random students – Page 21 – Son of Stuck Funky

WHSTV

You’d think that producing Westview High’s closed-circuit morning newscast would be a job that a couple of geeks like Cody and Owen could not only do but might actually do pretty well. Naturally, everything goes terribly awry, as typified by the fact that the picture on the TV is upside down. Just more fuel for Les and Linda’s disdain of their idiot students.

Never mind that, though. Get a load of who’s sitting in the front row: it’s Alex, most recently seen dispensing totally worthless relationship advice to lovestruck Owen. Surely there is some retconning going on here: we met Alex at mopey Pete’s book signing in December 2007 (see below), and she appeared to be at least high school age five years ago (I was going point to the fact that she sported tattoos even back then, but apparently Ohio law allows minors to get tattoos with parental consent). She’s certainly old enough for Pete to attempt hitting on, though we know that that’s not the best indicator. Note that her model sheet on the Meet the Cast page is one of the few that does not give an age. How convenient.

Dec. 10, 2007 strip:

Basket Boink

A couple questions: we know that Bull coaches the girls’ basketball team, and is Westview’s athletic director. But what class is he teaching here? Have we ever seen him in front of a classroom? Maybe he’s been pressed into service to cover for one of the teachers who’ve been let go? And why is he holding a putter?

Fool's Overture

Band class is in session, and no doubt Becky feels energized and inspired after following the Dinkles around the music educators’ conference. That energy is short-lived, however, as she must deal with OwenandCody’s attempt to waste everyone’s valuable class time.

A Lowell in the Action

Today’s strip takes us through space, from London to Lowell, Massachusetts, and through time, to the mid-nineteenth century, to finally arrive at a weak “pun-chline” which a year or two ago would have been served up by Cory “Call Me Fishmeal” instead of Cody.

As an aside: a long-running comic to which FW is often (unfavorably) compared explains how “small lapses in continuity and art…only add to the charm” of “artisanal comics” such as Funky Winkerbean…check out today’s Doonesbury!

[Edit: Link to today’s FW and to Doonesbury were incorrect; I’ve fixed ’em now]

Fail Well

Q. Why has Harry Dinkle never been circumcised?
A. Because there’s just no end to that prick!

Me
Yesterday
Those of us here in the real world can freely express our joy over the fact that the Dinkles appear to be exiting the convention at last…

Yeah, I was wrong, we’re still at the convention. For once, Batiuk leaves exposition aside, trusting the reader to know that we are at Harry’s book signing (we don’t see a lobby card that says “‘I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE PARADE’ AUTHOR HARRY DINKLE TODAY 1 PM”).

The first young person we’ve seen in two weeks meekly approaches the wise Dinkle (and hey, Harry gets no long line of adoring fans?). She expresses to Harry her desire to teach, and in the next breath reveals her crushing self-doubt. Harry parries by telling her to “err on the side of confidence”, which Sally Student clearly lacks. Finally, with a wag of his pen, Harry advises her that while she probably will fail, to make sure that she fails for the right reasons.