The Ink Stained Wretch #172 2/12/25

Our Sketch has a Fever, Dumber Than Dummies, A Cartoon Myth Debunked!

It's time again for another of the zombified, zealous, zonked out pieces of zilch that are these newsletters! This week our sketch needs more cowbell, we tell a story that makes a dummy look smart, and a good pal officially debunks an cartooning myth (AGAIN) that refuses to die ... on with the 'Wretch!

Sketch o'the Week: Will Ferrell!

Click here if you are interested in this original sketch.

“I got a fever! And the only prescription is more cowbell!"

We continue our famous Saturday Night Live skit series with what is arguably the most popular bit ever from the show's 50 year history. The "More Cowbell" sketch was written by Will Ferrell and he's also the main antagonist (at least of the rest of the band) of the sketch. It will shortly be 25 years since the skit aired in April of 2000, and it has become part of SNL and pop culture immortality. "More Cowbell" is a even phrase in the dictionary:

more cowbell
idiom, informal
an extra quality that will make something or someone better

The piece was such a phenomenon that the rock band Blue Öyster Cult, whose recording of their song "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" was the premise of the sketch, had to ban cowbells from being brought by fans to the band's live shows because they were so disruptive! That’s an influential bit.

Being a Dummy

Frequent readers of the 'Wretch will know that I do a lot of work for ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, mostly for his various merchandise and promos. One thing I do is a custom illustration for each of his live shows. I've been doing this for his last several tours, and how it works is I do a "template" illustration with an official tour image that incorporates the tour logo and a bunch of his characters. The one above is for his newest tour that started back in October. Then for each stop on his tour I do some art that represent the city he's performing in, along with the location and show date. I do them in batches for a cluster of upcoming shows. At the performance, he projects the art on the big screen along with a q-code so the audience members can order a shirt or other merchandise with that specific show’s image on it via Amazon on demand.

A week or so ago I did a batch for a recent run of shows. At the time I did them, I was really sick with norovirus, but that is neither here nor there. Last week Wednesday night I was working on another job in the studio when my phone rings and caller ID says it's "Jeff Dunham". I was confused for a second because I knew he should have been in the middle of a show in Asheville, North Carolina right then. I answered the call:

Jeff: "Hey Tom, this is Jeff!"

Me: "Hey Jeff."

Jeff: "You're talking in front of a big crowd right now. Say hi to Tom, everybody!" (Crowd cheers hello)

Me: "Uh… Hello!"

Jeff: "Hey Tom, I have a question for you... what state is Asheville in?"

Me: "North Carolina."

Jeff: "Well, our shirt says South Carolina."

Me: "... "

Jeff: "I told everyone you were really sick when you did that one, so we forgive you."

Me: "I wasn't THAT sick."

Jeff: "We need that fixed real quick so everyone can get the right shirt."

Me: "I'll do that right now!"

I actually had thought I didn't do a very good job on the composition of that shirt, and should have come up with an additional element to balance it more. There’s not a lot of “Asheville” things that are readily identifiable and unique to the city. If you are wondering why the famous Biltmore mansion is not included, a few years ago when I did an Asheville shirt design for a different tour that did include the Biltmore Jeff got in trouble because I guess somehow the Biltmore’s image is copyrighted despite being a registered national historical landmark. Anyway that tour image had to be scrapped, so this was my second try at Asheville. The elements I did include are the Blue Ridge mountains, a beer with the city nickname on it, earned for the many craft breweries in town, a soccer ball in blue and white as a non-copyright infringing representation of the Asheville City Soccer Club USL League team, and one of the streetcar tour vehicles that are all over downtown. I quickly added the "Appalachian Trail" sign (even though the trail is about 30 miles from Asheville, it's listed as one of the top then things to do in the area). Jeff’s team had it uploaded within minutes and I assume people got the new image if they ordered a shirt. If not they have a collector’s item.

Nothing like feeling like the biggest dummy on the stage at a Jeff Dunham show... considering the stage is filled with dummies.

Myths and Mermaids

I’m betting you've heard this cartooning urban myth before:

“In 1990 Disney released a VHS edition of "The Little Mermaid" featuring new art on the cover. The artists that did the image was disgruntled with Disney (the reason varies from he just found out he was fired after this job was done, he wasn't being paid what he'd been promised he was being paid, etc etc) so he painted a phallic image into the undersea palace as a big FU to Disney. Other rumors say the penis image was added as a prank, the artist was a devil worshipper, etc etc.”

All of that is, of course, false. The artist who did that painting was illustrator, cartoonist, former Bongo Comics editor-in-chief, past National Cartoonists Society president, my good pal and former MAD Magazine editor Bill Morrison, and he tells the real story in detail here. It's worth the read.

Of course this urban legend, like all thoroughly debunked urban legends, will never go away.

If you are a free subscriber, that's it for you for this week's "Ink Stained Wretch"! If you are a premium subscriber, keep reading below!

Thank you for being a subscriber! As always, if you liked what you saw please share it with others. Remember I'm always looking for feedback, questions for the mailbag, and suggestions for future Sketch o'the Week subjects. Just reply to this email with any of the above! And always remember... it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide!