“Trombone Morty” was
Original post title
for Today’s strip post
Already did a
Trombone Shorty pun Monday
Hate redundancy
There are fewer words
Than you might think that rhyme well
With the word “shorty”
Morton Winkerbean
On trombone reminds Dinkle
Of Wally, I guess
Earl Campbell is not
Impressed with Mort’s name, nor with
Director Dinkle
Today’s strip reaches a level of trippy surrealism that even Heathcliffe’s current descent into nonsensicality cannot match for madness. Admittedly, I am not much of a Mötley Crüe fan, so perhaps Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars both attempting to play and chew on the same guitar is their MO. However, what the third Google Images result for “Mötley Crüe” is doing next to an image of Franklin Roosevelt (with his trademark cigarette holder photoshopped out) boring Funky’s dad and a couple other octogenarians is beyond me.
Also, it’s another Throwback Thursday!
Guess what TB was publishing on this very date back in 1983?
If you guessed essentially the same “Ha! band kids don’t practice!” shtick he was doing on Monday, you win one of several internets.
Ah…now I get it. Up til now, this Funky Winkerbean arc has been easily the most baffling of them all. With today’s episode, it all fits into place.
Pa Winkerbean wants to commit suicide, and he figures he might as well have fun doing so.
Funky Winkerbean, you somehow manage never to disappoint, in your own disappointing way.
More bizarreness in yesterday’s vein. And like yesterday’s episode, if Mr. Batiuk is going for “wacky” he’s still missing the mark. There should be a punchline in panel three, rather than a flat statement.
It’s as if Abbott said, “The baseball players’ names…well, Hu’s on first, Watt’s on second, and Ida Noah’s on third,” and Costello said, “Hey, those aren’t real names.” And…scene! Okay, folks, that’s a wrap!
This is the first time I can recall seeing Pa Winkerbean speak, other than the “Father’s Day in the Food Court” Sunday episode of a couple of years ago–and all he did then was repeat himself over and over. (Those wacky Alzheimer’s people!) I must say, Funky and his dad are looking more and more alike. I guess that’s easier to draw. Though I’ve never seen Funky as relaxed and at peace with himself as Pa in panel three.
Also, is it just me, or has 2014 really been Funky’s year so far? He seems to have featured in more stories than in the last couple of years combined. Not that I’m complaining too much, because as we know, there are far worse characters he could feature….
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.
Son of Stuck Funky 
