Monday, February 26, 2007

FAMILY CIRCUS EXPLAINED!

There's no denying it; you're one of two kinds of people: the kind that LOVES the Family Circus or the kind that just doesn't get it. Here are some of my favourites with an explanation for clarity.


A classic! Billy has been doing his homework and has been practicing printing words with a silent K. He has printed the following words: Know, Knot, Knee and Knob. He then asks an unseen family member (I presume) why he has to bother writing the "k" in these words even though they don't make any sound. You now what? He's right!!! Why bother?

In this panel, the baby, PJ, is on the phone with his grandmother. Dolly is getting a little upset with PJ because she wants to talk to her grandmother too but can't because PJ won't stop hugging his "grandmother." What PJ doesn't realize is that he's not really hugging his grandma but rather, he is hugging just an old-tymey phone-receiver. I did the very same thing lots of times. I can totally relate.

Jeffy has come home from school and is crying because he has fallen on the sidewalk. What makes this panel a killer-comic-for-the-ages is that Jeffy has mistakenly called the sidewalk a "SLIDEwalk!" It's very funny for those that get it.

Another Jeffy classic. Jeffy and his mother have been have a little moment together. His mother has just finished telling Jeffy a few funny things he had done when he was a bit younger. Jeffy then says "What else did I do that was funny when I was little?" because he wants to hear more funny things he's done when he was younger.

An oldie but a goodie! This one is one of my all time favourites and it's from the 60's. Here's the scoop: Dolly and Billy and their father (their biological father -- the father that most of you know is their step-father. The mother divorced the man seen in this panel because of alcoholism) have just come home from a football game. They are excited to tell their mother all about the fun they've had. One of the things that they were excited about was the fact that they each got to have a bottle of soda (if it were up to me, I would have had a bottle of Dr. Pepper) and were surprised to find that their dad brought his own bottle of "soda" along in his jacket pocket. Now, I'm not Kreskin, but I am guessing that this wasn't a bottle of soda, but a flask filled with some form of alcoholic beverage--maybe whiskey. What makes this comic a blast is the look on the father's face! He's gone blotto-in-the-grotto and needs to hit the sack. You can tell the times have changed because he drove the kids home from the game absolutely smashed--you'd never see something like this in today's modern funnies -- well, maybe Andy Capp -- wait...I just got it! Andy Capp = Handycap (but with a silent H)! BRILLIANCE!!! BRILLIANCE!!!!!!

2 comments:

  1. The Family Circus Mom is hot.

    your pal,
    Beadle

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  2. I think that second-to-last one with Jeffy also has a layer of irony that by asking what else he did that was funny when he was little, he's actually doing something funny, and he's actually still little. So asking what else he did that was funny when he was little was something funny he did when he was little.

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