Suburban backyard of the damned
Family Circus, 10/22/06
I have to say that the Family Circus children do not strike me as being old enough, under ordinary circumstances, to have racked up the body count on display here. Of course, the circumstances surrounding this freakish clan of big-headed weirdos is never ordinary. What intrigues me most about this meticulously illustrated history of carnage is the fact that the wussily-named Kittycat was preceded by the much, much butcher Beast. Perhaps the name provides a clue to the motivation behind the carnage: all these hapless creatures were sacrifices to the greater Beast, our Dark Lord, who returns the gifts with a channel of raw power straight into the hearts of His little servants. You’re next, PJ!
I do wish I had seen the panel in which Bailey met his demise. I imagine Big Daddy Keane looking triumphantly at the bottom of his shoe as Jeffy wanders in saying, “Daddy, have you seen our new pet Bailey? He’s a cock-a-roach!” I also sincerely hope that Butterball didn’t buy the farm in a hilarious Thanksgiving-dinner mixup.
Judge Parker, 10/22/06
Oh man, am I going to need to add Raju to Molly on the list of Lovable But Hapless Comics Characters I Need To Worry About? I fear he’s going to get harassed by State College Bobby in some publicly humiliating way. Fortunately, in that get-up, the last time Bobby might have appeared threatening would have been in 1986, in some kind of bad teen comedy.
I’m intrigued by the idea of a “boat-wrestling scholarship”. Do you start with inflatable rafts and work your way up to car ferries and container ships? Is this a popular spectator sport? Do universities located in port cities have an easy leg up on facilities?
Apartment 3-G, 10/22/06
“But to pass the time until I find true love, I guess I’ll just have to settle for an orgy with the two women and eleven men who’ve been eyeing me as I walk the length of this block.”
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Good lord, nothing like burying your animals haphazardly all over the yard. You’ve got a nice tree in the corner, why not bury them properly in a row there? That yard must be lousy with divots.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Hey Lucielle Ball, I mean Tommie Thompson you had a shot at sex with Ted but passed. So I guess it’s time for the crying game for you. Unless we can hook you up with Raju………..
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Tommie’s so despondant she forgot to wear pants. Hence, all the stares.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:29 pm
I’m impressed the FC kids took the time to bury a 1oz. fish in the backyard– ours usually get the old burial at sea, if yeh know what I’m sayin’.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:32 pm
On the other hand, the colorist for Judge Parker clearly dreams of bigger and better coloring jobs in the future. Pretty!
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:32 pm
I sense a horrific gay-bashing ahead from Boat Wrestler Bobby, and I think Raju senses danger too – look at how he’s clutching his chin in the final panel!
Or maybe he’s thinking “OMG! Has Bobby seen me scoping him out all night? Could he feel the same way???” Maybe this is the start of a love connection!
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:36 pm
So Ragu is having a bad time and Sophie suggests her sister take him home – to give him a good time? Move over Abbey and Sam.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:36 pm
If you think the kids’ perspective of the backyard looks grim, you should see what the parents have buried back there. First AD/HD Billy, then insufferable Dolly, then Jeffy the moron–once they realized what their spawn were destined to be like, they had to put an end to all future Circus freaks. They still stay awake at night worrying about little PJ.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Jeffy sounds like Scarface?
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:40 pm
“Full boat scholarship” — a cross between “full-ride scholarship” and the poker term “full boat” — is the sort of mixed-idiom routinely spouted by lugs like State College Bobby. Thus I don’t take this as a mistake, but a dose of realism. Also realistic: No one even thinks about correcting him.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:41 pm
I remember that Chuckles died saving Dolly from drowning. Or am I getting my sucky comics all mixed up again?
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Look carefully at the house next door, and you can see the shadows of the neighbors watching the Keane kids sitting on the lawn contemplating their macabre lives thus far. 11 pets is a lot of death, and the poor neighbors have to be wondering if the Keanes will get around to hacking them up next if they can’t find another pet to dispose of.
Poor writing makes it sound like Bobby got a scholarship wrestling full boats. That’s a big move for him, given he was on the half-boat wrestling team in high school, and wasn’t strong enough to wrestle the full ones.
Josh’s 1986 comment is apropos for the entire party…perhaps Sophie is going to take off Raju’s glasses, buy him some fancy parachute pants and Ocean Pacific shirts, and give him a super-makeover, Cory Feldman style!
I don’t think the passerby want an orgy with Tommie. I think either her thoughts are too loud and they can hear her, or Margo placed a big “I’m a Virgin – Kick Me!” sign on Tommie’s back.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Who ate Butterball?
Not me!
Ida Know.
**burp** **retch** ***unnnnnngggghhhhh******* ******HURLLLLL*****
Thus the name, Barfy.
Man that dog will eat anything.
Even Thel. (but ya gotta use a little peanut butter to get him started)
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:42 pm
I thought Neddy was supposed to be wearing one of those scandalously revealing dresses she just bought at the mall — she hasn’t even bothered to change clothes for the party.
I can’t blame Raju for being bored — what is it, an ’80s costume party?
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Josh, I think you missed a GF in panel three of A3G.
Yep, that one.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Sorry Josh, I was reading fast and didn’t realize you already did the boat-wrestling gag in the 2nd paragraph. I humbly apologize to the master.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Bailey’s not a cock-a-roach! He’s a beetle. Get it? Beetle Bailey? LOL, Keaney-kins. LOL.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:44 pm
“Turning her collar against the autumn wind…” with her MINNNNNNNND BULLETS!
I love how they gave seven panels over to something you usually should only devote three panels to. Truly, Apartment 3-G is a groundbreaking series in terms of storytelling.
I dunno about you, but if I were the Keane parents I’d be wondering a) Why the kids aren’t having a nervous breakdown about losing so many pets over a short period of time, or b) given that they’re so serene about it, not checking Jeffy’s room for evidence.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Bailey is still a beetle (get it? Beetle “Bailey”? one can imagine the younger Keene chortling over this clever inside joke as he meticulously catalogs the products of the Family Circus abattoir).
You’d think a big-city boy like Josh would know a roach when he saw one…
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Future Frat-Boy is just trying to get Raju out of the way for when Neddy gets the roofie slipped in her drink. They spotted him as narc with pharmaceutical training right away.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:44 pm
This episode of Pet Cemetery: The Legend brought to you by Billy Keane’s latest Random House imprint: So You Want to Learn Taxidermy (A Boy’s Dream).
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:46 pm
#15 you mean the Conan O’Brian/president of Finland lookalike?
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Here’s something I never thought I’d say: the Sunday “Curtis” was excellent. One of the best strips of the day. While the concept was a bit lame (but no more so than the average “Star Trek” episode), the execution was wonderful. Dad singing in the bathtub, Curtis’ growing expressions of horror. It was a minor masterpiece.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Yeah, how’d you miss the Beetle Bailey joke? I guess you were so laser sighted on the Scarface reference you missed it
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:47 pm
And a “full boat” scholarship is also known as a “full ride”. Which is what Neddy is going to get as soon as the date rape drugs kick in.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Let it be noted that “Big Daddy Keane” will always be funny.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:50 pm
#15 Leslee — I wasn’t counting the kerchiefed woman in panel 5, who somehow seems to be immune to Tommie’s charms.
Also, I believe that cock-a-roaches are a kind of beetle. The Beetle Bailey joke didn’t escape my attention, but I did and do believe that it is beneath my dignity.
Josh
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:51 pm
I have a feeling that Apartment 3-G is written from the inside of Tommy’s mind. My evidence?
1) She’s the only one talking
2) She is the center of everyone’s attention as she is talking about how plain she is.
3) They spent a panel for her to say “Truly I am.”
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:52 pm
My fear is that Raju is going to be sexually harassed by this obviously gay college wrestler. After all, isn’t he wearing the shirt that someone thought made him look “a little fruity.”
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Is that an AC/DC shirt in panel 4? Awesome! I guess I judged Raju’s new look a little too swiftly. He seems to fit in perfectly.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:53 pm
More mirth in the Circus: the turtle was “slo” Mo
*barf*
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Oh, also:
“Mighty” the Mouse
“Nemo” the Fish
Bil Keane was like “You know, this dead pets comic needs something to lighten it up! IN JOKES AHOY! Surely that will take their mind off the morbid nature of death!”
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Holy crap, that is the scariest Family Circus I could have possibly imagined.
And regarding Judge Parker, it isn’t just Bobby who seems to be trapped in 1986. Check out the glasses on the girl in panel 3, or Ned’s (her name is NED?) tres chic halter-top sweater! Hey, let’s give them some credit here–it’s almost Halloween, maybe they’re at an 80’s dress-up party or something. Right? Right?
#9–Hahaha!
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:57 pm
The FC kids have double the death count of my childhood pets, and I’m 26.
And I remember saying words similar to what the kids are saying, but after 12 years, the hamster you had for 2 years or the rabbit for 3 suddenly fade from memory and you don’t even think about it that much.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:57 pm
31- I know it worked for me… death now equals hilarity in my book! Thanks Mr. Keane!
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:59 pm
mo and lizzy?
The future for Jeffy and Dolly?
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Please take note of the AC/DC shirt in panel 4. Awesome!
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:03 pm
Personally, I think it’s the clown fish that should have been named Chuckles.
After all, with this sort of track record it’s obvious he was doomed anyway, and that way, when Chuckles finally does the eternal backstroke, the Keane parents can spend a panel (oh, I’m sorry, a “circle”) unsuccessfully restraining themselves from laughing at their little in-joke while the children look on in horror and confusion.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:03 pm
I didn’t catch all the horrible, horrible puns and in-jokes in this Family Circus (I noticed a couple but shrugged them off) that everybody’s been pointing out. Frankly, this just ups its horror value for me. Fortunately, I already declared it the creepiest FC ever, so I guess there’s nowhere to go from here but down.
Oh, and here’s an FC victim nobody’s pointed out: Snippy, the snail. Because boys are made of snips, and snails, and…oh god, Chuckles, NO!
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:11 pm
#’s 30 & 37– Please excuse the “attention whore” appearance of these comments… I was trying in vain to break free of the spam blocker and just couldn’t keep myself from reposting, and reposting…then rewording…and reposting. Yes, I’m that cool.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Ted Forth just keeps getting mildly cooler all the time. On the scale of dull preppy white guys he’s already moved from Dan Quayle to Tom Scavo. Next stop: Greg Kinnear.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Good ol’ Tommie… she has her collar turned up against the elements… but judging by the stares of the people around her, she has once again forgotten to wear pants.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:15 pm
He’s 19 years old and goes by the name “Bobby.” I’m sure he greeted news of his “full boat wrestling scholarship” with the phrase “Helloooooo SAILOR!” Fear not for Raju on his trip home with Bobby – after many lonely months in Judge Parkerville, Raju is about to get lucky…
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Sorry, Josh, according to Wikipedia, the closest they come is that they are both part of the Infraclass Neoptera, which “includes almost all the winged insects.” Sort of like saying a “cockroach is a kind of fruit fly.”
Nice weasel-try, though…
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:18 pm
Albatross & Hysterical Woman:
I, too, figured that Tommie had neglected an article of clothing as a means of attracting attention from others. figuring that unwanted attention is better than none at all. Too bad she couldn’t have been at Charterstone a while back. She might have saved someone a needless death.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:21 pm
#13 — “Even Thel. (but ya gotta use a little peanut butter to get him started) ”
Clearly, a reference to East Side Dave’s confessions on the Ron & Fez show.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:22 pm
#44 Donut — all right, your superior
knowledge of biologyability to look things up in Wikipedia defeats me. I really did think they were a kind of beetle, but truthfully I really did just want to say cock-a-roach, as the thought of Little Jeffy mangling the name of a household pest was amusing to me.On my honor, I’ve never actually seen Scarface. My inspiration for this gag was my father, who claims to have once had a pet cockroach named “Cocka” that my stepmother killed. I’m not making that up.
Josh
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:22 pm
And on the other side, does that make Beetle Bailey some kind of cock-a-roach?
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:23 pm
FC: “It’s not just the pets– in this house, no one makes it out alive.”
Do you remember the hoopla that was built up around Garfield a couple months ago when Jon got a girlfriend in Liz the vet? I think there should be the same hoopla for the end of this strip, except instead of one of the FC characters finding true love, the strip ends in a 18-day standoff between the Feds and the Family Circus where everyone is killed except Jeffy and the final panel is him charging out of a ground-floor window, pistols blazing in each hand, knowing that with the rest of the family gone, he’d rather join them than be put in some cage, man. That’s my vision, anyways. I think i just want the strip to end.
Also: I think this is a perfect example of the modern comics pages eschewing the old style of “Funny” for the newer “Weird, Disguised as Not Funny”.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:25 pm
JP – Panel 2: the newspapers obviously made the artist remove the cigarette that Sophie was holding.
Panel 5: dreamy. Please tell me that vest is for carrying film and filters and cables, not an 80s jock-horror show. I’m hoping that State College Bobby is actually a National Geographic photographer.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:30 pm
Even the passers-by don’t believe Tommie’s shpiel over her gratitude that she was unable to break up Ted’s marriage. Their amused looks can mean only one thing: they are all psychic and they’re not buying any of it.
Poor Tommie… She can even think without being mocked.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:31 pm
I like the disney reference of the fish named Nemo. Bil Keane’s son works at Disney as an animator, although I don’t know how he felt about seeing the fish named Nemo buried in the backyard.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Every time I see the name Barfy in FC, I see “Barfly” like in the Mickey Rourke movie. Cuz who TF is going to name their dog or anything else, Barfy? Ida Know? Not Me?
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:42 pm
You know what would make the FC cartoon better? Little headstones for each of the animals. And also, freshly dug, open grave with Barfy’s name on it (given the rate through which these kids must go through their pets, it would only make sense for Bil & Thel to dig the grave as soon as the pet is acquired — this would streamline the process greatly). To complete the picture, Barfy should lying next to Billy, happily unaware of his fate.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Manacle — The AC/DC t-shirt needs the lightning bolt in the middle
to be associated with our favorite Australian hard-rock band. I think
the guy’s shirt just indicates he is open to any and all offers.
Raju must realize that feelings of embarrassment and noticing people
making fun of you are problems that are easily overcome with
alcohol.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:49 pm
#44 Hmm, I’m guessing Donut’s not going to be winning COTW anytime soon…
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Hey – I live in a place that’s actually called State College! (Home to Penn State, of course). I’m going to take this Judge Parker as a shout out. Football is the most popular sport ’round these parts, but if we ever host a boat-wrestling tournament, I’ll see if I can get you tickets.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:55 pm
I’m thinking Chuckles the dog is actually Seymour Asses, Fry’s dog from Futurama. At least he looks like Seymour did after he was fast-fossilized. Seymour was sad. Chuckles, not so much.
And shouldn’t Chuckles be a clown, if this is some weird pop-culture callback strip?
I will say I like the idea of having a Mo the turtle.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:56 pm
From the way all those people are looking at Tommie, I’m guessing she forgot to put some pants on when she left home. Which also explains why she’s feeling a little cold.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Imagine all of the ill will, all of the decades of eye-rolling, wince-inducing, throw-up-in-your-mouth bad mojo Keene could have wiped clean with a simple stroke of the pen in this strip if he had just named one of those pets “Aldo”…
The mind reels.
PS: Lizzy? What kind of a freak keeps an iguana as a pet? Sheesh. :-)
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Mallard Fillmore continues in his role of being the low-hanging fruit of comics criticism.
First of all, this is what’s called a “Tu Quoque” argument, otherwise known as, “Oh yeah? Well you did it too!”
There is a fairly legitimate use of Tu Quoque, and that’s to bring other people down when your career has collapsed into a fiery wreckage. It goes like this:
Dolly: “I saw one of your pitchers throw a spitball! He should be allowed to play softball with us anymore!”
Billy: “Fair enough, but one of your pitchers threw a spitball too, so he has to leave also.”
But considering that Studds A) has already been censured, B) is retired and C) is dead I’m not sure what Tinsley wants us to do to him. Dig up the corpse and kick it a few times?
To be fair, the strip might’ve been written before Studds died.
Anyway, the second application of Tu Quoque is basically an attempt to contest that the thing you’re being accused of is a crime:
Billy: “I see you laughing at Family Circus every day.”
Dolly: “Yeah, but you do it too! If you keep doing it you must not think it’s really that bad. Maybe you should just let both of indulge in this harmless activity.”
The thing is, I can’t imagine Tinsley is arguing that it’s okay to have gay sex with your underage subordinates.
More then that, if I’m a third-party observer, I have no reason to conceed that a behavior is acceptable just because two other people feel that it is. I may just decide to send Billy AND Dolly off to comics jail.
I guess his ultimate point is “democrats are just as bad, so there’s no point in changing your voting habits”.
Well, but if that’s his point then he IS essentially making argument number 2 above; he’s saying that we should basically accept that Congressmen will have sex with the pages.
So I really have no idea what he’s actually trying to say.
Structurally, I’d say Mallard Fillmore was the BC of political strips, if BC didn’t already fill that role.
The whole thing is just two nearly-identical drawings (He might as well just have copied and pasted the second instance of Mallard) and the well-loved formula “Remember when Democrats [Did something Tinsley would find morally right]? Me neither.”
I’m tempted to look through the archives and see how often he’s used that one, but even I can’t stand that much stupidity.
I know, I talk way too much about Mallard Fillmore. But it’s just so easy! It’s like eating potato chips. I can’t stop at just one.
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:08 pm
#55– Are you saying, Quasi, that he “swings both ways”? This party just keeps getting cooler.
#57– It’s nice to know they’re referencing a real place instead of resorting to something lame and generic. It’s like the glaring of a “555″ prefix… my disbelief can only be suspended so far before it tears like stretched out silly-putty. Do all the kids attend “City High-School” as well?
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:18 pm
A3G – Yeah, looking at the third panel, I’m not entirely sure it’s not 3 women and 10 men giving Tommie the eye.
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:36 pm
I saw an AC/DC shirt on a chick today. Maybe she was saying that she’s bi, but maybe the 80’s are making a comeback. I’d go for either, actually. It’s a win/win.
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:36 pm
#3,42, 45, 59, if only someone could tell Tommie about pants
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:38 pm
#65- I think I love you.
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:42 pm
You think everyone is staring at Good Old Tommie with undisguised lust (except the woman in panel 3, who seems disgusted). However, they are only noting her turned up collar as a totally rad sign that the 80’s are back. See the guy in the last panel who decided that it was safe for him, too to flip it up? Calling all Coreys, come on down and shine once more with the vague luminescence of a youth gone by and once promising careers spilled down the drain on worthless movies and TV projects! Yeah, we’re gonna rock it tonight!
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:46 pm
#61 – Christopher – Right on in the deconstruction of Malice Fillmore!
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:47 pm
Tommie turned her collar against the autumn wind, but she never noticed that it was a whirlwind. She walked in small circles for hours, together with a small plastic bag and the restless soul of Lester Burnham. Passersby found it the most beautiful (and hilarious) sight they’ve ever seen.
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:51 pm
SmartPeopleOnIce
#56: I’d rather be right than honored.
#60: And the buried pet named “Aldo” could have been: a badger!
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:57 pm
I don’t see what the all the fuss is about “full boat wrestling” guy in JP. Back in the nineties, I had a full wheelbarrow badminton scholarship.
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:05 pm
I get the impression that Judge Parker’s scripts are essentially Mad Libs written by people with a tenous grasp of the English language. How else can you explain a character attending “State College” on a “Boat wrestling” scholar ship, who talks to a girl named “Ned”?
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:34 pm
Man, if any more Keane household pets die, they’ll have enough to complete their pentagram!
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:44 pm
#70 (Donut) And the buried pet named “Aldo†could have been: a badger!
Ok, now THAT is funny!
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:50 pm
#61 – I think Mallard Fillmore made the point Tinsley was trying to make. I assume you’re being disingenuous in saying that you have no idea what he was trying to say; it’s fairly obvious that he’s accusing the “Democrats” of hypocrisy. Not to defend a strip that I generally despise as well, but that particular strip is low-hanging fruit only in the sense that most modern political “discourse” is low-hanging fruit. Generalizing one party as a whole based on the actions of a largely different set of individuals 10-15-20 years ago is tenuous at best, but it’s silly to deny the fact that this is popular political demagoguery at its finest. And without question it can be an effective political tactic, regardless of the logical conclusion it asks you to make. And, as far as it goes, the Studds/Foley comparison is better than most.
October 23rd, 2006 at 6:12 pm
JP: Maybe that’s a typo, and it was supposed to be “Goat Wrestling”.
I’m looking forward to Neddy and Sophie waking up the next morning to Ragu’s new joe boxers flying from the lightning rod on top of the horse barn.
October 23rd, 2006 at 6:13 pm
I would have unhesitantly changed my hatred-filled opinion of Family Circus is one -just one- of the dead animals pictured in that strip had been a human fetus. Or Marmaduke, which would’ve made an equally amusing shitty comic strip crossover.
October 23rd, 2006 at 6:20 pm
I guess my response to the assertion “democrats are hypocrits!” essentially amounts to, “And?”
I don’t understand what Tinsley wants us to do with this information.
I’d assume that the implication would be “Party loyalty is ridiculous; you can’t expect a politician to act in a moral fashion just because he’s part of a party that ostensibly embraces moral ideas; you have to evaluate them on their own merits”.
Which would be fine and all if it didn’t contradict the sentiment of every Mallard Fillmore strip ever written.
There’s just no way for me to believe, without a lot more evidence, that party stooge Tinsley is attacking the idea of party loyalty.
And if he’s not attacking that, then I don’t really know what he’s trying to say.
I also don’t care, at all, how effective Tu Quoque arguments are. The fact that they work doesn’t make them sensical.
I also have to respectfully disagree about Fillmore being a low-hanging fruit. Certainly, it would fit right in with the banality of the editorial page, but it suffers a lot when compared to other three-panellers.
I mean, it’s artistically bankrupt, and, unlike Prickly City, Doonsbury and The Boondocks, I never have to do any research to figure out why it’s idiotic.
I went back a month in Prickly City’s archives and haven’t found a strip that’s as easy to tear apart as, well, as any given Mallard Fillmore.
October 23rd, 2006 at 6:37 pm
Is it wrong to be picturing Tommie liberated by a wild pornish gangbang?
Or is it so so right?
October 23rd, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Gentle Readers,
If Josh’s ability to identify members of the cockroach family has been curtailed by the horror of previous run-ins with the critters,
http://joshreads.com/?p=619
http://joshreads.com/?p=621
he is to be forgiven.
October 23rd, 2006 at 9:08 pm
Crap, that fucking Raju just squirted me by popping a zit in the foreground of the last panel. Asshole. No wonder the frat boys want to take him away and pound the shit out of him.
October 23rd, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Too bad the kiddos at Family Circus didn’t get their pets freeze dried.
Then they could scatter them about the lawn like so many fall leaves.
October 23rd, 2006 at 10:23 pm
Haven’t Barfy, Kittycat and whatever the other dog’s name is (Sam?) been around pretty much as long as the rest of the Circus family?
So if these pets are 40+ years old, how old were the other ones? And how come we never saw any of the Backyard Gang in a strip?
I can understand a beetle or hampster having a short life span, but another cat and dog that we’ve never seen before? Poor Beast and Chuckles.
Actually, forget that. They’re better off in the backyard than in the Keane residence.
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:19 pm
I think the other Family Circus dog’s name is Hotdog but I could be wrong about that.
Beast and Chuckles probably didn’t live the longest lives they could’ve but I’m more conerned about the tortoise, budgie, and goldfish–unless Thel and Big Daddy K were keeping those pets during their own childhoods, Chirpy, Mo, and Nemo got reeeaaally shortchanged. Probably Lizzy too.
Christopher: nice deconstruction of Mallard Filmore. I hate that duck.
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:38 pm
Also, I believe that cock-a-roaches are a kind of beetle.
-Beetles belong to the order Coleoptera, Cockroaches to the order Orthoptera… a cockroach is more closely related to a termite than a beetle. This Aussie entomologist just died inside a little when I read the above comment! Have years of Gigantism-afflicted animals in MARK TRAIL taught our beloved Curmudgeon nothing, except that bears shrink in the wash and ducks are surprisingly sarcastic narrators?!!
October 24th, 2006 at 1:40 am
3: Hysterical Woman, you are correct. If you assume that Tommie is naked from the waist down, all the looks and expression in the strip make sense. Otherwise….
October 24th, 2006 at 1:41 am
3: Hysterical Woman, you are correct. If you assume that Tommie is naked from the waist down, all the looks and expressions in the strip make sense. Otherwise….
October 24th, 2006 at 1:42 am
Dang, I thought I caught 86 before it posted.
October 24th, 2006 at 2:02 am
#84 Cafangdra:
In the current “Family Circus” strip, the other dog’s name is Sam. And their cat is the cleverly named “Kittycat.”
Brother!
October 24th, 2006 at 2:13 am
I don’t want to be buried…
In a pet sematary.
I don’t want to live my life again!
October 24th, 2006 at 2:25 am
#75 mav: There is no legitmate comparison between Studds and Foley.
Studds was not a serial pedophile. He did have one despicable interaction with a 17-year-old a decade prior to its discovery.
News of Studds transgressions were not kept from the minority party members on the House Ethics Committee.
Studds was censured by the Democratically-controlled House. Had this arrogant, neocon-controlled Congress done the right thing when the first report came out, the Foley scandal wouldn’t exist. “As one writer put it, It’s the coverup, stupid.”
Studds was not the Chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.
Donations to Studds’ rock-solid re-election campaign were not routinely funneled to harder-fought races elsewhere.
Studds was not part of a viciously anti-gay Party which turned out to have been covering up for a homosexual pedophile in order to keep that campaign money flowing.
Studds’ House Majority Leader was not a hypocritical closeted homosexual with a sham marriage who covered up his transgressions for years.
There is no comparison between Studds and Foley that can justify the behavior of the Republican party. The Republican House leadership are a bunch of stinking, corrupt hypocrites.
October 24th, 2006 at 2:31 am
An unknown fact about the FC fossils: Chuckles was a talking dog! His final words were even put in the record: “A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants”
(First it’s WKRP, now MTM. It must be classic sitcom month in the comics!)
Oh, and Barfy’s demise will be fitting: he’ll die like Jimi Hendrix did.
October 24th, 2006 at 3:00 am
62 — There exists Iowa City City High School. Oh, the redundancy.
October 24th, 2006 at 3:40 am
“Boat wrestling scholarship”…I figured Wilson or Barreto misheard some college kids talking about boat racing (rapid beer drinking) and had Bobby make a really lame joke about it.
October 24th, 2006 at 9:21 am
64 = They sell AC/DC shirts at Wal Mart now. EVERYBODY has an AC/DC shirt. I remember when it was cool to have one, cause you had to look for them.
October 24th, 2006 at 10:22 am
79: No. so deliciously right, it is (see today’s A3G)
October 24th, 2006 at 10:24 am
So Raju’s gone from fruity to AC/DC?
Only a bandana can save you from Tommie’s charms.
Beast killed Butterball, Chuckles killed Beast. It’s the circle of life, people! (Just don’t ask what happened to Mighty and Nemo.)
October 24th, 2006 at 10:42 am
Tommie TOTALLY needs to get it on with that immigrant peasant in the lower left corner. As we all know here in Pittsburgh, once you go babushka, you never go back. Compliment her a couple of times on the quality of her halushki (or perhaps her golombki) and she’s yours.
October 24th, 2006 at 10:45 am
I have to give credit to BDK on this FC strip; note that the grass is a little bit foofier and fresher looking over the animal corpses.
Clearly, they have returned to the earth from whence they came, and released their delicious nutrients into the soil, allowing the grass to stand tall and strong in their memory.
But no red ferns, ’cause that’s just lame.
-hx
October 24th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Apparently the FAMILY CIRCUS home is the Auschwitz for pets.
October 24th, 2006 at 11:18 am
#98: Tommie clearly succumbed to the wiles of eastern European charm…tetka babushka doesn’t even have to STARE!
October 24th, 2006 at 11:18 am
#62 – actually the high school is the imaginatively named State College Area High School. Also known as State High. fun fact – we are also home to the Rockview State Peniteniary (home of the electric chair!). So you can come here for Penn State, or the State Pen.
October 24th, 2006 at 11:22 am
102: Hey, I was a ‘SCAG” (state college area girl)!!
(but never a skank)
October 24th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
As drawn, in my opinion, Tommie’s the cutie of A3G – I think short hair, like glasses, is a signifier. Life’s too short to actually draw homely A3G girls, so you have to have some reason for not liking them.
Glasses work better than short hair. Tommie may have to pull off her SHORT RED WIG to reveal LONG MOVIE-STAR TRESSES before some unsuspecting man can say “GOOD HEAVENS, MISS JONES! YOU’RE *BEAUTIFUL*!”
This is why movie screenwriters get the top dollar and comic scripters have to peddle merch. Glasses, A3G – glasses!
October 24th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
104: Tommie is totally hot, but oh so totally uptight. We grrrls know that when someone like that finally loses her cork, LOOK OUT!
I’d like her in glasses. And a babushka. Nothing else.
October 24th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
I wonder if the other dead FC pets are jealous of Chirpy, who got that much desired burial plot right next to the garbage can.
Also, it looks like “Tommy Has No Pants” is the new “Aldo Looks like Cap’n Kangaroo.” Hope this one blows over quicker than the last.
October 24th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Have any of the animals buried in the back yard appeared in The Family Circus previously? Could this body count be the result of a single, horrible, recent, and undocumented incident?
Do we even have reason to believe that all of these “good ol’ pets” were indeed DEAD at the time they were buried in the back yard? Perhaps soon there will be a hole where Chuckles has clawed his way out of the cold, cold ground.
October 24th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Tinsley’s complaint about a lack of “incessant media coverage” in yesterday’s strip makes even less sense when you remember that there were no 24-hour cable news channels or weblogs back in 1973. I’ll bet there was quite a lot of coverage of the scandal for the times. Besides, I’m not about to rely on Tinsley’s recollection of something that happened 33 years ago. (How old was he in ‘73? Did he even follow the news that closely back then?)
October 24th, 2006 at 4:29 pm
I’m new to this blog and frankly I was amazed that most of these comics are still around. Not only that, but in terms of plotlines, nothing has happened since I stopped reading them in 1985 (when I ran off to the big city and starting reading a certain newspaper which doesn’t have comics.) Hooray! I can pick right up where I left off!
I read the “state college” crack as a sneer. “I thought you were at *(sniff) State College! What are you doing at my party, proletarian spawn?”
Also, should all those people be drinking around her little sister (the blonde girl)?
October 24th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
All those guys are oogling Tommie because during their goodbye hug, Ted surreptiously taped a “Fuck me” sign to her back.
October 26th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Tommie! You’ve got a stream of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of your shoe – again!
October 27th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
You people are clueless.
Mary is not making the “universal call me” sign re Dr. Jeff (who clearly has been hanging out with John Mark Karr, and now-retired Mark Foley (Rep., Florida), in Thailand.
Instead, Mary is making one of the well-know hand signals for her gang, the Charterstone Crips. If there are any Bloods in that hospital dining hall, the morgue is about to do a land office business in bullet-ridden AARP corpses.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:09 am
So this is where the “Boat Wrestling” attire options are spawned from… Fantastic. Thank you, the Comics Curmudgeon, for keeping me entertained, warm, /and/ fashionable.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:25 am
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