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mygif

Those Sunday strips have some fantastic dialog. I’d love to see that return to today’s comics.

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I’m reading through this in odd hours at work, and yes: these early strips are terrific. I find myself laughing out loud … at Archie, for the luvva pete.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the slang rings true in these strips, which it never quite did in the ’60s and ’70s of my youthful exposure to the Riverdale gang. Archie, in particular, is flat-out eloquent at times, smoothly delivering that hep patter without pause or hesitation.

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mygif

etymonline.com says “butthole” is 1950s slang and means exactly that.

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Mary Warner said on September 6th, 2010 at 10:51 pm

I can’t think of any other possible meaning for ‘butthole’. Even thinking of the other meanings for ‘butt’ that I know of, ‘butthole’ just shouldn’t fit here unless it’s the modern definition.

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mygif

Huh- maybe it’s short for “buttonhole” and they ran out of space?

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But what most of you really want to know is, were Betty Cooper’s psychotic tendencies something that she developed later after years of Archie-chasing, or just an inherent part of who she is?

There are rumors of a shoebox in Jughead’s possession, containing nothing but those mini Valentine’s Day cards you get as children. They were idly stored under Archie’s bed over the years, until that day after Archie’s third ‘disappearance’ with Betty out in Arden Woods and Jughead was sniffing about Archie’s house for clues.
According to Dilton, the only other person to see that shoebox, it contained over a hundred cards, all signed by Betty, stretching back all the way to those carefree kindergarten years when most children would be innocent of such matters.
What Dilton didn’t know, but only Jughead did, was that over the years, those Valentine cards became part of a prolonged, overly complex message that only a dedicated investigator would uncover… and Jughead is terrified of what the final five pieces of that puzzle will reveal…

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mygif

In reference to the “Psychotic Betty” meme depicted above, you neglected to mention the part where Betty, discovering Archie k.o.ed in the locker room, promptly strips off ALL HER CLOTHES so she can put on Archie’s uniform and replace him in the game…

As far as I’m concerned, any chick willing do THAT is a keeper in my book!Q!;-)

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LibraryGuy said on December 22nd, 2010 at 9:55 am

This just hit me when I woke up this morning. My 1946 Roget’s Thesaurus says “buttonhole” also means boring. To buttonhole someone was, first, to talk to them, then to bore them.
So “butthole” is probably the shortened version.
I doubt that this got by without some complaints. It’d be fun to look in the Letters to the Editor section of some newspapers at the time to see.

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[…] (source)(Less innuendo than straight up assault) […]

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