Bedside Manor – Page 13 – Son of Stuck Funky

Puffery

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.

You Ring, We Bring

TFH here, tippin’ the ol’ SoSF chullo to Oddnoc for two weeks of killer guest posts! Tomorrow, Epicus Doomus steps in!

If Batiuk had ever gone to the trouble of fleshing out the character of Funky’s dad, then maybe we could afford ourselves a chuckle at today’s strip. When he cropped up in Act III, Pa’s broken hip was just a link in a week-long chain of mishaps that befell Funky on his birthday. Since then, Dad (whom Batiuk hasn’t given a first name) is rolled out any time the author wishes to make Funky seem sympathetic: Funky has to schelp his father home to “celebrate” Christmas, or to the mall Food Court for a Father’s Day “lunch”. Dad exists merely as just one more cross for Funky to bear.

Mr. Machina is my father. Call me Deus.

There’s several tropes to check off here; a known fact being repeated endlessly, (Yes, we’ve known there was a struggle in the van for about three weeks now) a wall of text expanding at an alarming rate and some very, very plodding story telling.
Today’s strip is much more enjoyable if read in Droopy’s voice.