Tag: fitness center

Stretching the Truth

After summertime stops in such locales as Hollywood, San Diego, and Centerville, the Funky Train has returned to familiar Westview. Today’s stop: the Fitness Center, where once again Funky endures the scorn of his still-nameless trainer, whom we call Fitness Girl.

These Fitness Girl arcs get me to wondering where Mr. “Write What You Know” works out. Maybe at the Medina Tone Fitness Center (motto: “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever”)? I mainly wonder because of the way he draws fitness equipment: Funky is ensconced in what looks like a giant infant swing.  His submissive attitude in panel 3, under Fitness Girl’s disdainful gaze, infantilizes him further still. Here is a guy who at least tries to get fit: we see him run–well, jog; play tennis, and put up with this sneering witch of a “personal trainer.” He should be looking and feeling a little better, but Batiuk persists in portraying him as an elderly, hapless schlub.

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

Link to today’s strip.

It’s hard to think of a Funky Winkerbean character more boring than Funky himself.  It’s also hard to think of one for which Tom Batiuk has such obvious loathing.

I’ve mentioned a theory before that the fortunes of the Funky cast rise and fall with how their real-life counterparts interact with Batiuk himself.   Bull, for example, once the hated bully jock, now enjoys a fairly elevated status in Westview.  Oh sure, he’s overworked and the teams he coaches lose every game, but recall how this is presented.  The overwork makes him heroic, and the losses are always, always the fault of the players–those damn kids again.

Funky seems to be an especially sad example.  Once the star of the strip as a bright-eyed and observant teen, since his real-life counterpart obviously had a massive falling out with Les Moore TomBatiuk, he’s now a sad sack of failure and ennui.  And we’re going to watch a week of him talking about how impossible it will be for him to improve his lot.

Imagine if this arc would be about Les instead.  Why, on Saturday, Les would be extolling his newfound healthy regimen, preaching to all who could control their impulse to punch his face in.  Remember, it was Les Moore who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and Funky Winkerbean who collapsed a few feet into the last Lisa’s Legacy run.

How have the mighty fallen.

By Any Other Name

Link to today’s strip.

Well, I’m not sure what to say about this one.  Apparently, “customer service” has never made its way into Westview; I recall Dinkle being similarly insulted by a party-store clerk way back when. I’m sure there are other cases my mind refuses to recall.   Perhaps that’s why Khahn’s place went out of business–he just kept heaping the insults onto anyone who walked into the shop.

Of course, maybe I’m not looking at this from a sympathetic perspective–I imagine it must be hard to be confronted with a Dinkle, a Winkerbean or a Moore and not blurt out some measure of the instant loathing that rises in your gorge.  We are, after all, only human.