Colonel Blimp 174272 223616701 2008-07-04T22:17:17Z 131.111.216.251 [[Image:Colonel Blimp comic strip, November 2, 1935, Evening Standard.png|right|400px]] '''Colonel Blimp''' is a cartoon character. The [[cartoonist]] [[David Low (cartoonist)|David Low]] first drew Colonel Blimp for [[Max Aitken|Lord Beaverbrook]]'s [[Evening Standard|London ''Evening Standard'']] in the 1930s: pompous, irascible, jingoistic and [[stereotype|stereotypically]] English. Low developed the character after overhearing two military men in a Turkish bath declare that cavalry officers should be entitled to wear their spurs inside tanks.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1974819.stm] "Gad, Sir", Blimp would proclaim from the [[Turkish bath]], wrapped in his towel and brandishing some mundane weapon to emphasize his passion on some issue of current affairs. Unfortunately, his pronouncements were often confused and childlike.[http://opal.kent.ac.uk/cartoonx-cgi/artist.py?id=106] His phrasing often includes direct contradiction, as though the first part of a sentence of his did not know what it was leading to, with the conclusion being part of an emotional catchphrase. Blimp was a [[satire]] on the [[reactionary]] opinions of the [[United Kingdom|British]] establishment of the 1930s and 1940s. Colonel Blimp has been called the representative of "all that he [Low] disliked in British politics" - such as a perceived lack of enthusiasm for democracy.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1974819.stm] However Low did describe him as "a symbol of stupidity, and stupid people are quite nice." [[George Orwell]] and [[Tom Wintringham]] made especially extensive use of the term "blimps", Orwell in his articles<ref>{{cite journal | last = Orwell | first = George | quote = The Home Guard is (…) an astonishing phenomenon, a sort of People's Army officered by Blimps. | title = London Letter | journal = Partisan Review | date = 1941-04-15}}</ref> and Wintringham in his books ''How to Reform the Army'' and ''People's War'', with exactly the above meaning in mind. A more likeable version of Blimp appeared in the classic British film ''[[The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp]]'' starring [[Roger Livesey]] and [[Deborah Kerr]] (''[[The King and I (1956 film)|The King and I]]''). It was made in 1943, when the [[Second World War|war]] was at its height by [[Powell and Pressburger]]. The "Blimp" character was named Clive Candy and is not actually called "Blimp" other than in the title. [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Winston Churchill]] sought to ban the film due to its sympathetic presentation of a German officer (played by [[Anton Walbrook]]), albeit an anti-[[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] one, who is more down-to-earth and realistic than the central British character. The character has survived in the form of a [[cliché]]d phrase — highly conservative opinions are characterised as 'Colonel Blimp' statements. == References == <references /> [[Category:Comics characters]] {{UK-comics-stub}} [[de:Colonel Blimp]] [[fr:Colonel Blimp]]