Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for October 09, 2024

· The point of a protest is to protest.

· Why go to a midnight protest just to leave after fifteen minutes?

· The protestors are parents of the students who had the book assigned by Les. They are the ones who caused the book to be “not recommended”. Their identities are already known.

· The strip from 10/05 shows that, just like anyone else in the year 2024, everyone can record everything, and that didn’t stop the protestors from protesting.

“And it’s taken crystal clear shots of the top of your heads as you…stand around outside my garage and chant. It’s a slam dunk case.”

Umm, Lillian, every one of your counter-protesters was summoned by Mopey Pete and Min-dull on their smartphones…which means every one of your counter-protesters has a camera on them so that they can take nice, up-close, ground-level pics and videos of the book banning mob. I know you’re not exactly tech-savvy, but one of the Grady Twins could explain the concept to you if you like. Add “surveillance” to the list of things Batiuk doesn’t understand.

Speaking of points, what’s the point of the surveillance camera here? If she shows the video to the cops, aren’t they likely to ask why she didn’t call them when this happened? And when did Lizard Lil have it installed?

“We’ve made our point”…which was what, exactly? You don’t want banned books in schools, so you criticized a non-approved—not banned—title which was being distributed by a small-town bookstore owner—not the school—who has every legal right to sell said book. Logically, your complaints should be with the teacher who’s trying to give your kids the book, but you don’t protest at the school, at any school board meetings, or at said teacher’s house because…why, exactly? He’s a widower and Westview’s only Oscar winner? And remember, folks, this is supposed to be the start of a movement that will sweep the globe and change Mankind.

BOY O BOY, she sure got THEM with her 2001-era X-10 SpyCam!!

Lillian knows. She has seen her camera footage. She says “Big Sister DOESN’T love you!” And the Burnings begin—at the homes of all who oppose LILLIAN, She Must Be Obeyed! (civilization completely collapses; billions starve; but LES is proved right!)

Whaat? WHAAAAT? Surveillance camera? You sure that ain’t a light bulb? Because that is what it is look like with yellow light and rays coming outta it.

And even if you was has some survillance footage you still not bothered to even see footage of who was set fire to your bottom two stairs? You shoulda handed over footage to them cops already by now. But ya did not even bothers to calls em.

And seriously what placards holding protesters is comes all the way from another town to protesting in the middle of the night when everyone else is sleeping?

What is the point even? And that too they is suddenly appears outta nowhere after the arson of bottom steps? What kinda morons would stays at a scene of crime and draws attention to themselfs in person after fire brigade has come n gone and holds placards in the middle of the night?

Not to mentions the several other giant craters sized preposteridiculudicrous plot holes.

There only one logical explanation for all these nonsensical theengs. This a haphazardly crafted absurd parody to mocks the actual cause. What else but that. It’s called mocking. “LOL”.

Someone is has got to lists all the number of plot holes points in this one since this begin. Or maybe it easier to list the number of theengs which is not a plot hole. And that number is appears to be zero.

After the fire?

Smile, you’re on candid camera!

Smile and wave, you’ll all be on 6 o’clock news.

When did she have time to get a surveillance camera put up there? Unless the camera fairies did it for her?

“DON’T FORGET TO SMILE,” Tom Batuik shrieked, pointing, “for my NEW SECURITY CAMERA!” The two raccoons paused, looked at each other, then continued to eat Tom’s garbage.

Such cameraderie!

A Protester asks Lillian who installed the camera. Lillian smugly answers “Ed Crankshaft!” Protesters and Superbestfriends alike, all laugh as they point to Lillian and Ed.

Suddenly, the camera short circuits, bursts into flames and Lillian’s garage burns down.

“Police, I want you to arrest these people just for trying to protest and doing nothing else.”

Did this camera also capture who set your steps on fire?

Since this is the same night as the fire, it only makes sense that she would have the arsonist on camera. But then when did anything in this strip make sense.

Arson, vandalism, assault? That’s not “making a point,” that’s jail time.

Good thing the counter protesting Bat Squad showed up to….um….what did they do anyway?

Once a hater, always a hater. BTW, police use surveillance cameras to provide evidence of a crime. DUH! lol And don’t say there wasn’t a crime. The burn marks prove there was.

No……….cameras have power!!!!!

Go back two days (10/7) and you will see a tiny tiny spot in the second panel, at the roof peak, that could be the camera.

But in that panel you will not see siding on the garage! Never mind the camera, I want to know who installs siding in the dead of night during a protest!

Ha evidence surveillance, try and talk your way of this fellas! :D

Continue selling the books the haters hate, Lil.

I find it disturbing that I had a colonoscopy the day before Batty pulled this deus ex machina camera out of his…

If the town police won’t do anything about the crowd defacing her property, the footage from that camera will make nice evidence in a hearing for a restraining order, and/or small claims court.

So sometime between the time the FD left, and the crowd arrived, she had a camera installed?

No one made any points here…

Ah yes, they made their point alright, and their point is, “Were Sofa King Retire Dead.” (Read it fast, you’ll get it)

It’s always amazing when stupid stands proud of itself. It just goes to prove that two negatives don’t always make a positive. When it comes to stupid, being stupid and being proud of being stupid just multiplies the stupidity.

Protester: We’ve made our point… Let’s go.

What point was that? That you’re the dumbest, most clueless mob on the face of the earth?

Protester: The jokes on you, McKenzie. We’re from the local Faceless Straw Man guild. We don’t have any faces.

Yeah, a wide-angle surveillance camera mounted at the top of a two-story house is going to deliver images that are… just about worthless. In the real world, as opposed to the world of TV crime shows, video from a camera mounted up that high would be pretty useless, as even if it’s 4K resolution (which would require a hella big storage device to hold the video) the individual protester’s faces are likely to be maybe a half-dozen pixels across. Assuming they aren’t either completely shadowed or washed out by a local light source.

Protester: The jokes on you, McKenzie. Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis never gave us any faces. Good luck trying to identify us from the backs of our heads.

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen and bears, the Dramatic Denouement of this Diminutive Magnum Opus! Tomorrow, everybody goes for pizza and coffee at Montoni’s.

And the instigator of this fiasco is still sound asleep with his “Best Actress” trophy.

And in the end… does Lillian convince the protesters to see her side of things, by reading to them from F451 and lecturing about the importance of free speech and teaching critical thinking and such? Of course not; she convinces them to leave by threatening them with state-imposed punishment when she hands the security camera footage to the police. What an inspiring message: you can’t change people’s minds with ideas and classic writing, but you can change their behavior with threats. Good job, Batty!

Commenters keep saying (incorrectly) that books aren’t being banned. In this case the mob (collective IQ 33) was TRYING to ban books.

ed then screams car 54 where are you

I think we’ve all missed the point, it’s not about banning books, it’s about censorship. Since the school team is the scapegoats they couldn’t have someone who said the name offended goats. This has been about people who want to tear down statues want us to use non binary names, weither we want to or not. Forcing major league sports teams to change their names. Forcing the relocation of the 2021 MLB All Star game because they didn’t like that states voter registration law. Using banning books was just a tool to get this across.

Lillian does her best Allan funt impersonation.

Tomorrow,the surveillance camera is shattered by 9 different types of bullet

Reading is fundamental—-and anti-reading is just plain mental

Lillian, who has always been shown as having a poor grasp of technology, suddenly has the presence of mind to have a security camera installed. Yeah, sure.

Pick a lane, Batty. Is Lillian technology challenged or technology savvy? Let me guess. You modify Lillian’s understanding of technology to suit the joke or story you’re trying to tell. It’s called “writing.”

If only the MAGA terrorists in real-world Ohio were as well mannered…

I always feel like somebody’s watching me

And I have no privacy

Woah, I always feel like somebody’s watching me

Who’s playing tricks on me?

Ed: “Did you set up your security camera to record?”

Lillian: “Huh? Is that something I need to do?”

Laughter resonates as the protesters disappear into the night.

This goofy alt-world story seems like a Chick Tract comic.

This is the most utterly lame non-ending to a non-story. And with Batty it’s tough to tell if this was because he boxed himself into a corner with the hysterical premise set up at the end of Finky Winkingbean and didn’t have the courage to go through with it, or if he honestly thinks he’s made some kind of grand point. Which he hasn’t, but I’m sure he thinks he has.

Still no cops? Are we sure this isn’t Portland or Seattle? Maybe San Francisco except they’re wearing clothes,

In this string of comments, may people have asked about the security camera and when it was installed. ‘I believe’ that when Lillian agreed to give out the “Banned Books”, she had the camera installed before the books arrived. She said that this was a fight she was willing to take on. Knowing that the other book store had been burned, she expected some kind of trouble. Also as others have pointed out (and I looked myself), you never see the top peak of the roof until the big camera reveal. Lillian knows that the person who started the fire was probably in the protesting group. So got you. The fire company arrived quickly because Cankshaft is on speed dial, and there is always a truck pointed in his direction. The cops may not have gotten there yet, as this was a reported fire. Arson investigations would be done after, and the fire cheif sometimes makes that call.

I’m very inspired by how many people here stand up and tell us how brave they are by commenting—either on the right or left—calling themselves [Unnamed reader]. As Nathan Hale said, “I regret that I have only one sock puppet to give for Tom’s Nation.”

A surveillance camera? Who would have imagined such a clever plot twist??? You know, besides every single person with a Ring doorbell, Bluetooth cameras on their houses, or a smartphone? She’s a crafty old bat.

Since I know what’s better for your children than you do, I am also big brother.

I’m anonymous because I’m a Luddite who was lucky to find my way into the site AT ALL.

If there is a camera didn’t it capture the arsonist, since there is all happening on the same night?