10 Bizarre Origins Of Your Favourite Cartoon Characters

6. The Smurfs Are Nazis, Anti-Semites And Klu Klux Klansmen

The word Smurf is the a Dutch translation of the French "Schtroumpf" which, according to the creator, Peyo, was invented during a meal with his friend when he could not remember the word salt. A pretty cute fact, wouldn't you say? If you look further into the Smurfs creation, however, you'll find a darker influence behind the little blue men. Peyo was born under Nazi occupation and this was quite possibly reflected in his characters: in this case, blue supremacists. The villainous outsider of the Smurf village is Gargamel: a greedy, large-nosed, dark-haired dude (Jewish stereotype, much?). His cat is even named Azrael - the name of the angel of death in Jewish tradition. That's not all. The Smurfs all wear pointed white hats, except their leader, who wears a red one. If that isn't blatant symbolism for the fashion choices of the KKK we don't know what is. These are all theories, of course, by senior lecturer of sociology Antoine Beno... but they're pretty damn hard to dispute.