The theme of today’s strip is a recurring one in the Funkiverse: an improbably ideal situation (your book’s been optioned for a movie/ you’ve attained your dream job as a comic book writer/ you have a dinner date with a movie star) leads not to excitement and anticipation but dread and self-doubt. With so much invested in this date, you think Cindy might treat herself to a Beverly Hills spa visit, thus maximizing her attractiveness and maybe settling her nerves a bit. Instead, we see her fretting out loud before the mirror before resignedly settling for a passable result.
Tag: Cindy
‘s Cool, “Girl”
She’s a network TV news vet who worked her way up from Channel One to the American Broadcasting Company (and back down again); who’s spent time in war zones and who even brokered the hostage swap that freed PFC Wally Winkerbean. Time may not have diminished her looks (as it has for her ex-husband and for every other adult in this strip save Les), but Cindy is filled with trepidation as she primps for her date with Mason Jarr the Movie Star. She can’t even bring herself to apply that black lipstick she’s holding in panel one.
Make ‘Em Walk The Plank
It’s all so clear to me now. This “Michael Spencer” guy is actually an international spy whose mission is to destroy The Internet from within. He needs Cindy to attract hits to his website but to get her on board he had to reach out to his old pal Mason Jarr and call in a favor. “Anchors aweigh” is the big clue here, as “Michael Spencer” obviously picked up that bit of nautical terminology while he was stowing away aboard some big cargo ship bound for Culver City. It’s a dead giveaway. He’s trying to tell us something…I mean it COULDN’T just be some typically awful Batominc wordplay again…or could it??
Anyhow, it really should be “anchor” as I don’t see any other ones in the frame, do you? Cindy’s weird descent into insane idiocy continues as she accepts BB’s pathetic “offer” after receiving a dinner invite text from our old pal Mason. It took me a second to figure out how and why those two things could be related, as Cindy could obviously still have met Mason for dinner without stupidly accepting BB’s crappy deal. But I think the idea here is that by staying in California she’ll be closer to Mason, which is all the impetus she needs to throw what’s left of her career and her dignity into the gutter. I just can’t believe he wrote this without realizing how pathetic it makes her look, but then again yeah, sure I can. Cindy: the strong modern businesswoman who’s seen it all and who makes rash career decisions based on texts from boys she likes. 1/4 inch my ass.
I guess MS is one of those people who only looks fat when he sits, right? I mean yesterday the guy was a bloated doughy blob and today he’s zipping around sipping his trendy glacier hipster vita-water, completely jowl-free. Whatever is in that water bottle, start selling it in Westview fast before the FDA gets wind of it. Man, if I ever see this Spencer guy again it’ll be too soon. Except I might not recognize him at first, depending on whether he’s sitting or not. But let’s hope it never comes to that.
The Endangered California Candor
But wait a minute, how could BB know what they could afford if they knew they’d be relying on crowdsourcing revenue they hadn’t even received yet? Huh BanTom? Tell me, how could they know? Stop being all “vague” and TELL ME! How could they know, Tom? HOW COULD THEY KNOW??? It’s just amazing how he’ll completely contradict himself right in the middle of a story like that then get all mad at US (and the entire internet in general) when we point it out, like it’s our fault for remembering what happened yesterday.
And what the hell is up with this “reimagined digital content” bullshit? RE-imagined? Come on, Spencer my man, you gotta be kidding me here. And is it just me or has MS gained a considerable amount of weight since yesterday or what? He’s all pudgy and doughy all of a sudden in panel one then he goes from vaguely ethnic to full-on Don Ho in panel two. Again with the eyebrows, too. They’re like caterpillars trying to escape from his forehead and honestly, who could blame them?
The P(ure) BS Model
Add PBS to the list of things in Ban Tom’s shaky and off-kilter gun sights. What, did they do a “Comic Strip Writers Who HAVE Won Pulitzers” roundtable discussion recently or something? Anyway, they’re actually not very similar at all, as PBS provides hours and hours of entertainment while Buddyblog consists of a few assholes sitting on the floor and a wildly smirking weirdo chuckling to himself like a moron after every idiotic self-deprecating comment about what a joke his business is. Send Spencer to Westview and the integration would be seamless, I’ll tell you what. It really is uncanny, he could walk into Montoni’s right now and hold his own with any of them.
TheAuthor’s personal grudges aside, it’s same old-same old today as he bludgeons the premise into the ground once more. These Internet start-up punks are a bunch of dopey jerks with no “business model” other than mooching and yadda yadda yadda what choice does Cindy have anyway because she’s old and faded and etc. The only real question is how long will it take for this to play out? Does he wrap it up by Sunday or does it carry over for another (ugh) week?
Son of Stuck Funky 