One of the Most Popular Phrases We Use Started in a Comic Strip

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’ but did you know it became mainstream because of a comic strip? We’ve all used the phrase or thought about the phrase whether it’s referring to ourselves or others. And maybe you’ve even lived it.

‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’ is all about trying to be like the cool kids so to speak and match their social standing. Whether you’re in high school hoping your parents will buy you the latest trends so you can sit at the cool kids’ table or as an adult you’re trying to spend money and match your neighbors, the phrase is all about feeling like you’re at the top.

Phrases.Org says this started in a comic strip literally called ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’ which ran for 25 years starting in 1913 and was about the social climbing family the McGinises: Aloysius and Clarice and their daughter Julie. They also had a maid named Bella Donna.

The creator of the comic strip, Arthur (Pop) Momand started the funny in the New York Evening Globe which was published from 1904 to 1923 and eventually syndicated by the New York World according to Wikipedia.

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In 1915 the comic strip was turned into a cartoon film that hit the theatres around the country. According to Phrases.org, the ‘Joneses’ weren’t characters in the comic strip but rather a popular last name that became a generic way to refer to neighbors.

To tag along with this, according to Sloww.com, the name Jones was used because of one of the wealthiest families in the Hudson Valley region of New York State where Arthur lived.

Edith Wharton was a socialite (and American novelist) whose father was George Frederic Jones, a wealthy real-estate magnate who owned one of the most lavish homes in the Hudson Valley.