A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE Reminiscences Of Missy Bung-Bung by Jake Slattery Friday, October 13, 2006
Remember those Missy Bung-Bung comics and stories back in the mid-fifties to mid sixties? I was recalling how I'd wait for the Sunday edition of The Detroit Free Press to come out because it always had that huge full color insert with all those exciting and funny comics. Missy Bung-Bung was usually my favorite. She and Jimmy Ho-Ho always found new ways to get in trouble in Toverland, but they never really got punished or hurt so their escapades were funny as hell. Like they time they tied up Tarfu and hid him under the floorboards of the old school house!Looking back, their exploits were a lot like Brer Rabbitt, except more up to the "high tech" of the fifties and sixties. "Tarfu" was sort of like Brer Fox of course, always on the lookout for Missy Bung-Bung and Jimmy Ho-Ho. I didn't know for sure what a "Truant Officer" was back then. I just figured it was a type of cop trying to spoil kids fun. Which is a fairly accurate description.
I had a little plastic model of Missy Bung-Bung's crop duster and Jimmy Ho-Ho's submarine. You remember the little submarine that would submerge itself and then surface if you loaded it up with baking soda first? That was exactly like the Jimmy Ho-Ho sub, just a knock-off though. All the kids in my neighborhood on Cherrylawn Drive had a Jimmy Ho-Ho submarine and Missy Bung-Bung crop duster. My grandma made me stop putting talcum powder in the delivery bin of the crop duster because the talc got all over the floor and she had to sweep it up. But I snuck the talc outside and crop dusted ant hills like a sonofabitch till the little bastards could barely move they were so covered with talc.
Kids today with their digital widgets and computer games will never know the joy of playing with toys that sparked the imagination, toys that took us on magic journeys to Toverland in Missy Bung-Bung's crop duster or Jimmy Ho-Ho's submarine. Facing monsters and witches and even dinosaurs as they ran from the Truant Officer Tarfu. I think those stories gave us a lot of the progressive values we cherish today as Baby Boomers; always help the needy, care about the downtrodden, and STICK IT TO THE MAN! Yeah! Gawd I loved how Jimmy Ho-Ho would use his sub to get out of chores and how Missy Bung Bung used her crop duster to spoil the PTA meetings and stuff.
I tried to whittle a Tarfu figurine when I was about ten, but I didn't have the hand-eye coordination. Why didn't they offer a model of Tarfu the Truant Officer for sale? Playing with Missy Bung-Bung and Jimmy Ho-Ho would have been a lot more fun if I'd had a Tarfu figure.
I can still remember the day the Detroit Free Press announced it was canceling the heavily syndicated Missy Bung-Bung comic strip. The last strip ended with MIssy Bung-Bung and Jimmy Ho-Ho sort of sailing off into the sunset, each one in their own craft. It was very sad. It was right after that when I discovered Hulk comics and masturbation.
Anyway, I did a Google search and found some of the dialogue for the very short-lived radio version of Missy Bung-Bung and I thought I'd share it with everyone who might be old enough to remember and take a moment to breath in the atmosphere of childhood innocence and wonder again. Enjoy. ******************************************************************************************************** Missy Bung-Bung she say, "We go Motor Booty in heap strong weather bottom."
Jimmy Ho-Ho him say, "Missy Bung-Bung, ape noodles dove lickets in Toverland. Nem ho cakes tar plenty."
Missy Bung-Bung she laugh she say, "Jimmy Ho Ho, Toverland chemcakes chop chop speedy bo-bo."
Tarfu him laugh, Tarfu him see Missy Bung-Bung flop doody bandy sloodles. Tarfu grab Missy Bung-Bung.
"Missy Bung-Bung! Wheedle be flow buckets! Wheedle be flow buckets!"
Tarfu slog plenty, Jimmy Ho-Ho tig mobey cackles, and Missy Bung-Bung she be web fast slider boggles! No slore festered paddy whack they!
"Missy Bung-Bung, sho floberty! Ditsem map do wag!"
Jimmy Ho-Ho slag Tarfu, slag Tarfu plenty bop! Tarfu gild chemcakes tock Toverland slooty. No west tom-tom chunkster, terbid slat hoobie rotter.
"Missy Bung-Bung, Missy Bung!" She be fast gone, too postered in doggerton.
Jake Slattery is a syndicated columnist for Time-Warner and can be reached at [email protected]