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What are those symbols cartoonists use in place of profanity? They’re called grawlixes — good to know for the next time you play a game we just invented called “Comic Strip Jargon or Pokemon?” This is part of a complete episode.
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Great episode! I distinctly recall seeing grawlixes for the first time in a Beetle Baily cartoon I read as a child. Had to ask my mom what they meant, and she explained they stood for swearing (which you weren’t allowed to do in newspapers … at least in those days.) Never knew they had a name, albeit one made up by Mort Walker just because he felt they deserved a name.
So is there a name for the vocal equivalent of a grawlix? Think Muttley the Dog, of Hanna-Barbera fame, and his favorite expletive that sounded something like “razza-frazza-something-or-other.”
I did so like Muttley. No one remembers it now, it seems, but before he was known for that wheezing laugh he (or maybe it was a predecessor) used to love those dog bones someone gave him. He’d go into transports of joy over them — “Mmmmm! MMMMMmmmm! Mmm-MMM-MMMmmmm!” — floating into the air so high it was off camera, then gently gliding back to earth with a sigh of content. As a child, I enjoyed that at least as much as the laugh, though I couldn’t tell you why. We like what we like, I suppose.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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