Shoeless Funkman

Haha, a man is carrying a purse, isn’t that funny? I’m almost positive that Batiuk has done this gag before, where the entire strip is just “isn’t it funny that a male is carrying a purse?”.  I also find it extremely unlikely that a hospital worker would find it at all remarkable and worth pointing out.  Does she do this every time a woman has treatment and needs someone to hold her purse?
As a comparison to actual humor, just look at Seinfeld. Instead of just having a guy carry a purse, you had Jerry saying it was a “European carryall” and it was actually very funny. With most of his jokes now, Batiuk just takes the first step towards something that could maybe be funny, and then just quits and calls it a day.
Case in point-it would have been a lot better if we could actually see Funky’s shoes in this panel. For all I know, Funky is barefoot, or wearing official Flash shoes.  But then I guess we wouldn’t get to see the close-up of Holly’s terror while Funky is making a wisecrack feet away.

Fall of the House of Winkerbean

Okay, so it wasn’t a fall, it was an accident. How is that better? And honestly, what is the difference? Are falls somehow on purpose, and not accidental? I feel like it’s not too much to ask, but if Batiuk insists on not being funny, I really wish he could at least make sense with his writing.

Oh, and wasn’t it literally just yesterday that Holly was a sarcastic jerk when someone asked if she fell, because it was obvious that she did fall?  And now she’s saying she didn’t fall?  Maybe they need someone to come in and do a cognitive evaluation.

Comic Malpractice

It’s great to be back here, like always. I’m happy to have another fun installment of this strip to comment on. “Doctor asks an injured woman if she’s being abused at home” is yet another of the many many Batiuk strips where I read it and am just amazed that he thinks it’s funny. And it sure seems to me that literally every time someone goes to a doctor in either this strip or Crankshaft, they inevitably act like a jerk when someone asks them a super basic question.
Is it me, or is it super amusing how everyone is all of a sudden wearing masks again? After multiple strips of people talking about the pandemic like it had passed, suddenly everyone is wearing masks. I wonder if Batiuk had the artist draw them on after the fact or what.

Return Of The Jerk Guy

Finally! Dinkle and the alumni band show up in today’s strip… though Jerome T. Bushka A&L Automotive Stadium looks suspiciously like St. Sprires church and the alumni band doesn’t have any instruments (though they all look to be about the age I would expect). Weird.

After the throwaway panels, you almost could have convinced me that a computer wrote this. Former marching band director plays music from famous composer. You could generate this gag, such as it is, with a UNIVAC… though I think the UNIVAC would spit out dialogue with a little more flair.

And with that, I’m out. Tackling tomorrow’s tantalizing strip and taking to task the next two weeks will be the incomparable Spaceman Spiff.