Welcome to Crass Comics. This week I thought we would take a look back at a cartoon that was a brilliant satire of Cold War politics and stereotypes. Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale were characters featured on Jay Ward’s classic The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The show ran from 1961-1964, and ran in reruns on ABC until 1973. It has been syndicated around the world ever since.
Although The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show has a ton of fun characters (Dudley Do-Right, for example), I wanted to focus specifically on Boris and Natasha because I thought they were a fun commentary on the politics of the time. Boris and Natasha were communist spies intent on destroying Moose and Squirrel at the behest of the mysterious Fearless Leader. They were, like all communists, conniving, but incompetent. Rocky and Bullwinkle walked through their traps unharmed. Also, like all communists, they cheated and lacked a sense of fair play.
Boris was voiced by Paul Frees (who also did voices for The Beatles Cartoon) and Natasha was done by June Foray (who did Rocky the Flying Squirrel and was Cindy Lou Hoo in the Grinch). Both voices are cartoon classics and Foray’s “Sharup your mouth” and “darlink” are reminiscent of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Boris and Natasha participated in various schemes like stealing rocket fuel and they always used silly disguises to fool Moose and Squirrel. They were from the fictional East European county of Pottsylvania, which seemed to exist only to hatch evil plans. It is worth noting that Rocky and Bullwinkle was banned by the Soviets, who consuidered Boris and Natasha anti-Soviet propaganda.
What made this cartoon so interesting was that Rocky and Bullwinkle did not beat Boris and Natasha through their own wit and courage. Rather, they were just lucky. Bullwinkle wasn’t any smarter than Boris and Natasha, he just was always in the right place at the right time. This seems to be a refutation of the idea that Americans were better than the communists; we were just more fortunate. Additionally, the over-reaching stereotypes of Soviets were so ridiculous even kids could notice. Like all good cartoons for kids, Boris and Natasha underscored the silliness of the adult world.
Here’s a few fun clips. Because of the way the show was formatted there aren’t any stand alone episodes so you will just have to enjoy some Bullwinkle, Sherman, and Dudley Do-Right as well.
Got a favorite cartoon you want to see a post about? Let me know at crasstalk at gmail dot com.
