Dick Dastardly
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Dick Dastardly, voiced originally by Paul Winchell and currently by Jim Cummings, is a fictional character and antagonist who appeared in various animated series by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Dastardly's most famous appearances are in the series Wacky Races, his initial appearance, and Wacky Races spinoff Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines.
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[edit] Wacky Races
In Wacky Races, Dick Dastardly was one of the racers who competed in every episode for first place in a long and hazard-filled cross-country road rally. As his name implies, Dastardly aimed to win solely through cheating and trickery. His race car, named "The Mean Machine," featured all sorts of devious traps for him to use against his opponents. As Wacky Races is inspired by the film The Great Race, so was Dastardly derived from the movie's chief villain, Professor Fate. Dastardly in this series wore old-fashioned racer's gear — a long violet overcoat, long red gloves, and a large striped hat with driving goggles attached. Dastardly also, like the cartoon villain Snidely Whiplash, sported a luxurious handlebar mustache.
Dastardly was aided in his schemes by his sidekick, a scruffy dog named Muttley who had a distinctive wheezy laugh.
Despite Dastardly and Muttley's attempts, the "double-dealing do-badders", as the opening narration of Wacky Races describes them, failed to win a single race. Dastardly's plans were always foiled either by his or Muttley's incompetence, the actions of another racer, or sheer bad luck, resulting in Dastardly crossing the finish line last, if at all (ironically, the one time he and Muttley did cross the finish line first, they were disqualified - slow motion revealed that he had just extended his car's "nose" to make viewers think he crossed the line first, even thought similar things like shapeshifting cars, dragon flight and even cannon propelled turbo never prevented any other competitors from winning). Another time Dastardly and Muttley were going to be disqualified after finishing first was when they would cross the finish line in the wrong car - he was driving the Arkansas Chugg-a-Bug - but the narrator warned him on time. It's presumed the rule that would disqualify Dastardly on that doesn't keep him from using vehicles that don't belong to any of his rivals, since nothing is mentioned when he was going to cross the finish line on other vehicles, like Flying Carpets, ice blocks, balloons that look like the Mean Machine, donkeys, or anything else. Also there were other similar cases of Dastardly almost winning the race. In one, he was so sure that he would win, that he actually stopped his car in order to get his picture taken as the winner, unfortunately he stopped before the finish line. Likewise on another occasion he stooped to give Muttley his autograph. One of the great ironies of the show was that, if Dastardly had not bothered to cheat, often he would have won fairly. Upon tasting defeat, Dastardly would utter his catchphrase: "Drat, drat, and double drat!" His other main catchphrase was: "Muttley, do something!" Except for Dastardly and Muttley, all of the other racers won at least one wacky race. There is however one episode in which Dick Dastardly does not come last, he is second from last the colonel finished last in this episode.
[edit] Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines and later spinoffs
Dick Dastardly continued his villainous career in the Wacky Races spinoff Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines, also informally known by some as Stop That Pigeon! (due to the theme song using this phrase repeatedly--Stop That Pigeon was the show's developmental title and featured a different pilot and dog before settling on Dastardly and Muttley). In this series, Dastardly and Muttley, as flying aces, with two other pilots, Zilly a coward who used to hide in his cloths when he was asked to go in his plane, and Klunk, the plane builder, who was speaking a language composed of strange sounds, composed the "Vulture Squadron", which tried constantly to stop a messenger pigeon from delivering messages to an opposing army. As in Wacky Races, Dastardly continued to fail miserably at his mission.
In later years Dastardly and Muttley were the nemeses for Yogi Bear and his friends in the 1980s series Yogi's Treasure Hunt. This time, Dick repeatedly failed at discovering hidden treasure before Yogi and his team. Dastardly and Muttley also appeared as teenagers in the short-lived series Yo, Yogi!. The final regular appearances of Dastardly and Muttley were in the "Fender Bender 500" shorts on the early 1990s short-lived series Wake, Rattle and Roll; in those segments, the duo once again appeared in the Mean Machine, but raced against such Hanna-Barbera stalwarts as Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw.
In the TV series Laff-A-Lympics, there was a similar looking (and sounding) character to Dastardly named "The Dread Baron," voiced by John Stephenson. In fact, the similarity caused the translators in Brazil to mistake him for Dastardly. (In issue #12 of the Laff-A-Lympics comic book by Marvel Comics, Dread Baron and Dastardly are brothers.) The character's name is an obvious pun on the name of the infamous World War I fighter pilot, the Red Baron. In this series, the Dread Baron was seen wearing a World War I-era German fighter pilot's uniform. The Dread Baron was accompanied by a bear that was similar to Muttley, with grey fur, an orange trenchcoat and a similar name: Mumbly. (Mumbly actually had his own series in which he was a detective.) The two later appeared in the made-for-TV movie Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose, where The Dread Baron and Mumbly are first seen in Dick Dastardly's plane from Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines. The Mall of America has a ride in their thrill park theater attraction which is a tribute to Hanna-Barbara cartoons; Dastardly kidnaps Elroy Jetson, so Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo have to travel across the various worlds to rescue him. On one Cartoon Network commercial Spoof Yogi Bear can't get past Security guards because he's lost his ID card; Dick Dastardly has his ID card and is let through by Security-even though he's carrying a cartoon Bomb!!
[edit] Cultural references
- In 1994, British men's magazine Loaded nominated Dick Dastardly as one of the "Greatest Living Englishmen," despite the fact that the character is (from the context of the various series he appeared in and other indicators) either an American or a German (maybe French if we count the Spanish translation, that even gave him a thick French accent). Dick, Muttley and their car returned as a boss car in the Wacky Races video game voiced by Jim Cummings and Billy West.
- In addition, in an episode of the anime Digimon Frontier, entitled "The Great Trailmon Race" (which was a homage to Wacky Races), a ShadowWereGarurumon and his Dogmon sidekick attempted to undermine the other racers, as a homage to Dastardly and Muttley.
- In the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Dexter's Wacky Races", Mandark replaces Dick Dastardly and his car as the villain with his car "The Dark Man Special".
- The video game character Waluigi bears a startling resemblance to Dick Dastardly.
- Terry Thomas played a "Dick Dastardly" type English aristocrat who despite cheating ends up never winning in movies: Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines; Monte Carlo or Bust {aka Those Daring Young Men In Their Jalopies}; Rocket to the Moon
- On The Smurfs, the villan Gargamel was also voiced by Paul Winchill using a voice very much like Dastardly.
[edit] Dick Dastardly in other languages
- Brazilian Portuguese: Dick Vigarista
- Portuguese: Dick Detestável
- French: Satanas
- Hungarian: Gézengúz Guszti
- Italian: Dick Dastardly
- Spanish: Pierre Nodoyuna ( The "Nodoyuna" part sounds quite exotic in Spanish but actually doesn't exist at all as a proper name. It is in reality a joke on Spanish idiom "no doy una" which roughly means "I fail miserably". Pierre is due to the French accent he had in this version.)
- Japanese: ブラック魔王 (Black Demon King)
- Danish: Dan Døgenigt
- Swedish: Urban Usling, Baron Knäck, and others
- Catalan: Dick Destraler
- Polish: Dick Dastardly
- Turkish: Hain Baron
