WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.100 When you think about Riverdale, your mind usually 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:04.320 goes to one place, right? The love triangle. 00:00:04.660 --> 00:00:08.160 It's always Archie, Betty, Veronica. Always. 00:00:08.419 --> 00:00:10.759 Yeah. And maybe, you know, Jughead is off on 00:00:10.759 --> 00:00:13.199 the side somewhere with a burger. Exactly. And 00:00:13.199 --> 00:00:14.900 that's the hierarchy. The main characters are 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:17.039 at the center and everyone else is just... Well, 00:00:17.059 --> 00:00:18.839 they're kind of like set dressing. Set dressing 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:21.039 is a good way to put it. I mean, for a long time, 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:23.780 characters outside that core group were basically 00:00:23.780 --> 00:00:26.379 just plot devices. They existed to make the main 00:00:26.379 --> 00:00:29.839 characters look better or funnier or more desirable. 00:00:29.879 --> 00:00:31.859 Right. But today we're doing a deep dive on a 00:00:31.859 --> 00:00:34.179 very specific piece of that set dressing. Someone 00:00:34.179 --> 00:00:37.179 who wasn't just in the background, but was actively 00:00:37.179 --> 00:00:39.679 designed to be the punchline. We were talking 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:42.380 about Ethel Muggs. And honestly, going through 00:00:42.380 --> 00:00:44.000 all this history, I'm starting to think we've 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.490 all been reading her character completely. wrong 00:00:46.490 --> 00:00:49.570 for like 60 years? It's a totally valid question. 00:00:49.869 --> 00:00:52.670 Ethel is such a fascinating case study because 00:00:52.670 --> 00:00:55.649 she represents this very specific, and let's 00:00:55.649 --> 00:00:58.469 be honest, kind of cruel archetype, the unwanted 00:00:58.469 --> 00:01:01.109 woman. The girl whose affection is played for 00:01:01.109 --> 00:01:05.069 laughs or even for horror? Yeah. Horror feels 00:01:05.069 --> 00:01:07.950 like a strong word for Archie comics, but her 00:01:07.950 --> 00:01:10.109 origins are rooted in a kind of slapstick horror 00:01:10.109 --> 00:01:13.489 for sure. But our mission today isn't just to 00:01:13.489 --> 00:01:16.140 look at the bad old days. It's to track how a 00:01:16.140 --> 00:01:18.560 character designed as a one -note visual gag. 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:22.099 A gag about being boy crazy and ugly? Exactly. 00:01:22.260 --> 00:01:25.099 How that character evolved into a sci -fi loving, 00:01:25.299 --> 00:01:29.019 doll furniture making, zombie apocalypse starting 00:01:29.019 --> 00:01:32.640 icon. And a country music star. You cannot forget 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:34.939 the country music starlet phase. Oh, we will 00:01:34.939 --> 00:01:37.500 absolutely get there, I promise. But to understand 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:39.500 how far she's come, you have to see where she 00:01:39.500 --> 00:01:42.060 started. and maybe more importantly, what they 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:44.200 almost named her. I saw this in the notes, and 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:46.299 wow, it feels like the writers were just being 00:01:46.299 --> 00:01:49.799 mean. It really does. So before she became Ethel 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:52.959 Muggs in 1962, there was this prototype character 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:55.840 in the late 40s and 50s, and the name they were 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:58.959 floating for her was Ophelia Glutenschnabel. 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:01.739 Glutenschnabel? That's not a name. That sounds 00:02:01.739 --> 00:02:03.459 like a medical condition. It tells you everything 00:02:03.459 --> 00:02:06.000 you need to know about the intent, right? Glutenschnabel 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.479 isn't a person. It's a punchline walking in the 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:11.189 door. You're meant to laugh before she even says 00:02:11.189 --> 00:02:13.990 a word. So thankfully, they landed on Ethel Mugs. 00:02:14.229 --> 00:02:17.569 She officially debuts in Archie's Pal Jughead, 00:02:17.810 --> 00:02:21.330 hashtag 84, May 1962. But her entrance into the 00:02:21.330 --> 00:02:25.669 story is so... Strange. It's not organic. No, 00:02:25.689 --> 00:02:28.110 it's weirdly technical. It's the whole inciting 00:02:28.110 --> 00:02:30.830 incident for her entire character arc for decades. 00:02:31.770 --> 00:02:34.349 Dildon Doily, the town genius. Of course. He 00:02:34.349 --> 00:02:36.409 invents the electronic mate selector. So like 00:02:36.409 --> 00:02:39.330 a 1960s Tinder that takes up an entire room? 00:02:39.530 --> 00:02:42.210 Basically, yeah. It crunches all the data on 00:02:42.210 --> 00:02:44.949 every student at Riverdale High. And the machine, 00:02:45.169 --> 00:02:47.150 this supposedly objective scientific computer, 00:02:47.330 --> 00:02:49.909 spits out a result. It pairs Ethel Muggs with 00:02:49.909 --> 00:02:51.710 Jughead Jones. You know, that's fascinating to 00:02:51.710 --> 00:02:54.919 me. And for decades, the joke is Ethel is delusional 00:02:54.919 --> 00:02:57.080 for chasing Jughead. She's not. She has empirical 00:02:57.080 --> 00:02:59.599 data. A computer told her they belong together. 00:02:59.939 --> 00:03:01.860 That's a great point. It's a justification that 00:03:01.860 --> 00:03:03.439 everyone just forgets. She's not being crazy. 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:05.500 She's following the science. Right. But we do 00:03:05.500 --> 00:03:07.659 have to talk about the visuals because this is 00:03:07.659 --> 00:03:10.680 a comic book. And the artist, Sam Schwartz, he 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:13.620 did not draw her like Betty or Veronica. Not 00:03:13.620 --> 00:03:15.379 at all. I mean, you look at those early panels 00:03:15.379 --> 00:03:18.379 and she's tall. She's gangly, kind of plain faced. 00:03:18.599 --> 00:03:21.360 And let's be real. She looks a lot like Jughead. 00:03:21.789 --> 00:03:24.189 Like Jughead in a wig. Oh, that's 100 % intentional. 00:03:24.409 --> 00:03:27.289 She has the same angular build, the same prominent 00:03:27.289 --> 00:03:31.009 nose. She is his physical mirror. The gag wasn't 00:03:31.009 --> 00:03:33.469 just that she was unattractive. It was that Jughead 00:03:33.469 --> 00:03:36.050 was literally running away from a female version 00:03:36.050 --> 00:03:39.430 of himself. Which implies a level of self -loathing 00:03:39.430 --> 00:03:41.490 that we do not have time to get into today. But 00:03:41.490 --> 00:03:44.969 you mentioned horror earlier. And there's a prototype 00:03:44.969 --> 00:03:48.099 story from 1948 that... Well, it's pretty dark. 00:03:48.199 --> 00:03:50.300 Oh, yeah. This is from a story by Bill Vigoda. 00:03:50.620 --> 00:03:53.639 There's this unnamed girl who is clearly a precursor 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:57.060 to Ethel Tall, skinny, really aggressive. She's 00:03:57.060 --> 00:03:59.919 chasing Archie in this one, not Jughead. And 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:02.439 the punchline of the strip isn't Archie hiding 00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:04.939 from her. No. The final panel is Archie lying 00:04:04.939 --> 00:04:07.379 down on a set of active railroad tracks. He literally 00:04:07.379 --> 00:04:09.360 says something like, it's no use, Jug. This is 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:11.680 a much easier way out. That's insane. The joke 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:14.020 is, I would rather be killed by a train than 00:04:14.020 --> 00:04:16.379 go on a date with this woman. Exactly. That was 00:04:16.379 --> 00:04:18.980 the comedic baseline. She's a literal threat 00:04:18.980 --> 00:04:21.560 to his life. So when Ethel comes along in the 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:24.519 60s, she inherits all of that baggage. Her pursuit 00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:28.360 is framed as this predator -prey situation. Let's 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:30.089 talk about that pursuit. For the longest time, 00:04:30.110 --> 00:04:32.889 that was her entire personality. She chases Jughead. 00:04:33.029 --> 00:04:35.850 He runs away. It's very Roadrunner. But with 00:04:35.850 --> 00:04:39.329 a culinary twist, Ethel figured out pretty early 00:04:39.329 --> 00:04:41.850 she couldn't outrun him, so she developed what 00:04:41.850 --> 00:04:44.529 the comics call the Stomach Strategy. Which is 00:04:44.529 --> 00:04:46.509 actually brilliant. Jughead is entirely motivated 00:04:46.509 --> 00:04:49.149 by food. And they would print real recipes in 00:04:49.149 --> 00:04:53.029 the comics, like Ethel's sugar cookies or Ethel's 00:04:53.029 --> 00:04:55.730 secret burger recipe. She realized that if she 00:04:55.730 --> 00:04:57.850 was holding a tray of food, he would at least 00:04:57.850 --> 00:04:59.720 stop running. It's a little sad, though, isn't 00:04:59.720 --> 00:05:01.540 it? I have to bribe you with cheeseburgers just 00:05:01.540 --> 00:05:04.339 to get you to stand still. It is, but it also 00:05:04.339 --> 00:05:07.079 shows she's observant. She knew her target. She 00:05:07.079 --> 00:05:09.819 even used her poodle, Clementine, as bait to 00:05:09.819 --> 00:05:12.959 lure Jughead's dog, Hot Dog. The logic was if 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:14.699 their dogs were dating, they'd have to hang out. 00:05:14.860 --> 00:05:16.959 That is some next -level strategic thinking. 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:20.019 But eventually, the writers tried to fix the 00:05:20.019 --> 00:05:22.819 Ethel problem, right? We have to talk about the 00:05:22.819 --> 00:05:25.420 makeover trope. Oh, yeah. Because in every teen 00:05:25.420 --> 00:05:28.399 movie... This is the big moment. The nerdy girl 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:30.620 gets a makeover and suddenly the guy sees what 00:05:30.620 --> 00:05:32.899 was there all along. And this is where the comic 00:05:32.899 --> 00:05:34.639 actually does something really interesting and 00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:37.759 subversive. There's a famous story where Betty 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:40.639 and Veronica decide to fix Ethel. They give her 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:42.779 the full treatment, hair, makeup, new clothes. 00:05:43.339 --> 00:05:47.569 And the big reveal shows that. She is genuinely 00:05:47.569 --> 00:05:50.050 beautiful, like a total bombshell. So according 00:05:50.050 --> 00:05:51.949 to the laws of fiction, Jughead should immediately 00:05:51.949 --> 00:05:54.250 fall in love with her. But he doesn't. He is 00:05:54.250 --> 00:05:57.350 completely, totally, 100 % uninterested. I actually 00:05:57.350 --> 00:06:00.310 love that. Why's that? Because it proves Jughead's 00:06:00.310 --> 00:06:02.509 disinterest wasn't shallow. He didn't dislike 00:06:02.509 --> 00:06:04.269 her because of how she looked. He disliked her 00:06:04.269 --> 00:06:06.009 because he didn't want a girlfriend, period. 00:06:06.569 --> 00:06:09.449 It respects his character, and in a weird way, 00:06:09.550 --> 00:06:13.009 it frees Ethel. Her worth isn't tied to being 00:06:13.009 --> 00:06:16.439 pretty. That's the key. It frees her. Once the 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:18.839 writers realized, okay, the makeover plot doesn't 00:06:18.839 --> 00:06:21.439 work, they had to give her other things to do. 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:24.600 Yeah. If she's not just the girl chasing Jughead, 00:06:24.779 --> 00:06:28.720 then who is she? She's a nerd. I was so happy 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:31.100 to find out she's a huge rail fan. Loves trains. 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:33.860 She's also into art, and she makes miniature 00:06:33.860 --> 00:06:36.699 dollhouse furniture. Which is such a specific... 00:06:37.359 --> 00:06:40.600 quiet hobby. It's not flashy at all. But it tells 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:43.560 you she has this rich inner life. She's not just 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:46.279 an obsessed stalker. She's an introvert with 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:49.079 these really intricate passion projects. And 00:06:49.079 --> 00:06:52.480 that new depth starts to bleed into her romantic 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:54.970 life. The most important story here, I think, 00:06:54.970 --> 00:06:57.329 is the Hank storyline. It feels like a real turning 00:06:57.329 --> 00:06:59.769 point. It absolutely is. This is where Ethel 00:06:59.769 --> 00:07:01.670 stops being the joke and starts being the protagonist. 00:07:02.089 --> 00:07:04.290 So the setup is that Ethel has a pen pal named 00:07:04.290 --> 00:07:06.910 Hank. But she's so insecure, she sends him a 00:07:06.910 --> 00:07:09.050 picture of Veronica instead of herself. The original 00:07:09.050 --> 00:07:11.550 catfish. Totally. So Hank comes to Riverdale 00:07:11.550 --> 00:07:13.769 to meet Ethel. And Veronica, who's in on the 00:07:13.769 --> 00:07:15.509 whole thing, pretends to be her. And you're just 00:07:15.509 --> 00:07:17.569 waiting for the crushing humiliation to begin. 00:07:17.930 --> 00:07:21.269 But it completely flips. Hank spends time with 00:07:21.269 --> 00:07:24.500 Veronica as Ethel. and he can't stand her. He 00:07:24.500 --> 00:07:27.259 dumps her. He dumps Veronica. He tells her she's 00:07:27.259 --> 00:07:29.959 vain and shallow and nothing like her letters. 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:33.019 Then he bumps into the real Ethel, starts talking 00:07:33.019 --> 00:07:36.160 to her, and immediately realizes this is the 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:38.379 person he's been writing to. This is the girl 00:07:38.379 --> 00:07:40.939 with the interesting mind. That's actually really 00:07:40.939 --> 00:07:43.920 powerful. It is. When the truth comes out, he 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:45.439 tells her something like, you're more beautiful 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:49.560 than any picture. He chooses her for her. It 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:51.560 changes everything. It validates her. It basically 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:53.740 says, Jughead is the weird one. Other guys will 00:07:53.740 --> 00:07:55.759 see you for who you are. It gave her agency. 00:07:56.079 --> 00:07:58.980 And by the 90s, she's dating a blind boy named 00:07:58.980 --> 00:08:01.740 Jeffrey. And she actually tells Jughead, I'm 00:08:01.740 --> 00:08:03.759 tired of chasing you. And I bet that drove him 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:06.459 crazy. Oh, instantly. The second she stops chasing 00:08:06.459 --> 00:08:08.839 him, he gets jealous. But it shifted the power. 00:08:09.180 --> 00:08:11.160 Ethel was no longer the one begging for attention. 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:13.360 Okay, so she becomes a real person. But because 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:15.240 this is a comic book that's been around forever, 00:08:15.540 --> 00:08:18.720 she also becomes... A lot of other things. This 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:20.959 is where the writers can just go wild. Well, 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:23.860 yeah. I have this theory that because she's the 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:26.480 outsider, the writers can do anything to her. 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:29.240 Archie and Betty are protected. You know, they're 00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:32.419 the brand. But Ethel. Ethel can be turned into 00:08:32.419 --> 00:08:35.320 a zombie. In Afterlife with Archie, she's basically 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:38.460 patient zero of the zombie apocalypse. She gets 00:08:38.460 --> 00:08:41.000 bitten by a zombified Jughead at a Halloween 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:44.120 dance. Of course. And the transformation is genuinely 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:47.559 scary. She attacks Betty and Veronica has to 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:49.879 blast her with a fire extinguisher. It's always 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:52.240 Ethel versus the pretty girls, isn't it? Even 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:54.440 in the apocalypse. Oh. But then there's the country 00:08:54.440 --> 00:08:58.039 music arc from Archie's RC Racers, which is something 00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:00.250 else. I'm still trying to wrap my head around 00:09:00.250 --> 00:09:02.450 this. She quits the race to become a country 00:09:02.450 --> 00:09:05.690 singer named Ethel Sue. Yes. And she partners 00:09:05.690 --> 00:09:08.129 with a villain named Babette who tricks her into 00:09:08.129 --> 00:09:10.710 posing for photos with a camera that's secretly 00:09:10.710 --> 00:09:13.250 a ray gun. A ray gun. Okay. That Babette believes 00:09:13.250 --> 00:09:16.289 will shoot Ethel and give Babette mental powers. 00:09:16.610 --> 00:09:19.250 I don't even know where to start with the physics 00:09:19.250 --> 00:09:22.549 of that. Don't think about it too hard. The point 00:09:22.549 --> 00:09:24.370 is you could never do that story with Betty Cooper. 00:09:24.490 --> 00:09:26.970 It's too bizarre. But Ethel can handle the weird. 00:09:27.399 --> 00:09:30.659 She thrives in the weird, which brings us to 00:09:30.659 --> 00:09:33.600 her on -screen versions. Because the Ethel you 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:36.980 saw in cartoons is very different from the Ethel 00:09:36.980 --> 00:09:39.539 on the CW's Riverdale. Oh, completely. First 00:09:39.539 --> 00:09:41.919 off, casting Shannon Purser in Riverdale was 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:44.740 genius. Just brilliant metacasting. Because she 00:09:44.740 --> 00:09:47.820 was Barb from Stranger Things. Justice for Barb. 00:09:47.940 --> 00:09:51.220 Exactly. The ultimate ignored best friend who 00:09:51.220 --> 00:09:53.259 gets killed while the popular kids are off having 00:09:53.259 --> 00:09:56.259 fun. Casting her as Ethel was the show winking 00:09:56.259 --> 00:09:58.419 at the audience. and saying, we know who this 00:09:58.419 --> 00:10:01.179 character is. But the Riverdale Ethel got dark. 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:03.620 She wasn't just chasing Jughead with a plate 00:10:03.620 --> 00:10:06.340 of cookies. No, she was part of the whole Gargoyle 00:10:06.340 --> 00:10:09.379 King storyline. Yeah. She was a key figure in 00:10:09.379 --> 00:10:11.919 this town -wide, cult -like role -playing game. 00:10:12.100 --> 00:10:14.399 And for the first time, she had all the power. 00:10:14.679 --> 00:10:17.259 All of it. Jughead needed her to solve the mystery. 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:19.480 She had the rulebook, so she made him play along. 00:10:19.740 --> 00:10:22.080 She even made him kiss her. just to get information. 00:10:22.379 --> 00:10:24.360 It was twisted, but it was the stomach strategy 00:10:24.360 --> 00:10:26.720 on a whole new level. She finally had leverage. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:30.159 It's such a contrast to the 1990 TV movie To 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:32.519 Riverdale and Back Again. Oh, wow. Yeah, that 00:10:32.519 --> 00:10:34.700 movie is like an alternate reality where everything 00:10:34.700 --> 00:10:37.360 works out for her. She's played by a model, Cindy 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:40.019 Ambul. She's grown up to be this gorgeous, successful 00:10:40.019 --> 00:10:42.559 fashion designer. And Jughead stays in Riverdale 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:44.740 for her. He does. He looks at her at the end 00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:47.700 of the movie and realizes he completely missed 00:10:47.700 --> 00:10:49.580 out. and he wants a chance to make it right. 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:52.159 It's the Hollywood ending that comics always 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:54.659 denied her. It's amazing to see all these versions, 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:58.419 from a joke to a horror movie monster to the 00:10:58.419 --> 00:11:00.820 romantic lead. And in the recent Bollywood movie, 00:11:00.940 --> 00:11:04.000 The Archies, she's just a core part of the friend 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.580 group. It just shows you can't really have Riverdale 00:11:06.580 --> 00:11:08.679 without her. So let's try to pull this all together. 00:11:08.860 --> 00:11:12.200 We started with Ophelia Gluten Schnabel, a name 00:11:12.200 --> 00:11:14.460 designed to be laughed at. And we ended up with 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:17.899 a character who has been a zombie. a cult leader, 00:11:18.059 --> 00:11:21.000 a country star, and a romantic hero. Ethel Muggs 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:23.399 is the ultimate survivor of comic book evolution. 00:11:23.740 --> 00:11:26.059 It really is a story about gaining agency. The 00:11:26.059 --> 00:11:28.299 writers kept trying to put her in this desperate, 00:11:28.419 --> 00:11:30.840 ugly box, but she just kept breaking out. She 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:32.860 got hobbies. She got other boyfriends. She got 00:11:32.860 --> 00:11:35.320 a life. And that's why she resonates, I think. 00:11:35.620 --> 00:11:38.159 Most of us aren't the star quarterback or the 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.580 head cheerleader. We're the Ethels. We're on 00:11:40.580 --> 00:11:42.539 the sidelines trying to figure out our own story. 00:11:43.059 --> 00:11:46.059 She proves that even if you're not the main character, 00:11:46.509 --> 00:11:48.409 you can still be the most interesting one. I 00:11:48.409 --> 00:11:50.110 want to leave you with one final thought. It's 00:11:50.110 --> 00:11:51.450 something that really struck me when thinking 00:11:51.450 --> 00:11:55.070 about that 1990 movie where Jughead finally chooses 00:11:55.070 --> 00:11:58.500 her. What's that? We've spent... 60 years, assuming 00:11:58.500 --> 00:12:01.580 the joke was on Ethel. Right. That she was silly 00:12:01.580 --> 00:12:03.759 for wanting this guy who didn't want her back. 00:12:04.019 --> 00:12:07.440 But when you look at how cool and weird and resilient 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:10.820 she became, and you look at Jughead, who is basically 00:12:10.820 --> 00:12:13.440 a guy who just eats burgers and refuses to grow 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:15.399 up. You start to wonder who was out of whose 00:12:15.399 --> 00:12:18.220 league. Exactly. Maybe the problem was never 00:12:18.220 --> 00:12:20.480 Ethel. Maybe she was just decades ahead of her 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:22.720 time, waiting for a guy who was actually mature 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:24.980 enough to appreciate a woman who makes her own 00:12:24.980 --> 00:12:26.990 furniture and knows how to do it. How to start 00:12:26.990 --> 00:12:29.470 a zombie apocalypse. I think she's probably still 00:12:29.470 --> 00:12:32.690 waiting for that guy. But at least now, she's 00:12:32.690 --> 00:12:35.070 got plenty to do while she waits. Amen to that. 00:12:35.250 --> 00:12:37.029 Thanks for this deep dive. Anytime.