Meet Mrs. Johanssen (Part 1)

Mrs. Johanssen is a minor background character who shows up more often than one would expect—in five episodes, to be precise (“Café Disaffecto,” “That Was Then, This Is Dumb,” “The Old and the Beautiful,” “Psycho Therapy,” and “Mart of Darkness”). She even has lines to say each time she shows up, putting her on the same show-time level as Andrea. Why she appears so often is unknown, as her character is not on the surface an appealing one. Aside from having a short temper, she is grossly overweight with consequent medical problems, and has bad impulse control when she is confronted with food, particularly fattening food and chocolate. This problem is treated as a running joke in the TV series, though her condition is often implied to be life-threatening.

The spelling of Johanssen here is taken from a webpage on MTV’s Daria website where she has a brief monologue. Two variations on this spelling are also carelessly given at that site with three of the illustrations in the site’s alter-ego flipbook (Johannsen and Johansen). Fanfics and Daria fandom websites spell her name in a variety of other ways. It is rather annoying for a former editor to read.

One of the alter egos on the MTV site shows Mrs. Johanssen wearing a toga on which the astrological symbol for Virgo appears, part of an incomplete series of zodiac-related background characters. This might imply that she is a virgin (because of her weight problem?), but the “Mrs.” indicates she is or was once married. For the heck of it, I assume she was born under the sign of Virgo, between the end of August and the end of September. One makes do with what one has.

More on Mrs. Johanssen later. She certainly gets dumped on a lot, both officially and otherwise, because of her weight.