Nancy Classics by Ernie Bushmiller for July 16, 2015

Is this old cliche understood by today’s kids?

I’m 67 and I never had to take Castor Oil. I remember watching The Little Rascals and it was a running joke there, as well as elsewhere. But I always figured that Castor Oil was from the olden days.

Many of those old cartoons and film “shorts” were shown in theaters together with regular films. They often had inside (sometimes earthy) jokes that only adults understood..When those features appeared on television, as a kid I didn’t get some of the jokes. But as I got older, I began to understand them more and more. They’re like little unexpected Easter eggs, and rather cool..In one Three Stooges episode, the boys (as I remember vaguely) ate something hot and looked around for anything to quench the burning. They took the first thing at hand, a jug of some liquid. GLUG, GLUG, GLUG. AAAHHHH! Then one of them said, “Now our problems are over!” The camera then showed the jug to contain castor oil..If you didn’t know that castor oil was used as a laxative, you wouldn’t get the joke. I wish I knew what the audience reaction was back then. (The above is from memory and probably not accurate in details.)

In Panel 2, Nancy shows her running form, with her arms at 90 degree arches. She states:" it cuts down on wind drag and allows me to run faster !!".. Add PF Flyers and their “magic wedge” and she’d be better than FloJo !!

And then, the “Twilight Zone” twist: “Oh, that’s right – thanks for reminding me, Nancy…”

I remember a refrigerator brand “KOLDERNELL” in a cartoon.

I guess that Nancy was running to avoid getting the runs.