Well, I never! Cindy called Harry! Someone better stop all this hilariousness, before it’s too late.
So many of the story lines in this strip lately have started this way. Somebody needs to go back to Westview because somebody there has something old timey that apparently nobody else in the world has and can’t be shipped or sent digitally. And even though apparently it’s so rare and forgotten that it only exists in Westview, somehow people will end up being wildly passionate about whatever old crap it is.
Here’s Batiuk’s writing process now:
“Gosh, I sure like old comics/movie serials/decoder rings/silent movies. If only I didn’t have to write this stupid strip, I could spend all my time reading back issues of Old Timey Junk Quarterly. I know! I could do a four month arc where someone in Westview has silent movies, and somebody else wants to see them, for some reason!” (runs the bases in his mind)
Also, am I crazy, or should it not be Cindy Jarre now? I don’t know if this is just Batiuk not giving a crap about his strip or “She was Cindy Summers in high school and that’s the only period of her live that matters”, but either way it’s dumb.
The Butter Battle Flick
Yuck. Batiukian Overexposition strikes again. This conversation’s probably been going on for like thirty seconds and I think this is the second time “silent film” has been said and third time “Butter Brinkel” has been said. This is just terrible. There’s nothing funny about the name “Butter Brinkel”, and definitely nothing that makes it worth repeating over and over. There’s nobody at home reading this who cares so much that it’s important Batiuk ensures they know precisely what’s going on, and if there was he wouldn’t have to repeat everything incessantly. Cindy telling Jess who her ex is has to take the prize, though. Jess knows who Funky is. I think this is all just a result of Batiuk trying to fill up as much space with as little effort and content as possible, and probably the realization that nobody really keeps up with his strip and he has to drill it in his readers’ heads over and over. I also think it’s probably his ego thinking that the Epic Funky Winkerbean Backstory is so magnificent he’s going to repeat it over and over. But probably mostly the laziness.
And if the “someone Funky knows” doesn’t turn out to be Jeff I’ll be shocked. Or possibly Harry. Also, the odds are if Funky knows him, Cindy knows him. It’s not a big town.
No, The Other Butter Brinkel
“So what’s the catch?” “I want to produce a documentary!” How is that a catch, exactly? I stopped wondering if Batiuk actually proofreads his own work a long, long time ago, since it’s incredibly clear he barely gives his work a passing thought anymore. Like, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be “tried for THE murder of Valerie” and not “tried for murder of Valerie”, because nobody talks like that.
I would love to see Cindy’s job description. I think he saw her sitting in front of a camera once, but since then she’s basically just made documentaries and done whatever she feels like for her job, somehow. I mean, I know Batiuk gets paid for doing whatever crap he feels like, but most people don’t.
One of my least favorite things about Batiuk’s writing (I feel like I type that on a weekly basis) is his “funny” names. Butter isn’t in quotes, so I’m guessing it’s not a nickname, and some guy born in the late 1800s was actually named Butter by his parents.
This Comic is All Catch
It took me a little while to realize that’s supposed to be Cindy, what with the prominent bags under her eyes and the abrupt change in hair color, much grayer than it used to be. I wonder if the artist realized that Cindy and Jess, visually, were both basically just “hot young blonde” and realized Cindy needed to look older for some reason.
What is Jess even doing in Hollywood anymore? Is she still working on the stupid documentary about her dad? I think if she missed her family so much, she could do the work back in Ohio, since apparently all it consists of is sitting in front of soundboard and computer monitors with no mouse or keyboard in sight next to a Buddy Blog “journalist” for some reason.
And why does Jess think there’s some catch? The people in this comic fly back and forth between Ohio and California at the drop of a hat.
Requiem For A Dweeb
Leave it to The Great Author to put a new spin on the ol’ “delicate genius writes late night indecipherable note to himself” trope. In this example, instead of having it happen to a funny or entertaining or tolerable character, he used the single most loathsome character in the history of fiction instead. Dick Facey and Cayla Tyler Moore…the wryest couple on the wryest street in the wryest town in the wryest state, already in a state of full wryness mere seconds after opening their eyes in the morning. I need a solid hour and a half before I can form full sentences in the morning but these f*cking weirdos are literally wry in their sleep, ready to start smirking as soon as they’re conscious.
And on that note, it’s time to step aside and turn the microphone over to spacemanspiff85 for the next go round!
Son of Stuck Funky 