With Bud Fisher's Mutt and Jeff we return to the early days of American comic strips - the very early days, for while it wasn't the first comic strip it was probably the first successful one. Launched in 1907, it might well have gone nowhere had it continued to feature only Mutt, but in 1908 Mutt met Jeff and one of the great comic mismatches of all time was born.
The cover of Mutt and Jeff #45 (April-May 1950). Art by Sheldon Mayer. © H. C. Fisher.
Jeff was about half Mutt's height, as can be seen on the cover of Mutt and Jeff #45 (April-May 1950), which at this time was being published by DC (these books are believed to be reprints of the Sunday strip). The strip was popular enough that the phrase "A Mutt and Jeff pair" actually entered American slang to describe such a mismatched twosome - we remember hearing Harry Morgan use it on the Dragnet TV series to describe two suspects. And where Mutt was a pretty ordinary down-on-his-luck kind of guy, Jeff was certifiably insane.
A good deal of Mutt and Jeff's popularity was probably due to the early assistants Fisher hired, notably Billy Liverpool. Less gifted but more important for our present purposes was Al Smith, who started in 1932 and in fact took over the strip completely as Fisher's interest in it waned. Smith continued until 1980 (the strip finally ended in 1982) and was the artist/writer of the only known butt-whacking incident a year earlier in 1979, discovered by CSR Chief Strip Researcher Sweetspot. Let's take a look at it now.
Mutt gives his mother-in-law a good whack with a broom in Mutt and Jeff, January 8, 1979 by Al Smith. Scan by Sweetspot, edited by Web-Ed. © H. C. Fisher.
Mutt and Jeff, January 8, 1979. Scan by Sweetspot. © H. C. Fisher.
The "spanking" panel. Scan by Sweetspot. Posted by the Web-Ed on 06/22/2018. © H. C. Fisher.
Little explanation would seem to be needed: this is simply a variation on the old "Bend over, get a swat" gag from the days of Burlesque that we have commented on many times before, with a little "man has hostility for his mother-in-law" (familiar from a thousand TV shows) thrown in for good measure. Burlesque was in its heyday when Mutt and Jeff began, but by this time it was showing its age, as was the strip, which is why it only lasted two more years. On the other hand, there's nothing at all wrong with this old gag, provided a female is on the receiving end of it. This episode doesn't show the strip at its finest; on the other hand, the strip at its finest probably didn't have any more spankings - it's simply not set up for them.
If any more spankings do show up, of course we'll present them along perhaps with some example from M & J's prime years to give CSR readers more of a feel for the strip.
