Where did the Smurfs get their hats (2018)(www.pipelinecomics.com)
146 pointsby andsoitis2 days ago19 comments
  • fvdessen2 days ago
    This is almost certainly completely wrong, the smurfs get their hat designs from the type of hats that gnomes and dwarves and goblins usually wear in germanic folklore, the most well known of all being the garden dwarves, whose design also inspired the dwarves in snow white. The design of garden dwarves is quite recent and apparently come from miners. The hats were filled with straw to protect the miner's head from the ceiling.
    • amiga3862 days ago
      But the article does cover that. German gnomes (Kobolde, especially Hödekin) are usually depicted with pointy hats, or at least ones that curl backwards. The smurf hats are clearly wearing Phrygian caps.
      • fvdessen2 days ago
        the first smurf drawings had pointy hats, the curve is most likely a stylistic evolution.

        https://www.lm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/schtr...

        • larsiusprime2 days ago
          That’s still arguably a classic Phrygian cap design. Whatever or not that was the intention/inspiration, it does resemble them - the hats you just showed are not perfectly conical, there’s a flip at the top.
          • adfm13 minutes ago
            The article does state that the Smurfs and the French got the wrong hat and that it's supposed to be a conical pileus rather than the crooked phrygian.

            "In Rome, a freed slave had his head shaved. Then, they would wear a pileus, in part to keep their head warm. The hat was a sign of the slave’s freedom/liberty.

            Somewhere along the line in the French Revolution, they adopted the freed slaves’ head gear as their own symbol of freedom, but picked the wrong one."

            Fun fact: You can see a pileus on the Ides of March coin reverse from 43 BC, minted by Brutus to commemorate the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March_coin

            People have been using silly hats for political purposes for millennia.

      • cubefox2 days ago
        A quick Google image search for "garden gnome" and "gartenzwerg" shows that both types are quite common. But they originally didn't necessarily have the hats common today. These are the oldest surviving garden gnomes according to [1]:

        Schloss Mirabell: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mirabellgarten_%E7%B... (1690-1695)

        Schloss Greillenstein: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schloss_Greillenstei... (around 1700)

        1: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartenzwerg

        • Cerium2 days ago
          A simple thanks for sharing these images. I had no idea that garden gnomes could be so artful, interesting, or powerful as those in these two images.
    • dankwizard2 days ago
      [flagged]
      • sbierwagen2 days ago
        Not AI. Indexed in 2020 by the wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20201001000000*/https://www.pipe...

        Why GPT writing sounds like the median lazy blog post of five years ago is left as an exercise for the reader.

        • 2 days ago
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        • jama2112 days ago
          But facts? That goes against the hive mind
      • pgsandstrom2 days ago
        What, you think the article was written by AI? Why?
        • Cthulhu_2 days ago
          It's 2025, you can flip a coin and be correct half the time, and no consequences if you're wrong.
          • jama2112 days ago
            Looks like there are consequences, they’re being called out, which is good
            • fkyoureadthedoc2 days ago
              Being called out anonymously and never thinking about it again, that's gotta sting
        • quietbritishjim2 days ago
          I guess because it is full of guesswork and devoid of real factual research (at least for the main headline question). But it turns out that bloggers looking for content and lacking any skill are also capable of writing plausible-sounding slop.
          • jama2112 days ago
            I wouldn’t call this article slop
  • autoexec2 days ago
    I just assumed that Tailor Smurf (https://smurfs.fandom.com/wiki/Tailor_Smurf) made them
  • dagmx2 days ago
    Fun random fact, the tool used to animate the smurfs hats in 3 out of 4 CG smurfs films, was actually created for Doctor Manhattan’s junk for the original Watchmen film.
    • thirtygeo2 days ago
      My wife did not appreciate this fun fact but I did
    • kjs32 days ago
      I feel like there's more entertaining detail you're leaving out here.
      • dagmxa day ago
        Not much else tbh. It was just originally made to simulate a thing with an attachment at one point and that flaps around on the other.

        So his junk was the original because animators didn’t want to spend time animating it, but it naturally extends to floppy Smurf hats.

    • cluckindan2 days ago
      Yeah right.
  • duxup2 days ago
    I'm proud that I managed to guess it, it's a Phrygian cap.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygian_cap

    • ggm2 days ago
      does the bashed forage cap of the civil war era also pay dues to this?
  • kabes2 days ago
    Dutch catoonist Dirkjan revealed the real answer already years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/dirkjan/s/zszexnXLRu
    • ezequiel-garzon2 days ago
      ChatGPT's translation:

      Panel 1 Waiter: "Sir, I’d like to ask you to take off your cap in this restaurant." Smurf: "Take off my cap? You’re not asking me to take off my pants, are you?!"

      Panel 2 Waiter: "That’s not the same." Smurf: "That is the same."

      Panel 3 Cook (to waiter): "Let him put his cap back on." Waiter: "That’s maybe better."

      • billbrown12 hours ago
        I feel like Kagi's version is better.

        https://translate.kagi.com/?from=nl&to=en&text=MiJNHEER%2C+i...

      • Vinnla day ago
        I'll do a manual one that's more correct and captures the spirit better:

        Panel 1

        Waiter: "Sir, please take your hat off in this restaurant."

        Smurf: "Take off my hat? You wouldn't ask me to take off my trousers either, would you!"

        Panel 2

        Waiter: "That’s not the same at all."

        Smurf: "Yes it is!"

        Panel 3

        Cook (to waiter): "Let's let him put his hat back on."

        Waiter: "Yes, let's."

    • ragebol2 days ago
      +1 for Dirkjan, always. Another classic https://dirkjan.nl/cartoon/20231004_3677623503/

      And this one always gets me too: https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fw... with the "Jesmurfa's witness"

      • Vinnl2 days ago
        I don't get that first one :(
        • bzzzt2 days ago
          The smurf's being asked to remove his hat since wearing it in a restaurant is considered impolite. When being pressed the smurf says 'I don't ask you to remove your pants'. When it's revealed the smurfs genitals are under his hat Dirkjan's mate says 'maybe we should let hem keep his hat on'.
        • 2 days ago
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  • thedailymail2 days ago
    Or maybe the artist was inspired by the connection of the Phrygian cap with psychedelic "liberty cap" mushrooms (Psilocybe semilanceata), which are distributed widely across Europe and associated with elves, fairies and various other wee folk?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_semilanceata

    • pier252 days ago
      I don't know but their houses are definitely amanita muscaria.
      • Tade02 days ago
        Which makes sense as you want your house to be as inedible as possible.

        I assume they have some method of keeping snails, woodpeckers and other animals resistant to the poison at bay.

        • cluckindan2 days ago
          Amanita muscaria is not inedible, it just needs to be processed correctly.
          • Tade02 days ago
            I happen to know a person who experimented with eating dried caps and I don't think there exists a process that actually makes them harmless. Unless of course you're isolating muscimol, but I don't think that should count as eating the fungus.

            While liver damage is mitigated by the fact that the organ in question regenerates, nerves don't.

          • IAmBroom2 days ago
            Which is why I carry around a pocketful of snails.
  • jansan2 days ago
    Smurfs are most probably bald, as discussed in this thread on a good old fashioned forum:

    https://bluebuddies.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/1/1485....

    And my unopular opinion is that Smurfette is most probably wearing a wig.

    • variaga2 days ago
      Smurfette isn't an actual Smurf, she's a construct made by Gargamel (yes, this is actual Smurf canon), so presumably her hair is also some sort of construct.
    • ivape2 days ago
      Why is that website?
  • Jean-Papoulos2 days ago
    I can't believe they re-colored the entire first comic to make the Smurfs purple and not black. That's hilarious
  • jesperwe2 days ago
    Maybe the white on top of their heads IS their hair? And Papa smurf was old and bald and used a hat to blend in.
  • bingo-bongo2 days ago
    From a drawing perspective the hat is fairly simple (3-4 lines), looks good and quick to sketch - speed mattered when drawing lots of Smurf’s.
  • javier_e062 days ago
    The first time I saw the smurf hat is in the 70s, on a 20 cents Mexican coin.

    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/YIoAAOSwA7ZmQs6N/s-l1600.png

  • alex_young2 days ago
    Idk about all that, but the Smurfs are probably commies right?

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/06/smurfs-accused...

    • 29athrowaway2 days ago
      The conspiracy theories I have heard:

      - Gargamel is a priest, the smurfs are prosecuted by the church

      - Papa smurf wears red and has a beard because of ideological reasons, the smurfs political and economic system resembles communism

      - Smurfs represent the seven deadly sins/seven capital vices

          Lust: Enamored smurf
    Gluttony: Baker smurf
    Avarice: Greedy smurf
    Sloth: Lazy smurf
    Wrath: Grouchy smurf
    Envy: Brainy smurf
    Pride: Vanity smurf
      • itintheory2 days ago
        SMURF - Socialist Men Under Red Father
        • kergonatha day ago
          Much harder to do with the original name in French (schtroumpf).
  • floucky2 days ago
    The Phrygian cap was also the mascot for the Paris Olympics https://www.olympics.com/fr/olympic-games/paris-2024/mascot
  • eadmund2 days ago
    > Somewhere along the line in the French Revolution, they adopted the freed slaves’ head gear as their own symbol of freedom, but picked the wrong one.

    That’s just so typical of the French Revolution.

  • sentinelsignal2 days ago
    Actually happy to see something very niche that i was taught in school.
  • animal5312 days ago
    I have bigger questions about their long-johns than the hats.

    - Why long pants instead of shorts? It does make them look more dignified, I suppose.

    - Why white, you know that's just going to stain the feet something terrible.

  • 2 days ago
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  • smakt2 days ago
    [flagged]