#bughead trivia

From Archie Club News, Life with Archie #29 (1964).

During a regular hangout at the chock’lit shoppe in Thought For Food (Jughead’s Double Digest #167, 2011), Betty complained that Jughead only talks about food so she decided that what he needs is a new hobby to help him expand his interests. After leaving Pop’s, Jughead immediately visited the Riverdale hobby shop to buy a kit for model building. Of course, the scale model he built was later revealed to still be food-related (a sort of fast food town with a pizzeria and a burger joint, among other things), but it is sweet that he took Betty’s suggestion seriously. She is one of the few people in Riverdale who can actually influence the very individualistic Jughead in some way and it is very evident in the number of hobbies he has taken up over the years.

While reading a book in The Unfolding Crisis (Archie’s Pal Jughead #124, 2000), Betty suddenly asked Jughead about his opinion on origami. Jughead was unfamiliar with it, so Betty tried to explain that origami is the art of paper folding and showed him the page with a how-to guide. Jughead tried following the instructions out of curiosity, but he ended up discovering that he has a natural talent for it when he successfully folded a “pretty paper ballerina” on his first try. He became so obsessed with origami that he started folding every piece of paper he sees: Coach Clayton and Coach Kleat’s game plan, Dilton’s Blue & Gold layout, Professor Flutesnoot’s test forms, Ms. Beazley’s menus, Principal Weatherbee’s speech notes, Mr. Svenson’s paper towels, and even Reggie’s candy bar wrapper.

In Summer Fun.. and Some 'R Not (Jughead #316 1981), Jughead took Betty’s suggestions even seriously when he put his trademark laziness aside to try a bunch of summer sports. He tried everything from windsurfing and beach volleyball to diving and surf boarding. Although he proved to be quite inadequate when it comes to all those sports and he eventually resorted to what he does best (eating, of course!), Jughead still showed in this particular story how much he valued Betty’s opinion by trying out all of her ideas without any hesitations.

Another Jughead hobby that was influenced by Betty is cake decorating, which was featured in Cake Mistake (Archie’s Pal Jughead #135, 2001). In the story, Jughead became interested in the art of cake decorating after Betty told him that she taught herself how to do it by simply watching an instructional video by Marta Stewmeat. Jughead, who decided he wanted to learn how to “adorn a cake so festively” like Betty, borrowed the said video, bought a multi-nozzle pneumatic decorator, and went on to ice every random thing he lays his eyes on (much to the Riverdale townsfolk’s dismay, of course). 

Betty's influence over Jughead also made him change his mind about certain activities that he would otherwise not touch with a ten-foot pole. In The Quiet Man (PEP Comics #266, 1972), Jughead was very vocal about his dislike of miming. He even went as far as making fun of the people who perform it. A furious Betty, who flat-out accused him of having no culture, insisted that miming is an ancient art form that is very difficult to pull off. Years later, in the story Mime Your Own Business (Jughead #39, 1992), Jughead went full-on Marcel Marceau by performing a mime act at the park: he entertained passers-by while sporting the stereotypical mime outfit consisting of white facial makeup, black suspenders, and a silk opera hat. To say that Betty approved of this change is an understatement. The girl was charmed.

When Betty asked him in Similar Tastes about his passions aside from food, Jughead shared that he also likes watching animé and reading manga. He even listed stuff like Sailor Lunar, Dragon Tall 33, and Tech Rubo as some examples. Betty told him that she has never heard of those, but a few years later, in a story called Childish Pursuits, she raved about an anime called Fairy Princess Bluebell. 

Betty took her love of animé a step further when she dove into the world of cosplaying. In the story Cosmic Caper, she dressed up as Melanie Moonbeam, a superhero from the Sailor Moon-inspired TV show The Galactic Gals. ♥

In the more recent storylines of Betty-centric comics, our favorite blondie serves as a mentor for the Riverdale brownie scouts. She is often seen at the Riverdale community center where she helps young girls develop their creativity through arts and crafts.

Jughead, though canonically lazy, regularly features in these stories to lend a hand to Betty and the Brownies: he once volunteered (!!!) to unload several boxes of supplies for Betty's troop meeting in Peanut Butter Brownies and even tagged along to help collect seashells for the Brownies' next DIY project in Shell Belle.

Jughead once took his entire troop to the Riverdale Park Trails and “accidentally stumbled” into Betty and Archie while they were having a date in Picnic Problems. Though Betty was willing to share her picnic basket with Jughead and the boys, Archie was clearly not amused.

Based on the dates the comics were published, Jughead was the first one to get bitten by the Beatnik bug. In Like Real Gone, he and Archie made Betty and Veronica worry when they started talking in slang and changing their style. In fact, Jughead was so committed to embracing Beatnik fashion that he even traded his iconic crown hat for a blue beret. A cool cat, regardless.

Two years later, when it was Betty’s turn to dip her toes into the Beatnik subculture, Jughead initially thought it was just an elaborate prank that was designed to make fun of him. He only realized the seriousness of it all when Veronica basically forced him to focus his audio and told him that Betty was essentially slated for crashville because she influenced both Archie and Reggie to embrace the lifestyle too.

While Jughead focused more on the fashion, the slang, and the non-conforming attitude, Betty showcased another facet of the subculture in Take Me to Your Leader: the music. She became so obsessed with progressive jazz music and she even learned how to play the flute and of course, the bongos. The girl's claws are sharp so it was relatively easy for her to know her groceries.