Tag Archives: The Beatles

by | February 26, 2022 · 10:30 pm

Harley Holey

“There are gaggles of geese, pods of whales and murders of crows. What term would do justice to the special nature of black holes?…The question was crowdsourced on Twitter recently as part of what NASA has begun calling black hole week…Among the many candidates so far: A crush. A mosh pit. A silence. A speckle. A hive. An enigma. Or a favorite of mine for of its connection to my youth: an Albert Hall of black holes.” –Dennis Overbye, “What Do You Call a Bunch of Black Holes: A Crush? A Scream?”, New York Times, April 22, 2021

Thankfully we’ve survived the week-long shipwreck that is Tom Batiuk’s imaginary Hollywood, to find ourselves in the more familiar confines of Westview High School. Jim shares his dismay over his students not picking up on his referencing a fifty-five year old Beatles lyric. Which would be akin to 1970’s high school kids recognizing an Al Jolson reference. Which, come to think of it, we 1970’s high school kids might’ve picked up on, so maybe Jim’s pupils are deserving of his disdain after all.

Today we learn the name of Westview High’s janitor. Is Harley his first name or last? It Harley matters…

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by | September 26, 2020 · 10:30 pm

Here Comes The Flood

Link to today’s strip.

Normally, a Funky Winkerbean reader would see today’s episode as one of those typical Sunday “filler” strips that has nothing to do with anything, but is just supposed to be lighthearted and fun.

But Tom Batiuk can’t resist tipping his heavy hand when he’s about to get serious.  I guess it’s his way of saying “Polish off those awards, boys, the Batiuk shelf is ready for ’em!”

So we see Adeela all happy and carefree, just before the mean ol’ USA comes crashing down on her, for no reason at all (I’m guessing; there could be a reason that will turn out to be incredibly stupid). Maybe she has a brother who’s bombed here and there, and she’s guilty by association.  Or it might be something we’ve never guessed (because it has never been shown.)  As I mentioned yesterday, whatever it is will be so inaccurate and poorly thought-out that it should win awards–just not the good kind.  The point is that Batiuk will make her life living hell, for no other reason than that’s the only kind of life available in this strip…and, for that, he should win an award.  A good award, too.  He thinks.

Seems odd that we had to go through nine years two weeks of talking about driver’s licenses to get here, but there you go in Batiukland.

And that’s all from me for now.  Thank you for your indulgence; I appreciate your comments and your insights, and I also appreciate those who read but do not comment.  And now, please welcome back reigning champion Epicus Doomus, who returns tomorrow.

Let’s have Peter Gabriel sing us out of here…

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by | March 26, 2020 · 10:30 pm

And A Second Hand Guitar It Was A Stratocaster Owned By Mason Jarre

Link To Today’s Strip

Uh yeah Mason, whatever you say. If I recall correctly, he actually traded in his guitar to become Dino Deer, whatever the hell that was. I’m trying to parse the timeline here, as Mason is way, way too young to have started a band after seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. It’s so weird how every character in this strip is into popular culture from twenty years before they were born. And in Mason’s case, he traded a pop-culture icon from twenty years before he was born for another pop-culture icon from forty years before he was born, then starred in a movie with a pop-culture icon from a hundred years before he was born. It won’t be long before someone in the strip starts re-creating old patent medicine shows.

It’s almost hard to believe that BatYap ran out of Dead Lisa tropes already, but there’s really no other explanation. This one is so random and so pointless it doesn’t even qualify as filler. It also demonstrates that unlike with “writers”, BatHam doesn’t particularly respect actors all that much, as it’s sort of implied here that Mason just picked up acting as an afterthought and (in typical FW style) just pretty much blundered his way into Hollywood fame and riches without really trying. Which wasn’t Mason’s original back story, but at this point it doesn’t matter anyway, as we all know that Les f*cking Moore is the only living soul who’s ever had to toil, suffer and sacrifice to create truly authentic art and everyone else is just a big insincere phony hack. What a dick.

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by | March 23, 2018 · 10:29 pm

Dork & Mindy

Link To Today’s Anticlimax

More like Chester Humblebrag, amirite? I like how Pete announces that Mindy is calling, like he had to prove there was really only one virgin in the room or something. As I hypothesized earlier this week, could this be Batnard’s way of moving these two imbeciles back to ol’ Westview Towne or is it just the usual collection of totally unrelated events that won’t ever lead anywhere? Only time…lots and lots and lots of time…will tell.

So apparently Chester collects pretty much everything. “Would you like to see my Beatles “butcher” cover/first edition Legos/collection of rare Yoo-Hoo bottle caps/baseball cards of every single Tampa Bay Ray ever/collection of pre-industrial age gynecological instruments?”. At least the reasons behind Chester’s bachelorhood were made abundantly clear this week, he’s the spoiled kid everyone hated who’d “be your friend” if you’d hang around and let him show you all his cool stuff. His bizarre lifestyle, that feeble “presentation”, the collectibles, the facial hair…it all paints a picture all right, a very very sad picture.

So naturally these two idiots will pounce all over his stupid offer…eventually…only to rue the day when they accepted his daffy proposal. I hope Boy Lisa and Jessica end up with a spare room and a cot, as the apartment over Montoni’s is currently occupied by yet another forty-something year old kid “just starting out” so Pete’s shit out of luck there. I’m looking forward to Jessica’s unbelievably unrealistic reaction upon learning that her husband has once again made an important life decision without talking to her first, which seems to be a real trend with this Boy Lisa guy.

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