# Why Is This "Family Circus" Cartoon Funny **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579 "2010-03-07T02:29:34Z")\ **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:** [March 7, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/21 "2010-03-07T17:32:28Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > 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. This. In light of this discussion, I was amused to see that in [today’s panel](http://www.sfgate.com/comics/?feature_id=Family_Circus&feature_date=2010-03-07), Jeffy is shown singing “Pants on the Ground.” ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/22 "2010-03-07T18:18:26Z")
In her memoir _Gypsy_, Gypsy Rose Lee tells the story of when she was about 10 years old and her family vaudeville troupe went to Mexico and her song “I’m a Hard-Boiled Rose” was translated for her into Spanish. She learned it phonetically, and went on to sing “Yo Soy Una Gancha.” The outraged audience almost stormed the stage. The helpful translator had read the title as “I am a hooker.” ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/23 "2010-03-07T19:23:05Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > 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. Ooh, good time to tell one of my favorite teenage anecdotes … My sister had made the unfortunate mistake of mentioning Huey Lewis’s song “I Want A New Drug” in front of our father. He hadn’t heard it, but was strongly against the song on the basis of the title. “I don’t think you should be listening to songs about drugs,” he admonished her. “It’s not about drugs!” she responded–but then made the capital mistake of turning to her older brother for backup. “That songs not about drugs, is it?” “No,” I responded. “It’s about sex.” I got the best triple-take ever from her. "What?! … OH!!! :o " Heh. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/24 "2010-03-07T19:34:06Z")
I’ll put it down as just me, but when I looked at the cartoon, what struck me as funniest was that the little old ladies probably thought Mack the Knife was Jack the Ripper and that the objects of affection for Jack were predominantly ladies of the evening. And here’s this little princess wanting to sing a song that would make the little old ladies think of their “better days.” Probably just me. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/25 "2010-03-07T19:44:34Z")
Another anecdote. I watched the Johnny Carson show in question… Like many shows whose child stars are growing up, _Diffrent Strokes_ introduced a new “cute kid” character. He was played by Danny Cooksey, who was about ten years old (give or take a year) at the time he was on the show. One night, at about the time he was on the show, Danny Cooksey was a guest on the Johnny Carson show. He proved to be an extremely precocious child in his conversation with Carson, bordering on thinking he was a bigger star than he really was, and it was obvious that Johnny wasn’t impressed. Then Cooksey announced he was going to sing a song, which he did, accompanied by the band. The song was “Lookin’ for Love in All the Wrong Places,” and the sight and sound of a ten-year-old singing about “singles bars and good-time lovers” made Carson–and his audience–crack up. Neither made any attempt to stifle their laughter, which almost drowned out Cooksey. No idea what Cooksey’s reaction was when he finished; as I recall things, Carson quickly cut to a commercial. Probably to save the poor kid more embarrassing moments. Who could possibly have thought it would be a good idea for a ten-year-old kid to sing that song? ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/26 "2010-03-07T21:11:02Z")
I just walked into my room to find my 8-year-old using the voice recorder on my iPod Touch to record herself singing “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. :eek: The thing is, with kids, as much as you try to shield them from the seamier realities of the world, they somehow end up learning stuff they’re not really ready for yet. Like songs about criminals and perverts, or in my kid’s case, drunken party girls. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/27 "2010-03-07T22:23:15Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Nick Cave’s version (a faithful, if not literal translation) translates this verse as > > And the child bride, in her nighty > Whose assailant’s still at large > Violated in her slumbers > Macky how much did you charge? I think Lyle Lovett sang this lyric as well on the **Game Show** soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/28 "2010-03-08T00:46:41Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > I think Lyle Lovett sang this lyric as well on the **Game Show** soundtrack. It’s the, > [@](#): > > [**1976 Manheim-Willett translation**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_the_Knife#Selective_list_of_recorded_versions) > > In 1976 the version translated by Ralph Manheim and John Willett opened on Broadway, later made into a movie version starring Raúl Juliá as “Mackie”. Here is an excerpt:See the shark with teeth like razors > All can read his open face > And Macheath has got a knife, but > Not in such an obvious placeThis is the version later performed by Sting and Nick Cave. It is also the version performed by Lyle Lovett on the soundtrack of the film Quiz Show (1994)—the same movie features Darin’s rendition over the opening credits. While Darin’s is the > [@](#): > > [**1954 Blitzstein translation**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_the_Knife#1954_Blitzstein_translation) > > In the best known English translation, from the Marc Blitzstein 1954 version of The Threepenny Opera, which introduced the song to English-speaking audiences, the words are:Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear, > And he shows them pearly white > Just a jack-knife has Macheath dear > And he keeps it out of sight. > This is the version popularized by Louis Armstrong (1956) and Bobby Darin (1959) (Darin’s lyrics differ slightly), and most subsequent swing versions. Weill’s widow, Lotte Lenya, the star of both the original 1928 German production and the 1954 Blitzstein Broadway version, was present in the studio during Armstrong’s recording. He spontaneously added her name to the lyrics, which already named several of Macheath’s female victims. … CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/29 "2010-03-08T00:52:34Z")
> [@](#): > > In 1976 the version translated by Ralph Manheim and John Willett opened on Broadway, later made into a movie version starring Raúl Juliá as “Mackie”. Here is an excerpt: > > See the shark with teeth like razors > All can read his open face > And Macheath has got a knife, but > Not in such an obvious place Which is pretty close to the German lyrics: _Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne Und die trägt er im Gesicht Und MacHeath, der hat ein Messer Doch das Messer sieht man nicht._ _And the shark has teeth And he carries them in his face And MacHeath, he has a knife That no one sees_ ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/30 "2010-03-08T01:01:03Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > That’s a question that could be applied to pretty much every Family Circus ever. 😛 History will record not even one single instance of the Family Circus having been funny. The little 3 inch oval exists in newspapers for the sole purpose of relaying coded messages to spies, or something. Deep cover operatives get the paper and decode the little Billy movements and then go kill somebody. There must be some reason like that. But humor ain’t it. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/31 "2010-03-08T01:21:45Z")
I thought Family Circus existed to give Osama a place to hide without the family knowing who he is. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/32 "2010-03-08T01:46:22Z")
It looks like Keane was experimenting with smart-aleky kid characters before fully giving in to vile cuteness. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/33 "2010-03-08T06:58:05Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#): > > Ooh, good time to tell one of my favorite teenage anecdotes … My sister had made the unfortunate mistake of mentioning Huey Lewis’s song “I Want A New Drug” in front of our father. He hadn’t heard it, but was strongly against the song on the basis of the title. “I don’t think you should be listening to songs about drugs,” he admonished her. “It’s not about drugs!” she responded–but then made the capital mistake of turning to her older brother for backup. “That songs not about drugs, is it?” > > “No,” I responded. “It’s about sex.” I got the best triple-take ever from her. "What?! … OH!!! :o " > > Heh. Reminds me, sort of, of my cousin telling me that when she was younger, she liked the song “Like a Virgin” and asked her dad what a virgin was. He didn’t want to explain what the song really meant, so he just said it meant a young girl. Which I suppose it technically can mean, but not quite what the song is getting at…😃 ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/34 "2010-03-08T07:51:04Z")
The basic thing about it is that it’s just _preposterous_ that a little girl would want to sing _Mack the Knife_, let alone know the words to it. No need for a deep analysis here. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/35 "2010-03-08T08:07:38Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Wait…Family Circus is supposed to be funny? I thought it was supposed to be cute and slice-of-life-y, not funny… It’s supposed to be both. It’s pointing out the funny things that kids do. (Well, for lower values of funny.) ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/36 "2010-03-08T17:14:15Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > The basic thing about it is that it’s just _preposterous_ that a little girl would want to sing _Mack the Knife_, let alone know the words to it. 😕 Why? I absolutely loved the song as a little girl. Why wouldn’t I love it? It’s catchy and delightfully creepy. My dad was a HUGE Louis Armstrong fan, and played that version frequently. I definitely knew all the words and liked to sing along with it. The song was a hit in 1956 for Louis Armstrong and then a MONSTER hit in 1958/59 for Bobby Darin. It was all over the place. The strip was from 1960. Sally likely would have heard the song many times. Probably many more times than I had heard it, because I was born in 1971. When the song is considered within the context of the whole Threepenny Opera and with all the verses intact, it becomes much more ominous. But it’s unlikely that Sally, or even most of the readers of the strip, even knew the full story behind the song. Now whether it’s an appropriate thing for a little girl to sing for company is another story. But it’s perfectly understandable that she would know it and want to sing it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/37 "2010-03-08T17:28:02Z")
I believe [Bobby Darin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_darin) was popular in 1960 and “Mack the Knife” was one of his signature songs. (I remember that from a contemporary _Mad Magazine_ bit on Bobby Darin, reprinted in a paperback collection.) So, and highly unusual for TFC, this one is sorta topical. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/38 "2010-03-08T18:46:42Z")
It’s a reference to Uncle Roy and his painful “mishap” with the psychic fern. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/39 "2010-03-09T20:21:41Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > 😕 Why? All I can say, GB, is that you must have been one of the few exceptions to the rule, but by and large, it would have been preposterous in an _average_ situation, or what others may have perceived to have been an average situation (and here, I’m talking about the guests). ---
**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:** [March 9, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579/40 "2010-03-09T20:33:50Z")
> [@Lucky\_13](#): > > The thing is, with kids, as much as you try to shield them from the seamier realities of the world, they somehow end up learning stuff they’re not really ready for yet. Like songs about criminals and perverts, or in my kid’s case, drunken party girls. Indeed…when we were about 8 or 9, my cousin and I learned alternate lyrics to _Strangers in the Night_: Strangers in the night Exchanging rubbers This one is too tight I’ll try another This one is too loose But it will hold the juice We used to sing this at the top of our lungs, much to our parents’ consternation. We had some inkling that it was somehow naughty, but we had no idea what it really meant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-family-circus-cartoon-funny/531579.md?page=3)