Wicked Willie

Wicked Willie Reloaded, book cover featuring the eponymous Wicked Willie

Wicked Willie is a humorous British cartoon character, personified as a talking penis, created by Gray Jolliffe (illustrator) with Peter Mayle. He first appeared in the book, Man's Best Friend, published in 1984.[1] He has subsequently appeared in Wicked Willie - The Movie,[2] and the board game, The Wicked Willie Game.[3] Jolliffe says that the idea for Wicked Willie came to him one day, while he was in the bath.[4] A more detailed history of Wicked Willie is found in the book, Wicked Willie Reloaded.[5][6]

Journalist Peter Silverton describes "..the comic books about a man and his Wicked Willie. It was a dialogue -- mostly about women, of course -- between the two. Its irony is that the 'dreadful little trouser mole' is by far the sharper of the two brains".[7]

Personification

Author Peter Mayle describes Wicked Willie as "a rampant penis".[8] In her book Communicating gender, Suzanne Romaine notes:

"The personification metaphor suggests that the penis leads a life of its own. It has been popularized in Britain in the form of the Wicked Willie books, where Willie is referred to as "Man's Best Friend".[9]

Scottish feminist linguist, Deborah Cameron notes that:

"In England, there is a popular cartoon character called "Wicked Willie" [..] The underlying conceit is that men secretly regard their penis as an individual in its own right (and one to whom they are deeply attached). Though the cartoon is a joke, it presumably speaks to a widely recognized, culturally constructed experience of the penis as an uncontrollable Other, with a life of its own."[10]

The character also contributed to the permissiveness and acceptance of sex on the high street. British journalist Libby Purves writes:

"High street shops no longer bother to put their hopping penises on a high shelf, and nor do bookshops selling Wicked Willie and the like."[11]

Reception

In March 1987, the book, Wicked Willie's Guide to Women, was in the number 7 position in the Paperback Non-Fiction section, of the Month's Bestsellers.[12] Almost a year later, Wicked Willie's Low-down on Men, had reached number 6 in the same chart.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Peter Mayle, Man's Best Friend: Introducing Wicked Willie in the Title Role, illustrated by Gray Jolliffe, Crown (New York, NY), 1984.
  2. ↑ Wicked Willie - The Movie & Comes again.. and again - The Complete Wicked Willie [ 2010 ], Bob Godfrey (Director). 83 minutes
  3. ↑ The Wicked Willie Game by Paul Lamond Games
  4. ↑ "Wicked Willie" at www.grayjolliffe.com, retrieved 12 Jan 2012
  5. ↑ "News", Wicked Willie Official website, retrieved 12 Jan 2012
  6. ↑ Gray Joliffe, Wicked Willie: Reloaded, Publisher: Prion Books Ltd, Sept 2004, ISBN 1-85375-541-9, ISBN 978-1853755415. 64 pages.
  7. ↑ Peter Silverton, Filthy English: The How, Why, When And What Of Everyday Swearing, Publisher Portobello Books, 2011, ISBN 1846274524, 9781846274527, 256 pages, page
  8. ↑ "Encore Provence", The Nation, Jul 6, 1997. Page C8, column 2.
  9. ↑ Suzanne Romaine, Communicating genderPublisher Psychology Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8058-2926-1, ISBN 978-0-8058-2926-6, 406 pages. (page 244)
  10. ↑ Deborah Cameron, "Naming of Parts: Gender, Culture, and terms for the penis among American college students (1995)", in The Routledge language and cultural theory reader, edited by Lucy Burke, Tony Crowley, Publisher Routledge, 2000, ISBN 0-415-18681-1, ISBN 978-0-415-18681-0, 511 pages (page 207)
  11. ↑ Libby Purves, A Little Learning: Broodings from the Back of the Class, Publisher Routledge, 2007, ISBN 0-415-41709-0, ISBN 978-0-415-41709-9, 249 pages. (page 51)
  12. ↑ "Month's Bestsellers", Illustrated London News, London, 31 Jan. 1987, Issue 7064, page 69
  13. ↑ Illustrated London News, London, Saturday, February 27, 1988, Issue 7075, page 70

Bibliography

DVDs

External links

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