''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith'', originally ''Take Barney Google, F'rinstance'', is an American

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

created by

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

Billy DeBeck William Morgan DeBeck (April 15, 1890 – November 11, 1942), better known as Billy DeBeck, was an American cartoonist. He is most famous as the creator of the comic strip ''Barney Google'', later retitled ''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith'' ...

. Since its debut on June 17, 1919, the strip has gained a large international readership, appearing in 900 newspapers in 21 countries. The initial appeal of the strip led to its adaptation to film, animation, popular song, and television. It added several terms and phrases to the English language and inspired the 1923 hit tune "Barney Google (with the Goo-Goo- Googly Eyes)" with lyrics by

Billy Rose Billy Rose (born William Samuel Rosenberg; September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in entertainment, with sh ...

, as well as the 1923 record "Come On, Spark Plug!" Barney Google himself, once the star of the strip and a very popular character in his own right, was at one point almost entirely phased out of the feature. An increasingly peripheral player in his own strip beginning in the late 1930s, Barney was officially "written out" in 1954, although he occasionally returned for cameo appearances, often years apart. During a period between 1997 and 2012, Barney Google was not seen in the strip at all. Barney was reintroduced to the strip in 2012, and has slowly returned to being a semi-regular character. Snuffy Smith, who was initially introduced as a supporting player in 1934, has now been the comic strip's central character for over 60 years. Nevertheless, the feature is still titled ''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith''. As of June 17, 2019, ''Barney Google'' has run for an entire century, making it the third-longest running and uninterrupted comics series of all time, after

Rudolph Dirks Rudolph Dirks (February 26, 1877 – April 20, 1968) was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists, well known for ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' (later known as ''The Captain and the Kids''). Dirks was born in Heide, Germany, to Joh ...

' '' The Katzenjammer Kids'' and

Frank O. King Frank Oscar King (April 9, 1883 – June 24, 1969) was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip '' Gasoline Alley''. In addition to innovations with color and page design, King introduced real-time continuity in comic strips by s ...

's '' Gasoline Alley''. After ''Gasoline Alley'', it is the second-longest running newspaper comic still in syndication and producing new episodes as of 2021.

Characters and story

Barney Google

Like '' Mutt and Jeff'', ''Barney Google'' started out on the sports page. First appearing as a daily strip in the sports sections of the '' Chicago Herald'' and '' Examiner'' in 1919, it was originally titled ''Take Barney Google, F'rinstance''. The title character, a little fellow (although he shrank in stature even more after the first year) with big "banjo" eyes, was an avid sportsman and ne'er-do-well involved in

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

, and prize fights. The "goggle-eyed, moustached, gloved and top-hatted, bulbous-nosed, cigar-chomping shrimp" (according to comics historian Bill Blackbeard) was relentlessly henpecked by "a wife three times his size" (as the song lyric goes). The formidable Mrs. Lizzie Google, or "the sweet woman", sued Barney for divorce and thereafter virtually disappeared from the strip. By October 1919, the strip was distributed by

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...

and was published in newspapers across the country. His name might have been an inspiration for the large number name

googol A googol is the large number 10100. In decimal notation, it is written as the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeroes: 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, ...

, which in turn inspired the company name Google.

Spark Plug

Beginning on July 17, 1922, the strip took a momentous turn in popularity with the seemingly innocuous introduction of an endearing race horse named "Spark Plug". Barney's beloved "brown-eyed baby" was a bow-legged nag that seldom raced, and was typically seen almost totally covered by his trademark patched blanket with his name scrawled on the side. '' Peanuts'' creator Charles M. Schulz was known to his friends as Sparky, a lifelong nickname given to him by his uncle as a diminutive of ''Barney Googles Spark Plug. Comics historian Don Markstein noted: In deference to his enormous popularity during this period, the strip was retitled ''Barney Google and Spark Plug''. DeBeck's strip hit its peak of popularity with Spark Plug about the same time the song "Barney Google (Foxtrot)" by

and Con Conrad was sweeping the country. It became one of the best known, most iconic novelty records of the 1920s, and has been recorded by such famous artists as

Eddie Cantor Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, ...

and The Happiness Boys, The Andrews Sisters, and Spike Jones: Other popular characters and concepts introduced in the strip about this time include "Sunshine", Barney's black jockey, a troublesome ostrich named "Rudy", "Sully", a monocled champion wrestler, and the mysterious hooded fraternity "The Order of the Brotherhood of Billy Goats", a parody of mystic secret societies. (There was also a "Sisterhood of Nanny Goats" for the ladies.) Their password was "O-K-M-N-X" which, deciphered, stood for a standard breakfast order ("Okay, ham and eggs"). Barney was elected "Exalted Angora" in 1928.

Transition to "Barney Google & Snuffy Smith"

In 1934, an even greater change took place when Barney and his horse visited the North Carolina mountains and met a volatile, equally diminutive

moonshine Moonshine is high-proof liquor that is usually produced illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of creating the alcohol during the nighttime, thereby avoiding detection. In the first decades of the 21st century, commercial dist ...

r named Snuffy Smith.

Hillbilly Hillbilly is a term (often derogatory) for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in southern Appalachia and the Ozarks. The term was later used to refer to people from other rural and mountainous areas west ...

humor was popular at the time (as

Al Capp Alfred Gerald Caplin (September 28, 1909 – November 5, 1979), better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip ''Li'l Abner'', which he created in 1934 and continued writing and (wi ...

was proving with '' Li'l Abner''). The strip increasingly focused on the southern

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

n hamlet of "Hootin' Holler", with Snuffy as the main character. The mountaineer locals are suspicious of any outsiders, referred to as "flatlanders" or even worse, "revenooers" (Federal Revenue agents). Snuffy Smith was so popular that his name was added to the strip's title in the late 1930s, while the top-billed Barney Google became an increasingly peripheral character in what once was his own comic. Eventually, Barney Google left Hootin' Holler in 1954 to return to the city, and was essentially written out of the strip except as a very occasional visitor. Barney has appeared rarely in the feature from the mid-1950s on, but returned to Hootin' Holler for a visit in a series of strips beginning on February 19, 2012. Prior to 2012, Barney had not appeared in the strip since January 5, 1997, a span of over 15 years. Barney Google—usually with Spark Plug in tow—made occasional return trips to Hootin' Holler from 2012 to 2020, and moved back permanently to Hootin' Holler in a series of strips run in May 2021. He still appears infrequently, but is now more of an occasional supporting player (as opposed to a very occasional guest).

Snuffy Smith and the townsfolk of Hootin' Holler

Snuffy Smith (whose last name is pronounced "Smif" by virtually all the characters in Hootin' Holler) is an ornery little cuss, sawed-off and shiftless. He lives in a shack, mangles the English language, and has a propensity to shoot at those who displease him. He makes "corn-likker" moonshine in a homemade still and is in constant trouble with the sheriff. He wears a broad-brimmed felt hat almost as tall as he is, has a scraggly mustache and a pair of tattered, poorly patched overalls. He constantly cheats at poker and checkers. He also has some proclivity toward stealing chickens, which led to a brief but effective use of his character in a marketing campaign by the Tyson Foods corporation in the early 1980s. In 1937, he held the post of "Royal Doodle Bug" in the "Varmints" lodge; during this period, the strip heavily employed the catchphrase, "What did the Doodle-Bug say?", an apparent homage to "What did the Woggle-Bug say?" in L. Frank Baum and Walt McDougall's '' Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz'' strip of 1904–1905. Almost all of the characters in the strip (except the infrequently seen Barney Google and the occasional visiting "flatlander") are exaggerated hillbillies in the classic

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

tradition: sharp-tongued gossipy women such as Snuffy's wife Loweezy; his baby Tater; his mischievous nephew Jughaid; his neighbors Elviney and Lukey King Features: ''Snuffy Smith'' characters
(Lucas Ebenezer Hinks); the sanctimonious (but nonetheless ungrammatical) Parson; Silas, the ever-parsimonious owner of the General Store; the ostentatiously-badged Sheriff Tait, and others. Vehicles are rundown jalopies of a seeming 1920s vintage, even in the 1970s and beyond. The characters are drawn so that they appear to be talking out of the sides of their mouths.

Topper strips

''Bughouse Fables''

On December 24, 1920, DeBeck began a gag panel called ''Bughouse Fables'', featuring his observations of ordinary people doing foolish things, which he signed "Barney Google". This daily panel ran until November 13, 1937. DeBeck added ''Bughouse Fables'' as an accompanying topper strip to run with ''Barney Google'' on Sundays, from January 17 to May 9, 1926.

''Bunky''

On May 16, 1926, DeBeck began another topper strip, originally called ''Parlor, Bedroom and Sink''—but better known as ''Bunky''. ''Parlor Bedroom and Sink''—which evolved into ''Parlor Bedroom and Sink Starring Bunky'', and eventually simply ''Bunky''—is an over-the-top parody of stage

melodrama A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...

s and movie and radio serials that were popular at the time. The title character "" (short for Bunker Hill Jr.) was a hapless waif whose penniless parents, Bunker Hill Sr., and Bibsy, had given birth to the strangely erudite newborn with the enormous nose on November 13, 1927. The irresponsible Bunker Sr. eventually disappeared from the strip. From then on, pint-sized Bunky (still dressed in the baby bonnet and gown in which he was first seen) was the star, protector, and benefactor of the family. His vocabulary rivaled that of any educated adult. Arch-nemesis Fagin, introduced in 1928, was as vile and despicable a villain as any Charles Dickens antagonist. He "would steal pennies from a blind man's cup and kick dogs that weren't even in his way. Robbing widows and orphans ... was routine for him", according to comics historian Don Markstein, who said the strip popularized the phrase, "Youse is a viper!"''Bunky''
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

. from the original on April 13, 2012. Fantasy author and '' Conan the Barbarian'' creator

Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906June 11, 1936) was an American writer. He wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subge ...

, a big fan of ''Bunky'', was fond of quoting from the strip, as noted by his friend, Tevis Clyde Smith. After DeBeck's death in 1942, ''Bunky'' continued for a time under Joe Musial ('' The Katzenjammer Kids'') and Fred Lasswell. The series ended on July 18, 1948.

Other toppers

Other toppers featured above ''Barney Google'' included: ''Who's Who'' (1932), ''Youse Is a Viper'' (May 15, 1932 - Aug 19, 1934), ''I Learnt This Trick from the Prince'' (Aug 12-Sept 2, 1934), ''Knee-Hi-Knoodles'' (Sept 9, 1934 - June 23, 1935), ''Hill-Billy Ba-Looney'' (Sept 15-Dec 8, 1935), ''What Did the Doodle Bug Say?'' (April 11–25, 1937) and ''Write a Caption for This Cartoon'' (Sept 11-Oct 9, 1938).

Fred Lasswell

When ''Barney Google'' began to lose popularity during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, DeBeck introduced a simpler style through artist Fred Lasswell after seeing a poster by Lasswell, then in high school, at a golf tournament at Palma Ceia Country Club in Tampa, Florida. Lasswell, who drew cartoons and posters at the McCarthy Ad Agency and for the ''Tampa Daily Times'', was brought in to create the Snuffy characters, which by 1934, surpassed Barney Google in popularity. Lasswell took over the strip, now named ''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith'' after DeBeck died in 1942. In 1944 and 1945, Lasswell began featuring Snuffy in guest appearances in Laswell's own ''Sargent Hashmark'' comic strip that appeared in the U.S. Marines' '' Leatherneck Magazine''. After the war, Lasswell gained steady increases in distribution, with the strip eventually appearing in more than 1,000 newspapers throughout the world. In 1962, Lasswell received the Silver Lady Award, and two years later won the Reuben Award and the Best Humor Strip Award from the

National Cartoonist's Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

.NCS Awards
,

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

. Retrieved June 1, 2019. In both 1984 and 1994, he won the

Elzie Segar Award The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

, being the only cartoonist who received this award more than once. Lasswell died in 2001, 16 weeks ahead on the strip, leaving a digital archive containing 35,000 original comic panels and sketches, including over 20,000 daily and 4,000 Sunday strips and about 24,000 original gags.

John R. Rose

In mid-1998, editorial cartoonist John R. Rose began as Lasswell's inking assistant, and he became the strip's cartoonist after Lasswell's death. In addition to being the artist on the strip, Rose is the editorial cartoonist for Ogden Newspapers of Virginia and creates ''Kids' Home Newspaper'', a weekly syndicated puzzle feature for Creators Syndicate. His books including ''The Bodacious Best of Snuffy Smith'' (2013), ''Balls of Fire! More Snuffy Smith Comics'' (2016), and ''Snuffy Smith In His Sunday Best'' (2018). Rose restored Barney Google as a semiregular character; in 2015, Rose was presented the Lum and Abner Memorial Award by the National Lum and Abner Society for his contributions to rural humor. In September 2017, Rose was honored with an award at Walt Disney's Hometown Toonfest in Marceline, Missouri, for his contributions to cartooning. John Rose was awarded First Place from the Tennessee Press Association in 2018 for Best Use Of Humor In An Ad for a series wildfire prevention public service newspaper ads featuring Snuffy Smith. He created these "Snuff Out Wildfires Before They Start" ads for the ''Knoxville News-Sentinel'' and the Tennessee Press Association after devastating wildfires hit eastern Tennessee. In June 2019, Rose featured Barney Google in a special 100th-birthday series that lasted several weeks. Barney got lost in the funny papers trying to find Hootin' Holler and ended up visiting Dagwood, Popeye, Beetle Bailey, and more on his way to a birthday party that featured many characters from ''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith'' who had not been seen in decades. And tribute panels to cartoonists Billy DeBeck and Fred Lasswell. In August 2021 Rose was awarded the Jack Davis Award for South East Cartoonist Of The Year by the South East Chapter Of The National Cartoonists Society. Rose created a special weeklong storyline in the comic strip which began on July 17, 2022 celebrating Spark Plug's 100th birthday.

Legacy

DeBeck, who had a gift for coining colorful terms, is credited with introducing several Jazz Age slang words and phrases into the English language—including "sweet mama", "horsefeathers", "heebie-jeebies", "hotsy-totsy", and "Who has seen the doodle bug?" Snuffy's catchphrases "great balls o' fire" and "time's a-wastin'" remain popular to this day. In DeBeck's memory, the

in 1946 introduced the Billy DeBeck Award. (Eight years later, the name was changed to the Reuben Award after

Rube Goldberg Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), known best as Rube Goldberg, was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadge ...

.) In 1963, Lasswell won both the NCS Humor Comic Strip Award and Reuben Award. That same year, he won the society's plaque for Best Humor Strip. In 1984, the society gave him its

Elzie Segar Elzie Crisler Segar (; December 8, 1894 – October 13, 1938), known by the pen name E. C. Segar, was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of Popeye, a pop culture character who first appeared in 1929 in Segar's comic strip ''Thimbl ...

Award (named after the creator of '' Popeye'') for outstanding contributions to his profession. ''Snuffy Smith'' currently appears in 21 countries and 11 languages. In 1995, the strip was honored by the U.S. Postal Service; it was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative USPS postage stamps.

Licensing

Snuffy Smith makes a brief appearance in Clifford D. Simak's novel ''Out of Their Minds''.

Toys and merchandise

Spark Plug captured the nation's hearts and imagination during the 1920s, and became a merchandising bonanza for King Features and Billy DeBeck. "Spark Plug, I am happy to say, has caught on," wrote DeBeck in 1924. "All over the United States you find stuffed Spark Plugs and Spark Plug games and Spark Plug drums and Spark Plug balloons and Spark Plug tin pails. And there is a Spark Plug play on the road. The only thing that is lacking is a Spark Plug grand opera." (Source: ''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: 75 Years of an American Legend'', page 35). During the mid-1950s, the Louis Marx Toy Company sold four vinyl character figures, two-and-a-half-to-three inches tall, representing Snuffy Smith, Loweezie, Jug Haid and Sut Tattersail. (Illustrated at http://www.marxwildwest.com/cartoons%20-%20non-disney.html). In 1960, King Features made plans to have Snuffy Smith serving hot dogs and chili at Snuffy's Shantys icacross the country, the plan of a Columbus, Georgia, franchiser who had hoped to have 700 shanties operating by 1970. In July 2004, Dark Horse Comics issued a limited-edition figure of Barney Google in a colorful collector tin as statue number 47 in their line of Classic Comic Character figures. In November 2021, Comics Kingdom began selling tee shirts in their online shop featuring Spark Plug's grandson, Li'l Sparky. In July 2022, Comics Kingdom began selling tee shirts in their online shop celebrating Spark Plug's 100th birthday.

Sheet music

* "Barney Google Foxtrot" by Billy Rose and Con Conrad (1923) Jerome H. Remick & Co. * "Come On, Spark Plug!" by Billy Rose and Con Conrad (1923) Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co. * "Bug House Fables" by Clarence Gaskill (1923) M. Witmark & Sons * "So I Took the $50,000" by Jack Meskill and Al Gumble (1923) Jerome H. Remick & Co. * "O-K-M-N-X We're Twenty Million Strong" (or "The Brotherhood of Billy Goats") by Phil Baker, J. Russel Robinson and Sid Silvers (1928) Jerome H. Remick & Co. * "Time's a-Wastin' (The Original Yard Bird Song)" by Olsen and Johnson, Jay Levison and Ray Evans (1941) Broadcast Music, Inc.

Comic books

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith each had a spotty history in comic books, starting with the first issue of David McKay's ''

Ace Comics ''Ace Comics'' was a comic book series published by David McKay Publications between 1937 and 1949 — starting just before the Golden Age of Comic Books. The title reprinted syndicated newspaper strips owned by King Features Syndicate, followi ...

'' (1937). They appeared in their own comics as well—three issues from Dell Comics in the 1940s, four from Toby Press in the 1950s, one from Gold Key Comics in the 1960s, and six from Charlton Comics in the 1970s. In December, 2015, ''Snuffy Smith'' returned to comic books. John Rose wrote and illustrated the comic book story "Hopalong Jughaid" for

Charlton Spotlight ''Charlton Spotlight'' is a US magazine that explores the history of the Charlton Comics Group. It is published by Argo Press. Its publisher/editor is Michael Ambrose. The first issue was published in fall 2000 and nine issues have come out so fa ...

#9.

Book collections and reprints

(All titles by Billy Debeck unless otherwise noted) * ''Barney Google and His Faithful Nag Spark Plug'' (1923) Cupples & Leon Co. * ''Barney Google and Spark Plug #2'' (1924) Cupples & Leon Co. * ''Barney Google and Spark Plug #3'' (1925) Cupples & Leon Co. * ''Barney Google and Spark Plug #4'' (1926) Cupples & Leon Co. * ''Barney Google'' (1935) Big Little Book #1083 Saalfield * ''Barney Google: 1919–1920'' (1977) Hyperion Press * ''The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics'' (1977) Smithsonian Institution Press/ Harry Abrams (Bill Blackbeard, ed.) * ''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: 75 Years of an American Legend'' (1994) Kitchen Sink Press (Brian Walker, ed.) * ''Barney Google: Gambling, Horse Races and High-Toned Women!'' (2010) Yoe! Books (imprint of IDW) * ''The Bodacious Best of Snuffy Smith'' (2013) Lulu.com (John Rose) * ''Balls Of Fire! More Snuffy Smith Comics'' (2016) Lulu.com (John Rose) * ''Snuffy Smith In His Sunday Best'' (2018) Lulu.com (John Rose) * ''Barney Google'' (2019) IDW Publishing (Library of American Comics), (Foreword by John Rose, Introduction by Brian Walker) . Reprints daily strips originally published May 31, 1926 - December 7, 1926 and October 7, 1927 - April 6, 1928.

Film and television

Live-action – 1920s

Beginning in 1928, Barney Hellum portrayed Barney Google in a series of silent live-action short films for F.B.O. Pictures, also featuring Philip Davis as Sunshine. * ''Horsefeathers'' (1928) * ''OKMNX'' (1928) (or ''Barney Google's Welcome Home'') * ''T-Bone Handicap'' (1928) * ''Money Balks'' (1928) * ''The Beef-Steaks'' (1928) * ''Runnin' Through the Rye'' (1929) * ''Sunshine's Dark Moment'' (1929) * ''Neigh, Neigh, Spark Plug'' (1929) * ''A Horse on Barney'' (1929) * ''Just a Stall'' (1929) * ''The Pace That Thrills'' (1929) * ''Slide, Sparky, Slide'' (1929)

Live-action – 1940s

Two low-budget, live-action

B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

features based on the strip were produced at

Monogram Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...

in 1942: '' Private Snuffy Smith'' (or ''Snuffy Smith, Yardbird'') and ''

Hillbilly Blitzkrieg ''Hillbilly Blitzkrieg'' is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Roy Mack that was a sequel to ''Private Snuffy Smith''. The film is also known as ''Enemy Round-Up'' (American TV title). Plot Nazi spies mistake Snuffy Smith's moonshine for ...

''. Diminutive actor Bud Duncan portrayed Snuffy in both films, with Cliff Nazarro appearing as Barney in ''Hillbilly Blitzkrieg''.Barney Google
at

Archived
from the original on August 27, 2015. (Both films also feature former

Keystone Cop The Keystone Cops (often spelled "Keystone Kops") are fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent film Slapstick film, slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Studios, Keystone Film Company between 1912 and ...

Edgar Kennedy and future Mouseketeer Jimmie Dodd in supporting roles.)

Animation – 1930s

animated cartoon Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

''Barney Google'' series in the mid-1930s was produced by the

Charles Mintz Charles Bear Mintz (November 5, 1889 – December 30, 1939)''Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014''. Social Security Administration. was an American film producer and distributor who assumed control over Margaret J. Winkler's Winkler Pictu ...

Screen Gems Screen Gems is an American brand name used by Sony Pictures' Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent ...

Studio. Mintz made only four ''Barney Google'' cartoons, all released theatrically through Columbia Pictures. * ''Tetched in the Head'' (1935) * ''Patch Mah Britches'' (1935) * ''Spark Plug'' (1936) * ''Major Google'' (1936)

Animation – 1940s

''Spree for All'' (1946) is an animated Noveltoon produced by

Famous Studios Famous Studios (renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956) was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized contro ...

, distributed through

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. It was produced in color, but currently only exists in a black and white print.

Animation – 1960s

In 1962,

released 50 six-minute ''Snuffy Smith'' cartoons for television, produced by

Paramount Cartoon Studios Famous Studios (renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956) was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized contro ...

in New York. All 50 episodes are available on the, "Advantage Collection, Cartoon Mega Pack" DVD set. The opening credits included a catchy theme song that was specifically composed for the cartoon: :''Uh-uh-oh! Great balls o' fire, I'm bodacious!'' :''Uh-uh-oh! Great balls o' fire, I'm a fright!'' :''Uh-uh-oh! Great balls o' fire, goodness gracious!'' :''I'm chop-chop-chop-chop-choppin' with all o' my might—YEA!'' Other King Features properties, such as '' Beetle Bailey'' and ''

Krazy Kat ''Krazy Kat'' (also known as ''Krazy & Ignatz'' in some reprints and compilations) is an US, American newspaper comic strip, by cartoonist George Herriman, which ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the ''New York Journal-American, New Yor ...

'', also appeared as rotating segments under the collective title: ''King Features Trilogy''. The series was widely shown in TV syndication (although ''Snuffy's Song'', ''The Hat'', ''The Method and Maw'', and ''Take Me to Your Gen'rul'' were released theatrically), with prolific voice actor Paul Frees providing the voices of both Snuffy and Barney. Ge Ge Pearson also doubled as Loweezy and Jughaid. A number of episodes feature animation by famed animator Jim Tyer.“Snuffy Smith” by Jim Tyer
All shorts directed by Seymour Kneitel except where indicated. 1962 * ''Snuffy's Song'' (Part 1 of a 30-minute special) * ''The Hat'' (Part 3 of a 30-minute special) * ''The Method and Maw'' (Part 2 of a 30-minute special) * ''Take Me to Your Gen'rul'' 1963 * ''Snuffy's Turf Luck'' (First short produced, made in 1961) (directed by Jack Kinney) * ''Pie in the Sky'' * ''The Berkeley Squares'' * ''The Shipwreckers'' * ''The Master'' (First short with Snuffy's dog, Bullet) * ''Barney Deals the Cars'' * ''Snuffy Runs the Gamut'' * ''The Tourist Trap'' * ''Rip Van Snuffy'' (First short with Jughaid) * ''Snuffy Goes to College'' * ''Snuffy's Brush with Fame'' * ''Give a Jail a Break'' * ''Glove Thy Neighbor'' * ''Snuffy's Fair Lady'' 1964 * ''Just Plain Kinfolk'' * ''Off Their Rockers'' * ''Snuffy Hits the Road'' * ''My Kingdom for a Horse'' * ''The Country Club Smiths'' * ''Jughaid's Jumping Frog'' * ''Turkey Shoot'' * ''The Work Pill'' * ''Jughaid for President'' * ''Loweezy Makes a Match'' * ''Fishin' Fools'' * ''Little Red Jughaid'' * ''Jughaid the Magician'' * ''A Hoss Kin Dream'' * ''It's Better to Give'' * ''Springtime and Spark Plug'' * ''There's No Feud Like an Old Feud'' * ''A Hauntin' fer a House'' * ''Feudin' and a-Fussin' '' * ''Barney's Blarney'' * ''Do Do That Judo'' * ''Farm of the Future'' * ''Gettin' Snuffy's Goat'' * ''Barney's Winter Carnival'' * ''Keeping Up with the Joneses'' * ''The Big Bear Hunt'' (First short with Bizzy Buzz Buzz, and the last to have Jughaid) * ''Ain't It the Tooth'' * ''Bizzy Nappers'' * ''The Buzz in Snuffy's Bonnet'' * ''Settin' and a-Frettin' '' (Bizzy Buzz Buzz introduces herself to the audience, implying that this was the first produced short she appeared in) * ''Beauty and the Beat'' (Last short with Barney Google) * ''Smoke Screams'' (Has a cameo from Smokey the Bear)

References

External links

Archived
from the original on July 23, 2017.
''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith''
at

Comics Kingdom King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial c ...

NCS Awards

Snuffy Smith and Barney Google at IMDB
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