Arnold Zwicky's Blog

The 1/11 Wayno / Piraro Bizarro displays the intersection of two cartoon worlds:

— a polar cartoon world of winter and cold, populated by stereotypical Eskimos and anthropomorphic polar bears, penguins, and (directly relevant here) snowmen (or, more generally, snowfolk)

— a tropical cartoon world of sun and surf, populated by stereotypical tropical islanders (especially Hawaiians), surfers, and the clientele of tiki bars

The cartoon has the two worlds intersect by having denizens of the first, snowfolk, sporting costume and other elements symbolic of inhabitants of the second: beachcomber hat, sunglasses, Hawaiian shirt and skirt, tiki drink (here, a mai tai) in tiki mug, flower behind woman’s ear:

(#1) The significance of costume as the primary signal of the tropical world in the cartoon is emphasized by the portmanteau cosplay in the cartoon’s title (meanwhile, if you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 4 (adapted to the polar context) in this strip — see this Page)

And then there’s Wayno’s title for the strip:

“Welcome to Fantasy Glacier”

(a takeoff on “Welcome to Fantasy Island”, and yet a third dimension to the content of the strip).

Background notes: tropicality.

— in my 5/2/16 posting “Where is he now?”, a section about Tiki culture, its architecture, decor, costume (flower leis and brightly colored fabrics), and food and drink, especially the mai tai

— in my 1/15/21 posting “Flat on his back at the solstice”, this Bizarro Psychiatrist-meme cartoon:

(#2) about a seasonal affective disorder

which the patient seems to be counteracting with cultural symbols  associated with the bright, hot, and humid tropics (Hawaii, to be specific): beachcomber hat, lei, coconut drink, ukulele, and Hawaiian beach shorts.

Background notes: cosplay. In my 9/25/17 posting “Naked came the mammoths”, see the section on cosplay — cosplay, a portmanteau of costume play; from NOAD:

noun cosplay: the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game

And then Fantasy Island. From Wikipedia:

(#3) From the intro to the show: Mr. Roarke and Tattoo

Fantasy Island is an American fantasy drama television series created by Gene Levitt. It aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984. The series starred Ricardo Montalbán as the mysterious Mr. Roarke and Hervé Villechaize as his assistant, Tattoo. Guests were granted so-called “fantasies” on the island for a price

xx

This entry was posted on January 13, 2023 at 9:19 am and is filed under Clothing, Comic conventions, Costumes, Language and food, Linguistics in the comics, Movies and tv, Pop culture, Signs and symbols. 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.