The Shmoo Review

What is a Shmoo? I would always get the snuffleupagus from Sesame Street and the Shmoo confused.  Thinking that shmoos were hairy and large, I called the bush in my front yard one and concocted a story about the gnomes that lived in it. My students would often ask for proof, like a picture, but other than showing them an over grown bush, I had no proof the gnomes, so the story couldn't go on for long. I also called one of my former bosses a shmoo, only cause she had a mustache and her whiskers stuck out to the side. LOL  Well, that's a better description of a shmoo, or at least the image of the creature.  So, I decided to look up exactly what a shmoo is, it was a trip back in time to the old comic characters that I read in the newspaper comics section, what I saw after school or Saturday morning in the cartoon lineups on the major networks. Let's find out about it, shall we?

A shmoo (plural: shmoon, also shmoos) is a fictional cartoon creature. Created by Al Capp (1909–1979), it first appeared in his classic comic strip Li'l Abner on August 31, 1948, and quickly became a postwar national craze in the USA.

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 dexstrous, as the shmoo's comic book adventures make clear. It has a rich gamut of facial expressions, and often expresses love by extruding hearts over its head. Cartoonist Al Capp ascribed to the shmoo the following curious characteristics. His satirical intent should be evident:
They reproduce asexually and are incredibly prolific, multiplying exponentially faster than rabbits. They require no sustenance other than air.

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 broiling pan, after which they taste like steak. When roasted they taste like pork, and when baked they taste like catfish. (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 boot leather 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.

Naturally gentle, they require minimal care, and are ideal playmates for young children. The frolicking of shmoo 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.

Okay, they are shaped like bowling pens with legs, and are great to eat, and want to be eaten.  Not my idea of a shmoo, but hey, I didn't create the character. There is a great story about how Li'l Abner discovered them and I thought I would share a tid bit of it with you.

In a sequence beginning in late August 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 a naked, heavily bearded old man who shepherds the shmoos, Abner befriends the strange and charming creatures. "Shmoos," the old man warns, "is the greatest menace to hoomanity th' world has evah known!" "Thass becuz they is so bad, huh?" asks Li'l Abner. "No, stupid", answers the man — and then encapsulates 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 comically graphic sequence, with a tearful Li'l Abner misguidedly saluting the supposed "authority" of the extermination squads.

Wow! a creature that makes a person to never have to work again. I thought that already existed! It may not be a creature, but some of its slang names suggest one - it's called money.

I watched The New Shmoo. The New Shmoo is an American animated series based on the character from the Li'l Abner comic strip created by Al Capp. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for NBC. The series aired in September 1979.  

Similar to Scooby-Doo, Where are You!, the show follows a group of teenagers—Mickey, Nita and Billy Joe—who solve mysteries and crimes with their friend, Shmoo. The teens worked for Mighty Mysteries Comics. Great! another mystery solving team. (Maybe this is why I like crime shows so much) Mystery solved by those meddling kids in thirty minutes or less. Scooby-Doo remains number one with me!

Another set of creatures similar to the shmoo is Gleep and Gloop from the Herculoids.  Their shapes are the same along with the button size eyes, but that's where are similarities end. No mustaches for these two, Gleep and Gloop are made of totally different components and they don't taste like chicken.

Gloop and Gleep (both voiced by Don Messick) - Two protoplasmic creatures. They are able to absorb and deflect energy blasts and laser beams, often placing themselves between attackers and other Herculoids to act as shields. They can also form shapes including, but not limited to: cushions, trampolines or parachutes to break falls; stretching themselves between tree limbs or rocks to act as slingshots; encircling an attacker's limbs to restrain them, or the entire body to squeeze and render them unconscious. Gloop is the larger of the two.

The Herculoids were cool, living in a prehistoric period where people are scarce on the planet, but there's always someone trying take over.

Cartoons have always been cool. Some more memorable than others.  During my search on shmoos, I found other cartoon shows that I used to watch, but have long forgotten. There are so many, and most are beyond stupid and brain numbing to watch now.  Back then, they were some of the best shows out and Network stations competed for young viewers attention and each had it's own Saturday morning lineup that started at 8 and ran until 11 am or noon. The afternoon weekday cartoons ran from about 4pm until 6 pm, each network station running their own afternoon cartoon lineup. Not like now, where cartoons are on designated channels such as Disney jr, DXD,The HUB,Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons and all their east,west coast, jr, sr., Sprite and other sister/brother stations. Even PBS have their own cartoons.  So many to choose from, yet only a few really have good cartoons on them. At least what I consider good cartoons.

So now we know what a shmoo is, and how their distance relatives Gleep and Gloop are similar in shape but have different abilities.  Venturing back in time to a long lost cartoon, only to find it's been altered to appeal to a younger generation. Brings to mind that everything comes back around in time. Right now, the 80's are back in a horrible way, at least fashion wise. That's a whole other post that would be waaayy too long because some of it is just, well....WRONG! It would have pictures with just the words WRONG stamped across it! A photo essay! LOL. Well, I'm done shmooing around!

Check out my Stonewomynart page on Facebook, and the new Women's Art Collaborative art site at www.zhibit.org/womensartcollaborative. Always something new to see.

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