Said Christine French Cully, the current editor in chief of Highlights, quoted in "THE COMIC STRIP THAT EXPLAINS THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN PARENTING/What eight decades of Goofus and Gallant illustrate about society’s changing expectations of children" (The Atlantic).
Every installment of Goofus and Gallant now has a line at the top that reads “There’s some of Goofus and Gallant in us all. When the Gallant shines through, we show our best self.”
But isn't that exactly what every kid reading Goofus and Gallant in the old days figured out on their own? It was funny because one kid was always good — too good — and one always bad — absurdly bad. I think putting that label on implicitly says we're not trying to be funny anymore because we think you're dumb.
There are some nice examples of the old strip, notably this gem from 1955:
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Back when Reddit was still cool, someone did a "where are they now" strip for Goofus & Gallant. It was hilarious. Gallant ends up twice divorced in a dead-end job with kids who hate him and gets arrested on child-porn charges. Goofus marries a supermodel, starts his own business (that Gallant ends up working at), and starts considering a career in politics.
It's funny because of how people like Goofus & Gallant eerily end up like that.
I think what they are telling us is that they are too dumb to understand the cartoon.
I loved Goofus and Gallant as a kid. Only good thing about going to the doctor or dentist - Highlights in the waiting room. Nobody I knew had a subscription.
The best thing about them was the extreme contrast - Goofus was SO bad, and yet maybe kids identified with him a little bit too - maybe I wanted all that candy and didn't want to share. Gallant was every goody-two-shoes we loved to hate.
Goofus is effeminate. He thinks he might be gay but he isn't doing anything about it because he's only 11 years old, confused, and isn't sure if he really is gay.
Gallant is effeminate and thinks he might be gay, but his teachers convinced him he is a girl who needs "medically necessary gender affirming care."
Wait a minute. They seem to be suggesting that Highlights is something other than a grift pushed by the education racketeers. That can't be right. No one ever spent his own money on Highlights.
I loved Highlights as a kid. Today's kids watch Tik Tok and want to change sexes. Progress? I think not.
I always like going to the doctor (lollipop), dentist (tiny toy), and the bank (mini tootsie roll). But the dentists always had a few years of highlights piled around.
My mom liked going early because it was rare air conditioning.
-XC
Just a guess, but it seems as though a kid who's still learning from cartoons depicting bad/immature behavior contrasted with good/mature behavior isn't so far gone that he needs an explainer about how he's neither one of them.
Also, what kind of warped mind thinks kids read this stuff and think, "oh sh*t, I'm Goofus! I have no future!"
Was Goofus and Gallant supposed to be funny? I feel like all I remember from when I read it (in the 80s) was a quick little lesson, not a joke.
But OK, that 1955 one is pretty darn hilarious.
I prefer the Little Willy limericks. https://spot.colorado.edu/~sniderc/poetry/willie.html
My bluestocking maiden aunt Louise used to subscribe to that for when her four nephews visited her and Oma, which was quite often. I recall that strip, and the hidden figures drawings but nothing else about it.
But they meant well, and Highlights was Recommended by Educators; and "MAD" magazine was waiting at home anyway.
B&B's debt to G&G is obvious.
I think putting that label on implicitly says we're not trying to be funny anymore because we think you're dumb.
ACtually, the people putting the comment on are the morons. They're just convinced the rest of us are as stupid as they are
Goofuses don't care what others think of them. Goofuses aren't afraid of cutting corners, bending the rules or betraying friends. Goofuses get all the hot women.
Goofuses run the world.
https://spot.colorado.edu/~sniderc/poetry/willie.html
I loved Little Willie! Here's one I didn't see at that link:
"Little Willie, playing ball,
Lined one down the school house hall.
Through the door came Mr. Hill.
Several teeth are missing still."
I read about Little Willie as a child in the 70s, in children's joke books printed decades earlier. (Obviously, you won't find them in libraries today!)
Rub some dirt on it, Kid. You'll be fine.
Different times.
The best part of g and g was making up your own cartoons,
Goofus craps on the floor and blames the dog. Gallant, when he poops on the floor, takes full responsibility and cleans it up.
How well I remember Ma's tender, soothing words when I hurt myself and cried.
"Shut up and hold still dammit, or I'll give you something to cry about!"
If they wanted him to be good, they shouldn’t have named him Goofus.
I never ever liked Highlights. Don't remember why, but always found it creepy.
I occasionally read Highlights for Children when I was a child, but apparently not much, as I don't remember anything about Goofus and Gallant. I do have a "Goofus" memory childhood, from a song I heard on a Phil Harris album. Youtube: Sounds a little goofus to me. Turns out that a generation after Phil Harris, The Carpenters also recorded it. Les Paul,too.
I was born on a farm out in Ioway
A flaming youth who was bound that he'd fly away
I packed my grip and I grabbed my saxophone
Can't read notes, but I play anything by ear
I made up tunes on the sounds that I used to hear
When I'd start to play folks used to say
"Sounds a little Goofus to me"
Cornfed chords appeal to me, I like rustic harmony
Hold that note and change the key, that's called "Goofus"
Not according to the rules that you learn at music schools
But the folks just dance like fools, they go "Goofus"
Got a job but I just couldn't keep it long
The leader said that I played all the music wrong
So I stepped out with an outfit of my own
Got together a new kind of orchestree
And we all played just the same "Goofus" harmony
And I must admit we made a hit
Goofus has been lucky for me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs9SB9yeoYg
aren't They BOTH suffering from gender dysphoria?
wouldn't they BOTH, be happier if we cut their dicks off and loaded them FULL of pills?
which would you rather have? a live drug addicted freak? or a dead boy?
"I never ever liked Highlights. Don't remember why, but always found it creepy."
You had the good sense to know that it was meant to improve you, and naturally resisted.
Yesterday at the grocery store I went past the magazine section. Saw a "Cat Farts" Coloring Book. Never would have seen that in Highlights!
RMc: According to Wikipedia, Little Willie poems were inspired by and a variation on the poems of Harry Graham collected in Ruthless Rhymes For Heartless Homes - which is free on Kindle. Graham was the father of Virginia Graham. And Virginia Graham’s partner Joyce Grenfell performed her own monologues/verses as well as the Cautionary Verses of Hilaire Belloc - all available on Spotify.
"If they wanted him to be good, they shouldn’t have named him Goofus."
That was just the cartoon name for the sake of contrast. His real name was Andy. And the goody two shoes was Jerry.
"That was just the cartoon name for the sake of contrast. His real name was Andy. And the goody two shoes was Jerry."
I'll take your word for it, but does that make the abuse of "Goofus" better or worse? If you have a child who is misbehaving and uncaring, do you nickname him something that expresses your opinion that he's a very bad boy? Indeed, do you make a comic strip about him, holding him up to contempt and ridicule? How is this going to help our poor boy? Who is the real Goofus here?
"But they meant well, and Highlights was Recommended by Educators; and "MAD" magazine was waiting at home anyway."
It would be funny if the Mad people developed a conscience about their endless abuse of the unattractive, ungifted boy Alfred E. Neuman and added a label the equivalent of the Highlights label.
So "There’s some of Goofus and Gallant in us all. When the Gallant shines through, we show our best self"... I'll suggest "There’s some of Alfred E. Neuman in us all. We're all a bit ugly and dumb some of the time. When it shows, we can laugh at ourselves and resolve to do better... get our teeth fixed, comb our hair, and worry just enough to think of ways to make this world better."
Trying to make the world a better place is the source of more evil than all other causes combined. Such hubris these busy bodies have!
I never thought of Alfred E Neuman as ugly or dumb. He’s the class clown made in the mold of Tom Sawyer. And the class clown is never dumb - although he/she may act dumb in order to get away with stuff.
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