Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby, died the other day. The LA Times ran an article yesterday which depicted the Gumby series as some sort of innocent children's show.
Even as a child, I thought that show was off it's fucking rocker. The claymation never fooled me. I never thought of it as a children's-type show. I thought it was the creation of a warped adult, who was depicting his fevered obsessions and horrors.
Am I the only person who thought this of Gumby?
Check out this quote from the LA Times article:
As successive generations discovered the curious green character, Gumby's success came to define Clokey's life, with its theme song reflecting Clokey's simple message of love: "If you've got a heart, then Gumby's a part of you."
Really? Was I missing something?
When I was a kid, I thought that line in the song was sarcasm and irony. Was I the only one?
Let's look at a clip from Gumby, and tell me if you want this show to be "a part of you".
UPDATE:
Some people, apparently, think I'm the nut for thinking Gumby was sick. So, I did what I always do when people disagree with me. I researched more:
Hippies always got Gumby, says Art Clokey. "They could see he was an honest expression right from my heart," explains Clokey, the soft-spoken, gently effervescent septuagenarian who created the fanciful pea-green funboy in 1953.
"I wasn't trying to exploit children or do formula television. Gumby was an honest attempt to entertain and give kids a little joy."...
And certain countercultural toonheads claim to have seen hallucinogenic entertainment qualities in "The Gumby Show." And they might be on the mark. Clokey briefly experimented with LSD in the early '60s, he said, when it was still legal, taking the mind-expanding drug under medical supervision.
"There were some pretty psychedelic scenes in the newer episodes," the affable animator confessed. But then, maybe he was just naturally high. "My original subsconscious was in touch with something," he observed.
16 comments:
always thought that gumby was strange...
C-CS
What the hell? No words.
yes, you were the only one. Deeply pyscho-analyzing Gumby??? come on.
haha. I did always wonder about "Prickle" though... creepy name.
http://www.gumbyworld.com/memorylane/imagearchive/prickle_60s.JPG
Fellow Infidel,
I wasn't deeply psychoanalyzing Gumby. I was a kid.
I merely felt, as a kid, that the man who made Gumby was sick, kind of the way a kid knows that a child molestor type is sick. A kid doesn't know what is on the child molestor-types mind. The kid just has a feeling something is wrong with this adult.
I think Art Clokey had a sick mind.
http://www.dosenation.com/listing.php?smlid=7026
Pastorius,
It doesn't sound like I would approve of some of the things Gumby's creator Art Clokey did, but was he sick or was Gumby sick? I don't think so.
im gonna agree with pastorius, as a kid 6,7,8 or so I remember being creeped out by gumby
And Rumcrook, when you heard the song with the words, "if you have a heart, then Gumby's a part of you ..." how did you feel? Did you buy it, or did that seem like a very strange thing to say?
I didn't have to words for it as a kid, but now I hear it as ironic sarcasm.
The more I think about it, after having seen this interview with Clokey, I think he was a fucking liar when he says he had positive motives ("I was just having fun").
He was just a subversive nut.
I'm not saying his subversiveness actually accomplished anything other than being disturbing, but he was attempting to be subversive, in my opinion.
I'm an artist. I hang out with artists. I think I recognize artistic bullshit when I see it.
Clokey was full of shit, and his son is even more full of shit.
More on that later.
Creeped out by Gumby? Depressed by monomaniacal marxist muslim-muffin movie directors? Is that what's bugging you, bunkie? Try googling Disney Random Craziness. #8 is particularly good. Don't ask. Just do it.
DRC, tax returns, and vin exceedingly ordinaire -- the cure for those Stoned movie blues.
RRA,
That was funny. Thanks.
I am well aware that many children's animation people are nutty. Believe me, I am aware of that.
Look at Tim Burton (though I don't think he thinks his work is for children). Look at PeeWee Herman.
Heck, Bugs Bunny was a cross-dresser.
Eh, what's up, Doc?
And, of course, there were the penises in the background of Little Mermaid ...
I was happy without gumby
I still am
Tim is weird but there's always something sweet about his movies. They are definitely not for kids, though. The imagery couldn't get more wikkid bizzah.
I keep wishing they'd let him direct the last Harry Potter movie just to send up Rowling, but no such luck.
I love the idea of Tim Burton directing Harry Potter. That would be great. I am not a fan of Harry Potter (though my whole family is), but if Burton directed Potter, I'd be a fan.
His Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was, in my opinion, WAY better than the original.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was awesome, much closer to Roald Dahl's original story.
Not a Potter fan either, though all my kids & wife are.
The dog and I much prefer LotR. . .
Sleepy Hollow's another Burton favorite of mine.
Post a Comment