Elly Does Cathy
Sometimes Elly Patterson liked to do a Cathy Guisewhite-style joke from her comic strip Cathy. Today's For Better or For Worse reprint is one of those. Elly goes hysterical over the appearance of her first wrinkle, in a similar fashion as Cathy, except she doesn't shriek "Aack! I've got a wrinkle." She shrieks "Oh no! I've got a wrinkle." The distinction is subtle. John Patterson's reaction to this is very similar to that of Cathy's longtime boyfriend and eventual husband, Iriving, i.e. he doesn't understand why his wife is going crazy, but he tolerates her anyway.
John Patterson does slightly better than Irving because he responds to Elly's shrieking, while Irving usually just stared in horror. However, John does the patented Patterson "leave the scene with a pithy statement over your shoulder" usually reserved for when a Patterson is getting back at someone with whom they are angry. He leaves with a sort of a pun on the phrase, "reading between the lines" relating to the lines on Elly's face, which doesn't make much sense and is scarcely a comfort. This old strip from 1979, is remarkably similar to ones from the last couple of years, and that is not a compliment.
John Patterson does slightly better than Irving because he responds to Elly's shrieking, while Irving usually just stared in horror. However, John does the patented Patterson "leave the scene with a pithy statement over your shoulder" usually reserved for when a Patterson is getting back at someone with whom they are angry. He leaves with a sort of a pun on the phrase, "reading between the lines" relating to the lines on Elly's face, which doesn't make much sense and is scarcely a comfort. This old strip from 1979, is remarkably similar to ones from the last couple of years, and that is not a compliment.
posted by howard at 12:05 AM
9 Comments:
It could be taken to be a sweet way of saying that Elly will always look like the woman he fell in love with were it not for the fact that John is as sensitive as a block of granite. All he managed to accomplish was giving Elly something substantive to be upset about: a husband who doesn't care about what bothers her.
g
Jeanne Calment, the French woman who lived to 122, was asked about the wrinkles on her face. Her response: “I've only got one wrinkle and I'm sitting on it.”
Elly could learn a thing or two from Jeanne.
Anon NYC
dreadedcandiru2,
All he managed to accomplish was giving Elly something substantive to be upset about: a husband who doesn't care about what bothers her.
The obsession with making a last panel joke about something when other characters are upset, has been making Pattersons seem insensitive for years. It would help if the last panel joke made sense or was at least funny.
Anon NYC,
Jeanne Calment, the French woman who lived to 122, was asked about the wrinkles on her face. Her response: “I've only got one wrinkle and I'm sitting on it.”
Why would anyone ask a 122-year-old woman about the wrinkles on her face? You would think, after 122 years, there would not be any expectation she would have "good skin". After looking at her picture on the website, she looks a lot less wrinkled than I would have guessed. Maybe the question was about her skin care secrets.
Elly could learn a thing or two from Jeanne.
That she could. However, by the time 2008 rolls around, she still hasn't.
Elly is supposed to be in her late 20s here? And she is wrinkle hunting? I don't think I could pinpoint the moment I got my first wrinkle, they develop over time, they don't just pop out like zits Which quite frankly she probably should have been more concerned with at her age - I am 44 and still occasionally get a zit, about which I am infintely more concerned than wrinkles.
That is the most annoying thing about this whole Foob world - they blow the wrong things out of proportion: wrinkles, midnight haircuts, kids looking for some affection...
Anonymous,
Elly is supposed to be in her late 20s here?
According to the website, she was born on August 26, 1951 and this is 1979 or 1980; so she could be 28 or 29. However, Lynn is playing with the timeline because Michael was born on April 28, 1976, and he is 5 in the reprint strips, so assuming the 25-year difference between the ages and adding 5 years, my guess is that Elly is supposed to be about 30 years old.
And she is wrinkle hunting?
I remember when I was a single fellow in my 20s, the crow’s feet wrinkle around the eyes was the easiest way to tell the if the pretty girl with whom I was flirting was in her 20s or 30s. It would not be unusual for those wrinkles to start about Elly’s age.
I am 44 and still occasionally get a zit, about which I am infinitely more concerned than wrinkles.
I am 46 and I also occasionally get a zit. The reason for this is that my skin is very oily and has been since I was 11 years old. The downside of this is that I get the occasional zit, but the upside is that I have relatively few wrinkles. If you are like me (judging from the zit reference), then perhaps you are less concerned about wrinkles for the same reasons I am.
That is the most annoying thing about this whole Foob world - they blow the wrong things out of proportion: wrinkles, midnight haircuts, kids looking for some affection...
One method for comedy is to blow things out of proportion and make your characters seem ridiculous, like most Lucille Ball comedy, for example. But at some point, another character needs to point it out; otherwise it is accepted as the norm. I didn’t mind Elly going overboard about her wrinkles. What is botched is that John doesn’t really point out that she is overreacting, but makes a nonsense pun instead. As for Deanna’s midnight haircutting, it was not only accepted, but aided and abetted by Michael. No one pointed out her behaviour was ridiculous aside from the people who read the strip.
Early on in the collection from which today's strip was drawn, I've Got the One More Washload Blues, Elly tells a babysitter, "I'm 32." Uncoincidentally, this was Lynn's age at the time.
aprilp_katje,
Elly tells a babysitter, "I'm 32." Uncoincidentally, this was Lynn's age at the time.
There was some point then, where Lynn decided that Elly was going to be younger than she is. Perhaps this about the time when she temporarily froze the ages so that real-life Mike and Liz would be older than their strip versions.
Yup, the difference in age between Lynn and Elly is similar to the age differences of Aaron vs. Michael and Kate vs. Liz.
Lynn = 1947/Elly = 1951 [used to be 1950]
Aaron = 1973/Michael = 1976
Kate = 1977/Liz = 1981 [used to be 1980]
Post a Comment
<< Home