Turns out credit for the ‘Goats’ run at the conference championship does not belong to Coach Bushka (and really, could it ever?). Rather, it was Owen’s unlikely heroics (which will be go down in Scapegoat football lore as the “Hail Nanny” play) that sparked the winning streak. In any event, Batiuk actually manages a pretty good punchline today. I’m even prepared to overlook the fact that Tater Tots®, not fries, were the bully jocks’ projectile of choice (probably for their longer range). These three had better hope “our team” goes all the way to the championship, or the bullies will be throwing more than just spuds!
Tag: football
Gene-ius
Yeah, so that Scapegoat football team that, back on picture day, their coach suggested would not only lose but would be reduced to unidentifiable corpses? Today they are “one game away from the conference championship.” You’d think a reality-based comic strip that depicts contemporary issues affecting young adults blah blah blah would get some mileage from the story of a historically losing football team fighting its way to the top. But this “comic” strip’s really about the way these teachers utterly despise the student body.
Jim, rotten, hateful, possibly psychotic Jim, who, like Les, couldn’t give a shit about football or any sports, only brought up the team’s success to launch another slam against the kids (does Jim have kids? Or a wife? Never been explored). Bull accepts the backhanded compliment of his coaching ability. Les, who like Bull, is himself a product of this “lousy gene pool” Jim’s talking about, smirks appreciatively.
Bull Plans, God Smirks
While we’ve spent October following the Life of Les (he’s appeared in all but one strip this month), the Fighting Scapegoats have somehow made it to the championship game. Is Coach Bushka ready to take his team to the top? Of course not. Making it to the championship just means extra “game prep” for Bull. It’s the worst! See, this being the Funkiverse, every silver lining has a cloud; like when Hollywood wants to make a movie out of your book. In fact, maybe Les’ negativity has begun to spread to his fellow Westview faculty…let’s call it “Les-fluenza.”
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Flummoxicated
September 18, 2014 at 8:31 am
Ye gods, this week has just been awful. Of course, one could say that about every week on Funky Winkerbean.
captaincab
September 18, 2014 at 4:26 pm
Ugh, these last few weeks have actually been exhausting to read. The strip is just the lack of inertia incarnate.
Thanks, snarkers…I was starting to think it was just me. “Disparage the Football Team Week 2014” takes a grim turn as Coach suggests to his players that they might die horrible, disfiguring deaths on the gridiron.
In the complete absence of jokes, the reader is left to dwell upon minutiae, which includes the “extras” in this week’s scenes:
Orbiter
September 18, 2014 at 10:14 am
There is an assistant! An assistant coach. That’s unsettling. He’s lurking there like one of those characters played by Clint Eastwood in a Spaghetti Western…
What’s really unsettling is that the mystery assistant coach is back again today…in the exact same pose! It’s weird which things Batiuk chooses to be consistent about. Maybe it’s not even a live person; after blowing their budget on those swell Riddell pro-grade helmets, the school has no money left to hire additional staff, and the team is forced to make do with a mannequin.
The Picture of Futility
Rusty
September 16, 2014 at 11:19 pm
He’s not even trying to write a joke now. It’s just a declarative sentence.
Today’s strip is somewhere in between. In a sense, the team picture is “the ‘before’ picture” as it depicts the team before the season starts (though the ‘Goats have already played, and presumably lost, their first game). Does Coach summon them again at the end of the season for a (not optional!) “after” picture?
Random notes:
- “OK men…let’s get lined up for the 2014 team picture.” For those still trying to unravel TB’s convoluted timeline, this places Funky Winkerbean solidly in the present. Therefore, over in Crankshaft, it’s 2004….even though three years ago, we saw Ed watching Cindy Summers reporting on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
- Quite a few weird looking “extras” in this scene, but my favorite has to be Blond Guy with a Hitler Stache:
Son of Stuck Funky 
