# He was Gumby, damn it! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336 "2010-01-09T23:52:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/1 "2010-01-09T23:52:45Z")
[Art Clokey has passed away.](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/) ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/2 "2010-01-10T00:58:19Z")
I was so sad when I heard this. I loved Gumby and Pokey, and I must have gone through dozens of Gumby and Pokey toys, because the wires in their limbs would eventually break. But they were way cooler than the stupid, jointed G.I. Joes and the like. The original Clay-mation cartoons were the greatest. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/3 "2010-01-10T01:12:34Z")
Let’s not forget _Davey And Goliath_. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/4 "2010-01-10T03:11:38Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > I must have gone through dozens of Gumby and Pokey toys, because the wires in their limbs would eventually break. Good gad, what did you _do_ with them? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/5 "2010-01-10T03:18:48Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Let’s not forget _Davey And Goliath_. I am an Evangelical Lutheran, in part because of him. Art may have been a Buddhist, but who else could resist “A Mighty Fortress” and hippy not-quite-Catholics? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/6 "2010-01-10T03:37:39Z")
I have a Pokey gracing my bookshelf right now, and Gumby was my co-pilot (sitting up on my car’s dash) for many miles on wide-ranging roadtrips. Thank you, Art. ---
**Author:** ![BigBertha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/7 "2010-01-10T04:08:22Z")
You scared me, I thought it was Eddie Murphy! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/8 "2010-01-10T04:33:03Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Good gad, what did you _do_ with them? 🙂 Been there as a father. The rubber at the joints was a fraction of a millimeter thick. Any movement poked the wire through it. > [@Sam the Eagle](#): > > Of course, had the rubber been a proper thickness, like one-sixteenth-of-an-inch, it would still be intact. But I’ve been there, as a brother of an owner of a TR-4a. It’s needless to add that the heater was more effective with the top down and that Lucas jokes stop being funny the lower the temperature. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/9 "2010-01-10T04:49:14Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Been there as a father. The rubber at the joints was a fraction of a millimeter thick. Any movement poked the wire through it. I remember having one, but he was so darn boring, just like the TV show, I didn’t play with it enough to break any wire. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/10 "2010-01-10T04:53:56Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I remember having one, but he was so darn boring, just like the TV show, I didn’t play with it enough to break any wire. > 🙂 That’s why you had to follow with Davey and Goliath. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/11 "2010-01-10T05:30:27Z")
No Gumby nostalgia is complete without a link to [Gangsta Gumby](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux8vR-knG-I), dammit. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/12 "2010-01-10T06:05:45Z")
I loved watching Gumby go inside of books. I always theorized about making a machine that would let me go into his TV show so I could go into the books as well. Why I couldn’t just use my machine to go into books, I don’t know. I only recently stumbled upon Davey and Goliath, as it was shown on the local station on Sundays along with the other Bible stuff. It was pretty fun. BTW, what Gumby stuff was there that wasn’t claymation? ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/13 "2010-01-10T22:01:22Z")
Interestingly enough, it was Eddie Murphy’s interpretation of Gumby that led to the character returning to television in the 1980s. Clokey himself was amused by the parody, saying that “Gumby has a sense of humor.” (The Evangelical Lutheran Church, who owns the rights to Davey and Goliath, must have a sense of humor too, as they licensed the duo out to Pepsi to star in a self-mocking Mountain Dew ad in order to raise money to bring Davey and Goliath back.) If you have a heart, then Gumby’s a part of you. And every clay and/or stop-motion character- be they the Noid or the California Raisins, Wallace and Gromit, or even Coraline, whose own recent trippy adventures were filmed at what was once the Vinton Claymation studio- owe a lot to Gumby and Art Clokey. They’re a part of them- and us- in more ways than one. ---
**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/14 "2010-01-10T22:23:45Z")
There’s an excellent documentary about Clokey and his creations: [Gumby Dharma](http://www.gumbydharma.com/). Very interesting, and not afraid to show the negatives in his sometimes unorthodox and tragic life. It has some new animation in the form of ‘interviews’ with Gumby and Pokey, which are quite well written. (In one, Pokey is speaking about a tragic episode in Clokey’s life–I think it was the suicide of Clokey’s daughter–and as he pauses, you can clearly see a lump form in his throat. It’s very moving.) ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/15 "2010-01-11T16:56:46Z")
The Gumby short _Robot Rumpus_ made one of the best MST3K segments ever. It also featured Gumby’s rarely seen and oddly coiffed father Gumbo. “Is Gumby’s father a matador, Mike?” “I think somebody just sold him a bad rug.” ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/16 "2010-01-12T01:41:27Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > Interestingly enough, it was Eddie Murphy’s interpretation of Gumby that led to the character returning to television in the 1980s. Clokey himself was amused by the parody, saying that “Gumby has a sense of humor.” Clokey said more than that. In an interview ( I forget where in my bookshelves it is), Clokey stated 'Gumby is that spark of divinity within us all. Eddie Murphy intuitively realized this when he said “I’m Gumby dammit!” ’ The next time somebody tells you that you cannot do something, say “Of course I can. I’m Gumby dammit!” ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/17 "2010-01-12T03:30:27Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Clokey said more than that. In an interview ( I forget where in my bookshelves it is), Clokey stated 'Gumby is that spark of divinity within us all. Eddie Murphy intuitively realized this when he said “I’m Gumby dammit!” ’ > > The next time somebody tells you that you cannot do something, say “Of course I can. I’m Gumby dammit!” _Goliath voice_ “I don’t think that’s very orthodox theology, Daaa-vey!” ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/18 "2010-01-12T14:49:50Z")
Big Gumby and Pokey fan myself, with the small versions still on prominent display at home. Wonder if there is an age divide at which younger people have no idea what Gumby and Pokey are? ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-gumby-damn-it/524336/19 "2010-01-12T15:07:05Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > The Gumby short _Robot Rumpus_ made one of the best MST3K segments ever. > It also featured Gumby’s rarely seen and oddly coiffed father Gumbo. > > “Is Gumby’s father a matador, Mike?” > “I think somebody just sold him a bad rug.” Gumbo actually gets all the best jokes in [that short](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M4_XZ3FLHw): “Gumbo’s cursed to wear permanent bell-bottoms.” “I’m gonna set you on Don Knotts strength!” “Thank goodness for my internal genitalia!” “There’s only one way to stop that robot now!” “…on CNN!” Interestingly, the word “gumbo”- which Clokey’s father used to refer to thick mud- was also the inspiration for Gumby’s name. His first clay short was _Gumbasia_, a combination of “gumbo” and _Fantasia_. Playing around with Latin suffixes, he came up with gumbo, gumba, and gumbito- Gumbo and Gumba became the parents of Gumbito- or Gumby for short.