My kingdom for a Smurf

The Smurfs are blue gnome-type creatures who live deep in the forest in a small village. They were created by Franco-Belgian comic artist Peyo (Pierre Culliford) and have become an international commercial phenomenon. Many Europeans grew up with Peyo's Smurf comic books, and I'm sure some American kids are eagerly watching the cartoons as we speak.

“The Smurf King” is one of Peyo's classical Smurf comics, intended as a political parody. When the benign patriarch Papa Smurf leaves Smurf Village on a hasty errand, harmony between the Smurfs quickly breaks down. After a chaotic election, the winner gradually amasses more and more power, eventually declaring himself king. Meanwhile, Smurfs dissatisfied with the new order leaves for the forests. The Smurf King builds a wall around the village (perhaps to force his remaining subjects to stay inside) and soon a veritable War of the Smurfs is afoot. At the last moment, Papa Smurf comes back and admonishes his fellow gnomes not to behave like humans!

I think it's useless to speculate about who exactly is being parodied in “The Smurf King”. The obvious answer is everyone and no one. Politicians lying to get elected, election fraud, manipulative leaders, governments on a slippery slope to authoritarianism, presidents becoming kings, rebels taking to the forest… We've been there before a couple of times, haven't we? The nerd who wrote the Wiki entry associates the golden-clad gnomish king with Hitler, while a more sophisticated soul like myself see parallels to Louis Bonaparte. The Berlin Wall also comes to mind.

More intriguing is Papa Smurf's role in the fracas – the Smurf Village became a dictatorship when its inhabitants attempted to practice democracy in his absence. Papa Strauss, sorry, Smurf is (of course) not democratically elected at all, but a kind of tribal elder who runs things by the force of custom and tradition. Yet, he's the good guy who eventually restores corporatist, sorry, social harmony in the little village.

Hmmm…

But, as I said, I don't think it's very useful to speculate whether Peyo had a deeper message beyond simply caricaturing corrupted democratic politicians and authoritarian leaders alike. Since “The Smurf King” is presumably intended for kids, a certain kiddie aspect á la “don't fight on the school yard, respect thy teacher” is also present.

“The Smurf King” also includes a bonus story, “Smurphony”, originally called “Smurphony C”, in which the Smurfs are attacked by their perennial adversary, the evil wizard Gargamel.

As for the royal Smurf, it's Louis Bonaparte. I'm sure of it. ;-)