It's hard for me to believe that contemporary appreciation of Nancy has gotten past what we now call the "ironic" stage, but maybe…
I remember reading it as a child, and I considered it absolutely not funny. I thought it was similar to Henry: a relic from the past, totally flat-footed, lacking in any real irony or wit, such as could be found in something newer, like Peanuts, or even something older, like Krazy Kat. The comedy is as professional (and formulaic) as Vaudeville, but dumbed down for children. It seemed to embody the bullshit America which the counterculture was busy rejecting. Nancy only started looking interesting after the collapse of that utopian era, when it appealed to Punk's self-conscious simplicity and ironic celebration of the uncool.
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I remember reading it as a child, and I considered it absolutely not funny. I thought it was similar to Henry: a relic from the past, totally flat-footed, lacking in any real irony or wit, such as could be found in something newer, like Peanuts, or even something older, like Krazy Kat. The comedy is as professional (and formulaic) as Vaudeville, but dumbed down for children. It seemed to embody the bullshit America which the counterculture was busy rejecting. Nancy only started looking interesting after the collapse of that utopian era, when it appealed to Punk's self-conscious simplicity and ironic celebration of the uncool.
- alex 4-21-2003 9:55 pm