Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Today’s Bizarro returns to play with initialisms:

That would be Curly, Larry and Moe in the original, with Moe replaced by a chimerical genetically modified organism (GMO).

Earlier play with initials: Rhymes With Orange on LMAO vs. MAO (here), Bizarro on ATM vs. TM (here).

Ingredients for this strip: the Three Stooges, GMOs, and chimeras.

On the Three Stooges, from Wikipedia:

The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: “Moe, Larry, and Curly” or “Moe, Larry, and Shemp,” among other lineups.

On GMOs, again from Wikipedia:

A genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically engineered organism (GEO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified or novel genes. Transgenic organisms, a subset of GMOs, are organisms that have inserted DNA from a different species. GMOs are the constituents of genetically modified foods.

Many GMOs aren’t notably different in appearance from naturally occurring organisms, but some stand out. For example, GloFish:

The GloFish is a patented and trademarked brand of genetically modified (GM) fluorescent fish. A variety of different GloFish are currently on the market. Zebrafish were the first GloFish available in pet stores, and are now sold in bright red, green, orange-yellow, blue, and purple fluorescent colors. Recently an “Electric Green” colored tetra (Gymnocorymbus ternetzi) has been added to the lineup. Although not originally developed for the ornamental fish trade, it is one of the first genetically modified animals to become publicly available as a pet.

… In 1999, Dr. Zhiyuan Gong and his colleagues at the National University of Singapore were working with a gene that encodes the green fluorescent protein (GFP), originally extracted from a jellyfish, that naturally produced bright green fluorescence. They inserted the gene into a zebrafish embryo, allowing it to integrate into the zebrafish’s genome, which caused the fish to be brightly fluorescent under both natural white light and ultraviolet light. Their goal was to develop a fish that could detect pollution by selectively fluorescing in the presence of environmental toxins.

Other GloFish were then developed. Here’s an assortment of them:

The development of GM organisms, especially food, has aroused substantial opposition, often couched as an aversion to “Frankenfood”. (See this posting for the history of the portmanteau Frankenfood and of other Franken- words.) Opponents were inspired to create images of all sorts of monstrous hybrid creatures, like this cauliflower sheep:

Don Piraro’s GM Moe is in this tradition, but carried to a chimerical extreme:

The Chimera (also Chimaera or Chimæra) ( … Greek: Χίμαιρα, Khimaira, from χίμαρος, khimaros, “she-goat”) was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of three animals: a lion, a serpent and a goat. Usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that ended in a snakes’s head, the Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra. The term chimera has also come to describe any mythical or fictional animal with parts taken from various animals. (link)

The lobster claw is an especially nice touch.

This entry was posted on September 7, 2012 at 5:34 am and is filed under Initialisms, Language and animals, Linguistics in the comics, Pop culture, Portmanteaus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.