Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for October 01, 2011

“I Go Pogo/” Still one of the great strips. I always remembered the quote as, “We have met the enemy and they is us.” Of course, I was probably about ten or 11 when that hit. Long frigging time ago, anyway.

Pogo was the #1 comic strip in my life growing up. It was the philosophy of life, but I was too young at the time to know that was why I loved it.

Pogo’s swamp spawned many here…

I’m very sorry to say that I don’t have any context for this, so I don’t really get it.

Deck us all with Boston Charlie, Walla Walla, Wash, and Kalamazoo,Nora’s freezin’ on the trolley,(See Radish, above)

Ree-dickle-wockle!

Albert and his se-gar. Cat fishing on a boat whose name changes…Beauregard the houn’…Miz Hepzibah…

The words “We have met the enemy and he is us” were on a poster Walt Kelly designed for the first Earth Day.

I used to have it on my wall.

I don’t think he used the line before that — but I could be wrong.

If you were 10 in 1970, Engineer, you’re not very aged. :)

But I am…. sigh…

Typical of Pig to get mixed up even in a tribute strip! I did read Pogo while growing up, but it wasn’t really one of my favorites. De gustibus non est disputandem.

How about, “Healthy hath no furry like a woman’s corns”?

I was always partial to the name of Grundoon’s baby sister. “Not if you spell it with a final E.” Oh, and Friday the 13th comes on Thursday this month.

Shmoos were cool, but that was Li’l Abner in about 1950 or so.

This is definitely a Saturday strip.

I still have Kelly’s, God is not dead, ’til yet cartoon…the man was a true artist and wit. Mark Twain or Will Rogers with a pen.

I grew up reading Pogo (I was 10 in 70, also) and while I didn’t get the political side of the strip I understand the characters and got the various puns.Deck us all with Boston Charlie Walla-Walla Wash and Kalamazoo Nora’s freezing on the trolley Swaller dollar, cauliflower, alley-garoo Don’t we know archaic barrels…Arrrgghh forgot the rest

Did Pig ever talk about why everybody wants to ‘FIRE AT WILL’ yet?

Same here. I was too young to know/appreciate the political jibes, but definitely enjoyed the other silliness. Be warned! Friday the 13th is on Thursday this month!

Kelly originally used a form of the “enemy may be us” quote during the McCarthy era in the early ’50s to point out the dangers of all-out ideological warfare.

Pig is dis-gus-ting today.

Pogo also said, “You notice that those folks who advocate birth control managed to get themselves born first.” Still trying to sort out all the implications of that one.

“……..’scuse me while I kiss this guy….”

In the 1970s, J. Edgar Hoover of the Federal Bureau of Investigation became convinced Kelly was encrypting subversive messages within the Pogo comic strip. The FBI employed a team of crack cryptographers to analyze the lettering, looking for patterns in word emphasis and who knows what else. If I were one of those FBI agents, I would’ve milked that assignment for as long as possible. From: For Spring Hath Sprung the Cyclotron by Cyrus Highsmith

I know Gus and think he’s a pretty good guy. He has faults, but everyone has those. Still, a nice guy if you took the time to get to know him. No one bothers there, though, which is why there are so many Pigs in the world.

@sharklungs: let’s be accurate:

“Hell halfnose furrylike a woman’s corns.”

@logansackett:

“…don’t we know archaic barrel

lullabye lillaboo louisvill lou!

trolley molly don’t love harold

boola boola pensacoola hullabaloo!”

@anonymous user:

you remind me of christopher robin, who lived under the name of “will”. This meant that he had the name “will” on a sign over his door, and he lived under (below) it.

actually the sign waid “trespassers will”, which was short for “trespassers william”, and I can’t tell you how much pleasure I get rereading things like this and suddenly understanding them for the first time. Pogo and winnie ther pooh, both.

Shmoos were in L’il Abner, not in Pogo. What I found funny was that they were like tofu in many ways. Tasted however you wanted them to.

I might be missing something but the first time I ever heard that line it was in a zombie movie. Guess I should go try and look up when it was first used…

I think it was General McArthur in WWII who sent off a message about how the battle was going:

“We have met the enemy and he is OURS!”

I think that’s how that famous quote got started.

Is Rat still working on his AMAZING three word book?

LOL LOL xxx

I KNOW A GUY NAMED GUS…not.

The only “Gus” I can recall hangin’ around the Okefenokee was Sarcopha-GUS MacAbre, the ol’ buzzard. Not a very nice guy (although not as bad as some).

The last few years of Pogo got pretty dark, as if Kelly was finding it harder and harder to laugh at the fools. But when he was at his best, nobody was ever better.

Captain Kiddeo, it’s nice to know that Honey-bunny-duckie-downy-sweetie-chicken-pie-li’l-ever-lovin’-jelly-bean(e) is not forgotten.

Let’s all just be grateful that Pogo is not being done by Kelly’s grandson in a way that has turned it into mindless drivel to be digested by easily offended octogenarians with no sense of humor.

Oh, and I happen to have an Uncle Gus, thank you very much. He cheats at cards.

Respect for the forebears. Pogo, Lewis Carroll, Tim Burton, etc. Thank you Stephan for opening this window for us all to look back and sigh.

“I carry the hose.”

There are many Pogo books available on Amazon

how could he confuse Gus for Us?

You seem not to understand Pogo, because you are a Parrot.

im 8 i just checked the pogo strip on wikipedia

The original quote was from Walt Kelly, precisely in 1970, but pretty much the same in 1952.see igopogo.com for the 1952 reference (see the sentence just above the word “Forward!”), and then igopogo.com final answer for the 1970 quote.

On the 150th anniversary of the War of 1812: “I suspect they’re two fine looking prospects for the Jack Acid Society.” “I don’t know about that — they look like foreign invaders to me — you know them kind are always invading us.” “What? The danger lies within — not from invasion — I can’t remember when we were invaded.” “You can’t?! A veritable trend! Don’t you know this the anniversary of the last time? Yessir! June 18 — and the British wound up burning Washington.” “Poor man.”

For those who might see this: A 12-volume set of Pogo is being published. They’ve done the first 8 volumes, maybe more.