Tag: the economy

You’re Fired, Kurt Vonnegut

“Increasingly painful” is a pretty apt description of this week’s arc. Crazy Harry doubles down on the imaginary CEO concept, and is compelled to give the old heave-ho to a raft of brilliant authors, any one of which, on his worst day, could write circles around Tom Batiuk.

It’s unseemly enough to have a suddenly unemployed adult decide to sell his books instead of searching for another job. But this whole transference thing, with the displaced worker assuming the role of CEO in his mind, and summarily issuing “walking papers” to his prized possessions, is just weird. Funky had best break down right now and offer him that Montoni’s gig, because this is getting to be re-God-damn-diculous.

Harry Tinkle

For all his jerkish behavior upon learning of Crazy Harry’s unemployment, give Funky credit for at least checking in on his friend. Maybe Harry’s strategy of selling off his library (instead of, I dunno, looking for another job) is not as idiotic as we think. Keep in mind that in the Funkiverse, a single issue of an obscure comic, pulled from a safe, can generate enough revenue to rescue not one but two businesses.

Crazy Is As Crazy Does

Feb. 19, 2012

Oh, Donna Klinghorn, you poor, poor woman. I stopped feeling sorry for Cayla a long time ago: there were plenty of warning signs that she was marrying a jerk. But I truly pity Donna: today she throws herself at Crazy Harry, trying her wifely best to take his mind off of having (deservedly, though improbably) lost his job. But once again, Crazy denies her, the better to tend to his beloved goddamn books, and once again she just takes it in stride.

“We could use some extra money…” “Extra” money, Harry? You just lost the only job you ever had. Is getting another job not an option for you? Sure, you look and act like a septuagenarian, but you have a wife, a house, and one or three children. I really doubt that selling a few books, or imagining that you’re a CEO, is gonna supplant your lost income.

 

99 Percent Bullshit

Hoo boy—she is mad, too! Just look at her little fists clenched in front of her. This is the strongest display of emotion we’ve seen from Cayla in a long time!

Now that he’s put “the intolerant” of the world in their place, the un-didactic Mr. Batiuk takes a(nother) swipe at those wicked Wall Street Billionaires, who in Cayla’s mind have somehow (how, exactly?) made college tuition difficult to afford. Les soothes her by relating an anecdote that Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. had shared in his commencement address to Rice University’s Class of ’98:

I’ll pass on to you what another Methuselah said to me. He’s Joe Heller, author, as you know, of Catch 22. We were at a party thrown by a multi-billionaire out on Long Island, and I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to realize that only yesterday our host probably made more money than Catch 22, one of the most popular books of all time, has grossed world-wide over the past forty years?”

Joe said to me, “I have something he can never have.”

I said, “What’s that, Joe?”

And he said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”

Let’s don’t quibble over the distinction between having “the knowledge that I’ve got enough” and just “enough”. Cayla expresses to Les her concern over the expense faced by their soon-to-be-blended family, and Les’ idea of easing her mind is to (mis)quote a writer, because writers are wise and all-knowing. Billionaires, on the other hand, are “greedy, amoral morons” who fuck things up for decent folk like “us”.

From April 2010:

Please Help Support SoSF

Dear Readers,

Almost a year has passed since the near-Snarkpocalypse brought on by Batom and his lawyers. Thanks to the support of you loyal readers, as well as the comics snark community at large, Son of Stuck Funky still stands. I’m proud to provide this forum for the many kindred spirits who cannot look away from the train wreck that this long-running, once beloved, now excruciating comic has become.

I have a request to make of you, the reader, and it feels a little awkward: I’m asking for small donations. Ack. I said it.

Admittedly, the overhead around here is not great: after WordPress shut me down, it was a matter of moving SoSF to a paid web host, and registering and renewing annually the sonofstuckfunky.com domain name. The biggest investment is my own time, spent staring at each week’s worth of strips, racking my brain to come up with something new to say (even when TB doesn’t): a riff, a commentary for each day which I then share with this amazing group of readers, who proceed to have at it and collectively provide the real entertainment value via the comments. You people have made SoSF the funniest, smartest, friendliest online community I’ve ever participated in.

I wouldn’t be shaking you down for a few shekels if I didn’t need it. Yours truly has been out of a paying full-time job since last October. It’d be nice to not have to worry about scraping up the hosting and domain renewal fees as they come up.

It’s a free-will donation, totally voluntary. To the very excellent few who have contributed in the past: you’ve done your bit, you’re off the hook. You other guys, if you like what you read here and if you have it to spare, please consider clicking on the PayPal “Donate” button. Send even a buck; it adds up.

Hey, Comics Curmudgeon throws two begathons a year (not that I consider SoSF to even be close to Josh’s league) and they run paid advertising. SoSF is ad-free (for now), mainly because I haven’t figured out a way to monetize. So, just for this week, I’m passing around the tasseled Peruvian knit hat.

Thank you, everyone, for reading and sharing, and thank you in advance for any support you can provide.

Stay Funky,

TFHackett
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tfhackett

References available upon request.