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[[Image:Jake_reactioncourse.jpg|left|340px|A letter and photo from Jake at Buxton Ridge. (click to read letter)]]
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 [[Buxton Ridge Military Academy|military school]] the first chance he got (the very day after Jake stopped on his contact lens, according to "[[The Daria Hunter]]").
Little is known about Jake's siblings, though it is possible he had an [[Jake's Older Sister|older sister]]; Jake mentions having weirdo neighbours in "The Daria Hunter".
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 ("[[Of Human Bonding]]"). [[Corporal Ellenbogen]] and the Commandant of Cadets seemed to target him specifically, and he was regularly bullied by many of the other cadets (including being hung from the flagpole by his underpants for a time and being made to eat his dress socks by "the big guys"). <br><br><br><br><br><br>His letters home from military school show him becoming increasingly broken and bitter, first asking to be told what he did wrong so he won't do it again and descending into 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. Jake did
He did try to get involved in the school musical review and the football team, but in both cases he was rubbish and mocked for it. ("[[The Story of D]]", "[[The Lab Brat]]") He was in the Color Guard during this time, and put on a Leadership Platoon Reaction Course. He wasn't very good at that either. Apart from all that, he wasn't very good at being a cadet: he failed at many basic tasks, and in four years he racked up 98 demerits "but they still won't kick me out". ("[[The Daria Diaries]]")
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Afterwards, Jake enrolled at [[Middleton College]] thanks to funding from his family, thus not being shipped off to the [[Vietnam War]] ("[[The Daria Diaries]]") - though he once claimed to a veteran that he wasn't drafted because the "war was winding down" ("[[My Night at Daria's]]"). Around the time of the funding, Jake had been threatening to 'drop out' and be a hippie as soon as his father couldn't legally stop him; this is probably why Mad Dog sent him to college, mistakenly thinking that'd stop him (Jake promised to "really... hit the books" there). ("Diaries") Based on dates given in the episodes and books, if Middleton has the traditional four years for US colleges then Jake started college in 1968.
At Middleton, he joined the hippie counter-culture and met his future wife [[Helen Morgendorffer|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. He and Helen were arrested in summer 1969 as a student and once protested outside the Pentagon, where he got enraged and kicked the building. ("[[That Was Then, This Is Dumb]]") He attended [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Free_Concert Altamont ''Free'' Concert] and somehow ''got his money back'' ("[[Road Worrier]]"). Hippie friends included [[Willow Yeager|Willow]] and [[Coyote Yeager|Coyote]]
The couple graduated in 1972 ("[[The Daria Database]]") and moved into a commune together with their friends.
[[Image:Jake s paper.png|left|thumb|300px|Jake and his favourite form of escape.]]
Like many hippies, Jake and Helen
Jake and Helen ultimately had two daughters, [[Daria Morgendorffer|Daria]] (whom he often refers to as "[[kiddo]]") and [[Quinn Morgendorffer|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.
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<br><br><br><br><br>They celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary around the time of season 2.
In the [[Daria Behind The Scenes Special]], released after S3, Jake's voice actor [[Julian Rebolledo]] cheerfully said their marriage was "falling apart".
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. "[[Fire!]]" showed them in a loving, calm relationship once they were in a relaxed environment, though this ended once stress re-entered the scene.
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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.
▲[[Image:Parents20yl.jpg|right|frame|Daria in 2017, by Karen Disher]]
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". (He didn't recognise the candle and reacted with horror at the misshapen thing)
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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.
[[Image:Jake the cook.png|thumb|200px|]]
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.
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===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
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.
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[[Image:FailBonding.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Jake fails to make human contact in "[[The Lab Brat]]"]]
A combination of the first two: this flags up Jake's blatant failures as a father, husband, and individual, treating them straight and without allowing humour or good intentions to mitigate them. Examples include the background of "[[Assistant Living]]", where [[Marianne]]
===Good Jake===
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