Jimmy Thudpucker

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Jimmy Thudpucker is a character in the comic strip Doonesbury.

He is generally seen as a combination of Bob Dylan and John Denver (and to some extent, Loudon Wainwright III), and became a rock star in the seventies, when he was only 19. Others have compared Thudpucker to a young Jackson Browne.

Unlike many other celebrities (who are often portrayed in the strip as shallow and conceited), Jimmy is essentially a good guy. He is very moral and not afraid to turn down money for what he feels is right. He even wrote a song about Ginny Slade to help her raise money for her campaign for free, because he agreed with her politics. Jimmy is also extremely devoted to his fans.

Jimmy expatriated to Vietnam during the 1990s, and became the number one act in the country. While there he performed in a benefit organized by Kim Rosenthal to help the poorly paid workers at a Nike plant. He has since returned to America.

Jimmy's biggest fault seems to be his habit of "reinventing" himself, often switching musical genres on a whim. When he does so he changes his name to match his new style; he became Jimmy Ray Thudpucker to perform country music, MC Jimmy to perform rap music, and James R. Thudpucker III to make an album of standards.

Jimmy supports file sharing, and firmly believes that in the future artists will make a modest living by touring because the recording industry will collapse and all music will be free. He has released all of his own music on the internet, to be freely shared, emulating the practice of Janis Ian who has seen sales of her music radically rise after making her songs freely available on her website.

In an interesting real-world crossover Garry Trudeau really did have "Jimmy"'s music recorded, and it can be downloaded from Doonesbury.com. He also sings in the Academy Award-nominated The Doonesbury Special (1977).