[1] The strip centers on an immigrant Irishman named Jiggs, a former hod carrier who came into wealth in the United States by winning a million dollars in a sweepstakes.

His constant attempts to sneak out with his old gang of boisterous, rough-edged pals, eat corned beef and cabbage (known regionally as "Jiggs dinner"), and hang out at the local tavern were often thwarted by Maggie, his formidable, social-climbing (and rolling-pin wielding) harridan of a wife, their lovely young daughter Nora, and infrequently their lazy son Ethelbert, later known as Sonny.

Also a character presented in the strip (portrayed as a miserly borrower) was named, fittingly, Titus Canby ("tight as can be").

The occasional malapropisms and left-footed social blunders of these upward mobiles were gleefully lampooned in vaudeville and popular song, and formed the basis for Bringing Up Father.

[3] Varied interpretations of McManus's work often highlight difficult issues of ethnicity and class, such as the conflicts over assimilation and social mobility that second- and third-generation immigrants confronted.

[4] A cross-country tour that the characters took in September 1939 into 1940 gave the strip a big promotional boost and raised its profile in the cities they visited.

McManus was inspired by The Rising Generation, a musical comedy by William Gill that he had seen as a boy in St. Louis, Missouri's Grand Opera House, where his father was manager.

[7] In 1926, McManus added a Sunday topper strip above Bringing Up Father, beginning with No Brains But (January 10 to May 9, 1926) and Good Morning, Boss!

Starting on June 13, 1926, McManus changed the topper to Rosie's Beau, a revival of his previous Sunday page (which ran from October 29, 1916 to April 7, 1918).

[8] On April 17, 1938, an absent-minded character named Sir Von Platter in Rosie's Beau realized he was in the wrong place and climbed down into the first panel of Bringing Up Father, arriving in the living room of Maggie and Jiggs.

In Italy, Jiggs and Maggie became Arcibaldo e Petronilla and the strip, published by the children magazine Corriere dei Piccoli since 1921, was very popular.

In Finland, the strip was called Vihtori ja Klaara and appeared in the major daily Uusi Suomi from 1929 until the paper folded in 1991.

Bringing Up Father at the Seashore opened on Broadway at the Manhattan Opera House in 1921, but closed after 18 performances; a revised version reopened in 1928.

According to The Holloway Pages' history of the strip: "Reportedly, this version had Maggie following a fleeing Jiggs from Ireland to a yacht headed for Spain, but the story was halted frequently for various vaudeville acts.

[16] Sponsored by Lever Brothers, the Bringing Up Father radio series aired on the Blue Network from July 1 to September 30, 1941, starring Mark Smith (1887–1944) as Jiggs and Agnes Moorehead as Maggie.

[19] A series of live-action silent comedies featured comedian Johnny Ray as Jiggs, Margaret Cullington as Maggie and Laura La Plante as daughter Nora.