You’ve seen it before: a person, usually in cartoons and sometimes in movies, is faced with a crisis of conscience. Suddenly a devil pops up on one shoulder (usually the left) urging evil actions; then immediately an angel pops up on the right shoulder imploring the person to be good.
Where and when did this motif originate? Is it a biblical reference? A literary one? Cartoons? Do you see it much outside the U.S.?
What are the funniest versions you’ve seen of this joke?
The Snickers commercial with the donkey and elephant on the voter’s shoulders, trying to influence his vote 
http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=001114
http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=001115
http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=001116
It might have its origins in the later medieval morality plays, where you have all sorts of allegorical figures telling the “mankind” figure what he should do (see especially Mankind, which is actually great fun, though you might not expect it from the genre). But probably a closer analogue – and one which probably draws from the earlier English drama – is in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.
I wish I could remember the name of the product so I could post a link; there was an print ad for some kind of diet dessert that you could enjoy without guilt. It showed a female angel and devil embracing each other rather, uh… cozily.
The former artist of the webcomic Boy Meets Boy has begun a new strip, called Friendly Hostility. The last few strips have had this motif.
Thanks. I should have remembered Faustus. I suppose I forgot because the angels are always played by full-sized figures.
Why is the figure of temptation/angelic influence almost always a guy?
The Emperor’s New Groove had a hilarious take on it.
Agreed. You beat me to it.
If you mean why are they always played by men, I would remember that women weren’t allowed to appear in performances.
If you mean why are the characters male, isn’t that an assumption? The fact that these are normally beings that are above us in the chain of events, then why would they have gender?
That’s the origin of throwing salt over your left shoulder to drive away “bad luck”, too.
To blind/purify the wee devil that sits there, you see.
Don’t forget the episode of Family Guy where the angel kept getting stuck in traffic.
My favorite was the Conan O’Brien version. He was trying to decide something, and he had a devil on one shoulder trying to convince him to do the wrong thing. He turned to the other shoulder, and had… a bear. “Hi, Conan! I’m your bear. Grrrrr!”
Family Guy episode: The time when the Angel/Devil appeared over Peters shoulder and then it zoomed onto the mini angels shoulder to reveal he had an angel/devil concsience as well.
OH! And the time the Angel/Devil appeared, and the Angel pulled out a gun and shot the devil and then proceeded to put the gun to peters head to sway his opinion.
As far as I know, though, the named angels in the Bible are all male. After all, they often served as warriors, and soldiering has historically been dominated by men.
Nikolai Gogol used the angel/devil device in his 1836 play titled The Government Inspector. It’s been about twenty-five years since I performed in a production of this comedy, so the details are fuzzy, but one character is wrestling with the temptation of whether to open a document of some kind (letter, IIRC). When we rehearsed the scene, the actor playing the role sometimes imitated the “angel” and “devil” voices used in the National Lampoon’s Animal House variation on this venerable theme.
Excel Saga’s first episode has to have the funniest one I’ve ever seen:
[spoiler]Excel was ordered to kill Koshi Rikdo, the creator of the original manga. She sneaks up behind him with a massive sword, at which point, Excel’s angel appears and tells her not to kill him. Her devil shows up after that, whacks the angel with her pitchfork, and tells Excel to kill Koshi. Then the angel whacks the devil with her own pitchfork, and a fight ensues… Finally, the angel whips out a gun, shoots the devil, and declares “The bullet of Justice caps Evil’s ass! Remember that!” Justice fights dirty!
Later in the episode, Excel has another moral dilemma. The angel shows up and tells Excel to risk her life to save Pedro, but then a little policewoman from the Excel department slaps the cuffs on the angel. “Good Excel! You are under arrest for the murder of Bad Excel!”[/spoiler]
Shoulder Devil: Point number two: I can do this. <does a handstand>
Krunk: What does that have to do…
Shoulder Angel: No, he’s got a point.
I think it was either Far Side, or some other single strip comic that had a great take on it.
Angel while sitting on mans shoulder looking at the side of his head: Me and the devil have had many disagreements, but we both think that it’s time you start investing it Q tips.
I withdraw my vote for Emperor’s New Groove. This one here is officially the funniest one in the entire thread.
There was one That 70s Show episode, where Fes and Jackie win a rollar disco contest, and get a bottle of win, and Jackie drinks it and becomes drunk, and they are in a car, and Jackie would let Fes make out with her, and Fes has Batman and The Riddler show up on his shoulders. Obviously, Batman was like the angel, and The Riddler was like the devil. Batman is always right of course, and Fes takes his advise, and doesn’t take advantage of a drunk, drunk Jackie.
Wow. I’ve got to get a life.