Dinkle All the Way

‘Twas the Sunday before Christmas, when most cartoonists use the larger, colorful Sunday format to confer Christmas greetings to the reader. But take away the snow and the trademark black yuletide greenery from today’s strip and it’s just another punny, unfunny day at Bedside Manor. What to call the “BM Band”? “Midlife Chryslers”? For one, y’all are well past “midlife”, and everyone knows that the “old people’s car” is Buick, not Chry…what’s that? The Midlife Chryslers is a real band? From Cleveland? Ah, I get it. Try again. “Cardiac kids”? Usually used to denote “kids” who could give you a heart attack, not those who are on their third or fourth. Well, how about a play on the name of an incurable eye disease? No? Well, then, let’s resort to a punchline that makes no sense.

14 thoughts on “Dinkle All the Way”

  1. I didn’t get it either. Why would bad musicianship be considered a “mannerism”? Another example of BanMan trying way too hard to use a punny punchline he dreamed up, which he seems to do an awful lot BTW.

  2. Batiuk uses the “Cardiac Kids” joke repeatedly in Crankshaft. I don’t know why he thinks it’s funny, but he sure has no problem using it over and over.

  4. Funky’s dad is rapidly approaching Westview middle age. He gets younger every time he is shown. Soon the father and son will be indistinguishable.

  6. Maybe Dinkle’s band start covering The Toasters, The English Beat, Less Than Jake, and such.
    Who wouldn’t want to go see an all-senior citizen band called “Ska-spice Care” or “The Mighty Mighty Beltones”?

  7. This is depressing on so many levels. We have a labored punchline, Dinkle and Batiuk’s stupid year-long lead time making everything non-topical.

  8. Well that sucked. I’m sure Crankshaft has something funny. I’ll just have a look….ugh…

  9. I actually thought that WAS Funky at first! So those are puns TB “saves” for the Sunday money shot, eh? It would be fascinating if one of us SOSF folks only read FW on Sunday – wonder if the opinion would be significantly different, given that TB obviously feels he is going the extra mile for that one day in which all readers get to see his art in color etc.

    Incidentally, he could have atoned for an entire year’s worth of awfulness if he’d had someone namecheck actual senior citizen punk band One Foot In The Grave…

  11. I’ve read that Batboy creeps around his local high school “looking for ideas.” Maybe he needs to spend an equal amount of time creeping around that hotbed of hilarity, a nearby nursing home. Ha, I used to think he was pathologically clueless and tone deaf in portraying today’s youth (thought-provoking and sensitive as those portrayals may have been). He may be even more ignorant about nursing home inmates, all of whom are physically or mentally unable (or both) of taking care of themselves.

    Instead of today’s Punday Sunday volley of lead balloons, the exchange should go more like this:

    ” I was thinking that we should have a name for our little band.”

    “Hunh…?
    “That goddam nurse stole my wallet again!!”
    “Jimmy…? Jimmy…?”
    “Zzzzzzzzzzzz………”
    “Last week, she stole my goddam glasses!!”
    “What band?”
    “Hunnhhh?
    “AAAAAAUUUUUUGGHHHHHHH!! Help me! Somebody… PLEEEEASE!!”
    “I have to get… dressed… Time to… go to… work!”
    “Hunnh?
    “Goddam nurse stole my goddam car keys!!”
    “Is that you, Jimmy…?”
    “The boat is leaving! Tooot tooooooot!”
    “Hunnh?”

  12. Might I suggest the name “Walking Dead”?

    Nah, that would be too current for Batiuk.

    How about “We Who Are About to Die”?

    No, that actually is a pretty good band name.

    That’s how easy it is too come up with better jokes than Batiuk.

  13. A catchy name for a geriatric band?

    How about “The Rolling Stones”?

    Oh, wait . . . .

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