Dr. D.
July 5, 2011 at 10:24 amIt’s Funkyverse crossover time…where Ed Crankshaft is standing in for Harry Dinkle.
Dr. D (as well as TheDiva, commenting over at Comics Curmudeon), may be on to something, judging from today’s utterly nonsensical “punchline”.
“I thought you were going to dress as John Phillips from ‘The Mamas and the Papas’.”
“No, Harriet: it wasn’t easy, but I came up with something even more embarrassing.”
Harry’s a lucky man: he’s married to the only person in Westview (besides Wally Junior) who appears to be getting younger instead of growing old at an accelerated pace. Harriet’s orangely-blonde ‘do at least makes her look much younger than she did only a few years ago, and she’s shed a little of that Mama Cass girth.
I have no idea where one would order a John Philip Sousa uniform. Looks good on you, though, Harry, almost as good as that yellow shirt you must’ve borrowed from Les.
Have a safe and happy Fourth of July, everybody!
Usually the music notes in the air of the Band Room are drawn all distorted and jagged, to suggest bad music being played. But the well-formed notes we see today come from the smooth sounds of Westview’s Community Band, conducted not by a frazzled, angry Becky, but by a relaxed and genial Harry K. Dinkle. Harry likes conducting the adults so much better than working with those goddam kids. He even allows that this ensemble sounds “pretty good”, high praise from Der Dinkle. He rewards the band with one of his “classic lines“, punctuating it with a thrust of his stubbly chin and a face-splitting, closed-eye satisfied smirk. Buddy the dog responds with an agonized howl.
Anyway, nice to see that Wally is finally putting that trombone to good use.
I’d give the benefit of the doubt here, and say that Harry is deliberately setting up a joke here, rather than relating a true story. I mean, a group of high-schoolers who are “physically incapable of starting out on the same foot together” would probably be too stupid to play instruments. The throwaway first panel, though, undermines the joke premise by depicting a band member actually wearing a two-toned pair of marching shoes. Maybe it’s product placement.
Son of Stuck Funky 
