Tag: holidays

The Son through a Window

I happen to be a sucker for those “returning soldier surprises his [blank]” videos. My two older brothers both served in the armed forces, and I still remember the joy my family and I felt upon their safe return. So I guess I won’t beat up Batiuk over having Cory pulling the old stealth maneuver for the second Christmas in a row. Though it is kind of fun to remember that Cory’s training and experience afford him the ability to sneak up on his parents and take ’em out before they knew what hit ’em.

Merry and Blight

SpacemanSpiff85 December 20, 2014 at 12:24 am If we had any clue at all what was going on here, this might actually have been dramatic. Batiuk likes to throw in cheap drama without any of the buildup to make it meaningful.

Cheap drama and a Sunday victory lap. Dr. Chill’s presumably good news elicits from Funky the first non-ironic smiles we’ve seen from him in months. He whips out his phone again to re-read the doctor’s text (and for the benefit of those lucky Sunday-only readers). Here’s what brings joy to Westviewvians: the news that you’re not going to die…just yet.  Batiuk wraps up this mini-non-drama with a Christmas bow in the form of an improbable, reverse engineered punchline.

Oh Tree Oh My

Your genial host TFH returns to guide us all through the holiday madness! My sincerest thanks as always to DavidO, Epicus Doomus, Beckoning Chasm, Oddnoc, and billytheskink for their guest contributions, and most especially to you, the reader. While it seems odd to some that we daily read and analyze a comic strip that makes us mad, it’s always good to commune with those with whom we share something in common, especially around the holidays.

At first glance, today’s strip seems to depict Holly and Funky about to be abducted by aliens. No such luck: it’s just another “taking things to the extreme” gag involving the gazebo tree. Query why, if the lights are so uncomfortably bright, the Winkerbeans are drawn like moths to it, standing so close to the light that it blinds them. Even Batiuk’s Medina neighbors must be scratching their heads over this one: the gazebo’s real-life counterpart is much more tastefully appointed.

Not The Worst

Link to today’s strip.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks!  To celebrate the holiday, Tom Batiuk presents…a Black Friday joke?

As “Black Friday” jokes go, well…this is…um, running on Thanksgiving Day?  I guess when you’re writing drawing your comic strip a year in advance, and the calendar falls behind the couch, well, holiday mistakes will happen, right?   I know that stores opening on Thanksgiving Day is a Thing now, but only in Funky Winkerbean would that be the aspect of the holiday that you want to highlight.   Because that’s what holidays are all about–annoyances and boorishness.

I guess that means for Christmas we can look forward to a strip where Funky is stuck in the mall parking lot, waiting for a tow truck to haul away his car because it ran out of gas.

As for today’s offering, as a regular, plain old joke…well…this is…um, obviously a joke, so there’s that.  It’s been done a few billion times before and has, therefore, lost its freshness, but it’s…uh–

I don’t know, I hesitate to call it an “attempt” since it doesn’t really try to do anything.  Crowds on Black Friday, they’re wild and make stores super crowded, and even old ladies with walkers want to grab those big screen TVs that the youth like to watch Grand Funk Railroad on.   And little kids won’t eat their vegetables, and women are always shopping for shoes, and old people like to rock in their chairs and complain.   And teenagers today, those dance steps they do are like someone who has ants in their pants!  Plus, with their long hair, you can’t tell the boys from the girls!

You know, I always like to give Tom Batiuk credit when he makes the attempt at humor.  I went a bit overboard last Spring with a “Funky at the Gym” arc, but I thought the attempt to put actual jokes in the strip was worthy of notice.

Here, not so much.   My main feeling when looking at this is a sense of tiredness, of being told a joke you’ve heard so many times it’s depressing, and you’re too weary to smile at the teller.

(Oh my God…I’m turning into a Funky Winkerbean character!   Argh, today’s strip is the worst ever!)

Still, it does have one thing going for it–absolutely none of the Funky Winkerbean cast appear.  I guess that’s a pretty decent holiday gift from Mr. Batiuk, so let’s all give thanks for that.  Thank you, Mr. Batiuk.