The Next Two Panels

Cidu Bill on Nov 6th 2009

afterschool.gif

“I meant after you graduate high school, Owen.”

“So did I.”

Filed in Bill Bickel, Funky Winkerbean, Tom Batiuk, comic strips, comics, humor | 16 responses so far

16 Responses to “The Next Two Panels”

  1. mkilby Nov 6th 2009 at 03:23 am 1

    Back when I started reading comics, our paper didn’t carry Funky Winkerbean, so I read it only when we were visiting relatives. However, I remember liking it, but I thought that it was just a “funny” strip (at least back then) - when did it become a “meaningful soap opera”?

  2. Joshua Nov 6th 2009 at 03:55 am 2

    I believe that the big tone change of Funky Winkerbean took place around 1992. However, I wasn’t reading the strip at that time, either. This is based on the Wikipedia article which indicates that 1992 is when the strip changed from the main characters’ teenage years to their adult life.

  3. Annie Benson Nov 6th 2009 at 05:07 am 3

    Too bad your addition wasn’t actually part of the strip, Bill. I’d like to be pleasantly shocked to find myself actually laughing at a Funky strip.

  4. Jeff Nov 6th 2009 at 10:56 am 4

    No point in going to college when you’re going to die of cancer anyway.

  5. Pirk Nov 6th 2009 at 12:30 pm 5

    ha!
    that’s the trouble with story-driven comics. he probably would have liked to do that joke, but couldn’t because it wouldn’t be a realistic conversation

  6. gramma(r) Nov 6th 2009 at 02:51 pm 6

    So is it official that “graduate high school” is now proper English? I graduated FROM high school, and dropping the preposition just sounds like one didn’t learn enough to actually graduate.

  7. Cidu Bill Nov 6th 2009 at 03:03 pm 7

    Pirk, think about what you wrote here. And about what strip.

  8. furrykef Nov 6th 2009 at 04:13 pm 8

    So is it official that “graduate high school” is now proper English? I graduated FROM high school, and dropping the preposition just sounds like one didn’t learn enough to actually graduate.

    Actually, until fairly recently, it’s “graduate high school” that prescriptivists have claimed is correct, and “graduate from high school” that they have claimed is incorrect. Gradually, the “graduate from” usage has taken over, which just goes to show that today’s “incorrect English” is often tomorrow’s “correct English” (and sometimes vice-versa!). In any case, Merriam-Webster says that both are correct.

    - Kef

  9. Cidu Bill Nov 6th 2009 at 04:46 pm 9

    Jeff, I think the rule is, if you can get out of Westview alive and don’t look back, you’ll be okay. Just don’t enroll in the University of Westview.

  10. bookworm Nov 6th 2009 at 04:47 pm 10

    Furrykef, I learned it the other way around. Google “grammar graduate from”. Graduate is an active verb, something the subject does TO the object. A person doesn’t graduate the school, the school graduates the person.

  11. furrykef Nov 6th 2009 at 05:55 pm 11

    Ah, I’d misread the Merriam-Webster entry. The actual history of the phrase is:

    1) I was graduated from high school. (once the only correct form)
    2) I graduated from high school. (once condemned; currently preferred)
    3) I graduated high school. (relatively new; condemned by some and accepted by others)

    Nonetheless, Merriam-Webster accepts all three forms as standard English.

    - Kef

  12. Rachael Nov 6th 2009 at 06:29 pm 12

    WOW. that dude looks and sounds exactly like this kid named Cody Bradford in my Language Arts class. He’s in eighth grade and doesn’t know what nouns are.

  13. Rebecca Nov 6th 2009 at 09:53 pm 13

    That’s actually what I’m doing after high school.

  14. Mark in Boston Nov 6th 2009 at 10:19 pm 14

    I graduated high school in 1969. I bachelored my degree in 1973 and mastered it in 1978 but I haven’t doctored it yet.

    Which is correct: I borned in 1951, or I borned my mother in 1951?

  15. mkilby Nov 7th 2009 at 03:16 am 15

    @ furrykef (11) - Nonetheless, Merriam-Webster accepts all three forms as standard English.

    The MW dictionary seems to have a very low threshold when accepting new entries. I recently saw (quoted elsewhere, all from MW3): “boomingest, charmingest, cunningest, darlingest, excitingest, knowingest, and willingest“, none of which I would ever consider a usable word.

  16. Rainey Nov 7th 2009 at 02:08 pm 16

    Cidu Bill, this reminds me of a similar joke in which an elementary school teacher tells her class to write a paper about what they would do if they had a million dollars. One student handed in a blank paper. When questioned about this, the student replied “Because that’s what I would do if I had a million dollars.”

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