Arnold Zwicky's Blog

In today’s Zippy, we return to the Poindexter bar bat; see “The Poindexter bar bat, or barbat”, here, with extended discussion, including material from the Zippy archives and an analysis of bar bat. From that posting:

Poindexter bar bats: Poindexter is just one of those names that entertain Bill Griffith because of the sound; but what about bar bat? Like many things in Zippy, this is surely meant to be absurd but suggestive.

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Now we have the extended plaid Poindexter bar bat, which Muffler Bunyan enjoys because of its sound. A little festival of bilabial plosives ( /p p b b/ ), and tetrameter, the dominant English folk meter.

But the Muffler Man is not an invention by Bill Griffith. Instead, he’s a figure of pop culture. From Wikipedia:

Muffler Men … are large moulded fiberglass sculptures that are placed as advertising icons, roadside attractions or for decorative purposes, predominantly in the United States. Standing approximately 18–25 feet tall, the first figure was a Paul Bunyan character designed to hold an axe. Derivatives of that figure were widely used to hold full-sized car mufflers, tires, or other items promoting various roadside businesses.

International Fiberglass of Venice, California constructed most Muffler Men. Two books have been devoted to the distinctive roadside figures and the July 2012 issue of AAA New Mexico Journey devoted its front cover to their 50th anniversary.

While the fibreglass figures are no longer manufactured, many still exist throughout the US with a few in Canada. At least four remain on U.S. Route 66. Muffler Men have also made appearances as characters in the comic strip “Zippy the Pinhead” by Bill Griffith, often in conversation with Zippy.

Here’s a Muffler Man holding a (fiberglass) hot dog at Bunyon’s in Cicero, Illinois:

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This entry was posted on March 12, 2014 at 6:32 am and is filed under Linguistics in the comics, Phonology, Poetic form, Pop culture. 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.