Brilliant deduction Mr Capp. Have some sense knocked into you. Remember a dead night at the pub is better than a live night at home. Remember those live nights with Flo, four fists and four feet extending from a cloud of dust with a stream of explicative coming out either side? Ahh, home for the Friday night fights. Why not just go home at 3 AM and let her beat up your drunken self. Let her rest up for the eventual confrontation, meanwhile, have another pint. Hip Hip, God bless the Queen, lets raise another glass to her Majesty., Barkeep, another please. I believe the man down there is paying..
You should see some of the really early Capp cartoons from the 1950’s - politically correct they ain’t. In those days, it was not seen as reprehensible for Andy to be a drunken wife-beater as it was a cultural expectation in the wilder parts of England (and Wales and Scotland) that a nagging or scolding wife could be legitimately silenced by a few good hard slaps round the head. In the North-East where the strip hails from, it was a perfectly acceptible part of Friday or Saturday night that if the wife objected to you being down the pub till after closing time, you could slap her one with “gerraway and shite, wooman, will you stop giving me ear-ache!” (And that’s another thing that’s virtually gone from the Capp cartoons - the Geordie dialect English expressions)
Indeed, 1950’s Flo was often seen sprawled on the floor with a black eye, expressing relief that “he loves me enough to hit me..”
By the 1970’s, it was somewhat frowned upon, even in backward places like the English industrial north-east (think New Jersey meets Akron, Ohio), to be a wife-beater. So the strip evolved to allow Flo to give as good as she got and fight back. This lasted through the eighties and nineties, and any sort of violence is now, alas, absent from the Capp cartoons.
But just once you’d appreciate an old-time marital disagreement, roaring up and down like a dustcloud with fists and feet popping out every so often…. didn’t this feature in an episode of “Family Guy” once? Although they got Andy and Flo’s accents teeth-gratingly wrong - they are GEORDIE, not mock-cockney!
Geordie English - think singers Sting and Eric Burdon (the Animals). Although later Sting has lost a lot of it.
Interestingly enough there is a sideways mention of Andy and Flo’s son Buster, who had a childrens’ comic of his own.
This also explains why (Buster presumingly having grown up) a current comic on the “Daily Mirror” was originally billed as “Mandy Capp”, and was premiered on the conceit that this followed the abventures of Andy and Flo’s grand-daughter Mandy in moderm Britain.
It is sad that Andy can no longer feel comfortable in his own home, through no fault of his own.
Do not worry Andy, the night is young! There are plenty of other wives out there who will drive their husbands to drink tonight. Just give it a little time.
Whether you come home early or come home late, she will always be there waiting to pounce as you come through the door.
Heck, at least when he gets himself plastered he won’t mind going home to Flo so much. Besides, if he went home this early, Flo would suspect he’d been up to something!
Yukoner about 14 years ago
Someone needs to knock some sense into you/
lewisbower about 14 years ago
Brilliant deduction Mr Capp. Have some sense knocked into you. Remember a dead night at the pub is better than a live night at home. Remember those live nights with Flo, four fists and four feet extending from a cloud of dust with a stream of explicative coming out either side? Ahh, home for the Friday night fights. Why not just go home at 3 AM and let her beat up your drunken self. Let her rest up for the eventual confrontation, meanwhile, have another pint. Hip Hip, God bless the Queen, lets raise another glass to her Majesty., Barkeep, another please. I believe the man down there is paying..
Wildmustang1262 about 14 years ago
Whack Bartender’s newspaper on Andy’s head!
AgProv about 14 years ago
You should see some of the really early Capp cartoons from the 1950’s - politically correct they ain’t. In those days, it was not seen as reprehensible for Andy to be a drunken wife-beater as it was a cultural expectation in the wilder parts of England (and Wales and Scotland) that a nagging or scolding wife could be legitimately silenced by a few good hard slaps round the head. In the North-East where the strip hails from, it was a perfectly acceptible part of Friday or Saturday night that if the wife objected to you being down the pub till after closing time, you could slap her one with “gerraway and shite, wooman, will you stop giving me ear-ache!” (And that’s another thing that’s virtually gone from the Capp cartoons - the Geordie dialect English expressions)
Indeed, 1950’s Flo was often seen sprawled on the floor with a black eye, expressing relief that “he loves me enough to hit me..”
By the 1970’s, it was somewhat frowned upon, even in backward places like the English industrial north-east (think New Jersey meets Akron, Ohio), to be a wife-beater. So the strip evolved to allow Flo to give as good as she got and fight back. This lasted through the eighties and nineties, and any sort of violence is now, alas, absent from the Capp cartoons.
But just once you’d appreciate an old-time marital disagreement, roaring up and down like a dustcloud with fists and feet popping out every so often…. didn’t this feature in an episode of “Family Guy” once? Although they got Andy and Flo’s accents teeth-gratingly wrong - they are GEORDIE, not mock-cockney!
Geordie English - think singers Sting and Eric Burdon (the Animals). Although later Sting has lost a lot of it.
AgProv about 14 years ago
Andy Capp’s dark and sinister history - his evolution over fifty years. Look carefully at the photos of really old repro strips!
http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2007/08/andy-capp-is-fifty.html
Interestingly enough there is a sideways mention of Andy and Flo’s son Buster, who had a childrens’ comic of his own.
This also explains why (Buster presumingly having grown up) a current comic on the “Daily Mirror” was originally billed as “Mandy Capp”, and was premiered on the conceit that this followed the abventures of Andy and Flo’s grand-daughter Mandy in moderm Britain.
http://www.littlestuffedbull.com/images/comics/fnf/fnf-andycapp.jpg
jpozenel about 14 years ago
It is sad that Andy can no longer feel comfortable in his own home, through no fault of his own.
Do not worry Andy, the night is young! There are plenty of other wives out there who will drive their husbands to drink tonight. Just give it a little time.
Whether you come home early or come home late, she will always be there waiting to pounce as you come through the door.
gjsjr41 about 14 years ago
I see Andy shrunk over the past 50 years. lol
funnyfan928 about 14 years ago
Heck, at least when he gets himself plastered he won’t mind going home to Flo so much. Besides, if he went home this early, Flo would suspect he’d been up to something!
jtviper7 about 14 years ago
Andy !!!!, you can’t spoil them…
kab2rb about 14 years ago
Poor Andy so bored at the bar why not enjoy it oh I guess no drinking pal to spounge off on.
Shikamoo Premium Member about 14 years ago
The early Andy Capp was taller. Sitting on a barstool all those years has stunted him!LOL