Obsure printing term in Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon

Factual Questions
1

In the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon “The Guns of Abalone,” there is a scene in which a British man is holding up a newspaper and another man is British reading the headline. The narrator says “…and there in black packer (?) were the words, 'Guns of Abalone Renew Firing.” (When the narrator gets to the word “packer” he says it with a slight British accent: “packah.”) See episode link, below:

Reference starts at 1:07

From context, I’m guessing that “packer” refers either to the ink or the font/typeface of the headline–but I have no freakin’ idea! (Does “packer” mean “condensed font”?)

I’ve found that “paka” was a British word for tobacco…could “black paka” have been a slang term comparing ink with chewed tobacco spit? (Seems highly unlikely, but this was all I could discover.)

Please help me out, here, people!

2

It is pica, but they are using the word in a way that makes no sense. (It brings to mind the movie Centigrade)

3

If he’s saying “pica”, he’s not talking about the typographic unit of measure. His talking about the font.

The most widespread fonts in typewriters are 10 and 12 pitch, called pica and elite , respectively.

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When I was in college, we always made sure to type our term papers on an elite typewriter, to pad out the page count. A newspaper might use pica, to pack more words into a smaller space.

I just looked “pica” up in the dictionary. It is pronounced with a long “i”. I have been mispronouncing it for several decades. (And my professors, for decades before that.)

5

Good idea, but typewriter fonts and newspaper fonts are usually different. And I found the Rocky & Bullwinkle episode on YouTube, and while it does sound like he’s saying “black pakka”, why specify black? Newspapers were always in black ink. So perhaps he’s actually saying “in black and white” and we’re misinterpreting?

6

Black is a font weight, heavier than bold. So it kind of means “screaming headline.”

7

“Black and white” doesn’t sound like “black pakka.” I’m thinking this is some sort of antiquated British slang. But I have no idea what it is.

8

But this was an American show. It’s been a while; did they use a lot of British slang?

9

Yes, it was American, but these are British characters. If you listen to the narrator, as he’s saying the part about “black pakka” (or “black packer”) he lapses from American into British accent.

10

In that case, how about “pukka”?

11

Also, Jay Ward had a quirky sense of humor. He liked to slip a lot of obscure jokes into the mix (eg, “The Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam.”)

12

Or even “The Guns of Abalone”, rather than The Guns of Navarone.

13

That’s pronounced “puck-ah”–but it certainly makes sense! That would be like saying “absolute black.” I think you may have something, there!

14

“In black Pica” makes perfect sense to me, if Pica is a font. It would be like saying “There, in bold Impact” when talking about a meme today. It would fit the idea of it being newspaper jargon to mention the font.

The test would then be to see if headlines in any British paper were in ultta-bold Pica (in the same way many memme pics use Impact Bold).

15

Yes…except that’s pronounced “pie-cuh” and is very small…unless they’re using it ironically, like calling a short guy “Stretch.”

16

I always thought that they where Canadian. Where moose are from and Russia was only a iceberg away.

17

If you watch the clip, you’ll see that the British characters I’m referring to are not Rocky and Bullwinkle, but little British (human) chaps.

18

Those might be obscure now, but they were only adult then – R & B has always been noted for it’s cross-over audience The Rocky and Bullwinkle Effect: Why You Should Consider Marketing to Multiple Audiences | Entrepreneur

(sounds like “pica” to me)

19

Y’all are right (everyone who said pica): it probably IS pica.

20

…just pronounced very strangely.

21

Whats that got to do with the price of milk? :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Sounded like “and there in black pacca” to me.