The ‘Not Me’ Gremlins as Official Administrative Policy?
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In a brief item titled “Did You Know That ‘The Family Circle/Circus’ Is Still Being Written and Printed” Tony Gattis for Daily Kos gets nostalgic about The Family Circus by Bil Keane and the Not Me gremlin.
In April 1975, Keane introduced an invisible gremlin named “Not Me” who watches while the children try to shift blame for a misdeed by saying, “Not me.” Additional gremlins named “Ida Know” (in September 1975), “Nobody”, “O. Yeah!” and “Just B. Cause” were introduced in later years.
More history than I would expect in a reminiscence by a non-comics historian. Also:
The Family Circus (originally The Family Circle, also Family-Go-Round) …
But comics history is not the point, rather it is to make political hay:
Today, for the Trump Administration, Joe Biden serves the same function as Ida Know and Not Me did for the children of the Family Circus.
The Bil Keane characters became political cartoon tropes nearly soon after they first appeared, but the allusion has become particularly popular with the Trump presidency. Cartoonists comparing the Family Circus gremlins, especially Not Me, to Trump and his family and henchmen’s refusal to accept responsibility began in Trump’s first term and continue using it to present circumstances.
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