Jake Morgendorffer

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Jacob Morgandorffer
Jake Morgendorffer
First appearance	"Esteemsters" (1997)
Last appearance	Is It College Yet? (2002)
Created by	Glenn Eichler
Portrayed by	Julián Rebolledo (voice)
Information
Aliases	N/A
Gender	Male
Age	Late 40's
Occupation	Self-employed marketing consultant
Spouse(s)	Helen Morgendorffer
Children	Daria Morgendorffer Quinn Morgendorffer

Jacob 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 skinny, who almost always wears an ocean blue business suit, and is prone to fits of vocal rage over various minor setbacks and his own traumatic military upbringing. Jake was voiced by Julián Rebolledo.

Background

Jake Morgendorffer was the only son of emotionally abusive parents. In particular, his overbearing father, nicknamed "Mad Dog" Morgendorffer, tormented his son mercilessly and ultimately shipped him off to military school the first chance he could. Jake's time in military school would further traumatize him, as his parents refused to visit him and all but outright forgot about him until graduation.

Afterwards, Jake enrolled in college and met his future wife Helen. The two were part of the hippie counter-culture at the time, which was a calming influence to the seething cauldron of repressed rage and hatred for the world around him and for his father, who by that point had died. The two moved into a commune after graduation and got married.

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 and Quinn. By this point the family was living in the fictional town of "Highland" (home of Beavis and Butt-head). The family stayed there for several years before moving to the fictional town of Lawndale. It has been heavily implied, that the family moving came with Jake's decision to quit his job and start his own freelance advertising consultant firm. The move was designed to give Jake the freedom of being his own boss and to free him from the stress-filled environment he used to work in.

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. Helen described Jake's behavior as "lost in a fog when he's not flying into a rage" to a counselor. His general meekness often causes Helen to make a majority of the decisions. When Jake goes into a rage, Helen ranges from either humoring him or conflicting.

In the episode "Psycho Therapy," Jake accuses Helen of having control issues, in which he is allowed no vices. Both of them are then asked to role-play as the other, and Jake portrayed Helen as a narcissistic career woman with an addiction to praise and does everything without empathy, while Helen portrayed Jake as a self-pitying manic-depressive who doesn't try to fix his own problems and aversion to responsibility. Jake's assessment of Helen really hit home for her and upset her greatly, for which he apologized afterwards.

Despite this, though, both of them still care about each other, and there is no lack of passion in their marriage.

Personality

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. 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 "Damnit!" during these sorts of tirades. These 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 despite this health problem he has now lived longer than his hated father.

John Allemang of The Globe and Mail says that "overemotional" Jake's "idea of conversation is an irritating scream."^[1]

In spite of these fits, Jake showed no sign of physically or emotionally abusing his wife or children, as many victims of childhood abuse do. In fact, Jake is often portrayed as fearful of instilling upon his children the same sort of emotional pain that he suffered, and would often ask Daria if he ever made her feel less than special, to which Daria assured him that was not remotely the case. Indeed, his children both are quite protective of their father, and his wife Helen often goes out of her way to humor her husband during his tirades.

Despite Jake's neurotic behavior, there have been periods where he had true insight into the lives of his children, such as during Boxing Daria in which he explained to Daria that while she was a difficult child to deal with due to her reclusive and jaded behavior, and they have tried to encourage a more social attitude; overall, they understood her and they accepted that while Daria was highly intelligent, she was not going to be like everyone else. In another episode when he was stranded with Trent Lane during a storm, he developed a rapport with Trent, appearing glad that Daria has an interest in boys.

His appearance is somewhat similar to the late president John F. Kennedy, with his suit, hairstyle, and face. Daria implied in "Snappy Anniversary" that Jake and his wife Helen's (who's appearance also mimic's Jacqueline Kennedy) first date was on "the day JFK was shot".

References

External links

• Outpost Daria - Character: Jake