# How \*you\* doin', Mrs. Capp? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 13, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349 "2009-08-13T22:27:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/21 "2009-08-17T09:07:47Z")
It goes both ways - the common image is Flo and Andy in a cloud of dust with random feet, fists or heads being all that’s visible, and no clear idea who started it. But yes, when Andy’s on his way home after a night on the tiles, he’s generally in for a rolling pin over the head from a furious dressing-gown-and-curlers-clad Flo who has been waiting up for him. Occasionally Andy has got his timing right, either bringing Flo a take-home from the pub (aside, to the fourth wall: “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this little bottle o’ rum”) or a juicy piece of gossip (“You’ll never guess who I saw in the Dock an’ Duck with her fancy man!” – “Hang on, pet, I’ll put the kettle on!”). But usually it ends up with a dazed Andy on his behind in the street, counting the pretty birds. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/22 "2009-08-17T12:27:52Z")
It always seems like Andy Capp is getting home really really late, but I thought English pubs closed at something like 11 pm? The new writers always depict street scenes with tower cranes in the distance. Is there that much construction going on in London? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/23 "2009-08-17T13:06:51Z")
Fritzi Ritz is the hottest milf in comics. The mom from Family Circus is way hot too. If she did a little nudity, even the tasteful kind, once in a while, that strip wouldn’t be such egregiously wasted space. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/24 "2009-08-17T15:23:29Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > It always seems like Andy Capp is getting home really really late, but I thought English pubs closed at something like 11 pm? They do, officially, unless they have a late licence (which are more common now). But pubs have always had lock-ins for regulars, where you can stay for as long as the landlord or bar staff want you to. > [@](#): > > The new writers always depict street scenes with tower cranes in the distance. Is there that much construction going on in London? Yeah, tons. But I’m not sure Andy Capp is set in London. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/25 "2009-08-17T15:29:49Z")
Turns out Andy Capp’s set in Hartlepool, in the North-East of England, where his creator’s from. The Sun newspaper has a daily comic strip that features a hisband and wife who look very much like Ken and Barbie - they get naked _all the time_. [sunfun.net-freaks.com/sunfun/albums/GAL6/SNF04GEORGE\_859278a.gif](http://sunfun.net-freaks.com/sunfun/albums/GAL6/SNF04GEORGE_859278a.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/26 "2009-08-17T15:56:16Z")
Well, I suppose this makes me a pedo or something because I think she’s supposed to be about 16 or so…but Luann is l[ooking pretty good and getting some evil thoughts](http://comics.com/luann/2009-08-17/). ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/27 "2009-08-17T16:05:29Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > Yeah, tons. But I’m not sure Andy Capp is set in London. He’s told time by Big Ben before. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/28 "2009-08-17T16:22:21Z")
Totally agree on both Rose and Blondie. [Brenda Starr](http://www.gocomics.com/brendastarr/2009/08/09/) is still pretty danged hot, too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/29 "2009-08-17T16:23:50Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > It goes both ways - the common image is Flo and Andy in a cloud of dust with random feet, fists or heads being all that’s visible, and no clear idea who started it. But yes, when Andy’s on his way home after a night on the tiles, he’s generally in for a rolling pin over the head from a furious dressing-gown-and-curlers-clad Flo who has been waiting up for him. > > Occasionally Andy has got his timing right, either bringing Flo a take-home from the pub (aside, to the fourth wall: “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this little bottle o’ rum”) or a juicy piece of gossip (“You’ll never guess who I saw in the Dock an’ Duck with her fancy man!” – “Hang on, pet, I’ll put the kettle on!”). But usually it ends up with a dazed Andy on his behind in the street, counting the pretty birds. What great descriptions! I miss this comic so much. I am so glad to have found this thread, so now I can find Andy Capp on line. I remember trying to draw Flo when I was little. I don’t know why I liked to draw her, I am an awful artist, but she was fun to draw. Her big round curves are sexy I think (well the bosom is a tad droopy, but how old is she?), but she’s got those hips! To this day, I doodle myself with some big ol’ round curves. I bet doodling Flo helped me embrace my hips in some small way. Maybe not. Anyways, I have always had a soft spot for Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side and Andy Capp, but this is the first time I have actually talked to others that like Andy Capp, and reading your description of it is just great. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/30 "2009-08-17T16:26:01Z")
> [@cardinal\_fang](#): > > I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Florrie without a kerchief, hat or rollers. > > Cripes, [she’s hot](http://comics.com/andy_capp/2009-08-12/). You really think so? I don’t find her particlarly appealing, myself. She reminds me of [Loretta Lockhorn.](http://www.wutsamada.com/alma/crithink/oxymoron.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/31 "2009-08-17T16:28:03Z")
I have to give a nod here to [Edda](http://news.yahoo.com/comics/090810/cx_chickweed_umedia/20091008;_ylt=AmhcuyjypyQgopUC3BXgoOsL_b4F). ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/32 "2009-08-17T16:29:48Z")
Judge Parker is a soap strip famous for its lovingly-detailed, improbably-built women, although the characters are practically monks. [Abbey Spencer](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://joshreads.com/images/07/12/i071224jp.jpg&imgrefurl=http://joshreads.com/%3Fp%3D1382&usg=__5Fb6_V2glUBvQNuJCN2mzu2w_3U=&h=179&w=525&sz=34&hl=en&start=31&tbnid=SfpsJqG8GMqdqM:&tbnh=45&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Abbey%2BSpencer%2522%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18) is the [usual focus](http://bp2.blogger.com/_Xs81uECewhs/R02ZU7TELfI/AAAAAAAAAL0/2x4GAkMdWGs/s1600-h/Judge_Parker.gif), but [various guest hotties](http://www.joshreads.com/images/09/08/i090802jp.jpg) make [temporary](http://joshreads.com/images/07/03/i070322jp.jpg) [appearances](http://joshreads.com/images/07/08/i070805jp.jpg) in most storylines. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/33 "2009-08-17T16:42:10Z")
> [@bup](#): > > He’s told time by Big Ben before. Maybe from the chimes on the radio or News at Ten. There aren’t many terraced houses full of drunken workshy ne’erdowells\* within the sound of Big Ben. \*There’s only Downing St. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/34 "2009-08-17T16:42:33Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > What great descriptions! I miss this comic so much. I am so glad to have found this thread, so now I can find Andy Capp on line. > > I remember trying to draw Flo when I was little. I don’t know why I liked to draw her, I am an awful artist, but she was fun to draw. Her big round curves are sexy I think (well the bosom is a tad droopy, but how old is she?), but she’s got those hips! > > To this day, I doodle myself with some big ol’ round curves. I bet doodling Flo helped me embrace my hips in some small way. Maybe not. > > Anyways, I have always had a soft spot for Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side and Andy Capp, but this is the first time I have actually talked to others that like Andy Capp, and reading your description of it is just great. Thank you! I have known and been quite fond of Andy, egregious as he undeniably is, for a good forty years, and always found him a well-rounded character with plenty of background. Flo and Andy are both supposed to be middle-aged. I think Andy once gave her age to a policeman, after she’d run out on him, as “the wrong side of forty”, and Flo for her part once gave a hint as to Andy’s age when he was scoring particularly slowly at snooker: “That’s nothing, you should have seen him entering his fifties” - but, of course, both have existed in that eternal Present since the 1960s. In those days it was feasible for Andy to be an ex-Serviceman who’d been an infantryman in North Africa and (according to himself) was in Normandy on D-day… …at least, so he said to a young lady he was chatting up in the pub, before she seized the opportunity to go and socialize with someone who was _born_ on D-day. Which is a joke that wouldn’t work now, what with the younger love interest being 65 himself. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/35 "2009-08-17T17:52:04Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > Maybe from the chimes on the radio or News at Ten. There aren’t many terraced houses full of drunken workshy ne’erdowells\* within the sound of Big Ben. I remember strips of Andy stumbling home from ‘work’, and glancing over his shoulder at Big Ben in the distance. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/36 "2009-08-17T18:54:29Z")
> [@lawoot](#): > > I remember strips of Andy stumbling home from ‘work’, and glancing over his shoulder at Big Ben in the distance. Maybe he had a reeeallly long commute. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/37 "2009-08-17T19:24:05Z")
> [@lawoot](#): > > I remember strips of Andy stumbling home from ‘work’, and glancing over his shoulder at Big Ben in the distance. Or a typical Town Hall or church clock tower? What with it being absolutely established that Capp is a northerner, and all. Big Ben isn’t the only tower clock in England, by a long way.Big Ben isn’t a clock at all, but we know what we all mean… The cranes, btw, are dockyard cranes - that’s why they’re always turning up on the skyline. And another thing about Andy rolling home at some ridiculous hour in the morning - Flo’s wrath is further justified by his habit of picking up some bit of fluff at closing time to “walk her home”. It’s never been proven that he does anything other than would have been called “a bit of slap and tickle” a few decades ago, but that would still be more than a respectable wife would be expected to put up with. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/38 "2009-08-17T20:24:48Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > They do, officially, unless they have a late licence (which are more common now). But pubs have always had lock-ins for regulars, where you can stay for as long as the landlord or bar staff want you to. OK, but his barman is always yelling at him, “TIME, gentlemen, please!” ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/39 "2009-08-19T15:40:24Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Dagwood’s family definitely thought so. Way back when the strip started, Dagwood was the scion of a very wealthy family. They disinherited him when he married a cheap floozy flapper named Blondie. Well, he certainly made the correct choice!😉 ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349/40 "2009-08-20T06:05:22Z")
> [@lawoot](#): > > [QUOTE=scifisam2009] > Maybe from the chimes on the radio or News at Ten. There aren’t many terraced houses full of drunken workshy ne’erdowells\* within the sound of Big Ben. I remember strips of Andy stumbling home from ‘work’, and glancing over his shoulder at Big Ben in the distance. [/QUOTE] You been whooshed - Big Ben is: Not the clock And not the tower But the bell That strikes the hour [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-you-doin-mrs-capp/506349.md?page=1)