Snagglepuss

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Snagglepuss
Snagglepuss

Snagglepuss is a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character created in 1959, a pink anthropomorphic mountain lion voiced by Daws Butler.

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[edit] Summary

Snagglepuss first appeared in several episodes of The Quick Draw McGraw Show and became a regular segment on The Yogi Bear Show. In his earliest appearances he was orange instead of pink and called Snaggletooth. In later episodes, Snaggletooth was referred to as Snagglepuss's cousin. He also appeared in other Hanna-Barbera series such as Yogi's Gang in 1973, as a co-host of Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics in 1977 and Scooby's All-Stars in 1978, Yogi's Treasure Hunt in 1985 and as a teenager on Yo Yogi! in 1991.

Snagglepuss lives in a cavern, which he constantly tries to make more habitable for himself. No matter what he does, however, he always winds up back where he started or worse off than he was before.

In some episodes, Snagglepuss is chased by Major Minor (voiced by Don Messick), a tiny-sized hunter, whose chases seem similar to the ones which involve Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny (due to the scripts by Michael Maltese).

[edit] Character

Butler's voice characterization is reminiscent of the more soft-spoken aspect of Bert Lahr's broad-ranging characterization for the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.

Snagglepuss has two catchphrases. Before dashing off (whether to escape or for some other reason), he exclaims "Exit, stage left!" (Or stage right, and sometimes even up or down), a phrase related to acting. He also utters the expletive "Heavens to Murgatroyd!", which Bert Lahr said in the 1944 movie Meet the People. Snagglepuss also adds the grammatical suffix "..even" to seemingly every phrase. Later incarnations of Snagglepuss would modify these catchphrases, such as changing the direction of his exit, or saying "Heavens to planetoids!"

When the character of Snagglepuss was used for a series of cereal television commercials in the 1960s, Lahr filed a lawsuit, claiming that the similarity of the Snagglepuss voice to his own might cause viewers to falsely conclude that Lahr was endorsing the product. As part of the settlement the disclaimer "Snagglepuss voice by Daws Butler" was required to appear on each commercial, thus making Butler one of the few voice artists to receive a screen credit in a TV commercial.

[edit] Other Appearances

[edit] Snagglepuss in popular culture

  • Snagglepuss appeared together with Elmer Fudd on the Drawn Together episode "Gay Bash" voiced by Chris Edgerly.
  • Snagglepuss has made various non-speaking appearances in episodes of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
  • Snagglepuss is a track on John Zorn's Naked City.
  • The Snagglepuss catchphrase "Heavens to Murgatroyd!" was used at the beginning of the song "Storm in a Teacup" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
  • An album by British garage rock band Thee Headcoats is entitled Heavens To Murgatroyd Even! It's Thee Headcoats!
  • On The Simpsons, Ralph Wiggum claims to see Snagglepuss "going to the bathroom" outside of a classroom.
  • Snagglepuss was often mentioned and impersonated on Whose Line is it Anyway?, primarily by Chip Esten and Colin Mochrie.
  • Snagglepuss appears on the Robot Chicken episode "Ban on the Fun" voiced by Victor Yerrid. In a segment that parodies the Laff-A-Lympics in the style of the Munich massacre, he reports on TV about the death of some of its competitors.
  • In the movie Hackers, Cereal Killer comments that a hack by Dade Murphy was "superhero-like, even!" in a Snagglepuss voice.
  • Canadian rockers Rush titled their 1981 live album Exit...Stage Left. According to drummer Neil Peart, they wanted to have Snagglepuss's tail on the cover, but could not due to licensing issues.
  • In the film The Broken Hearts Club (starring Dean Cain, centering on twenty-something gay men) one of the characters "outs" Snagglepuss with an opinion that he's "The first gay cartoon character".

[edit] External links