It might just be me, but "married at 15, having six kids starting at 16, and widowed before your golden years in a less-than-optimal socioeconomic tier" don't sound like circumstances conducive with sound parenting.
No, it doesn't, although interestingly enough, one of my co-workers is a hoarder and that pretty much describes her life. She's an overweight, middle aged woman now (who actually looks much older than she really is, and has several medical conditions on account of her weight, lifestyle and just generally not taking care of herself; I thought she was much older than she really is when I first met her) but back in the day I guess she was a rebellious, promiscuous teenager. She got married at 15, popped out three kids, and got divorced young. And apparently ever since then she's been... well a crazy hoarder lady. I can't help but notice that parallels Barb and her family background.
I think what's going on with Chris is that he is developmentally delayed by his environment (and his other issues are in play too)
No doubt his autism did play a role, but growing up in the household that he did, he never really stood a chance anyway. Chris' parents were too old and out of touch to really raise him. To his credit, I think Bob at least tried, but I don't think Barb had much interest in taking care of her offspring, and I would be inclined to call her emotionally abusive as well. Had they gotten Chris some actual help for his autism, he'd still be Chris, but he'd at least have coping skills. More to the point, had they encouraged him to interact with other human beings and instilled something resembling a work ethic in him, he'd be a hell of a lot better off now.
Of course, like I said, they were old and I think that's pretty isolating for a kid, especially one like Chris who never had many friends to begin with. So much of his behaviour seems to have been gleaned through television and the distorted lens of pop culture, not through interaction with other children. Again, autism plays a role her, but if he'd have guy friends, he would have had better outlets for some of his thoughts, and he'd have had people to tell him not to be an idiot. And in equally blunt language.
Well, if you consider that he didn't even begin his Love Quest until he was 21, it's safe to say his psychosexual development was stunted considerably.
Yeah. I've always found that aspect of his lovequest interesting too. For someone who was so hung up on building a girlfriend from the groundup, he sure took his bloody time at it. I've often suspected he felt more obligated to find a girlfriend because he felt it was an obligation, either as a coming of age milestone or because he felt obligated to do it. The fact that his entire concept of romance seems cribbed from television and video games is... well frankly depressing. Almost as depressing as taking a date to a fast food restaurant.
He's basically an overblown living caricature of modern-day intarwebz nerddom. This is why the reactions to him are so strong: Stare into the abyss long enough and it stares back at you. Many people semi-consciously realize that there is a bit of CWC personality within themselves
Oh no doubt. Chris is an extreme caricature, but I can definitely see elements of both myself and some of my friends in him. I've still got some toys on my desktop, I play video games, I've watched a couple episodes of MLP, I play card games, I even own a Pokemon shirt I found off TeeFury because it was too cool not to! Of course, the difference is that I have friends, a job, and other hobbies and interests. I go to the bar on Friday nights and hang out with my friends, I play a musical instrument (no, not a guitar hero guitar, a real instrument), I read voraciously, sometimes I even travel...
I think most of the people on these forums have some overlap with Chris, at least in terms of interests or hobbies, but... Chris takes it too far. Some of it is the autism, yes, but Chris is comedicly absurd in many respects. I doubt anyone else has ever come up with the idea of recycling their navy, or doing... whatever the hell CWCFlyingElephants is. And if they did, they weren't dumb enough to upload it to YouTube in the hopes of impressing anyone. So while its easy to make fun of Chris, its not so much a defensive mechanism as the fact that Chris is just so far beyond normal thoughts and behaviour that its hard not to laugh.
I've always found that picture hilarious for how little she looks like Barb. I mean, even by Chris' standards, Barb is pretty off. At least he drew himself wearing the type of clothes he actually wore, and with his actual hair color. Barb is like a slightly older Crystal wearing Chris' clothes.
See, I think that's actually his autism coming through. Much like a cartoon, classic Chris always represented himself wearing the same costume in his comics. It was a critical part of his identity, along with the heterochromia. We can joke about how his characters were drawn so crappily that they were nigh indistinguishable without those traits, but the fact is, its pretty standard fare in the media Chris grew up with.
It stands to reason then that Chris would represent Barb in the same way. Hell, for all we know, Barb may have even worn an outfit like that - once - and Chris would have simply represented her wearing it constantly thereafter. In fact, if you look at Chris possible future drawing, you'll notice that Chris and his hypothetical son from the future are wearing matching clownshirts...
That's gotta be some form of abuse right there. Of course, now he'd just dress him in drag because tomgirlism, right?
