Arnold Zwicky's Blog

For today’s Bizarro, a portmanteau title — Doctor Who + The Who = Doctor The Who [with the overlapping material underlined] — for a hybrid cartoon character, who is simultaneously Tom Baker’s 4th Doctor Who and also the leaping, jumping Pete Townshend of the rock band The Who:

(#1) Wayno’s character is, in appearance and dress, Baker’s Doctor Who; but this character is also, in action, Townshend’s hyperactive guitarist in The Who (if you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Wayno says there are 3 in this strip — see this Page)

Background note 1. #1 is another installment of Wayno’ s playfulness with the names of rock bands — as in my 1/24/24 posting “Snowball rock”, with the joke band Icy/D.C., a punning snowman version of AC/DC.

Background note 2. From Wikipedia on Tom Baker:

(#2) Baker in costume as the 4th Doctor

Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is best known for having played the fourth incarnation and longest-serving Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1974 to 1981.

And then Wikipedia on the show:

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterrestrial being called the Doctor, part of a humanoid species called Time Lords. The Doctor travels in the universe and in time using a time travelling spaceship called the TARDIS, which externally appears as a British police box. While travelling, the Doctor works to save lives and liberate oppressed peoples by combating foes. The Doctor often travels with companions.

Beginning with William Hartnell, fourteen actors have headlined the series as the Doctor

Background note 3. From Wikipedia on the band:

(#3) Airborne: Townshend leaping / jumping in performance

The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of the most influential rock bands of the 20th century, their contributions to rock music include the development of the Marshall stack, large public address systems, the use of synthesizers, Entwistle’s and Moon’s influential playing styles, Townshend’s feedback and power chord guitar technique, and the development of the rock opera.

This entry was posted on December 18, 2024 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Language play, Linguistics in the comics, Movies and tv, Music, Pop culture, Portmanteaus, Puns. 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.