COMICAL CATCHWORDS

Once upon a time, the funnies were filled with funny words.

Of course, if you say any word enough times, it begins to sound completely ridiculous.

Try it. Pick a word at random, then say it about twenty times.

Shirt.

Shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt.

Pretty silly, eh?

Given that you can take almost any regular, everyday word and render it laughable, imagine creating your own silly words... and having them burned into the consciousness of millions of people over a long period of time. That’s the legacy of the great comic strips of the past.


Zippy, 28 December 2006. ©2006 King Features Syndicate. [Click to embiggen.]

Bill Griffith’s Zippy may very well be the finest meta-comic strip out there. Above, Griffith reminisces about the great nonsense words and phrases the comics have contributed to the popular culture. How many of them do you remember?

Arnold Zwicky, in a post from early 2007, provides the backstory for the words in Griffith’s strip. You may be surprised to learn that the use of the word “Jeep” in Elzie Segar’s immortal Thimble Theatre strip (birthplace of Popeye and his assorted hangers-on) predated its use to describe the G.P. (General Purpose) vehicle of WWII.

One of the great coiners of nonsense phrases was the late Bill Holman, creator of Smokey Stover. Holman popularized the word “Foo” (see if you can count how many times it appears in the strip below) - a word that was picked up in WWII and used to describe mysterious aerial phenomena or UFO sightings (“foo fighters”).


Smokey Stover. ©1941 News Syndicate Co., Inc. [Click to embiggen.]

Notary Sojac. 1506 Nix Nix. Those nutty phrases flew from Holman’s prolific, pun-packed pen. Finding them buried in a Sunday Smokey Stover comics page was one of the small joys of childhood for me.

What dopey Comical Catchwords do you remember?

RHET BUTLER

Another Rhetorical Question from Rhet (orical) Butler.

TRIAL BALLOON-KNOT

Brewster Rockit, 9 March 2010. ­©2010 Tribune Media Services, Inc. [Click to embiggen.]

To me there’s nothing quite as sweet
As a Comic Strip Joke that’s indiscreet.

I love it when someone manages to slip a turd past the Newspaper Funny-Strip censors.

Some people may say that this is just another sign of the times: further evidence of the Vulgarization of America. And it’s hard to argue with that. After all, would you have ever seen an Asshole Joke in Peanuts? Despite all of his numerous faults, Charlie Brown never made sport of the Ol’ Brown-Eye.

Coarse? Perhaps. Juvenile? Certainly. But I laughed.

Beats the crap out of Brenda Starr, anyway.

RUBE

I refer, of course, to the late Mr. Reuben Lucius Goldberg, an early-20th Century Renaissance man. A sculptor, engineer, inventor, writer, and cartoonist, he founded the National Cartoonists Society... and every year, the Society presents the Reuben Award to the Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Goldberg created several successful (if little remembered) comic strips, including Boob McNutt and Ike and Mike (They Look Alike). His most enduring contribution to American popular culture, however, was the Rube Goldberg machine, a device of ridiculous complexity that would perform a basic, mundane task. Using a maximum of effort to achieve minimal results, the “Rube Goldberg” has now entered the language: Webster’s defines it as “accomplishing by extremely complex, roundabout means what seemingly could be done simply.”

Goldberg’s legacy lives on as people create - mostly for entertainment - his eponymous devices. Witness this Honda advertisement from 2003, “Cog”:



Amazing. But now the group OK Go has ratcheted up the Goldberg-Meter to a new level with their music video “This Too Shall Pass.” Check it out:



If you hate the music, mute the sound... but by all means, watch the video. It’s unbelievable.

Nitpickers may say that the machines in these videos are not true Rube Goldbergs, since they don’t actually accomplish an everyday task that would be more easily done by simpler means. Squeezing toothpaste onto a toothbrush, for example... or wiping your chin with a napkin. But that’s mere pedantry. It’s all about the entertainment value, innit?

And old Rube would be proud, I’m sure.

[Tip o’ th’ Elisson fedora to the Mistress of Sarcasm, who turned me on to the OK Go video.]

I’M DEAD, DAMMIT

Art Clokey and Gumby, his famous creation.

From Meryl Yourish comes the sad news: Art Clokey, creator of Gumby, is dead, having passed away in his sleep yesterday.

The beloved Gumby, along with his boon companion Pokey the horse, was brought to life through “Claymation,” Clokey’s version of stop-motion animation. Gumby’s lopsided head was inspired by Clokey’s father’s hairstyle, a hairstyle he knew only through photographs - for his father had been killed in a car wreck when Clokey was only eight years old.

A little-known fact: Gumby was modeled not only on Clokey’s father, but on the Golem of Prague, who was also created from clay and subsequently animated. The original name for the character, “Golemby,” was nixed in favor of “Gumby” by the Wrigley company, one of the sponsors of the Howdy Doody Show.

Clokey’s clay creations have always been popular, but in the 1980’s, Eddie Murphy’s unforgettable characterization of Gumby on SNL brought the Green Gumster to the attention of a whole new audience. Murphy’s Gumby was an ill-tempered old Jewish guy - “I’m Gumby, dammit!” - and the skits in which he appeared were pants-pissingly funny.

With Gumby and Pokey, and with his other creations Davey and Goliath (characters in an eponymous show with a Christian theme), Art Clokey made his living bringing clay to life. Alas, now he is naught but lifeless clay.

Ave atque vale, Art Clokey!

ANOTHER GUEST SHOT

Zippy, America’s favorite pinhead, makes a guest appearance in today’s Mutts.


Mutts, October 17, 2009. ©2009 Patrick McDonnell.

It’s not the first time the Zipster has popped up in another strip.

But back to Mutts. Patrick McDonnell is a true genius. Not only is his strip funny and sweet-tempered, but McDonnell is a playful fellow who loves slipping in sly references to other artists in his Sunday strips.

Here are a couple of his “tribute panels.” Can you recognize the source material?


Mutts tribute panels. ©2009 Patrick McDonnell.

THE MARVELOUS WORLD OF DISNEY

Marvel Mouse comes to save the day.
Jack Kirby-style Mickey Mouse by Craig Yoe, via a link at Super Punch.

[News Item: Walt Disney Co., the world’s biggest media company, outflanked Hollywood competitors while enhancing its film lineup with the $4 billion acquisition of comic-book pioneer Marvel Entertainment Inc. (credit Bloomberg)]

The clubhouse was in an uproar as the new members filled the meeting room. It took a full twenty minutes of jockeying, shoving, negotiating, and wheedling before everyone found a seat.

Then followed the traditional opening call-and-response:

Phone: Who’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me?

Antiphone: M-I-C-K-E-Y   M-O-U-S-E!

As soon as the cheers began to die down, Mickey pounded the gavel. “This meeting of the Mickey Mouse Club will now come to order,” he announced. Despite its squeakiness, his voice conveyed years of authority... authority that, on occasion, had demanded enforcement. Pegleg Pete, standing by the door with an ominous-looking club in his hand, caught Mickey’s eye and winked, receiving a barely perceptible nod in acknowledgement.

“First item on the agenda. Will Donald please read the minutes of the last meeting?”

Fifty sets of eyeballs rolled heavenward almost at once. Everyone had already received the minutes by e-mail, but this was Mickey’s cruel whim... to make everyone listen to the Duck quack them out, word by painful word. The aftereffects of a laryngectomy, undergone in late 2006 to excise a fast-growing vocal cord sarcoma, only made it worse.

A hand shot up, a heavy steel hammer clutched in its fist. “I move... that the minutes be approved... as written!”

“Thor, you can’t make a motion to approve the minutes... you Marvel guys weren’t here last month.” Christ, thought Mickey. All that drama. Those italics! And the guy was as dumb as a sack of Mjolnirs, at least in his Thor identity. Yeesh.

Goofy made the motion in place of Thor, and Minnie seconded. A quick vote ensued and the minutes were accepted.

The rest of the meeting proceeded without issue, except for one near-fracas that got started when the overhead lights kept reflecting off the Silver Surfer’s metallic skin and shining in the Hulk’s eyes. Only the tag-team intervention of Snow White and Cinderella prevented a violent incident.

As things began winding down for the evening and the closing ceremonies began, the “toss Mickey in the air and catch him” ritual was more exciting than usual, as the new members of the Club took their places. The Hulk was a little overenthusiastic on the third toss, and Mickey sailed straight up through the skylight a good two hundred fifty feet. But Reed Richards - Mr. Fantastic himself! - averted possible disaster by whipping out an elastic arm, catching the Mouse, and depositing him, slightly shaken, safely on the ground.

Memo to self, Mickey thought. Wait until the Hulk reverts to his Bruce Banner persona. Then, have Pegleg Pete kick the crap out of him. The Dwarves can help - they’re masters of the “padlock in the athletic sock” trick.

As the clubhouse emptied out, Mickey, still a little shaken from his unexpected aerial adventure, fell into step alongside Donald, Goofy, and the silent Pluto. There was a certain amount of comfort in being there with the Old Guard, the cadre that had been together since the bad old days of the Three Little Pigs Putsch back in ’32. The Mouse, the Duck, the Dawg, and the Dog.

They walked silently for a while before Goofy spoke. “Shore is different with all those new guys. H-hyuk!”

“Yeah,” said the Duck. “But some things never change. Did you see the way Princess Ariel was eyeballing Ben Grimm? Musta thought he was some kind of animated chunk of coral.”

“She’s gonna have to go through Beauty to get to him,” observed the Mouse. “She had him in her sights since she first got the news about the merger. And I gotta admit, the ‘Beauty and the Thing’ angle might be worth following up on. Look into that, willya, Goofy?”

“Shore, Boss! Hu-hyuk!”

Mickey rolled his eyes. I love him like a brother, he thought. But why does he have to be so damned stupid?

In the gathering darkness, a few hundred paces behind Mickey and his Old Guard friends, Doctor Doom trudged along beside Spider-Man and Captain America.

“I care not that he now styles himself ‘Marvel Mouse’! As sure as I breathe, I shall not continue to vow fealty to a filthy rodent!” he hissed from behind his sinister-looking metal mask... the very mask that had inspired George Lucas as he created the immortal Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith.

“Cool your jets, Doc,” said Spider-Man. “The walls have ears... and around here, the trees probably do as well. Ix-nay on the edition-say!”

Captain America nodded. “Spidey’s right, Doc - we all feel the same as you do. But let’s get the, ahhh, lay of the land before we make our move, OK?”

Doom grumbled his reluctant assent.

“Say, you wouldn’t happen to have any more of that Latverian brandy, would you? I think we all could use a drink.”

SCREWY SQUIRRELS

Back in the 1940’s, the late, great Tex Avery directed five animated cartoons for MGM that featured Screwy Squirrel, a character whose antics were bizarre and over-the-top enough to make Daffy Duck look Amish.

Despite his lack of Redeeming Personality Traits - many people consider him to be merely annoying - I like Screwy Squirrel. You wouldn’t want him living in your neighborhood, but it’s fun to watch him wreak havoc on his victims... as long as you are not one of them.

But Screwy is a cartoon character. Real squirrels (or “skwerls,” as Gradual Dazzle likes to call ’em) do not talk or hit dogs over the head with various heavy objects. Their annoying traits are pretty much limited to invading the occasional attic, demolishing gardens, or devouring the contents of bird feeders.

Most squirrels in the eastern United States are a nondescript grey color, as befits a species known as the Eastern Grey Squirrel. However, during my recent travels to New Jersey and Alabama, I was reminded that not all squirrels are grey.

For example, there are black squirrels. These are simply a variety of the Eastern Grey; they may be found wherever grey squirrels live and in fact constitute a majority of the squirrel population in some places. In Princeton, black squirrels were a common sight back in my Student Days, and apparently they are still plentiful there.


Black squirrel, a common sight in Princeton.

OK, black squirrels may be unusual enough, but I’m still trying to figure out what the deal is with the strange-looking squirrels we saw in Prattville, Alabama, at the Capitol Hill golf complex. They looked and acted almost more like meerkats than squirrels, standing up on their hind legs and chittering in derision at any duffed shots. And the coloration was like unto a mashup of Red Squirrel, Grey Squirrel, a splotch of black on the face and white on the snout. Bizarre, I tells ya...


Alabama Golf Course squirrel. WTF kind of squirrel is this, anyway?

...clearly the result of a diet of Wayward Golf Balls, if you ask me.

R.I.P. MICKEY MOUSE:A 100-WORD OBITUARY

Well, not Mickey Mouse precisely... but Wayne Allwine, who voiced Mickey beginning in 1983, inheriting the Mickey Mantle (as it were) from Jimmy MacDonald, who had himself inherited it from Walt Disney.

Allwine passed away May 18 from complications of diabetes - and from repeatedly having his nutsack squeezed in a vise in order to propel his voice into those upper octaves.

Requiescat in pace, good Mr. Allwine. You leave an enviable legacy: Your squeaky voice will live on for centuries after you, embedded in late 20th-century American culture like unto a fly in amber. It is no small honor.

[Tip o’ th’ Elisson fedora to Cartoon Brew for the background.]

A COMIC STRIP EVEN I CAN UNDERSTAND

Pearls Before Swine ­©2009 Stephan Pastis. [Click to embiggen.]

I always knew Stephan Pastis was deranged. This clinches it.

Here he reveals the best worst-kept secret about Yiddish: It’s the best language in the world to use when you want to insult someone. And it works equally well whether the insultee understands you or not.

Update: It looks as though this Yiddish shtick is the Theme o’ th’ Week. I’ll post new strips here as they appear.

RHET BUTLER

Today’s Rhetorical Question from Rhet Butler is courtesy of She Who Must Be Obeyed, who asked this very question while reading today’s paper.

PROPAGREENDA

[Click to embiggen.]

Hilary Price must’ve read this post.

SPONGEBOGIE

SpongeBogie.

My favorite Porous Yellow Dude and his friends mangle the Classics in this post at Boudicca’s Voice.

RHET BUTLER

The last time I invented a Cartoon Character, it never went anywhere…but the essay I wrote about creating Super Baciagalupe was good enough to gain me entry to a major Ivy League university. Which, I suppose, goes to show you that there’s no predicting what those double-domes are looking for in an applicant.

Hey, this guy sounds like a psycho! What’s our target percentage of nutjobs in the class of ’74, anyway? Thirty-seven? Hey, he’s in.

But that was then, and this is now…which means it’s time for a new Cartoon Character, someone who can do battle on the Funny Pages against the likes of Ziggy, Dennis the Menace, and Marmaduke in the One-Panel Gag arena.

Meet Rhet – short for Rhetorical – Butler.

His speciality is asking questions to which the answer is obvious or unnecessary. Some examples:

• “Will you be wanting me to lay out your clothes, Sir, or would you prefer to traipse around the city with your Dangly Bits out?”
  
  
• “Would you like for me to clean your shoes, Sir, or would you just like to continue tracking dog excrement on the Oriental rug?”
  
  
• “Shall I pour Eric a glass of single malt Scotch?”

So: What do you think? Do you think Rhet Butler stands a chance against Ziggy?

STEAMY McDREAMY

No, I’m not talking about a couple of beefcake medicos from “Grey’s Anatomy.”

I’m talking about Steampunk, that peculiar literary and artistic genre that conflates the Victorian/Edwardian Age of Steam aesthetic with anachronistic technology. I first came into contact with it when I read J. W. Jeter’s Morlock Night back in 1979. Jeter, in fact, coined the term “steampunk,” and he is widely credited with establishing the genre with that novel, but perhaps the best example of the type is The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Gibson (who invented the word “cyberspace”) and Sterling, both of whom had been pioneers in the so-called cyberpunk arena, set their story in an alternative world in which Charles Babbage’s steam-driven “difference engine,” a mechanical computer, brought the Information Revolution smack-dab into the middle of the Steam Age.

It made for an interesting story, but it also inspired many other writers to create their own strange worlds, worlds in which electricity played a minor role (and electronics a nonexistent one), replaced by steam and clockwork. Sometimes their stories were set in Victorian times, sometimes even earlier. And some stories incorporated fantasy elements to varying degrees. Thus, graphic novel opuses such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, set in the late 19th century, full of anachronistic clockwork technology, and populated with characters from miscellaneous literary fiction: Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, Allan Quatermain, Dr, Jekyll, et al. Or bizarre pastiches such as “The Amazing Screw-On Head.”



Ya gotta love “The Amazing Screw-On Head.” Airships, machine guns, werewolves, robots, a Zombie Villain, alien demi-gods...and Abe Lincoln. “I’m so excited, I just made water in my pantaloons!”

[You could even make the case that a film like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a variant of steampunk. Dieselpunk, perhaps?]

Steampunk comes alive in worlds of polished wood, brass, copper, and crystal rather than plastic. Some people have taken it farther than simply writing about these worlds. They have begun dressing the part...and transforming objects so that they fit within the steampunk aesthetic.

Take a look at this clockworky item here, for example.


Image: Richard Nagy.

With its elegant wood case, brass mechanism, and winding key, one could easily mistake it for a music box. But no:


Image: Richard Nagy.

It’s a frickin’ Lap-Top Size Computational Engine! Just insert the key and turn it on.

This little gem was created by one Richard Nagy, AKA the Datamancer, whose work was among several imaginative steampunk creations showcased recently at Newsweek.com. Another mad genius is Sean Slattery, AKA Hieronymus Isambard “Jake” von Slatt, who operates a site called The Steampunk Workshop. Jake does a lot of interesting arty stuff with dangerous chemicals - I like this guy already! - but that’s just part of the picture. He also likes to tinker with computer components, converting them into brass, wood, and copper masterpieces that look like they were built rather than pooped out of a mold.

Check this out:


Image: Sean Slattery.

This keyboard was created by laboriously attaching vintage typewriter keys to a “vintage” IBM keyboard and setting the whole into a handcrafted brass frame. Jake has complete details - including video - at his site, in case you want to make your own. Here’s a closer look, showing the brass frame:


Image: Sean Slattery.

And as if that were not enough, check out the flat-screen Image Display, appropriately ’punked up:


Image: Sean Slattery.

Perfect for blogging inscribing Interconnected World Wide Web-Logs back in the Gaslight Era.

Damn! I want me one of these! And now, I must needs go take a bit of snuff.

[Tip o’ th’ Elisson fedora to Velociman, who sent me the link to Jake’s amazing site.]

HEY, ROCKY...

...watch me pull an Old Story out of my hat.

A recent post over at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear reminded me of a brief brush I once had with Cartoon Royalty.

It was the summer of 1974 and I was newly graduated from college. My friend Virginia Steve and I were each headed to our separate destinies: me to a job with the Great Corporate Salt Mine in Texas, he to law school at the University of Virginia. And so we decided to spend the last summer before the Shit-Hammer of Adulthood descended upon us in a frantic, Hunter S. Thompson-inspired cross-country trek, a trek that would take us from northern Virginia through Denver, the Rockies, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, Las Vegas, San Diego, Tijuana, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Spokane, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rushmore, Chicago, and back home. Ten thousand miles in one month.

While we were in Los Angeles, we spent innumerable hours cruising up and down Sunset Boulevard. And one of the attractions we happened upon was Dudley Do-Right’s Emporium, right across the street from the Chateau Marmont hotel.


Dudley Do-Right’s Emporium.

We spent some time looking at the various tchotchkes and cartoon-related swag in the Emporium - all Rocky and Bullwinkle-related merchandise, of course - and then noticed that adjacent to the Emporium sat Jay Ward Productions, the actual studio where Rocky and Bullwinkle and all Jay Ward’s other animated productions were created. Of course we had to knock on the door.

The gentleman who greeted us introduced himself as one Bill Hurtz. Steve and I knew that Hurtz was one of the directors of the Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, but at the time we didn’t know that Hurtz’s animation pedigree extended all the way back to Disney’s Fantasia and Pinocchio...and included the animated titles for the original Ocean’s Eleven and Vertigo.

It was after hours at the studio, and rather than simply sending us off with a handshake, Bill was gracious enough to give these two scruffy-looking young men a guided tour of the entire Jay Ward operation. Much of their work these days, he explained, was in commercials: Cap’n Crunch, for example. Modeled on Jay Ward, the Cap’n was, with that distinctive walrus moustache.

After we said our adieux, Steve and I walked back towards Sunset Boulevard to retrieve our car...and who should we encounter but an immediately recognizable portly redheaded gentleman with a walrus moustache: Jay Ward hizzownself. We introduced ourselves, thanked him for the studio’s kind hospitality, and then went our separate way.

Jay Ward, alas, is gone now, having passed on to the Animation Studio in the Sky back in 1989.

And, sadly, Dudley Do-Right’s Emporium is also no more, having been demolished in 2004. When I was in Los Angeles last, back in the summer of 2005, there was no evidence of its existence save for the statue of Rocky and Bullwinkle that still stands in its old spot in front of where the shop once was.


Gone...but never to be forgotten.

SIMPSON WARS

It was only a matter of time before someone put together a Simpsonized version of Star Wars. Here’s a parody of the Simpsons intro sequence by animator Rich Cando.

Tip o’ th’ Elisson fedora to that Savannah-bloggin’ Dizzy Girl.

(ANNOYED GRUNT)

Elisson and Matata visit the Kwik-E-Mart.

I’ve always wanted to do a guest shot on the Simpsons.

“Mmmmm...shitblogging...”

In case you’re wondering about the title of this post, that’s the what the script says whenever Homer makes that familiar “D’oh!” sound. It’s Dan Castellaneta’s shorter and punchier version of actor James Finlayson’s trademark sound of exasperation. You’ve heard Finlayson’s “D’ohhhhhhhh!” if you’ve watched enough Laurel and Hardy or W. C. Fields movies.

SYNCRO-VOX? OR BOTOX?

Stevie Nicks (L) and Clutch Cargo (R). What do they have in common?

The Missus and I were having a discussion with our friends Marc and Shelly yesterday when the topic of Botox came up.

It seems Shelly was watching Charles Osgood’s Sunday morning television show earlier in the day, a show that featured an interview with Stevie Nicks. Oldsters like me will remember Stevie Nicks as the singer-songwriter of Fleetwood Mac - not a noodle dish with grated Cadillac, but, rather, a pop band that saw its greatest success in the 1970’s and 1980’s when Nicks was a member.

Shelly figured out that ol’ Stevie - now 59 years old but with quite a few cocaine-fueled Years o’ Dissipation behind her - must have had some major Botox work recently, because during the interview her face was almost completely expressionless. Only her lips seemed to be capable of movement, as though she were a human ventriloquist dummy.

Hmmm. A face that was completely immobile save for the lips? Where had I seen that before?

That's when it struck me...



Clutch Cargo! Remember him?

Clutch Cargo! Exemplar of Extreme Animation Cheepnis, with theme music consisting solely of Flute and Bongo, possessed of that same ventriloquist dummy quality!

Clutch Cargo’s bizarre style of low-budget animation has heretofore been credited to the Syncro-Vox optical printing system, but now we know the truth. Botox has apparently been around since 1959!

THIS COULD BE TROUBLESOME

Editorial cartoon by Gary Varvel. (Click to embiggen.)
­©2007 Creators Syndicate.

Uh-oh.

[Tip o’ th’ Elisson fedora to Catfish.]