Elly: the inept disciplinarian.

[dreadedcandiru2]

Now that we must face a week of Mike whining about how Liz always got him into trouble, let's examine how it was that he was allowed to think that he was the victim of a feminine plot. I've alreadt examined his internalizing of John's fear of the changing world so that chauvinism was second nature, how he allowed himself the luxury of thinking that Elly's hormones inpsired all the screaming and threats of punishment. What we do not see and will not see this week is her tendency to squeamishness. Just like John was allowed to be a macho bonehead for years because she caved in owing to her lack of courage, she always held back on her threats, never quite went through with things. She, by not doing exactly what she threatened, failed to gain her son's respect. Elly also tried to keep John from making his punishments stick. The conclusion that the little creep's muddled brain formed was that tormenting Liz was only wrong because she made noise. Since he never really got shown how bad he was, never had to deal with real blow-back from someone angry enough at him to force him to admit error, he still thinks that she's fair game for insults. As big a jerk as he is, he wasn't born that way: a mother with some firmness in her would have made sure to see that he grew a conscience.

Comments

[howtheduck.livejournal.com]

The conclusion that the little creep's muddled brain formed was that tormenting Liz was only wrong because she made noise. Since he never really got shown how bad he was, never had to deal with real blow-back from someone angry enough at him to force him to admit error, he still thinks that she's fair game for insults.

This does seem to be the way the character has developed. What we saw last week with Merrie and Robin and then in the reprints with Mike and Lizzie, is that much of Lynn Johnston’s humour style is based on the premise that the parent is put upon by the child. In other words, child with bad behaviour + “poor, pitiful parent” = funny. If you looked at the Coffee Talk reactions to last week’s strips, they are full of other people’s strangely fond reminisces along the lines of “This past week made me laugh because I remember how my kids used to drive me crazy with their fighting too”. However, if you do this kind of sequence over and over for 28+ years, then you get a character like Michael which you have described.

Me, personally, my kids fight a lot too, but they are not the times with my children I find funny in the slightest. When my kids are funny is when they work together to create an impromptu puppet show or start making up jokes to tell each other or drawing pictures to show each other and things along those lines.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

No, anti-social behavior is not really funny in the least. Watching the parents let the kids walk all over them and each other reminds me of why Bill Maher was creeped out by Nanny 911: the pparents were at their wit's end and had to call in professional help because they said things like "Tyler, I would really appreciate it if you'd stop throwing rocks at us."