While watching the weather this morning, trying to decide whether I was going to be able to make it into work or not, I saw something go by in the scrolling news at the bottom of the screen that I was puzzled by.  Today is the 50th anniversary of The Smurfs.  As far as I knew, that made NO sense, since the Smurfs were the creation of some corporate cartoon making machine back in the 80’s.  I watch the Smurfs.  I had Smurfs Colorforms and a huge collection of Smurf Cards (which I gave away to some girl I was crazy about back in high school… stupid, stupid, stupid!).  I know my Smurfs.

Or at least I thought I did.  Apparently they HAVE been around for 50 years.  Back in 1958, they started off as secondary characters in a cartoon book.  They then became toys and the figurines became popular in the US and then they created the cartoon series that ran for 256 episodes! 

The official Smurf website has a guide to The Smurfs, and it explains why there’s only one female Smurf.  I didn’t know she was a creation of Gargamel and was made into a hottie by Papa Smurf.  What a dirty old man.  Bet he didn’t consider what would happen when she was dropped into the little all-male community of Smurfs who hadn’t seen a female in 500 years.  The web site avoids the whole question of how they survived without females, or where the hell they come from.