Say What? Author Says Smurfs Are Racist And Anti-Semitic

A wise Papa? Or Stalin in blue-face? You decide!

French sociologist and author Antoine Bueno says that the seemingly innocent little creatures living a perfect existence and battling against the evil Gargamel are in fact "the embodiment of a totalitarian utopia, steeped in Stalinism and Nazism". And here I thought Ren And Stimpy, Dexter's Laboratory (Girl, I have seen better steps on a ladder!) and The PowerPuff Girls were subversive.

According to The Huffington Post: As relayed by Todaysxm.com, Buéno says that Papa Smurf, the leader of the village, is an authoritarian figure, and that their lack of private property and collective-style economy is a clear nod to socialism. Meanwhile, their enemy seems Jewish: Gargamel, the monster that haunts the village, matches negative Jewish caricatures and his cat's name is Azrael, the French author writes, while Smurfette, for a long time the only female in the village, is a vision of aryan perfection.



Buéno, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, touched on what he perceives as their blue racism.


"The first comic strip, 'The Black Smurfs,' was intimately concerned with what you might classify as a racial threat," he said. "Because in that album, the smurfs are sick. And when they're sick, they don't turn purple or red or anything like that, they become black. And when they become black, they lose all trace of intelligence. THey become completely moronic. And further more, they can no longer speak, they just go 'nyap nyap nyap.'"

The black Smurf part is indeed correct though. U.S. publishers rejected the comic strip back in the early 60's due to the black smurf drawings, with the creatures later being recolored to purple. *Sigh* I can almost see someone from The Tea Party making a poster/graphic of Obama in a Smurf's T-shirt now....

Comments

Ian said…
I wanted to dismiss this a just another wakco attempting to distort an innocent TV show, but pondered on it. The author could be on to something.

Think of some of the more recent cartoons, so-called children shows, that clearly project adult themed, political, or social messages... ie The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, American Dad, etc etc. Granted, kids today are less naive then 10, 20, 30 years ago.... But still.
K. Clark said…
That's true Ian, but all the shows you just named never tried to market themselves to kids or position themselves as an innocent Saturday morning cartoon. It was pretty obvious that they were made for older teens/adults. The Smurfs, not so much.