Question: Can you clear ...

Question: Can you clear something up for me? Who or what are the Katzenjammer Kids? My father-in-law has mentioned this name many times and I always thought they were friends of his growing up. (My husband just rolls his eyes and assumes his dad is just being weird.) But on the double-date episode of Gilmore Girls, Lorelei uttered that name before they started watching Pippi Longstocking. I almost choked and had to rewind my DVR to show my husband his father isn't so weird after all. Thanks. — Erica, New York, N.Y.

Televisionary: The Katzenjammer Kids, created in 1897 by cartoonist Rudolph Dirks, is the oldest newspaper comic strip still being run. It focuses on troublesome twins Fritz and Hans and their dealings with their mother, Mama, and der Captain, an old seaman they love to torment.

The comic found its way onto the screen in 1916 as a series of short cartoons, but production stopped when German culture fell out of favor during World War I. MGM gave the Kids another shot at animation fame in the '30s with cartoons called The Captain and the Kids, but they fell flat with audiences.

As for your father-in-law, he may well be weird anyway. But he's not making this up.