Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 04, 2014
November 03, 2014
November 05, 2014
Transcript:
Mike: Hey! Where you going, Zonk? I just put dinner on... Zonker: No time to eat! I got my dancin' shoes on! Mike: Dancing? I thought you hated discos! Zonker: Not true. It was my upbringing. My parents never allowed me to strut my stuff! But all that's changed now! I'm a natural-born boogie child, and if stayin' alive means gettin' down, then gettin' down is where I'm at! Mike: What is this, a modern parable? Mark: More like a stage. Zonker: Hey, call me a dancin' fool! I don't mind!
It’s interesting this strip is from November 4th in 1978, which puts it just two weeks after Frank Zappa introduced his song “Dancin’ Fool” on Saturday Night Live on October 21st. Not sure how much lead time Trudeau would have needed for a strip back then. If he didn’t see the performance on SNL before writing Zonker’s dialogue, it’s a funny coincidence. (Yes, I do realize the phrase predates Zappa by a fair number of years, it’s just that the song made it a popular catchphrase in the weeks that followed.)