Nancy Classics by Ernie Bushmiller for February 22, 2019

Oh great, now I’m going to dream about giant mutant cows!

At least they were gloves.

I don’t know what the cost of a small bag of balloons was back in ‘49, but it couldn’t have been much… Fritzi Ritz certainly seems to be an “unpleasant” type during this time period of the strip.

the last two days, All Aunt Fritzi has said is “no” 4 times. Nancy needs to start wording her questions differently.

Does Fritzi even know HOW to say the word “yes?” There was some organization that used to have hand-shaped balloons like that. I don’t remember what it was. I think I would see them every year at some health fair in South Bend.

I wonder if this is where Howie Mandel got the idea?

Would we feel better about Fritzi if she specified exactly why she is saying NO? Sometimes she throws out the general “No, you’ve been bad today.” Sometimes the misbehavior has been depicted, especially in the longer Sunday episodes. Would it be tiresome to have to go through the reason for the NO every time? Presumably Nancy knows and Fritzi knows she knows. Happened off camera.

We’ve seen dozens upon dozens of examples of Nancy’s naughtiness. Whatever the transgression was, or what other reason for the blunt “NO” is not the point. Often Nancy knows in advance that consequences are coming. She’ll hand a puzzled Aunt Fritzi the “spanking brush” while we see the bad report card Nancy holds in her other hand.

The point of a given strip is not whether Fritzi is taking just action. It is Nancy’s clever way to adhere to the letter of the law while she makes an end run around the spirit of the law. We admire her ingenious defiance as we often cheer the plucky rebel in books, movies, TV shows.

nice

Inventive.