Jake Morgendorffer

Jake Morgendorffer is a fictional animated character who featured regularly in the MTV television show, Daria. Father of Daria Morgendorffer, he is a middle-aged man, brown-haired, and trim, who almost always wears an ocean-blue business suit.

Background


Jake Morgendorffer was the son of an emotionally abusive father, nicknamed "Mad Dog" Morgendorffer, who (as Jake remembers it) tormented his son mercilessly and ultimately shipped him off to military school the first chance he got. Little is known about Jake's siblings, though it is possible he had an older sister.

At some point before Buxton Ridge, Jake was in the Boy Scouts with Paul Meyerson.

Jake's time in military school further traumatized him, as his parents refused to visit him and all but forgot about him until graduation. His letters home ("The Daria Diaries") show him becoming increasingly broken and bitter from his time there, and writing vicious screeds against his father; he forgives his mother though, viewing her as having no choice but to go along with "Mad Dog's" ideas. He was in the Color Guard during this time, and also picked on by other cadets. He had a friend called Randy (sent to the Ridge for putting his fist through a wall) who, after four years, went AWOL; Jake wanted to go with him but didn't to deny his father "the satisfaction" of him flunking out.

Afterwards, Jake enrolled at Middleton College thanks to funding from his family, thus not being shipped off to the Vietnam War ("The Daria Diaries"); the war had wound down after he'd left college ("My Night at Daria's"). At college, he joined the hippie counter-culture and met his future wife Helen there; the counter-culture was a calming influence to the seething cauldron of repressed rage and hatred for the world around him and for his father, and he became an extremely cheery optimist with a firm belief in the counter-culture's ideals and rejecting the modern world. The two moved into a commune after graduation and got married. His father died shortly thereafter. At some point during the 60s, he went to Altamont Free Concert (and somehow got money back).

Like many hippies, Jake and Helen rejected the 1960s counter-culture by the end of the 1970s and began working in the corporate world. Jake in particular began work in the advertisement industry, with little success. Adding to his strife was the fact that Jake worked for a rather controlling boss who treated Jake poorly (whom he referred to as a "mini-Mussolini" in the episode "Boxing Daria") and further verbally abused Jake on a regular basis.

Jake and Helen ultimately had two daughters, Daria (whom he often refers to as "kiddo") and Quinn. By this point the family was living in Highland, Texas, (home of Beavis and Butt-head). The family stayed there for several years before moving to the suburb of Lawndale. Although it is unknown whether Helen or Jake instigated the move, it has been implied that the change spurred Jake to start his own freelance advertising consultant firm. Jake could now enjoy the freedom of being his own boss, far from the stress-filled environment in which he used to work.

He always wanted to work on his cooking, and ever since a brief turndown in work in "Arts 'n' Crass" he's been trying culinery experiments every week or so, much to the horror of every stomach around him.

In several episodes, Jake has expressed frustration that he become a corporate man and that he gave up on his ideals, and views himself as trapped in his current life ("a boring little house in a bland little town") and resenting middle-age; he generally keeps this hidden, with it only coming out due to "glitterberries" or visits from old hippie friends. However, in "Quinn the Brain", when trying to give advice he started to randomly yell "It's not too late to start over, Daria, it's not too late! You're still a young man! You don't have to live with your mistakes! Get out while you can!" before suddenly recovering.

Relationship with Helen


Jake and Helen are and always have been much in love, but there is a strong undercurrent of resentment between the two of them in their relationship. In the episode "Psycho Therapy," Helen describes Jake's behavior as "lost in a fog when [he's] not flying into a rage" to a counselor, and in "One J at a Time" she shows anger over his inability to get over his father. His general meekness often causes Helen to make a majority of the decisions. When Jake goes into a rage, Helen ranges from humoring him to pushing back.

Helen has also, in several episodes, become frustrated or sad about the lack of "spice" in the marriage. Several times they have gotten it back ("Road Worrier", "Is It Fall Yet?", "Camp Fear"), and evidence shows that Jake is the lead in any activity and is good at making his wife... happy.

Jake has become irritated verging on raging when Helen has had to cancel planned getaways in favour of work ("Of Human Bonding", "Camp Fear"), in "Bonding" diverging from there into a general rant about being unable to depend on anyone. "Camp Fear" reveals that almost all planned romantic holidays (and holidays at all) were put on hold because of Helen's job, a source of resentment for Jake.

In "Psycho Therapy," Jake accuses Helen of having control issues, allowing him no vices. Both are then asked to role-play as the other, leading Jake to portray Helen as a narcissistic career woman with an addiction to praise who does everything without empathy, while Helen portrays Jake as a self-pitying manic-depressive who doesn't try to fix his own problems and is adverse to responsibility. Jake's assessment of Helen really hits home for her and upsets her greatly, leading him to apologize afterward. It is unknown whether the role-play resulted in any lasting emotional scars.

There has never been any suggestion that Jake is cheating on Helen or would do, though he apparently phoned a sex chat line once ("Quinn the Brain"). When hit on by DeeDee in "Just Add Water", Jake was immediately nervous and ran away to inform Helen at the first bit of physical contact; when they got into an argument later, he blamed her for leaving him with DeeDee.

In "Sappy Anniversary", prolonged absences due to work causes Helen and Jake to spend less time together, and both of them miss the other.

Later on in "Sappy", Jake becomes worried Helen is bothered about being married to a loser - she reassures him she isn't bothered (quickly saying she doesn't think he's a loser), and reveals that she's still kept the badly-made, ugly hobbit candle he made for her back during their first anniversary, as it was something he created especially for her: it's a reminder of why she married him, that he's a "kind, decent, intelligent man I fell in love with all those years ago".

Personality


He is often clueless to the point of barely hearing conversations (though this is often deliberate on his part) and not even knowing his daughter's age.

As a victim of long-term emotional abuse, Jake suffers from neurotic behavior that at times borders on mental illness. His general reaction to everyday trauma is to avoid conflict, usually by ducking behind a newspaper that he pretends to read or by avoiding the house for days if Helen's sisters are visiting. However, in spite of this defense, Jake has been known to go off on angry fits of yelling and screaming at things, real and imaginary, that he feels are out to get him. In particular, Jake is prone to scream "Damn it!" during these tirades. Often, he will switch between these rages and happy cluelessness at random if he sees a distraction.

The drastic mood swings eventually affect his health, once giving him a mild heart attack that leaves him bedridden for a short time. However, during his convalescence, Daria points out, to his delight, that he has now lived longer than his hated father.

In spite of these fits, Jake has not shown typical signs of physically or emotionally abusing his wife or children, in contrast to many victims of childhood abuse. It could be argued that the attempts by his wife and daughters to protect and humor him reflect a milder form of emotional abuse, but not that any of that was intentional on Jake's part.

Jake and his children


Jake is loving towards his daughters, though he's often vulnerable to being taken advantage of - especially financially. As a result, he will often let Helen take the lead and simply attempt to back her up, though this often goes wrong when he's not been paying attention. In "Quinn the Brain" he initially complained he wasn't ever allowed to be the lead parent, and then, when he proved unable to navigate his daughter's extortions, threw his wallet at them and yelled "damn it, Helen, I told you I was no good at this parent crap!".

He manages to blot out most of Quinn & Daria's conflicts or problems the girls are showing, mainly for his own health. "My Night at Daria's" showed that he was incapable of handling the very concept of his daughters having sex, freaking out and running off at the very sight of Daria during that episode.

Despite Jake's neurotic behavior, there have been periods where he has true insight into the lives of his children. During "Boxing Daria," he explains to Daria that while she was a difficult child to deal with due to her reclusive and jaded behavior, he and Helen understood and accepted that someone as bright as she was not going to be like everyone else. This, of course, flies in the face of their many attempts (primarily Helen's) to get Daria to be like everyone else. In the flashbacks in that episode, notably, he identifies the young Daria "doesn't want to fit in".

It's sometimes assumed that he's closer to Daria than Quinn (note he has a pet name for her but not Quinn), and from time to time has taken her side or shown he wants to. In "Arts 'N Crass", he accidentally supports Daria against Helen, backing her artwork. In "Of Human Bonding", he desperately wants to bond properly with Daria and reach out, and that he's worried she always looks so lonely, but proves incapable of pulling it off; earlier in the episode, however, he was scared of knowing about her. In "Aunt Nauseum" and other episodes, it's Daria he turns to out of the girls if he needs help. The two have been shown sitting at the table together reading and not talking, which Daria seems happy with.

Two notable moments for Jake and his parenting were:


 * "Daria!", where he drove out during a hurricane to find Daria and bring her home safely


 * "Jake of Hearts", where he admitted to Daria that "I just want to make sure I never make you girls feel that way—less worthwhile or intelligent than your old man".

Quinn, for her part, generally views her dad as a soft touch but was genuinely upset when he had his heart attack in "Jack of Hearts", abruptly deciding she was going to become a heart doctor; she stopped after he became well again but before then had been deliberately studying, a strange and shocking event. Daria, in "Of Human Bonding", thought: "he's afraid to be afraid. That's what's so heartbreaking. He's my father; shouldn't I let down the barricades for once and tell him I think he's a hero?" (She didn't)

Job
Jake owns his own consultanting firm, Morgendorffer Consulting. Jake's status as a marketing consultant changes from episode to episode. Sometimes it seems to be doing just fine, sometimes he's losing clients and is in danger of losing his parking space. As a sole proprieter business with only one consultant, yo-yo fortunes are not unsurprising.

Glenn Eichler has stated that MTV had "highly paid idiot "consultants" roam the halls dispensing wisdom like "Kids today communicate through text messaging! That's a cell phone thing they do!" So I figured if they could make a living stating the obvious, so could Jake." He also stated that Jake isn't a very good businessman but manages to get a few lucrative jobs now and then - his problem isn't that he's stupid, it's that he's not as good at office politics as Helen.

The series does show that Jake has some pull around Lawndale, though. He uses his contacts to get Daria a job in It Happened One Nut, and when Jodie and Daria apply for a bank loan during a class assignment in Partner's Complaint, the loan officer cites that if Daria's father cosigns on the loan the bank may react more favorably.

In "Sappy Anniversary", Jake manages to temporarily work for Buzzdome despite not knowing anything about modern computers and the Internet: he just manages to bull his way through the initial interview with random buzzwords and then gets through by his enthusiastic, friendly personality. (When they fire him, they then take him on as a consultant to show them how confused, middle-aged people will best understand their services)

In the same episode, Jake expresses pride and defiance over being self-employed; going off "Boxing Daria", when he was employed by others he hated the job and worked for at least one "mini-Mussolini".

Clueless Jake
It would be difficult to make Jake any more oblivious than he is portrayed in the series. Let's face it, a man who yells "What's the number for nine-one-one?" ("Write Where It Hurts") is more than a few fries short of a Happy Meal. This stereotype works well in farcical comedies (see Squirrel Story), but making him a more serious character is challenging.

Darth Jake
There are a number of stories which postulate that the emotional trauma Jake suffered through as a child would have serious future ramifications in his future. "Darth Jake" stories almost always characterize Jake as horrifying, vicious, cruel, and acting out a pathological desire to show that he's a better father than "Mad Dog" Morgendorffer. Examples of this type include The Angst Guy's "Darius," LyinTamer's "Night of the Storm," and Scissors MacGillicutty's "Where's Mary Sue When You Need Her?."

A fic that subverts this variation is "Chosin Fate," where Daria finds audio tapes of her grandfather before and after the wartime events that transformed him into the "Mad Dog." In the fic, listening to those tapes has a cathartic effect on Jake; he muses on how that was the first time he had ever heard his father say that he loved his son, and considers how his father was a damaged soul who wasn't trying to abuse him, but to toughen him up for the dangers of the world. We also see this in "It's All About Respect," where Jake and Lauriel de la Ribas speak about "Mad Dog's" service time, and how it affected Jake's father and the people around him.

Good Jake
A few fanfics focus strongly on Jake's good qualities. Daria regards him as a "hero" in "Of Human Bonding," a reference that puzzled many viewers, but he is known to take up Daria's side in some parental disputes (notably in "Arts 'N Crass" and "Boxing Daria"). Angelinhel's "Alley" is a touching and realistic ficlet about Jake's softer side.

Reformed Jake
Now and then, a fanfic will present Jake as overcoming his broken past and stalled present to be a better husband and father. In Kara Wild's Driven Wild Universe, Jake's friendship with Anthony DeMartino spurs him to teach classes at a nearby community center ("All But Forgotten"). However, his newfound independence proves to be one of the many causes of a widening rift between him and Helen, eventually leading to their separation ("Memory Road"). The separation forces Jake, for the first time, to really work at getting to know his daughters and to take care of himself.

Super Jake
And then there are a few ficlets that presume Jake's cluelessness is a cover, and he is secretly a mightier force for good than anyone supposes. Shallow15's "Super Zero" is an excellent example. TAG's "Nuthouse" is a comic take on this concept.

Trivia

 * According to Glenn Eichler in an interview, Jake has an older sister.