Reversing the Numbness

Monday, September 10, 2007

Smurfin' Funny

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Smurfs rule.

Does anyone remember the episode where Gargamel infects a smurf who then bites the other smurfs on the tail and making them turn black and be evil?

The only one who's left is papa and he barricades himself in a mushroom and figures out the cure before all of smurfdom is wiped out.

It was a big episode in my childhood, one that no one else ever remembers. Was I drunk?

SleekPelt said...

From listology.com:

1. The Smurfs, "The Purple Smurfs" (1981, TV Show)
A fly bites one of the Smurfs on his tail, turning his skin purple and causing him to bounce around mindlessly and angrily, yell "G'nap!" and bite other Smurfs on the tail, spreading the virus. Clearly an homage to Night of the Living Dead, this episode, which couldn't be more than eight minutes long, has more action and plot twists than most full-length horror movies. And then there's the ending: Papa Smurf, last of the non-infected Smurfs, is barricaded inside his lab, trying to mix one last batch of the magic powder that can reverse the virus. But the Purple Smurfs break in and bite Papa Smurf on the tail, turning him into a Purple Smurf. Fortunately, he proceeds to smash the lab, which causes a fire, which in turn makes the magic powder explode over the village and reverse the process. But the damage to fragile 9 year old minds has been done, because for a brief moment, the Smurfs are extinct, completely wiped out, replaced by, for all intents and purposes, zombies. That they are restored to normal by pure chance makes the inevitable happy ending seem less reassuring and more like a brief glimpse into a random, unknowable universe. Changed my life, it did.

SleekPelt said...

matthes: You'll need to download the plug-in if you don't already have it, but here's the full episode. And it's absolutely insane.

Anonymous said...

Man....thats cool that it actually happened and I was one of those fragile minds that was affected. And I swear that I have probably asked 10 people about that show and no one remembered it.

Nice to know I'm not crazy.

Zee said...

Who wrote that episode, Sartre?

I missed that one, but I wound up a borderline existentialist anyway.

Mom! Toilets blogged! said...

Lets see, it's Bobby, Micky, Bill, Jerry, Phil and Brent.
Sirius just launched their new Grateful Dead channel, GD 24-7 It's good too, loads of music, history and information.
Look, I don't know squat about Smurfs, but I know Friday Music is coming right around the corner, I just wanted to be first at something.
Mom

SleekPelt said...

matthes: I think the most disturbing thing about that episode is how big of an asshole Papa Smurf is in it. He's like evil or something.

zee: If you'd watched too much Smurfs, you may have become a communist.

mom: Hmm, you may be on to something. Jerry Garcia ... Papa Smurf. One in the same?

josh williams said...

I think the smurfs need some anti depressents and then maybe they would not be so blue...

wheatgerm said...

This is awesome. Blue and true, turbo

Anonymous said...

Papa was a dick for sure, but by the end he realized that he loved his Smurfs...even Lazy.

SleekPelt said...

josh: I'm sure if you dig around the internets, you'll find a plenty of well-constructed theories that link smurfs to pharmaceuticals.

wheatgerm: It's nice to see you again -- I'm glad you smurfed the video.

matthes: I should think so. After all, he's the one who, at the age of 100 years -- certainly old enough to understand, even by smurf terms -- encountered the zombie fly in the first place and had to create an antidote for its poison. Considering how obvious it is that that sort of disease would threaten all of Smurfdom (think 28 Days Later, folks), you'd think he would have written the cure down or something. I say it's all his fault, in fact.