Difference between revisions of "2619: Crêpe"

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{{short description|Fictional cat from cartoons}}
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{{comic
{{About|the cartoon character|other uses|Felix the Cat (disambiguation)}}
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| number    = 2619
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
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| date     = May 13, 2022
{{Infobox character
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| title    = Crêpe
| name = Felix the Cat
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| image     = crepe.png
| colour = Powderblue
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| titletext = A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic.
| image = File:Felix the Cat, by Raoul Barré.gif
 
| image_size =
 
| caption = Felix in his classic design
 
| first = ''[[Feline Follies]]'' (1919)
 
| creator = [[Pat Sullivan (film producer)|Pat Sullivan]]<br>[[Otto Messmer]]<br>[[Joe Oriolo]] (redesign)
 
| voice = '''English'''<br> [[Harry Edison]] (1929–1930)<ref name="Sound Films">{{cite book|title=The Talkies|date = 22 November 1999|publisher = University of California Press|isbn = 9780520221284|url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Talkies/KFB_oT-jupQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=felix+the+cat+harry+edison&pg=PA394&printsec=frontcover|access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref><br>[[Walter Tetley]] (1936)<br>[[Jack Mercer]] (1959–1962)<br>[[Ken Roberts (announcer)|Ken Roberts]] (1959)<ref name="Felix Records">{{cite web|title="Felix the Cat" on Records|url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/felix-the-cat-on-records/|website=cartoonresearch.com|access-date=4 November 2020}}</ref><br>[[David Kolin]] (1988)<br>Jim Pike (1990)<ref name="Jim Pike">{{cite web|title=Various Australian Commercials Part 33 (ATV-10, March 10, 1990)|url=https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10158143957747731&id=269467632730|publisher=Facebook|access-date=28 December 2020}}</ref><br>[[Thom Adcox-Hernandez]] (1995)<br>[[Charlie Adler]] (1996)<br>Don Oriolo (2000–2001)<br>{{nowrap|Denise Nejame (2000–2001; Baby)}}<br>[[Dave Coulier]] (2004)<br>[[Lani Minella]] (2010)<ref name="Resume">{{Cite web|title=Lani Minella Resume|url=http://laniminella.com/assets/lani_minella_resume.pdf|publisher=Lani Minella|access-date=1 November 2020}}</ref><br>'''Japanese'''<br>[[Toshihiko Seki]] (2000–2001)<br>[[Yumi Tōma]] (2000–2001; Baby)
 
| species = [[Cat]]
 
| gender = Male
 
| family = Inky and Winky (nephews)
 
| significant_other = Kitty  <br><small>(named Kitty White or Marie in the first 3 years of the silent cartoons)</small>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
'''Felix the Cat''' is a children's comedy [[cartoon]] [[Character (arts)|character]] created in 1919 by [[Pat Sullivan (film producer)|Pat Sullivan]] and [[Otto Messmer]] during the [[silent film]] era. An [[anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic]] [[black cat]] with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he was one of the most recognized cartoon characters in film history. Felix was the first animated character to attain a level of popularity sufficient to draw movie audiences.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Cat With the Killer Personality|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=31 March 1991|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/31/books/the-cat-with-the-killer-personality.html?scp=10&sq=Felix%20the%20Cat&st=cse|access-date=2009-08-21|first1=Michael|last1=Cart}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=For fall, a classically restyled puddy tat and Felix the Cat|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=27 August 1995|url=http://articles.latimes.com/1995-08-27/news/tv-39253_1_original-felix|access-date=2010-08-24|first=N.F.|last=Mendoza}}</ref>
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==Explanation==
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{{incomplete|Created by a ÇRÊPË - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
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[[File:crêpe.png|thumb|The word "crêpe" in the comic]]
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[[Cueball]] has made a {{w|crêpe}}, a thin pancake known for its legendary status in French cuisine, which he proudly announces. However, the {{w|circumflex}} (the accent above the e) is written strangely. Instead of the usual simple angle (^), it looks more like the outline of a flattened arrowhead (<span style="text-fill-color: transparent; text-stroke: 1pt currentColor; -webkit-text-fill-color: transparent; -webkit-text-stroke: 1pt currentColor;">⮝</span>). [[Megan]], who can apparently {{tvtropes|PsmithPsyndrome|hear the orthography}} of spoken text, comments on the odd shape with an appropriate pun.
  
Felix originated from the studio of Australian [[cartoonist]]-[[film industry|film entrepreneur]] [[Pat Sullivan (film producer)|Pat Sullivan]]. Either Sullivan himself or his lead [[animator]], American [[Otto Messmer]], created the character.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Barrier|first1=Michael|title=Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-19-516729-0}}</ref> What is certain is that Felix emerged from Sullivan's studio, and cartoons featuring the character became big in [[popular culture]]. Aside from the animated shorts, Felix starred in a [[comic strip]] (drawn by Sullivan, Messmer and later [[Joe Oriolo]]) beginning in 1923,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://felix.goldenagecartoons.com/|title=Goldenagecartoons.com|website=Felix.goldenagecartoons.com|access-date=2014-03-10|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031153900/http://felix.goldenagecartoons.com/|archive-date=31 October 2013}}</ref> and his image soon adorned merchandise such as ceramics, toys and postcards. Several manufacturers made stuffed Felix toys. [[Jazz]] bands such as [[Paul Whiteman]]'s played songs about him (1923's "Felix Kept on Walking" and others). In 1926, Felix became the first high school mascot for the [[Logansport, Indiana]] Berries.
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Megan's response, "Weird circumflex but okay" is a play on the recent expression [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Weird%20flex%20but%20ok Weird flex, but ok]. A "flex" is bragging about something. A "weird flex" is used when the speaker acknowledges (perhaps ironically) that the first person is attempting to brag about something, but doesn't recognise the thing as brag-worthy.  
  
By the late 1920s, with the arrival of [[sound film|sound cartoons]], Felix's success was fading. The new [[Disney]] shorts of [[Mickey Mouse]] made the silent offerings of Sullivan and Messmer, who were then unwilling to move to sound production, seem outdated. In 1929, Sullivan decided to make the transition and began distributing Felix sound cartoons through Copley Pictures. The sound Felix shorts proved to be a failure and the operation ended in 1932. Felix saw a brief three-cartoon resurrection in 1936 by the [[Van Beuren Studios]].
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Her answer could also be applied to the shape of the crêpe, as circumflex means "bent around".
  
Felix cartoons began airing on American television in 1953. Joe Oriolo introduced a redesigned, "long-legged" Felix, with longer legs, a much smaller body, and a larger, rounder head with no whiskers and no teeth. Oriolo also added new characters and gave Felix a "Magic Bag of Tricks" that could assume an infinite variety of shapes at Felix's behest. The cat has since starred in other television programs and in two [[feature film]]s. As of the 2010s, Felix is featured on a variety of merchandise from clothing to toys. Joe's son [[Don Oriolo]] later assumed creative control of Felix.
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In some dialects of English (e.g. British English), and in the original French pronunciation, "crêpe" is said so that the ê is pronounced as in "get", i.e. "cr-eh-p", but American English speakers pronounce it like an "A", i.e. "cr-ay-p".
  
In 2002, ''[[TV Guide]]'' ranked Felix the Cat number 28 on its "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" list.<ref>{{cite book|title=TV Guide Book of Lists|url=https://archive.org/details/tvguidebookoflis0000unse|url-access=registration|year=2007|publisher=Running Press|isbn=978-0-7624-3007-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/tvguidebookoflis0000unse/page/158 158]}}</ref>
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The title text continues the wordplay by saying that "A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic".
  
In 2014, Don Oriolo sold the rights to the character to [[DreamWorks Animation]], which is now part of [[Comcast]]'s [[NBCUniversal]] division via [[Universal Pictures]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2014/film/news/dreamworks-animation-acquires-rights-to-felix-the-cat-1201221646/|title=DreamWorks Animation Buys Felix the Cat|last=McNary|first=Dave|date=17 June 2014|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|access-date=17 June 2014}}</ref>
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The word diäretic is a pun on {{w|diuretic}} (a substance promoting increased urine production), {{w|Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis}} (a symbol in the form of two dots placed above a vowel, as the ä in the made up word diäretic; the adjective form of diaeresis can be spelled "[https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Diaresis dieretic]") and {{w|diacritic}} (a glyph added to a letter to distinguish its sound from the normal version, what both the circumflex and the diaeresis are). See also the comic [[1647: Diacritics]] about the use of these. Taking a diäretic medicine would supposedly cause you to use diaeresis (also known as umlaut) över möre lëtters thän wöuld üsuallÿ bë thë cäse.
  
==Creation==
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Diacritics are rarely used in English, potentially because of the diverse set of origin languages it developed from, or the wide variation of pronunciations within a same nation, but are a common feature of other languages. In English, they are normally only seen in specific loanwords (such as crêpe) or used for emphasis or decoration (for example the {{w|metal umlaut}} seen in rock bands like {{w|Motörhead}}, {{w|Mötley Crüe}}, {{w|Queensrÿche}}, or {{w|Spın̈al Tap}}).  The exception to this is the diaresis, which when it is used at all, is placed over the second vowel in a double-vowel word to indicate a morphological break between them as opposed to a dipthong, e.g. naïve or coöperation. The diaresis is optional, and, especially with words beginning with the co- prefix (e.g. cooperation, coevolution, or coincidence), rarely used.  The New Yorker magazine is a famous outlier, advising consistent use of the diaresis in [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis its style guide].
[[File:FelixTheCat-1919-FelineFollies silent.ogv|frame|thumbtime=2|''Feline Follies'' by Pat Sullivan, silent, 1919]]
 
[[File:felix-laff.jpg|thumb|A scene of Felix laughing, from ''Felix in Hollywood'' (1923)]]
 
[[File:Felix-sullivan.jpg|thumb|Sullivan's work]]
 
[[File:felix-chaplin.jpg|thumb|Felix and [[Charlie Chaplin]] share the screen in a moment from ''Felix in Hollywood'' (1923).]]
 
[[File:felix-pace.jpg|thumb|The "Felix pace" as seen in ''Oceantics'' (1930)]]
 
[[File:Felix tgtltge 01.jpg|thumb|Felix in the color cartoon ''Felix the Cat and the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg'' (1936)]]
 
[[File:Felix the Cat toy - Nielsen Park Beach, Sydney, NSW, 1926, street photographer (29715465972).jpg|thumb|Children with Felix the Cat toy, Nielsen Park Beach, Sydney, NSW, 1926.]]
 
  
On 9 November 1919, Master Tom, a prototype of Felix, debuted in a Paramount Pictures short titled ''[[Feline Follies]]''.<ref>Solomon, 34, says that the character was "the as yet unnamed Felix".</ref> Produced by the New York City-based animation studio owned by Pat Sullivan, the cartoon was directed by [[cartoonist]] and [[animator]] [[Otto Messmer]]. It was a success, and the Sullivan studio quickly set to work on producing another film featuring Master Tom, in ''Musical Mews'' (released 16 November 1919). It too proved to be successful with audiences. Messmer claimed that John King of Paramount Magazine suggested the name "Felix", for contrast of the felicity traditionally associated with a black cat.{{sfn|Maltin|1987|p=23}} The name was first used for the third film starring the character, ''The Adventures of Felix'' (released on 14 December 1919). Sullivan claimed he named Felix after [[Australia Felix]] from Australian history and literature. In 1924, [[Bill Nolan (animator)|animator Bill Nolan]] redesigned the character, making him both rounder and cuter. Felix's new looks, coupled with Messmer's [[character animation]], brought Felix to a higher profile.<ref name="solomon34">Solomon 34.</ref>
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==Transcript==
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:[Cueball is holding a plate up in both hand, showing Megan the crepe lying on the plate. His word for crêpe has a different diacritic over the "e" than the normal circumflex (^). Instead it looks more like an open arrow head.]
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:Cueball: Check out this crêpe I made!
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:Megan: Weird circumflex, but okay.
  
===Authorship===
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{{comic discussion}}
The question of who created Felix remains a matter of dispute. Sullivan stated in numerous newspaper interviews that he created Felix and did the key drawings for the character. On a visit to Australia in 1925, Sullivan told ''[[The Argus (Australia)|The Argus]]'' newspaper that "[t]he idea was given to me by the sight of a cat which my wife brought to the studio one day".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/felix/felix_exhibition_guide.pdf|title=Felix exhibition guide (archived)|website=webarchive.nla.gov.au|access-date=2 September 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20071010140000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/77226/20071011-0000/www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/felix/felix_exhibition_guide.pdf|archive-date=10 October 2007}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> On other occasions, he claimed that Felix had been inspired by [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s "[[Just So Stories|The Cat that Walked by Himself]]" or by his wife's love for strays.<ref name="solomon34"/> Members of the [[Australian Cartoonists' Association|Australian Cartoonist Association]] have claimed that lettering used in ''Feline Follies'' matches Sullivan's handwriting<ref name="vixen">{{cite web|url=http://www.vixenmagazine.com/News.html|title=All Media and legends...A thumbnail dipped in tar|website=Vixenmagazine.com|access-date=14 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080927210726/http://www.vixenmagazine.com/News.html|archive-date=27 September 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> and that Sullivan lettered within his drawings.<ref name="vixen"/> In addition, at roughly the 4:00 mark in ''Feline Follies'', the words 'Lo Mum' are used in a speech bubble by one of the kittens; this was a term for one's mother not used by Americans, but certainly by Australians. Yet Messmer claimed to have single-handedly drawn ''Feline Follies'' from home, raising questions as to why an American would use the term 'Mum' in a cartoon he solely drew himself. Sullivan's supporters also say the case is supported by his 18 March 1917 release of a cartoon short titled ''The Tail of Thomas Kat'' more than two years prior to ''Feline Follies''. Both an Australian [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC-TV]] documentary screened in 2004<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/tv/rewind/txt/s1229985.htm|title=Rewind (ABC TV): Felix the Cat|website=Abc.net.au|date=2004-10-31|access-date=2014-03-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208080454/http://www.abc.net.au/tv/rewind/txt/s1229985.htm|archive-date=8 February 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the curators of an exhibition at the [[State Library of New South Wales]] in 2005 suggested that Thomas Kat was a prototype or precursor of Felix. However, few details of Thomas have survived. His fur color has not been definitively established, and the surviving copyright synopsis<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.thetimelinemachine.com/articles/100-years-of/100-years-of-felix-the-cat/ |title=100 Years of Felix the Cat |access-date=2022-04-21}}</ref> for the short suggests significant differences between Thomas and the later Felix. For example, whereas the later Felix magically transforms his tail into tools and other objects, Thomas is a non-[[anthropomorphize]]d cat who loses his tail in a fight with a rooster, never to recover it.
 
  
Sullivan was the studio proprietor and—as is the case with almost all film entrepreneurs—he owned the copyright to any creative work by his employees. In common with many animators at the time, Messmer was not credited. After Sullivan's death in 1933, his estate in Australia took ownership of the character, although Messmer told Harry Kopp Sullivan promised him the rights to Felix in his will, no such will existed by the time he died.{{sfn|Culhane|1986|p=57-58}}{{sfn|Canemaker|1991|p=137}}
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
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[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
It was not until after Sullivan's death that Sullivan staffers such as Hal Walker, [[Al Eugster]], Gerry Geronimi, Rudy Zamora, George Cannata, and Sullivan's own lawyer, [[Harry Kopp]], credited Messmer with Felix's creation. They claimed that Felix was based on an animated [[Charlie Chaplin]] that Messmer had animated for Sullivan's studio earlier on. The down-and-out personality and movements of the cat in ''Feline Follies'' reflect key attributes of Chaplin's, and, although blockier than the later Felix, the familiar black body is already there (Messmer found solid shapes easier to animate).{{sfn|Maltin|1987|p=22-23}} Messmer himself recalled his version of the cat's creation in an interview with animation historian [[John Canemaker]]:
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[[Category:Language]]
{{blockquote|text=Sullivan's studio was very busy, and Paramount, they were falling behind their schedule and they needed one extra to fill in. And Sullivan, being very busy, said, "If you want to do it on the side, you can do any little thing to satisfy them." So I figured a cat would be about the simplest. Make him all black, you know—you wouldn't need to worry about outlines. And one gag after the other, you know? Cute. And they all got laughs. So Paramount liked it so they ordered a series.}}
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[[Category:Puns]]
 
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[[Category:Food]]
Further, Messmer told Canemaker that both he and Sullivan drew Felix based on models from the [[minstrel show]] tradition and the racist [[pickaninny]] caricature:
 
{{blockquote|text=Pat Sullivan... started off on his own, doing his little Negro Pickaninny [Sammie Johnsin]. Which later on became almost Felix, at least in my mind anyway. Same kind of a, only he was a pickaninny. Now that was going along pretty good, but it didn't through the South, that little anti-Negro feeling. They wouldn't run the Pickaninnies.<ref name="sammond">{{cite book |last1=Sammond |first1=Nicholas |title=Birth of an Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation |date=2015 |location=Durham |isbn=978-0822375784 |page=71}}</ref>}}
 
The tropes of minstrelsy were useful for creating a cartoon animal because they cued the audience to expect a lively, amusing and rebellious character.<ref name="sammond"/>
 
 
 
Animation historians back Messmer's claims. Among them are [[Michael Barrier (historian)|Michael Barrier]], [[Jerry Beck]], Colin and Timothy Cowles, Donald Crafton, [[David Gerstein]], Milt Gray, Mark Kausler, [[Leonard Maltin]], and Charles Solomon.<ref>Barrier 29 and Solomon 34.</ref>{{sfn|Beck|1998|p=23}} No animation historians outside of Australia have argued on behalf of Sullivan.
 
 
 
Sullivan marketed the cat relentlessly while Messmer continued to produce a prodigious volume of Felix cartoons. Messmer did the animation on white paper with inkers tracing the drawings directly. The animators drew backgrounds onto pieces of [[celluloid]], which were then laid atop the drawings to be photographed. Any perspective work had to be animated by hand, as the studio cameras were unable to perform pans or trucks.
 
 
 
==Popularity and distribution==
 
[[Paramount Pictures]] distributed the earliest films from 1919 to 1921. [[Margaret J. Winkler]] distributed the shorts from 1922 to 1925, the year when [[Educational Pictures]] took over the distribution of the shorts. Sullivan promised them one new ''Felix'' short every two weeks.{{sfn|Barrier|1999|p=30}} The combination of solid animation, skillful promotion, and widespread distribution brought Felix's popularity to new heights.{{sfn|Solomon|1994|p=34}}
 
 
 
References to alcoholism and [[Prohibition]] were also commonplace in many of the Felix shorts, particularly ''Felix Finds Out'' (1924), ''[[Whys and Other Whys]]'' (1927), and ''[[Felix Woos Whoopee]]'' (1930), to name a few. In ''Felix Dopes It Out'' (1924), Felix tries to help his hobo friend who is plagued with a red nose. By the end of the short, the cat finds the cure for the condition: "Keep drinking, and it'll turn blue".
 
 
 
Felix's great success also spawned a host of imitators. The appearances and personalities of other 1920s feline stars such as [[Julius the Cat|Julius]] of [[Walt Disney]]'s ''[[Alice Comedies]]'', Waffles of [[Terrytoons|Paul Terry]]'s ''[[Aesop's Film Fables]]'', and especially Bill Nolan's 1925 adaptation of ''[[Krazy Kat]]'' (distributed by the eschewed Winkler) all seem to have been directly patterned after Felix.<ref name="solomon37"/> This influence also extended outside the United States, serving as inspiration for [[Suihō Tagawa]] in the creation of his character [[Norakuro]], a dog with black fur. <ref>[http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/norakuro/ “Norakuro”]</ref>
 
 
 
Felix's cartoons were also popular among critics. They have been cited as imaginative examples of [[surrealism]] in filmmaking. Felix has been said to represent a child's sense of wonder, creating the fantastic when it is not there, and taking it in stride when it is. His famous pace—hands behind his back, head down, deep in thought—became a trademark that has been analyzed by critics around the world.<ref>For example, Solomon, 34, quotes [[Marcel Brion]] on these points.</ref> Felix's expressive tail, which could be a shovel one moment, an exclamation mark or pencil the next, serves to emphasize that anything can happen in his world.{{sfn|Solomon|1994|p=36}} [[Aldous Huxley]] wrote that the ''Felix'' shorts proved that "[w]hat the cinema can do better than literature or the spoken drama is to be fantastic".{{sfn|Solomon|1994|p=34}}
 
 
 
By 1923, the character was at the peak of his film career. ''[[Felix in Hollywood]]'', a short released during that year, plays upon Felix's popularity, as he becomes acquainted with such fellow celebrities as [[Douglas Fairbanks]], [[Cecil B. DeMille]], Charlie Chaplin, [[Ben Turpin]], and even censor [[Will H. Hays]]. His image could be seen on clocks (not to be confused with the [[Kit-Cat Klock]]) and Christmas ornaments. Felix also became the subject of several popular songs of the day, such as "Felix Kept Walking" by [[Paul Whiteman]]. Sullivan made an estimated $100,000 a year from toy licensing alone.{{sfn|Solomon|1994|p=34}} With the character's success also emerged a handful of new costars. These included Felix's master Willie Jones, a mouse named Skiddoo, Felix's nephews Inky, Dinky, and Winky, and his girlfriend Kitty. Felix the Cat sheet music, with music by [[Pete Wendling]] and [[Max Kortlander]] and featuring lyrics by [[Alfred Bryan (lyricist)|Alfred Bryan]], was published in 1928 by [[Sam Fox Publishing Company]]. The cover art of Felix playing a banjo was done by Otto Messmer.<ref>Heritage Auctions: completed auctions, 9 August 2009 and was subtitled "[[Pat Sullivan (film producer)|Pat Sullivan]]'s Famous Creation in Song."</ref>
 
 
 
Most of the early Felix cartoons mirrored American attitudes of the "[[Roaring Twenties]]". Ethnic stereotypes appeared in such shorts as ''Felix Goes Hungry'' (1924). Recent events such as the [[Russian Civil War]] were depicted in shorts like ''Felix All Puzzled'' (1924). [[Flapper]]s were caricatured in ''Felix Strikes It Rich'' (1923). He also became involved in [[Trade union|union]] organizing with ''Felix Revolts'' (also 1923). In some shorts, Felix even performed a rendition of the [[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]].
 
 
 
In 1928, Educational ceased releasing the Felix cartoons, and several were reissued by [[First National Pictures]]. Copley Pictures distributed them from 1929 to 1930. There was a brief three-cartoon resurrection in 1936 by the [[Van Beuren Studios]] (''[[The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg (film)|The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg]]'', ''Neptune Nonsense'', and ''Bold King Cole''). Sullivan did most of the [[marketing]] for the character in the 1920s. In these Van Beuren shorts, Felix spoke and sang in a high-pitched, childlike voice provided by then-21-year-old [[Walter Tetley]], who was a popular radio actor in the 1930s, 1940s and even 1950s (Julius on ''[[The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show]]'', and Leroy on ''[[The Great Gildersleeve]]''), but later best known in the 1960s as the voice of Sherman on ''[[The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show]]''{{'}}s [[Mister Peabody]] segments.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}
 
 
 
===Felix as mascot and pop culture icon===
 
[[File:Felix VF-31 logo.svg|thumb|upright|The U.S. Navy insignia for the [[VFA-31|VF-31]] squadron from 1948]]
 
Given the character's unprecedented popularity and the fact that his name was partially derived from the Latin word for "happy", some rather notable individuals and organizations adopted Felix as a mascot. The first of these was a Los Angeles [[Chevrolet]] dealer and friend of Pat Sullivan named Winslow B. Felix, who first opened his showroom in 1921. The three-sided neon sign of Felix Chevrolet,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.laokay.com/lathumb/laphoto/Felix27.jpg|title=Laokay.com|access-date=2014-03-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Los Angeles, CA|url=http://goo.gl/maps/KNUui|title=maps.google.com|website=Goo.gl|date=1970-01-01|access-date=2014-03-10}}</ref> with its giant, smiling images of the character, is today one of LA's better-known landmarks, standing watch over both [[Figueroa Street]] and the [[Harbor Freeway]]. Others who adopted Felix included the 1922 [[New York Yankees]] and pilot and actress [[Ruth Elder]], who took a Felix doll with her in an attempt to become the first woman to duplicate [[Charles Lindbergh]]'s transatlantic crossing to Paris.{{sfn|Canemaker|1991|p=118}}
 
[[File:Airplane Tail Cartoon (Yamhill County, Oregon scenic images) (yamDA0030).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Felix on the tail of an airplane now at the [[Evergreen Aviation Museum]]]]
 
This popularity persisted. In the late 1920s, the U.S. Navy's Bombing Squadron Two (VB-2B) adopted a unit insignia consisting of Felix happily carrying a bomb with a burning fuse. They retained the insignia through the 1930s, when they became a fighter squadron under the designations VF-6B and, later, VF-3, whose members [[Edward O'Hare]] and [[John Thach]] became famous naval aviators in [[World War II]]. After the world war, a U.S. Navy fighter squadron currently designated [[VFA-31]] replaced its winged meat-cleaver logo with the same insignia after the original Felix squadron had been disbanded. The carrier-based night-fighter squadron, nicknamed the "Tomcatters", remained active under various designations continuing to the present day, and Felix still appears on both the squadron's cloth jacket patches and aircraft, carrying his bomb with its fuse burning.
 
 
 
Felix is also the oldest high school [[mascot]] in the state of [[Indiana]], chosen in 1926 after a [[Logansport High School]] player brought his plush Felix to a [[basketball]] game. When the team came from behind and won that night, Felix became the mascot of all the Logansport High School sports teams.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of Mascot Felix the Cat|url=http://lhs.lcsc.k12.in.us/about_us/history/history_of_mascot_felix_the_cat|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322203707/http://logansportlhs.ss11.sharpschool.com/about_us/history/history_of_mascot_felix_the_cat|archive-date=2020-03-22|access-date=2020-09-27|website=lhs.lcsc.k12.in.us|publisher=Logansport High School|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Viquez|first=Marc|date=2020-06-10|title=How Felix the Cat Became This High School's Mascot|url=https://news.sportslogos.net/2020/06/10/the-cat-the-myth-the-legend-how-felix-became-the-mascot-of-a-high-school/basketball/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618074536/https://news.sportslogos.net/2020/06/10/the-cat-the-myth-the-legend-how-felix-became-the-mascot-of-a-high-school/|archive-date=2020-06-18|access-date=2020-09-27|website=SportsLogos.Net News|language=en-US}}</ref>
 
 
 
When television was in the experimental stages in 1928, the very first image to ever be seen was a toy Felix the Cat mounted to a revolving phonograph turntable. It remained on screen for hours while engineers used it as a test pattern.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mztv.com/ephemera/the-first-star-of-television/|title=The First Star of Television|website=Museum of Television|language=en-CA|access-date=2018-08-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.poynter.org/news/today-media-history-1928-felix-cat-began-testing-new-tech-called-television|title=Today in Media History: In 1928 Felix the Cat began testing a new tech called television|last=Shedden|first=David|date=2014-11-07|website=Poynter|language=en|access-date=2018-08-09}}</ref>
 
 
 
Over a century after his debut on screen in 1919, he still makes occasional appearances in pop culture. The [[pop punk]] band [[The Queers]] also use Felix as a mascot, often drawn to reflect punk sensibilities and attributes such as scowling, smoking, or playing the guitar. Felix adorns the covers of both the ''[[Surf Goddess]]'' EP and the ''[[Move Back Home]]'' album. Felix also appears in the music video for the single "Don't Back Down". Besides appearing on the covers and liner notes of various albums, the iconic cat also appears in merchandise such as T-shirts and buttons. (In an interview with bassist B-Face, he asserts that [[Lookout! Records]] is responsible for the use of Felix as a mascot.)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thequeersrock.com/interviewsbface.html|title=The Queers – Interviews|website=Thequeersrock.com|access-date=14 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309024525/http://www.thequeersrock.com/interviewsbface.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 March 2008}}</ref> Felix was originally going to make a [[cameo appearance|cameo]] in the 1988 film ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'' but the rights for him were not obtained. However he does appear on the tragedy and comedy keystone entrance to ToonTown<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096438/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv|title=Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)|website=IMDb|access-date=2 September 2017}}</ref> and (as a giant puppet) at the 2015 [[Treefort Music Fest]]. For Felix the Cat's 100th anniversary, [[Universal Pictures]] dubbed 9 November "Felix the Cat Day" and released new merchandise, including a [[Funko|Pop! figure]], [[Skechers]] brand shoes, [[Kit-Cat Klock|clocks]], a [[Pez|PEZ dispenser]], shirts, bags, pillows, and [[pomade]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Beck|first=Jerry|date=2019-10-28|title=Universal Celebrates 100 Years of "Felix The Cat"|url=https://www.animationscoop.com/universal-celebrates-100-years-of-felix-the-cat-with-all-new-merchandising/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031222230/http://www.animationscoop.com/universal-celebrates-100-years-of-felix-the-cat-with-all-new-merchandising/|archive-date=2019-10-31|access-date=2020-09-27|website=Animation Scoop}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Knight|first=Rosie|date=2019-11-09|title=Celebrate 100 Years of Felix the Cat with a New Line of Merch|url=https://nerdist.com/article/celebrate-100-years-of-felix-the-cat-with-a-new-line-of-merch/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191111002240/https://nerdist.com/article/celebrate-100-years-of-felix-the-cat-with-a-new-line-of-merch/|archive-date=2019-11-11|access-date=2020-09-27|website=Nerdist}}</ref> Also for the anniversary, the [[National Film and Sound Archive|National Film and Sound Archive of Australia]] (NFSA) released an article detailing Felix the Cat's history with frames and clips from early animations.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bondfield|first=Mel|date=2019-11-05|title=100 Years of Felix the Cat|url=https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/100-years-felix-cat|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626191043/https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/100-years-felix-cat|archive-date=2020-06-26|access-date=2020-09-27|website=www.nfsa.gov.au|publisher=National Film and Sound Archive of Australia|language=en}}</ref>
 
 
 
===Comics===
 
{{Infobox comic strip
 
|title = Felix the Cat
 
|image = Felix for Judy.png
 
|caption = An ink drawing of Felix by [[Otto Messmer]] dating from around 1975.
 
|author = [[Pat Sullivan (film producer)|Pat Sullivan]]<br />[[Otto Messmer]] (1927–1954)<br />[[Jack Mendelsohn]] (1948–1952)<br />[[Joe Oriolo]] (1955–1966)<ref name=Oriolo>{{cite web|url=http://bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=ORIOLO%2c+JOE|title=Oriolo entry|work=Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999|access-date=18 November 2018}}</ref>
 
|current =
 
|illustrator =
 
|website =
 
|rss =
 
|atom =
 
|status = Daily and Sunday, concluded
 
|syndicate = [[King Features Syndicate]]
 
|publisher = [[Dell Comics]]
 
|first = {{start date and age|df=yes|1923|8|19}}
 
|last = {{end date and age|df=yes|1966}}
 
|genre = Humor
 
|followed by =
 
}}
 
[[Pat Sullivan (film producer)|Pat Sullivan]] began a syndicated [[comic strip]] on 19 August 1923 distributed by [[King Features Syndicate]].<ref name="solomon34"/> In 1927 Messmer took over drawing duties of the strip.<ref name=Messmer>[http://bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=MESSMER%2c+OTTO Messmer entry], ''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Accessed 18 Nov. 2018.</ref> (The first ''The Felix Annual'' from 1924 issued in Great Britain shows the last two stories are not the usual [[Otto Messmer]] style, so a difference in Pat Sullivan-drawn cartoons can be noted.)
 
 
 
Messmer himself pursued the Sunday Felix comic strips until their discontinuance in 1943, when he began eleven years of writing and drawing Felix comic books for [[Dell Comics]] that were released every other month. [[Jack Mendelsohn]] was the [[ghostwriter]] of the Felix strip from 1948 to 1952.<ref name=Mendelsohn>[http://bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=MENDELSOHN%2c+JACK Mendelsohn entry], ''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Accessed 18 Nov. 2018.</ref> In 1954, Messmer retired from the Felix daily newspaper strips, and his assistant [[Joe Oriolo]] (the creator of [[Casper the Friendly Ghost]]) took over. The strip concluded in 1966.
 
 
 
Felix co-starred with [[Betty Boop]] in the ''[[Betty Boop and Felix]]'' comic strip (1984–1987).
 
 
 
After 35 years of not being in any comics, Felix will return in a new comic series published by Source Point Press, with the permission by [[Dreamworks Animation]] to use the character, following a decade of owning the character and using him as a fashion brand. The comic is written by Mark Federali, illustrated by Trace Yardley, and is due to be released sometime in 2022.<ref>{{Cite news |title='Felix the Cat' Returning in New Kids' Comic Book Series |url=https://www.awn.com/news/felix-cat-returning-new-kids-comic-book-series |last=Alexa |first=Lauren |date=2021-08-25 |access-date=2022-04-10 |work=[[Animation World Network]]}}</ref>
 
 
 
==From silent to sound==
 
[[File:Aprilmaze.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Felix, Inky and Winky in ''[[April Maze]]'' (1930)]]
 
With the advent of synchronized sound in ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'' in 1927, Educational Pictures, who distributed the Felix shorts at the time, urged Pat Sullivan to make the leap to "[[talkie]]" cartoons, but Sullivan refused. Further disputes led to a break between Educational and Sullivan. Only after competing studios released the first synchronized-sound animated films, such as [[Fleischer Studios|Fleischer]]'s ''[[My Old Kentucky Home (1926 film)|My Old Kentucky Home]]'', [[Van Beuren Studios|Van Beuren]]'s ''[[Dinner Time (film)|Dinner Time]]'' and Disney's ''[[Steamboat Willie]]'', did Sullivan see the possibilities of sound. He managed to secure a contract with [[First National Pictures]] in 1928. However, for reasons unknown, this did not last, so Sullivan sought out Jacques Kopfstein and Copley Pictures to distribute his new sound Felix cartoons. On 16 October 1929, an advertisement appeared in ''[[Film Daily]]'' with Felix announcing, [[Al Jolson|Jolson]]-like, "You ain't heard nothin' yet!"<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Film Daily (Jul-Dec 1929) |pages=978 |url=https://archive.org/details/filmdaily4950newy/page/978/}}</ref>
 
 
 
Felix's transition to sound was not a smooth one. Sullivan did not carefully prepare for Felix's transition to sound and added sound effects into the sound cartoons as a post-animation process.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419100434|work=St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture|title=Felix the Cat|first=Ian|last=Gordon|year=2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628135205/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419100434/|archive-date=28 June 2009}}</ref> The results were disastrous. More than ever, it seemed as though Disney's mouse was drawing audiences away from Sullivan's silent star. Not even entries such as the Fleischer-style off-beat ''Felix Woos Whoopee'' or the [[Silly Symphonies|Silly Symphony]]-esque ''[[April Maze]]'' (both 1930) could regain the franchise's audience. Kopfstein finally canceled Sullivan's contract. Subsequently, he announced plans to start a new studio in California, but such ideas never materialized. Things went from bad to worse when Sullivan's wife, Marjorie, died in March 1932. After this, Sullivan completely fell apart. He slumped into an alcoholic depression, his health rapidly declined, and his memory began to fade. He could not even cash checks to Messmer because his signature was reduced to a mere scribble. He died in 1933. Messmer recalled, "He left everything a mess, no books, no nothing. So when he died the place had to close down, at the height of popularity, when everybody, RKO and all of them, for years they tried to get hold of Felix... I didn't have that permission [to continue the character] 'cause I didn't have legal ownership of it".<ref>Quoted in Solomon 37.</ref>
 
 
 
In 1935, Amadee J. Van Beuren of the [[Van Beuren Studios]] called Messmer and asked him if he could return Felix to the screen. Van&nbsp;Beuren even stated that Messmer would be provided with a full staff and all of the necessary utilities. However, Messmer declined his offer and instead recommended [[Burt Gillett]], a former Sullivan staffer who was now heading the Van Beuren staff. So, in 1936, Van Beuren obtained approval from Sullivan's brother to license Felix to his studio with the intention of producing new shorts both in color and with sound. With Gillett at the helm, now with a heavy Disney influence, he did away with Felix's established personality, rendering him a stock [[talking animals in fiction|talking animal]] character of the type popular in the day. The new shorts were unsuccessful, and after only three outings Van Beuren discontinued the series, leaving a fourth in the storyboard stages.<ref name="solomon37"/>
 
 
 
==Revival==
 
{{Main article|Felix the Cat (TV series)}}
 
In 1953, [[Official Films]] purchased the Sullivan–Messmer shorts, added soundtracks to them, and distributed them to the home movie and television markets.
 
 
 
Otto Messmer's assistant [[Joe Oriolo]], who had taken over the Felix comic strip, struck a deal with Felix's new owner, Pat Sullivan's nephew, to begin a new series of Felix cartoons on television. Oriolo went on to star Felix in 260 television cartoons produced by [[Famous Studios]] which was renamed to [[Paramount Cartoon Studios]], and distributed by [[Trans-Lux]] beginning in 1958. Like the Van&nbsp;Beuren studio before, Oriolo gave Felix a more domesticated and pedestrian personality geared more toward children and introduced now-familiar elements such as Felix's Magic Bag of Tricks, a satchel that could assume the shape and characteristics of anything Felix wanted. The show did away with Felix's previous supporting cast and introduced many [[Felix the Cat (TV series)#Characters|new characters]], all of which were performed by [[voice actor]] [[Jack Mercer]].
 
 
 
Oriolo's plots revolve around the unsuccessful attempts of the antagonists to steal Felix's Magic Bag, though in an unusual twist, these antagonists are occasionally depicted as Felix's friends as well. The cartoons proved popular, but critics have dismissed them as paling in comparison to the earlier Sullivan–Messmer works, especially since Oriolo aimed the cartoons at children. [[Limited animation]] (required due to budgetary restraints) and simplistic storylines did nothing to diminish the series' popularity.<ref name="solomon37">Solomon 37.</ref>
 
 
 
In 1970, Oriolo gained complete control of the Felix character and continues to promote the character to this day.
 
 
 
In the late 1980s, after his father's death, Don Oriolo teamed up with European animators to work on the character's first feature film, ''[[Felix the Cat: The Movie]]''.<ref name=superstars>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LyzzAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Felix+the+Cat:+The+Movie%22|last1=Cawley|first1=John|last2=Korkis|first2=Jim|title=Cartoon Superstars|pages=88–89|isbn=1-55698-269-0|year=1990|access-date=2010-06-14|publisher=Pioneer Books}}</ref> In the film, Felix visits an alternate reality along with the Professor and Poindexter. [[New World Pictures]] planned a 1987 Thanksgiving release for U.S. theaters, which did not happen;<ref name=superstars/> the movie went [[direct-to-video]] in August 1991,<ref name=beacon>{{cite news|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AK&s_site=ohio&p_multi=AK&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB62D25E2AE1242&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|title=New on Video|date=23 August 1991|access-date=2010-06-14|work=[[Akron Beacon Journal|Beacon Journal]]|page=D21}}</ref> which was widely panned upon its release<ref>{{cite book|title=[[Halliwell's Film Guide|Halliwell's Film Guide 2008]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]] Publishers|year=2007|isbn=978-0-00-726080-5|editor-last=Gritten|editor-first=David|location=[[Hammersmith]], London|page=401|chapter=Felix the Cat: The Movie}}<!--|access-date=2010-06-14--></ref> before being completely abandoned in the US during the 21st century. In 1994, Felix appeared on television again, to replace the popular [[Fido Dido]] bumpers on CBS, and then one year later in the series ''[[The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat]]''. ''[[Baby Felix]]'' followed in 2000 for the Japanese market, and also the direct-to-video ''Felix the Cat Saves Christmas''. Oriolo also brought about a new wave of Felix merchandising, including [[Wendy's]] Kids Meal toys and a [[Felix the Cat (video game)|video game]] for the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]].
 
 
 
[[File:Felix 1919.jpg|thumb|250px|A Felix prototype in ''Feline Follies'' (1919)]]
 
Felix was voted in 2004 among the 100 Greatest Cartoons in a poll conducted by the British television channel [[Channel 4]], ranking at No. 89.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest/cartoons/results.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050306005838/http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest/cartoons/results.html|title=The 100 Greatest Cartoons|archive-date=6 March 2005|publisher=[[Channel 4]]|access-date=20 February 2013}}</ref>
 
 
 
According to [[Don Oriolo]]'s Felix the Cat blog, as of September 2008 there were plans in development for a new television series. Oriolo's biography page also mentions a 52-episode cartoon series then in the works titled ''The Felix the Cat Show'', which was slated to use [[computer graphics]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.donsfelixblog.com/|title=Donsfelixblog.com|website=Donsfelixblog.com|access-date=2014-03-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517083501/http://www.donsfelixblog.com/#|archive-date=May 17, 2014}}</ref> As of December 2020, [[WildBrain]] is working on a new Felix the Cat series with ''[[Transformers: Rescue Bots]]'' and ''[[Snoopy in Space]]'' co-producers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thenerdstash.com/netflix-sonic-animated-series-is-being-worked-on-by-ben-10-creators/|title=thenerdstash.com}}</ref>
 
Oriolo has not produced or directed any cartoons or feature films featuring Felix the Cat since the mid 2000s.
 
 
 
 
 
==Home video==
 
DVD releases include ''Presenting Felix the Cat'' from Bosko Video;<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://animatedviews.com/2004/presenting-felix-the-cat-the-otto-mesmer-classics-1919-1924/ |title=Presenting Felix the Cat: The Otto Mesmer Classics 1919-1924 |date=2004-08-07 |access-date=2022-04-20 |website=Animated Views |last=Cyrenne |first=Randall}}</ref> ''Felix!'' from Lumivision;<ref>[https://www.silentera.com/video/collFelixHV.html Felix]</ref> ''Felix the Cat: The Collector's Edition'' from Delta Entertainment; and ''Before Walt'' from Inkwell Images Ink.<ref>[https://inkwellimagesink.com/product/before-walt/ Before Walt]</ref> Some of the TV series cartoons (from 1958 to 1959) were released on DVD by [[Classic Media]]. Some of the 1990s series has also been released.
 
 
 
==Filmography==
 
{{Main article|Felix the Cat filmography}}
 
 
 
==See also==
 
{{portal|Cartoon|Animation}}
 
* [[Animation in the United States during the silent era]]
 
* ''[[Baby Felix]]''
 
* [[Golden Age of American animation]]
 
* [[Kit-Cat Klock]]
 
* [[Winsor McCay]]
 
 
 
==Notes==
 
{{Reflist}}
 
 
 
==References==
 
* {{cite book|last=Barrier|first=Michael|year=1999|title=Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age|url=https://archive.org/details/hollywoodcartoon00barr|url-access=registration|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-1980-2079-0}}
 
* {{cite book|last=Beck|first=Jerry|year=1998|title=The 50 Greatest Cartoons|publisher=JG Press|isbn=978-1-5721-5271-7}}
 
* {{cite book|last=Canemaker|first=John|year=1991|title=Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat|publisher=Da Capo Press|location=Pantheon, New York|isbn=978-0-3068-0731-2}}
 
* {{cite book|last=Crafton|first=Donald|year=1993|title=Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898–1928|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|location=Chicago|isbn=0-226-11667-0}}
 
* {{cite book|last=Culhane|first=Shamus|year=1986|title=Talking Animals and Other People|url=https://archive.org/details/talkinganimalsot00culh|url-access=registration|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-03068-0830-2}}
 
* {{cite book|last=Gerstein|first=David|year=1996|title=Nine Lives to Live|publisher=Fantagraphics Books}}
 
* {{cite book|last=Gifford|first=Denis|year=1990|title=American Animated Films: The Silent Era, 1897–1929|publisher=McFarland and Company|isbn=0-8995-0460-4}}
 
* {{cite book|last=Maltin|first=Leonard|year=1987|title=Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|isbn=978-0-4522-5993-5}}
 
* {{cite book|last=Solomon|first=Charles|year=1994|title=The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings|publisher=Outlet Books Company|isbn=978-0-394-54684-1}}
 
 
 
==Further reading==
 
* Patricia Vettel Tom (1996): ''Felix the Cat as Modern Trickster''. {{jstor|3109216}} American Art, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring, 1996), pp.&nbsp;64–87
 
 
 
==External links==
 
{{sisterlinks|d=Q692603|c=Category:Felix the Cat|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|s=no|wikt=no|species=no}}
 
* {{Official}}
 
* [http://toonopedia.com/felix.htm Felix the Cat] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://arquivo.pt/wayback/20091016103614/http://www.toonopedia.com/felix.htm Archived] from the original on 15 July 2016.
 
* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Pat+Sulivan%22 Pat Sulivan] at the [[Internet Archive]].
 
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131031153900/http://felix.goldenagecartoons.com/ The Classic Felix the Cat Page] at [http://www.goldenagecartoons.com/ Golden Age Cartoons]
 
* {{bcdb|Other_Studios/S/Pat_Sullivan_Cartoons/Felix_the_Cat/|Felix the Cat (Pat Sullivan)}}
 
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120208080454/http://www.abc.net.au/tv/rewind/txt/s1229985.htm Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2004, ''Rewind'' "Felix the Cat"] (Concerns the dispute over who created the character.)
 
* {{cite web|url=http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/felix/felix_exhibition_guide.pdf|title=State Library of New South Wales, 2005, "Reclaiming Felix the Cat"|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061013092830/http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/felix/felix_exhibition_guide.pdf|archive-date=13 October 2006}}&nbsp;{{small|(768&nbsp;[[Kibibyte|KiB]])}}. Exhibition guide, including many pictures.
 
 
 
{{Felix the Cat|state=expanded}}
 
{{DreamWorks Animation}}
 
{{King Features Syndicate Comics}}
 
 
 
{{Authority control}}
 
 
 
{{DEFAULTSORT:Felix The Cat}}
 
[[Category:Felix the Cat| ]]
 
[[Category:Film characters introduced in 1919]]
 
[[Category:Film series introduced in 1919]]
 
[[Category:1923 comics debuts]]
 
[[Category:History of animation]]
 
[[Category:Animated characters]]
 
[[Category:American comics characters]]
 
[[Category:Comedy film characters]]
 
[[Category:Comedy television characters]]
 
[[Category:Humor comics]]
 
[[Category:Adventure comics]]
 
[[Category:Fictional cats]]
 
[[Category:DreamWorks Classics]]
 
[[Category:Animated film series]]
 
[[Category:Fictional anthropomorphic characters]]
 
[[Category:Male characters in animation]]
 
[[Category:Male characters in comics]]
 
[[Category:Male characters in advertising]]
 
[[Category:Fictional characters from New York City]]
 
[[Category:Cat mascots]]
 
[[Category:Corporate mascots]]
 
[[Category:Automobile advertising characters]]
 
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
 
[[Category:Short film series]]
 
[[Category:Van Beuren Studios]]
 
[[Category:Universal Pictures cartoons and characters]]
 
[[Category:Fictional pranksters]]
 

Revision as of 18:04, 16 May 2022

Crêpe
A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic.
Title text: A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic.

Explanation

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The word "crêpe" in the comic

Cueball has made a crêpe, a thin pancake known for its legendary status in French cuisine, which he proudly announces. However, the circumflex (the accent above the e) is written strangely. Instead of the usual simple angle (^), it looks more like the outline of a flattened arrowhead (). Megan, who can apparently hear the orthography of spoken text, comments on the odd shape with an appropriate pun.

Megan's response, "Weird circumflex but okay" is a play on the recent expression Weird flex, but ok. A "flex" is bragging about something. A "weird flex" is used when the speaker acknowledges (perhaps ironically) that the first person is attempting to brag about something, but doesn't recognise the thing as brag-worthy.

Her answer could also be applied to the shape of the crêpe, as circumflex means "bent around".

In some dialects of English (e.g. British English), and in the original French pronunciation, "crêpe" is said so that the ê is pronounced as in "get", i.e. "cr-eh-p", but American English speakers pronounce it like an "A", i.e. "cr-ay-p".

The title text continues the wordplay by saying that "A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic".

The word diäretic is a pun on diuretic (a substance promoting increased urine production), diaeresis (a symbol in the form of two dots placed above a vowel, as the ä in the made up word diäretic; the adjective form of diaeresis can be spelled "dieretic") and diacritic (a glyph added to a letter to distinguish its sound from the normal version, what both the circumflex and the diaeresis are). See also the comic 1647: Diacritics about the use of these. Taking a diäretic medicine would supposedly cause you to use diaeresis (also known as umlaut) över möre lëtters thän wöuld üsuallÿ bë thë cäse.

Diacritics are rarely used in English, potentially because of the diverse set of origin languages it developed from, or the wide variation of pronunciations within a same nation, but are a common feature of other languages. In English, they are normally only seen in specific loanwords (such as crêpe) or used for emphasis or decoration (for example the metal umlaut seen in rock bands like Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche, or Spın̈al Tap). The exception to this is the diaresis, which when it is used at all, is placed over the second vowel in a double-vowel word to indicate a morphological break between them as opposed to a dipthong, e.g. naïve or coöperation. The diaresis is optional, and, especially with words beginning with the co- prefix (e.g. cooperation, coevolution, or coincidence), rarely used. The New Yorker magazine is a famous outlier, advising consistent use of the diaresis in its style guide.

Transcript

[Cueball is holding a plate up in both hand, showing Megan the crepe lying on the plate. His word for crêpe has a different diacritic over the "e" than the normal circumflex (^). Instead it looks more like an open arrow head.]
Cueball: Check out this crêpe I made!
Megan: Weird circumflex, but okay.


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Discussion

You can almost make the same weird circumflex by using combining diacritics. e, then inverted breve then circumflex. Doesn't seem to render properly with firefox at least --> ȇ̂ 172.70.114.241 14:20, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

U+2372 is a caret with a tilde through it: ⍲ 108.162.245.251 14:45, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
Would you like a crē̂pe? 162.158.63.32 20:05, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
I looked at a few more unicode things. I'm not too familiar with unicode; there are a few more down curves I think, but I didn't see any way to make it just like the image. I think wiki markup or an embedded image would probably do this best, and may be worthwhile if anybody's excited. 162.158.63.32 20:05, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
The closest I can find is 🢕, which may render okay on desktop but not mobile as
🢕 
crepe
given that terrible table/css hackery that you'll regret looking at if you find this comment in wikitext. Someone with the patience to codepen up a three cell-tall table with varying font-size:s and line-height:s can probably overlay ∧ and ^ to get the exact shape, but I doubt it would be robustly cross-platform, and of course certainly not across arbitrary fonts, or worse, on mobile because we can't control viewport scaling in wikitext, because that's a head/meta tag. 172.69.33.25 21:09, 14 May 2022 (UTC)
....does a ruby tag work in wikicode?? because i see table in there and thats scary. 172.70.114.241 14:52, 15 May 2022 (UTC)
Presumably you tried it. Neither the template or the <ruby> tag works. Whoever came up with the stroke/fill approach had the right idea:
⮝  
crepe
172.70.211.36 00:52, 16 May 2022 (UTC)
Is it possible to vertically stretch a character? A combination of a "regular" circumflex and a vertically-stretched circumflex might work. BunsenH (talk) 18:41, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
I didn't realise it was actually two circumflexes of different heights. This is pretty visible in the new picture. There might be a taller or shorter circumflex somewhere in unicode, but I think stretching would take mathml or something dunno. 172.70.110.65 23:38, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

I think the circumflex is not an "A" but more of a split-and-stretched delta, or an arrowhead. Maybe show a zoom-in of the circumflex (obviously from the 2x image) in the explanation? 108.162.221.163 14:47, 13 May 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

Also, i noticed there are weird white dots past the corners of the border. They are even more visible in the 2x! 108.162.221.163 14:50, 13 May 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
A chevron, perchance? --172.68.50.15 14:52, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

Is it not also a play on "weird flex but OK"? https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/weird-flex-but-okay/ 108.162.241.11 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

IPA would be appreciated 172.70.110.241 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I would say the accepted online versions seem to work well for me:
  • US pronunciation: /kɹeɪp/ ("krayp")
  • UK possibilities: /kɹɛp/, /kɹeɪp/ ("krep" or "krayp")
    • For me, I'd use the former for food (e.g. "Crêpes Suzette") as a fairly direct loan from French,
    • But I'd say the latter for paper (the crinkly-tissue stuff)
  • Fr pronunciation: /kʁɛp/ ("krep", but with that funny French 'r'! ;) )
YMMV, and possibly different regional British accents (or just who they learnt the terms from) might vary quite wildly. I'm not sure the average Brit truly understand French (typographic) accents. Though possibly we are more inclined to at least try something than your average American. :p 172.69.79.209 21:18, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
In British English it's pronounced 'pancake'. ;o) 162.158.158.248 08:19, 16 May 2022 (UTC)

It doesn't really look like an "A". It's more a hollow outline of a circumflex. You can see it more clearly in the 2x version. 172.70.54.247 19:28, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

The crêpe itself is also in the shape of an accent. -JT 162.158.126.55 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Is this a reference to the vandalism attacks? "crap" and "crêpe" are somewhat similar. 172.70.178.27 23:16, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

There tends to be no acknowledgement at all that Randall takes any notice of what goes on here at the moment. Despite the occasional suspicion that he deliberarely Nerd Snipes us with a comic that is particularly designe to be hard to document 'normally'. I'd say it's a pure co-inky-dink, personally. 172.69.79.223 18:55, 14 May 2022 (UTC)
I admit I have just such a slight suspicion for this very comic. 172.69.33.25 21:11, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

If the circumflex is interpreted as a small capital A, it could be considered a form of ruby text, phonetic characters used to transcribe logographic characters. 172.68.189.38 19:21, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

Am I the only one who thought it is supposed to be some kind of combination of the 3 french accents? one aigu ´ and one grave `above a circonflexe ^ (in many fonts the first two are significantly steeper in my experience)? 172.68.50.91 14:28, 16 May 2022 (UTC)

At first I thought it was related to this joke since I've been seeing a few variations on it recently. But checking the dates makes it look like it wasn't *that* recently, so maybe not. 162.158.50.84 22:28, 16 May 2022 (UTC)

dots over letters

If, as the current version suggests, a diuretic is in fact a medicine to promote urin excretion, the title text might also refer to the practice of writing one's name in snow using urin and, having diurtetic-induced spare writing fuel, being forced to add diacritic symbols. 162.158.90.177 (talk) 22:07, 16 May 2022 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The diaeresis is not the same as the umlaut like the description suggests. They're different symbols with different purposes that just happen to look the same. The diaeresis is used to indicate a syllable break before the vowel it's placed on (e.g. naïve), and the umlaut modifies the sound of the vowel it's placed on (e.g. Übermensch). (For clarity, the paragraph above wasn't written by me, it just lacks a signature)172.68.50.91 04:20, 18 May 2022 (UTC)

(Regarding your point on paragraphs, yes, people are being sloppy with signing - or not signing - I'm inserting the relevent placeholder for readability. No further comment as to the two-dots or anything, but piping up rather than just sneaking in and adding this thing silently. And perhaps removing your now unnecessary 'clarification', which would restore balance but ruder to do than going all meta like this!) 172.70.90.211 08:15, 18 May 2022 (UTC)

Hear the orthography

Another related joke: --ColorfulGalaxy (talk) 08:34, 13 December 2022 (UTC)

"Knock knock" "Who's there?" "Triangle" "Triangle who" "It's Triangle WHO. Notice the capitalization."