# Bazooka Joe **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [October 17, 2000, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218 "2000-10-17T02:40:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/1 "2000-10-17T02:40:53Z")
Since he’s a kid, there’s only one explanation for how he lost an eye: he shot himself in the eye with a BB gun! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/2 "2000-10-17T03:12:39Z")
The one-eyed look worked for Odin. He traded one eye for a drink. Of course, it was a drink from the fountain of wisdom … ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/3 "2000-10-17T04:50:00Z")
Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site. To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space **before** and **after** the text of the URL). Cecil’s column can be found on-line at this link: [How did Bazooka Joe lose his right eye? (22-Nov-1996)](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a961122c.html) * * * moderator, «[**Comments on Cecil’s Columns**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1)» ---
**Author:** ![DaveoRad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@DaveoRad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveoRad)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/4 "2000-10-17T05:21:15Z")
If Bazooka Joe really has two healthy eyes, then it stands to reason that, when not appearing in the strip, he either \ wears the patch on his left eye instead, or \ dispenses with it altogether. (Then again, if \, how can he be sure the cartoonist won’t catch him at a moment when he has his patch off?) (note: the subject of this post refers to a duplicate post removed by the moderator) [Edited by Arnold Winkelried on 10-17-2000 at 11:06 AM] ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/5 "2000-10-17T22:42:13Z")
Excuse my ignorance, but why is he called Bazooka Joe in the first place? I would haved guessed he had put his eye out playing with a Bazooka rather than a BB gun, but I never saw him use a Bazooka in the strip. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2000, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/6 "2000-10-18T02:14:32Z")
forgive my ignorance, but who are Brenda Starr and her paramour Basil St. John? ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2000, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/7 "2000-10-18T02:41:13Z")
Generations of mothers have informed their children that they will either put their eyes out, or break their necks, doing that (“that”, in this context, may be taken to be anything more active than breathing). Since Bazooka Joe is evidently alive and not a quadriplegic, we can only conclude that he injured himself, perhaps whilst running with scissors, sometime in his past. ---
**Author:** ![DaveoRad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@DaveoRad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveoRad)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2000, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/8 "2000-10-18T05:11:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jti \* > \*\*forgive my ignorance, but who are Brenda Starr and her > paramour Basil St. John? \*\* Brenda Starr was the star of a comic strip that flourished in the '70s but now seems long gone. She was a glamourous redheaded reporter. (Actually, though I must have read it almost every week, I don’t really remember Basil St John either.) ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2000, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/9 "2000-10-18T13:59:15Z")
_Brenda Starr_ is still being published by Tribune Media Services, (see a current strip at [http://brenda.comicspage.com/](http://brenda.comicspage.com/) ) though her creator, Dale Messick, retired in 1980. A terrible movie, starring Brooke Shields (as Brenda) and Timothy Dalton (as Basil) was released in 1989. (I think this is one of those movies that sat on the shelf for more than a year because the studio thought it was terrible. They were right.) In the strip, Basil was a dashing, dark-haired romantic adventurer. Born in 1906, Dale Messick found it necessary to change her name, Dalia, to a more masculine one in order to get publishers to consider her work. It wasn’t so very long ago that people thought women could not draw. I haven’t heard of Bazooka Joe in _years_. [Here](http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~jimmyk/bazooka_html/) is a Bazooka Joe website. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2000, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/10 "2000-10-18T15:30:46Z")
**jab1** , the Brenda Starr web page to which you provided a link has a biography of Basil St. John, in which I learned the following interesting information: > [@](#): > > BASIL ST. JOHN > Brenda’s one true love, Basil is tall, dark and handsome and sports an eye patch. Other distringuishing features include a mysterious illness curable only by a black orchid serum and a penchant for disappearing out of Brenda’s life. In 1976, Brenda and Basil finally tied the knot. True to form, Basil vanished shortly after the wedding. Basil St. John has an eyepatch? Could it bet that Basil St. John and Bazooka Joe are (twilight zone music) _ **the same person** _ :eek:? I feel a new urban legend coming on. **DaveoRad** , the Brenda Starr web site also says that when Brenda married Basil in 1976, it «_was an event that made national news and well-wishers included Ann Landers, Miss Manners and then President and Mrs. Gerald Ford._» How could you forget Basil? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2000, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/11 "2000-10-18T23:10:55Z")
Is this thread about Brenda Starr or Bazooka Joe? Let’s get back to basics. What does Bazooka Joe have to do with bazookas? What does Bazooka Gum have to do with bazookas? Are they named after the antitank weapon or the musical instrument? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2000, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/12 "2000-10-19T15:29:41Z")
There’s a musical instrument called a bazooka? Or do you mean “Bassoon Joe”? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2000, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/13 "2000-10-19T17:49:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Irishman \* > There’s a musical instrument called a bazooka? It was a homemade instrument made and played (and named) by Bob Burns, a comedian in the 1930s. See [here](http://www.vanburen.org/bob.html) for details. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2000, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/14 "2000-10-19T20:34:25Z")
The musical bazooka was also mentioned in a recent article in _GAMES_– It was a sort of kazoo. Apparently, the big gun was named after the instrument, and not vice-versa. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2000, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/15 "2000-10-19T20:48:40Z")
Ah, Brenda Starr, my idol . . . It was because of her that I became a Girl Reporter (and, briefly, a redhead). Always liked the fact that she lived in the Lovely Arms Apartments. She and I also shared a similar love life. “Gee, I’d really love to go to dinner tonight, Brenda, but . . . Ummm . . . I gotta go find the black orchid serum in far-off Costa Ragua. Yeah, that’s it—black orchid serum!” Yeah, if I had a nickel for every time I got THAT story from a guy . . . ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2000, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/16 "2000-10-20T15:46:03Z")
Wow, who’d a thunk it, a musical instrument called a bazooka, and it was the source of the name for the weapon. The really ironic part - I used to live just across the river from Van Buren, Arkansas, and I’d never heard of that Burns guy. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2000, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/17 "2000-10-20T22:09:23Z")
There’s a musical instrument called a bazooka? [/QUOTE] It was a homemade instrument made and played (and named) by Bob Burns, a comedian in the 1930s. See [here](http://www.vanburen.org/bob.html) for details. \*\* [/QUOTE] Thanks, dtilque, I remembered there was an instrument, and that the weapon was named for it, but had forgotten the details. But I had always assumed the name was a variant of “bazouki” (I’m sure you all know what a bazouki is) rather than “bazoo,” as the Burns article has it. ---
**Author:** ![WiseGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbce88/32.png) [@WiseGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WiseGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/18 "2000-10-22T01:50:22Z")
There was another character in the Bazooka Joe comics named, if memory serves, Mortimer. He always had his sweater pulled up over his mouth and nose. Was the author of this comic strip prone to gimmicks to make his characters interesting? What was Mortimer hiding? ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/19 "2000-10-23T14:34:13Z")
Alright, I’ll ask the question. Why does :::swoon:::Basil St.John wear an eyepatch? PS: I found the movie Brenda Starr one day at the video store ( It is very hard to find because the movie was never released in the US. Only in Asia, I believe.) and was expecting it to really suck. What I found was a cute little flick that if I were an 8 year old girl having a sleep over, it was a nice alternative to “Grease”. If I looked at it as an adult, well, it’s right up there with “The Phantom” with Billy Zane. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218/20 "2000-10-24T00:14:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > Alright, I’ll ask the question. Why does :::swoon:::Basil St.John wear an eyepatch? I explained it in my post above. Basil St. John was an aka of Joe Bazooka. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bazooka-joe/37218.md?page=2)