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Alley OopAlley Oop was a character created in 1932 by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin. He was a sturdy citizen of the prehistoric kingdom of Moo who rode a dinosaur, carried a stone war hammer, dressed in nothing but a pair of fur shorts, and obviously would rather fight dinosaurs in the jungle than deal with his fellow countrymen in Moo's capital (and only) cave-town. In spite of these exotic settings, the stories were mostly satires of American suburban life, directed to an adult public. The first stories centered on his dealings with his fellow cavemen -- his friend Foozy and his girlfriend Ooola, Moo's King Guz and Queen Oompah, the King's Grand Wizer, and assorted citizens -- and occasional skirmishes with the rival kingdom of Lem. (The names Moo and Lem are probably references to the fabled lost continents of Mu and Lemuria.) In later stories he was taken to the 20th century by a time machine, built by Dr. Wonmug and his colleague/assistant G. Oscar Boom. Alley Oop was hardly upset by the move, and became a sort of "test pilot" for Dr. Wonmug. As such he was sent on expeditions to various periods and places in history, such as Ancient Egypt, Arthurian England and the American Old West. The syndicated cartoon strip sharing his name was first published on December 5, 1932. The strip was taken over, starting in 1967, by Hamlin's assistant Dave Graue, then in 1991 by Jack Bender, who was later joined by his wife Carol Bender. In 1995, the strip was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative postage stamps. He was also immortalized in a one-hit-wonder song, "Alley Oop" by the Hollywood Argyles: - There's a man in the funny papers we all know:
- Alley Oop Oop Oop, Oop Oop.
- He lived way back a long time ago.
- Alley Oop Oop Oop, Oop Oop.
According to this song "he has got a big ugly club"; arguably this describes not his war-hammer, with its stone head tied to a shaft, but a more typical cartoon caveman's rough conical wood club, such as is carried by his own king. His name comes from a slang phrase to tell someone to climb, referring to what he has to do to ride his dinosaur. It ultimately comes from "allez oup," a lingua franca phrase of French mixed either with English or some other Germanic language. External links
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