Line #20 ComicStrip/SnuffySmith


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/snuffy_smith.jpg]]
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3	''Snuffy Smith'' is a long-running American daily NewspaperComic about a hillbilly community.
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5	Created by Billy [=DeBeck=] as ''Take Barney Google, [=F'rinstance=]'' (subsequently shortened to ''Barney Google'') and launched in 1919, the strip originally starred the eponymous character, a diminutive sportsman involved primarily in prize-fighting and horseracing, much to the chagrin of his larger, more imposing wife Lizzie Google (or "the sweet woman"). While initially it was only moderately successful, it reached mainstream popularity early in TheRoaringTwenties with the introduction of Barney's broken-down horse Spark Plug, further fuelling a gradually-mounting cultural interest in continuity-laden comics such as ''Toots and Casper'' and ''Tillie the Toiler'' and making "Sparky" a popular nickname for boys (including future cartoonist [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charles Schulz]]), while a song about Barney and his "goo-goo-googly eyes" became a smash hit in 1923. Lizzie Google [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome vanished]] from the strip shortly afterwards, cementing the now-single Barney's racing ventures (and navigation of '20s urban society) as its central premise. While the strip would attain immense mainstream popularity through this shift, [=DeBeck=] nonetheless opted to modify the strip's premise further in 1927 by recasting Barney and Spark Plug as intercontinental travellers as opposed to solely denizens of the racing circuit.
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7	In response to a gradual decline in readership during the early 1930s, however, [=DeBeck=], aided by his newfound assistant Fred Laswell, introduced the volatile hillbilly Snuffy Smith and his extended family to the strip within a 1934 storyline in which Barney travels to the rural town of "Hootin' Holler" to claim inherited property. While Snuffy's introduction successfully boosted readership, Hootin' Holler became the strip's permanent setting and Barney gradually moved OutOfFocus in favor of the more popular Snuffy (and was written out of the strip entirely, save for rare cameo appearances, around 1954). The official name of the strip remains ''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith'', even though the former character hasn't been a regular for more than six decades.
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9	The Smith clan is:
10	* Snuffy, the patriarch. A thieving moonshiner.
11	* Loweezy, the matriarch. Is the actual caretaker.
12	* Jughaid, the nephew. Usually seen in a coonskin cap.
13	* Tater, the baby.
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15	This strip has the distinction of having the [[PrintLongRunners longest continuous daily run]] of any American newspaper comic still appearing in print, as ''ComicStrip/TheKatzenjammerKids'' (begun in 1897) has been in reprints since 2006 and was Sunday-only for most of its run, while ''ComicStrip/GasolineAlley'' (begun in 1918) started out as a Sunday-only panel.
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17	----
18	!!Tropes featured include:
19	* AlliterativeName
20	* AnachronismStew: The characters are usually seen listening to 1930s-era "cathedral shaped" radios.
21	* AnimatedAdaptation: There were several:
22	** First was a short-lived series produced by [[Creator/ColumbiaCartoons Columbia]] in 1935-36.
23	** Creator/FamousStudios did a short in 1946 called ''Spree for All''.
24	** A TV series produced by King Features Television in 1962 to 1964, paired with animated versions of ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'' and ''ComicStrip/KrazyKat'', with animation done by Paramount Cartoon Studios (formerly Famous Studios). In this version, Creator/PaulFrees voiced both Barney and Snuffy.
25	* UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}}: The strip's setting of Hootin' Holler is located there.
26	* ArtifactTitle: ''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith'' was all-Snuffy, no-Barney for ''six decades'' before John Rose started to work Barney and his horse Spark Plug back in as recurring characters. While he's second in the full title, Snuffy is definitely still the main character.
27	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: A lot of characters from its early years have all but disappeared: Barney's wife divorced him around 1922 (shortly following Spark Plug's introduction), and his black jockey/valet Sunshine and his ostrich Rudy were written off after Barney left the big city to become an intercontinental traveller in 1927.
28	* CommutingOnABus: Barney appeared for a week in 2012, after having not been seen for ''fifteen years''; this was {{lampshade\|hanging}}d by the sheriff asking him if he was an Internet entrepreneur. He has been seen more often since then.
29	* CutesyNameTown: Hootin' Holler
30	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the strip's first year, Barney was taller and he had a wife (Lizzie Google, ironically dubbed the "Sweet Woman" by Barney) and a daughter. Both disappeared after a short time, and Mr. Google got more squat.
31	* EccentricTownsfolk
32	* FunetikAksent: A milder example than some, but the characters still exhibit elements of this with ''your'' rendered as "yore", ''sure'' as "shore", ''with'' as "wif", ''can't'' as "cain't", etc.
33	* GenreShift: The strip originally centered on Barney's sporting endeavors, turning to a hillbilly comedy after a couple of decades.
34	* GossipyHens: Hootin' Holler is a small town that amuses itself by talking about itself. Seen with most of the town's women, especially Low'eezy and Elviney, and men too, except they don't call it gossip.
35	* HalfWittedHillbilly: Snuffy himself qualifies -- obviously uneducated, but he has his moments of cleverness.
36	* LiteralMinded: In one comic, Snuffy lands a PrecisionFStrike when asked to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, then lampshades this trope after being reprimanded:
37	-->'''Snuffy''': [[CurseOfTheAncients Consarn it]], Judge, you're the one who told me to swear!
38	* NameAndName: Officially, at least...
39	* NeverLearnedToRead: Snuffy Smith has been stated to be illiterate.
40	* PreacherMan: Parson Tuttle
41	* TheSheriff: Sheriff Tait is one of the strip's regular characters.
42	* ShoutOut: Website/{{Google}} was mentioned when Barney reappeared in 2012, as noted above.
43	** ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' was referenced in a strip from the same time.

Context ComicStrip / SnuffySmith