# Digimon I: what the heck is Elvis doing there? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 15, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688 "2015-02-15T01:25:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [February 15, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/1 "2015-02-15T01:25:29Z")
Piper Cub is enjoying watching the Digimon I on Netflix. I get that it’s all a sci-fi kids fantasy; but really? Elvis as a digimon? and why does he have a little teddy bear? ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/2 "2015-02-15T17:14:07Z")
I’ve never seen it and have no clue what he’s doing there, but the teddy bear seems easy enough to explain: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiOs1V-i8eY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiOs1V-i8eY) ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/3 "2015-02-15T17:17:00Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Elvis as a digimon? Why not? There’s almost as much variety of Digimon as there are Pokemon, and given the nature of Digimon, it’s easy to see one being modeled after Elvis. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/4 "2015-02-15T17:19:00Z")
Are Digimon Japanese? If so, Elvis is huge over there. One of the former Prime Ministers was a massive Elvis fan and made no secret of it. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/5 "2015-02-15T17:32:10Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Are Digimon Japanese? Yes. The toys and games are by Bandai, the anime by Toei. (Who are partners in a whole bunch of different projects…now I’m curious as to whether they’re owned by the same company…) ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/6 "2015-02-15T17:37:15Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Are Digimon Japanese? If so, Elvis is huge over there. One of the former Prime Ministers was a massive Elvis fan and made no secret of it. It was a Japanese anime. However Elvis in this case is a villain so I’m not sure that fits. I do know that the writing team that did the English dub of Digimon threw in a lot of snarky jokes and other Parental Bonuses, so the Elvis impersonation may have been their way of taking a ridiculous character and just running with it. Or maybe it comes from the original scripts; I really don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/7 "2015-02-15T18:24:20Z")
Oh! That presents a whole different theory. He was probably a delinquent. Pompadours are (well…were…this is an OLD stereotype that’s probably lost most of its real-world application by now) popular among delinquent types. What was this 'Mon named? Assuming it wasn’t changed significantly from the Japanese (not a safe assumption, but possible), that could possibly confirm one way or the other… (And even if it was, one could look up the Japanese name to see if that helped.) ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/8 "2015-02-15T19:39:27Z")
Nah, he’s Elvis in the Japanese version too. The reference is more blatant in Japanese, but the voice is more stereotypically Elvis-ish in English. E: One cite to back me up: [Digimon: Original and Dub Differences, Digimon Adventure - Episode 15](http://digimon-jp-and-en.tumblr.com/post/54351174114/digimon-adventure-episode-15) > [@](#): > > Etemon uses gratuitous English here and there in the original, while in the dub he gets a lot of 70’s musical slang and throws in some musical ditties (in order to drive home the Elvis reference). > > Etemon is voiced by Masutani Yasunori in the original and Richard Epcar in the dub. Masutani is a little more stereotypically villainous, while Epcar focuses more on the Elvis impression. ---
**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:** [February 16, 2015, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/9 "2015-02-16T10:41:19Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Oh! That presents a whole different theory. > > He was probably a delinquent. Pompadours are (well…were…this is an OLD stereotype that’s probably lost most of its real-world application by now) popular among delinquent types. What was this 'Mon named? Assuming it wasn’t changed significantly from the Japanese (not a safe assumption, but possible), that could possibly confirm one way or the other… (And even if it was, one could look up the Japanese name to see if that helped.) He was named [Etemon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Digimon_Adventure_characters#Etemon). (エテモン, according to Wikipedia.) I don’t know if I’d call his headpiece a pompadour or not. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/10 "2015-02-16T12:02:16Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Oh! That presents a whole different theory. > > He was probably a delinquent. Pompadours are (well…were…this is an OLD stereotype that’s probably lost most of its real-world application by now) popular among delinquent types. What was this 'Mon named? Assuming it wasn’t changed significantly from the Japanese (not a safe assumption, but possible), that could possibly confirm one way or the other… (And even if it was, one could look up the Japanese name to see if that helped.) [Bōsōzoku](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C5%8Ds%C5%8Dzoku). [Their hair](https://www.google.com/search?q=b%C5%8Ds%C5%8Dzoku&biw=1680&bih=887&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=wtvhVPbUK9HxggS7iYOwAg&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#tbm=isch&q=b%C5%8Ds%C5%8Dzoku+hair&revid=1706679092). I don’t know if that’s the case with Digimon. I just know them as being the MegaBloks to Pokémon’s Lego. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digimon-i-what-the-heck-is-elvis-doing-there/712688/11 "2015-02-16T13:21:12Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > [Bōsōzoku](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C5%8Ds%C5%8Dzoku). [Their hair](https://www.google.com/search?q=b%C5%8Ds%C5%8Dzoku&biw=1680&bih=887&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=wtvhVPbUK9HxggS7iYOwAg&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#tbm=isch&q=b%C5%8Ds%C5%8Dzoku+hair&revid=1706679092). Good examples, thanks (and evidence my assumption it had gone out of style is wrong), though it’s not restricted to Bosozoku.