Ah…now I get it. Up til now, this Funky Winkerbean arc has been easily the most baffling of them all. With today’s episode, it all fits into place.
Pa Winkerbean wants to commit suicide, and he figures he might as well have fun doing so.
Funky Winkerbean, you somehow manage never to disappoint, in your own disappointing way.
More bizarreness in yesterday’s vein. And like yesterday’s episode, if Mr. Batiuk is going for “wacky” he’s still missing the mark. There should be a punchline in panel three, rather than a flat statement.
It’s as if Abbott said, “The baseball players’ names…well, Hu’s on first, Watt’s on second, and Ida Noah’s on third,” and Costello said, “Hey, those aren’t real names.” And…scene! Okay, folks, that’s a wrap!
This is the first time I can recall seeing Pa Winkerbean speak, other than the “Father’s Day in the Food Court” Sunday episode of a couple of years ago–and all he did then was repeat himself over and over. (Those wacky Alzheimer’s people!) I must say, Funky and his dad are looking more and more alike. I guess that’s easier to draw. Though I’ve never seen Funky as relaxed and at peace with himself as Pa in panel three.
Also, is it just me, or has 2014 really been Funky’s year so far? He seems to have featured in more stories than in the last couple of years combined. Not that I’m complaining too much, because as we know, there are far worse characters he could feature….
Well, this…this is just damned stupid.
For those of you new to the strip, Funky ‘s dad is in “Bedside Manor,” an assisted living facility.
In other words, it’s a place to administer health care to seniors.
They’re not going to allow anyone to smoke. Even if they’re on fire, they’re supposed to douse them. The receptionist might just as well have said, “He’s out bending steel girders with his teeth.” Or “He’s on the roof, getting ready to jump into a dumpster full of broken glass.” This is senseless.
I just can’t figure out what the hell is supposed to be going on here. It’s not funny, except in a “Wha–?” kind of way…the way the strip sometimes was back in the 70’s.
Is that it? Has Tom Batiuk decided after all the years of angst, whining, smirks and weak word-play, that it’s time to reboot into a wacky fun-time strip?
Well…if that’s the case, that’s certainly a good thing…I guess…I just hope he kind of gets better at it.
Unless this is going to be some kind of ham-handed treatise on medical marijuana. If that’s the case, then this episode becomes evidence that there are a whole lot of people not giving a damn about what goes into Funky Winkerbean, starting with Tom Baituk.
ACTUAL FW CONTENT:
Oh, good grief, what crap.
ORIGINAL POST:
As is usual, Sunday’s strip was not available for preview so you get another of my ramble-o-thons.
I’m sure it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that last week’s arc consisted entirely of people sitting around while things happened elsewhere. In fact, near as I can tell, almost all of Funky Winkerbean consists of sitting around and talking about things happening elsewhere.
Even when people do act, they don’t do so because they want to, but because someone else is forcing them. Funky went to the fitness center not to get in shape, but because his wife wanted him to. Similarly, Holly goes around and collects comic books not because she likes them (though this being Westview I’m sure she’s a huge fan, pun unintended), but to take her mind of Cory’s situation and to “feel closer” to him. Even the epic trip to Kilimanjaro came into play not because it was a planned-out adventure, but because Les won an unwanted prize. The only action anyone takes is making someone else do something.
What does this say about the strip, where no one has any motivation whatsoever except to sit in chairs and chat? Think back on Les’ epic struggle to write a teleplay for a book he’d already written, and a life he’d already led–months and months of staring at a screen because he lacked the merest shred of motivation (don’t tell me the garbage about being “unable to capture Lisa’s thoughts,” that’s an obvious and exceptionally poor excuse). That seems to be the Funky Winkerbean world in a nutshell.
I’ve never read the “Lisa’s story” arc in its entirety and I have no desire to, but I’ll assume for the sake of argument that it was well-told and affecting and give Tom Batiuk whatever kudos he wishes for telling it. When it failed to win a Pulitzer, did that knock all the wind out of his sails? Perhaps he told himself, “I gave them a good story about terrible things that really happen to real people, and they dismissed it–well, the hell with it then. I’m tired of trying.” Because it sure seems like the strip has been on auto-pilot since I’ve been reading it.
Last week’s story reminded me of the Gay Promaggedon series–I came into the SoSF orbit around the tail end of that–in that there was a very slow build-up that promised a real payoff…and the payoff never came. Or rather, it did come, but it was such a let-down that it might as well never have been hinted in the first place.
Then there are the stories that just stop. I’m still curious about Becky’s mother. She hasn’t been seen since Becky told her father to stop filming. It makes me wonder if whole strips, or whole weeks worth of strips have been lost in the mail. Or perhaps rejected by the syndicate–“Gee, Tom, this week’s worth of Becky’s mom being pushed out of the scissor-lift, hitting the ground and bouncing into a dead heap is pretty interesting, but it’s a little too gruesome to run on the comics page.” “Oh, okay, just run the strips for the week after that. The only people who’ll notice are really beedy-eyed and they don’t have any jobs.”
It’s been said from time to time that Tom Batiuk is probably unhappy that the strip is called “Funky Winkerbean,” since that takes focus away from Les. I wonder if he wished he’d ended the strip when Lisa died. He could have then restarted Act III with the same cast, but under a different title.
My suggestion would be Sittin’ Around.
PS: Hm, this is only my 60th post? It sure seems like there’ve been thousands…
Hands up, everyone who didn’t see this coming a mile away. Let’s see–that’s one, two, three–OMG, you people are going to have to see me after class if you have any hope of passing the mid-term. Or that kidney stone. I’ll let you choose which is less painful.
Of course, if, in a strip from next week, Cory returns home and, before it can land, that helicopter blows up, why, that would be great and I would personally buy Tom Batiuk a beer. Of course, odds of that happening with the sacred cast are probably as close to zero as you can get without squinting.
Now if, as some have speculated, Rocky ends up dead or maimed, well…she’ll fit in nicely with Kerry, Carla, that biker dude who sold comics, and the rest of the anonymous horde who only serve to illustrate the troubles of the Funky Winkerbean cast in a greater arena before disappearing into their respective hells. IE, it might be used to briefly illustrate a point, but then they and their sufferings will be shuffled quietly off-stage, never to be seen again. After all, Les Moore, after all.
And before you ask, yes, I was going to call shenanigans on Holly’s surprise, since her cellphone probably flashed “Cory Winkerbean” when it rang, but…then I thought, perhaps Cory is using someone else’s phone. Or perhaps the Winkerbeans never store anything in their contacts, or use different ring-tones, or any number of other stupid reasons why I hate writing about these people. It is, after all, evil technology(R)(C), use of which is prohibited.
The wrap-up, here, of this arc (I am being optimistic) illustrates one of the major problems this strip has–it’s so static. Nothing ever really changes. Oh sure, Khahn moves away, Dopey Pete moves away, Cindy moves back…but those are all relatively trivial. Since the death of Lisa, Tom Batiuk seems to have decided that this strip is just going to drift along on weak wordplay, smirks and depressive smacks to the head until someone in quality control notices what they’re paying for. I guess payments for Funky Winkerbean are like the paychecks for Milton from Office Space. Someday, someone will fix the glitch.
Perhaps I’m just someone bummed out because my favorite character, the Pouncing Darkness, is brutally dispatched over the course of today’s offering. Farewell, Darkness! I’ll–I’ll never forget you! And I’ll vote for your Pulitzer!
Son of Stuck Funky 