Lower Slobbovia

Lower Slobbovia (also sometimes called Outer, Inner, Central, Upper or Lowest Slobbovia) is an imaginary nation used in conversation to denote a non-specific, faraway country—generally connoting a place which is underdeveloped, socially backward, remote, impoverished or unenlightened. First coined by Al Capp (1909–1979), the term has also been used by Americans to refer in an informal way to any foreign country of no particular distinction.

Origin

Created by cartoonist Al Capp as an occasional exotic setting for his classic hillbilly comic strip, Li'l Abner (1934–1977).^[1] Making its first appearance on April 4, 1946, frigid, faraway Lower Slobbovia was fashioned as a pointedly political satire of backward nations and foreign diplomacy.^[2] The term, having entered the language, remains a contemporary reference.^[3]

In Li'l Abner, the hapless residents of Lower Slobbovia were perpetually waist-deep in several feet of snow, and icicles hung from every frostbitten nose. The favorite dish of the starving natives was raw polar bear—and "vice-versa". Lower Slobbovians spoke with burlesque pidgin-Russian accents; the miserable frozen wasteland of Capp's invention abounded in incongruous Yiddish humor. General Bullmoose or Senator Jack S. Phogbound—Capp's caricatures of ruthless business interests and corrupt political interests, respectively—were often pitted against those of the pathetic Lower Slobbovians in a classic mismatch of haves versus have-nots.

Conceptually based on Siberia, or perhaps specifically on Birobidzhan, Capp's icy hellhole was ruled by King Stubbornovsky the Last (a.k.a. Good King Nogoodnik). The Slobbovian politicians were even more corrupt than their Dogpatch counterparts. Their monetary unit was the "Rasbucknik", of which one was worth nothing, and a large quantity was worth even less, due to the trouble of lugging them around. Conditions couldn't be worse, as tourists were readily assured by the miserable, highly vocal residents.

Besides biting political satire, Capp employed black humor, irony, social commentary, parody and slapstick in his Slobbovia stories; the series featured many memorable moments over the years. Lena the Hyena was a resident of Lower Slobbovia, as was Slobbovian correspondent Quentin Rasputinreynolds, (a parody of World War II journalist Quentin Reynolds.) The local children were read harrowing tales from Ice-sop's Fables, which were parodies of classic literary fables, (with titles like "Coldilocks and the Three Bares" and "Liddle Blue Ridink Hood") but with a darkly sardonic twist.

Liddle Noodnik, a local waif, was frequently employed to recite a farcical poem of greeting to visiting dignitaries, or sing the absurd Slobbovian national anthem:

We are citizens of Slobbovia

(Oh, that this should be happening to us!)

We are giving you back to the Indians

(But they are refusing, of cuss!)

PTUI on you, Slobbovia!

We are hating your icebound coast

Of all the countries in the world

WE ARE HATING SLOBBOVIA MOST!!

Trivia

• In the Bugs Bunny cartoon Rabbit Romeo (1957), Millicent the rabbit—who arrives in a crate at Elmer Fudd's home—is said to be from Slobovia (spelled with one "b" in the cartoon). She is loud, overweight, overbearing, socially inept, and speaks with a Russian or Eastern European accent.
• In the 1984 film Making The Grade, preppie dropout and slacker Palmer Woodrow (Dana Olsen) encounter's Hoover Academy's headmaster (played by the late brilliant character actor Gordon Jump) who asks him "You! Do I know you?". He doesn't - the character is being replaced by street kid Eddie Keaton (Judd Nelson), and Palmer Woodrow explains the discrepancy (and his presence) by claiming that "I'm the new exchange student...beelllccchhh...from Slobovia", to which Jump's hapless schoolmaster replies "Oh, yes. I think I remember something about that".^[4][5]
• Fred Mertz refers to it in an I Love Lucy episode ("First Stop", episode #14, aired Jan. 17, 1955) when at a run-down, decrepit, rest house outside Cincinnati, when traveling on their way to Los Angeles.
• The similarly fictitious cartoon nation of Elbonia in the Dilbert comic strip bears conceptual similarity to Lower Slobbovia.
• Lower Slobovia Road is off of Highway 146 near Midway School, south of Henrietta, TX.

Other examples of fictional dystopiae

• Paradiso in Why Worry? (1923)
• Klopstokia in Million Dollar Legs (1932)
• Freedonia in Duck Soup (1933)
• Tomainia and Bacteria in The Great Dictator (1940)
• Moronica in You Nazty Spy and I'll Never Heil Again (1940 and 1941, respectively)
• Vulgaria in both Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) & Don’t Drink The Water (1969)
• San Marcos in Bananas (1971)
• Ignoramia in the Lair Of The Lummox episode from The Ren & Stimpy Show (1994)
• Nibia in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)
• Kazakhstan in Borat (2006). (Although Kazakhstan actually exists, the burlesque version created by comic Sacha Baron Cohen is wholly imaginary.)
• Costaguana in Nostromo (1904)

Footnotes

1. ^ "Biography" of Lower Slobbovia
2. ^ Escape From Utopia - TIME Oct. 7, 1946
3. ^ Baker, Russell (1996-01-13). "Hillary in Lower Slobbovia - ''NY Times'' Jan. 13, 1996". Nytimes.com. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/13/opinion/observer-hillary-in-lower-slobbovia.html. Retrieved 2009-08-29. 
4. ^ Making The Grade at The Internet Movie Database
5. ^ http://bmoviechicks.com/?p=349

References

• "...[building a bridge in Outer Slobbovia. You can also challenge students to think about tides..." (Cornell University)
• Making The Grade at the Internet Movie Database
• "The more I talked to the agent the more it seemed that the early June trip to Rome was turning into a July trip to Outer Slobbovia." (Fodor's Travel Guides)
• - "ABC company has agreed to work with Outer Slobbovia to build a dam"
• "There's not much point in advertising your band in Outer Slobbovia"
• "OK he didn't say Outer Slobbovia. He was descended from people from a real country with a real name that I didn't care about."

See also

• Dystopia
• Dogpatch