Editing Shmoo (section)

==Origins==
Al Capp offered his version of the origin of the Shmoo in a wryly satirical article, "I Don't Like Shmoos", in ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'' (June 1949):

{{blockquote|I was driving from New York City to my farm in [[New Hampshire]]. The top of my car was down, and on either side of me I could see the lush and lovely [[New England]] countryside... It was the good earth at its generous summertime best, offering gifts to all. And the thought that came to me was this: Here we have this great and good and generous thing—the Earth. It's eager to give us everything we need. All we have to do is just let it alone, just be happy with it.

Cartoonists don't think like people. They think in pictures. Little pictures that will fit into a comic strip. And so, in my mind, I reduced the Earth... down to the size of a small critter that would fit into the ''Li'l Abner'' strip—and it came out a Shmoo... I didn't have any message—except that it's good to be alive. The Shmoo didn't have any social significance; it is simply a juicy li'l critter that gives milk and lays eggs... When you look at one as though you'd like to eat it, it dies of sheer ecstasy. And if one ''really'' loves you, it'll lay you a [[cheesecake]]—although this is quite a strain on its li'l innards...

I thought it was a perfectly ordinary little story, but when it appeared in newspapers, all hell broke loose! ''Life'', in an editorial, hailed the Shmoo as the very symbol and spirit of [[free enterprise]]. ''Time'' said I'd invented a new era of enlightened management-employee relationship, (they called it ''Capp''-italism). ''[[The Daily Worker]]'' cussed me out as a Tool of the Bosses, and denounced the Shmoo as the [[Opium of the Masses]]...}}

Capp introduced many other allegorical creatures in ''Li'l Abner'' over the years—including [[Bald Iggles]], Kigmies, Nogoodniks, Mimikniks, the Money Ha-Ha, Shminks, Abominable Snow-Hams, Gobbleglops, Shtunks and Bashful Bulganiks, among others. Each one highlighted another disquieting facet of human nature—but none have ever had quite the same cultural impact as the Shmoo. According to publisher Denis Kitchen: "For the rest of his career Capp got countless letters [from] people begging him to bring the Shmoo back. Periodically he would do it but each time it ended the same way—with the Shmoo being too good for humanity, and he had to essentially exterminate them again. But there was always one or two who would survive for future plot twists..."

===Etymology===
The origin of Capp's word "shmoo" has been the subject of [[linguistics|linguistic]] consideration by scholars for decades. Academics [[Arthur Asa Berger]] and Allan H. Orrick of [[Johns Hopkins University]] speculated by that ''shmoo'' was a thinly veiled [[phallic symbol]], and that the name derives from [[Yiddish Language|Yiddish]] ''schmuck'' (''[[schmo]]'') meaning ‘male genitalia’ or a ‘fool, contemptuous person’.<ref name=berger/><ref name=orrick/> Even prior to Berger and Orrick's explanation, Thomas Pyles at [[University of Florida]] had favored the ''shmuck'' etymology over the derivation from the Yiddish ''schmu'' (‘profit’), suggested by [[Leo Spitzer]].{{efn|Pyles assumed the cartoonist had made an unconscious association with the expletive term, and Spitze also suggested "Al Kapp" (sic.) "may not be [have been] consciously aware" when his mind evoked the Yiddish word ''schmu''. Orrick however sides with the findings of the New York State Joint Legislative that this was a conscious choice of word. Orrick points to one cartoon drawing in which the Shmoo is depicted in a suggestive (phallic) pose, and which bears the caption "Bene''dick''" (Italics is his).}}<ref name=pyles-apud-orrick/>

Spitzer noted the shmoo's providential characteristics (providing eggs and milk) in arguing his hypothesis, further explaining that in Yiddish ''schmu'' specifically connoted "illicit profit", and that the word also giving rise to term ''schmus'' ‘tale, gossip’, whose verb form ''schmusen'' or ‘shmoosing’ ([[schmooze]]) has become familiar even to non-Jews.<ref name=spitzer/> Lilian Mermin Feinsilver assessed this association with ''shmu'' ‘illicit profit’ as "pertinent", together with the observation that ''shmue'' was a [[taboo]] Yiddish term for the [[uterus]].<ref>{{citation|last=Feinsilver |first=Lilian Mermin |author-link=Lilian Mermin Feinsilver |title=The Yiddish is Showing |work=Perspectives on American English |editor-first=J. L. |editor-last=Dillard |editor-link=J. L. Dillard |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2015 |orig-year=1980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pn0DDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA240 |accessdate=<!--2012-12-10--> |isbn=<!--3110813343, -->9783110813340}}<!--1980 ed. 9789027933676--></ref>

It is one of many Yiddish slang variations that would find their way into ''Li'l Abner''. Revealing an important key to the story, Al Capp wrote that the Shmoo metaphorically represented the limitless bounty of the Earth in all its richness—in essence, [[Mother Nature]] herself. In Li'l Abner's words, "Shmoos ''hain't'' make believe. The hull [whole] earth is one!!"