Like I often say, this Pulitzer (nominee) Boy guy really, REALLY needs to get out more. While it’s nice to see Rachel the green pitcher again, this is a weak, weak gag, even by FW standards. I mean sure, it’s the second weekend of January 2018 and the 2019 strips are finished and ready to go into the prepaid CK envelope but he’s still a few strips short and has to come up with something fast or the whole weekend will be ruined so he throws together a few slapdash strips on the fly. I get that, but still, at least pretending to try would be the polite and decent thing to do for the readers, CK and himself…or so you’d think if you knew nothing about FW and the guy who writes it. But alas, I do. Every minute spent on FW is another minute he can’t spend at that pizza place, the post office signing books or looking out the window and as Lisa showed us, life is short.
Tag Archives: Rachel
Confirmation Pie-as
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Break a Wish
Not much to say about this one…it’s okay, but the fact that Rachel’s wish was for Wally to become a night manager at a pizza place–well. It’s hard to think of anything sadder. Although I’m sure Batiuk regards that as a challenge and will get right to work on that.
I have to say, that’s the most unappetizing pizza I’ve ever seen. It looks cold and damp. This might be a testament to Chuck Ayers’ drawing skills, but I think he’s going in the wrong direction.
Charles made an interesting observation in yesterday’s comments, to wit: “H-1B visas are temporary work permits for foreigners who have specialty skills. Washing dishes at or assistant managing a pizza place is not one of those skills. Adeela’s literally taking a job a local American could do.’
That got me to thinking…why was Adeela here in the first place? I have to assume that H-1B visas are given to foreigners whose skills are pre-existing. In other words, they’ve already been trained in a specialty that few Americans have.
Adeela, though, was going to school here in the US to acquire her architecture degree…in other words, she was given an H-1B based on a skill she did not already possess.
Could it possibly work that way? “Oh, here’s a Muslim woman who wants an H-1B visa. What? She doesn’t have a specialty skill? Oh, well, I’m sure she’ll go to college here and get one. Next!”
Batiuk should really stick to things he knows about, or at least learn to use Google.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Night of the Living Manager
I remember when Dullard left, Funky was worrying about filling his position and Wally volunteered for the job. Funky dismissed the offer out of hand, and now we know why: you can’t be a manager if you don’t have a degree. Why, the absurdity! Being a degree-less schmo is fine if you’re just washing the disease off the plates, but manager? Never!
Apparently, though, someone was hired to manage the place during the night…someone who we’ve never seen, and whose existence has never even been hinted about. (But probably had a degree.) I suspect this being quit so that it could join its fellow cryptids like the Fresno Nightcrawler, the Flatwoods Monster or the Hopkinsville aliens.
By the way, is Funky talking about a closing manager? Because I would think the night would have much bigger crowds than the lunch shift, with that much more responsibility as well. Wally still seems right on the edge of frail, so I don’t know what a large, boisterous crowd would do to him. Ha! I kid…like Montoni’s ever had a large crowd.
A closing manager for Montoni’s would just add up the mediocre receipts, see that the equipment looks clean enough, cage the apes, weep quietly and so on.
Not much else to say about this one…it’s dull, unfunny and the events therein (Wally being a manager) will be ignored in the future anyway, so that boring, poorly-constructed word-play can be made.
Nice to see that continuity is still as much ignored as always. The other day, Tony had a red sweater. Today, it’s black. Either someone in quality control slipped up, or Tony was covered in blood and it has now coagulated.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Plan B
Huh. Usually when someone graduates from school, that person is the one asked “What are your plans?” Not here, though–for some reason, Holly’s curious about what Rachel is going to be doing, now that…nothing has really changed for her?
Although from Rachel’s answer, it sure sounds like she’s planning on quitting Montoni’s, now that Wally is a dishwasher with (presumably) a degree in architecture*. And she’s going for a certification to teach art…oh God, she’s going to start working at Atomik Komix, isn’t she?
*Since both Wally and Adeela were attending the same class just prior to graduation, I’m going to assume that this was some senior-level architecture course. It’s possible that the class was a required class that neither of them bothered with before senior year, but most students tend to knock those out early so that senior year is spent concentrating on one’s major. It also might have been a course that both took for “fun” but “fun” seems to be a foreign concept in Westview. I suppose it could be any random class, but really, a degree in architecture for a dishwasher is the kind of fate that just screams “Wally.”
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Yellow Alert: Someone’s Happy
So, either Wally is just now being hired at Montoni’s, despite all the history to the contrary, or Tom Batiuk thinks “Welcome” means “You’re still working here, in the same position, but now you have a degree.” And well Tony might add, “A degree you’ll do nothing with, of course, except increase the amount of depression in your life, in that you’re now a dishwasher with a degree.”
I think I’ve figured out a possible reason for Batiuk’s utter lack of continuity: he hates this strip as much as the rest of the world does, and it’s painful to go back and re-read it. All he’s doing is pounding them out until that 50th.
I have to say, Funky’s exercise routine has finally paid off. I don’t think he’s looked this trim in years. Or maybe Ayers gets paid by the number of fat-asses he has to draw, and Batiuk has a budget in place for 2019.
After thinking about it for awhile (a phrase I hate wasting on Funky Winkerbean) it bothers me the way Tony is drawn. Based on Wally and Adeela’s elbows, I can sort of see where the tabletop should be, but somehow Tony looks too tall. So either they’re sitting in kiddie chairs, which would be par for the course for Wally, or Tony is standing on a box.
Why is it that no one involved in the creation of this strip gives a good hot damn about its presentation?
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
I Have a Dream
Hello, fellow sufferers, BChasm back in the Agony Booth again after an extended hiatus. Thanks to all, especially Epicus, who covered for me while Life Happened. (Honestly, you don’t want to know.)
And a Happy Martin Luther King Day to you all. A reminder that there are things worth fighting for, and people willing to fight for them.
As opposed to other people who can’t be arsed to keep track of their own continuity. Today’s strip is a good example…
…actually, today’s strip was unavailable for preview, but I’m betting the above remark holds true anyway.
Thanks to BillyTheSkink for an excellent hosting stint. And, apropos of this, isn’t it the saddest aspect of this strip–the most Funky Winkerbeanesque aspect, if you will–that the most creative, hilarious and insightful things associated with this strip for the last ten years, come from the hosts and commentators on this site, and not from the comic itself?
If Tom Batiuk honestly had any sense of shame, this sort of thing would sting.
If.
IF.
“If” may be the harshest word in the English language.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Wot’s Adeela wit you? Eh?
Why is Adeela not excited about graduating from college in today’s strip?
The answer may be undeserving awards-bait… Film at 11.
Thank goodness Tony returned in time to set up this silly transition. I don’t know what we all would have done had Funky had to ask Rachel this rote and rhetorical question. Probably donned sackcloth and ashes…
Well, at least Chuck Ayers doesn’t use wavy panel borders for in-strip transitions from one place to another like TB did. I hate that.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
And the Tony goes to…
Tony’s back in today’s strip you all!
TONY! IS! BACK! Ring the bells! Toss the confetti! Kill the fatted calf!
Yes, he’s back! Wearing the same shirt he had on when he left for “God’s waiting room” back in October, no less. And carrying the same suitcase, because… he lives at Montoni’s?
Also, Rachel is handing out invitations A WEEK before Wally’s graduation? Miss Manners ain’t gonna like this… I know I don’t.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Cousin Effect
So long Atomik Komix! Not sad to see you go.
Today’s strip moves us on to the greener pastures of… *sigh* Montoni’s.
Yep, nephew cousin Wally is having one of those newfangled January college graduations. He is also too cheap to spring for (recently-increased) postage it would seem, having Rache hand-deliver invitations and putting the savings toward paying Wally Jr’s ransom.
Meanwhile, uncle cousin Funky is wistfully wondering when Wally, who began high school the year after Funky graduated from college, became an adult. Probably sometime during the the time he joined the military, became a POW, got married, volunteered with a minesweeping organization, adopted a child, had another child, became a POW again, spent over a decade in captivity, came back to the US, got a job at Montoni’s, started going to college, got a service dog, got married, and qualified to graduate from college.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
