The Way We Were

Sigh. I don’t want to pick on TB’s 9/11 effort…but I must.

Remember in Act II when the Westview High School Band performed at Carnegie Hall? Me neither. But let’s just say it happened. So excited  are Wally and Becky that their faces have become frozen masks of maniacal glee! Of course, that was before shit got real. Flash-forward to — today? Or sometime in the past ten years. Sgt. Wally (we assume) in his dress uniform, is going to or returning from Iraquistan, by way of New York City…looking glumly at the “new normal” skyline, his smirk turned upside-down.

Meanwhile, over at Crankshaft:

More careless time-jerking from Batiuk. Late last month TB posted on his “blogs“:

“I jumped everyone in the Funkyverse ahead in time in 2007 and I didn’t do the same with the cast of Crankshaft [emphasis mine].”

But in today’s CS, Cranky sits in  front of the TV, watching a news program entitled “9•11: TEN YEARS LATER”. The reporter is none other than Cindy Summers, reporting from Ground Zero; apparently following the attack, since she’s surrounded by the ruins and ashes of the Twin Towers. Cindy must work for the only U.S. news outlet using pink and yellow in their 9/11 onscreen graphics instead of red, white and blue.

Forced Busing

I’m starting to think that TB is responding to readers who miss the “gag-a-day” format of Act I; except now, the situation derives from a “topical” issue, and of course the gags are absurd or unfunny or both. In today’s strip we get the setup/punchline formula, a la Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon…”Money is so tight for the football team…” “HOW? TIGHT? IS IT?”