Feiffer Pictures Huey As Real 'Intellectual'

Jules Feiffer told a WHRB panel yesterday that people laugh at his cartoons from inside--because they feel some connection or identity" with the attitude he is ridiculing.

Panelist Kenneth S. Lynn '45, associate professor of English, suggested that much of Feiffer's humor is the satire is "a sidewalk Freudianism which down through the suburbs." Feiffer responded that he does not ridicule the mentally sick but only people "who use analysis not as a cure but as an extension of their neurosis."

Feiffer added that many of his characters have adopted a "series of eternal dishonesties until they believe the lies in all areas. Here language loses its function as a means of communication and words serve merely to fill the air."

"Primitive Intellectual"

Asked why his cartoons appeal to intellectuals when egg-heads such as Bernard are "losers" while "body-men" like Huey are successful, Feiffer stated that Huey is really a "primitive intellectual." "Huey knows through his bones," Feiffer explained." He has the right instincts, a sense of balance; and he knows who he is. Huey has no trouble getting girls. He really exists: I've seen him at parties."

Feiffer stated that he was entering the three-dimensional world of the theater to express "the sense of real interplay between characters, not just veiled disintegrating relationships."

In personal comments, Feiffer said he is "terribly non-group, and terribly sensitive. I brood a lot."

Feiffer added that many of his characters have adopted a "series of eternal dishonesties until they believe the lies in all areas. Here language loses its function as a means of communication and words serve merely to fill the air."

"Primitive Intellectual"

Asked why his cartoons appeal to intellectuals when egg-heads such as Bernard are "losers" while "body-men" like Huey are successful, Feiffer stated that Huey is really a "primitive intellectual." "Huey knows through his bones," Feiffer explained." He has the right instincts, a sense of balance; and he knows who he is. Huey has no trouble getting girls. He really exists: I've seen him at parties."

Feiffer stated that he was entering the three-dimensional world of the theater to express "the sense of real interplay between characters, not just veiled disintegrating relationships."

In personal comments, Feiffer said he is "terribly non-group, and terribly sensitive. I brood a lot."