Just to prove that I really am working on a major update to Scrappyland–it’ll be up soon, I swear–here’s a sneak preview. Scrappy’s Own Magazine featured “Scrappy’s Own Everyday Motto,” a sort of alternate-reality, kid-oriented Pledge of Allegiance. Here it is–everybody please stand at attention, salute, and read it in unison:
Scrappy’s Own Everyday Motto
I will always be on the square with my comrades and schoolmates and at home.
I will always tell the truth and do my best to be at all times a useful and honorable member of my neighborhood.
I will always respect my parents and my elders.
I will always be kind to other children smaller than I am.
I will always try to do some good and helpful deed for the helpless and for the aged.
I will always be kind to dumb animals.
I will always do to others just like I would want them to do to me.
I will always be a GOOD AMERICAN.
Scrappy himself didn’t really practice all the points contained in this motto–many of his cartoons involve him beating the stuffing out of his younger brother for no apparent reason, and he was the only major cartoon character of the 1930s to kill and skin a dog (in The Dog Snatcher). And is the reference to “comrades” a subtle indication that His Scrappiness was a pinko?
In any event, it’s a nice sentiment, and if I were king, we’d all be reciting it at ballgames…
Psmith also called people “Comrade.” I wonder if Mintz considered renaming his star “Pscrappy.”
Also, Yippy’s attempt to salute the flag just looks painful.