"A kid would say ‘pizgetti’ instead of spaghetti, and Jeffy would say, ‘Can I wear my short-sleeve pants?'"

The wholesome humor of "The Family Circus" — love it or loathe it — was a changeless fixture of the comics pages for so many years, drawn by Bil Keane, who died on Tuesday at the age of 89.

It was a favorite target for the great comics blogger The Comics Curmudgeon, and here's his tribute to Keane:

We owe him a debt of thanks for providing such a tempting target for mockery over the years — mockery that he was by all accounts incredibly good-natured about (he even collected Family Circus spoofs). His own sense of humor was reportedly a lot edgier than what the strip became best known for, as some of the early panels (like the one from 1960 above) demonstrate. RIP, Big Daddy Keane.

Meanwhile, little Jeffy (age 53) has been writing and drawing the strip for years now, so expect exactly zero changes on that front, and our mockery to continue unabated.

Well, that's nice, but let's click on the "Family Circus" tag and read some of that old mockery: