So the hotdog guy (who doubles as Puck’s psychiatrist) is contractually obligated to show up now and then. Here he is.
I now know that this joke requires too much knowledge of Freudian psychology to be funny for most people. There was a time (a time when I made this strip) that I assumed everyone would likely know what an Electra complex was. I now know I was wrong.
I teach English at a fairly academic high school, and Hamlet’s on the grade 12 curriculum. Every year, we get to the whole ‘Hamlet confronts his mother’ scene, which many critics interpret as evidence of an Oedipus complex, and I ask how many people have heard of Sigmund Freud. Five (at most) kids will put their hands up. Scary but true.
So for those of you that don’t know what it is, an Electra complex occurs when a daughter develops a pseudo-romantic obsession with her father and becomes secretly envious of and competitive with her mother. There you go. And now that I explained it, it’s no longer funny.
I thought everyone knew of Electra and Oedipal complexes. Seriously. I knew that stuff in fifth grade.
Everyone doesn’t. ‘Common knowledge’ is … not common.
Heh. There’s an essay on that we read as Juniors (written by another student when they took the same course before us, no less), on Common Knowledge being a myth. The title page for their presentation had a picture of a sign next to a toilet in Africa that said, in English, “Not For Drinking.”
True. Especially when going to other cultures. No sense is common.
Considering Freud and Oedipal complexes aren’t actually subject matter until college-level psych classes, whether or not kids have heard of them is a factor of if/how often they’ve been mentioned/explained in the media they consume.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7dCTwlAI8Y
Also, some perhaps relevant trivia: Originally cartoons were not intended for childrens’ entertainment at all, and in the current era (encouraged by much better writing, and a lot of Japanese influence) cartoons are much more accepted as just a medium for storytelling, and the content itself determines age-appropriateness. Increasingly, shows and movies “for families” literally are written with the whole family in mind, and if there’s in-jokes and references the parents get that the kids won’t… that’s fine; they’re used to not understanding everything.
The whole “cartoons are for kids” idea existed in people’s heads for a relatively small generational window.
True. And thank goodness that changed.
“Common sense isn’t”
It never is.
Oh, man.
My vision’s not the best sometimes, and I misread as “electric” when I first read this until I read your comment below the strip, thinking it was supposed to be a pun or malaprop as well.
Now I’m seeing “electoral!”
Sheesh.
To be honest, I can’t read any of the words on this one because the awful, awful drawings make me avert my eyes.
I’d read the plays at 13, so I gathered when I (later) heard about the Electra Complex that it’d be like Oedipus for girls.
That’s about it.
Thanks for the explanation of the Electra complex! I know who Freud is, and what an Oedipus complex is, but to me, Electra was (this is me ducking as you throw a psychology textbook at me) Daredevil’s girlfriend. I am now much the wiser!
Yeah, it’s … not a good name. It’s questionable that Miller used it in Daredevil, but I actually had a neighbor who named his daughter Electra. I mean, really? What the f… He moved away. I was happy.
It’s still funny. It’s just it’s the other sort of funny.
That’s kind of you to say.
Well, the humor is in the fact that he’s so frustrated with Freud, he’ll charge more to deal with it.
I’m glad you get it. I’m never sure whether I do.
Instead of the Super Mario text, use “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. “