In case you were wondering if there was literally any point to the Adeela storyline beyond “hey, my characters are eating Thanksgiving dinner with MUSLIMS, look how progressive and bold my writing is”, today’s strip should prove to you that no, there really wasn’t. This story was somehow dragged out for the past month (at least? I forget) and yet Batiuk somehow still couldn’t finish off this week with anything relevant to it, and instead just has another “old people are idiots/hilarious” “gag”. Batiuk couldn’t have a strip where Adeela thanks her hosts, and then maybe one where Wally cracks wise about how he’s glad he didn’t get a new partner?
I mean, why is Holly talking like this to her guest she just met? “Yeah, my father-in-law’s mind might be going. Or maybe he’s just trying to be funny, staring into space and looking extremely confused and disoriented. Either way, we’re just going to talk about him like he’s not a real person as we leave the room. The men are upstairs reading comics, and we’d better hurry if we’re going to provide them with enough cookies and chocolate milk”.
What is the “trick” even supposed to be here? I really can’t stand this typical Batiuk “wordplay” humor where he just switches two words around, but I really hate it when it’s in the service of mocking senility, which he’s been doing a lot of lately.