Wicked Willie is a humorous British cartoon character personified as a talking penis, created by

Gray Jolliffe Graham Jolliffe (born 1937, St Germans, Cornwall, UK) is a British illustrator and cartoonist. His work includes Chloe & Co in the ''Daily Mail'', and the ''Wicked Willie'' character that first appeared in the book, ''Man's Best Friend'' in 1 ...

(illustrator) and

Peter Mayle Peter Mayle ( "mail"; 14 June 1939 – 18 January 2018) was a British businessman turned author who moved to France in the 1980s. He wrote a series of bestselling memoirs of his life there, beginning with '' A Year in Provence'' (1989). Early l ...

(writer). He first appeared in the book ''Man's Best Friend'', published in 1984. He has subsequently appeared in ''Wicked Willie - The Movie'', and the board game, The Wicked Willie Game. Jolliffe has said that the idea for Wicked Willie came to him one day, while he was in the bath. A more detailed history of Wicked Willie is found in the book ''Wicked Willie Reloaded''. Journalist Peter Silverton described it thus: "...comic books about a man and his Wicked Willie. It was a dialogue—mostly about women, of course—between the two. Its irony is that the 'dreadful little trouser mole' is by far the sharper of the two brains".

Personification

Author Peter Mayle describes Wicked Willie as "a rampant penis". In her book ''Communicating Gender'',

Suzanne Romaine Suzanne Romaine (born 1951) is an American linguist known for work on historical linguistics and sociolinguistics. From 1984 to 2014 she was Merton Professor of English language at the University of Oxford. Background and career Romaine was bo ...

notes: :"The personification metaphor suggests that the penis leads a life of its own. It has been popularized in Britain in the form of the Wicked Willie books, where Willie is referred to as "Man's Best Friend". Scottish feminist linguist Deborah Cameron notes that: :"In England, there is a popular cartoon character called "Wicked Willie" ..The underlying conceit is that men secretly regard their penis as an individual in its own right (and one to whom they are deeply attached). Though the cartoon is a joke, it presumably speaks to a widely recognized, culturally constructed experience of the penis as an uncontrollable Other, with a life of its own". The character also contributed to the permissiveness and acceptance of sex on the

high street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

. British journalist

Libby Purves Elizabeth Mary Purves, (born 2 February 1950) is a British radio presenter, journalist and author. Early life and career Born in London, a diplomat's daughter, Purves was raised in her mother's Catholic faith and educated at convent school ...

writes: :"High street shops no longer bother to put their hopping penises on a high shelf, and nor do bookshops selling ''Wicked Willie'' and the like."

Reception

In March 1987, the book ''Wicked Willie's Guide to Women'' was in the number 7 position in the Paperback Non-Fiction section of the Month's Bestsellers. Almost a year later, ''Wicked Willie's Low-down on Men'' had reached number 6 in the same chart.''Illustrated London News'', London, Saturday, 27 February 1988, Issue 7075, page 70

References

Bibliography

* ''Man's Best Friend: Introducing Wicked Willie in the Title Role'', illustrated by Gray Jolliffe, Crown (New York, NY), 1984. * ''Wicked Willie's Guide to Women: A Worm's-Eye View of the Fair Sex'', illustrated by Gray Jolliffe, Pan Books (London, England), 1986, Crown (New York, NY), 1987. * ''Wicked Willie's Low-down on Men'' by Peter Mayle, Gray Jolliff, , . 64 pages. 1987 * ''Wicked Willie's Guide to Women: The Further Adventures of Man's Best Friend'', illustrated by Gray Jolliffe, Crown (New York, NY), 1988. * ''The World According to Wicked Willie'' by Peter Mayle, Gray Jolliffe, , . 64 pages (1988) * ''Wicked Willie Stand Up Comic Book'', by Peter Mayle, Gray Jolliffe and Peter May (Hardcover - Aug 1990), , 16 pages * ''Wicked Willie Does Stand Up'', by Gray Jolliffe, (30 Aug 2002), 7 pages * ''Wicked Willie: Reloaded'', by Gray Joliffe, publisher: Prion Books Ltd, Sept 2004, , . 64 pages.

DVDs

* ''Wicked Willie - The Movie & Comes again.. and again - The Complete Wicked Willie''

010 010 may refer to: * 10 (number) * 8 (number) in octal numeral notation * Motorola 68010, a microprocessor released by Motorola in 1982 * 010, the telephone area code of Beijing * 010, the Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the R ...

Bob Godfrey (Director). 83 minutes

External links

Wicked Willie
official website
Gray Jolliffe
official website {{Authority control 1984 comics debuts British comic strips Humor comics Comics characters introduced in 1984 British comics characters Peter Mayle British comics adapted into films Comics adapted into animated films