Talk:Snidely Whiplash

Metallica's whiplash in honor of this character?

I Strongly doubt that Metallica based whiplash on the cartoon villain, any proof of this? ````

It's nonsense. Whiplash refers to an injury sustained from rapid acceleration and deceleration of the neck, as in what could happen if one headbangs a lot. I'm going to remove it. BrainRotMenacer (talk) 10:40, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Stereotype vs Archetype

Isn't he more of an archetypal villain?68.107.83.19 01:53, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

That's a pretty modern looking Snidely - not the version that appeared in the original cartoons, is it? - DavidWBrooks 15:20, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Did he look like this ? - Pioneer-12 18:50, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yes, yes, that's the villain! - DavidWBrooks 19:34, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Didn't he once admit to having a "thing" for tying women up?

didn't he once admit to having a "thing" for tying women up? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.241.245.49 (talk • contribs) 21 July 2005

In one of the cartoons he ties up Nell, then inspector Fenwick, then Dudley's horse, then himself! AnonMoos (talk) 20:14, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Image

The picture that has been on this article is a stylish new one. It shows up in this Yahoo search twice: Snidely Whiplash. This one looks like it came from a WB type modern cartoon. He has had a green face, appeared in movies and if an IMDb listing available, many cartoons besides Dudley Do-Right. Ronbo76 17:37, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

It presumably shows up there because it's in our article, and people assumed it was Snidely. --NE2 17:54, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I am fairly familar with all these incarnations. I doubt this is a mirror of our site. As per NE2 and my talkpages, Snidely has progressed from the rough 1969 drawings to the movie and this one which looks like it came from the WB. Trying to find a hard citation will be difficult because nothing definite has been written on him, the series or all the different media. Ronbo76 18:04, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

And both of those matches are blogs whose entries were written after our article first included the image. It's simply a case of Wikipedia being wrong and others copying the error. --NE2 18:06, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Disagree. But, as per my note on your talkpage, I will go with the flow. Ronbo76 18:09, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Please don't use File:Villainc.svg as a portrait of Snidely

Snidely Whiplash as shown in the cartoons actually has green skin -- and even more importantly, File:Villainc.svg is a depiction of a generic melodrama villain stock character, and not really intended to be a specific portrait of Snidely. Previous confusion on this point led to File:Villainc.svg being nominated for deletion on Wikimedia Commons. AnonMoos (talk) 20:12, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I've cleaned up the non-free use rationale for File:DoRightCast.JPG, reinstated it in the article, and also added a note to the Summary of File:Villainc.svg specifically indicating that it does not represent Snidely Whiplash and that it is not to be used to illustrate any Jay Ward Productions related articles — if adding such notes does any good whatsoever. — Quicksilver^{T @} 17:37, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

It did some good, Merc'... I just caught Villain labelling it as Snidely and changed it. Yabopomonofonomopo bay (talk) 09:34, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:DoRightCast.JPG

The image Image:DoRightCast.JPG is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

• That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
• That this article is linked to from the image description page.

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --01:54, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Done. --Minderbinder (talk) 20:35, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

I've cleaned up the Fair Use Rationale by applying the "Non-free use rationale" template with standard boilerplate, as if it had been used with the Upload Wizard ab initio. It should meet Wikipedia's requirements without question now. — Quicksilver^{T @} 17:20, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

"Played By"

During many episodes of Dudley Do-Right , the characters are shown ,in a quick cut away , as being "played by". ( As in a proper melodrama. ).

These are three I know of for "Snidley Whiplash": "Manley Chest" , "Phineas Phoul" ,"Sid Ghould".

Anyone else know some more? I wasn't sure where , if at all , this should appear in the main body of the article. ( Dudley,Nell,Inspector Fenwick, even Inspector Fenwick's nephew got "played by" tags at some point,as well! )Harvey J Satan (talk) 02:58, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

See Talk:Dudley_Do-Right#Dudley_Do-Rights.27_real_name... AnonMoos (talk) 03:24, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Silent film vs. melodrama

I've undone an edit that removed "silent movies" from the phrase "stereotypical villain in the style of stock characters found in silent movies and earlier stage melodrama," and added a link to a rather odd blog post. It basically argued that you shouldn't call the caped, top-hatted mustache-twirled a stereotypical silent movie villain, because most silent movie villains aren't like that. I think this misses the point of what a "stereotype" is. I only know of one serious action movie featuring a shirtless, oiled-up muscleman with a mullet and a headband, but it's still a very well-known action movie stereotype. Phasma Felis (talk) 23:03, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

Agree. AnonMoos (talk) 01:23, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

I would agree if not for the phrase "stock characters found in silent movies". There are two huge problems with that:

• 1. stock character - the definition, according to Wiki, is: "a stereotypical fictional character in a work of art such as a novel, play or a film whom audiences recognize from frequent recurrences".
• 2. "found" - Snidely Whiplash-type villians are almost unheard of in silent films. Their sole appearances were in parodies and we would really have to struggle to find any serious films.

If the article states something along the lines "stereotypical villain in the style of stock characters found in earlier stage melodrama and silent films parodying those dramas", I wouldn't object, but, as it is, this article contributes to the widely-believed myths about silent films that have been proven to be false countless times. StjepanHR (talk) 13:57, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

Woman being tied to railroad tracks is an old running gag

In addition to the article's misleading info that Snidely-type villains were common in silent films, there is a section that states "scene of Nell being tied to railroad tracks is an old running gag". Running gag is defined as "a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling". Even a Wiki page on running gags features the same photo scene as this article. Only it is completely false. As it is, both articles contribute to the misconceptions that being tied to the railways is a common plot device in silent films. However, utside of the very film that both articles mention, there are very, very few appearances of people being tied to railroad tracks and, even in those films that feature those scenes, the victim is usually a man, not a "damsell in distress". More info:

• http://moviessilently.com/2013/07/05/questions-from-the-google-who-was-the-silent-era-villain-who-tied-women-to-train-tracks/ - this artcle even makes a note that a similar device (leading man "was nearly sliced in half in a sawmill before being rescued by leading lady Viola Dana") was considered to be old-fashioned when appearing in a 1916 film
• https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/rethinking-the-origins-of-the-damsel-on-the-railroad-tracks - there is a great citation in this article: “This is like taking the Saturday Night Fever spoof scene from Madagascar and using it to ‘prove’ that disco was the number-one music of the 2000s”

Even some films described as having the trope, such as a lost film "The Single Track (1921)" ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012695/ ) are highly dubious, as the synopsis doesn't mention anything: https://archive.org/details/exhibitorsherald13exhi_0/page/n391 To conclude, I propose changing the article to make note that the running gag was not common in silent films. StjepanHR (talk) 14:19, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

StjepanHR -- You may have a good knowledge of silent movies, but you don't seem to understand that Dudley Do-right is as much about about the stereotypes and cultural memories of silent movies (and Victorian melodramas). According to our article The Perils of Pauline (1914 serial), the tying to the tracks occurred in "contemporaneous films such as Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life". In any case, the creators of Dudley Do-Right had their own show about silent movies, Fractured Flickers... AnonMoos (talk) 02:28, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

Well, Dudley Do-Righ type of characters are certainly an interesting subject for discussion. However, for this article, I wanted to concentrate on the two example I have listed. Outside of a couple of Mack Sennett comedies and very few other silent films, this trope didn't exist. And when it was used, it was almost exclusively as a joke. I have no problem with the article mentioning it as a common myth and/or stereotype, but with a small note that this wasn't as common as people nowadays think. StjepanHR (talk) 08:39, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

If there's any significant difference between widely-held perceptions of silent movies and the reality, then the simplest solution would be to add some words such as "perceptions of" or "cultural memories of" or "popular ideas about" etc. in a suitable place, rather than attempting to explain things at any length in a footnote (something which would involve this article too deeply in issues which are somewhat tangential to it)... The 1947 "Perils of Pauline" movie apparently had a railroad-track-tying scene, and would have been an influence on people's perceptions of silent movies in the early 1960s. AnonMoos (talk) 00:44, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

Yes, I agree with you. Those "percetions" result largely from the early sound era, when they used to make fun of the silents to show how much cinema has "advanced" (similar myths are spread throughout movie history, with each change in prevailent political stance and/or technology - for example, New Hollywood myths about Classical Hollywood, so-called French New Wave myths about the Cinema of Quality etc.). I'll try to reshape it and post it here to see if you agreee. OK? :) StjepanHR (talk) 08:28, 12 December 2019 (UTC)