Lincoln Peirce’s successful comic series, Big Natetells the adventures of sixth-grader Nate Wright. The comic was published in January 1991 and has had a successful transition into books, games, and an animated series on Paramount+. Nate navigates his school and family life, dealing with frustrating moments and many situations that anyone who is or has been a child can relate to.
After more than three decades of activity Big Nate provided many laughs, snarky remarks and heartwarming moments. Big Nate has aged well with its focus on identifiable characters and childhood struggles. Some of Nate’s struggles as a creative, disabled child may remind readers of Calvin and Hobbes.
10 Nate was not prepared for a repeat of last year’s lessons
Release date: September 2, 2009
Nate is often undemanding when it comes to his education. Like many struggling students, he dislikes his teacher and the concept of school in general. In this strip, Nate was completely blindsided when Mrs. Godfrey announced that the first period of the new school year would begin with a review of the material they had learned the previous year. He was so confused by the idea of a review on the first day of school that he immediately directed his concerns to Mrs. Godfrey, as if Nate was expecting a quiz on something he was unprepared for.
Nate’s baffled reaction to Mrs. Godfrey’s lesson plan gave way to annoyance at the concept, and he confessed to Teddy that he would like to completely erase the last school year from his memory once he was done with it. The disrespectful Nate even gave his feedback as a cheeky reply. Teddy focused, amused, on Mrs. Godfrey’s slightly ominous laugh at the idea of forgetting an entire year’s lesson plans.
9 Nate designed a comic for the school newspaper
Release date: May 26, 2005
As in many depictions of students who hate school, Nate has an antagonistic relationship with one of his teachers, Mrs. Godfrey. However, Nate also has an artistic side, which is shown in his love of drawing cartoons, among other things. This comic combined these two aspects of Nate’s personality by presenting Gina with a comic that he wanted to submit to the school newspaper.
In typical Nate spiteful fashion, the comic strip he proposed was clearly a thinly veiled attempt to mock Mrs. Godfrey, changing only two letters of Nate’s character’s name to distinguish her from the real Mrs. Godfrey. Of course, Gina immediately saw through Nate’s true intentions and urged him to admit the truth. Nate’s weak counterargument was to pedantically ask her to define the word “is.”
8 Nate wrote Jenny a love letter
Release date: April 16, 1998
A running joke in Big Nate is Nate’s unrequited crush on Jenny Jenkins. He repeatedly tries to impress Jenny, but is rejected each time. In this strip, Nate writes a love letter to Jenny to no avail, much to the annoyance of his friend Teddy. Nate’s response is to ignore Teddy’s concerns and explain that he just needs to step up his game. First, Nate would convince Jenny that he’s a great guy by bluntly telling her in the letter how great he is.
Knowing that Nate’s obvious selfishness and misplaced confidence wouldn’t win Jenny over, Teddy could only roll his eyes and make a sarcastic joke. This joke contrasts with Nate’s ridiculous, ego-driven attempts to woo Jenny and Teddy’s relatively more down-to-earth approach to his friend’s antics.
7 Nate wrote the same word until it looked wrong
Release date: November 27, 2001
At the beginning of this comic, Nate experiences a very relatable phenomenon. He realizes that he has written the same word on his homework so many times that it is starting to look like the wrong word. In a twist on the usual occurrence of this incident, Teddy then reveals to Nate that he actually misspelled the word. This circumstance leaves Nate with only a few seconds to correct his mistake before turning in his homework.
Nate’s unamused expression in the final frame showed that he did not understand the humor of the situation, as he had not yet been able to detach himself enough from the incident to laugh about it. Teddy’s unimpressed expression in both frames he appeared in added to the humor, as his face suggested that he was not surprised that Nate had made such an obvious mistake on his homework.
6 Nate tried to accompany Mr. Rosa in his work
Release date: September 27, 1999
In contrast to his antagonistic relationship with Mrs. Godfrey, Nate has a friendly relationship with his school’s art teacher, Mr. Rosa. In this case, Nate valued Mr. Rosa so much that when he was tasked with choosing someone to supervise throughout the day while he went about his daily duties for his career, he decided to “shadow” the teacher. Naturally, Nate turned the situation into a double-edged compliment by noting that Mr. Rosa did not meet his standards for a famous artist.
Nate even added another humorous, snarky remark in the final panel by asking Mr. Rosa what it’s like not to be famous. This flick illustrated Nate’s tendency to be rude, as he probably just wanted an honest answer from Mr. Rosa. While the interaction was funny to the audience, Mr. Rosa didn’t find the humor so funny.
5 Nate was looking for his father’s golf club
Release date: July 9, 2000
Like many comic book dads, Nate’s father Martin enjoys golf but is not very skilled. This comic reinforced this portrayal when Martin lost his golf club while playing and Nate had to search for the club in the tall grass on the course. Although Nate didn’t seem particularly happy about the scenario, he dutifully searched for Martin’s club anyway. However, Martin was so embarrassed by the whole situation that he told Nate not to bother looking for his golf ball as well.
If one removes the top row of this Sunday strip, as some newspapers often do when trying to save space on the comics page, the reader would have no introductory context as to why Nate is poking around in the tall grass, reinforcing the revelation in the final panel that he was on a golf course. Even with the context of the top row, the reader would still assume Nate was looking for a ball, until it turns out he was actually looking for his father’s club.
4 Nate’s father has signed up for a road race
Release date: July 9, 2007
Much like Nate, his father Martin is often portrayed as believing himself to be a more competent and cooler person than he actually is. In this case, Martin overreached himself by signing up for a 10K road race, to which Nate responded with reserve. Rather than limiting himself to politely congratulating his father, Nate brought up the idea that Martin might die during the race, though Nate did not seem overly distressed by the thought.
Although Nate expressed some concern for his father, he ultimately turned the conversation into a joke by making a silly face in the final panel and claiming he wouldn’t want to congratulate Martin on a “beautiful heart attack.” Nate’s blasé attitude toward an activity Martin was enthusiastic about came across as mean, but also funny in its blunt cynicism.
3 Nate offered his skills as a couples counselor
Release date: May 28, 2019
Related
The 10 best Lio comics, ranked
Mark Tatulli’s Lio comic follows the hilarious adventures of the title character, who will be familiar to fans of Calvin and Hobbes and the Addams Family.
Lincoln Peirce has a lot to learn from Nate’s selfish nature as a middle school student. In this comic, Nate approaches his classmates Ben and Cassie to get them to stop fighting and offers his services as a couples counselor. While bragging about his supposedly extensive skills, Nate is asked what makes him a good communicator, whereupon he bluntly interrupts Ben, stating that he is a good listener, and then asks Ben to stop interrupting him.
Nate’s arrogance, combined with his hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness, made for an amusing comic. The snappy dialogue flowed quickly and the pacing of the lines was crisp. Nate’s eagerness to force himself into situations he doesn’t belong in for the sake of fame usually makes for humorous scenarios.
2 Nate rigged a test to see if he and Kelly would get married
Release date: February 16, 2002
Kelly was one of Nate’s potential girlfriends earlier in Big Nates run after they met at football camp. Nate, being the comically self-centered romantic that he is, forces Teddy to watch a pointless ritual to “predict” whether he and Kelly will get married. In this case, Nate decided that hitting a tree with a snowball would ensure his future marriage to Kelly. The final panel humorously revealed that the tree was just inches away and Nate had rigged the whole thing.
Despite Nate’s obviously biased technique, he seemed to genuinely believe he was succeeding with his bizarre prediction method. Teddy clearly did not share Nate’s blind enthusiasm for the activity. The framing of the gag, in which the location of the tree is not revealed until the final frame, allowing for several moments of suspense, added extra humor and tension to Nate’s silly nonsense.
1 Nate received “The Scream” as a quiz result
Release date: February 22, 1997
This mostly silent joke had a simple premise that was well executed. After taking a test, Nate and his classmates Francis and Jenny received their test results, which were represented by small drawings. Francis received a good grade because he got a smiley face, while Jenny probably got a mediocre grade because her drawing had a neutral expression. Finally, Nate received an amazing drawing – instead of a normal, simple smiling or frowning face, Nate got a drawing of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
Most likely, Nate’s grade was not good. Whether he spectacularly failed some multiple choice questions or botched an essay section so badly that his answer no longer made sense, the reader did not get the answer. All he had at his disposal was the simple drawing of The Screamwhich was a very funny decision by Lincoln Peirce. The gag was a great example of school-related humor that reflected Nate’s character.
