A little dose of capitalist propaganda with our after-school snacks
[And now for a hastily written, and even more hastily proofread piece of work that has, despite the aforementioned haste, greatly contributed to the impending disaster that is my senior paper (less than 72 hours and more than 20 pages to go...). And if you're lazy/can't stand to read my writing, skip to the very last paragraph - that's where the real treasure is]:
When I was a little younger, I (like any sane youngster who was allowed to watch TV after school) tuned in regularly to the wonderful program ‘Duck Tales’. I couldn’t wait to see what sort of high jinx Scrooge and his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louis, along with a large cast of dare-I-say more entertaining supporting characters (Fenton Crackshell [a.k.a. Gizmoduck], Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys, Launchpad McQuack, Duckworth) plus a few not-so-entertaining ones (Bubba Duck and Webbigail Vanderquack spring to mind), would be up to on any given day.
Though I was sure too young to understand and appreciate most of the allusions, I was regularly thrilled by episodes that cleverly played off of well known works of art, legends, and historical events with such clever titles as: "Three Ducks of the Condor" [episode 3]; "The Duck in the Iron Mask" [episode 10]; "Duck to the Future" [episode 23]; "Dr Jekyll and Mr. McDuck [episode 25]"; "Ducky Horror Picture Show" [episode 32]; "The Golden Fleecing" [episode 33]; "The Uncrashable Hindentanic" [episode 65]; "The Duck Who Would Be King"[episode 67]; "Full Metal Duck" [episode 83]; "The Billionaire Beagle Boys Club" [episode 84]; "The Duck Who Knew Too Much" [episode 99]…the list goes on and on.
In addition to referencing all of these benchmarks of popular culture, history, and myth, looking back I can’t help but think that the show also carried another subtext that affected the minds of all of the show’s viewers – specifically, a blatant reinforcement of the ideals and virtues of capitalism and good capitalists. Basically every episode was filled with one or both of two main events – multi-billionaire scrooge and his loyal retinue scouring the globe for precious money to add to his money bin and ma beagle and the beagle boys trying to steal scrooge’s money from the money bin.
Now the message here is relatively clear. Uncle Scrooge represented a model example of American capitalism, both exploiting the masses and suppressing and exploiting indigenous cultures in order to get richer. But the catch is that this was not seen as a negative thing. I mean, sure: there were probably many episodes that ended with scrooge learning his lesson that ‘greed was bad’ and with him not getting the treasure that he was seeking (to tell you the truth, I can’t even remember if that is the case or not…but I am assuming so). But the trick was that scrooge was still a very sympathetic character (and was by far the least likeable character of his gang that included his nephews [with whom we kids could most easily relate], gizmoduck, launchpad, etc). We the viewers sympathized with him as he sought out people and lands to exploit in order to further fill his fantastic monument of capitalism: his money bin, which towered over Duckburgh with a majestic, awe-inspiring glow.
And on top of that, he (and more importantly for us kids watching, his nephews) led an amazing life, spending his time going on fabulous trips to amazing places around the globe and diving and swimming in his giant pit of money (which, by the way, was a surefire way to incite many a broken neck amongst young viewers, if only their parents had had money bins of their own). So basically the message we children were learning was: go to some far-flung corner of the globe, find some people with some treasure who are stupider than you are, try to steal their treasure, go home to mansion and lead an idyllic life of leisure, repeat.
Plus, throw in the fact that the beagle boys, scrooge’s archenemies and the sole threat to his riches, were dressed in red, and you’ve got yourself a downright cold war propaganda tool right there. They might as well have addressed each other as comrade and had hammers and sickles sewn into their uniforms. It’s been widely accepted that ‘beagle’ is a reference to ‘barker’ (as in ma barker), but don’t you think it’s a little more than a coincidence that ‘beagle’ and ‘Bolshevik’ not only share the same first letter, but share 2 other letters as well? 2!
Sure, when the show debuted in 1988 the soviet union was crumbling and Gorbachev (or, as I must’ve thought of him then, being 6: that man with the grape juice stain on his head) was less then two years removed from a visit that would take him less than 2 miles from my own home and the very couch on which I sat myself down to watch duck tales every afternoon. But the show was based on the comics of Carl Barks that were written during the 50s (need I say more?). And seriously folks, Carl Barks, creator of the original comic books, is seen by many to have subscribed to a worldview dominated to a large degree by a sense of republican triumphalism. And though my source isn’t necessarily 100% reliable on this one (what? A random internet site not necessarily reliable?), apparently he wrote at one point in a letter to the artist Don Rosa about how he was excited about the decline of the USSR, because it meant he could now set his stories in places where he wished not to before (no doubt because he was afraid of exposing children to such evil places and their evil economic systems): “[my] plots only took the ducks to the politically safe areas of the world. Since the decay of communism there's all of Russia and Siberia and China to use for locales."
But really, this is all neither here nor there. Because my real purpose of this writing rests elsewhere. Specifically, what I want to know is this: why would uncle scrooge choose to keep his money in the money bin in the first place? If he knew that the beagle brothers were constantly hatching schemes to steal the money from his money bin (or steal the money bin all together), why would he store all of his fortune in the most recognizable landmark in the entire city? It seems after the first thwarted theft attempt he would have moved the money somewhere more secret - perhaps to an underground bunker or maybe even a satellite. That way the beagle boys would have had no chance at getting at the fortune and all of uncle scrooge’s riches would have been completely safe.
But then again I suppose the writers may not have wanted to do that because by eliminating that bastion of capitalist power that would defeat the whole notion of the heralding the joys of capitalism. Or I suppose it’s possible that it was the fact that it would have made the show a whole lot less interesting if there was no actual action to take place without the plot device of uncle scrooge vs. the beagle boys…but me, i'll stick with the first explanation.
Also, the true reason i was inspired to write this was so i could share with you the immense genius of this, which really demands an entire post to itself. but i have not time for that now.
When I was a little younger, I (like any sane youngster who was allowed to watch TV after school) tuned in regularly to the wonderful program ‘Duck Tales’. I couldn’t wait to see what sort of high jinx Scrooge and his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louis, along with a large cast of dare-I-say more entertaining supporting characters (Fenton Crackshell [a.k.a. Gizmoduck], Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys, Launchpad McQuack, Duckworth) plus a few not-so-entertaining ones (Bubba Duck and Webbigail Vanderquack spring to mind), would be up to on any given day.
Though I was sure too young to understand and appreciate most of the allusions, I was regularly thrilled by episodes that cleverly played off of well known works of art, legends, and historical events with such clever titles as: "Three Ducks of the Condor" [episode 3]; "The Duck in the Iron Mask" [episode 10]; "Duck to the Future" [episode 23]; "Dr Jekyll and Mr. McDuck [episode 25]"; "Ducky Horror Picture Show" [episode 32]; "The Golden Fleecing" [episode 33]; "The Uncrashable Hindentanic" [episode 65]; "The Duck Who Would Be King"[episode 67]; "Full Metal Duck" [episode 83]; "The Billionaire Beagle Boys Club" [episode 84]; "The Duck Who Knew Too Much" [episode 99]…the list goes on and on.
In addition to referencing all of these benchmarks of popular culture, history, and myth, looking back I can’t help but think that the show also carried another subtext that affected the minds of all of the show’s viewers – specifically, a blatant reinforcement of the ideals and virtues of capitalism and good capitalists. Basically every episode was filled with one or both of two main events – multi-billionaire scrooge and his loyal retinue scouring the globe for precious money to add to his money bin and ma beagle and the beagle boys trying to steal scrooge’s money from the money bin.
Now the message here is relatively clear. Uncle Scrooge represented a model example of American capitalism, both exploiting the masses and suppressing and exploiting indigenous cultures in order to get richer. But the catch is that this was not seen as a negative thing. I mean, sure: there were probably many episodes that ended with scrooge learning his lesson that ‘greed was bad’ and with him not getting the treasure that he was seeking (to tell you the truth, I can’t even remember if that is the case or not…but I am assuming so). But the trick was that scrooge was still a very sympathetic character (and was by far the least likeable character of his gang that included his nephews [with whom we kids could most easily relate], gizmoduck, launchpad, etc). We the viewers sympathized with him as he sought out people and lands to exploit in order to further fill his fantastic monument of capitalism: his money bin, which towered over Duckburgh with a majestic, awe-inspiring glow.
And on top of that, he (and more importantly for us kids watching, his nephews) led an amazing life, spending his time going on fabulous trips to amazing places around the globe and diving and swimming in his giant pit of money (which, by the way, was a surefire way to incite many a broken neck amongst young viewers, if only their parents had had money bins of their own). So basically the message we children were learning was: go to some far-flung corner of the globe, find some people with some treasure who are stupider than you are, try to steal their treasure, go home to mansion and lead an idyllic life of leisure, repeat.
Plus, throw in the fact that the beagle boys, scrooge’s archenemies and the sole threat to his riches, were dressed in red, and you’ve got yourself a downright cold war propaganda tool right there. They might as well have addressed each other as comrade and had hammers and sickles sewn into their uniforms. It’s been widely accepted that ‘beagle’ is a reference to ‘barker’ (as in ma barker), but don’t you think it’s a little more than a coincidence that ‘beagle’ and ‘Bolshevik’ not only share the same first letter, but share 2 other letters as well? 2!
Sure, when the show debuted in 1988 the soviet union was crumbling and Gorbachev (or, as I must’ve thought of him then, being 6: that man with the grape juice stain on his head) was less then two years removed from a visit that would take him less than 2 miles from my own home and the very couch on which I sat myself down to watch duck tales every afternoon. But the show was based on the comics of Carl Barks that were written during the 50s (need I say more?). And seriously folks, Carl Barks, creator of the original comic books, is seen by many to have subscribed to a worldview dominated to a large degree by a sense of republican triumphalism. And though my source isn’t necessarily 100% reliable on this one (what? A random internet site not necessarily reliable?), apparently he wrote at one point in a letter to the artist Don Rosa about how he was excited about the decline of the USSR, because it meant he could now set his stories in places where he wished not to before (no doubt because he was afraid of exposing children to such evil places and their evil economic systems): “[my] plots only took the ducks to the politically safe areas of the world. Since the decay of communism there's all of Russia and Siberia and China to use for locales."
But really, this is all neither here nor there. Because my real purpose of this writing rests elsewhere. Specifically, what I want to know is this: why would uncle scrooge choose to keep his money in the money bin in the first place? If he knew that the beagle brothers were constantly hatching schemes to steal the money from his money bin (or steal the money bin all together), why would he store all of his fortune in the most recognizable landmark in the entire city? It seems after the first thwarted theft attempt he would have moved the money somewhere more secret - perhaps to an underground bunker or maybe even a satellite. That way the beagle boys would have had no chance at getting at the fortune and all of uncle scrooge’s riches would have been completely safe.
But then again I suppose the writers may not have wanted to do that because by eliminating that bastion of capitalist power that would defeat the whole notion of the heralding the joys of capitalism. Or I suppose it’s possible that it was the fact that it would have made the show a whole lot less interesting if there was no actual action to take place without the plot device of uncle scrooge vs. the beagle boys…but me, i'll stick with the first explanation.
Also, the true reason i was inspired to write this was so i could share with you the immense genius of this, which really demands an entire post to itself. but i have not time for that now.
posted by Josh Peterson at 4:37 PM
7 Comments:
You know, to be quite honest, that never occured to me. But it is astonishing how much of my worldview was shaped by that show; I specifically remember somebody mentioning Shakespeare when I was a kid, and I knew what they were talking about only because of "Much Ado About Scrooge".
Can you do Darkwing Duck next?
and that's not the only duck tales episode which introduced young fans to shakespeare. how about: "Bubbeo and Juliet" too?
see, i was never a big fan of darkwing duck. sure, when there was trouble you were supposed to call DW, but when i was bored i was more apt to call one of my friends than i was DW. that show didn't really do it for me.
maybe it was because i was a little confused as to what the hell launchpad was doing there. how did he go from being uncle scrooge's right hand man to being darkwing duck's servile sycophant? didn't seem quite right to me...
I must say I was extremely interested when I read the title of this post, but then quicky fell back into my lethargy when I discovered that it was about Duck Tales, a show I never watched. (Not even once if you can believe that) Oh well, at least I managed to kill some time reading longwinded blogging...only 6 hrs until bed...
yeah, i thought you might be first interested then eventually dissapointed by my intended but ultimately shallow political-minded insight in that entry.
no doubt that was greatly compunded by the fact that you never watched duck tales.
(shame on you, by the way - i mean, just listen to the theme song? with a song that great there is no way the show could have been bad...)
cartoons are, of course, still up to this sort of thing, only with an updated ethos.
here's a not-quite-as-long-winded bit i wrote about the watching habits of the 5-year-old who i babysit:
Her favorite show unfortunately is “The Babies,” which I’m not sure what its real name is, but it features Looney Tunes characters in diapers. This show is execrable, all the more since it neuters characters who were amusing in their “adult” form. For instance, there’s a baby Pepe le Peu who neither stinks nor talks, and is brought onscreen for his cuteness--like a “newly-adopted” four-year-old in a flagging sitcom—not the irony of an odorous romantic. Yeah, yeah, kids don’t get irony. Well neither do this show’s makers.
Every episode there’s some lip service paid to “uniqueness” or “difference” (since the show includes species from Australia and North America, wild and domestic, mammal and bird, there’s gotta be). Yet only superficial difference is praised, for almost every plot is about reclaiming a deviant baby to the fold before twelve minutes is up. Any time any one of them acts alone (and therefore, badly), they’re badgered, cajoled, or tricked into returning to the group and to the status quo, all the while being praised for being themselves. It’s like nightmarish socialism pushed by American individualist propaganda. I suppose the logic seems to dovetail with the standard present-day marketing strategy, that corporate message: “be ‘unique’ by consuming your choice of (our) mass-produced product.”
DuckTales? Carl Barks? Even a Don Rosa reference?
I must confess to a shameful little secret: I'm a big Carl Barks fan. I grew up reading his comics and was enthralled by them. He had a very distinctive writing and drawing style. I could always quickly recognize his stories: they were invariably the best ones of all the Duck artists, usually involving travel to some exotic locale, a quest for the Desirable Thingy and the risk of danger, sort of like Indiana Jones with ducks. I don't know of any children's comics quite like them, either then or now (except perhaps for Tin Tin and Asterix, but hey, they're French). Barks packed his stories with puns, history, literary allusions and geography lessons. He claimed as inspiration for many of his stories National Geographic (another publication I avidly consumed as a kid), admitting to copying vistas right out of that magazine and incorporating them into his panels. I actually collected Barks reprints for many years, and yes, I still have them packed away in their plastic slipccovers, stiffened by acid-free cardboard backing. I've started reading some of them to my five-year old son (and we've even watched a few episodes of DuckTales). He's taken to singing the theme song with me.
On to the politics. I've long been disturbed by my fascination with Barks' Ducks, and have often wondered to what extent his stories shaped my worldview. Scrooge is, after all, a Robber Baron who we're led to believe is self-made. A poor Scottish (hence his miserliness) immigrant, he acquired all the money in that bin by being "smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies." Scrooge was one of Barks' original creations. He appeared first in a 1947 story entitled "Christmas on Bear Mountain." Scrooge is a rather pathetic, bitter but rich old man, who's fretting about his inheritance. He thinks his surly, shiftless working class nephew Donald will piss it all away. So he decides to test Donald's fitness by inviting him to his mountain cabin for the holiday weekend (how's that for Christmas spirit?). Hilarity ensures. The point here, and I think one that carries through much of the Barks' Duck stories, is that while Scrooge may become a more sympathetic figure (from that mean miser at his creation), he remains a pathetic figure. He fetishizes that money; he can't bear to put it in a bank, but instead must come into physical contact with it daily. And it leads him to make poor decisions, moral and otherwise.
It's the nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, who are the heroes and moral center of the Barks' Duck stories. They're constantly getting both Scrooge and Donald out of jams with their courage, cleverness and pluck. We identify with them not just because they're "ducklings" and we're "kids," but because the adults in their world--and by wextension ours--are screwed up, and we're going to have to save them.
And the nephews save their Uncles not because they're bigger or meaner or luckier than their antagonists. They're smarter. They rely upon the Good Book, the Junior Woodchucks Guide, which seems to contain all the collected knowledge of the entire human race. They've clearly read it cover-to-cover, for they often solve dilemmas by beginning, "Didn't the Junior Woodchuck's Guide say...." Now, think of the message this sends: knowledge is power and, judging by the nephews' character and contentment, self-fulfillment as well. Scrooge has all the money in the world and he can't keep it safe and it won't make him happy. The nephews are poor but they have that book and its knowledge and they can triumph over anything.
Now, DuckTales is not Carl Barks' Duck stories. Some episodes were indeed based upon Barks' stories--and these, not surprisingly, were the best episodes--but most were creations of their time and place, namely a United States leaving behind the uncertainties of the Cold War and embarking on the triumphalism of the New World Order. The Disney studio that produced the show borrowed Barks' framework and made it their own (for example, the Beagle Boys' shirts were not red in the Barks' stories, but orange). The character of Scrooge, especially, has lost his pathos, and instead he's just a somewhat curmudgeonly uncle. God forbid kids see rich people unhappy or making poor choices. The message of the TV show seems pretty clear: an uncritical acceptance of capitalism and the fetishization of wealth, a sort of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" but with ducks.
I should've made this my dissertation topic.
wow. i have been put to shame by your fabulous insights, information, and opinions. if i had known there existed within my humble readership such an expert on this fine topic, i would not have attempted to bloviate forth without all of the requisite background information and clearly and well formed ideas. (i guess one never can be too careful when it comes to writing about duck tales...)
kudos to you, bunyan - great great stuff. if i ever go the whole dissertation/many more years of scholastic servitude route, i now know who to talk to if i want to write about this kind of stuff.
also, i realize i forgot to respond to fats's comments. also a fascinating read with excellent insights. all i can say is that "the babies" sounds just awful. what a sacriliege to the looney tunes franchise.
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