The Art of Casper Jim
Archie Andrews generally lives in a Mad Magazine-like mirror world of parody. The same celebrities and institutions exist in Riverdale that you can find in the world at large. They just have funnier names.
In the story “The Swing of Things,” Archie’s dad, Fred, listens to “Benny Badman” rather than Benny Goodman records , which Archie thinks are better than the “awfully repetitious” videos on “NTV.”
In “The Champ of Camp,” Mr. Lodge collects pop art masterpieces by “Sandy Airhole” and “Casper Jim.”
In “The Hot ‘70s,” Jughead learns to dance like “John Revolta.”
Yet decades before those other stories, in the 1945 “Junk for a Junket,” Archie gives a one cent tip on a $15 restaurant bill, and the waiter responds “Thanks, Meestaire Benny”—a real world, non soundalike reference to noted radio cheapskate Jack Benny.