Apologies for today’s short post, but this story arc has gone about as well as my week at work has… And today’s strip doesn’t do much to improve matters. It doesn’t do much period.
The insurance companies Dinkle may have put a stop to the flaming baton trick, but don’t you dare think he is losing his touch. He has happily proposed maiming senior citizens with fire in recent years.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Tagged as alumni band, band, band directing, curmudgeonly oldsters, Flaming batons, Harry, Harry Dinkle, hatchet face, Holly, Holly's mother whose name escapes me at the moment, marching band, marching bands, Melinda, misplaced nostalgia for things that weren't all that great to begin with, nostalgia, old crap, Old Dinkle, Old dying people, old gags from the 1970's, old Harry Dinkle, old useless junk, running ideas into the ground, shadow Hollys, silhouette, silhouettes, the raptor claw in Holly's hair, towel curtains, very old gags, Westview HS Band, WHS band
Look, the man himself Deigns to appear on panel Here in today's strip Why is he worried No one is coming to see Him in uniform No one is coming To see Holly twirl either But whatever y'all This Harry Dinkle, He sounds like a real jerk This guy here, real jerk With his history Of abusing band members Why would alums play But of course these two Still have their band uniforms No one leaves high school
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Tagged as alumni band, band, band directing, cell phones, cellphone, curmudgeonly oldsters, Dinkle, Dinkle's house, dumb clothing jokes, giant mouths, Harry, Harry Dinkle, Holly, huge hands, idiocy, knowing smirks, marching bands, old crap, Old Dinkle, Old dying people, old Harry Dinkle, sheer idiocy, smirk, smirks, smirks exchanged, telephone transactions, The Golden Dinkles, the inevitable ravages of age, the raptor claw in Holly's hair, the ravages of age, towel curtains, very old gags, Westview HS Band, WHS band
Oh, so Melinda wasn’t thinking of entering Holly in a pageant! No, as we learn in today’s strip, she was thinking about hijacking Westview High School’s homecoming and subjecting the crowd to Holly’s flaming baton trick and its subsequent collateral damage. Duh. I don’t know where Holly got the idea that her mother was trying to get her to enter a pageant, it’s not like Melinda led into this homecoming performance idea by talking about pageants or anything…
It was smart of Holly to suggest inviting a bunch of band alumni into this scheme. Not because making this an actual alumni event rather than a single woman’s vainglorious showcase means the school would likely be more accommodating. Not because it will place anyone not related to her who might be interested in seeing her performance out on the field instead of up in the grandstands. Not because it will give Wally a chance to break out his trombone again. Not even because it seems to deflate her conniving mother.
No, it was smart because Holly knows as well as anyone that misery loves company.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Tagged as band, curmudgeonly oldsters, enraging facial expressions, enraging hair strands, Holly, Holly's mom, Holly's mother whose name escapes me at the moment, marching band, Melinda, misplaced nostalgia for things that weren't all that great to begin with, nostalgia, old crap, Old dying people, old gags from the 1970's, old useless junk, Remembrence of Strips Past, the raptor claw in Holly's hair, useless old junk, very old gags, Westview HS Band, woman with receding hairline
Hey, I know who that is in today’s strip! No, not the choir lady. Bunhead. She went to community college and/or Kent State with Wally and Adeela! She even changed her sweatshirt mid-class once. No, twice! She also was in one of Rachel’s community college art teaching certification classes, apparently. And now she’s answering the door in a neighborhood deemed moneyed enough to waste money on band choir candy! Moving up in the world. Maybe one day she’ll graduate from college, or at least wear something other than a sweatshirt. It is good to have goals.
I have nothing else to say about this strip other than “at least Dinkle isn’t in it”.
At least Dinkle isn’t in it.
I thought maybe we were getting an extended break from Dinkle during the last week, TB does love pontificating on comic books after all, but I should have known better. The Dinkle-St. Spires choir story had yet to play all of the beats a Dinkle story plays. We’ve covered his arrogance, his ego, his megalomania, his ludicrously demanding practices, the one thing we were missing from the complete Harry Dinkle experience finally shows up in today’s strip… fundraising. I should have seen it coming, no excuses.
I’m not sure these robes appear to be “tired and worn” so much as they appear to be rain ponchos purchased at a Cleveland Browns game. Maybe add some patches or stains or loose threads next time to sell the effect, Chuck.
Now it is only a question of how many weeks will TB spend showing Dinkle pushing these old ladies to sell “choir mattresses” or his autobiography or whatever. Unfortunately, it won’t be a negative number.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Tagged as ancient Dinkle gags, choir, church ladies, Dinkle, fundraising, gags that amuse only one person, gags that go on way too long, giant mouths, Harry Dinkle, Lillian, Old dying people, old gags from the 1970's, old Harry Dinkle, recycled gags, St. Spires, very old gags
Oh, so we’re back to the jokez! in today’s strip. If we’ve learned anything in the last week and a half, it is that Dr. Droopy and Funky both are willing to dish out this cornpone but neither is willing to take it (in fact, I would argue that this is quite literally the only thing we have learned in the last week and a half).
Well, as they say, “write what you know”… Certainly no one can claim that TB doesn’t know hypocrisy.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Tagged as arcs that go on too long, arcs where nothing happens, Bad medical news, comma eyes, complaining, Complete Worthless Ass, crappy ploddinng stories that never get anywhere, doctor guy, doctors, Droopy, dull stories, dumb clothing jokes, four eyes, Funky, Funky Winkerbean, gags that go on way too long, glib doctors, hypocrisy, manila folder, medical professionals, Now Funky, Old dying people, old gags from the 1970's, one of those arcs that just never seems to end, sarcasm, Sarcastic Old Bastard, sheer idiocy, smirk, smirks, smirks exchanged, stupid, surliness, the inevitable ravages of age, the ravages of age, tiny hands, unneccessarily long arcs, very long arcs, very old gags, weak sarcasm
Today’s strip is best read in print… on a popsicle stick, or maybe a Laffy Taffy wrapper. I would even guess TB took lifted this gag wholesale from a Bazooka Joe strip but for, um… obvious reasons.
My only question is, where is this snarky Funky when Les gets to thinking he’s Shecky Greene?
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Tagged as Anon-O-Character, comma eyes, complete lack of humor, curmudgeonly oldsters, doctors, four eyes, Funky, Funky Winkerbean, glib doctors, medical professionals, Now Funky, Old dying people, old gags from the 1970's, Sarcastic Old Bastard, stupid, the inevitable ravages of age, the ravages of age, very old gags
First, a big hand for Epicus Doomus for taking a three week stint writing these posts. Yeoman’s work, truly. I can’t tell you how many times this strip has had me wanting to tap out after one week day.
Looks like today’s strip continues what we saw last Friday and Saturday, and what has dominated 10 of the 18 strips printed since Christmas Day… yes, it is yet another installment of At Home With The Winkerbeans. Part Pluggers… part Lockhorns… It somehow manages to fall short of even the absolute worst that those two mockable comics page mainstays have to offer. Heck, I’m not even sure what is going on here.
Is the joke that Holly’s vision is even worse than Funky’s? (Believe it or not, there is 4 year old precedent for this.) Is it that Funky’s vision is so bad that he thinks their DVR has a clock when it doesn’t? Is it that neither of these characters wear glasses regularly even though they both demonstrably need to? Does TB think DVR clocks are ubiquitous in the way VCR clocks once were? (They aren’t.)
One down, thirteen more to go…
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Tagged as boredom personified, curmudgeonly oldsters, Funky, Funky Winkerbean, Funky's house, Holly, marriage, mustache, Now Funky, obsolete video technologies, Old dying people, recycled gags, stupid, technology, the inevitable ravages of age, the raptor claw in Holly's hair, the ravages of age, TV, very old gags, Watchin' television
Les just continues to mock Batton in today’s strip. Sheesh, whadda jerk! Apparently newspaper cartoonists were the original social distancing champions, which you probably would be seeing memes about if you were Facebook friends with one. Unfortunately, gags this terrible are not a rare sight in Funky Winkerbean…
Emily or, uh Amelia… whichever one wears pink and doesn’t act like what TB imagines a Hot Topic shopper to be, asks a perfectly reasonable question for a “kids these days” kid. Seriously, it is a good question and it demonstrates a knowledge of what a comic strip is, how it is distributed, and its primary measure of success. Batton, of course spins this perfectly fine question into a self-pitying humblebrag so deftly that even Les seems impressed. Newspapers may be dying, but his comic strip is in EVERY SINGLE ONE of the ones that remain! What’re you gonna accomplish in your life, Blondie?
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Tagged as Amelia, anon-o-students, Batton Thomas, Bernie, Bernie Silver, clueless students, comics, curmudgeonly oldsters, disillusionment, Emily, fake news, impending doom, Les, Les being a giant smug douche, Les' yellow shirt, Logan Church, Maris Rogers, newspapers, Old dying people, one of those damned twins, random students, sad-sackery, Thatsnought Hewmore, these kids today, those stupid Crankshaft twins, Three O'Clock High, token black student, traveling green shirt, very old gags
Eye Do Not Care Anymore
Is Funky telling the truth in today’s strip? Last time we saw him get a physical was in early 2017, when he and Holly flew to Dallas (sure…) to visit a so-called “superclinic” (sure… again) for physicals. Well, Holly claimed it was an annual physical back then, so maybe the Winkerbeans’ annual January Dallas superclinic physical trip just recently happened. Not sure when that would have been, we’ve seen Funky and/or Holly every single week so far this month…
Oh wait, none of that matters. Nurse Scrunchie doesn’t care about Funky’s physical health, she just needs to know if he can afford to pay for his cataract surgery. What a scathing and original commentary on the American healthcare system! Groundbreaking stuff!
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Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Tagged as "jokes" that aren't really jokes at all, Anon-O-Character, anon-o-nurses, arcs that go on too long, arcs where nothing happens, Bad medical news, carrot cake, comma eyes, complaining, complete lack of humor, crappy ploddinng stories that never get anywhere, dull stories, four eyes, Funky, Funky Winkerbean, gags that amuse only one person, gags that go on way too long, half-assed political commentary, hatchet face, manila folder, medical professionals, Now Funky, Nurse Greenhair, old gags from the 1970's, one of those arcs that just never seems to end, scrunchie, tags you never thought you'd use, unnatural hand gestures, unneccessarily long arcs, very long arcs, very old gags