ARE YOGI AND BOO MORE THAN JUST FRIENDS? WHEN WILL IT ALL STOP?

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Regular readers will know that I'm a Yogi Bear fan.  Probably due to the fact that he's the earliest cartoon character I remember from childhood and because I had quite a few Yogi items of merchandise at the time.  Anyway, I still buy old Yogi stuff on occasion and the above cardboard covered comic is a recent acquisition (for a song) via the auspices of ebay.

It's dated January on the cover and 1963 in the indicia, which probably means it went on sale around October 1962.  Nice little collectable item, but imagine my shock when one story appeared to suggest that Boo Boo 'played for the other team'.  In one panel he refers to Yogi as his boyfriend (well, boy-friend to be precise, in case the apostrophe makes a difference), which nearly made me choke on my cornflakes.  (Or would've done had I been eating any.)

I mulled it over then decided he meant it in the same way women refer to their platonic female friends as 'girl-friends' - no romantic relationship implied.  Then, two pages on, he ruins it by saying he'll make up for his duff Christmas gift to Yogi on Valentine's Day.  Swoon!  Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised - after all, they share a bed in a cave, but I'd always assumed it was on the same basis as Laurel & Hardy and, later, Morecambe & Wise did.  (As in nothing dodgy.)

So what's going on?  Was the writer unfamiliar with the characters and perhaps thought Boo Boo was a girl?  Or was he having a subversive dig at the nature of both bruins' relationship while hoping his editor wouldn't notice?  Are dodgy doings going on at Jellystone Park, or could there be a simple, more innocent explanation?  Quick - rescue Yogi & Boo Boo's reputation with a reason as to why things aren't as they seem.  Apply brains now!

Posted in: Cartoons