Smurfs. Communists?

[ekow2kn3]

In my World Area Studies class last year, our teacher gave us an article to show us how to see how reliable a source is. The article he gave us was about how the smurfs are communist propoganda. While we ultimately decided that the article had little credibility, it was still hard to ignore some of the points he brought up.

So what do you think? Are the smurfs communist?

[ResIpsaLoquitor]

Nah, the Smurfs are Nazis. They march around in formation to songs. They dabble in the occult. Their one female is blond-haired (the rest of them probably have crew cuts under those tiny hats). The existence of one female makes me wonder if there isn’t a selective breeding program going on. And their arch-enemy smacks of more stereotypical Judaism than Watto from Star Wars.

…wait, wait…do kids even know what Smurfs are these days? I thought they went extinct in the 80s.

[Brutus]

I thought the beef the offenderati had with Watto was that he was a ‘stereotypical Arab merchant’. With wings.

[GIGObuster]

The very capitalistic Mushroom Village has, I think, a good reply to that silly conspiracy:

http://www.mushroomvillage.com/smurfs-article016.html

The Smurfs as a Paradigm for Communist Society
Written by Eric Lott in Spring, 1995 for a speech class and published on his personal web page September 27, 1997

Before anyone gets upset, let me say that the author of this article told me “it is intended to be a humorous piece, but as with most humor, there are small grains of truth in it, otherwise it wouldn’t be funny.” So, do not take this too seriously. We have been trying to research the history behind this “theory” but the author tells me he had no other sources and came up with this idea himself. This article has never appeared in print, but was published on the author’s personal website in 1997. We believe that this idea arose independently among more than one person - I would appreciate any information anyone might have about other articles or web sites that put forth this idea…

http://www.mushroomvillage.com/smurfs-article015.html

Peyo, a sobriquet acquired because an English cousin could not pronounce his nickname, Pierrot, began his career in 1947 with a medieval page-boy character called Johan. The boy’s adventures were serialized in the Belgian dailies, La Dernierè Heure, in 1947, and in the youth columns of Le Soir, in 1951 and in 1952. Johan was soon joined by a companion, Pirlouit, and the Smurfs were born as extras in one of their stories.

The blue dwarfs were discovered living in a mushroom-house village deep in the forest. Their special way of talking, replacing key words by SMURF, became the delight of Belgian children who, to their parents’ consternation, would imitate it.

By 1959, the Smurfs became Peyo’s central characters.

The Smurfs became popular, but it was not by design, so many times a character that was supposed to be a background one suddenly takes over a series, (For Thimble Theater it was Popeye) I do think magic is what explains the seemingly egalitarian society of the Smurfs. (AFAICR so do many other fantasy societies before Peyo too)

Try to see if your teacher has any explanation on why there is a Money Smurf among them!

[ekow2kn3]

My own personal thought:
1)There always has to be a rebel
2)They want to cover the conspiracy
3)The money smurf is chastised for his greed (capitalism bad, communist good)

[The_Tooth]

I thought they were an autonomous collective.

I have no shame.

[GIGObuster]

Since the Smurfs were not originally the main characters, that shoots down many of the points in that conspiracy. The world of Johan, the pageboy (and the Smurfs too!), was filled with kings, princes, and peasants. This “commie Smurf” theory was just a joke that some batty people took seriously.

Peyo

But, I do admit it is a funny conspiracy, as long as one does not take it seriously:

http://www.geocities.com/chickenheadrecords/conspire.html

Besides the “commie Smurfs” check other TV conspiracy silliness:

He-man: white supremacist!

Gilligan as a genetic engineer!

The Brady Bunch eugenics program! :eek:

[Lord_Ashtar]

I thought it was just a cartoon about a bunch of little blue people, not to be taken seriously.

Apparently I was wrong.

[Edward_The_Head]

*Originally posted by GIGObuster *

Try to see if your teacher has any explanation on why there is a Money Smurf among them!

I really hope that this isn’t the only thing I learn today.

I don’t see them as being commie, but then again I was a kid when they were on.

[flonks]

Originally posted by ResIpsaLoquitor *
And their arch-enemy smacks of more stereotypical Judaism than Watto from Star Wars.*

Which stereotypical Judaism?

[Ludovic]

Commie Smurfs

BAND NAME!!!11!1!!!

[ResIpsaLoquitor]

Which stereotypical Judaism?

There’s more than one? Anyway, it’s been years since I’ve seen Gargamel, but I’m pretty sure he had a raspy voice and was always after gold. (Maybe he was trying to change the Smurfs into gold; I forget.) I’ve also seen people mumble about his cat being named “Azrael,” which is a little too close to “Israel,” although that might be pushing it.

[Guinastasia]

Hey, maybe THAT’S why Papa Smurf wears red!!!

(Azrael, I’m guessing may come from Aazael?)

[ekow2kn3]

That was in the article too, he wears read for communism and his beard represents lenin i think…

The reason for m aking it a childrens cartoon the article said was something like teaching the kids at an early age about how greed is bad and sharing is good, so they would grow up with that idea, the name smurf was supposed to be like smith, so they would equate themselves to the smurfs. disguising it as a cartoon makes it register int he subconcious, and older people would just disregard it as childs play

[GIGObuster]

Mmm, I do hope you already realized that even the author said that the article, was not supposed to be taken seriously…

[Gamaliel]

Dialectical Materialism Smurf?

[GIGObuster]

Anarchosyndicalismurfs? :dubious:

[Guinastasia]

Yeah, but what about all the Smurf merchandise? How would that fit in with the rise of the proletariat?

[GIGObuster]

I see what you mean guin! Taking merchandising into account, it looks like they are not willing to go beyond the restrictions of the status quo! Also, we should not forget that in an episode, they helped a prince return to his “rightful place”. They do maintain existing social structures! So in reality, the philosophy they have is….

Positivismurf!!

[GIGObuster]

Sorry about that Guin, I forgot to capitalize your name!

[sub]Wishing you an early “Merry Christmas” to you![/sub]