Editing Bringing Up Father (section)

==Characters and story==
The strip centers on an immigrant Irishman named Jiggs, a former [[hod carrier]] who came into wealth in the United States by winning a million dollars in a sweepstakes.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=J8O_MwesxUYC&pg=PA79 Merwin, Ted. "In Their Own Image", Rutgers, 2006.]</ref> Now [[nouveau-riche]], he still longs to revert to his former [[working class]] habits and lifestyle. His constant attempts to sneak out with his old gang of boisterous, rough-edged pals, eat [[New England boiled dinner|corned beef and cabbage]] (known regionally as "[[Jiggs dinner]]"), and hang out at the local tavern were often thwarted by Maggie, his formidable, social-climbing (and rolling-pin wielding) [[wikt:harridan|harridan]] of a wife, their lovely young daughter Nora, and infrequently their lazy son Ethelbert, later known as Sonny. Also a character presented in the strip (portrayed as a miserly borrower) was named, fittingly, Titus Canby ("tight as can be").

The strip deals with "[[Lace Curtain Irish|lace-curtain Irish]]", with Maggie as the middle-class Irish American desiring assimilation into mainstream society in counterpoint to an older, more raffish "[[shanty Irish]]" sensibility represented by Jiggs. Her lofty goal—frustrated in nearly every strip—is to bring Father (the lowbrow Jiggs) "up" to upper class standards, hence the title, ''Bringing Up Father''. The occasional [[malapropisms]] and left-footed social blunders of these upward mobiles were gleefully lampooned in [[vaudeville]] and popular song, and formed the basis for ''Bringing Up Father''.<ref>William H. A. Williams, "Green Again: Irish-American Lace-Curtain Satire", ''New Hibernia Review'', Winter 2002, Vol. 6 Issue 2, pp 9–24</ref>

Varied interpretations of McManus's work often highlight difficult issues of ethnicity and class, such as the conflicts over assimilation and social mobility that second- and third-generation immigrants confronted. McManus took a middle position, which aided ethnic readers in becoming accepted in American society without losing their identity.<ref>Kerry Soper, "Performing 'Jiggs': Irish Caricature and Comedic Ambivalence Toward Assimilation and the American Dream in George Mcmanus's 'Bringing Up Father'", ''Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era'', April 2005, Vol. 4#2, pp 173–213.</ref> A cross-country tour that the characters took in September 1939 into 1940 gave the strip a big promotional boost and raised its profile in the cities they visited.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cartoonician.com/big-deals-comics-highest-profile-moments/ |title="Big Deals: Comics' Highest-Profile Moments", ''Hogan's Alley'' #7, 1999 |access-date=November 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130630083743/http://cartoonician.com/big-deals-comics-highest-profile-moments/ |archive-date=June 30, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Jiggs and Maggie were generally drawn with circles for eyes, a feature also associated with the later strip ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]''.