Comics I Don’t Understand

Water

Cidu Bill on Sep 26th 2009

Okay, seriously now… Is Dolly supposed to be brain-damaged, or what?

Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Family Circus, comic strips, comics, humor, indoor plumbing | 33 responses so far

33 Responses to “Water”

Jeff S. Sep 26th 2009 at 10:36 pm 1

Possibly. However, I am convinced Bil and Jeff are though.
mateus Sep 26th 2009 at 11:04 pm 2

http://www.losanjealous.com/nfc/perm.php?c=63&q=267

The only way I can tolerate the Family Circus is by adding Nietzsche.
Kedamono Sep 26th 2009 at 11:40 pm 3

Another good Nietzsche FC:

http://www.losanjealous.com/nfc/perm.php?c=164&q=41
Nicole Sep 27th 2009 at 12:18 am 4

I had to LOL at Bill’s comment — Brain Damaged …. lol

And I love the Nietzsche Family Circus
bAT L. Sep 27th 2009 at 01:23 am 5

I don’t think she’s talking about the actual faucet part, but rather that mysterious little pull tab thing in the middle. I remember trying to figure out what it did when I was little, only to realize it stopped the sink from emptying once I realized the water started to fill the sink. Until then, I thought it was useless, just like those pedals on the bottom of the piano (yes, I know, I know).

But really, I think the artist intends Dolly to be younger than the age at which he set her. I don’t think brain damaged is the intent, but I think it’s been a long time since Keane actually spent time with kids.
Ted Sep 27th 2009 at 03:46 am 6

Wonder what she’ll say when she gets to the three shells.
chuckers Sep 27th 2009 at 04:42 am 7

Truthfully, I find this one a bit endearing and creative. I never would have thought
of the middle one as dispensing warm water.

Okay, okay, if we have to dump on it:

Rather than brain damaged, Dolly is a cold, cruel, and mean elder sister by teaching
her brother PJ incorrect “facts” to screw with it head in later life. She probably teaches
him that the sky is green, too.
furrykef Sep 27th 2009 at 04:47 am 8

bAT L. — I think Bill’s issue here is that Dolly probably should have figured out years ago (even at her young age) that the middle isn’t for ‘warm’, by the simple observation that warm water doesn’t come out when you pull it. And of course there’s the issue that even if she were a few years younger and hadn’t tried it yet, it’s not actually funny. Which of course makes it fit in perfectly with the rest of The Family Circus.

- Kef
Aaron Sep 27th 2009 at 09:13 am 9

My take on it was that you can run the cold water, run the hot water or pull the tab and fill the sink with both hot and cold water (which combines to make warm water).

Which isn’t so much a “joke” as “an explanation of how a bathroom sink works”. Maybe Bil Keane is getting out of comics and into plumbing instructional manuals.
Nicole Sep 27th 2009 at 10:35 am 10

Aaron — that would be true if the sink was in the old style where there are two spigots, one for hot, on for cold — but the single spigot mixes the two automatically

Actually Chuckers is correct, this one is supposed to be endearing. One of those “Isn’t it SO cute and funny how kids misinterpret how the world works” kind of comics ….. or Dolly IS brain damaged
John B. Sep 27th 2009 at 10:36 am 11

Bat L. has it right. As a little kid, there are lots of things we didn’t know until we either figured it out or we learned from our parents. Family Circus is just showing that little kids don’t necessarily know what things are. It was LOL for me, not CIDU.
HomerTime Sep 27th 2009 at 11:24 am 12

Once again, another example that confirms my postulate that when someone begins with “Okay, seriously” the forthcoming comment will not be serious.
Jordan Sep 27th 2009 at 01:36 pm 13

I don’t know, I’ve come to the conclusion that all four kids are brain damaged, what with the inane and ridiculous comments they always make about the world.
I guess I’m just not one of those people who finds FC cute - but somehow I still read it every day. I attribute it to a car wreck - I just can’t look away
Cidu Bill Sep 27th 2009 at 01:45 pm 14

What particularly puzzles me is that as ignorant as Dolly is, she nonetheless knows that hot+cold=warm.
indgeek Sep 27th 2009 at 03:25 pm 15

As old age dementia sets in Bil find such explanations fascinating.
Mark in Boston Sep 27th 2009 at 05:47 pm 16

In Peanuts, Lucy also subjected her little brother Linus to “Little Known Facts”.

Do you see this tree? It is a fir tree.
It’s called a fir tree because it gives us fur, for coats.
It also gives us wool in the wintertime.
HomerTime Sep 27th 2009 at 09:55 pm 17

I remember having dinner with some friends and one of their kids (probably 3-4 years old then Dolly) coming back from the restroom and saying that the sink was “weird” because it had two separate knobs for hot and cold. He had only ever used the single knob/lever type (but I assume he had no problem figuring it out) The fact that he was home-schooled eliminated one prime opportunity to see the traditional two-know setup.
Chakolate Sep 27th 2009 at 11:00 pm 18

I remember reading Family Circus in the late 50’s - it wasn’t funny even then. Jeffy still made dotted lines around the yard and the house.
Cidu Bill Sep 27th 2009 at 11:24 pm 19

Chakolate, are you entirely certain these aren’t just the same strips?
Chakolate Sep 27th 2009 at 11:30 pm 20

LOL! The ones that I saw back then were all different, in a very minor way. I don’t read the strip now, so for all I know, he may be recycling them.
chuckers Sep 28th 2009 at 05:41 am 21

HEY! No dissing on the FC comics with the dotted lines!

We OCD types have to follow them from start to finish before we can get to
the punchline! And we enjoy it!

http://www.pvponline.com/2008/07/31/

(Also check the ones from 4 days previous in the link above. I would post links
to them but the spam guard would bite me in the behind.)
chuckers Sep 28th 2009 at 05:43 am 22

Oh, and it is Billy that makes the dotted lines.

Start here for the other ones mentioned earlier.

http://www.pvponline.com/2008/07/28/

(No, I didn’t deliberately post twice to avoid the spam guard.)
dc Sep 28th 2009 at 09:00 am 23

Or perhaps the Keane’s have finally progressed into the new millenium and are showing that Dolly is accustomed to the modern washerless faucets that don’t have separate handles for hot and cold. Push them left and you get hot. Push them right and you get cold. Push them up with the single handle central and you get warm. Mapping that to bi-handled faucets, she could conclude that the plug control thingy in the middle relates to “warm”.

I recently had the experience of explaining to a completely astonished 7 year old that the crank on the inside of my car door was for opening and closing the window. Having only ever ridden in vehicles with automatic power windows, he associated the opening and closing of car windows only to the up and down movement of a little flat switch because this was the only mechanism in his experience that accomplished it. It is conceivable, then, that any child who has only experienced washerless faucets and automatic faucets (a la public washrooms) would be baffled by having to turn handles/levers/knobs to make water run.
Chakolate Sep 28th 2009 at 01:59 pm 24

Chuckers, Thanks! I always wondered who liked FC - I should have realized it was OCDers. Yes!
Julie Sep 28th 2009 at 05:39 pm 25

Perhaps it would have been cuter if Dolly was asking her mom if the middle was for warm and the outsides for hot/cold? As it is now, she is certain that’s the way it is.
Or maybe faucets work differently in the FC household.
MoWatt Sep 28th 2009 at 06:44 pm 26

Sorry, but I have to show my ignorance here.

Ted commented: “Wonder what she’ll say when she gets to the three shells.”

All I can say is: “Huh?”
Mark in Boston Sep 28th 2009 at 09:44 pm 27

You kids have it so easy today with your hot and cold coming out of the same tap. In my day they were two separate taps. One had hot water and one had cold water. There was no warm. You had to fill the basin with hot and cold water and stir it around.

When Grandma was a little girl she had only cold water and she had to work the pump handle to get it.
Nicole Sep 28th 2009 at 10:13 pm 28

Why when I was little we had to tote water from the ocean and desalinate it — and we were glad for it
Patrick Sep 29th 2009 at 12:29 am 29

Hey Ted, I used to go the Town Theatre all the time when I lived in Indiana. Love that place.

(But I don’t get the “three shells” line either)
chuckers Sep 29th 2009 at 05:33 am 30

I *think* the “three shells” is a reference to “Demolition Man” with Sylvester Stallone,
Sandra Bullock, and Wesley Snipes.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106697/

The John Spartan (Stallone) character wakes up in the far future where everyone
eats Taco Bell (Pizza Hut if you watch the Japanese version) and toilet paper has
been replaced by 3 shells.

Swearing and obscenities give you a fine printed out on slips of paper. When John
Spartan realises he doesn’t know how to use the 3 shells, he cusses a blue streak
to get as many fines as he can to use as toilet paper to use in the loo.

I least that is what I thought when Ted mentioned it. I almost asked as well. Ted,
can you confirm?
MoWatt Sep 30th 2009 at 02:15 am 31

If that’s what Ted was going for, that’s a pretty obscure reference to just drop into a conversation. Are we all expected to have seen “Demolition Man?”
ljdarten Sep 30th 2009 at 10:37 am 32

obscure, but it fits. nonsensical bathroom instructions in both. I always wanted to know what the hell the deal with the shells could be. It was supposed to be somehow cleaner than toilet paper, which is the part that made it unfathomable.

btw, Bat L.? Furrykef? I think I know you two. And not just from here. or has it just been a while since i’ve been here and im getting wires crossed in my brain?
Thermal Imaging : Oct 26th 2010 at 11:19 am 33

bathroom sinks that are made from ceramics are always the best choice. they last longer and very strong,;,