# SH, JB, and all that **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 29, 2021, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sh-jb-and-all-that/951576 "2021-09-29T13:15:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sh-jb-and-all-that/951576/21 "2021-09-30T13:03:42Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > It’s actually fairly common for a character who is, in some sense, a “[Christ figure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_figure)” to have the initials J.C. I remember my high school English Lit teacher angrily saying “Jim Conklin is not a Christ figure!”. Apparently a lot of students wrote that in their reports on Stephen Crane’s _The Red Badge of Courage_. They must have gotten the idea from Cliff’s Notes or Monarch Notes or something. My favorite “J.C.” figure is Jiminy Cricket. Go ahead – prove to me that he isn’t a Christ figure. (Actually, he sort of seriously _is_ a Christ figure. The Cricket in Carlo Collodi’s (Carlo Lorenzini) original book _The Adventures of Pinocchio_ isn’t named – he’s just called “Cricket”. It was the Disney film that attached the name “Jiminy” to him. “Jiminy Cricket(s)” was a mild exclamation or oath, especially popular in the American Midwest (although the Disney animators put it in the mouth of one of the Darling children in _Peter Pan_), where Walt and several of his animators grew up. It seems pretty clear to me that, because of those initials, “Jiminy Crickets” was a euphemism for saying “Jesus Christ”,. It’s a little more opaque than such assonances as “Cheese on Rice!” or “Judas Priest!” or “(Great) Caesar’s Ghost!”, but it’s a way for kids and the timid to _almost_ exclaim “Jesus Christ!” in moments of high emotion.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sh-jb-and-all-that/951576.md?page=1)