There are just so many problems with the Richie Rich comics, I don’t know where to being. He has no concept of his wealth, for starters. That’s how sheltered he is. Secondly, he makes kites out of his surplus of 20 dollar bills. Jerk. Gloria, who supposedly hates and is unimpressed with wealth and all things showy, is constantly awed by his money and never corrects his ignorance and also wants to date him (I suspect underneath that wide-eyed exterior is a gold-digger). He has full scale playhouses built for him, some of which he forgets he has, while millions of people in Richville are homeless. He has scientists at his disposal who could probably cure rabies, and yet he commissions them to make Bad Weather Devices and other fun, but useless, gizmos. It is usually portrayed as a crime when desperate, poor, rough-and-tumble criminals attempt to steal a few gold bricks that are generally a drop in the ocean of the Rich’s vast and neverending wealth, and yet it is not a crime that Richie Rich is so rich in the first place. How does Richie Rich sleep at night?
Discuss.
Hmmm…my guess is heavy doses of benadryl, combined with ambien, washed down with benzodiazepines. But it’s just a guess.
The sociological implications of a work such as “Richie Rich” to the public mindset cannot be understated. What messages is Richard, Jr. sending to impressionable young readers? That one should flaunt it if one has it and then feign ingenuousness? That one should heartlessly spray paint one’s dog–man’s best friend– with a symbol that represents the very essence of capitalism? That if one is so very, very rich–outrageously, stinkingly, impossibly rich, one needn’t worry about one’s sock/shoe combination making one look like a dork? It is my belief that Richie and his friends are the ultimate comi-tragedy, illustrating the epitome of the emotional breakdown at the top of the American Dream, and that they enact this Gatsbyesque farce with sewed-on smiles for the very purpose of warning the reader–”Go NOT and do thou, likewise.”
Plus, I think Casper is Richie’s ghost.
Remember the cartoon? All I can hear in my head (to this day) is ol’ Rich calling his robot maid.
“Richie to Irona, come in Irona!”
I never liked that robot maid. She seemed so clunky and not reflective of what the Rich fortune could afford.
poorer will be the world when you stop critiquing archie, richierich and the like.
Emily: I like that guess a lot! I hope it is true. ;)
Susan: Your analysis has taken my breath away. I must applaud it. *Applause* Especially: That if one is so very, very rich–outrageously, stinkingly, impossibly rich, one needn’t worry about one’s sock/shoe combination making one look like a dork? ! HAH! Also, Casper is totally Richie’s ghost. Totally.
TKT: I bet Irona was the Rich’s way of slumming with the little people! You know. They didn’t get a top of the line robot maid because they were just like everyone else.
Kelvin: would you believe you are the third person who has said that to me. ;)