Westview High School – Page 73

Chair Up, Jim

Guess the whole Lord of the Late arc really is over and done. Not that I was looking forward to week 3…anyway…looks like Linda’s dire prediction has come true: Westview’s voters have rejected the school levy and some teachers have been let go. Sadly, thanks to tenure, Jim Kablichnick not only gets to keep the job he despises, but is allowed to help himself to the spoils of others’ misfortune.

Here’s another strip that would have worked without Batiuk tacking on a punchline: the humor derives from the fact that even in the midst of a crisis, sour, selfish Mr. Kablich-prick thinks only of himself. But we get Jim not only offering a sassy retort, but mangling the famous “when the going gets tough” quotation. Maybe he means to say “When things get tough, the tough get…things”?

A Lowell in the Action

Today’s strip takes us through space, from London to Lowell, Massachusetts, and through time, to the mid-nineteenth century, to finally arrive at a weak “pun-chline” which a year or two ago would have been served up by Cory “Call Me Fishmeal” instead of Cody.

As an aside: a long-running comic to which FW is often (unfavorably) compared explains how “small lapses in continuity and art…only add to the charm” of “artisanal comics” such as Funky Winkerbean…check out today’s Doonesbury!

[Edit: Link to today’s FW and to Doonesbury were incorrect; I’ve fixed ’em now]

Irrepara-Bull

I will pass along to Coach “Bull” Bushka something that one of my own high school (music) teachers told me:

“Hey, when yer playin’ pocket pool, keep yer eye on the ref, he’s a real jerkoff!”

“How are Summer Keisha and doing at Kent?” As of today…3-24.

Buckets of Lame

Linda is on a roll this week, isn’t she, folks? Apparently, since Sum’ Mo’ and Special K moved up to Kent State (currently 3-23), the Lady Scapegoats have reverted to their own losing ways. Linda comes out with yet another idiotic idiom that no one’s ever used. Cayla gamely provides the straight line here, trying to make sense of what Linda means by “empty the bucket time”. I was kinda hoping she meant the old Harlem Globetrotters bit…now that’s funny!

…Said Nobody, Anywhere, Ever

Charles
February 26, 2013 at 7:27 pm
…in contrast to Les, [Linda’s] appearances don’t really do anything. At least with Les you have this often hilarious negative reaction. With Linda, it’s much more tiresome, with the primary reaction usually being boredom.

Holy Toledo, am I starting to hate, hate this comic strip. Having failed to get laughs yesterday with a stroke gag, Batiuk ratchets up the level of discomfort considerably by equating the away team’s “good state of mind” and competitive spirit with… hemorrhagic fever?