Well, look who’s managed to hang on to his teaching job. And like any Westview teacher, Les doesn’t try to hide his contempt for his students. Just look at the sidelong glance his disembodied head in panel one is giving. “Use your high-tech electronic gizmos in my classroom, will you?” TB again resorts to the trusty made-up website names, and references smart phones in a vain attempt to give his strip that “now” feeling. And for the coup de grâce, the cartoonist who regularly devotes whole Sundays to copping artwork from other cartoonists is going to have his avatar lecture the kids about plagiarism.
Tag: Westview High School
Molasshole
With today’s strip, Owen crosses the line from borderline likeable/sympathetic, and joins most of the rest of the FW cast in the “despicable jerk” column (his pal Cody having made that transition a couple months ago). Owen’s whole shtick consists of answering questions by rephrasing and restating what he’s been asked: “Revenge” isn’t the “gold standard of getting back at someone”…it’s the very definition of getting back at someone. “Connecting the dots“? “I think I see where you’re going with this“? Th’ fuck’s the matter with this boy?
And molasses? Really? Wouldn’t it take a really long time to pour a gob of molasses on each and every senior’s locker? And how is this “revenge”? What he’s really doing is making more work for Westview’s poor janitor, who is still seeking his own revenge on whoever pissed in his closet 20 (or 30) years ago…
Sunday Morning Quarterback
Sure, Bull played football in his glory days (though not as a QB). But doesn’t everyone associate tossing wads of paper into a wastebasket with, um, basketball? Not in the bizarro world that is Westview! Bull sees the trashcan not as a stationary goal but as a mobile and sentient wide receiver. What sport does he coach again? But I guess if he was pretending to be shooting baskets, he’d have no excuse for missing every one. To readers whose newspapers don’t run the upper “throwaway” panels, the “joke” is even more perplexing.
The thing that today’s strip gets right, though, is the cold, sickly glow of institutional fluorescent lighting.
*Crickets*
America’s breakfast tables are treated to a hilarious Sunday FW recurring theme: laying somebody to rest. You may be asking yourself ‘I don’t get it, what’s the joke here?’ Is it the fact our esteemed author unearthed this guy out of the FW character graveyard for the sole purpose of killing him? No. Keep in mind that against all odds this square-jawed, hat wearing, hero-to-nobody managed to never win a game and somehow kept his job. Sure he could have been satisfied with being the biggest statistical anomaly in all of high school sports, but that wasn’t enough. In true Westview fashion, this guy couldn’t win at losing. For a coach who spent decades charged with the task of motivating young men to succeed on the field (and presumably, in life), it sure seemed like his focus was more on being Ohio’s own Casey Stengel…and less on teaching the likes of Bull how one actually cleans somebody’s clock. It didn’t seem to matter who won; rather, coach Strapp preached ‘he who loses last, laughs best.’ The ultimate punchline of Coach Strapp’s life seems to be on the surviving residents of Westview; for his losing legacy doesn’t need to be memorialized with an annual death march. They’re living the Strapp legacy each and every day.
-Stuckfunky
Was It Good for You, Too?
“So Coach took care of me.” On more than one occasion, too, judging by the wordless exchange in panel 1. So Bull turns out not to be a bully at all, but rather someone who goes to great lengths to protect meek Les while keeping his tough jock cred.
Why? What’s in it for Bull? Is Les doing Bull’s homework? Looking the other way as Bull moseys past his hall monitor machine gun nest? Has Les hacked into Westview’s sentient computer and hiked up his grades?
Oh, who the hell cares! Today’s the first anniversary of Son of Stuck Funky! Without making too big a deal of it, I’d just like to thank each and every one of you who reads this blog, and most especially the ones who contribute comments and ideas that keep things lively and make it worth coming back! It’s been a fun and interesting year…the highlight, of course, was logging in one Feburary morning to find that WordPress had shut us down!
Proof at last that Mr. Tom Batiuk (and his lawyers) know we exist. But the Snarkoalypse was short lived, and SoSF was back up and running in less than a day. A number of readers sent encouraging emails at that juncture. The biggest surprise was an email from the original Stuck Funky author! SF gave a little background on why the original blog petered out, and gave me his blessing in carrying on the snark. He also expressed some interest in guest-blogging. So I’m very pleased to announce that for the next seven days, I’m hopping into the rumble seat and turning over the keys to the original Stuck Funky!
Son of Stuck Funky 
