Communist Propaganda and the Smurfs.

[EinBebop]

I hope someone from cartoon network will see this and take steps to have Smurfs banned from our airwaves forever...

Smurfs... the red menace... did you ever see a merchant smurf, or a consumer smurf? NO! Stalin had an illegitimate child, and his name was Peyo!! That La La lalalalala crap was a chant of unity against the evil capitalist Gargamel. Poor guy... all he wanted was a little gold...

Everyone had their own individual job and wore those little white uniforms, trying to repress the personalities of the individual "for the good of the whole". Well, except for Papa Smurf of course. In his little RED uniform!! They didn't even have real names... just job titles representing their place in life. You're either Handy, or Farmer, or Hefty. Except for Smurfette. Women have no role in a male-dominated society. I always hoped that one day she would break out and not want to be referred to by her gender. She could have become Liberated Smurf.

Poor Brainy Smurf. He was the only one with the guts to question the system... to want to lead the smurfs in a different direction. What did he get for it? Only the ridicule of his peers.

Keep this garbage off of my television; I want good, clean entertainment that won't harm my children, like South Park.

[VashTheStampede]

I knew it!

[Anthonynotes]

Originally posted by EinBebop
I hope someone from cartoon network will see this and take steps to have Smurfs banned from our airwaves forever...

Smurfs... the red menace... did you ever see a merchant smurf, or a consumer smurf? NO! Stalin had an illegitimate child, and his name was Peyo!! That La La lalalalala crap was a chant of unity against the evil capitalist Gargamel. Poor guy... all he wanted was a little gold...

Everyone had their own individual job and wore those little white uniforms, trying to repress the personalities of the individual "for the good of the whole". Well, except for Papa Smurf of course. In his little RED uniform!! They didn't even have real names... just job titles representing their place in life. You're either Handy, or Farmer, or Hefty. Except for Smurfette. Women have no role in a male-dominated society. I always hoped that one day she would break out and not want to be referred to by her gender. She could have become Liberated Smurf.

Poor Brainy Smurf. He was the only one with the guts to question the system... to want to lead the smurfs in a different direction. What did he get for it? Only the ridicule of his peers.

Keep this garbage off of my television; I want good, clean entertainment that won't harm my children, like South Park.

Heh! :-)


Of course, considering they lived in what looked like medieval Europe, the norm at the time would've probably been feudalism (and the monarchies that ran feudalism)...maybe it seemed like the lesser of two evils ;-)

-B.

[Allen's Nickname.]

Well, Duh. Everyone know that the Smurfs are communists!

[Jimmy Kustes]

Cartoon Research had a link to a cartoon overanalizations (sp?) website. Here's something:

Ever notice in Ed, Edd, and Eddy that Edd is the Superego always concerned about presentation, rules, and public appearance; Ed is the Id, representing the simple pleasures and basic needs of the individual. Where's Eddy? He's the Ego, who leads the group.

[KoKo]

Oh, sweet mother of Zeus! I had no idea the Smurfs were communists. Hmm, well, I haven't even seen the show in years---okay, I saw it a couple of weeks ago, but why would I pay attention to it?
But now I know I should have. I studied this not too long ago in school.
BTW, who was the creator of that show anyway?

[RogueMartian]

I think I agree with Braintara. The smurfs seemed to live in a feudalist society. The serfs...i mean smurfs do the day to day work while being controlled through fear by Gargamel.

Smurfette is the result of a male dominated society through feudalism, because in communism women are pretty much equals.

Brainy smurf is sort of like the first guy that announced to the masses that the world was round. Everyone laughed because it was pretty much understood that the world was flat, but the intelligencia are pretty much ridiculed in any society, so that's not a real give away.

The real give away is papa smurf. I believe he represents the religious aspect of society. The true control of the masses, since the wealthy spend their time counting money. He keeps everyone calm and keeps everyone busy so they won't think to overthrow the king who keeps them in poverty.

So my vote goes to feudalism. Either that or its supposed to represent a hippie commune...for obvious reasons.

[KoKo]

Ohhh, I see it now. That's weird. Why would they do that in a kids show?

[EinBebop]

Shame you can't add a poll after the fact. I'd be curious to see what people think.

[Mackenzie Rainelle]

I think I'll go with the feudalism idea more than the communism idea, mainly because of the subject of names. Ein, you said that the names of the smurfs having to do with their roles in the village was one of the reasons the show was communist. Uhm, that's been around since at least the Middle Ages. Most British and a few French surnames were gotten that way. Anyone who was a barrelmaker was called a "cooper" and that eventually became the surname Cooper. Taylor is a variation of "tailor", Chamberlain was basically anyone who worked as a housekeeper for the wealthy, you get the picture. In fact, I have an entire list of surnames and Middle Age occupations that they were taken from:

Barker- Shepherd
Black - Cloth Dyer
Carter - Delivery person
Chamberlain - Personal servant
Chandler- Candlemaker
Cooper - Barrelmaker
Gardiner - Gardener
Hansard - Swordmaker
Kellogg - Slaughterer
Kemp - Wrestler
Leach - Doctor
Parker - Park keeper
Smith - Metalworker
Stone - Stoneworker
Wall - Brickmason
Cotter - Farmhand
Fuller - Laundry worker

Actually, in communism, this was never done. Most people already had their family names, and kept them no matter what their specific job was after the Bolsheviks took over.

[Dub]

Thats old news - the guy who created Smurf {Peyo i believe was his name) lived in Belguim and wrote the series from that standpoint. Smurfs originally started as a European comic and is STILL wildly popular in some ares from what I hear.

I think his son has been continuing the series

But if you think about it, The color red, Papa Smurf resembling Karl marx with that beard, gargamel representing greedy capitalism - its all there if you think about it

Thats probably why I like it so much. Beneath the sugaryness of it, its kinda fun ^^

[Mackenzie Rainelle]

So it's kinda the "Asterix" of Eastern Europe?

[Dub]

I guess you could say that ^^

Except theres no magic potion and Julius Caesar

Too bad Cartoon Network wont air all the episodes