Editing Shmoo (section)

==Analysis==
{{blockquote|The Shmoo, any literate person must know, was one of history's most brilliant [[utopia]]n satires.|''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'', 2002<ref>{{cite news |first=Michael |last=Pakenham |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2002/09/29/editors-choice-74/ |title=Editor's Choice: The Short Life and Happy Times of the Shmoo, by Al Capp, with an introduction by Harlan Ellison |work=Baltimore Sun |date=2002-11-29 |access-date=2017-05-08}}{{Dead link|date=May 2025}}</ref>}}

"Capp is at his [[allegorical]] best in the epics of the Shmoos, and later, the Kigmies", wrote comic strip historian [[Jerry Robinson]]<ref>{{cite book| title= The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art| first= Jerry |last= Robinson| publisher= Putnam| year= 1974 | isbn= 9780399109379}}</ref> "Shmoos are the world's most amiable creatures, supplying all man's needs. Like a [[fertility]] myth gone berserk, they reproduced so prodigiously they threatened to wreck the economy"—if not [[Western culture|western civilization]] as we know it, and ultimately [[society]] itself.

Superficially, the Shmoo story concerns a cuddly creature that desires nothing more than to be a boon to humans. Although initially Capp denied or avoided discussion of any satirical intentions ("If the Shmoo fits", he proclaimed, "wear it!"),<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Stefan |last=Kanfer |url=http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_2_urb-al-capp.html |title=Exile in Dogpatch: The Curious Neglect of Cartoonist Al Capp |magazine=City Journal |date= Spring 2010 |accessdate=2012-12-10}}{{Dead link|date=May 2025}}</ref> he was widely seen to be using clever [[subtext]]. The story has [[social]], [[ethical]], and [[philosophical]] implications that continue to invite analysis into the 21st Century.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P1WXKH5B_XUC&pg=PA199 |title=Media Analysis Techniques, 3rd ed. |author-link=Arthur Asa Berger |first=Arthur Asa |last=Berger |publisher=Sage Publications, Inc |date=2004-07-15 |accessdate=2012-12-10|isbn=9781412906838 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.futurehi.net/archives/000127.html |website=Future Hi |title=Shmoo Technology |first=Flemming |last=Funch |date=25 April 2004 |accessdate=2010-01-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041027014715/http://www.futurehi.net/archives/000127.html |archive-date=2004-10-27 }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22 |title=Capp-italist Revolution: Al Capp's Shmoo Offers a Parable of Plenty |magazine=Life |date=20 December 1948 |accessdate=2012-12-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://main.nc.us/books/books.cgi?theshortlife&happytimesoftheshmoo |first=KNS |last=Maré |website= main.nc.us| publisher= Mountain Area Information Network |year=2002 |title=''The Short Life & Happy Times of the Shmoo'' by Al Capp; with a foreword by Harlan Ellison |accessdate=2012-12-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617090532/http://main.nc.us/books/books.cgi?theshortlife&happytimesoftheshmoo |archive-date=2012-06-17 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/SOC621/298lec4.pdf |title=Berkeley Sociology 298 Lecture 4: Class, Exploitation, Oppression; 5 March 2002| website= ssc.wisc.edu| publisher= Dept. of Sociology, University of Wisconsin| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20060915184928/www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/SOC621/298lec4.pdf| archivedate= September 15, 2006 |accessdate= March 25, 2025}}</ref> During the remainder of his life, Capp was seldom interviewed without reference to the nature of the Shmoo story.

The mythic tale ends on a deliberately [[irony|ironic]] note. Shmoos are officially declared a menace, and systematically hunted down and slaughtered—because they were deemed "bad for business". The much-copied story line was a [[parable]] that was interpreted in many different ways at the outset of the [[Cold War]]. Al Capp was even invited to go on a radio show to debate [[socialist]] [[Norman Thomas]] on the effect of the Shmoo on modern [[capitalism]].

"After it came out both the left and the right attacked the Shmoo", according to publisher [[Denis Kitchen]]. "[[Communists]] thought he was making fun of socialism and [[Marxism]]. The [[right wing]] thought he was making fun of capitalism and [[the American way]]. Capp caught flak from both sides.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888467-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091115093350/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888467-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 15, 2009 |title=Harvest Shmoon |magazine=Time |date=13 September 1948 |accessdate=2012-12-10}}</ref> For him it was an [[apolitical]] [[morality tale]] about [[human nature]]... I think [the Shmoo] was one of those bursts of genius. He was a genius, there's no question about that."<ref>{{cite interview |url= http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=1114 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070623103614/http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=1114 |archive-date=June 23, 2007 |title=''Everything and the Kitchen Shmoo:'' Interview with Denis Kitchen| first= Denis| last= Kitchen |date= April 2003 |url-status=dead |accessdate=August 30, 2016}}</ref>