The Katzenjammer Kids is the longest-running comic strip in American history. The strip, which began appearing in newspapers in 1897, was created by cartoonist Rudolph Dirks (1877–1968). The comic strip revolves around the shenanigans of Hans and Fritz Katzenjammer, young twins who delight in creating chaos. The boys outwardly appear to be innocent children, but they are, in reality, destructive brats who constantly torment and abuse everyone around them. Their favorite target is The Captain, who can never convince Mama Katzenjammer her sons are incorrigible (beyond reform). The word katzenjammer literally translates as "the howling of cats" and is German slang for a hangover.

The strip greatly popularized the emerging comic strip medium. Dirks was one of the first comic artists to employ word balloons containing his characters' speech. Much of the strip's humor resulted from the vaudeville German dialect the characters spoke. In 1912, a legal...