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[[File:funkyw.png|frame|Smiling (and [[Smug Smiler|smirking]]) in spite of their impending [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|doom]].<ref>From left to right: [[Author Avatar|Les Moore]], Summer Moore, Donna Klinghorn, [[Put on a Bus|Maddie Klinghorn]], "Crazy" Harry Klinghorn, [[Parent with New Paramour|Becky Blackburn Winkerbean-Howard]], [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|Rana Winkerbean]], [[Alpha Bitch|Linda Lopez-Bushka]], [[Jaded Washout|Bull Bushka]], [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|Jinx Bushka]], [[Chew Toy|Funky Winkerbean]], [[Delinquents|Cory Winkerbean]], Holly Budd.</ref>]]
If [[Coleman Francis]] were to have drawn a comic strip, it would go something like this. [["Not Making This Up" Disclaimer|No, really.]]
In the beginning, namely, [[The Seventies]], this was a simple gag-per-day strip set at a [[High School]] in "Westview," a [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|nondescript suburb]]<ref>Westview High School was modeled primarily after Midview High School in [[wikipedia:Grafton Township, Lorain County, Ohio|Grafton Township]], of which [http://www.newsnet5.com/news/local-news/oh-medina/comics-crankshaft-and-funky-winkerbean-come-from-mind-and-talent-of-northeast-ohio-cartoonist Batiuk graduated from in 1965]{{Dead link}} and [http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2012/04/19/creator-of-popular-comic-strip-tackles-gay-rights/ still visits regularly]. Montoni's Pizza was based off of Luigi's Pizza in Akron, and the town square has loosely been modeled after the town square in [[wikipedia: Medina, Ohio|Medina]].</ref> of [[Cleveland Rocks|Cleveland, Ohio]]. With [[Hurricane of Puns|a literal hurricane]] of [[Punny Names]], [[Lame Pun|corny jokes]] that would rival ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'', and all characters locked in [[Comic Book Time]], this strip was a dependable, if not remarkable, fixture on the comics page.
Lead character [[Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?|Funky Winkerbean]] was a happy-go-lucky student, [[Butt Monkey|Les Moore]] was the lovable loser nerd, "Crazy" Harry Klinghorn was the [[Class Clown]], Holly Budd was the marching band majorette, [[Jerkass|"Bull" Buska]] was the class bully, and Cindy Summers was the popular girl. Other regulars were Principal Burch, secretary Betty Reynolds, counselor Fred Fairgood, football coach Jack Stropp, band director [[The Neidermeyer|Harold Dinkle]] and pizzeria owner Tony Montoni. Lisa Crawford also appeared as a nerd equally as socially awkward as Les. And then there were [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|minor characters like Barry Balderman, Junebug, Roland and Livinia]].
Regular gags/stories during "'''Act I'''" involved, among other things, silly answers to test questions, Les Moore's incompetence at gym, [[
In 1992, Tom Batiuk, the creator of the strip, quite deliberately decided to initiate [[Cerebus Syndrome]] (not that it was called that then): he figured that 17 years in high school was long enough. He ran a graduation storyline, and to indicate - and hammer in - the change of tone, he had the class overachiever
And then there was "'''Act II'''." And [[Deus Angst Machina|Angst]]: For every good thing that happened to the cast (Funky married to Cindy, [[Loser Gets the Girl|Les married to Lisa]]) there were [[Diabolus Ex Machina|two bad things]] (Funky is a divorced [[The Alcoholic|recovering alcoholic]], [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|Lisa died after a breast cancer relapse]]) and one thing that was [[Cerebus Retcon|revealed to be worse than we thought]] (Lisa's teen pregnancy retconned into date rape, Bull's [[Jerkass]] nature as a result of parental abuse). [[Wring Every Last Drop Out of Him|The nature of Lisa's death]] attracted a significant level of notoriety, as it was made known to the general public by Batiuk a full year in advance.
And then in 2008, immediately following the death of Lisa, [[Creator Breakdown|Batiuk decided]] there needed to be a second [[Time Skip]] to turn things over to the kids of the original cast. Even then, the majority of the storylines in "'''Act III'''" have focused more on the adults [[Chew Toy|experiencing even more traumatic events]] and [[Character Derailment|angsting about them]] and less on their children, though a handful of stories have focused on the lives of the teens.
The comic today is widely seen as [[Snark Bait]] for being [[Crapsack World|unrealistically and relentlessly depressing]] in some storylines (some of which [[No Ending|abruptly end]] with no [[denouement]] to speak of), and [[Dude, Not Funny|almost totally inappropriate]] in others with Batiuk's continued usage of [[Incredibly Lame Pun|incredibly lame puns]] and [[Smug Smiler|accompanying smirks]]. Regardless, it's a [[Long Runner]], and [[Take That, Critics!|shows no sign of slowing down]] any time soon.
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* [[Age Cut]]: [[Time Skip]] II officially began with a [http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20071021&name=Funky_Winkerbean Sunday strip]. Les began to say "You know your mother would be proud..." while young Summer and he hold hands. The next panel is a much older Summer's hand still holding his. Les finishes with "...of the young woman you've become" as the final panel shows the teenaged Summer and middle aged Les.
* [[Age Is Relative]]: Cindy Summers - one of the few '''Act I''' characters to not age badly - was transferred from [[
* [[The Alcoholic]]: Funky is a recovering one. And Wally has had issues with alcohol as well (his future wife, Becky Blackburn, lost her arm in a drunk driving accident with him behind the wheel).
* [[Always Someone Better]]: Keisha, Summer's basketball rival whose great talent overshadows her and thus deprives her of her love for athletics. And now Keisha and Summer are step-sisters.
* [[Author Avatar]]: Without a doubt: Les, especially post-[[Time Skip]]. This became blindingly obvious in October 2010 as Les embarked on his book tour (which takes place mainly at Montoni's) and is surrounded by adoring hordes of middle-aged women who worship the ground he walks on - and who are all clearly inferior in some way or another to him. Even Les' '''Act III''' appearance is arguably a self-portrait of Batiuk.
* [[Breakout Character]]: Les Moore, and even Lisa Crawford to an extent. John Darling and [[Crankshaft|Ed Crankshaft]] were two popular bit players that wound up with [[Spin-Off|their own respective strips]].
* [[Business as Unusual]]: Funky took over the town pizzeria from founder Tony Montoni. For unexplained reasons, during the second time skip, Funky was able to build a chain of Montoni's pizzerias, and even launched one in New York City. After Funky instituted cost-cutting measures that cut down on the quality of the pizzas made, the franchise collapsed with all the locations - excluding the one in Westview - closed in early 2010. Les and Funky's dialog following the failure of Montoni's - in which they blame "greedy, amoral morons" - could be considered as a [[Take That, Critics!|thinly veiled attack at the comics' critics by Batiuk]].
* [[Call Back]]: Funky's time traveling is real since he's the "old geezer" who told his younger self to save the comic book.
* [[Can You Hear Me Now?]]: For unknown reasons, early in '''Act III''', Les never bothered to use a cellphone - or ''any'' phone, for that matter - to call home and check and see how his teenage daughter is doing. Nor did people at home call him. This resulted in bizarre situations like the February 6, 2011 strip, where for for some reason he was completely shocked that his daughter got injured.
* [[Cerebus Retcon]]: Several sitcom-y plot points were retconned into something significantly ''less'' funny.
** The most recent retcon (as of October 2010) has Les reminiscing about the book tour and lectures he gave after the publication of his book about John Darling. In the original strip, however, Les lost the Darling manuscript; although it was later found, he never published or promoted it. Bizarrely, Les looks the same age in the reminiscences as he does now, even though the Darling book was supposedly published before the [[Time Skip]].
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** Les appears to be the most aware, and at all times seems to be merely waiting his turn, if only to be with Lisa again.
* [[Creator's Pet]]: It says a lot when the strip's [[Author Avatar]] and current lead character is ''also'' the strip's least-likable character. But Les achieved this feat thanks to his [[Jerkass]] nature, self-centeredness, and overall smugness. Summer has also been this, but to a lesser extent now, as her college career has barely been mentioned, if at all.
* [[Deus Angst Machina]]: ''Especially'' the cancer plots, but pretty much ''everyone'' has had a pile-up of horrible events.
** Poor Les, what the heck is he going to do with a once-in-a-lifetime trip to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro? (the critics admit that it is a rather daunting "vacation") He'd rather just go to Disney World.
* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: Ever since the first time skip:
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** One week in 2009 covered an entire miserable day for the middle-aged Funky. This started with him facing laying off employees, progressed to his wife getting involved in a car wreck, to his father falling and breaking his hip, to him picking up his son from detention, and ending with the revelation that ''all this happened on his birthday''. Oh, and while at the hospital, listening to the TV blare on about the horrible economy, Funky gets an e-mail warning him of elevated PSA levels - meaning he's also looking at the threat of prostate cancer. About halfway through the day, he even got upset at ''God'' for his string of failure. Regular readers simply wondered why more characters don't curse out [[Rage Against the Author|the malevolent deity]] that controls their universe..
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: Oh so many. A few examples:
** Lisa is correctly told that radiation cannot cure her Stage IV breast cancer. This is mostly true, as pretty much nothing will kill recurrent breast cancer. She is however ''not'' told that radiation and chemotherapy can put the cancer into a temporary remission or that some Stage IV breast cancer patients are able to survive for twenty years or longer. This omission influences Lisa's decision to discontinue treatment. Worse, it takes the better part of a year for her to die, which means that she could have beaten it back: had the cancer been so invasive that chemo or radiation wouldn't have helped, she would have been dead within a few weeks.
** A 1/24/10 (Sunday) strip had Crazy Harry discussing comic book heroes of past generations and how they were "real heroes" who "weren't deeply disturbed and borderline psychotic" -- a [[Take That]] at the [[Dark Age]] and [[Modern Age]] -- but the retro hero he holds up as an example is Marvel's Speedball. Apparently, Tom Batiuk is unfamiliar with what happened to Speedball in ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]''. [http://joshreads.com/?p=5408#comments Comics Curmudgeon commenters] who are familiar thought this blunder hilarious and joked that Speedball/Penance would fit into the miserable Funkyverse ''perfectly''.
*** Arguably, Speedball fits into Harry's rant about the [[Dark Age]] perfectly for this very reason, and Batiuk is knowledgeable enough about comics that he may be well aware of his fate (see [[Shout-Out]] below for evidence). It's the [[Hypocrite|total failure to see that he's doing the exact same thing to his own comic]] that makes it hilarious.
*** And then in November 2011 he wrote a strip in which Crazy Harry is asked if he reads the newspaper, and answers, "No, it's too depressing... and the funnies aren't even funny anymore." It's hard to tell whether this too is self-awareness failure or Batiuk using Harry as a [[Straw Critic]].
** Pretty much ''everything'' relating to the storyline with Wally is a slap in the face to anyone who has even a smidgen of knowledge of the military, POWs, and basic procedures for declaring a soldier killed in action (hint: they tend to involve ''identifying the body'' and not grabbing random corpses without even the most basic of forensics testing)
*** This may have been inspired by the controversy some years back over the deliberate misidentification of skeletal remains recovered in Southeast Asia. (A forensic scientist claimed that he had positively identified fragmented skeletal remains from a crashed bomber when in reality it was impossible to tell whether the specific remains sent to each family were actually from their loved one, from one of his comrades, or even from an animal.)
** Apparently everything about Les's book tour as well. In the words of one reader: "I spent nearly 20 years in the book publishing biz, and I don’t even want to START on how much shit Batiuk is getting wrong."
*** Les's book is published in a matter of weeks by a small university press. His agent is also his publicist - which, even if it weren't a gross conflict of interest, is highly unlikely as they are completely different professions - and he has a long, passive-aggressive discussion with Cayla and Susan about the proposed cover design (which he apparently has complete control over), even though the book has already been printed and is in stores.
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** When she was in high school, Summer Moore (Les and Lisa's daughter) was liked by both Cody (a nerdy boy who looks suspiciously like Les) and Owen (his slacker best friend who's defined by his goofy hat<ref>Not to be confused with Maddie Klinghorn, who sported the same goofy green cap that her father, Crazy Harry, wore when he in high school.</ref>). However, there was no proof she liked either, and critics were thankful that [[Generation Xerox]] was avoided... for now. Complicating matters was an unnamed blonde girl who liked Cody but he didn't know she existed... even after she texted him, thanks to a prank by Owen.
*** As most storyline arcs go in Funky Winkerbean, this storyline did not have any denouement or conclusion. Moreover, Owen and Cody somehow remain as sixth-year juniors at Westview, and the unnamed blonde has not been seen or heard from since.
* [[
** Falling leaves are bountiful in ''Funky'' strips published during the autumn months.
** 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.
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* [[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.
* [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]]: The latest plot twist involving Wally is that he stopped going to his therapy sessions so he can sit in a crappy apartment and drink to forget; given that a recent strip had his ex [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|Becky whine about how destructive]] he was, it's obvious that we're about to see a massacre that is All Wally's Fault for not Getting With The Program.
** Wally in a very believable series of strips was given an assistance dog to help him with his PTSD. With the dogs support, he has become mentally and emotionally stable to take care of himself and start dating again.
* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]: Lisa's death. The author made it clear almost a year before the plot line resolved that it was going to end with her death, so [[Wring Every Last Drop Out of Him|enduring a year of Lisa not knowing, getting a few false hopes, and then wasting away in hospice]], was excruciating.
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*** Also, good luck finding a female high school drama student [[Traumatic Haircut|willing to shave her head]] for a school play.
* [[Take That]]: To fellow cartoonist Johnny Hart, for using ''[[BC|B.C.]]'' as a [[Author Tract|medium to share his Christian beliefs]]. Which, given Batiuk's tendency to go into comic-tantrums when someone speaks out against his cancer-centric plotlines (see above, and below) is like a cannibal mocking someone for being a vegan.
* [[Take That, Critics!]]: Batiuk has used this comic and his other strip, ''[[Crankshaft]]'', to dish out some lumps of his own over criticism that the strip was overly dramatic. In recent years, he's even name-called ''in-strip'' those who critique and/or snark on the strips as "internuts" and "Twitter tots."
* [[Teen Pregnancy]]: Lisa went through this, giving birth to Darrin Fairgood, whom she gave up for adoption.
* [[Teens Are Monsters]]: Funky's stepson Corey steals Lisa's cancer charity money and it's implied it's just his latest brush with the law. Funky covers for him by replacing the money himself...while appearing as a "good guy" because he makes a grand gesture of apparent generosity without telling Les ''where'' the money went. In what is pretty much standard among ''Funky Winkerbean'' storyline arcs, [[What Happened to the Mouse?|the plot has yet to be revisited]].
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* [[Time Skip]]: Two of them!
* [[Time Travel]]: Funky travels back in time after crashing his car. [[All Just a Dream|Maybe.]]
* [[The Faceless]]: Harold Dinkle's wife, Harriet, was never shown in '''Act I'''. Their conversations usually took place while the reader only saw the exterior of the Dinkle's split-level suburban ranch house (with musical notes affixed to the garage door).
* [[The Grim Reaper]]: Appears in a dream sequence as [[The Phantom of the Opera|a man in a suit and tails with a strange white mask on his face]].
** ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'' parodied this almost a year later, in what was more of a [[Shout-Out]] than a [[Take That]], as Batiuk's artwork of "Masky" was reused in ''Pearls'' with Batiuk's blessing.
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* [[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.
* [[White Mask of Doom]]: Who could it be but Masky?
* [[Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?]]: Seriously. Think about it. '''Funky Winkerbean'''. A ridiculous and nonsensical name back in the original gag-a-day format, and certainly qualifies as a [[Funny Aneurysm]] today. Even [[Word of God|Tom Batiuk]] has [[Old Shame|admitted that he wouldn't have used that name]] [[Hilarious in Hindsight|had he known]] the strip would become a [[Long Runner
* [[Writer on Board]]: A plotline in which angry parents protest a school play about cancer and death and Les gets to defend it. Golly, that couldn't possibly be related to anything that happened in Batiuk's career that he's still pointlessly bitter about, right?
** Les in general, really. He clearly has an unhealthy obsession with his late wife's death and is using his writing career as a platform for talking about it. ''[[Author Avatar|Kind of like Tom Batiuk.]]''
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* [[Younger Than They Look]]: Excluding Les Moore and Cindy Summers, virtually everyone from the original cast have not aged well at all, seemingly bearing the same world-weary appearance. Funky aged the most, now looking almost exactly like his own father, and now sports a bulbous nose just like [[Crankshaft|Ed Crankshaft]]. Holly Budd and Donna Klinghorn also aged badly, and Crazy Harry's beard now is almost completely snow-white. Remember, these are all characters that are all supposed to be in their early 50s.
** From internal evidence (the day his birthday party ran in the papers), Funky was born on March 29, 1964 and is therefore the same age to the day as Elle MacPherson, but he looks like Elle MacPherson's father. For point of comparison, Tom Batiuk was still a junior in high school when Funky was born.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Print Long Runners]]
[[Category:Funky Winkerbean]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 2010s]]
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