Frieda Gets Served
Posted on | September 22, 2008 at 7:33 am | 2 Comments
On a dreary Monday morning (actually it’s quite pleasant, but according to Garfield*, all Mondays are dreary), it behooves us to take a moment and reflect on the genius of Charles Schultz and the Peanuts of old. Take this classic strip for example, which was reprinted last Friday and was originally published 9/22/1961 (click to enlarge):
It’s just right. It’s ahead of it’s time. “Don’t kid yourself, Sister… Five cents, please!” is just the perfect punchline. Lucy is wise beyond her years and knows how to deal with vain, self-delusional Frieda. (Since she’s somewhat vain and self-delusional herself, it’s easy for her to recognize a kindred spirit.) Hard to believe this strip originally appeared when I was 1 year old. The punchline does not look out of place on today’s comic page, especially with that “Sister” thrown in there. Lucy’s a sassy broad, and can definitely hold her own against modern precocious kids, like Ruthie from One Big Happy.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s especially interesting (or depressing) to compare these earlier Peanuts strips against the ones from the last decade or two of the strip, when Schultz had started to lose it. Thankfully we have these old strips to remind us of better days. When Schultz passed away, I’m glad they didn’t have someone else continue the strip, but I was also leery of them reprinting the old strips. But I came around, especially since these days they’re reprinting the good old strips. It’s really a breath of fresh air on the morning comics page, when so many other strips (some of which have been around nearly as long as Peanuts*) provide zero laughs.
Or maybe I’m just feeling too nostalgic these days…
Latre.
* – Coincidentally, after composing this post, I opened the paper this morning to find out that two of the longest running not-funny strips, Garfield and Hagar The Horrible, have been replaced in the Rocky Mountain News by two newcomers, Deflocked (which seems to be an Over The Hedge clone but with a sheep) and The Knight Life (which looks like it’s drawn by Sergio Aragonés). If past experience is any indication, outcries from the older crowd will bring the two old strips back within a week.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 53°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Plague of Lies” (Brain Surgeons NYC)
- “Morningside Heights” (Steve Wynn)
- “Anyday I Want” (House Of Love)
- “As the Dragonfly Flies” (Icicle Works)
- “Lavender” (The Go-Betweens)
- “Genesis CH.1. V.32″ (Alan Parsons Project)
- “That’s Me Trying” (William Shatner)
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog:“the simpsons ain’t what it used to be”.
Comments
2 Responses to “Frieda Gets Served”
September 22nd, 2008 @ 9:54 am
The San Francisco Chronicle runs the crappy Peanuts strips from the 1990s. I don’t know why they bother.
The Knight Life is by Keith Knight, whose K Chronicles runs in Salon. I love the K Chronicles but have only seen a handful of Knight Life strips. It’s one of the comics up for consideration by the Chronicle, but who knows when they’ll actually get around to changing up the page.
September 22nd, 2008 @ 5:31 pm
When I was a kid, we had some tattered, paperback book sized Peanuts collections, going back to the start. Snoopy looked like a dog (and acted like one, and I think Woodstock looked like a bird, too).
What I’ve noticed today that sucks about comics, is they all think they’re political cartoons. Except for Doonsbury and such, which have always been that way, I want my humor apolitical.