(The whole text of the original panel is contained in Dolly’s word balloon. It needed help.)
…as an adult, Jeffy K. is probably still wearing a raincoat. But for different reasons.
So there’s a panel with Dolly proudly announcing to Mommy that she’s gotten Jeffy ready so that he’ll be safe from exposure to the sun. At last — we know where the mythical Keanes live! ON MERCURY!
Of course, this means, Jeffy can obviously jet all over the place…
other places in the galaxy…
…and even other comics universes…
So here it was, Independence Day 2008. Some comics ignored it (not uncommon for those with serialized story lines) and some celebrated it (Walt Wallet is wheeled out from his cryotank next to Walt Disney to have one huge, glorious panel of Uncle Sam costumes, flags, and the whole she-bang; Ted Forth is scared of a combination of fireworks and the “Imperial March” from ESB).
And then there are the Johnny-come-latelies. Or in this case, Dolly-come-lately.
“Oh, damn, it’s the Fourth of July, Dad…what are we gonna do?! Our fans are expecting something patriotic! Our Kidz are no Kommies!”
“Easy, son, we’ll have Dolly carrying a blue-and-red bucket, a flag flying in the background (woo hoo! fill that white space!)…and best of all, we’ll have her singing!”
“That’s great, Pop! Something like I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy, or My Country ‘Tis of Thee, or This Is My Country?”
“Even better! A song from a 1940’s B-musical that hardly anyone remembers! And we’ll have Dolly mess up the words in a cute, cute way!”
“WTF, Dad?”
“Shut up, Jeffy!”
Well, you can pretend all you want that the perpetual child Dolly would know a crappy 30’s vintage song in a crappy 40’s musical because her Granma might sing it in one of her delusional states. If I’m going to buy into the charade, I figure Dolly’s just as likely to sing one of the songs Granma heard when she was was young and sneaking into the Apollo and listening to all that weird, confusin’ music while jitterbugging and showing her underwear to all those people watching her and (not dead then) Granpa dance…
Of course, everything back to the usual on July 5. And all I can say to that is “Run, Jeffy! Run!”
How about “Aren’t you glad that you didn’t ask Daddy?”
Do kids really get vicarious thrills these days from staying up late watching Jay or Jimmy or Conan or David? I think not.
Aside from Billy’s head going super-nova, the “joke” here was him finding it weird that the word verb is a noun.
Hah-hah.
Nope.
I like this so much better.
Oh, those Keanes — they sure love that tooth-rotting, blood sugar-spiking stuff! And it’s every melon-head for himself when it comes to trying to wheedle Gramma Keane out of a piece…
It started with Zippy the Pinhead asking his creator Bill Griffith if he could take a new job over at The Family Circus (really! it’s the 14 June 2008 strip!). Oooh, the possibilities!
It could only be better if Zippy would apply over at For Better or for Worse as wedding coordinator. Muu-muus for all!
This particular Family Circus evoked a lot of speculation: what kind of sty do the Keane Kidz root around in? Is it a meatball? A cocktail testicle? Something from Kitty Cat’s box? The original caption was something to the effect, “It fell on the floor and got some floor on it.”. Whatever it was, it wasn’t funny — it was nauseating. Even more than the usual panel. (Does that make it a “win” for the Keane side?)
At least Jeffy’s descent into rage and madness continues unabated. Is there a restraining order floating around out there that requires the adult Jeffy to primarily poke fun at his melon-headed alter ego, rather than those of his sibs? Just wondering…
And it didn’t help when Stephen Pastis tossed in a lovely depiction of Pig:
Try as I might, I just can’t resist those Keane Kidz. I’m almost there, free of them, and then Billy gets stupid or snotty, Gramma gets loaded, or Big Daddy gets in the car…and hilarity ensues.
Of course, there’s also Jeffy going off the deep end:
And Dolly getting nothing less than holier-than-thou:
