Boob McNutt


Boob McNutt was a comic strip by Rube Goldberg which ran from June 9, 1918 to September 23, 1934. It was syndicated by the McNaught Syndicate from 1922 until the end of its run.

Publication history

Comics historian Don Markstein traced the history of the strip:

Story and characters

Boob McNutt was a clumsy, buffoonish fellow who was quite friendly and attempted to be helpful in his incompetent way. He was entrusted with tasks like caring for priceless works of art and the Elixir of Immortality, tasks in which he inevitably failed, usually in a destructive manner.
From 1922 to 1926, the strip focused on Boob's pursuit of his true love Pearl, whom he finally married, then divorced, then married again and divorced again. Goldberg inserted supporting characters from his other strips, including Mike and Ike and Bertha the Siberian Cheesehound. In 1934, he even brought in Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, inventor of those famed Rube Goldberg machines, for a brief sojourn before the strip was cancelled.
The strip had several Sunday toppers over the course of its run, including: Bertha the Siberian Cheesehound, Bill and Professor Butts, Boob McNutt's Ark, Are You Saving Jokers? and Boob McNutt's Geography.

Legacy

In his seminal 1923 essay, "The Seven Lively Arts", Gilbert Seldes called Boob McNutt "the least worthy of Rube Goldberg's astonishing creations". Boob was vindicated, however, when he was featured on the front cover of Nemo #24.