Jimmy Five

Jimmy Five (originally Cebolinha – which means both chives and the diminutive for onion, in Portuguese) is one of Monica's Gang main characters. He was created in 1960, and currently has his own printed comic strips, called Cebolinha, which were first released in 1973.^[1] His English name is Jimmy Five due to his hair composed of only five strands.

Mauricio de Sousa, creator of Monica's Gang, says he based the character on a child he knew while growing up in Mogi das Cruzes.^[2] He was a friend of his brother Márcio, and the boy would also switch the letter "r" for "l" and, because of his pointy hair, he earned the nickname "cebolinha" from Márcio's and Mauricio's father.^[3] Jimmy's family name is "Cebola" (Onion in Portuguese), and he has a little baby sister called Mary Angela (in Portuguese, Maria Cebolinha, after her brother's name), also based on a real person.^[4]

Characteristics

Jimmy Five is incapable of pronouncing the sound of the r letter, replacing it with the letter l, in the Portuguese comics, or with the letter w, in the English version. When the letter is used in the end of a word, however, he pronounces it normally (as in "car" or "locker").

Out of the main cast of Monica's Gang he is the only one to regularly wear shoes (when barefoot, he is also one of the rare characters to be shown with toes). He often complains and despairs over his main physical feature - his lack of any hair other than five single strands. His madcap attempts to rectify this often causes him (and those around him) a great deal of grief. He was originally drawn with a full head of hair, which often becomes a topic in his laments to the comic artist to "help him out" and restore his full head of hair.

He is always plotting to steal either Samson or the title of "owner of the street" from Monica with his "infallible plans" (which were initially created by Specs), which always end in failure, mostly because Smudge (his best friend) accidentally reveals to Monica that she's in a trap. On some stories he gathers the other boys of the gang just to pick on Monica.

In some earlier stories, he devised background plans to find out the secret of her strength, but he always ended up beaten solely by her. Even with these frictions, Jimmy and Monica are still friends to each other. In the futuristic special edition stories, they are often portrayed as married or dating each other.^[5][6] Indeed, in Monica Teen, they are seen kissing.^[7]

It was once revealed that Jimmy is not the first one in his family to have his famous speech impediment and that it caused all his relatives (minus his father) to believe he will never be able to pronounce 'r'. However, this is disproven in the Monica Teen stories, where he is said to take up speech-language pathology sessions to correct his speech impediment;^[7] however, he reverts to mispronunciation when under stress or close to girls (especially Monica).^[7]

Whereas his family was always composed of his mother, father and little sister, he once had a little brother, introduced in a 1972 story.^[8] Jimmy himself even ended the story asking his readers to send name suggestions to Editora Abril (which published Monica's Gangs' comics at that time), but the toddler ended up disappearing from the stories.^[8] Mauricio stated that he simply didn't have time to plan the continuation of the his arrival, and the character was never featured again.^[8]

Related characters

• Mrs. Five (Dona Cebola, lit. Mrs. Onion) – Jimmy's mother. Spends most of her time as a housekeeper, sometimes complaining about this. She is always worried about her weight.
• Mr. Five (Seu Cebola, lit. Mr. Onion) - Jimmy's father. As well as Smudge's father, he is drawn simply as an adult Jimmy, the only differences being his nose and his height. He's very affectionate to his family and hard working with his job at a local business company. Unlike Jimmy, he does not suffer from speech impairments.
• Mary Angela (Maria Cebolinha) – Jimmy's little sister, introduced in 2001.^[9] Her baby mind makes her a very curious and active person, which leads Jimmy to near-insanity, as he is the one to look for her when his parents are not home. Mary is based on Mauricio de Sousa's oldest daughter, Mariângela Spada e Souza.^[9][3]
• Fluffy (Floquinho) – Jimmy's dog. Originally, the dog belonged to his cousin from the countryside, but ended up becoming Jimmy's.^[10] Due to his long hair, no one can tell his head from his tail, and vice versa. This long hair caught many reader's eyes, and after years of arguments between fans on what breed he really belonged to it was announced his breed as being Lhasa Apso.^[11] Apart from his head and tail problem, another recurring gag in his strips is the fact that his long hair can hide plenty of objects (at one point hiding a missing airplane and its pilot, a missing cruise ship, a hot-dog vendor, and the mailman all at once).
• Nutty Ned (Louco, lit. Crazy man) – Nutty is a former psychiatric hospital inhabitant, and no matter how hard the doctors try to get him, he always manages to escape (despite the fact that, in some original stories, he is living in a nonsensical house whose real replica can be found at Parque da Mônica in São Paulo). He often appears at Jimmy Five's strips, irritating Jimmy with his insanity. In Portuguese, Nutty Ned always calls him "Cenourinha" (Little Carrot, in confusion with his Portuguese name "Cebolinha", literally, "Little Onion"). His strips are meant to be nonsensical and surreal, where Nutty Ned breaks the laws of physics. His crazy actions are often based on funny word plays and/or puns, and confusions caused by Jimmy's incapability to pronounce the r letter.

References

• Jimmy Five at Mônica’s Gang official website
• Fluffy at Mônica’s Gang official website
• Mary Angela at Mônica’s Gang official website
• Nutty Ned at Mônica’s Gang official website

External links

• Official Monica’s Gang website (English)
• Official Monica’s Gang website (Portuguese)