Even the Drawings Repeat

"I'll stop being naughty, but I don't know what defiant is."
This from October 12.

Hee hee. Poor Jeffy, he wants to do what FC Mom tells him, but she is using words that are too big for a little child. That’s hilarious! You'd think she'd choose her words more carefully. She is the mother of 4 children, she must have some sense of their vocabularies.

Maybe Jeffy is just dumb. Maybe at the same age Dolly and Billy both understood the word “defiant.” FC Mom is now concerned about the development of Jeffy’s vocabulary. Perhaps in future Family Circuses (Family Circi?), we can see this play out. FC Mom and Dad will be worried about their son. They will seek professional help and still try to affirm Jeffy’s self esteem. A humor gold mine! I bet Dolly will be a bitch to him while he struggles with his disability. It will be touching and poignant, but we will see the life-affirming struggle of this family.

Probably not, though. And good lord, is the FC Mom skinny in this one or what? YIKES!

So, as we've mentioned, the jokes in Family Circus are all really variations on a theme: Kids say the darndest things. What I didn't realize until just now is that even the drawings are variations on a theme. Here is October 13th's drawing:

OK, now scroll back up to October 12. See anything familiar? FC Dad points with his left hand and FC Mom points with her right. I wonder if that means anything. Does anyone even care what the caption to the second comic is? Try to guess:

• "I'm sick and tired of your bullshit!"
• "It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again."
• "No, you can't be the leader of the PLO! Arafat isn't dead -- yet!"
• "You're fired!"
• "I don't ever want to hear you call Jeffy a 'Fuck-wad' again!"
• "I'm not lying! Lenny Briscoe WAS the dad in Dirty Dancing!"
• "Enough! This is a lecture, not a debate!"