You’ve got to love Gumby and you’ve got to love Google doodles The clever artistry of the Google gang takes me back today. The doodle celebrates the artistry of Art Clokey, Gumby’s humble inventor who died last year. Today is Clokey’s birthday, and he would have been 90.
Some of us will remember the original Gumby from the 50s and 60s. I don’t remember Gumby from my early years as much as the Looney Tunes cartoons, but I do remember Gumby from his long reign on Nickelodeon when I watched with my kids. There is something totally entrancing about watching clay figure animation, and I loved the simple messages that were so clever. The Blockheads — the goofs who always got in trouble — were evil building blocks that Gumby coped with in a near-crime-fighting style. Gumby’s horse, Pokey, was a little slow, and his dog, Nopey had a one-word negative vocabulary.
When Eddie Murphy revived Gumby on SNL, it was like seeing an old friend — well kind of a parodied old friend. But it showed that Gumby still had life among the grown-up kids who watched him. I’d still watch. Cheers to Gumby, a 1950s figure with staying power, and to Clokey for many memories.
