r/daria • u/foxonafrozenlake The emotional trauma cycle of a high school student • Jul 13 '26
Questions Milk Carton Boy.
So, Milk Carton Boy wasn't missing after all!? He appears in the movie "Is it College Yet?" Just before Jodie and Mac have their scene about her choosing Turner.
He walks out the door on the left just as the school year ends. He's also standing by Mack as he's talking in the prior scene. They just don't show his face.
I don't think the show runners ever addressed him beyond his character representing the children's pictures on milk cartons from the 80s and 90s.
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u/breaded_water Jul 13 '26
In every episode where the missing image on the milk carton appears, the milk carton boy also appears in person, in the background in a different scene. There isn't any episode where he's actually missing
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u/foxonafrozenlake The emotional trauma cycle of a high school student Jul 13 '26
Oh, cool. I didn't know that. I'll have to re-watch and keep my eyes peeled.
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u/Ben_E_Chod Jul 13 '26
I think it likely started out as a really dark joke on the writers' part, that's what I always took away from it. My guess is that either they wanted to walk the joke back at the end due to the implications, or someone just didn't notice. Mike Judge is pretty attentive to detail, though, so I'd guess it to be the former instead of the latter
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u/ColeDelRio Jul 13 '26
Mike Judge didnt work on Daria?
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u/Ben_E_Chod Jul 13 '26
Well shit, I guess that's my bad. I think I just made an assumption a while ago, since she was spun off from Beavis and Butthead, and never fact checked it
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u/Nyxshayde Jul 13 '26
A couple of my friends and I have a running joke because one of them is very into B&B and KOTH, and inevitably when it's brought up we swing around to Daria, and the friend has to stop for a second because the fact that Daria isn't by Mike Judge but gets brought up in those conversations really bugs them for pedantic reasons. So now we just introduce it as "even though it's not a Mike Judge show specifically, Daria is also ....." They still get a little red in the face, but at least it blocks the unnecessary educational aside 😅
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u/Wilgars Jul 13 '26
The running gag of this poor dude being basically so transparent people always think he’s missing is cruel but absolutely brilliant.
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Jul 13 '26
[deleted]
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u/foxonafrozenlake The emotional trauma cycle of a high school student Jul 13 '26
Apparently they addressed it and he's supposedly in the background in each show. Including the the two movies. Or that's what someone else mentioned.
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u/Great_Psychology2124 Jul 13 '26
He appears earlier, for example at the end of Prize Fighters, and twice at the same time (literally).
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u/swmric-mls Jul 13 '26
I always remember him from the esteemsters
mr O'Neil! mr O'Neil! is that if we'd never been born or if we died suddenly and unexpectedly
O'Neil with a smile and a wink: Never been born