Nivabeff
Cidu Bill on May 5th 2009
Judge Mental: I was originally willing to write this one off as an attempt at “cute” as opposed to “funny”, but based on Elly’s facial expression, she appears surprised at Elizabeth’s answer. Who/what was supposed to be Elizabeth’s reply?
I think there’s absolutely no more here than meets the eye — Johnston was going for “cute” — and Elly’s facial expression simply reflects her sense of awe at seeing her own reflection in the mirror -Bill
Filed in CIDU, For Better or For Worse, Lynn Johnston, comic strips, comics, humor | 36 responses so far
RobynS8971 May 5th 2009 at 02:49 pm 1
Kids sometimes don’t connect their name to themselves, or mis-hear it. Neighbor’s boy thought his brother Matthew was MattMe (Matt-You, Matt-Me). To blurt out a 3 syllable word when yesterday she only said mama, I’d be shocked, too!
Brent May 5th 2009 at 03:13 pm 2
It’s really kind of hard to say with the Foobs… the strip’s so dependant on final panel gobsmack expressions to punch up jokes (as opposed to SPP, which Lynn uses sparingly) that it can be confusing. Never mind that a lot of those jokes are kids behaving as kids, while their parent looks on gobsmacked at the fact that they don’t behave like little adults… some of which are intended to be funny, and others to be cute.
Liz looks like a muppet in that last panel… and so does Elly (to be precise, she looks like a Doozer).
Charlene May 5th 2009 at 03:26 pm 3
I don’t know - I might have that expression on my face too if a child turned Elizabeth into Nivabeff.
Scott May 5th 2009 at 03:31 pm 4
Perhaps it’s a foreshadowing of how Michael is going to run with Lizzy’s slight mangling of her own name and call her “Lizard Breath” for the rest of their lives. In any case, I can’t really buy that Elly’s expression in the final panel isn’t supposed to be a reaction — she has to have a reason from going from goo-goo-happy to surprised.
buzz May 5th 2009 at 03:37 pm 5
Aren’t some of the re-run strips being re-written as well? Is this the original strip’s punchline way back when?
GeorgeK May 5th 2009 at 04:12 pm 6
Pardon my ignorance, but what does “SPP” mean?
thesimplicity May 5th 2009 at 04:21 pm 7
This might have been funny if the kid said “Htebazile!” and vanished.
Mark in Boston May 5th 2009 at 04:23 pm 8
Somebody stop her! She’s going to kill Farley again!
Sarah May 5th 2009 at 04:43 pm 9
I’m more puzzled by the slur used in the first panel.
Also, Elizabeth seems pretty self-obsessed. That’s what I got when I read it — she just loves herself more than anything. “YAY IT’S ME I AM THE GREATEST.” Maybe that’s a child thing, though. Kids tend to be selfish, right?
Brent May 5th 2009 at 04:52 pm 10
#3, Scott: Maybe this time around he’ll call her “Never Beouf”? Because this mangling isn’t anywhere near “Lizard Breath”.
#4, buzzGeorgeK: This is what Lynn calls a “new-run”… it’s a completely new strip, but inserted amongst the flow of reruns in order to “expand” the old storyline (in truth, they’ve been consistently inconsistent with the original story).
#5, GeorgeK: Silent Penultimate Panel. A hack cliché often used to punch up the final panel when the joke is weak… or just simply overused out of habit. Non Sequitur uses them a lot. The beat is necessary and validly used only in rare instances, but you’ll see it somewhere in the comics almost everyday (often multiple times).
Rebecca May 5th 2009 at 04:56 pm 11
I’m more alarmed that little Lizzie is calling Michael “Miggah.” Seems pretty close to a racial slur.
Patrick May 5th 2009 at 04:58 pm 12
Brent,
I disagree that “The beat is necessary and validly used only in rare instances,” (which is why I never go to that guy’s website anymore - he seems to think any use of a silent panel is an abuse). Timing is a key component of comedy and, in a comic strip, space is time. The silent panel allows a beat that can make or break a joke. Just ask Jack Benny. (Um . . . except that he’s dead. But you know what I mean.)
Brent May 5th 2009 at 06:11 pm 13
Patrck, #11: Oh, that blog ended a long time ago… it was only a one year project. If you actually read the blog seriously, you’d know that he didn’t see SPPs negatively… he was actually fascinated by them and collected them. But the real issue was the over use… they really are abused for situations where they aren’t needed (as I say above, with some strips it’s habitual rather than choice… Non Sequitur looks like it’s written by a machine at times: Dana says something/SPP/other character reacts), and because of that they’ve become a cliché which simply washes out the impact of using them at all (much the same way that going round calling people fascists belittles the term when you want to talk about actual fascism). This was the actual concern addressed by the blog… it wasn’t about never using SPPs, but about how they’re over used.
Timing is important, and in a comic strip there are actually many different ways to do it… Scott McCloud has written plenty on time in comics. For example, you’re quite right that space is one way (but not the only way) that can be used to represent time… but you don’t actually need a separate intermediate silent panel to accomplish that, you can do it with a long panel if you frame things right. But that might actually require thinking and creativity… so what we typically get instead is the cheap rim shot SPP.
SPPs seldom can make a joke anymore, but I do find that they often break them because an actual pregnant pause would often break the flow. However, being a cliché they’ve lost that weight and are used for situations where there’s the pause only represents the briefest moment of time… the sort of thing that used to be handled with an ellipse or dash in front of the text of the speech bubble in the final frame (another good way to accomplish timing). SPPs used to have a certain weight, and now the weight is indeterminent, it could be long (like it used to be), or very short… meaning that the timing is no longer guaranteed (which is why we sometimes see strips use two or three silent panels of characters standing perfectly still to accomplish the same pause that one used to). So using SPPs for timing just doesn’t work anymore, due to abuse… largely because the current convention for their use seems to be more about punching up what was said by having the characters mug for the camera (just like the Gobsmack) than actually representing a specific amount of time (these are the ones that should always be avoided, most others are perfectly valid, but these particularly damage all SPP use). But most people probably don’t notice that because SPPs are generally invisible to them because they’re simply overused (which is what I learnt from the blog… I thought I was noticing them before, but the blog regularly showed me ones I had read over like they weren’t even there).
Chakolate May 5th 2009 at 06:22 pm 14
#8, Sarah: She’s naming things. She named Michael and dog and mama, then she named herself. Tiny tots do get excited over such things, especially for themselves.
However, what they don’t do is use pronouns - I think Lynn may have forgotten that.
Norm May 5th 2009 at 06:43 pm 15
Oh heck, lighten up. “Miggah” = tiny kid’s attempt to say “Michael”; “Goggie” = “doggie”; and so forth. No slur intended, and (IMO) you have to really be looking for one to make that comment. Have kids? Remember how you interpreted the approximate sounds. Ellie should just have been reinforcing by saying the “correct” name/word. And, Chakalote, tots don’t uses pronouns, but Ellie is holding her right at the object in question: no understanding of pronoun needed. Baby does understand what s/he is looking at. All that said, I still don’t understand Ellie’s expression in the last panel. Seems to me she should be happy/impressed at brat’s ability to almost say a complicated word like “Elizabeth”
Judy May 5th 2009 at 07:17 pm 16
Maybe her expression IS shock, because nivabeff is much more complicated than the other words she said.
Or does Elizabeth think her name is meelizabeth?
Kate C May 5th 2009 at 07:34 pm 17
Is Elly upset because baby Nivabeff is the “pretty girl” in the mirror, and not her? Considering how obsessed with her looks and aging Elly has been since the very beginning, the very end, and the reboot of the strip, it’s conceivable we’re about to veer into a “Elly wants plastic surgery” or “Elly goes on another diet” arc.
Sarah May 5th 2009 at 08:23 pm 18
Maybe she meant it like “my-gah” but I still think it’s much too close to an inflammatory term to be used. It could have used a bit of a tweak before publication. I wasn’t looking for anything in today’s FOOB at all, actually; just normal, pointless, boring FOOBery…and BAM. Taken aback and then bored to death again.
Heather D May 5th 2009 at 09:27 pm 19
I agree that it’s SUPPOSED to be “my-gah” but the way it’s spelled is unfortunate.
I think there’s also SUPPOSED to be a kind of escalation of excitement over the importance of the people in Lizard Breath’s life. Miggah is just Miggah. Goggie gets three repetitions and a larger font size. Ma-ma gets two exclamation marks. And nivabeff gets bolded. She’s also reaching more emphatically to each one in order.
But I was also overly distracted by the pronoun thing. A kid who is still so new to talking that it’s a big deal for mom to take her around and point at things for her to mispronounce, will NOT be saying “me” yet (or at best, it’s extremely rare for a kid to have figured that out). My 2.5yo is smart as a whip, knows all her colours and shapes and letters and can count to 15, speaks in complete sentences and can tell you about her day with remarkable clarity — both clarity of thought and of pronounciation.
But she’s only JUST started using “me” and “I” literally within this past week.
James May 5th 2009 at 10:52 pm 20
Lizzie points to Michael, reaches out to the dog, reaches out to her mother….and then herself. She is trying to hug her image like it is a being. Maybe that is why Ellie has that expression.
Heather D May 5th 2009 at 11:41 pm 21
Just had another thought…
Nivabeff doesn’t look HAPPY in the last panel. Maybe LJ is trying to imply that she thinks she’s actually IN the mirror?
John B. May 6th 2009 at 05:11 am 22
I think Elizabeth realizes it’s her in the mirror and tries to say her name the best she could considering her limited ability to say words at that point. “Nivabeff” is really “Elizabeth”. I think everyone here is over analyzing this strip.
Mark Jackson May 6th 2009 at 07:20 am 23
Of *course* Elly is stunned to see herself in the mirror.
Zombie strips don’t have reflections.
Judge Mental May 6th 2009 at 09:43 am 24
@John B. We all realize that “Nivabeff” is really “Elizabeth” and that it is a result of Elizabeth’s age and still developing verbal skills. But what makes the last panel the punch line? Why is “Nivabeff” for “Elizabeth” any funnier than “Miggah” for “Michael” or “Goggie” for “Doggie”? (And I admit that I might be over-analyzing)
The Ploughman May 6th 2009 at 11:08 am 25
Ellie is stunned because the glimpse of herself in the mirror (a pose often taken in her later life of wrinkles and insecurity) has, for just a single moment, given her a glimpse of her circular, relived life. She is living in the same repeating period of her life - unstuck in time, in essence, much like Billy Pilgrim or (perhaps more appropriately) Donnie Darko.
Will she recognize the key moments this time around? Will she keep the yet-to-be-born April from playing too near the creek and thus save Farley the dog? Can she warn little Elizabeth against her future unwise romantic entanglements and lead her straight to dweeby Anthony? Or is she doomed to play the same tragi-comic scenarios ad infinitum? Stay tuned!
Reema May 6th 2009 at 11:17 am 26
I agree with James (#20). I think Elly has that look on her face because Elizabeth is trying to reach out towards her own image.
BroBoCop May 6th 2009 at 12:42 pm 27
I, too, agree with James. As for the pronunciation/spelling of Michael’s name, it is MHO that there are too many people trying to look too deeply into things that don’t matter. Not everybody is sensitive to the pc police when it is absolutely not their intention to offend. I am sure Lynn didn’t think twice about how the uber-sensitive Americans would read that word.
BroBoCop May 6th 2009 at 01:03 pm 28
On a side note, today’s strip reveals that Elly is surprised that Elizabeth said her own name.
Powers May 6th 2009 at 01:11 pm 29
Turns out Judy (#16) was right all along.
Shamare May 6th 2009 at 01:13 pm 30
As for Michael’s name try saying it with a long “i”, it is not a slur, but a little girl’e sttempt at Michael. People let’s not look for offense when none is there.
I think Ellie is stunned because everyone else’s name Elizabeth says a 2 syllable nickname, but her name is 3 syllable, a far more difficult speech pattern for a child that age.
Empress Penguin May 6th 2009 at 02:22 pm 31
Just my $0.02, and I might be over analyzing. But think about it:
Elly is college educated, but while her dentist husband gets to see adults every day she stays at home with the children. An admirable, but difficult choice.
That stunned look on Elly’s face is the realization that this is what her life has become. After a young adulthood spent discussing poetry and history, the high conversational point of her day is a baby mispronouncing her own name.
The Ploughman May 6th 2009 at 02:22 pm 32
I thought Rebecca (#11) was being facetious, speaking of extra sensitivity.
MoWatt May 6th 2009 at 02:40 pm 33
Empress said: “After a young adulthood spent discussing poetry and history, the high conversational point of her day is a baby mispronouncing her own name.”
After a day spent listening to the idiotic ramblings and petty disagreements of adults in my work life, the “high conversational point” of MY day would be hearing my baby starting to utter those first words too.
Mark in Boston May 6th 2009 at 08:01 pm 34
I know a kid whose first word was “apple”.
Kid and mother were in the car. Another driver cut them off and mother said “@$$h@!@” to the other driver. Kid said “AAA-HO!”
Mother, thinking fast: “Oh! You said APPLE!” Kid: “AAA-HO!” Mother: “APPLE!” Kid: “AAA-HO!”
MoWatt May 7th 2009 at 03:44 am 35
Well, now she’s done it, Sarah (#9) and Rebecca (#11) - in today’s strip Elizabeth is using the “N” word.
ljdarten May 8th 2009 at 10:41 pm 36
I don’t think anybody thought the “slur” was a big deal, just noting that it kinda looks like it. And the double g would make it sound like kick, not kite so it probably should have been written as migah, my-gah or one of a hundred different ways.