# Special Guest Star In Family Circus? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2002, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744 "2002-07-13T04:46:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/1 "2002-07-13T04:46:36Z")
If you saw the Family Circus for July 11th, did you spot the [cameo?](http://206.138.137.5/dailytoon/images/Fami0711.jpg) Has he done this before? ---
**Author:** ![Gundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Gundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gundy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/2 "2002-07-13T04:53:22Z")
Oh my goodness. Was that an obscure slam of some sort? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/3 "2002-07-13T05:15:49Z")
I noticed that too. Why is Zippy the Pinhead in a FC comic? Maybe he’s going to get “edgy.” ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/4 "2002-07-13T05:31:56Z")
??? _trying to imagine what FC would be like if it were to suddenly morph into Zippy…_ _mind currently boggling at the scenario…_ ---
**Author:** ![Truth\_Seeker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Truth\_Seeker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truth_Seeker)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/5 "2002-07-13T06:48:21Z")
Who’s that on top of the other one? You know, FC could actually get really interesting if it started to inject a bit of surrealism. I mean, wouldn’t it be cool to have Billy sitting on the couch reading the Necronomicon? Sadly, it’s probably not to be. This has happened [before](http://www.reuben.org/rosenthal/members/Timspage/canthey/famcirc/famcirc.html). ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/6 "2002-07-13T10:55:30Z")
Tough call. It looks like a character from **Pogo**. With the haircut into the eyes, and the hand positioning it also looks like a Harvey Kurtzmann drawing from a MAD Magazine, maybe circa 1958 or so. Weird… Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/7 "2002-07-13T16:04:01Z")
There was one in which one of the kids was dreaming about said character. The gag: when his mother wakes him up, he explains it like a TV. “Why did you have to turn it off? I was watching _Zippy the Pinhead._” And then there was the April Fools Day where Scott Adams and Bil Keane traded comics. Billy ended up annoying Dilbert, while the kids’ mom (with pointy-hairdo) planned to downsize the family over in the familiar circle. (But then again, most cartoonists traded places that year.) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/8 "2002-07-13T16:37:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > I noticed that too. Why is Zippy the Pinhead in a FC comic? Maybe he’s going to get “edgy.” **Tuck** , for _The Family Circus_ this is edgy. **Truth Seeker** , there used to be a web page for _The Dysfunctional Family Circus_ where people could contribute new captions to FC strips. Lovecraft references were popular, the main page had Billy praying to “Shub-Niggurath, black goat of the woods of a thousand young.” I remember Zippy showing up in a Ziggy cartoon once. There are people standing in line, but Ziggy’s so short you can only see the people next to him from the waist down. He’s looking over his shoulder at the person behind him, who’s wearing a polka-dot muumuu, and he says “I’m with you, I hate it when they do these things in alphabetical order.” ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/9 "2002-07-13T16:48:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cartooniverse \* > \*\*Tough call. It looks like a character from **Pogo**. With the haircut into the eyes, and the hand positioning it also looks like a Harvey Kurtzmann drawing from a MAD Magazine, maybe circa 1958 or so. > > Weird… > > Cartooniverse \*\* ' **Toon** , I think you’re looking at it the wrong way: the hair is a pageboy haircut, and the character is seen in a 3/4ths view. Whoever it is, is looking at Zippy. And the “hands” are a bow-tie (I dl’d the picture and blew it up in Photoshop) Maybe it’s Buster Brown? Wilberforce from “The Born Loser” used to dress that way. What’s _weird_ is lookit the bottom of Zippy’s totem pole. The skeleton-looking guy? The “skeleton” _isn’t_ a skeleton…It’s a guy wearing sunglasses, sitting down with a giant pair of hands wrapped around his middle (the things that look like ribs). They’re clearly not ribs as they bulge out on the sides too far. What’s even _weirder_ is that right above the guy is something that looks a _lot_ like Cerebus the Aardvark’s face Has TFC always been this surreal??? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/10 "2002-07-13T18:31:10Z")
Zippy the Pinhead frequently made references to “the family circus” in that comic strip. I don’t think that this is the first time that TFC returned the favor. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/11 "2002-07-13T18:38:40Z")
Did someone ejaculate onto the totems, and that’s why girl sees “tadpoles”? ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/12 "2002-07-14T15:25:36Z")
A comic newsgroup pointed out the top of the other totem pole is Silly Philly, a Bil Keane character from before the Family Circus. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/13 "2002-07-14T15:30:04Z")
[Silly Philly](http://www.familycircus.com/art/silly/silly1.htm) was a cute little colonist, wasn’t he? ---
**Author:** ![airdisc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e19adc/32.png) [@airdisc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/airdisc)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/14 "2002-07-14T18:17:29Z")
Forgive my ignorance, but who in the name of Cthulhu is Zippy the Pinhead? ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/15 "2002-07-14T18:31:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by airdisc \* > \*\*Forgive my ignorance, but who in the name of Cthulhu is Zippy the Pinhead? \*\* No prob…a lot of people don’t know who Zippy is! Zippy The Pinhead’s an “alternative” comic strip seen in a number of national daily and Sunday newspapers – how many, I don’t know. I like to think of it at a comic that makes you think rather than sending you over the edge in giggles. He’s full of non-sequiters, comments about society, art, and culture. He occasionally morphs into various alter egos – one is married to Zerbina and they have 2 pinhead children, for instance. There’s also the occasional appearance of several “stock” characters like Shelf-Life who, by my interpretation, stands for all the current marketing/advertising philosophy. His closest alter ego is “Griffy”, who, btw, brought Zippy to life. The juxtaposition of Zippy and FC, which, as you know, is a purely mainstream comic strip…the mind’s still boggling… 😉 ---
**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:** [July 14, 2002, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/16 "2002-07-14T23:00:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\* > > ' **Toon** , I think you’re looking at it the wrong way: the hair is a pageboy haircut, and the character is seen in a 3/4ths view. Whoever it is, is looking at Zippy. And the “hands” are a bow-tie (I dl’d the picture and blew it up in Photoshop) > > Maybe it’s Buster Brown? > > Wilberforce from “The Born Loser” used to dress that way. > > What’s _weird_ is lookit the bottom of Zippy’s totem pole. The skeleton-looking guy? The “skeleton” _isn’t_ a skeleton…It’s a guy wearing sunglasses, sitting down with a giant pair of hands wrapped around his middle (the things that look like ribs). They’re clearly not ribs as they bulge out on the sides too far. > > What’s even _weirder_ is that right above the guy is something that looks a _lot_ like Cerebus the Aardvark’s face > Has TFC always been this surreal??? \*\* **Fenris** , try not to read too much into these things. I’m no totem pole expert, but to my untrained eye, the only anachronisms on the poles are the special guest stars. The “skeleton-looking guy” is clearly a smaller figure sitting on the lap of the _real_ bottom figure (probably a fertility character). The figure right below Zippy is either an eagle or an owl. As I said, I’m not an expert on totem poles; perhaps one of our more anthropologically-educated members can enlighten us. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/17 "2002-07-15T06:52:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Robot Arm \* > **Truth Seeker, there used to be a web page for _The Dysfunctional Family Circus_ where people could contribute new captions to FC strips. Lovecraft references were popular, the main page had Billy praying to "Shub-Niggurath, black goat of the woods of a thousand young."** Ah, I do love to share this when it’s called for: [Dysfunctional Family Circus Archive](http://www.zompist.com/dfcindex.html). For more than just the cartoons & captions, you can hit [this link](http://www.zompist.com/spinn.html) for the history and more. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/18 "2002-07-15T06:57:28Z")
AAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!! My God!!! They killed the DFC Archive!!! AAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!! I must go weep. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2002, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-guest-star-in-family-circus/118744/19 "2002-07-15T15:04:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by airdisc \* > \*\*Forgive my ignorance, but who in the name of Cthulhu is Zippy the Pinhead? \*\* [link to Zippy strips](http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/zippy/about.htm)