Only rationale: Jeffy has OCD
I'd like to nominate the Valentine's Day "Very Special Strip" as the worst FC of February:
Along the lines of the Original Creepy Clown strip, this FC makes no sense.
Why is Jeffy so mad? How is PJ trying to be "helpful"? Why is PJ's alleged "helpfulness" making Jeffy rage and seethe so?
From the looks of it, Jeffy made Thel a kiddie-kitsch Valentine (replete with a backwards "E" or "R", I'm sure).
He finished it and it looks like PJ is picking up the crayons.
Having been the bratty younger sibling, I could not imagine my sister tattling on my for picking up her crayons and putting them away. If I were, say, eating the crayons or pouring paint all over her homemade kiddie-kitsch seasonal greeting, perhaps... and in retrospect, I could see her rationale for seeking parental intervention.
But if I were putting away her crayons??? No mother IN THE WORLD would punish a younger child for helping his older brother CLEAN UP. She has four tykes running around, last night's meatloaf to purge and a stairmaster to spend 3 1/2 hours on. She can use all the help she can get!
Does Jeffy really think that his mom is going to punish PJ for PUTTING AWAY JEFFY'S CRAYONS IN WHAT LOOKS TO BE AN ORDERLY FASHION (i.e. back in the box)?
The only rational explanation I can come up with as to why Jeffy is mad about PJ's "helpfulness" is that he has OCD. Jeffy needs his crayons replaced in a particular manner (points up, organized by hue, and then by value) and PJ is doing it all haphazard, as one would imagine a baby to do.
In this case, Thel would be aware of Jeffy's condition and sensitive to his needs, and PJ should learn not to muck up Jeffy's system.
While it would be commendable for Bil Keane if he were using the FC and its characters to help make obsessive kidlets more acceptable to mainstream middle America (you know, those people who complain about "edgy" Boondockses), a quick look back into the development of Jeffy suggests otherwise.
For example, let's review this strip from a week earlier, where Billy and Jeffy try to make a snowman, but don't have enough of the "good stuff" to do the body-- just the head-- and they leave it at that.
Obviously, an obsessive little boy would not have made 1/3 of a snowman. Come on now! It would have been a perfectly proportioned mini-Frosty.
This "Make PJ stop bein' helpful!" reeks of "kids say the darnedest things", and in the worst way... he's saying the darnedest thing, but there's not even a transparent "Oh, he means this!" aspect to it.
He means nothing!
It's almost Pinheadian in its circularity.
Simply put, it's maddening.
So boo on you Bil Keane! Taunting us with new-millenial mental illness sensitivity, when, in reality, it's just another mangled and weak "kids say the darnedest things".
Boo on you!
Thank you. And vote (early and often!) for 2/14/2005 in the "Worst of February" poll!
Along the lines of the Original Creepy Clown strip, this FC makes no sense.
Why is Jeffy so mad? How is PJ trying to be "helpful"? Why is PJ's alleged "helpfulness" making Jeffy rage and seethe so?
From the looks of it, Jeffy made Thel a kiddie-kitsch Valentine (replete with a backwards "E" or "R", I'm sure).
He finished it and it looks like PJ is picking up the crayons.
Having been the bratty younger sibling, I could not imagine my sister tattling on my for picking up her crayons and putting them away. If I were, say, eating the crayons or pouring paint all over her homemade kiddie-kitsch seasonal greeting, perhaps... and in retrospect, I could see her rationale for seeking parental intervention.
But if I were putting away her crayons??? No mother IN THE WORLD would punish a younger child for helping his older brother CLEAN UP. She has four tykes running around, last night's meatloaf to purge and a stairmaster to spend 3 1/2 hours on. She can use all the help she can get!
Does Jeffy really think that his mom is going to punish PJ for PUTTING AWAY JEFFY'S CRAYONS IN WHAT LOOKS TO BE AN ORDERLY FASHION (i.e. back in the box)?
The only rational explanation I can come up with as to why Jeffy is mad about PJ's "helpfulness" is that he has OCD. Jeffy needs his crayons replaced in a particular manner (points up, organized by hue, and then by value) and PJ is doing it all haphazard, as one would imagine a baby to do.
In this case, Thel would be aware of Jeffy's condition and sensitive to his needs, and PJ should learn not to muck up Jeffy's system.
While it would be commendable for Bil Keane if he were using the FC and its characters to help make obsessive kidlets more acceptable to mainstream middle America (you know, those people who complain about "edgy" Boondockses), a quick look back into the development of Jeffy suggests otherwise.
For example, let's review this strip from a week earlier, where Billy and Jeffy try to make a snowman, but don't have enough of the "good stuff" to do the body-- just the head-- and they leave it at that.
Obviously, an obsessive little boy would not have made 1/3 of a snowman. Come on now! It would have been a perfectly proportioned mini-Frosty.
This "Make PJ stop bein' helpful!" reeks of "kids say the darnedest things", and in the worst way... he's saying the darnedest thing, but there's not even a transparent "Oh, he means this!" aspect to it.
He means nothing!
It's almost Pinheadian in its circularity.
Simply put, it's maddening.
So boo on you Bil Keane! Taunting us with new-millenial mental illness sensitivity, when, in reality, it's just another mangled and weak "kids say the darnedest things".
Boo on you!
Thank you. And vote (early and often!) for 2/14/2005 in the "Worst of February" poll!
posted by Emily at 10:37 AM
6 Comments:
I read all of the February Family Circle comics for this vote, and now I feel entitled to pain and suffering compensation. Actually I thought that the Valentines Day one was the funniest. I thought it obvious by the scribbles on the Valentine that PJ was "helping" make the Valentine, not put the crayons away.
My vote for the worst has to be the Wed., Feb. 16 comic:http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/familyc/aboutMaina.php
In this classic, the father is playing solitaire and Dolly says something like, you use cards? Grandma plays on the computer.
Now I ask you, how is this funny? And where do these people have time to play solitaire anyway? Shouldn't they be watching the kids? There are 4 little kids running around, for goodness sake. Shouldn't they be playing Candyland, or at least Go Fish? But if they insist on playing solitaire instead of interacting with the children, why is it funny that Daddy uses a deck of cards and Grandma uses the computer? Are we supposed to be amused by the novelty of playing cards on the computer? Is this a historical rerun strip? I don't get it.
OK, yeah, it's baaad. But, people! Look again at the church scene (3/21 post). It's not even a JOKE, it's a STATEMENT OF FACT. ARGH! And, besides, I assume that headless guy walking next to Jeffy is the dad. Why is he dressed so casual? The other men at the church have suit and tie.
It's the worst I tell ya! The worst!!!!
I got such a "Blondie in her bridge club" vibe from the solitaire one. I bet Solitaire, bridge, and dumb jokes from Herb (showing up in the email "basket") are the only things the Bumsteads use the computer for.
Emily, you really shouldn't blog at work. I think ttaht zka;thg (oops, sorry, I hear my boss calling me.) Later!
See, I view the "organ donor" strip along the lines of "it's not baroque, don't fix it!" (hyuck hyuck hyuck).
It's un-funny, but it's not schizophrenic and baffling. OCD Jeffy is more Creepy Clownesque (which, honestly is the worst strip ever), making it worse than the Organ Donor.
And MaryAnn, I respectfully disagree. I didn't read it your way because it wasn't clear to me that the scribbles were PJ's. They framed the picture, suggesting that they were part of Jeffy's design.
If that were Keane's position, he could have easily made it much clearer that PJ vandalized Jeffy's work. Maybe he could have written "PJ RULZZZ" over the valentine? Or had PJ only hold a blue crayon and have a big blue scribble on the card?
I would have thought that someone, like Keane, with 40 years (less the times Billy's subbed) comics experience, could have made this clearer (a la the opacity of the Creepy Clown).
I feel ripped off...I tried to view the comics but it denied me entry!
Maryann's link brought me to a Kitty Cat joke. Damn it I hate Billy! I hate FC!!! Wheh I think of BK I imagine a fat George Scott-like man, who probably has large, pale calves and wears black dress socks with tennis shoes. Do you think he laughs while writing this worthless dribble?
Anywho, could Bill Keane be in line with Al Qaida? It might be an unconventional attack on the United States. It's a less than perfect scheme, but it could cause low morale.
Thoughts are welcome...serious comments only.
John
You've got me, Emily. I think I was reading more into the Valentine's Day one than was really there, like when a sentence is missing a period but you see it anyway because your mind fills in what is missing. I think my mind supplied a joke where there wasn't one.
I have to point out that "Grandma plays cards on the computer" is also a bare statement of fact. At least with "organ donor" your mind might supply an unintended pun. (I know I keep thinking of an organ owner being hit by a car and signing away his musical instrument on his deathbed--ha ha funny stuff!) Not even the most optimistic reader could invent some humor for playing solitaire on the computer.
um... kids like to "help" and often get in the way?
i agree that FC is pretty bad, but is it that hard to get?...
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