# The Alfred E. Neuman Voodoo Sign **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376 "2016-05-09T04:27:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/21 "2016-05-09T22:11:09Z")
The eye one looks like the gesture for [“mon oeil”](http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/monoeil.htm) to me, although all it means is something like “bullshit!” or “my foot!” (literally, it’s “my eye.”) Evil eye would be more in keeping with voodoo, but I’ve never seen a depiction of the evil eye like that. There is also [akanbe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akanbe), which is a Japanese taunting gesture, but that is usually accompanied by the sticking out of your tongue. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/22 "2016-05-09T22:16:25Z")
[Here’s Wikipedia’s take on the eyelid pull](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyelid_pull), and there it says it has various meanings across cultures that include a “warning to be watchful.” That makes more sense to me than a generic “evil eye,” which is usually an eye on its own or an eye embedded in a hand. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/23 "2016-05-10T22:37:46Z")
[Oops.](http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/64/cd/79/64cd792cd3082d3f7202cd8d2b851fc9.jg) OUTER RING, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Ace of Spades is too big on card. Two tragedy masks never actually appear that way. Envelope has no return address. Sickle faces wrong way. Left hand (under eyeball) obviously belongs to some other person. Red hourglass on spider is not visible. Four and three on one die, and six and one on other, should not be on adjacent sides. INNER SYMBOLS: Ladder lacks spreader arms. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/24 "2016-05-10T22:46:18Z")
[This](http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/64/cd/79/64cd792cd3082d3f7202cd8d2b851fc9.jpg) should be right. (It is.) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/25 "2016-05-10T22:46:41Z")
I think SS might really be tire tracks. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/26 "2016-05-11T00:19:48Z")
It would have been better that way. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/27 "2016-05-11T00:23:44Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Yeah? And how many gorillas read \*Mad? \* 😃 You’d be surprised. [http://www.madcoversite.com/madpb07\_son\_of\_mad.html](http://www.madcoversite.com/madpb07_son_of_mad.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/28 "2016-05-11T00:28:23Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Ace of Spades? I thought it was the Queen of Spades that was bad luck: the Death card. Ace of Spaces is a card you want! The next day was hangin’ day, the sky was overcast and black Big Jim lay covered up, killed by a penknife in the back And Rosemary on the gallows, she didn’t even blink The hangin’ judge was sober; he hadn’t any drink The only person on the scene missing was the **Jack of Hearts.** ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/29 "2016-05-11T01:33:46Z")
Interesting that the SS runes are next to a Totenkopf (Death’s head)… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/30 "2016-05-11T01:41:45Z")
The sign looks like Bob Clarke’s style. I don’t know if he is still around… ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/31 "2016-05-11T02:16:42Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > The sign looks like Bob Clarke’s style. I don’t know if he is still around… Nope. Died in 2013 at the age of 91. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/32 "2016-05-11T04:58:39Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Nope. Died in 2013 at the age of 91. Sorry, I didn’t know… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376/33 "2016-05-11T05:07:03Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > You’d be surprised. > > [Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site - Mad Paperback #7 - Son of Mad](http://www.madcoversite.com/madpb07_son_of_mad.html) In _Son of Mad_ is a favorite story of mine–“Miltie of the Mounties.” (At the start of the story he marches through a tree and a brick wall and says, “Nuthin’ stops me! I always get muh man!”) In the last three panels, after his latest objective–Nanuk the Canuk–has taken his own gun and shot him fatally with it–he says, in agony, "I am Miltie the Mountie! I ALWAYS get muh man! "Unfortunately this shall not hold true for Nanuk the Canuk! For you see, Nanuk the Cakuk _[sic]…_ "is a **W-WOMAN!"** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alfred-e-neuman-voodoo-sign/754376.md?page=1)