Tag: Jim Kablichnik

Never Forget. (That the Scapegoats Suck)

Ya know, a SMALL nod to the event that changed the course of America might be nice. This is the funnies, of course, it’s not like I’m asking Garfield to stare sullenly at an American flag for three panels but it’s a little off that a strip that deals in melancholy as currency would pass up the chance to remember what happened on this date in New York City over a decade ago.

No such luck. Instead, today’s strip is just a time-marking daily grind forward until the next real story arc. Even the telephone pole and goal post weigh in on the current situation with some of the most weirdly-spaced dialog balloons since Mark Trail!

MarkT

Bull-oney

Well, well, look at what we’re saddled with for the rest of the week! More observations that the Scapegoats indeed suck like a 5 Amp Hoover.

In today’s strip it’s obvious that Bull grabbing whatever he feels like out of the Lost and Found and everyone seems okay with this. Cell phone? Wallet? The only “scoring” Coach is doing is when he runs to the pawn shop to sell off Nintendo 3-DSs left on the bus.

Nate isn’t aging as well as the rest of his peers; Bull looks like the New Year’s Baby, Jim has a face as smooth as glass yet meanwhile Nate has “lovingly” been drawn out to mostly resemble a California Raisin.
baby bull
raisin

Goodness Gracious

Lower your expectations! I’m left to swim in BeckoningChasm’s wake after his most excellent guest hosting duties. A tip of the Funky Fedora to you, BC!

Now, onto the snark.

Quick, Les, take a seat with the rest of the class so we can pick *someone* we know out of this sea of unknown students. Cody, Owen, pressed into service as one of the only two students we’ve been introduced to in this gaggle of malformed, floating heads, does his best with the predictable but bad news he’s been given in today’s strip.

Hoo-boy. I hope this strip doesn’t indicate we’re in for a cycle (recycle) of “The Scapegoats are terrible” knee-slappers. That could make for a long snark fortnight for yours truly!

Despica-Bull Me 2

Today’s strip

Oh God, another terrible, terrible pun.  About an issue that’s received quite a lot of serious treatment, both in the strip and in the “real world.”  I’m not sure how to react about the constant reporting about the rise of bullying incidents in our schools, but it seems at the very least to be a subject requiring some sensitivity.  A terrible pun made at the expense of the victims seems pretty low, even for Tom Batiuk.   The “bullying arc” with Alex, earlier in the Spring, actually seems to have handled this issue better.  …Uh, I’m guessing it did.  I really don’t want to go back and read it again.

And let’s just skip over yesterday’s episode, wherein you’ll recall that Bull used a bit of the ol’ bullying himself, in order to receive his gruel in a more timely manner.  Just like we’ll skip over the fact that lunch is being served at all, given that it was cut from the budget last week.  I think someone must have given continuity a wedgie!

Okay, this post might seem a bit of an overreaction to an awful pun, and I’ll admit that.  The thing is, when you proclaim that your work “is a reality-based comic strip that depicts contemporary issues affecting young adults in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner,” making an insensitive joke like this makes it appear that the words in quotes above are just a cheap slogan, to be swept aside by the first dumb wordplay that saunters down the street and winks at you.

Cuts Both Ways

Today’s strip

So, one of the reasons Bull wanted to enter the world of higher education was so he could continue the great tradition of being a huge dick to the students.  That seems rather humble, doesn’t it?  I mean, all the teachers are huge dicks to the students; it must be the first instruction in the first paragraph of the Westview High School’s So You Want to be a Teacher pamphlet.  Being a huge dick just means you’re earning your paycheck.  I guess I can’t really blame anyone in the Funkyverse for setting his sights low; ambition is typically rewarded with a cosmic swatting.  Still, it’s interesting to see such a naked lack of ambition.

By the way, I went to high school and I don’t recall any teachers taking advantage like this.  Everyone, teacher, student and administrator, got in line and stayed in line.  Of course, there’s nothing funny about playing by the rules…just like there’s nothing funny about Funky Winkerbean.  Hey wait a minute–how can Bull “get cuts” in line, when lunch itself has been cut?  Is Bull fantasizing?  This…this is what he daydreams about?   Yeah…that’s some ambition all right.

I see that the “smart-pad” has already been dropped (by Les, into the swimming pool).  Someone from Apple must have hrmm-hrmm’d at Tom Batiuk’s lawyers, and the change from “iPad” to “Smart-Pad” probably didn’t mollify anyone.  Well…perhaps Mr. Batiuk has learned a bit of humility from the experience, and the next time someone uses a bit of the old Funky Winkerbean magic, he’ll…oh, okay I can’t really keep up the pretense.   My sense is that Mr. Batiuk will continue taking the advice from the So You Want to be a Nationally Syndicated Cartoonist pamphlet very seriously indeed.