File puptcrit/puptcrit.0601, message 113


Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 02:20:19 -0500
From: Jamie Ashby <jamie.ashby-AT-utoronto.ca>
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Rubbery Figures


Not to toot the Canadian horn too long, but the Canadian puppet artist Noreen 
Young, better known for her TV work for young people, was one of the first to 
employ this type of TV puppetry for political satire.

Although most of the over one hundred television productions with which Young 
has been involved were intended for children, in the 1970s, =93she provided an 
Ottawa-based satirical program, _What=92s New_, with puppet caricatures of 
Canadian and U.S. political figures, some of which made appearances on 
national news broadcasts as well=94 (_Puppetry in Canada: An Art to Enchant_ 
149), as Ken McKay, the Canadian puppetry historian, writes, paving the way 
for Britain=92s more famous series, _Spitting Image_ (1984-92). Young adds that 
her satirical work was not limited to What=92s News, as she =93did a few things 
with CODCO and mainly CBC news specials in the '70s=93 (qtd. in Elliott, Julia, 
=93Pulling Strings: After 30 Years, Noreen Young is Still Making Friends.=94 
Ottawa Citizen 6 Aug. 2005: I7.), although by the end of the decade, puppet 
caricatures had fallen =93out of favour and political correctness was the name 
of the game in the news department.=94

FYI, from your resident Canadian puppet nerd.


Best,

Jamie Ashby

PhD Candidate: =93Ideas in Motion: New Work Development at Puppetmongers Theatre 
Company,=94 
Graduate Centre for Study of Drama,
University of Toronto

Co-founder, PuppUTopiate: the *only* puppet company at the Univ. of Toronto


Quoting Kismet <kismet-AT-bigpond.net.au>:

> I know the UK Television had Rubbery figures but did the US?
> They were foam latex puppets of political characters that obviously 
lampooned
> the political order of the day...like a political cartoon in the
> newspaper.....mostly done on a low low budget they were quick, direct and
> lots of fun.
> Here is a link that I have just found that discusses the making of and has
> LOTS of examples.... like this one....
> http://www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au/flash/flash.php?id=60
> the australians are our long gone prime minister and treasurer!
> Have a look at
> 
> http://www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au/rubbery.php
> 
> D.
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