Funky Winkerbean: Difference between revisions
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* [[Hope Spot]]: Lisa's cancer going into remission. Psyche! Turns out the hospital mixed up her paperwork with someone else and because she lost months of valuable treatment time, her cancer is now terminal. Of course, since recurrent breast cancer is always terminal (the best she could hope for, even if detected in a timely manner, would be a few more years at most), the [[Hope Spot]] was rather pointless - not to mention her doctor doesn't bother telling her this. Or that the therapy they're giving her can't cure her cancer. ''Did we mention Lisa was a lawyer?!''
* [[Hot for Teacher]]: Susan, as a teenager, had a crush on Les, her teacher during the post-Time Skip 1 era. When he married Lisa, she tried to kill herself. She returned as a teacher - still with a crush on him - and eventually told him she loves him, throwing herself into his arms and kissing him. When a photo of the kiss spreads throughout the school, she immediately resigns and leaves, Les [[Dude, Not Funny|making jokes about her obsession]] and [[Smug Smiler|smirking smugly]] all the while.
* [[Jaded Washout]]: Played straight with Bull and Funky, averted with Crazy Harry.
* [[Jerkass]]: It depends on the era of the strip:
** The gag-a-day incarnation had Bull Buska in the role. Originally [[Played for Laughs]] until [[Cerebus Retcon|revealed much later on]] that [[Dude, Not Funny|Bull had abusive parents]]. He's still a jerkass, though, as he openly hates his dual role as athletic director and head football coach, openly thinking little of his players and interviewing for a college coaching role in his office during the school day.
** Funky's personality had the most abrupt change after the second time skip into an unabashed selfish, greedy jerk.<ref>Then again, this is a [[Crapsack World]], it's enough to turn even the most idealistic heart to stone.</ref> In recent years, however, Funky's Jerkass nature has somewhat mellowed, even though it still exists. After all, he's seen:
*** His attempted expansion of Montoni's Pizza into New York City failing in spectacular fashion...
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* [[Love Triangle]]: Between the post-[[Time Skip]] II Les, his former suicidal student turned colleage Susan, and fellow post-[[Time Skip]] II teacher Cayla. The latter of whom seems to have been given the approval of Lisa's ghost.
** Summer Moore (Les and Lisa's daughter) is liked by both a nerdy boy who looks suspiciously like Les and his slacker best friend who's defined by his goofy hat -- however there's no proof she likes either (critics were thankful that [[Generation Xerox]] was avoided... for now). Complicating matters is an unnamed blonde girl who likes the nerd but he doesn't know she exists even after she texts him thanks to a prank by the slacker.
* [[Motifs]]: Several exist:
*
** No one knows how to properly use adhesive tape in Westview. Any and all signs that are affixed to a wall or window that uses the tape are put up in a haphazard, messy manner.
* [[New Media Are Evil]]: Or at least stupid, as parodied [http://weblogtoolscollection.com/b2-img/Funky_Winkerbean.gif in this strip].
* [[Off the Wagon]]: Teased in a 2010 strip, though subverted - while the Saturday strip showed him ordering a drink, the next day's strip showed him simply chatting up the bar tender about his horrible life, then leaving the full glass behind. ''Because that is how depressing this comic is.''
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** It should also be noted that the upcoming crossover with ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' will be the first portrayal of a law enforcement officer of any kind in ''Funky Winkerbean''.
* [[Punny Name]]: The vast majority of the strip's original cast. Les Moore, Holly Budd, Crazy Harry, Tony Montoni, Candice Cane, Fred Fairgood, John Darling, Ed Crankshaft, "Bull" Buska, Harry Dinkle, Jack Stropp<ref>That would now be the late Jack Stropp, since he recently passed away from... wait for it... {{spoiler|prostate cancer}}.</ref>...
* [[Put on a Bus]]: Most of the high school students from the first time skip, despite the second time skip ostensibly being to pass the torch to the younger generation.
* [[Prom Is for Straight Kids]]: A spring 2012 storyline featured a gay couple wanting to attend prom together. When town activist Roberta Blackburn finds out, she launches a demonstration to force the school officials' hand and stop the couple from attending. However, the gay couple find unexpected support from their classmates who begin a counter-demonstration and even the principal who holds an assembly to point out that there's no discrimination based on sexual-orientation in the school handbook.
* [[Reality Is Out to Lunch]]: For a comic-strip that ''claims'' on its' site description to be "[[I Reject Your Reality|a reality-based comic strip]] that depicts contemporary issues affecting young adults in a [[Blatant Lies|thought-provoking]] and [[Crapsack World|sensitive manner]]..."
* [[Running Gag]]: Dating back to the gag-a-day era, the strip has featured annual fundraisers by the marching band. Regardless if the item is band candy, band turkeys, a novelty item, or a Harry Dinkle autobiography, they are all sold for the same goal: to raise money for new band uniforms.
* [[Samus Is a Girl]]: The Eliminator, a helmeted [[Bratty Half-Pint]] arcade gamer from the original strips, retconned late in the first time skip into Donna, a hot blond (and Crazy Harry's future wife).
* [[Secondary Character Title]]: Also somewhat of an [[Artifact Title]], in that Funky originally ''was'' the main character, or at least shared the spotlight with Les. Nowadays, it's pretty clear who the main character is and that this trope currently applies.
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** One of Les' former students (during the post-[[Time Skip]] I era), Pete, went on to become a writer for [[Marvel Comics]] after the second [[Time Skip]].
** Current ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' artist Joe Staton drew a cover of [http://skyfutonsockfun.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/1311101.gif the fictitious comic book "Starbucks Jones"] for ''Funky'' -- [http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2013/03/24 which wound up in ''Dick Tracy'' as well]. Staton and ''Tracy'' writer Mike Curtis have [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=55896 publicly mentioned] that [[Crossover|a crossover between both strips]] will occur in Feburary of 2015.
*[[Show, Don't Tell]]: Completely averted when it comes to any storyline involving high school football. Batiuk has rarely, if ever, portrayed a proper high school football game unless it involves unrealistic situations like putting the costumed mascot in as a wide receiver for the final seconds of the game. Westview only plays two games a year, and both involve rival Big Walnut Tech. In almost every situation, the game is avoided as the characters discuss what happened off-panel.
* [[Smug Smiler]]: Les Moore is the prime offender. Bonus points if his smirks are accompanied with an [[Incredibly Lame Pun]].
* [[Spin-Off]]: Two in ''John Darling'' and ''[[Crankshaft]]''.
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** After the success and critical acclaim of the "teen pregnancy" storyline, Very Special Strips would follow. While some storylines were rather mundane, several had very dark themes, most notably a recurring arc centering on Lisa contracting breast cancer that began in 2002 and continued for more than five years; it ultimately ended with her death. Other common Very Special Strip themes dealt with war issues and alcoholism.
* [[Wall of Text]]: [[media:i090917fw.jpg|This strip]], which could possibly also count as an [[Author Filibuster]]. See [[Writer on Board]] for the background.
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]:
** Harry Dinkle, the self-titled "World's Greatest Marching Band Director" lost his hearing and was forced to retire. But he has reemerged as an unpaid assistant to his successor, Becky Howard, apparently free to roam the halls of Westview... and with his hearing intact.
** Summer graduated from Westview, and is supposedly a student at Kent State University<ref>Batiuk is a real-life alumni of Kent State, and was commissioned to paint a series of murals at the Kent campus several years ago.</ref>, but little has been mentioned about her studies, if anything. And neither of her parents, Les or Cayla, bring it up.
** Plenty of readers are wondering what happened to the other driver in Funky's July 2010 car crash.
** The 1996 bombing of the Westview Post Office was never resolved with the capture of the perpetrator(s) on-panel, if anyone was apprehended.
** After the gay prom story arc, which netted attention for Batiuk, said couple [[Put on a Bus|has not been seen or heard from since]].
** Bull was never penalized by the state high school athletic association for his inserting of a costumed mascot into the actual game as a substitution for the wide receiver (a game that the Scapegoats actually ''won'') nor was he reprimanded by the school district for his interview for a college coaching role, both of which became cases of [[Move Along, Nothing to See Here]].
* [[What Year Is This?]]: Funky asks this during his trip back through time.
* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]]: Westview is apparently located somewhere in Ohio, likely as a composite, nondescript suburb of [[Cleveland]] (Batiuk's an Akron native). But precisely '''where''' is never specified.
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