Archie's 80th anniversary: The Close Shave

[alicemacher]

In this classic forties tale, Archie undergoes a teenage rite of passage -- or rather, he tries to.


From Archie Comics #40 (Sept.-Oct. 1949). Writer unknown, art by Bill Vigoda.





Wwwow. That's pretty dark for an opening bait-and-switch gag, especially in an all-ages comic. I doubt Archie writers could get that sort of thing past the editors today. Well, maybe in Afterlife with Archie. If, y'know, it had gags. And were still being published. *grumble*






Arch, who has a formal dance date with Veronica coming up, is determined to get his shave one way or another. He visits the neighbourhood barber, Tony, who plucks the one hair from his chin and calls, "Next!", then laughs him out of the shop.

Still undaunted, our hero buys a whole whackload of shaving supplies ("after-shave lotion, talcum, before-shave lotion, witch hazel") and walks with Jughead to the latter's house, since he daren't shave while his own dad is around. He asks Jug, who's absent-mindedly fiddling with a model airplane, to pass the tube of shaving cream, and lathers up.





Not to worry, Archiekins. Simply accessorize that goatee with a beret, turtleneck and sandals, and you can start up Riverdale's beatnik subculture. Real George, man. Real gone.

Comments

[bolindbergh]

His tender head
Gets roughly walled
And fair Ronnie
Most appalled
Burma-Shave

[alicemacher]

Bravo. *applause*

----

Airplane glue
Applied to face
Doesn't make for
Shaving grace
Burma-Shave

[crinos]

So why exactly is Archie's dad being such a hardass here? I mean its not like Archie is five or something? Let the kid shave goddammit.

[hotfoot]

Real reason: Slapstick. Poorly justified slapstick to get the yuks.

My made up on the spot In-Universe Reason: Archie's dad wanted to teach Archie himself, and is taking out his frustration of being denied that mixed with Archie's mother's over-reaction to realizing her child is growing up combined with the shock of being made to think his son had committed a grievous act of self harm and lashed out at the moment in a way he will regret for the rest of his life. Given the era this was written in, it is entirely possibly he will not apologize in a timely fashion and this event will be one of many that cause Archie and his father to drift apart over the years. Thanks to the toxic aspects of masculinity which promote unhealthy levels of pride, neither will approach the other about it, Archie feeling resentment and pain from being the target of such an action, and his father shame and guilt for having lashed out at his son, even though he thinks it is what he was supposed to do.

In a brighter comic, they will one day reconcile, go to therapy, and move past this event, growing closer as a family and taking those lessons into raising the next generation, possibly in a massive polycule with most of the cast.

In the darker cinematic universe, this is just another aspect of Archie's tragic backstory that leads him down a path of suffering he is unable or unwilling to escape because he believes he deserves it.

Either way, next issue, Jughead copes with his loss of dignity by eating HAMBURGERS! So wacky!

[alicemacher]

"Either way, next issue, Jughead copes with his loss of dignity by eating HAMBURGERS! So wacky!"

I'm reminded of a brief bit in the 2011 fan parody film trailer, Riverdale (no connection to the current CW series). It depicts Jughead, who's in unrequited love with his best friend, compulsively eating two burgers at once (one in each hand, alternating bites) while sobbing and saying, "I love you, Archie."

(That fan project is still viewable here. Although, as I said, it had nothing to do with the 2017-present series, it did predict the show's intentionally over-the-top, cheesily grimdark tone and even a couple of specific things that happened in early seasons. Warning for brief moments of in-universe homophobia and possible threatened sexual assault.)

[hotfoot]

I definitely see the connection.

Though I had to come back and read your comment twice because I needed to remind myself that the trailer actually had nothing to do with the TV show, because, yeah...

Though wow that trailer is dark.

[tinygaylaura]

Now we know where the show took its inspiration from!

[agent8]

That's an old-fashioned straight razor. If you don't know what you're doing with it you can seriously cut yourself.

Fred knows what a klutz his son is so I can perfectly understand him not wanting Archie to have a sharp cutting instrument in his hand.

What I don't understand is Mary's hysterics at Archie doing something that practically every man on the planet has to do at some time or another.

Of course she knows what a klutz he is too, so she may be expressing genuine fear for his life.

[alicemacher]

Although, as the old saying has it, "Never explain the joke," sometimes when a humour trope is very old and maybe has fallen into disuse, it does need explanation. That's fair.

This particular stock joke, like so many other humour tropes, takes a real-life phenomeon -- in this case, parents getting a little sentimental over their kid reaching a milestone event because it means their little baby is neither little nor a baby anymore and they'll miss the kid being so adorable -- and exaggerates the hell out of it. So instead of sniffling or quietly shedding a tear, the parent -- nearly always the mother -- bawls so hard she nearly ruptures her tear ducts.

Granted, this sort of gag is, as I said, very old. (I'd bet it was already old back in 1949 when this story was published.) Not to mention a wee bit sexist ("Wimmenz is so hysterical, am I right?"), and thus not as common nowadays. What makes this use of the trope different for once -- and as I said above, a case of rather dark humour -- is the setup: Mary's blubbering, plus the mention of Archie using Fred's straight razor apparently without asking, is meant to scare us for a moment: "Oh no, Archie's committed suicide!"

The reveal in the very next panel that he's alive and well, and was just trying to shave for the first time, is meant to make us first feel relief and then to groan good-naturedly at the writer trolling us. (And yeah, given the era, it was probably also meant to make readers point and laugh at the "hysterical, melodramatic mom.")

Class dismissed. Next lecture, I'll be analyzing the historical and psychological underpinnings of the Jewish Mother trope, with special attention to the stock "It's all right; I'll do it myself, with my bad back" gag. :-D

[sabertoothlotus]

On one level, this is a confusing over-reaction.
On another, it makes sense; a straight razor is no joke, and you could seriously injure yourself trying to shave with it if you don't know what you're doing. I justify his actions as being worried about Archie hurting himself.