding of and humorously skewering both the racial stereotyping of football positions (which persists, perhaps even more strongly, today) and the shallow level of interest and understanding that a dolt like Coach Stropp would have in busing and school integration.
TB could write interesting and incisive stories about “important” things when he was willing to let his adult characters wear their flaws as flaws. They adults in this story arc are dumb, churlish, feckless, lazy, dishonest… and the strip presents them as such… and it works! Just because it’s funny doesn’t mean it doesn’t tackle the topic in a meaningful and insightful way. Really makes you wonder what happened to the guy.
that’s a very good point. The strip just lost all ability to question anyone’s behavior. It went from being equally critical of students, parents, and teachers, to being critical of basically no one. Except its unsatisfying cardboard villains like Roberta.
What I like about Act I is that every character (save maybe Dinkle) had the capacity for both unexpected depth and also viscous jokes made at their expense. The sitcom nature of it meant that Coach Stropp was free to be a stupid misogynistic asshole, yet, you were happy to see him and felt for some of his suffering.
Rather than labeling them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, he let them just be, warts-and-all. Kinda like real people.
And that is why act 1 features more realism than his later acts where he tried to be more realistic.
He got it into his head that he was doing people wrong by making them laugh.
CS 8/01:
What did they edit out of that strip’s first Word Hindenburg?
That’s a good question. Arcamax archives only go back a year, so I’ll have to get creative to see what they changed. The Monday strip https://www.gocomics.com/crankshaft/2024/07/29 changed from what I saved in the post https://sonofstuckfunky.com/2023/08/22/will-the-real-crankshaft-please-stand-up/ by removing references to Canada.
Dan Ronan knew exactly what he was doing. There was just no way he was not a regular FW reader well-versed in Batiukism. It was just way too on the nose. In the “Skunky Funkybuns” clip, you can hear at least one audience member who clearly gets it, which I find totally amazing. What are the odds on that?
That said, early Act I BatYam really did have a way of making things lite n’ breezy, which was more palatable when real gags were involved. And by “gags” I mean, you know, jokes that took him several minutes to write, as opposed to the mere seconds he put into his latter-day “prestige arcs”.
My favorite Skunky bit is the line about how “the strip went on like that, for a while”. We all know “a while” in the Batiukiverse means “years and years on end”.
That bit is a master class in writing and delivery. Every single word — and pause — is there for a reason, and carries weight. Every single performance choice, from wardrobe to voice to body language, supports the piece as a whole.
Dan Ronan had a bright, bright future ahead of him. Gone way too soon. RIP, Dan.
I watched it again today. The man was clearly intimately familiar with FW, Tom Batiuk, and probably Lynn Johnston too. Tim Ne-go-da…Tom Bat-i-uk…I mean come on. For someone that young to have that kind of grasp on the Batiuk philosophy was just amazing. I would have happily watched an entire Tim Negoda show, if only that were possible.
Isn’t “Batiuk” only two syllables, though? I thought it rhymed with “attic”.
Close enough.
I’m missing something on the 9/6 reprint. What does “find it’s closed out” mean? And why are cops registering?
I think it’s an Ohio phrase for “the easy A class you wanted to take is already full.” And every registering students has a cop accompanying them to “keep the peace.”
Yep, that’s it. But that was more of a college thing. For high school, it was very unlikely there wasn’t a spot for you. Maybe in some of the vocational programs, but not academic classes.
Today’s Funky Crankerbean:
How does burning old tires generate that much-oh yeah, it’s called writing or whatever
Related to the Batiukverse: more edits that I have no pride in while making them
Since I saw the original of the strip, I decided to make this edit with Ed and the chainsaw covered in blood, and Lillian’s head replacing the pumpkin
Fun fact: “Heartaches” was sampled as “It’s Just A Burning Memory” for the album “Everywhere at the End of Time” by Leyland Kirby/The Caretaker
What if: Funky used the Little League Reunion as a excuse to get drunk?
Les without glasses looks terrifying
I loved the first one with Jason/Leatherface Ed, but the last one where Lillian is about to put Les out of his misery had me laughing so hard I was crying. Great job.
Ooh, a new Match to Flame today.
And… that’s it. That’s the entirety of the post. (And he typo’d “Vol.”. Because proofreading is for chumps.)
But, hey, at least he calls Les an athletic supporter. (Look, I have to get my entertainment where I can.)
Apparently Dinkle is part-timing at my local high school.
WATERTOWN — The Watertown High School Marching Band has the opportunity to perform in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland in 2026. To help offset the cost of the trip for students, the WHS Music Department will hold its first-ever mattress fundraising event on Aug. 10 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in the WHS Commons, 825 Endeavour Drive.
During the sale, high-quality mattresses manufactured in Janesville and Watertown will be sold at deep discounts with onsite financing available. There will be adjustable bases, luxury pillows, and mattress protectors for sale. A portion of proceeds from the sale will go directly to offsetting trip expenses for marching band students, while the remainder will fund the band’s transportation to and from the airport.
Today’s Funky Crankerbean
Final Day of the Rehashed Canadian Wildfire Week
I had a fever dream today that somehow involved Jess Darling, Who’s Father John Darling, Was Murdered, overdosing on something, and had to require medical attention
There’s a lot that can still be said about Act 1 for sure. With modern values I did felt a twinge of cringe with jokes making light of black students dealing with the increased police presence. I’d say that jokes may not happen today, but with how lightly ICE agents were treated I could see everyone being happy once they get their Montoni’s at the end of the day I guess.
Batiuk’s blog has definitely felt on the short end of updates. Fewer “Cover Mes” or other news. Take 431 of the latter was interesting in showing a panel of the baby Daughter of John Darling having none of his shit about watching his show, with Tom commenting “aw, is it no wonder she loves watching his show?” while showing a late FW strip with her and her mom nostalging over it. Just goes to show how wasted that barely anyone addressed how much of an ass John was in later years.
I’d say it’s also worth calling attention to our first all-new Crankshaft this week. WIth the mask collection Lillian’s friend group amassed; how many of them were regularly been using superhero themed masks; would they accept them as gifts from grandkids or in grand Funkyverse tradition were all these old people still comic fans too? And are you sure you don’t still need those?
No animal prints. No sports logos. No company logos. It’s either colors, plain patterns, or comic books.
OK Tom.
Today’s Funky Crankerbean:
During the pandemic, I only wore two or three variations of the masks (the colors were teal, light blue and black)
Great find and thanks for the research too! Though my favorite bit was the reminder of Dinah Shore and Burt Reynolds’s 1970s tabloid-fodder romance. Sexed-up her squeaky clean “See the USA…” image quite a bit, dating the era’s male sex symbol, 20 years her junior.
Oof, it’s gonna be a rough week over in Crankshaft. It’s only Monday, and we have Skip visiting the Komix Korner to find Batton Thomas Creator Of The Comic Strip Three O’Clock High.
Everything about that sentence screams “DEEP HURTING”.