Comments on: By Jiminy!

By: chuckers

chuckers — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:47:27 +0000

My source is based on this Trivia programme that mentioned it. I think it was supposed to be in the Italian version of Cinderella which is maybe a 6 volume set of stories. She offs her mother in an early volume of the tale.

I haven’t actually read it myself.

By: Usual John

Usual John — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:04:53 +0000

Mitch4 - Yes, “Jiminy Cricket” is certainly a euphemism for “Jesus Christ.” (I’m not so sure about Jeepers Creepers, which strikes me as ordinary reduplication, but I’m open to additional evidence on that point.) However, when Disney gave the Talking Cricket a name, I don’t think they intended a religious reference. The “Jiminy Cricket” exclamation predated the movie and, I think, was seen as pretty innocuous.

chuckers - Do you have a source for that? I’ve read a lot of versions of Cinderella, and I don’t remember one where she kills her own mother.

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:09:12 +0000

Sort of reminds me why I always liked Fractured Fairy Tales.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:16:24 +0000

Almost all fairytales are much darker than the sanitzed versions we tell our kids today. Pick up an original copy of Grimm’s fairytales and you will be horrified at the violence.

By: chuckers

chuckers — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:13:00 +0000

In the original story of Cinderella, she kills her own mother at her father’s request and puts her in a trunk. The father remarries and she is forced to live with her “wicked” step-mother and step-sisters.

Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, meet pot.

By: Powers

Powers — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:10:45 +0000

Yep, looks like Dinosaur is now #39 and Emperor’s New Grove is #40.

By: mkilby

mkilby — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:36:46 +0000

Speaking of squashed bugs, is anyone aware of an antecedent for the corresponding phrase that Walt Kelly used many times in “Pogo”? Here is a version in normal English: “Careful, if you squish a bug it will rain!”

By: Mitch4

Mitch4 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:50:27 +0000

Calling him “Jiminy Cricket” instead of generic “the talking cricket” puts the name in line with a tradition of “minced oath” where just about anything with the initials J.C. should be understood as a stand-in for swearing by Jesus Christ. Obviously so when uttered as exclamation, “Jiminy Cricket!”, “Jeepers Creepers!” [where’d you get those peepers?] .

I’ve been puzzled whether The Jaycees fits with that tradition — the official name “Junior Chamber [of Commerce]” seems to make them just a businesspersons’ organization, but there are overtones of a lodge or fraternal organization with the expected religious subtext.

By: Cidu Bill

Cidu Bill — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:32:55 +0000

I’d imagine not, Usual John. But he does now.

By: Usual John

Usual John — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:30:32 +0000

ljdarten - Yes, Pinocchio really is quite dark, for a children’s story. In fact, it’s pretty dark for a story of any kind, though of course it falls well short of, say, Jude the Obscure.

And I, too, am curious whether Doug Bratton knows that he essentially was replicating an incident in the original book.