Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for January 26, 2025

[ ] Punchline

[ ] Malaprop

[ ] Part of a larger narrative

Come on, Ed, you can at least be mad about the show! It’s what you’re designed to do!

WELCOME to Day Two of the Exciting New Crankshaft Expanded Universe of Jokes only TOM Gets! How long will those wings take? A minute? An hour? Till the inevitable heat death of the Universe? ONLY TOM KNOWS! But gol-dang it, then it’ll be FUNNY

And he’s going to pull those wings off the flies that swarm this strip, isn’t he?

Oh, so now there is room for Pmm on the body-hair sofa?

At least it’s still Ed, though. I don’t want to jinx anything by saying which FW refugees haven’t shown up lately, but we’ll see what happens Monday.

Hey, a new dumb question to add to the Pmm Collection!

Funny? No.

So glad to see Cranky!

Ed, are you talking about that wing growing off your head? And is it a gas oven? Then put the wing in the oven!

Binge watching doesn’t give you a chance to think about where the story might lead you next week.

“This reminds me of a story! It was 1978, or maybe 1999, at any rate, I punched Prince right in his schlanozzle! So, I guess it was 1992, that song he sang about with the year. There was this dog, a golden lab the size of a Pomeranian. One of the big Pomeraninians, like a Winnebago one. Big dog. Like Clifford, the Big Bluey Dog. Then I made some wings! Wing makers were new in those days. And THERE WAS A PUNCHLINE! …I forgot what I was talking about. Why’s my toaster oven on all fire?! Wings?! I didn’t make WINGS!”

Why is this funny again?

Today, the pubic hair couch seats three, whereas yesterday it seemed to hold only two potatoes, with no spare room.

It’s funny because Jff still can’t decide what hair color he wants

Looking forward for someone to explain what is funny or heartwarming about this. It’s just…panels of them talking about a series. And deciding to start the second season. Hilarious.

What no popcorn? BOOOOOO!

Batty can’t even be bothered to come up with a second-rate pun name for what they’re watching; it’s just “that show.”

I guess anything that’s not “Radio Ranch” isn’t worth naming.

I think this is just the beginning of a new storyline. It will continue for a while, and then there will be a punchline, sometime this summer. …… Maybe. …………. Or not.

batiuk trys to imitate terry beatty does a very bad job of it

……must be a snowy day??

Wings make TV watching much better…..

Are sny other Crankshaft lovers excited for tomorrow? When I got the newsletter,I was so happy that I wanted to throw up. I’ve waited MONTHS for FW to come out on GoComics,and character appearances didn’t have the same feeling.

I must not be reading the last panel right, it’s not making any sense to me.

Look at Pmm’s smile in her final appearance. She announced that she liked the show, and Crank’s immediate response is to turn it off and go to the kitchen. Cranky can’t make her miserable by demanding that she watch another two dozen episodes of a show even he doesn’t enjoy! Well played, Pmm, well played!

Sometimes it’s fun to binge watch …

You all are mis-reading this. This isn’t meant to be funny. It is a dramatic turn. Cranky mentions being “knocked off”. Pmm smiles secretly to herself. Pmm is planning to knock off Crankshaft and he is completely unaware of it! The game’s afoot, possibly a foot and a half.

Why are people referring to characters as Jff and Pmm?

I like to absorb only one episode at a time.How weird does that make me?

I will venture a guess that Crankshaft is old enough to remember when a TV “season” meant a run of 39 episodes (followed by 13 “summer reruns”), and that the point of his wry, disparaging comment is that today a season is so puny you can “knock it off” in just a few hours. In other words, I suspect he’s being a geezer, complaining (indirectly) that the good old days were better.