Frazz by Jef Mallett for December 19, 2012

With an intellect like Caulfield’s,I can’t believe he doesn’t know who Boris Karloff is!

He needs to be pointed towards Arsenic and Old Lace. That will give him a roundabout way (which he seems to enjoy) to find out about Karloff. I love the running gag in that movie.

I thought it belonged to Si something…yeah, Si Copathic, that was it.

On the other hand, it’s easier to maintain a good pace when you have all those peasants chasing you with pitchforks.

The same way the Mummy did, lumbering along and dragging one leg (trailing mummy wrappings) behind him. : D I think the “chasee” would get so frightened, they would trip and fall down, and then… AHHH! (I can’t look…)

Karloff? You mean William Pratt?

Everyone should know who Boris Karloff was because he was one of the best actors to ever appear in films and gave the definitive portrayal of the Frankenstein Monster.

hey can someone explain – why do commenters refer to Caulfield as being particularly smart? I have been reading this comic for a few weeks by now but he never once seemed to have shown to be bright yet. I assume it’s something that happened in earlier comics? Can you explain? Thanks.

I think Frazz is too young to know who Boris Karloff is…..

I’ve never seen a movie with Boris Karloff in it, but I do know who he is. Since kids don’t know who he is, I think it doesn’t have anything to do with what movies they watch, or don’t watch. It’s what they know about movies, made in Hollywood. And it seems to me, people are getting their entertainment from other sources than Hollywood.

@massha “why do commenters refer to Caulfield as being particularly smart?”

It’s not so much something that happened as something that was designed from the start. If you go back to Frazz’s beginnings, you’ll see that Caulfield has always been portrayed as an unusually bright child, with very bright and well educated parents. (Caulfield is named after a character in J.D.Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye.” Wish I could make this thing do italics.) As a third-grader, Caulfield reads classic literature such as “Moby Dick” and To Kill a Mockingbird," then puts together Halloween costumes based on literary characters and makes people guess who he’s supposed to be. He’s so bored with his third-grade classes that he spends his time thinking up ingenious questions in hopes of derailing his teacher, Mrs. Olsen, who often sends him to the Principal’s office, but sometimes “zings” him back. Caulfield and Frazz have a special friendship because Frazz is also literarily inclined, and “gets” Caulfield’s intellectual all-over-the-place-ness. If you’re enjoying the strip now, I highly recommend the books: “Frazz: Live at Bryson Elementary;” “99% Perspiration;” and Frazz 3.1416."

@Sharuniboy“THANK YOU for a wonderful trip down memory lane”

And thank YOU, sir, for the reminder that the work we observe others do should serve as inspiration for our own. “Kids these days” (and adults, too) are too often so focused on the celebrity factor that they don’t place much value on anything that takes place outside of a huge theater, or that will never make it onto youtube.

I remember fondly how upset some of the parents were when my high-school class, in 1966 or ‘67, performed John Raitt’s “The Pajama Game.” In one scene, the male and female protagonists perform side-by-side, each wearing one piece of a pair of pajamas. The sight of the girl wearing nothing but an oversized pajama top, standing next to a boy wearing the matching pants, was just too much!

@massha Another thought: What do you think Caulfield has in mind when he says, “I’ve ruled out Kenyan or Ethiopian”? Maybe (just guessing here) he recognizes “Boris Karloff” as a Russian name?

Boris was the best ever

As well as the distinctive voice in Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride graveyard song “Grim Grinning Ghosts!”

There is hope for America. ;-)

@bigpuma (striking forehead) Duh! Thanks. Momentarily missed the link back to running!

A stroke of casting genius at least equal to getting Karloff to do the voiceover.

running…you have to do one of those elliptical machines.(more efficient).

@runar, re italics:

Can’t get it to work! Must be doing something wrong…

@runar, re italics again:

Oh, wait, it did work, but not until after I’d submitted the comment. Thanks for the link to the guidelines!

One of my favorite “bad movies” was American International’s version of “The Raven”. It resembles the poem for about the first 10 minutes, then veers 270 degrees from it. But it stars Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, and Boris Karloff as rival magicians. The magical duel between Karloff and Price at the end is worth it alone. (I believe it’s also Jack Nicholson’s first movie role, as Lorre’s son.)