OK I rarely find “Family Circus” funny, but usually I can figure out what they cartoonist is going for.
Because this is the 50th anniversary they’re rerunning old cartoons.
Here’s one from March 4, 1960
Is this supposed to be funny because “Mack The Knife,” would be unusual for a little girl to sing, at least in 1960
I think so. Mack The Knife is about a criminal. It starts out saying that a shark is armed. Mack is also armed, but not so obviously. The implication is that he’s a ‘shark’, but kills by stealth. The next verse (in a common version) describes a ‘body, oozing life’. The narrator suggests that he’s a victim of Mack The Knife. Then there’s a body being disposed of in a river, a disappearance of a man who had a lot of cash (and Mack suddenly spending like a sailor), and a list of women who apparently want to be with him (presumably for sex).
Yes. It would be unusual, and rather creepy, for a little girl to sing “Mack the Knife” today as well.
Cloris Leachman as Phyllis did a similar bit on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, by referring to her own experience in child beauty pageants, wherein she claimed to have sung “Ten Cents a Dance” - again, a singularly unsuitable song for a child to sing to a bunch of adults.
Right. Mack The Knife isn’t really a “little girl” song.
Her mother is entertaining proper guests, and “Mack the Knife” was a bit vulgar at the time, about the equivalent of singing a rap song about being a gang-banger.
One of the rarely-sung (in English) verses tells of a child raped in her sleep.
This is the funniest Family Circus in 50 years.
In German:
Und die minderjährige Witwe
Deren Namen jeder weiß
Wachte auf und war geschändet
Mackie welches war dein Preis?
Translation:
And the under-aged widow,
Whose name everyone knows,
Woke up and was violated
Mack, what was your price?
Stuff like that also happens in real life. When my uncle was around five years old, he was taken to church where the preacher asked the congregation if there were any hymns they could sing. My uncle innocently raised his hand and requested “Pistol Packin’ Mama”.
That’s a question that could be applied to pretty much every Family Circus ever. 
Wait…Family Circus is supposed to be funny? I thought it was supposed to be cute and slice-of-life-y, not funny…
This was the climax in Little Miss Sunshine, a ten year old girl dancing to Rick James’ Superfreak as her pageant talent!
Additional creepy points if the creepy no-neck monster shown in that cartoon were to sing it.
Nick Cave’s version (a faithful, if not literal translation) translates this verse as
On which note, actually, I’ve never been able to figure out that verse - WHO is paying Mackie to rape the girl, and WHY?
an example from 1933: seven year old Tommy “Butch” Bond singing “Just Friends, Lovers No More” in Mush and Milk (at 12:50)
After my own childhood, I never found "inappropriate awareness’ humor funny, since they never show what happens to the kid afterwards. The rare exception is “Three blocks away, Schwartz was getting his” from A Christmas Story.
It would?
It’s an “Uh-oh our little girl is growing up fast” moment, Darin being a teen heart-throb of the moment and at his career peak (1958 - Splish Splash #3, 1959 - Dream Lover #2, 1960 - Beyond the Sea #6, Artificial Flowers #20).
CMC fnord!
I agree with you.
I have seen this happen many times. Kids like the toons, and that is what they request or sing. They dont really pay much attention to hidden or subtle meanings.
Mack The Knife was a cool sounding song, it sounded upbeat and catchy, something any kid would want to listen to, esp compared to what old women usually listen to .
I took it to mean that he pimped her out.
Here’s a great video a fan of The Shield made: Vic Mackey the Knife
That’s a better Family Circus than any I’ve ever seen re being funny.
Oh-ho…that makes sense! :smack: