Shmoo

A shmoo (plural: shmoon, also shmoos) is a fictional cartoon creature. Created by Al Capp, they first appeared in his classic comic strip "Li'l Abner", on August 31, 1948.

Description

A shmoo is shaped like a plump bowling pin with legs. It has smooth skin, eyebrows and sparse whiskers - but no arms, nose or ears. Its feet are short and round but dexterous, as the shmoo's comic book adventures make clear. It has a rich gamut of facial expressions, and expresses love (often) by exuding hearts over its head.

Al Capp ascribed to the shmoo the following curious characteristics. His satirical intent should be evident:

*They reproduce asexually and are very prolific. They require no sustenance other than air.
* Naturally gentle, they require minimal care, and are ideal playmates for young children.
*Shmoos are delicious to eat, and are eager to be eaten. If a human looks at one hungrily, it will happily immolate itself, either by jumping into a frying pan, after which they taste like chicken, or into a roasting pan, after which they taste like steak. (Raw, they taste like oysters on the half-shell.)
*They also produce eggs (neatly packaged), milk (bottled grade-A), and butter - no churning required. Their pelts make perfect bootleather or house timber, depending on how thick you slice it.
*They have no bones, so there's absolutely no waste. Their eyes make the best suspender buttons, and their whiskers make perfect toothpicks. In short, they are simply the perfect ideal of a subsistence agricultural herd animal.
*The frolicking of shmoon is so entertaining (such as their staged "shmoosical comedies") that people no longer feel the need to watch television or go to the movies.
*Some of the more tasty varieties of shmoo are more difficult to catch. Usually shmoo hunters, now a sport in some parts of the country, utilize a paper bag, flashlight and stick to capture their shmoos. At night the light stuns them, then they can be whacked in the head with the stick and put in the bag for frying up later on.

The original story

In a sequence beginning in late August of 1948, Li'l Abner discovers the shmoos when he ventures into the forbidden "Valley of the Shmoon", following the mysterious and musical sound they make (from which their name derives). Abner is thrown off a cliff and into the valley below by a primitive "large gal" (as he addresses her), whose job is to guard the valley. (This character is never seen again). There, against the frantic protestations of Ol' Man Mose, (who apparently shepherds the shmoos when he's not making Sadie Hawkins Day predictions) Abner befriends the strange and charming creatures. "Shmoos," Mose warns, "is the greatest menace to hoomanity th' world has evah known." "Thass becuz they is so bad, huh?" asked Li'l Abner. "No, "stupid"," answers Mose, encapsulating one of life's profound paradoxes. "It's because they's so "good!!"

Having discovered their value- "wif these around, nobody won't nevah havta work no more!!"- Abner leads the shmoos out of the valley, where they become a sensation in Dogpatch and, quickly, the rest of the world. Captains of industry such as J. Roaringham Fatback, the "Pork King", become alarmed as sales of nearly all products decline, and in a series of images reminiscent of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the "Shmoo Crisis" unfolds. On Fatback's orders, a corrupt exterminator orders out "Shmooicide Squads" to wipe out the shmoos with a variety of firearms, which is depicted in a macabre and graphic sequence, with a tearful Li'l Abner misguidedly saluting the supposed "authority" of the extermination squads.

After the shmoos have been eliminated, Dogpatch's extortionate grocer Soft-Hearted John is seen cackling as he displays his wares- rotting meat and produce: "Now them mizzuble starvin' rats has t'come crawlin t'me fo' the necessities of life!! They complained 'bout mah prices befo'!! Wait'll they see th' new ones!!" The exterminator congratulates him.

However, it is soon discovered that Abner has secretly saved two shmoos- a boy and a girl. The boy, as a Dogpatch native, is required to run from the girl in the annual Sadie Hawkins Day race. When he is caught by her, in accordance with the rules of the race, they are joined in marriage by Marryin' Sam (whom they "pay" with a dozen eggs, two pounds of butter, and six cupcakes with chocolate frosting, all of which Sam reckons to be worth about ninety-eight cents). The already expanding shmoo family is last seen returning towards the Valley of the Shmoon.

The sequence, which ended just before Christmas of 1948, was a national sensation and set the stage for a major licensing phenomenon.

In a very few subsequent appearances in "Li'l Abner", the shmoos are identified by the U.S. military as a major threat to national security. (See also: "Li'l Abner")

Analysis

“The Shmoo, as every literate person must know, was one of history’s most brilliant utopian satires.” (The Baltimore Sun - 2002)

"Capp is at his allegorical best in the epics of the Shmoos, and later, the Kigmies" wrote comic strip historian Jerry Robinson. “Shmoos are the world's most amiable creatures, supplying all man's needs. Like a fertility myth gone berserk, they reproduced so prodigiously they threatened to wreck the economy" - if not western civilization as we know it, and ultimately society itself.

The much-copied storyline was a parable that was interpreted in many different ways at the outset of the Cold War. Superficially, the shmoo story concerns a cuddly creature that desires nothing more than to be a boon to mankind. But subtextually, Capp was stalking bigger game; the story has social, ethical and philosophical implications that are not easy to dismiss. The mythic tale ends on a deliberately ironic note. Shmoos are officially declared a menace, and systematically hunted down and slaughtered – because they were deemed "bad for business".

“After it came out both the left and the right attacked the shmoo. Communists thought he was making fun of socialism and Marxism. The right wing thought he was making fun of capitalism and the American way. Capp caught flak from both sides. For him it was an apolitical morality tale about human nature... I think [the shmoo] was one of those bursts of genius. He was a genius, there’s no question about that.” (Denis Kitchen - 2003) (See also: Al Capp)

Etymology

The actual origin of Capp’s word "shmoo" has been the subject of debate by linguists for decades, leading to the misconception that the term was derived from "schmoe" or "schmooze". However, “shmue” was a taboo Yiddish term for the female organ, the ultimate fertility symbol. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=6zPgjduXBcQC&pg=PA240&lpg=PA240&dq=%22al+capp%22+yiddish+words&source=web&ots=Z7AHEHSII4&sig=EcKDyys4rwnkrsnPiWEXz5huZ-4&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result "Perspectives On American English" by J.L. Dillard, published by Walter de Gruyter 1980] ] It’s one of many Yiddish slang variations that would find their way into "Li'l Abner". Capp has written that the shmoo metaphorically represented the limitless bounty of the Earth in all its richness - in essence, Mother Nature herself. In Li'l Abner's words, "Shmoos "hain't" make believe. The hull [whole] earth is one!!"

The term "shmoo" has entered the English language, defining highly technical concepts in no less than "three" separate fields of science. It's been used in discussions of socioeconomics, for instance. In economics, a "widget" is any material good which is produced through labor (extracted, refined, manufactured, or assembled) from a finite resource - in contrast to a "shmoo", which is a material good that reproduces itself and is captured or bred as an economic activity, (the original shmoo reproduces without requiring any material sustenance.) "If shmoos really existed, they would be a "free good." Erik Olin Wright uses the "parable of the shmoo" to introduce discussion of class structure and economics. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=YzuLVijEFbgC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=parable+of+the+shmoo&source=web&ots=Vz0OSRE-gC&sig=EzcNyRciPN7rxlHhM3ljUD0Z7tE Wright, Erik Olin. 1997. "Class Counts: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis". Cambridge University Press] ]

The shmoo's uncanny resemblance to budding yeast, combined with its near-limitless usefulness has also led to the character's adoption as a mascot of sorts for scientists studying yeast as a model organism for genetics and cell biology. In fact, the cellular bulge that is produced by an haploid yeast cell as a response to a pheromone from the opposite mating type (a or alpha) is referred to as a "shmoo", because cells that are undergoing mating and present this particular structure resemble the cartoon character. The whole process is known to biologists as "shmooing."

Finally, a "shmoo plot" is a technical term in electrical engineering, relating to the shmoo-shaped graphical patterns of test circuits. The term is also a verb: to “shmoo” is to run the test.

Licensing

“Of course, it was merchandised to death. I think they even had shmoo toilet seats.” (Al Capp – 1977)

An unexpected (and almost unprecedented) postwar merchandising phenomenon followed Capp's introduction of the shmoo in "Li'l Abner". As in the strip, shmoos suddenly appeared to be everywhere in 1949 and 1950 - including a Time magazine cover story. A paperback collection of the original sequence was a bestseller, and became the first cartoon book to achieve serious literary attention. Dolls, clocks, watches, jewelry, earmuffs, wallpaper, fishing lures, air fresheners, soap, ice cream, balloons, ashtrays, comic books, records, sheet music, toys, games, apparel, and other Shmoo paraphernalia were produced. The original continuity, "The Life And Times Of The Shmoo", and the 1959 "Return Of The Shmoo" have been collected in print many times since - most recently in 2002 - always to high sales figures. "Li'l Abner" expert and historian Denis Kitchen has recently edited a collection of the original Toby Press "Shmoo" comic books from the forties (with "Washable Jones"), published by Dark Horse.

After Capp's death in 1979, the shmoo gained its own animated series as part of "Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo" (which consisted of reruns of "The New Fred and Barney Show" mixed with the Shmoo's own cartoons; the two pairs of characters didn't actually "meet"). The characters "did" meet, however, in the early 1980s Flintstones spinoff "The Flintstone Comedy Show". The Shmoo appeared, incongruously, in the segment "Bedrock Cops" as a police officer alongside part-time officers Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. Needless to add, this Shmoo had little relationship to the "L'il Abner" character, other than a superficial appearance. A later Hanna-Barbera venture, "The New Shmoo", featured the character as an (inexplicably) shape-shifting mascot of Mighty Mysteries Comics, a group of teens who solve Scooby-doo-like mysteries. In this series, the Shmoo could magically "morph" into any shape. None of these revisionist attempts to revive the venerable character was successful.

Trivia

*Capp introduced many other allegorical creatures in "Li'l Abner" over the years - including Kigmies, Nogoodniks, Bald Iggles, Mimikniks, Money Ha-Has, Shminks, Abominable Snow-Hams, and Bashful Bulganiks - but none have had the same cultural impact as the Shmoo.
*Shmoos were air-dropped to hungry West Berliners by America's 17th Military Airport Squadron during the Soviet Union's blockade in 1948. "When the candy-chocked Shmoos were dropped a near-riot resulted." (Reported in Newsweek 9-5-49 and 10-11-48)
*Shmoos invaded the 1948 Presidential election, as challenger Thomas Dewey accused incumbent Harry S. Truman of "promising everything including the Shmoo!" (Reported in Newsweek 9-5-48)
*A Shmoo Savings Bond was issued by the U.S. Treasury Department in 1949. Al Capp accompanied President Truman at the bond's unveiling ceremony.
*In the movie "Lucky Number Slevin", Morgan Freeman's character, "The Boss", refers to the shmoo, recounting its original features as a source of plenty.
*French artists Etienne Chambaud and David Jourdan have written "Economie de l'abondance ou La courte vie et les jours heureux" a new adventure of "Jacques le fataliste et son maître" from Diderot, based on the discovery by Jacques of the shmoo.
*In the "M*A*S*H" episode "Who Knew?", Colonel Potter displays in his office an inflatable shmoo toy that he purchased for his grandson.
*In Larry Niven's Known Space stories, an alien species known as the Bandersnatch are described as being "Smooth as a shmoo."
*In the novel "The Forge of God" by Greg Bear, shmoo is the name humans give to the race of robots that visits Earth, (due to their shape).
*Frank Sinatra has a line in "On the Town" about cops "multiplyin' like shmoos."
*In the 1990 movie "Book of Love", the character Crutch wins a stuffed Shmoo at a carnival.
*In the commentary for "End of Evangelion", Amanda Winn Lee comments that the Mass Production Evas look like the Shmoo.

For further reading

*Capp, Al, "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE SHMOO" (1948) Simon & Shuster
*Capp, Al, "AL CAPP'S BALD IGGLE: The Life It Ruins May Be Your Own" (1956) Simon & Shuster
*Capp, Al, "THE RETURN OF THE SHMOO" (1959) Simon & Shuster
*Capp, Al, "THE BEST OF LI'L ABNER" (1978) Holt, Rinehart & Winston
*Capp, Al, "LI'L ABNER DAILIES: 1948 Volume 14" (1992) Kitchen Sink
*Capp, Al, "LI'L ABNER DAILIES: 1949 Volume 15" (1992) Kitchen Sink
*Capp, Al, "LI'L ABNER DAILIES: 1954 Volume 20" (1994) Kitchen Sink
*Capp, Al, "LI'L ABNER DAILIES: 1956 Volume 22" (1995) Kitchen Sink
*Capp, Al, "LI'L ABNER DAILIES: 1959 Volume 25" (1997) Kitchen Sink
*Capp, Al, "THE SHORT LIFE AND HAPPY TIMES OF THE SHMOO" (2002) Overlook
*Capp, Al, "AL CAPP'S LI'L ABNER: The Frazetta Years" - 4 Volumes (2003) Dark Horse
*Kitchen, Denis, ed. "AL CAPP'S SHMOO: The Complete Comic Books" (2008) Dark Horse

References

External links

* [http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/features/big%20events/big-events.asp Page listing the "Biggest events in comic strips", including the Shmoo debut]
* [http://www.geocities.com/corvenpage_miami2/Scripts/OtherCartoons/Schmoo.html Shmoo Animated History.]
* [http://www.deniskitchen.com/docs/new_shmoofacts.html The Shmoo Fact Sheet]
* [http://www.deniskitchen.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=bios.shmoo The Shmoo "biography" by Denis Kitchen]