Snidely Whiplash
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Snidely Whiplash | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | "Dudley Do-Right", a spin-off of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show |
| Portrayed by | Hans Conried (Cartoon series) Alfred Molina (Live action film) |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Snidely |
| Species | Human |
| Occupation | Stereotypical villain |
Snidely Whiplash is the cartoon villain who is archnemesis to Dudley Do-Right in the tongue-in-cheek series The Dudley Do-Right Show by American animation pioneer Jay Ward. The series was a spin-off of The Bullwinkle Show, a version of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show that began in 1963.
Whiplash is the stereotypical villain, in the style of stock characters found in silent movies and earlier stage melodrama, wearing black clothing, cape, and a top hat, and twirling his long handlebar moustache. His sidekick is named Homer. In the cartoon's opening segments, he is seen tying Nell Fenwick to a railroad track. He is the antithesis of Do-Right, a picture-perfect stereotype of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police do-gooder.
The character was voiced by Hans Conried in the original cartoon series. Snidely was later played by Alfred Molina in the live action Dudley Do-Right movie, which starred Brendan Fraser as Dudley.
In one cartoon episode Whiplash and Dudley change hats; Dudley becomes a supervillain and Whiplash becomes the Fearless RCMP who receives a medal for bringing the evil Dudley Do-Right in. (RCMP Inspector Fenwick gets "bombed" by both Do-Right and Whiplash wearing the evil "black hat".)
A similar villain design derived from the same archetype was later used for Wacky Races (and later, the generic Hanna-Barbera) villain character Dick Dastardly.
Family Guy paid homage to Snidely Whiplash when it was revealed on the episode Mother Tucker that Peter Griffin has an evil twin brother Thaddeus, who looks exactly like Peter but talks and dresses like Snidely, and wears an identical long moustache. Lee Publications also paid tribute to Snidely Whiplash in one of their invisible ink books featuring a "line-up". While most line up games were guesswork and fewer clues would lead to a good ending and more guesses a bad ending, this was special in that an incorrect guess was told to "try again". Snidely Whiplash has kidnapped a beautiful circus acrobat and you as the hero are to rescue her, which she is trapped in a railroad car. However another railroad car which looks exactly like hers also contains a vicious man-eating tiger. The fate of the hero is decided by revealing either a picture of the tiger or the lady, to which it reads "If you choose the right car the lady is free, and you are her hero. If you choose the wrong car the tiger is free, and you are its next meal!" This game also probably was alluding to the short story The Lady or the Tiger. Electronic Arts paid tribute to the character in The Sims 2: Bon Voyage with an NPC who strongly resembles the character who picks pockets. In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 4 episode "Restless", Buffy evokes Snidely (along with Lex Luthor) when she complained about an American Indian spirit of vengeance that was attempting to redress the wrongs done to his people, by saying that she preferred her bad guys to be "...evil! Straight up, black hat, tie-you-to-the-train-tracks, 'Soon-my-electro ray-will-destroy-Metropolis!' bad."
