Middle child syndrome
Family Circus, 1/20/05
Normally, I try to avoid directly discussing the writers and artists of comics in this blog, on the logic that they’re real people whose feelings would be hurt after being on the receiving end of cruel mockery from yours truly. Today, however, I’m making an exception on the part of Bil and Jeff Keane, since I figure that they have the love of millions of children and parents around the world, along with their enormous piles of money, to emotionally sustain them. Anyway, it’s fairly well known that the Family Circus family is not-so-loosely based on the family of artist Bil Keane. Now that Bil’s son Jeff, who apparently has enough clout to not be known professionally as “Jeffy,” has taken over most of the creative duties, I’ve been keenly interested in how young Jeffy is treated in the strip. And, as near as I can tell, he is almost always treated badly. If Jeffy is ever featured in the daily panel, he’s almost always being yelled at (as he is here), being shot at, saying something stupid, or otherwise being crapped on. He’s not the oldest, he’s not the baby, he’s not the girl: he’s just Jeffy, and he has a lot of anger to work out. One wonders if he goes out of the way to make the art as crude and talentless as possible (and the jokes as stupid as possible) when “Billy” takes over in a pathetic attempt to get back at his parent-favored older brother.
Mibbitmaker
January 21st, 2005 at 6:16 am
Someday soon, there’ll be a daily Family Circus panel just consisting of Jeffy standing there, whining, “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!!” to nobody in particular.
Anonymous
January 21st, 2005 at 9:55 am
If you read between the lines in the last few months of Family Circus, you see a real level of mean spiritness. I think that this is years of hostility that has been brewing in Jeffy is starting to come out. The strip (circle?) where Jeffy ritually sacrifices Barfy is the day we stage an intervention
OK. I don’t have a life if I am reading between the lines of the Family Circus, but gosh darn it, somebody has got to do it.
Jiggles
January 21st, 2005 at 11:27 am
I’m thinking Jeffy fed P.J. to Marmaduke – you know, they live right next to each other on Unfunny Street. The Lockhorns are on the other side.
Happy Monkey
January 21st, 2005 at 11:35 am
On an unrelated note, did anyone know there was a BC computer game made by Sierra?
Tom
January 21st, 2005 at 11:46 am
On a slightly more related note, Thelma is another cartoon mom (such as Blondie) who has a pretty considerable rack. Filthy, filthy, filthy-minded cartoonists!!
lefty von righty
January 21st, 2005 at 11:47 am
Perhaps Jeffy is finally fed up with his wholesome family and the Family Circus. He could have said Not Me did it – whatever it is. Instead he has accepted culpability and challenged Mom. He has thrown down the gauntlet. “How big?” “Bring it on.” “Let’s roll.” The empty background is symbolic of the immensity of this struggle. It is far greater than the Keane family home. It is larger than a dotted map of the neighborhood. This an epic battle that Jeffy is undertaking. Godspeed little warrior. Godspeed.
CT
January 21st, 2005 at 11:54 am
Family Circus disturbs me. These kids have been kids since I was a kid. Imagine having kids for some twenty years and they never hit double-digit ages. Granted, immortality is involved (the parents never get older), but is it worth it to have to raise a bunch of screaming kids? For all eternity? (shutter)
LemonPepper
January 21st, 2005 at 12:58 pm
There have actually been several of each child. When one of the kids gets too old, they take them out to a beautiful field of daisies and shoot them in the back of the head, execution style. (See Ref) Then DNA is extracted from the corpse, and a clone is created. Last I heard they have several clones going at once, to keep the margin of age within 16 months.
It stands to reason that each clone is slightly dumber than the last, hence the downward trend in overall funniness of the comic.
Shaenon
January 21st, 2005 at 3:10 pm
“Billy,” incidentally, is in real life Glen Keane, a top Disney animator and one of the chief architects of what was the modern Disney style before they closed their 2-D animation studios.
I’ve met Jeff Keane, and he does look quite a bit like an adult Jeffy. He’s got that wavy ginger hair.
Dr. Spock
January 21st, 2005 at 3:37 pm
Why isn’t he in big trouble NOW??? He clearly did something terrible that deserves a spanking. He should have known better. But noooo, he stands there trying to look all innocent with his hands behind his back challenging his MOM! IN all the history of Family Crapcus has this every happened before?
Bil Keane
January 21st, 2005 at 3:59 pm
Hey Tom, that’s my wife you’re talkin’ about there!
Mac Thomason
January 21st, 2005 at 4:40 pm
I’m more worried about Jeff’s obvious Oedipal issues. (See “pretty considerable rack”, above.)
Josh
January 21st, 2005 at 5:27 pm
Foxtrot. You should start reviewing Foxtrot. This shit sucks.
Braniff
January 21st, 2005 at 5:36 pm
Talk about about Jeffy (and Jeff Keane’s) so-called issues, his position in the family, the fact that he has never grown up in more than 40 years, that he does the same things over and over, that he is living in a wholesome hell, that he might be having an Oedipal complex with a hot Mommy–if Jeff Keane chooses to develop these themes further, then The Family Circus might become funny. On the other hand, that might be the end of The Family Circus. We should expect The Family Circus to remain boring and bland.
Johanna
January 21st, 2005 at 10:32 pm
How odd it is to see sequential humor (question and answer) in Family Circus instead of just a stand-alone panel without caption.
Jim Treacher
January 22nd, 2005 at 3:12 am
You should read a novel called The Funnies by J. Robert Lennon. It’s about the son of an abusive, alcoholic comic strip artist who inherits the amazingly FC-like strip in which he’s one of the characters. A failed artist himself, he has three months to learn how to write and draw in his father’s style, and has to decide whether he even wants to. It’s much better than I’m probably making it sound. Very funny/sad, and some great analysis of the current state of newspaper cartooning.
richard
January 24th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
Thank you for not saying “I’ve been Keanely interested in how young Jeffy is treated in the strip”…
Brucker
January 25th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
Literary analysis of the themes in “Family Circus” has a longstanding tradition. Check out Keane’s books on Amazon and read the reviews. Many have been unexplicably taken down, but a good number are still present, especially here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0449148149
BTW, thanks for the blog, Josh; it immediately went into my favorites upon someone pointing it out to me!
Turbo
February 16th, 2005 at 8:54 pm
Does anyone know the daughters name, I have 20 bucks riding on her name being Dotty??
nickel
February 26th, 2005 at 10:18 pm
Dolly. Her name is Dolly.
Of course, Turbo will never see this…
Zanzibar
February 27th, 2005 at 4:24 am
The frightening part is that the first comment on the Amazon page appears to be serious.
peep
March 2nd, 2005 at 4:07 am
holy shit, the mom’s name is Thelma? i’ll be damned. you learn something new, you never wanted to know, everyday.
she does insist on wearing those tight sweaters all the time. someones pretty pround of herself, eh Thelma?
Holden
August 28th, 2005 at 6:04 pm
Poor Dolly. She’s crying cause she lives with Jeffy. Meaning:
Mom: If We see your face again, you’re in big trouble!
Josh am me, me am cool cause me comics curmudgeon Me am so cool Me rule!
December 8th, 2005 at 2:48 pm
Me rock, Me rock, Me rock, Me own you!