# Explain the comic strip Nancy to me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597 "2006-01-05T17:51:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/21 "2006-01-06T00:22:08Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > If the joke were about a doll made in France (yes, I recognize that the socioeconomic history of the 20th century wouldn’t gestate such a gag, but bear with me), would you expect Bushmiller to have just put in a bunch of random letters with accent marks? I doubt it. Actually, I do find the mock-French in Pepe Le Pew cartoons amusing. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/22 "2006-01-06T01:04:18Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > I don’t think it’s a big deal, but I’m not convinced. It seems to me analagous to someone aping chinese by saying (god forgive me) “ching chong chong chin chong.” If the joke were about a doll made in France (yes, I recognize that the socioeconomic history of the 20th century wouldn’t gestate such a gag, but bear with me), would you expect Bushmiller to have just put in a bunch of random letters with accent marks? I doubt it. > > –Cliffy I remember a _Bloom County_ strip where Milo and Binkley are taking a White House tour, take a wrong turn, wind up in the Oval Office, and use the special phone to the Kremlin to (I forget what, but they don’t know what it is). The perplexed premier says, “Whatski?!” (The actual Russian word for “what” is “chto.”) I don’t recall any Russians getting mad. (Then again this was the Reagan era, so if they had, who would have care?) ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/23 "2006-01-06T01:51:59Z")
Cartoonist Scott McCloud has used the timelessness and predictability of Nanacy to creat the game[Five-Card Nancy](http://www.scottmccloud.com/inventions/nancy/nancy.html) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/24 "2006-01-06T02:07:03Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > \*\*Explain the comic strip Nancy to me \*\* The Nancy that can be explained is not the true Nancy. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/25 "2006-01-06T02:21:21Z")
Nancy: Once you’ve seen her, you can’t un-see her. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/26 "2006-01-06T02:57:20Z")
If you meet \*\*Nancy \*\* on the road, kill her! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/27 "2006-01-06T03:56:27Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > If you meet \*\*Nancy \*\* on the road, kill her! Roadkill Nancy? ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/28 "2006-01-06T13:50:18Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > If you meet \*\*Nancy \*\* on the road, kill her! But, Sensei, does Sluggo have the Buddha nature? The Zen of Nancy ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/29 "2006-01-06T15:46:19Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Nancy and Mutt & Jeff where the 2 comics as a kid in the 70’s that I never once found funny. Hmm. I wonder what those Mutt & Jeffs were like. Because I’ve seen a lot of their full-page gags from the '40’s, and It hink they’re pretty good. Markstein [says](http://www.toonopedia.com/muttjeff.htm) that Al Smith was the cartoonist on the strip from the '30’s to 1980, so presumably the same guy I thought so funny from back in the War years was borng you to tears 30 years later. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/30 "2006-01-06T16:43:12Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > Hmm. I wonder what those Mutt & Jeffs were like. Because I’ve seen a lot of their full-page gags from the '40’s, and It hink they’re pretty good. Markstein [says](http://www.toonopedia.com/muttjeff.htm) that Al Smith was the cartoonist on the strip from the '30’s to 1980, so presumably the same guy I thought so funny from back in the War years was borng you to tears 30 years later. > > –Cliffy Well 30 years is a long time, I have never seen the 40’s version. It must of been funny at some point is a reasonable guess. Is it possible that Al Smith either burnt out by the 70’s or someone else was really writing the strip and they just kept his name on it? Jim ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/31 "2006-01-06T16:58:23Z")
Nancy was funny for years, specifically the years 1983-1995, when Jerry Scott took over and completely retooled the series. I grew up during those years (was born in '82) and held Nancy as a favorite during my elementary school years. I had no idea that the sudden uglification that took over the strip in 1995 was actually as a return to the strip’s roots and that the strip had such a nefarious history of being unfunny. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/32 "2006-01-06T17:09:47Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Is it possible that Al Smith either burnt out by the 70’s or someone else was really writing the strip and they just kept his name on it? Markstein’s pretty good with that stuff. If he said Smith was actually doing the work, I believe it. But you’re right, 30 years is a long time to stay funny. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/33 "2006-01-06T17:09:55Z")
I’ve always thought that Nancy served as an introduction to humor for young people. An early reader is going to be clueless with Dilbert for example, but he’s going to get Nancy. Later as they get more sophisticated, they outgrow Nancy. I liked it when I was younger, and as I recall Fritzi didn’t speak in the older strips. The original Bushmiller strips were in my opinion superior to the Scott era. I’ll still glance at it once in a while but it definitely isn’t a favorite. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/34 "2006-01-06T23:23:07Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > okay, I understand that many people think George Herriman was a genius, but I’m sorry I just don’t get it. Same with me. Also Patrick McDonnell. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/35 "2006-01-06T23:46:42Z")
Ernie Bushmiller’s _Nancy_ was brilliant. No, not in the same way that _Calvin and Hobbes_ or _Th Far Side_ were. And yet the purity of the gag, the simplicity… Everything was designed to bring you to the punchline in _Nancy_. Character consistency was not relevant. Storytelling was not relevant. What happened in the strip yesterday was unimportant to what happened in the strip today. Can you think of any other long-running comic strips where the everyday living background was inconsistent? Nancy’s house would look one way on one day, and a different way the next…depending only on what was needed for the punchline. Simplicity. A baseball field. A hole in the fence to watch the game. And then the joke. Always different. Somehow always the same. Sluggo is worried that Nancy is still mad at him. He passes her window. Sluggo is wearing a football helmet. He thinks for some reason that if he tosses his hat threw the window and Nancy tosses it back…that will mean she is no longer angry at him. So he tosses the helmet through the open window… In the last frame we see a very angry Nancy. She had been making fudge at the time. The helmet has landed in the bowl of chocolate which has splashed out —bathing her in fudge. +++++ It is a major shame that most of Bushmiller’s work is long out-of-print. I have several collections of which I will randomly now pull out another strip and describe: Okay, it’s a Sunday strip from March 16th. No telling what year. Coincidence. It is Nancy at her window again with Sluggo. She is holding a rag doll that only appears in the first frame. It will not be needed to balance the imagery again. An oversize ball or balloon(?) is to her left. The long shot of the room is perfectly framed. From outside her window come the words: “Yoo-Hoo” It is Sluggo. He is sticking his tongue out and rolling his eyes strangely. He says to Nancy: “I’ll bet you can’t make funny faces like this”…to which Nancy replies in the same frame “I’ll bet I can” +++ Before you continue reading, take a moment and guess where this is going. I argue that with Nancy it is usually impossible to tell. On the other hand, with many of today’s newspaper comics you can see what’s coming after reading the first couple of frames. Rarely was that the case with _Nancy_. +++ Sluggo continues: “Listen – I’ll give you this quarter if you can make a funnier face than me” Sluggo holds a small gleaming tantalizing circle. There are now eight straight frames of Nancy making bizarre funny faces. Most of these frames are half size so that there would be extra room for all the weird mishapen Nancy faces, but the strip would still fit in its alloted Sunday space. In two of the images we see Sluggo outside. We see him only from the back. Is he impressed? No matter. That is not relevant. Not yet. In our second-to last-frame we see the shadow of Aunt Fritzi leaning into the picture. The shadow holds a spoon in one hand. A bottle in the other. “Time for your cod liver oil, Nancy” In our last frame we see Nancy with a sickened tongue-spitting bleah look on her face. Three sweat drops fly from her head. And Sluggo is holding the coin up to the window. “ **WOW** – YOU WIN” +++++ We all won on that March 16th. We win everytime we read a Bushmiller \*Nancy \*strip. Was the strip ever funny? That itself does not matter. It was the joke …not whether the joke was funny. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/36 "2006-01-06T23:49:21Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > Ernie Bushmiller’s _Nancy_ was brilliant. No, not in the same way that _Calvin and Hobbes_ or _Th Far Side_ were. And yet the purity of the gag, the simplicity… The obvious choice to direct the Nancy movie? Paul Verhoeven ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/37 "2006-01-07T00:00:02Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > The obvious choice to direct the Nancy movie? > > Paul Verhoeven Any _Nancy_ movie would have to just wander from short scene to short scene with no connection…so that the scenes could almost be in random order. There would be no character development, few reused sets, and Sluggo would have a different house or dog or accent only as the next short scene demanded. And the infamous three rocks would appear over… and over… and over again. ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/38 "2006-01-07T01:53:14Z")
Nancy is best absorbed in large doses, until your eyes are glazed over and your head is spinning. There’s a kind of epiphany that occurs after that. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/39 "2006-01-07T02:53:56Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > [Denis Kitchen discusses Ernie Bushmiller.](http://www.deniskitchen.com/docs/TMCM.Bushmiller.html) Denis Kitchen sounds like an A-Grade dickhead, judging by that interview. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/40 "2006-01-07T10:49:40Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Denis Kitchen sounds like an A-Grade dickhead, judging by that interview. He may be, but the interview was between him and another prominent cartoonist (Shannon Wheeler, “Too Much Coffee Man”). A lot of the dickheadedness was actually in-jokes, like the idea of a secret, conspiratorial society of Bushmiller aficionados. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597.md?page=3)