Donald Duck versus Two-Face, and the Philosophy of Flipism!

Apr 14, 2012 22:42

Imagine how I felt when I learned that there existed an actual pseudo-philosophy known as Flipism, based around making all life decisions on the flip of a coin! And imagine my surprise when I learned that this idea is credited not to Harvey Dent, but rather to Donald Duck. No, seriously!


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the coin, philosophy, disney

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Comments 18

psychopathicus April 15 2012, 05:26:39 UTC
Aw, gawrsh - 'tweren't nothin'!
I'd heard all about those other things that the Ducks were responsible for, but inspiring the Manga style is news to me - I'd always heard it was inspired by Bugs Bunny cartoons. Oh well, you live and learn.
Flipism (almost) leading Donald to get his revenge is fairly par for the course with him - Barks was known for his ironic twist endings. In this case, the status quo is preserved, and both Donald's gullibility and the Professor's con artistry are slapped down - Donald by not getting his rightful revenge, and the Professor by having to leave town in a hurry with the fear of Duck put into him. Not bad for a two-page wrap-up ( ... )

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abqreviews April 15 2012, 08:36:22 UTC
>How is Professor Batty's name a coincidence? Am I missing something?

You're like, Bats, Man.

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psychopathicus April 15 2012, 10:59:44 UTC
*slaps forehead* Of course. Sometimes I forget these things.

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about_faces April 15 2012, 18:44:15 UTC
Yeah, the manga thing makes my eyebrow raise a bit. I think it's plausible, but with Cracked getting things wrong every so often, it's always good to take it with a grain of salt.

I need to read more Duck comics. I've read several, but it's not enough. I initially wrote an entire paragraph espousing the awesomeness of Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, and I forgot to find a way to slip it back into the post. It's a shame because, seriously, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is one of my favorite graphic novels ever. In any genre. It's so rich and complex, like a family-friendly There Will Be Blood, that I'm not at all surprised that there is a field of study for the Duck comics.

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abqreviews April 15 2012, 08:34:26 UTC
Ha! I was wondering about what you'd have to say about this. I'd read the Wikipedia article on Flipism a few years ago and saw that Two-Face was listed on there as a 1950s Batman villain. Were you the one who fixed it ( ... )

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psychopathicus April 15 2012, 11:04:39 UTC
Well hey, at least people do flip coins to make decisions. It's not really all that far-fetched or arcane a way to run your life; it's just kind of dumb, and liable to get you into trouble. At least what you were doing had a bit more possible nuance to it. ("That gas dribble looks like... a hat! Or a spoon. Or possibly an armchair... So many choices!")

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about_faces April 15 2012, 18:58:16 UTC
Oh lordy, what idiot wrote that? No, it wasn't I who corrected it. The only wikipedia article I've edited extensively is the Gilda Dent one (only listing details from Long Halloween? THIS SHIT SHALL NOT STAND), and while I also once exhaustively edited Comic Vine's entire Two-Face entry, the whole thing has been reverted somehow and my all changes are gone. That's pretty much put the kibosh on any desires to have to edit wikis.

I'd always dismissed the hype as the author's own nostalgia and had no idea that Barks had developed a following. It's so funny (in a sad way) how we in the States don't really pay much regard for Barks and his works. It kind of reminds me with how consistently people underestimate Charles Schultz' work in retrospect, that there's this stigma that these are supposedly "kid's stuff" and therefore as worthless beyond nostalgic value as the average Saturday morning cartoon (I know we all watched He-Man, enjoyed it, and still have affection for it, but that doesn't mean it was GOOD). But just like with some Young ( ... )

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lego_joker April 15 2012, 20:58:13 UTC
Funny thing - I've been a fan of Disney comics since I was about six. For some reason, Communist China is really big on reprinting and translating them. A few still stand out in my mind today, even though my grandparents no longer mail them over to the states; I recall one where Donald is sent to a mental institution for believing in the Easter bunny, and another one where Scrooge recalls an incident in his youth where he made a bet to steal the gold out of a stagecoach.

Mind you, the only one I've got a CONFIRMED Western counterpart for is Rosa's "Dream of a Lifetime" two-parter. When I read the Chinese version, I had no clue that the rest of the Life and Times series existed... and I still thought it was a kickass story!

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captaintwinings April 15 2012, 15:22:14 UTC
Your son loves coin flips.

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about_faces April 15 2012, 18:59:41 UTC
Now why the hell wasn't I the one to discover that? Oh, probably because I don't want to seriously stack the deck against him as it is. It's one thing to smother him with GL references, but I kinda want to distance him from Harvey stuff as much as possible. Let's not tempt fate.

On the other hand, that sounds adorable. Where's my coin?

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mothy_van_cleer April 16 2012, 13:21:30 UTC
So does the dissolution of Donald's cheerful devotion to blind faith signal a sad end to a sordid tale, or the bright promise of a new beginning? Or is such a question not up to you, the reader?

See, now this is the type of story that would benefit from a Joker's Asylum-style open-ended conclusion gimmick.

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psychopathicus April 17 2012, 00:25:13 UTC
Well, it DOES, in a way. We never find out just what happens to Professor Batty - he's still out there, hawking his philosophy - Donald wound up reverting to it to get his revenge, however unsuccessful it turned out, so one could argue that he's still more-or-less a subscriber to it, and HD&L actually wind up being semi-converts, in a certain light, since they're surprised and pleased that all this flipping of coins has actually led to them getting what they wanted in the first place. If one wanted to tell a story about the Ducks being haunted by the specter of Flipism, all the elements are in place for it to happen.

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mothy_van_cleer April 17 2012, 21:54:25 UTC
Of course, one could also argue that Donald Duck - as per his theme tune - will constantly be saddled with "all the bad luck" in a continuous spiral of humiliation, and trying to suss out deeper meaning from family-friendly black comedy just exposes us for the pedantic twerps that we are.

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psychopathicus April 17 2012, 22:01:36 UTC
Pedantic twerps rule the Internet!

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ext_262094 April 17 2012, 23:35:36 UTC
Nice comic and i like how Donald used the coin in this. Too bad there wasn't a cartoon adaptation of this strip. :(

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