The Demise of “Cathy”

On Wednesday, the cartoonist Cathy Guisewite announced that, after thirty-four years her comic strip, “Cathy,” would come to an end on October 3rd. The cartoon, now syndicated in seven-hundred newspapers, follows the eponymous character as she struggles with the “four guilt groups”: men, food, mom, and work. Guisewite has published over thirty “Cathy” collections, with titles like “Thin Thighs in Thirty Years” and “I am Woman, Hear Me Snore.”

The news sparked a huge and overwhelmingly gleeful response on Twitter, where a hot trending topic is #WaysCathyShouldEnd. Julie Klausner suggests “Hoarding experts arrive too late to find Cathy flattened under a heap of diet aids, cats and dating books”; Ed Pierce proposes “Irving wakes up next to Suzanne Pleshette”; Paul Southworth has the gruesome idea that “In a fit of self-loathing, Cathy performs at-home liposuction with a carving knife and a dustbuster; dies of sepsis.”

Fair or not, scorn for poor old Cathy is nothing new. On “30 Rock,” Liz Lemon’s obsession with junk food and aversion to exercise have invited frequent comparisons to “Cathy.” Andy Samberg has also lampooned the character—and her catchphrase “Ack!”—on “Saturday Night Live.”

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