Clash of Character's Journal Logs-Doug Funnie Vs. Greg Heffley

Dear Journal....

To be honest, I started with Doug long before DIARY OF A WIMPY KID.

Even long before I got my AMAZON DVD.

My start was on the same year I got into both Teen Titans

and Recess.

However, the version of DOUG I was first exposed to was the DISNEY Version.

Which is weird considering I should also have been seeing the Nicktoons Reruns 

on that fateful 2003-2005 on Gregoria's SHAW CABLE PLAN.

I guess it's the mouse house's 65 episodes that were still being run on TV as well.

until PHINEAS and FERB put a stop to that in 2006 when Disney accepted Dan Povenmire's pitch for the series..... and left FAMILY GUY to do said series.

PHINEAS AND FERB would later premiere in August 17 2007.

"Ferb and I gave DOUG the vacation He asked for, when Povenmire greenlit our show."

And yes, I did watch Phineas and Ferb back in the day but that wasn't until around the late 2000s.... or parts of 2010 and 2011.

But for most of this Clash Blogpost, we'll be mostly using screenshots from the Nickelodeon version of DOUG since until November 12 2019, that was far more accessible to access on Physical Media. 

And Nickelodeon, despite company's preference of advertising SpongeBob and Avatar, knows there's a dedicated fanbase for DOUG. Plus: the Slime Factory treats their older I.Ps better than the Mouse House or the current incarnation of the Rabbit Hole.

But back to the Slime Factory...... 

and to a lesser extent: The Mouse House......

Doug Funnie was originally created by Jim Jenkins in 1966 as a way to vent his anger on adolescent life without causing damage in his house when he was in the 8th grade.

And this early drawing predates Bart Simpson by almost 21 years before Tracey Ullman.

By 1984, Jim promptly forgot about the character.

Until he and Joe Aaron created a storybook called 

DOUG'S GOT A NEW PAIR OF SNEAKERS.

Unfortunately, the book was rejected so Jim decided to put his rechristened character as a figurehead for advertising.

Here's a still from one of his Commercials using his Doug Character.

Here, he's silent and the only voice you hear is LORENZO MUSIC's narration.

In 1989, Nickelodeon's Executives asked him to pitch a series featuring DOUG

and the rest is history.

With the exception of 1995, DOUG ran for the better part of the 90s, spanning two networks across 117 broadcast episodes.

Fast forward 7 years later after DOUG BAGS A NEMATODE, a young man in Massachusetts named JEFF KINNEY, created a character named GREG HEFFLEY.

This served as the basis for an Online Book about this spindly character and his wimpy/narcissistic adventures in middle school.

At first, both DOUG and GREG have nothing in common, aside from their Dysfunctional families and their imagination.

But what's similar about the two is their use of dia...... 

er.... um.....

JOURNALS....

That they use to record their daily lives.

And of course, the two are known to go ballistic if anyone refers to their journals as DIARIES.

The JOURNAL insistence is the only thing that make the two similar to each other.

But like I said in my Animation Hair Post from January 2024, 

Doug Funnie is a far more likeable character than Greg Heffley.

Despite a change in Vocal Performance between the two Networks, 

DOUG is still the same likeable sweater vested guy we know and love since 1991. 

Mostly because despite fighting Anxieties, he is a good friend to everyone around his Neighborhood.

Including his girlfriend Patti Mayonnaise.

This Quailman fantasy from the Disney era is the closest to 

Long Haired Patti aside from Flashbacks sequences I'll ever get to....

Until the series is revived.... mostly through HULU or AMAZON PRIME.

Greg Heffley on the other hand is a Narcissist who often refuses to admit his narcissism.

He thinks if things go well his way to how he wants it to be, he'll be rich and famous.

Admittingly, there were episodes both Nickelodeon and Disney where DOUG becomes narcissistic but he eventually realizes his errors and tries to make a wrong right.

For example: In the 1993 Nickelodeon Episode DOUG'S BRAINY BUDDY, 

he and his best friend Skeeter have a falling out over the latter's College Application.

Spoiler Alert: They make up due to Skeeter's distaste of Tobacco.

Greg often forgets his Aesop's until the very last minute.

And yes, even in Cartoons, you can't escape from CONSEQUENCES.

And that's Book Greg.

Movie Greg, as portrayed by Zachary Gordon, however is partially retooled to be more likeable so the audiences can at least root for him.

The only character I can think of from DOUG who can match GREG HEFFLY in the same level of narcissism is ROGER KLOTZ... at least in his 1996 Incarnation.

But in my opinion, that's still not a fair comparison because...

Retooling Roger into a rich bastard is not going to guaranteed protection from his nightmare: 

VICE PRINCIPAL LAMAR BONE

"Even a retooled rich bastard still has an acute fear of Mr. Bone."

Let no sleeping Klotz's lie.

No Watermark in my Nicktoons Screenshot?

I'm using my AMAZON Nickelodeon Series DVD and VLC Player as usual.

I just prefer my screenshots with any watermarks regardless of what Series I get the screengrabs from.