"Joe Soap" is British rhyming slang denoting a foolish stooge or scapegoat, ''Joe'' being an ordinary person, with ''Soap'' as a rhyme for ''dope''.

History

The phrase appeared in a 1943 book of military slang by John Hunt and Alan Pringle: ''"Joe Soap, the 'dumb' or not so intelligent members of the forces. The men who are 'over-willing' and therefore the usual 'stooges'."'' The name Joe Soap appears in the WW1 song "Joe Soap's Army", sung to the tune of "

Onward, Christian Soldiers "Onward, Christian Soldiers" is a 19th-century English hymn. The words were written by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1865, and the music was composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1871. Sullivan named the tune "St Gertrude," after the wife of his friend Erne ...

". ("Forward, Joe Soap's army, marching without fear, with our brave commander, safely in the rear.")

In popular culture

The song "Blind Youth" by "The Human League", released in 1979, contains the refrain: ''Blind youth, take hope/You're no Joe Soap/Your time is due/Big fun come soon!'' ''Joe Soap'' was a

photographic Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed i ...

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

series published in the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

'', from number 12 (dated 12 June 1982) until number 45 (dated 29 January 1983). It was written by Alan Grant and

John Wagner John Wagner (born 1949) is an American-born British comics writer. Alongside Pat Mills, he helped revitalise British comics in the 1970s, and continues to be active in the British comics industry, occasionally also working in American comics. ...

, with photography by

Gary Compton Gary Compton (born May 9, 1968) is a former American football wide receiver and linebacker in the Arena Football League and briefly in the National Football League and World League of American Football. Compton played college football at East ...

. Another character of the same name appeared in Cracker and The Beezer. The humorous strip featured Joseph Soaper, a self-styled hardboiled "enquiry agent", who was in reality a down-trodden and occasionally incompetent

private detective A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

. Nicknamed Soap for his softness, Soaper spent his days mired in unprofitable or even ludicrous cases, which weren't helped by his tendency to miss obvious clues and antagonise both clients and

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

. The character of Joe Soap would reappear during the late 1980s, this time in drawn form, in a comic strip/puzzle feature which would be published in both the ''Eagle Summer Special'' and the ''Eagle Annual'' of that year. Titled ''Could You Be a Joe Soap?'', it encouraged readers to read the story carefully and try to spot in both the frames and speech balloons all the clues Joe missed. In the final panel, after realising that he has got everything completely wrong, Joe would almost always end up exclaiming, "Oh no! Where did I go wrong this time?", or words to that effect. In 1994 Andrew Motion published a long poem with the title ''Joe Soap.'' In the 2012 ''

Dredd ''Dredd'' is a 2012 science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Pete Travis and written and produced by Alex Garland. It is based on the ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 AD'' comic strip ''Judge Dredd'' and its eponymous character ...

'' movie, a Joe Soap poster can be seen on a billboard during a bike chase scene. 'Joe Soap' was mentioned in chapter 17, page 125, of ''The Papers of Tony Veitch'', the second book of William McIlvanney's Inspector Laidlaw trilogy: "One of those studio mock-up LPs of recent hits recorded by Joe Soap & Company was playing, authentic as a wooden penny. It belonged. Harkness wondered if that was why she wore her hair long: her ears were made of tin."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soap, Joe Eagle (comic) characters Eagle comic strips Humor comics 1982 comics debuts 1983 comics endings Fictional private investigators