Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 22, 2011

Right about now, Joannie is beginning to miss the snake.

“Girls, girls, you’re both pretty …”

Ohhh… Cold.

On the one hand, Trudeau is expressing comic genius here that approaches that of, say, a Groucho Marx or a Jack Benny. On the other hand, he has tapped into some deep socio-psychological truth. For example, notice the change in Jeff’s expression and body language from panel 1 compared to panel 4.  Hate to say it, but it seems Rick has injured his son so deeply he may never recover. Also, the expression on Joanie’s face (panel 2) is priceless.

If this were psychological realism, Rick could retort that he never lost $50 million. Jeff was injured by being born and has had no real experiences or feelings ever since.

Jeff has exhibited two negative, inappropriate behaviors that Rick may in some sense have helped to engender: • Rubbing into dad’s face the fact that Rick has never “shipped” 50,000 books, and • losing $50M U.S. There are, of course, many more. Trudeau has thought this all up and presented it to us in comic form. Why?

First post , though I have been reading for some time. Seems to me that DylanPi and palin drome have missed a lot of the psychological symbolism here. The bricks in the first panel seemingly about to topple from Rick’s nose are obviously a metaphor for his parlous mental state. The mug in Jeff’s hand is a Grail reference, and the fruit bowl in the first panel is a Cornucopia of Plenty (cf The Golden Bough). Finally, the tie that Rick wears so loosely is an expression of his suicidal ideations – he wants to hang himself.Then again…

America at its essence: fantasy sells, reality is sneered at.

And how much more advance money did Jeff get than his father? And how many more book tours? And TV appearances? Hah, Dad, hah?

You kinda gotta wonder about the parenting skills Rick and Joanie have, particularly Joanie. Doesn’t she already have an estranged daughter, formerly married to Mike? Doesn’t speak well.

Rick " I’m happy for you Jeff. Now you can finally move out".

Is it just me who’s wondering why, with all the stress Rick has had over the decades (son, work, losing job, bloging for a living, no recognition, aging, etc., etc,) he still has no gray hair???

the bad seed. can happen to any couple.

Lies really don’t bother most people – lies are, after all, lies. It’s unpleasant truths that send individuals (or even nations) into a tailspin. If Rick isn’t strangling Jeff in tomorrow’s strip, we can all imagine his character wanting to.

The kid needs to get his own pad anyway. You can’t stay home wit the parents forever. Take a big step into the great unknown.

KJV Matthew 5 : 45 [B]e the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  At this point Jeff reminds me of the Paul Newman character (Hud Bannon) in the classic motion picture HUD or the James Dean character (Jett Rink) in another classic GIANT. Family relationships are extremely complex. Jeff DOES have talent, and he DOES work hard when he’s writing. The more Rick recognizes this reality, the more peace he’ll have. Let him count his own blessings: Jeff doesn’t have a Joanie-type wife, and the way’s he’s going, he may never.

So will life imitate art & there’ll be a Rascal book in stores for black friday?

Isn’t it time for Joanie and Rick to jump back into their respective Einsteinian spacetime wormholes? Joanie off to campaign with Alex and possibly Leo, and Rick to continue press coverage of the next Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren?

Simple solution. Rick should change his blog to “Living with the Red Rascal” and write about everything he does.

Do you know why Rick does not want his son to be disappointed?.Because being disappointed is HIS job!

Be thankful for the family you have, and ignore the fantasies and yesterday’s hopes.

True thanks giving matters.

Jeff is a ratty little brat… and a fictional one, at that.

At $1000 per book, Jeff can send the whole lot to Overkill (or to Duke) as collateral for the missing $50 million. That squares his cartoon-world account and we can forget about Becca and Random House, and GBT can get off this tiresome sotry line.