Is Dennis a Bully?

[Raven]

I think that's the problem. In the 1950s and 1960s Dennis was allowed to be much more of an anti-social psycho nutcase than would ever be permissible today: a kind of juvenile 'Lord of Misrule' - as long as the normal rules of morality were restored at the end of each strip with a 'damn good thrashing'.

This old comics vision of children: as destructive, antisocial menaces who need to be physically beaten into submission seems even dodgier, though. It's a portrayal that could only change as society's view of children and how to restrain them changed.

[philcom55]

I don't disagree with that in any way. Dennis wasn't at all typical though - he was the Godzilla of Youth Rebellion, and not even the nuclear deterrent of corporal punishment could keep him down for more than a week! (also, it's worth remembering that 'Lord of the Flies' was published just after Dennis made his debut)

Removing one half of the formula - however necessary - meant that the strip's whole raison d'être was changed overnight.

- Phil R.

[dandy mad]

I always felt that that Beefy out of the DANDY was a far worse bully than Dennis ever was; BB was a curiously sadistic specimen, who reveled in dishing out unjust pain to Chips and his other victims.

It was an extremely popular strip though; I had an amigo who still made a point of reading this strip [and nothing else in the comic] while still in his early 20s...the concept clearly struck a chord with many readers.

Dennis' misdeeds were obviously anti-social at times, but there was more imagination, diversity and 'charm' in the stuff he got up to-----he always got his just just desserts of course.

The clue as to what Beefy did as a hobby was in the name Bully Beef also a name given to tinned corned beef in fact that is what I'm having for my *tea later bully beef and chips when I go round my mums

*tea is what middle class people call dinner for some reason

[dandy mad]

What about Minnie The Minx too surely somebody without a sense of humour/Puritan/religious nut/daily mail columnist has had a go at that strip also?

[Lew Stringer]

To be honest I'd be much happier if Walter could be portrayed as a genuinely worthy opponent like them - an evil genius rather than a rather pathetic little kid that everybody picks on.

- Phil R.

Walter's personality has been changed in recent years, making him sly and devious. He's not the innocent he used to be.

[philcom55]

I think Beryl the Peril was intended to be Davy Law's take on a female version of Dennis the Menace - though personally I always got the feeling she was a much nicer person. I guess Minnie was Leo Baxendale's attempt to prove that girls could be affectionless psychopaths too!

- Phil R.

[philcom55]

Walter's personality has been changed in recent years, making him sly and devious. He's not the innocent he used to be.

That's true. The trouble is that it's like justifying anti-semitism by portraying Jews as stereotypically sly and devious!

- Phil Rushton

[dandy mad]

Never seen Minnie as a psycho tbh and in the neat and tidy Beano too? tsk tsk

[Kashgar]

I've said it before but I'll say it again I still miss the days when Dennis could plug his Dad into the mains via some dodgy piece of electrical sabotage, resulting in his Dad being surrounded by a halo of jagged lightning flashes. Terrible I know, but there you are.

[dandy mad]

His dad wears a wig and looks completely different nowadays too... Why was the redesign of his parents necessary? After umpteen years of the balding suit wearing slipper loving sadist they've given him a full head of hair a dart players shirt to wear and is about as authoritative as a wet weekend in Bournemouth...

[Lew Stringer]

His dad wears a wig and looks completely different nowadays too... Why was the redesign of his parents necessary? After umpteen years of the balding suit wearing slipper loving sadist they've given him a full head of hair a dart players shirt to wear and is about as authoritative as a wet weekend in Bournemouth...

My dad's generation were the last ones to wear suits as casual everyday gear. It went out of fashion with my generation in the seventies, when T-shirts and denim became the norm, so I'm sure younger readers in our modern age must have been puzzled as to why Dennis' Dad wore a suit in the house.

They should have kept him bald though. Equal rights for baldies!

[dandy mad]

The suit was still being worn when I used to read it occasionally in the 80s and did he wear it in the 90s too? And the hair is just wrong as Dennis's dad went bald through the stress of his sons behavior as he had a full head of hair in the bringing up Dennis strips so the continuity has gone a bit wonky...

[AndyB]

The second Red Kite TV series is the reason why. I think the easiest interpretation is that Dennis's Dad is 1980s Dennis, ditto Minnie and Roger (as drawn by Barrie)

As for Dennis's dad's suit, David Parkins drew him in patterned sweaters, which were still anachronistic.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I preferred the ultra-rebellious Dennis of the late 50s/most of the 60s, in which he used to steal an Army Tank [for example] just for the sheer Hell of it.

Another good one was when he harpooned a full-scale inflatable rubber whale on a film set, with the attendant explosion. Also the one where he glues and sand-blasts [using hydraulic pumps] a full-scale stately castle, just so he can win a sandcastle contest.

Just Anarchy unbound, fantasy let loose , very stimulating and enjoyable, it was.

[dandy mad]

I remember a strip with Dennis going to a turkey farm with Walter and setting the turkeys on Walter for his amusement and a turkey jumping up and down on the prince of the softies was very very funny that wouldn't happen today though as there would be an outcry from the animal cruelty people probably saying it'd disturb the turkey mentally etc etc blah blah blah It's a comic strip for sake...