The Importance of Being Smurfy

Smurfiness is a way of life, and I and other close friends take Smurfs on our travels, for those special Smurfy moments. Even had A-list celebs take a photo with a Smurf. Have thousands of them (will upload a heap here soon). Keeps life Smurfy. And the haters, well, can go Smurf themselves.

As with most kids of my era, I was pretty heavily into cartoons. Every Saturday morning I’d plonk myself in front of the TV, and as long as it was colourful and animated, I’d be hooked.

Looking back, most cartoons were godawful. But there was one particular standout to me – the Smurfs. But it was the recent movies (and Katy Perry being the voice of Smurfette), that has brought Smurfiness back.

We can learn a lot from the Smurfs, even if they were a bunch of three-apple-high Communists.

Yes, little Commies, all of them. As citizens, they were all equal. They worked for the common good, money was unnecessary and their individual freedom took a backseat to the needs of the community.

Don’t get me wrong. Full credit to them, they made Communism work, under the watchful governance of their little, bearded, Red leader.

They were happy. They never fought. They shared the land. They shared the food. They shared Smurfette. It was Communist Utopia.

Although I must say, it always vexed me that Smurfette was the only chick in the village. It must have been “friendzone” hell. No wonder they had blue balls…

But the thing I think that hooked me to this day, was the way they always used words derived from “Smurf”, which almost always portrayed things in the positive. Nothing daunted them, nothing got them down.

For example:

“SOL!” (Smurfing Out Loud)

“What a Smurftacular day to be flying First Class!”

“This 1996 Grange Hermitage has a smooth, Smurfy finish”

“That was a Smurftastic preflop call there, Smurfhead”

Well, I did say almost.

I am also of the age that when I was kid, I collected Smurf figurines when they first came out.

They were cast moulded out of some sort of plastic rubber compound, and then hand-painted. In fact, they were pretty simple castings – a Smurf wearing glasses (Brainy), a Smurf with a hammer or spanner (Handy), a Smurf with a mirror (Vanity). In Australia, they even released a Smurf figurine wielding a cricket bat (Stumpy?).

Vintage Smurf figurines from the 80’s are now highly collectible. They’re not like Star Wars figurines, that instantly lose value when taken out of the original packaging. These little blue guys didn’t come with any packaging, so the key to their value is authenticity, rarity and condition. Check out http://bluebuddies.com for more.

Some of my old original collection are probably sitting in a drawer at home somewhere. But my new collection are on proud Smurfin display.

I could be smurfing on a smurfin’ smurfmine!

Anyway, enough about Smurfs (for now).

Get out there and be Smurfy people. It’ll do you good. Smurf up the world.

Best of all, be kind to your mother, and try not to be too much of a Smunt…