Alice the Goon

Alice the Goon

Alice the Goon is a fictional character in E.C. Segar's comic strip "Thimble Theatre" and in the "Popeye" cartoon series derived from it.

History

Alice made her debut in the Sunday, December 10th, 1933 "Thimble Theatre" strip, part of the "Plunder Island" storyline. As yet unnamed (and her gender unspecified), she worked as a guard for the Sea Hag, a vicious piratess and the last sorceress on earth. She is portrayed as an Amazonian giantess (her height is eight feet) with a large proboscis and prominent, hairy forearms and calves. Her name and gender were given in the January 14, 1934 strip, after she had captured Wimpy.

Alice first appeared when the Sea Hag returned to Sweethaven searching for a former slave of hers named Cringly, as he is the only one who knows the location of Plunder Island, the Sea Hag's lair. At this time Alice was nameless and genderless, but when Wimpy is captured and locked in the deck of the Black Barnacle, the Hag's ship, the Sea Hag orders, "Keep an eye on him, Alice!". And from this moment on, the characters and the readers realise Alice is a female. Upon arriving at Plunder Island, Popeye and Alice fought violently and Popeye threatened to throw Alice off a cliff, until Alice's own child (its gender also unspecified) appeared and shouted "Mama!". Realising that he is fighting a woman, which goes against Popeye's principles, Popeye released Alice and discovered that Alice was an unwilling slave to the Sea Hag, who had threatened Alice's own baby if Alice did not become her servant, and the sailor helped Alice gain her freedom. In fact, Alice was just one of a race of goons (though apparently their leader) enslaved by the Sea Hag; and Popeye and Alice together raised them up in a successful Spartacus-like slave rebellion.

Alice caused controversy with protective mothers at the time, who claimed that her "frightening" appearance alarmed their children. Alice was therefore toned down to becoming a more gentler and motherly apparition.

In later appearances, Alice appeared wearing a skirt and flowered hat. Her tribe live on Goon Island and the Goons are indistinguishable from each other. When Alice spoke, her words would appear as a series of meaningless squiggles. Wimpy is the only one who can understand her language. After being liberated from the Sea Hag, Alice came and lived with Olive Oyl, and became a nursemaid to baby Swee'Pea.

Trivia

Spike Milligan was a fan of the Popeye cartoons and took the name of the Goon Show from Alice and her tribe.

Robert Crumb featured in his later Mr. Natural comics a character named The Mega Baby, a giantess dressed as a baby, closely resembling Alice.

External links

* [http://www.popeyespoopdeck.com/alice.htm Short history of Alice the Goon]
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/popeye.htm Don Markstein's Toonopedia "Popeye" page]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • goon — 1921, stupid person, from gony simpleton (1580s), of unknown origin, but applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (1839); sense of hired thug first recorded 1938 (in ref. to union beef squads used to cow strikers in the… …   Etymology dictionary

  • goon — [gu:n] n informal [Date: 1800 1900; Origin: Partly from gooney stupid person (16 19 centuries); partly from Alice the Goon, character invented by the U.S. cartoonist E. C. Segar] 1.) especially BrE a silly or stupid person 2.) especially AmE a… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • goon — ► NOUN informal 1) a foolish or eccentric person. 2) chiefly N. Amer. a ruffian or thug. ORIGIN perhaps from dialect gooney «stupid person»; later influenced by the American cartoon character Alice the Goon …   English terms dictionary

  • goon — ☆ goon [go͞on ] n. Slang 1. [< ?] a ruffian or thug, esp. one hired to help break a strike, etc. 2. [after Alice the Goon, grotesque comic strip figure created by E. C. Segar (1894 1938), U.S. cartoonist] a person who is awkward, grotesque,… …   English World dictionary

  • Goon — A goon is is a term for a hired thug. That is usually sent out to do the dirty work for the people who hire them. It is also used as a word meaning fool. A goon can also be a member of a gang like the Goon Squad.Goon may also refer to: *… …   Wikipedia

  • goon — [20] The antecedents of goon are murky. It may have been inspired by goony ‘simpleton’, which is first recorded in the 1890s and which may well be the same word as the much earlier gony with the same meaning, which in turn goes right back to the… …   The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins

  • goon — [20] The antecedents of goon are murky. It may have been inspired by goony ‘simpleton’, which is first recorded in the 1890s and which may well be the same word as the much earlier gony with the same meaning, which in turn goes right back to the… …   Word origins

  • goon, you —    This is roughly the equivalent of ‘you dope’, ‘you sap’ when used by an American wife to her husband in Rabbit is Rich, by John Updike. Arthur Hailey, in Hotel, has a young man call a girl ‘you fool, you stupid goon’ when she bites him while… …   A dictionary of epithets and terms of address

  • goon — n a. a foolish, clumsy or clownish person. This sense of the word was popularised in Britain by the zany radio series The Goon Show in the 1950s, and was earlier used in the Popeye cartoons for Alice the Goon , a huge dull witted character. This… …   Contemporary slang

  • Goon — 1. stupid person; 2. hired thug or bouncer (originally US slang (1930s); from the cartoon character Alice the Goon appearing in Thimble Theatre, featuring Popeye (began in 1933) by US cartoonist EC Segar; it is usually suggested that goon is a… …   Dictionary of Australian slang

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”