Funky’s dad – Page 4 – Son of Stuck Funky

You Ring, We Bring

TFH here, tippin’ the ol’ SoSF chullo to Oddnoc for two weeks of killer guest posts! Tomorrow, Epicus Doomus steps in!

If Batiuk had ever gone to the trouble of fleshing out the character of Funky’s dad, then maybe we could afford ourselves a chuckle at today’s strip. When he cropped up in Act III, Pa’s broken hip was just a link in a week-long chain of mishaps that befell Funky on his birthday. Since then, Dad (whom Batiuk hasn’t given a first name) is rolled out any time the author wishes to make Funky seem sympathetic: Funky has to schelp his father home to “celebrate” Christmas, or to the mall Food Court for a Father’s Day “lunch”. Dad exists merely as just one more cross for Funky to bear.

The Child Is Father to the Man

Well, we let him get away with it yesterday, but Batiuk goes back to the well again today to try and wring a little more pathos outta Pop. Today’s comic is perhaps notable because it’s the only time that I know of where we’ve seen Funky’s mother, a rather nondescript needlenosed and chinless Batiuk female.

O Come Let Us Adore Cory

Sigh. Gonna tread lightly today. After all, it’s Christmas. I sense that many if not most of you reading this are boomers like myself, which makes us close in age to Funky and the gang. Hence, we’ve watched Mom and Dad grow old, and maybe one or both have passed away. And many of our first and fondest memories, especially today, are of our parents. So while I have a beef with how Batiuk uses Pa Winkerbean as a prop rather than a person (another character whose name we’re never told), this one does tug a bit.

While it’s impossible to read Pa’s expression here, one thing’s for sure: Army life seems to agree with Cory. He appears relaxed and smiling, his unruly hair now shorn “high and tight” and his Wilma Flintstone necklace presumably replaced by dogtags. I’m wondering if in the coming year he’ll have an arc devoted to his life as a soldier, or if he’ll simply live on as a face on Skype.

Wishing you the happiest of holidays

and the brightest of new years! Stay Funky!

—TFHackett

Funksgiving

Thanksgiving 2010: Becky is so exhausted from selling band turkeys that she’s unable to stay awake for Thanksgiving dinner with her family (no wonder she stuck Owen with the job this year).

New Year’s, 2011: While two living, breathing women compete for his affections, Les rings in the New Year pining for his long-dead wife.

Labor Day 2011: At Cayla’s family picnic, Les fouls a softball off his face.

New Year’s, 2012: Coach Bull is too busy fretting over the Lady Scapegoats’ winless streak to enjoy a party with friends.

Mother’s Day 2012: Summer carefully selects just the right card to leave on her mother’s grave.

Father’s Day 2012: Funky “honors” his father by dragging him from the rest home for an awkward meal at the food court in the bustling mall.

Readers have surmised by now that, in a Funkiverse where people avoid expressing joy lest they tempt cruel fate, the holidays are occasions to ratchet up, rather than leave aside, despair. Having decided that it’s too taxing to take Dad out of the home for the holidays, Funky contents himself with paying the old man a visit “now and then”. Pop may not recognize his only son, but you can’t blame him for thinking that this “nice man” must live in the nursing home too: he certainly looks to be of age.

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Endure Thy Father

Here is Funky’s idea of showing his father a good time on Fathers’ Day: schlepping him to the food court at Mammoth Mall. What do you expect from the cheap bastard who celebrated his wedding anniversary at Montoni’s? Hell, Montoni’s would’ve been a nicer place for lunch than the crowded, noisy food court. Their “nice chat” consists of poor Pa’s persistent proffering of his too-big sandwich, and Funky’s polite refusals. Batiuk might have used today to have Funky at least attempt a conversation with his father, and given the reader some kind of insight into this relationship, rather than using the old man as a prop to make us feel sorry for Funky.