Separated at Mirth - and separated by a few million years - we have these iconic images of record-playing from THE FLINTSTONES (1960-1966)...
...And the not-iconic but nonetheless pleasant cover of CHIP 'N' DALE # 51 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: March, 1978... 1978 AD, that is! Cover art by John Carey.
I find it hard to believe that by 1978 (...or '76-'77 when this cover gag was likely conceived) that anyone connected to pop culture had not already seen this gag - many different times, in fact - on THE FLINTSTONES!
So it stands as a clear and obvious "homage"... or "swipe" you decide!
Though it IS kinda nice to see THREE forest creatures working together (...or, since it's about MUSIC, "working in concert") to "TUNE" up their world!
Finally, for Dale's sake, I hope that's not an old 78 RPM record he's spinning! If so, he's gonna get tired really fast!
18 comments:
Funny how, in recent years, CDs have gone by the way side and with digital music services the hip way of physically owning music is through vinyl.
If there ever is a flintstones revival of some kind they may want to switch out the record gag with a stone age cd player to reflect this. Gag men and women get those creative juices flowing!
Clapton:
If vinyl could make even a marginal comeback today, in the world of The Flintstones its “vinyl-stone” equivalent probably never went away! Records still rule… “…In BEDDD-ROCK! Twitch! Twitch!”
However, in OUR world, Chip ‘n’ Dale probably NEED that bird to play their old antique record, because they can’t even find a discarded record player in the junkyard! …CD players are becoming scarce too! Never thought I’d see THAT day!
Dale would be better off if he was playing one of those old 16 RPM transcription records. Anyone remember those? (There were also 8 RPM spoken word records, which were apparently used only in professional contexts.)
I remember an episode of "Muppet Babies" where Gonzo parked the nose of a rocketship on the rings of Saturn and "played" the theme to "Little Muppet Monsters" like a record player! That was back in the days when everyone took it for granted that the "rings" were a flat surface, not billions of orbiting frozen ice particles.
‘Rehab:
Say what? You CAN get music out of a flat, circular, decorative planetary barrier – but you can’t… er, “wring” some tunes out of orbiting ice crystals?!
What’s the world – or solar system – coming to these days?!
Say, wouldn’t an incessantly-playing theme to "Little Muppet Monsters", emanating from the rings of Saturn, just annoy the holy-heck out of REBO?
Mark:
I remember neither of those record speeds, 78 RPM being the oldest and most outmoded in my memory banks. So, my hat's off to you!
BTW, wouldn't it be funny if Dale were to rotate the record TOO FAST and have Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Elvis, or The Beatles sound like... Chip 'n' Dale?
Then, duplicate that scenario with an "Alvin and the Chipmunks" record and see what happens!
Or maybe he gets tired, slows down, and the Chipmunks sound like Ross Bagdasarian!
The possibilities are endless!
Most likely, Rebo would proceed to kidnap Gonzo and try to get him to spill the secrets of celestial music so he could get him to play Rebo's Theme Song throughout the skies of Jupiter until the Jovians begged for mercy .
Achille:
Nasty old Rebo WOULD do something like that, wouldn’t he? It would certainly be in character for him!
If those stubbornly resistant Jovians failed to capitulate, Rebo could then employ the ultimate weapon… the ear-worm-y SPACE-A-DELIC suite from “The Promised Planet” episode of LOST IN SPACE!
I don’t know where you can find the cartoon other than with a Boomerang App subscription, but there is a Tom and Jerry cartoon where Tom gets a record stuck in his mouth, and Jerry repositions Tom’s whisker like a needle to play it!
(“New Mouse in the House” from The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show).
OUCH!
Even REBO wouldn't do that to HIS cat!
Isn't Rebo's willingness to do such a thing to his cat kind of moot? Saturnian Cats, per thevisual account of that distinguished cosmofelinologist, Dr Lucius Bottarius, don't have any whiskers.
Or, indeed, any nose.
(How do they smell? Awful.)
Achille:
Far be it from me to differ with the great Dr. Bottarius, but maybe Rebo keeps his cat’s whiskers perfectly trimmed – right down to the nose, or where the nose might have been before the trimming! Oorg!
The “Supreme Leader and Unquestioned General” (or S.L.U.G.) of Saturn can be obsessive about such things!
Rebo would probably think this was some new weapon of some kind, not realizing his counterattack would look like the animatronic "Mickey Mouse Revue" in space, but with multiple mechanical Donalds.
‘Rehab:
Rebo tends to “not realize” lots of things!
I oughta know, as I helped write him that way! It’s the key to both his failures and his appeal!
Regarding the recording speeds: Yes, I recall the 16 speed. Somebody, a close friend or relative, had a phonograph that included 16, 33 and 1/3, 45, and 78. We were all kids and we were playing our favorite sound effects record (need I name it here, or do we all know which one I'm talking about?). Our favorite effect was from "The Suspension Bridge", the hapless, helpless yell of the man falling. We played it at each speed to find out how it would sound. So here goes--at 33 and 1/3, it was a man's yell. At 45, it was the yell of a child. At 78 it was like one of the Cinderella mice, Chip 'n' Dale, or one of Alvin's threesome. But at 16, it was slow and deep, like an opera singer. The entire experience was somewhat reminiscent of the Bugs Bunny cartoon set in the Hollywood Bowl where the opera singer's head shrinks and his voice speeds up faster and faster. We laughed long and hard. And the experience forever cemented a memory of the 16 speed in my mind.
Going back to the original post, here's a question. Did Chip 'n' Dale get the idea for their stunt from watching "The Flintstones"? Maybe they used to sneak into Donald Duck's house when he was off on one of Uncle Scrooge's treasure hunting expeditions and log in a little TV time watching "The Flintstones" and maybe "Yogi Bear" as well. Unless, of course, they have a clause in their Disney contract prohibiting viewing of rival toon characters. But that would be hard to enforce, especially as C 'n' D are so diminutive in size. So I'm guessing that their cavorting on the cover is a deliberate attempt to find out if the Flintstones' method of listening to records really works.
Scarecrow:
Even being a (very, very, ...Did I mention “very”?) few years older than you, I have never seen a phonograph with a 16 speed!
Nevertheless, that was a great story about the sound effects record – and perfectly complements my theories about Frank Sinatra and Ross Bagdasarian in my comment above… only in actual practice!
I’d assume that Chip ‘n’ Dale (as well as presumed cover-gag writer Vic Lockman) got the idea from watching The Flintstones… AND that the ‘munks and their needle-beaked buddy wanted to test it out for themselves!
…What they may have actually heard, will forever remain a mystery!
Come now. We all know it can hardly be anything but an early Alvin and the Chipmunks record. What music do you think Chip & Dale are into?
As for a ban on watching other non-Disney stars' cartoons, clearly not, or HDL wouldn't be allowed to be fans of the "Marvin Monkey" or "Captain Duckburg" comics, would they?
Achille:
I’d always have figured those heavy-metal-‘munks to be into AC(hip)-D(ale)C!
Or, if they were “punk-‘munks”, The Ramones!
…And DONALD wouldn’t be allowed to be a fan of “Pup-Cop” and “Captain Retro-Duck”!
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