31 March 2012

Rupert

The real Rupert - born in 1920
On a British geographical photomapping site to which I contribute, they have a weekly photograph competition. The idea is that the previous week's winner will pick the new winner from the current week's shortlist. Most weeks over 6,000 new photos are submitted to "Geograph" so it's quite a thrill if one of your photos is chosen as the winner. There are comments sections where members can remark on photos or raise associated points.

A couple of weeks ago, a gentleman with the first name Rupert was picked as the winner but he remained silent and inactive with regard to judging the new winner. A moderator asked, "Has anyone heard from Rupert?". Mischievously, but not maliciously, I added this comment: "Last time I saw him he was with Edward Trunk and Algy Pug down in Nutwood."

My "Geograph" censor
This caused a mixture of hilarity and, rather incredibly, hostility. After two or three days my comment was removed and so I left another comment that basically said - Why? I have received seven separate emails from other members of the site supporting my right to make light-hearted remarks and there has been much debate within the site about censorship and what's allowable and what's not. I certainly never expected all this fuss over a harmless quip.

I realise that non-British "aliens" from less cultured corners of the planet may be bemused by my initial response to the question "Has anyone heard from Rupert?" so I guess I need to fill you in. Rupert the Bear is an iconic English comic book character who lives in the pastoral haven of Nutwood with his other animal friends including the white elephant Edward Trunk and a pug called Algernon or Algy for short. There's also Podgy Pig and Rupert's best friend Bill Badger. The characters are anthropomorphic. They all walk on their hind legs and wear clothes from the 1920's which is when Rupert was first created in the mind of Mary Tourtel for the "Daily Express" newspaper. 
A rather menacing Rupert (1959)
Rupert is also a male Christian name that plebs like me associate with  our country's ruling class - the landed gentry that includes our current prime minister and his privileged inner cabinet. When naming male babies, English working class families would only ever pick names like Rupert, Randolph, Claude, Cecil or Clarence as a sort of joke and you would have to pity any ordinary lad lumbered with such a label for life. He'd invariably be a laughing stock just because of his name.

Anyone born in Britain in the nineteen fifties, as I was, is sure to remember Rupert the Bear. We received Christmas annuals in which Rupert and his friends got up to all manner of woodland adventures. The whole concept of Nutwood was rather bizarre and the way in which Rupert and his pals communicated with each other seemd to capture some of the essence of Middle England. We read these annuals but were also bemused by them. I found it hard to really "like" Rupert the Bear. His world was so twee and innocent but even in modern times Rupert hasn't disappeared. He has been transformed, turned into an animated cartoon, made into a cuddly toy and you might even pick up a Rupert costume from a fancy dress shop.
Transformed modern Rupert
Here's the beginning of the first story in the 1964 Rupert Annual:-

Rupert is coming home across the common. "What a frisky butterfly! Why is it dancing like that?" he thinks. "Is it excited by those gorse flowers? There's certainly something odd about the gorse scent. It smells more like violets. I wonder why." Feeling puzzled he continues homeward and notices a small figure standing alone. "Hello, there's Gregory Guinea-pig staring at the sky," he murmurs. "What can he be looking at?" Arriving at his cottage Rupert finds Mrs Bear. "I say, Mummy," he calls. "I've just seen a gorse bush that seems to smell of violets." "That's queer!" says Mrs Bear. "There was a smell of violets here too...Whatever can be causing it?" etc.

Riveting stuff, eh?

14 comments:

  1. Sadly, a sense of humour seems to be missing from many internet-arians (¿?). Or maybe it's just that humour doesn't "surf" well? I'm afraid to say I have often been deemed to have put my foot in it, by having a witty (under my definition) comment misunderstood - even by close friends.
    Someone suggested that at the end of a humourous comment I should write in brackets (HUMOUR). Well, ....

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  2. And I never liked Rupert (the bear) either.

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  3. BRIAN You may not have liked Rupert but I think I can guess which character you preferred from "The Magic Roundabout"! And I'm not talking about Dylan!

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  4. Where has everybody's sense of humour gone? the world's gone b***** mad.
    All of the crocii have been trampled in our local park basically because it apparently offends people's human rights to fence them off....
    (not that this has anything to do with Rupert( but you see how my mind wanders.....
    I notice the word 'queer' in Ruperts story, I'm surprised that got past the censors.
    Briony
    x

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  5. You must keep up. Rupert is now considered a symbol of the oppression inherent in the system and, as such, is right out.

    Podgy the Pig is also clealry fattest and the less said about Edward Trunk the better.

    It does remind of that stock pub quiz question though: 'What is Rupert Bear's middle name?'

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  6. but does anyone remember the weird creature Raggedy? Used to put the willies (hang on, am I allowed to say that, especially after my rough handling at the hands of her majesty's pleasure) up me!! As for smart arsed comments on websites.... where do I sign up?
    FoX

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  7. "Why are Rupert Bear stories always written in the present tense?" I wonder, age five. I find this rather annoying in 1961, and still do in 2012. As for Crafty Cat Corner's comment, in the 1950s "queer" means strange and ONLY strange. This present tense thing really IS annoying, isn't it?

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  8. Seems I'm out of sync here. As a child I loved Rupert, I was loved the puppet version that was on telly. In turn I encouraged my children to enjoy it.

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  9. Brian is in no way like a slug!

    I liked Rupert, but I see I may be the only one in the whole world that did. I saw him as a sort-of Tin-Tin creature. Sigh, I suppose I was very twee.

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  10. I think maybe it's a 'girl thing'. I LOVED Rupert. I learned to read on his daily antics in the Express and have had a life-long interest in origami, thanks to its inclusion in his annuals.

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  11. CRAFTY CAT CORNER In my wife's 1964 annual Rupert visits Pleasure Island which is inhabited by jolly "Coons" and that got past the censors too. Mind you, political correctness was not invented back then.
    SHOOTING PARROTS Is his middle name Ian?
    ARCTIC FLUX Do you mean Raggedy Ann?
    DAPHNE You're right - it is all in present tenses. I hadn't noticed. So Rupert's not past, he's in the here and now.
    MUMASU, KATHERINE, MORNING AJ - When the next Rupert Convention is held in Nutwood, I'll see if I can get you ladies tickets then you can natter away about origami, the sex god Bill Badger and of course talk enviously about Rupert's fancy woman - Tigerlily.

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  12. I loved the Rupert books too. Recently I went through my dad's library and found one. I couldn't work out why the stories were so different to what I remembered as a child. Then I realised that the last time I 'read' Rupert, I couldn't read and my Dad had been making the stories up to suit himself.

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  13. no I mean Raggedy.... he was like this weird turnip creature...... totally freazky

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  14. ok these call him ragetty.... but here he is! http://www.freewebs.com/scruffythetramp/evilpage.htm

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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