Funky Winkerbean spoiler question

[carnivorousplant]

Did Funky buy the farm in the car wreck, and is his ghost wandering about?

[River Hippie]

I'm guessing a coma like Tony Soprano's "Kevin Finnerty" experience.

[The Hamster King]

I'm guessing a coma too. It's not real life because he actually looks happy.

However, when he eventually regains consciousness I predict that he'll have significant brain damage, requiring that he be confined to an electric wheelchair and undergo extensive physical therapy.

[Czarcasm]

Yeah, but I believe he mentioned that the town square had been spiffed up...as if there had been a passage of time?

[The Hamster King]

Originally Posted by Czarcasm

Yeah, but I believe he mentioned that the town square had been spiffed up...as if there had been a passage of time?

Maybe it's a sick version of "It's a Wonderful Life" showing how much better the world would have been if Funky had never existed.

At this point the strip has already passed the pathos event horizon and is plunging into the pathos singularity, so it's to be expected that the normal rules of tragedy will start to break down.

[In Winnipeg]

Are they still publishing that?

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by In Winnipeg

Are they still publishing that?

You are better off not knowing.
Move along, nothing to see here.

[Czarcasm]

I wonder if it is doing another one of those infamous time-jumps, keeping the Funky Phantom around just long enough to introduce the new aspects.

[LurkMeister]

My first thought at the "town square had been spiffed up" line was that he was in the past, when it was newer. This could be because he's dreaming or because he has actually traveled back in time (cue Twilight zone theme).

[BrotherCadfael]

I think it's a Twilight-zone type of episode, such as "A Stop at Willoughby" or "Walking Distance". Funky is about to wander through the streets of the Westview of his youth (aka the setting of the original strip).

[Czarcasm]

Originally Posted by BrotherCadfael

I think it's a Twilight-zone type of episode, such as "A Stop at Willoughby" or "Walking Distance". Funky is about to wander through the streets of the Westview of his youth (aka the setting of the original strip).

While in real life(such as it is), he is slowing bleeding to death.

[Peter Morris]

Did Funky buy the farm in the car wreck

Apparently not (see strip dated June 25th, currently second from the top)

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by Peter Morris

Apparently not (see strip dated June 25th, currently second from the top)

Well, damn.
I really liked the "bleeding to death" possibility.

[Peter Morris]

I think it's a Twilight-zone type of episode, such as "A Stop at Willoughby" or "Walking Distance". Funky is about to wander through the streets of the Westview of his youth (aka the setting of the original strip).

I don't read this strip usually. But I've just had a look through the last few days and noticed this strip. What's the betting that the old geezer turns out to be himself?

[LurkMeister]

[Rod Serling]Presented for your consideration...could a dying man's consciousness travel back in time to give his younger self the means to save his future failing business?[/RS]

[The Hamster King]

Originally Posted by Peter Morris

I don't read this strip usually. But I've just had a look through the last few days and noticed this strip. What's the betting that the old geezer turns out to be himself?

I bet you're right.

[carnivorousplant]

Maybe re really had the drink and this is a drunken rambling.

[BrotherCadfael]

Originally Posted by Peter Morris

I don't read this strip usually. But I've just had a look through the last few days and noticed this strip. What's the betting that the old geezer turns out to be himself?

I'd call it a certainty -- Rod Serling once heard that irony is good for the blood, and figured that, if a little is good, a whole lot must be great. Twilight Zone, here we come!

[jayjay]

I thought Westview already existed in the dystopian future where Biff owned everything...

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by jayjay

I thought Westview already existed in the dystopian future where Biff owned everything...

Oh, Dear G-d!

[panamajack]

"I know where I came from — but where did all you cancers come from?"

[Sigmagirl]

Or . . . the old geezer is Crankshaft.

[jayjay]

Originally Posted by Sigmagirl

Or . . . the old geezer is Crankshaft.

Ed Crankshaft doesn't give advice. That would require a "care what other people think of me" gland, which it's quite obvious that he lacks.

[Lynn Bodoni]

Crankshaft offered to pay or partially pay for college tuition for a bunch of "at risk" kids. While he might not care about what most others think, apparently he does have a heart.

[Bridget Burke]

Time to return to the Comics Curmudgeon, to see what he & his minions make of this latest revolting development.

I've managed to avoid that Wretced Hive of Scum & Snarkiness since the Settlepocalypse....

[jayjay]

Originally Posted by Lynn Bodoni

Crankshaft offered to pay or partially pay for college tuition for a bunch of "at risk" kids. While he might not care about what most others think, apparently he does have a heart.

Yeah, maybe I'm spending too much time at the Comics Curmudgeon.

[multimediac17]

Funky Winkerbean is real?

I thought it was a made up character for a gag on The Simpsons - you know the one where Bart complains that Springfield gets all the crappy balloons for their Thanksgiving parade and Marge says "What are you talking about? Look, there's Funky Winkerbean! Over here, Funky!"

[jayjay]

Originally Posted by multimediac17

Funky Winkerbean is real?

I thought it was a made up character for a gag on The Simpsons - you know the one where Bart complains that Springfield gets all the crappy balloons for their Thanksgiving parade and Marge says "What are you talking about? Look, there's Funky Winkerbean! Over here, Funky!"

Yep, Funky's a real comic strip (well, the "comic" part is purely categorical at this point, but...). It started out as a light-hearted strip about a bunch of high-school kids, but at some point in the 90s, I believe, the cartoonist either stepped into the Hellmouth or started to really hate his characters and it's been pure bathos since. It's gotten to the point where the cartoonist is some kind of malevolent demiurge inflicting cancer, death and a lack of all comfort and compassion on his strip.

Shortpacked's take on Funky isn't far off the mark. Although, along with cancer, there have been amputations, deafness (in the iconic bandleader character, no less), financial failure, and the ghosts of dead people creepily stalking their surviving spouses. Oh, and at least one case of near-incest.

[Tom Tildrum]

When the cell phone didn't have any reception after the accident, I just figured, "This is Funky Winkerbean, land of constant, dull, aching misery. Of course Funky is with Sprint."

[Ferret Herder]

Originally Posted by BrotherCadfael

I'd call it a certainty -- Rod Serling once heard that irony is good for the blood, and figured that, if a little is good, a whole lot must be great. Twilight Zone, here we come!

And because it's a Batiuk strip, the comic is going to turn out to be worthless...

[digs]

I flipped open the comics section of the paper for the first time in eons, and wept for humanity.

Funky, Luanne, and a bunch of strips that were comedies are now maudlin soap operas. And not even well-written ones.

Remember when the 'funny papers' were... y'know, funny?

[Ferret Herder]

Originally Posted by digs

I flipped open the comics section of the paper for the first time in eons, and wept for humanity.

Funky, Luanne, and a bunch of strips that were comedies are now maudlin soap operas. And not even well-written ones.

Remember when the 'funny papers' were... y'know, funny?

You mean like Dick Tracy, Brenda Starr, Prince Valiant? (Two of those still run daily in the Chicago Tribune.)

Luann is really awful over the last week or so - she walked in on Gunther changing, saw him completely naked, and is blabbing about it to anyone who will listen and whining about why no one will take her "traumatization" seriously. Gee, how kind.

[jayjay]

Originally Posted by Ferret Herder

You mean like Dick Tracy, Brenda Starr, Prince Valiant? (Two of those still run daily in the Chicago Tribune.)

Luann is really awful over the last week or so - she walked in on Gunther changing, saw him completely naked, and is blabbing about it to anyone who will listen and whining about why no one will take her "traumatization" seriously. Gee, how kind.

Yeah. The day after, when she was dishing about it in the cafeteria to her friends, my first thought was "What a biyotch!" I mean, she at LEAST considers Gunther a friend, doesn't she? That's what I've been getting out of the last few years of the strip, anyway. So why would you MAKE SURE that your friend's most embarassing moment ever is spread throughout the school? And worse, spread to adults?

Oh, and the mixed signals are horrible, too. Luann has been switching between wide-eyed shock and come-hither eyes with Gunther ever since it happened.

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by digs

Remember when the 'funny papers' were... y'know, funny?

I didn't ever think Funky was funny.

[MLS]

So -- what's the latest theory? The speculation at my house is that he's in a coma. Or dead. Can't decide which.

[carnivorousplant]

If he were dead, you'd think the mime would have opened his car door for him.

[Ferret Herder]

Originally Posted by MLS

So -- what's the latest theory? The speculation at my house is that he's in a coma. Or dead. Can't decide which.

I'm going for Twilight Zone time travel. It's taking so damned long to play out, though, that I might decide something else in a day or two.

[jayjay]

Originally Posted by carnivorousplant

If he were dead, you'd think the mime would have opened his car door for him.

Well, maybe. But Masky McDeath would kind of spoiler the ending of the storyline in that case, wouldn't he? Besides, Death obviously doesn't need to make special trips for pickup in the Funkyverse. It's everywhere, like God.

[MOIDALIZE]

I hadn't read Funky in years, and I come back to find him old and washed-up. Is Tom Batiuk looking to end the series soon?

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by MOIDALIZE

Is Tom Batiuk looking to end the series soon?

No, just torture the characters.

[Ferret Herder]

Originally Posted by carnivorousplant

No, just torture the characters.

He's got high-school age kids of the main characters to torment as well. None of the younger generation has gotten cancer yet, after all.

[Ferret Herder]

Partial answer to "what's going on":

Click the upper-right hourglass if the print is too small.

SPOILER:

So it definitely involves the idea of time travel, but could still involve him slowly bleeding to death on the side of the road and hallucinating this or having one of those "It's a Horrible Wonderful Life" moments.

[ErinPuff]

Is he mad, in a coma, or back in time?

[Chronos]

I hadn't read Funky in years, and I come back to find him old and washed-up. Is Tom Batiuk looking to end the series soon?

With Batuik, you can never tell. One of his previous strips, John Darling, ended abruptly on a Thursday, with no warning at all, with the main character getting shot to death.

[John DiFool]

Originally Posted by Bridget Burke

Time to return to the Comics Curmudgeon, to see what he & his minions make of this latest revolting development.

I've managed to avoid that Wretced Hive of Scum & Snarkiness since the Settlepocalypse....

It seems like he (CC) is always riffing on the same galdanged ten strips, over and over. I guess some people like being predictable.

[Bosstone]

Originally Posted by John DiFool

It seems like he (CC) is always riffing on the same galdanged ten strips, over and over. I guess some people like being predictable.

Because those same ten strips offer lots of opportunities for jokes, being either serious or intended to be humorous but failing. He'll bring in others from time to time when he notices something interesting.

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by Bosstone

Because those same ten strips offer lots of opportunities for jokes,

Why else would anyone read Mary Worth or Apartment 3 G?

[devilsknew]

I remember when I was in High School, Funky was kind of like the "Archie of the '80's". It had a lot of relatable stuff to the typical Ohio High School age teen- Funky really appealed to the geekier kids, and especially the Band geeks, a lot of inside band jokes. Kind of grown up with it and well, it's dealing with age appropriate topics to Tom Batiuk, now... It's just like small town life in Ohio, growing up and dying there, very realistic, very current, very "Ohio" and weirdly prescient.

[Rilchiam]

I liked it in the '70s and '80s too, before the first time jump when Funky et al were still teenagers. I remember one sequence in which Holly, the majorette, had a dispute with a band member that ended with him losing the plume on the front of his cap. I'm assuming it was Funky himself; I don't think it was Les. Anyway, Harry, the band leader, intervened, saying gently, "All right, Holly, give Funky back his plume and let's all make up." Holly (who always wore her cap so low you couldn't see her eyes) stood stiff with indignation, and on Harry's command, huffed, "I'm SORRY!" and jabbed the plume at Funky's chest so hard she cracked a rib. And cracked me up. Because that is so high school: still holding a grudge over some little nothing thing.

[SweetLucy]

Originally Posted by digs

I flipped open the comics section of the paper for the first time in eons, and wept for humanity.

Funky, Luanne, and a bunch of strips that were comedies are now maudlin soap operas. And not even well-written ones.

Remember when the 'funny papers' were... y'know, funny?

Years ago, "9 Chickweed Lane" was actually funny. Its current plot: for the past 6 months or so, a melodramatic soap opera, with no end in sight. Someone needs to put Chickweed out of its misery