Hey, welcome to the short Stuff, Josh, Chuck, Jerry Dave. Let's go.
I could not, for the life of me find out where we have talked about Uncle Sam before, and it had to be one of our videos. But I couldn't find it. I checked a million times over and it was not a short stuff. I couldn't find it anywhere. But I know for sure. The only reason I know this is because we've talked about it.
It had to be our Fourth of July special that we did with the Onion and The Daily Show.
That keeps coming back to hanas. Huh. Yeah, because we had another one the other day that was I think in there. Yeah, I bet you it was.
Yeah, it had to be right.
Yeah, but who cares. Let's tell the real story Josh and Chuck style.
Yeah, we're going to talk about Uncle Sam. If you don't know who Uncle Sam is, then by god, you're not much of an American.
Yeah, I mean, how would you describe Uncle Sam? A cartoon, a drawing of a man become synonymous and a symbol of the United States of America A logo almost.
Yeah, if you've ever seen somebody wearing a red, white and blue stove top hat, or a top hat with stars on it, that's an Uncle Sam hat.
Yeah.
You ever see somebody wearing an American flag suit, they're basically doing their best Uncle Sam. You ever see anybody with a beard, they're pretending their Uncle Sam.
Yeah. If you've ever seen a picture of all those things put together and a guy pointing at you on a poster saying I want you to do whatever, join the army or give money for war bonds, that's Uncle Sam.
Yeah. So our conception of Uncle Sam, the one you just described, is thanks to a great illustrator who was working around the time America entered the First World War. Same one of the great names of all time, James Montgomery Flag with Jeez love that guy's name. But he was an amazing illustrator and painter, and he painted that iconic image of Uncle Sam looking out from the poster, pointing at you the viewer, that I want you. I remember the Simpsons where it was like the immigration episode,
Homer put up a poster. He asked that Pooh if he could put up a poster in his convenience store, and it was Uncle Sam saying I want you out.
Do you remember that on h No, that's funny though.
And Pooh took the took the occasion to talk about how much he loved America, and Homer goes, wow, you know what a poo I'm really gonna miss you.
Uh, that's that's great. You should say it as a poo though.
Right, Nold.
Not the funny thing about this poster that came around in nineteen seventeen, and we'll get this is not the first incarnation of Uncle Sam, but it's the most amous that we know now. But James Montgomery flag supposedly was inspired by a British Minister of War, Lord Kitchener, but he used his own handsome face as the actual model. And if you look up a picture of James Montgomery flag, you're in you know, he put wrinkles, he was younger
in a gray beard. But if you picture that guy with that gray beard and hair, it's Uncle.
Sam, yeah for sure. And Neat Yeah, it was like there was a Lord Kitchener poster was essentially the exact same thing of drawing of Lord Kitchener looking out from the poster pointing at you, saying he wants you to sign up to help. And both of these posters were propaganda posters. From World War One, that the one that flag designed of Uncle Sam had been printed four million times, four million copies of a poster that fair of Fawcet
poster hadn't even been printed four million times. That's how that's how successful this poster was, right, And this was all just before the war was over, So in about years it was printed four million times. The thing is, I'm sure there's people out there that like, well, yeah, it's the origin of Uncle Sam, and friend, you'd be wrong. Uncle Sam had been around for at least about one hundred years by the time James Montgomery Flagg made his iconic poster, and I say, we take a break, we
come back and we talk about that very issue. If you want to know, then you're in luck. Just listen to Suffus stuffus.
No, all right, So the origins of Uncle Sam. There was a story that many people believe for a long time that it came about during the War of eighteen twelve, and that it was named such. The characters name such because of Uncle Sam Wilson, who was a meatpacker from New York who supplied beef, these big barrels of beef to the army for the War of eighteen twelve, they had us stamped on them, and they called those barrels
of beef Uncle Sam's. That was published and republished many, many times, starting in the New York Gazette in nineteen thirty, leading to a congressional resolution in nineteen sixty one recognizing Sam Wilson. But that is not the origins of Uncle Sam, right.
No, I mean a lot of people think Sam Wilson was the guy who started it all. I mean that story everything comes together so close, like he really was a real person, he really was working in the War of eighteen twelve. The barrels of meat really were stamped us. But some really dedicated historians won by the name of Don Hickey from Wayne State College, another one named Christopher Philippo.
They both got to the bottom of this and found that very very shortly before the Uncle Sam Wilson's story could have happened, people were already using Uncle Sam as a way of depicting or talking about the United States of America.
As a whole exactly. They found some actual proof proof and from an eighteen ten diary from a sixteen year old sailor on the USS Wasp where he read he was seasick and not feeling so good, and he wrote, I swear that Uncle Sam as they call him, would certainly forever have lost the services of at least one sailor. And that was in eighteen ten, So it was if he was using it in a diary entry in eighteen ten, that means it was what I would consider probably fairly common usage at that point. Right.
That guy almost certainly didn't make that up in that diary entry. Yeah, So Yeah. The thing is is, even though Sam Wilson wasn't the actual direct inspiration for Uncle Sam, he certainly helped kind of popularize it. I think he probably his association with it in the story that came from that probably took it from what may have just been relegated to navy lingo that would have become archaic to now it has a story and it's spread from there.
So even though he didn't inspire it, it's still like, yeah, Uncle Sam Wilson definitely had a huge role in the creation of the idea of Uncle Sam.
Yeah. Absolutely. In fact, there was a minister I believe it Sam the real Sam Wilson's funeral that there was. He wrote a letter that said that he had often talked with Wilson quote about the circumstances which led to the singular transfer of his popular name to the United States. So it sounds like what that's saying is that Sam Wilson even knew that, yes.
For sure, and went along with it, right. He's like, yeah, yeah, it was, and he'd look furtively around. So there was another character that I hadn't heard of, a guy named Brother Jonathan.
Did you heard of him? I had not. I didn't think. But then I also think that we may have brought this up because those pictures looked very familiar.
Okay, they did not to me. But there was a character named Brother Jonathan who was who predated Uncle Sam by a couple of decades. Brother Jonathan was the original personification of America around the time of the Revolution. He dressed like a revolutionary cat, with a tri cornered hat and those tails and the coat with tails and everything.
But he was much more rambunctious, much younger. I saw editorial cartoon of him forcibly pouring a bunch of French brandy down the throat of John Bull, the character who personified Great Britain and still does, And he was around for decades, and eventually he kind of handed the baton off to Uncle Sam, which is really interesting because it happened as a time when America was starting to mature.
The character personifying America went from a younger, rambunctious, brandy forcing character to a much more like older stern, kind of down to earth pointer guy.
Yeah, I think brother Jonathan went away by the eighteen six like there was some overlap there, went away in the eighteen sixties, and then Thomas Nass And that's a pretty big name in cartooning back then, right.
For sure, he kind of gave us the conception of Santa Claus, the pre Coca Cola Sam.
That's right, that's right, I knew, I knew that name from somewhere. But Nas is the one who sort of came up with the more modern image. And then Flag of course made the iconic one that we still use that same exact sort of character.
Right, And so let's see what else, Chuck, Well.
I mean, one of the ways, you know, if you've still never seen much Uncle Sam besides recruitment posters and stuff like that, or the old propaganda posters that Flag was tasked with drawing, is in political cartoons you'll still see to this day, like a political cartoon that will use Uncle Sam in a variety of ways, whether it's a beleaguered Uncle Sam in a food line or a or a war mongering Uncle Sam. Like, you know, anyway they can. It's not just like kind of one use.
Whenever he's in a political cartoon, they can. He can adapt and change to suit whatever message you're trying to deliver.
Yeah, whatever comment you're making on America, you just make Uncle Sam do it.
Yeah.
There's also a nineteen ninety six slasher film called Uncle Sam, and I was about it, and it's that The horror fan blog was like, it's not a must sy, but you could see it right essentially is what they were doing. Some movie exist, But Robert Forrester's in it. He plays like a corrupt congressman who dies. Isn't that interesting?
Year?
Was it ninety six?
Okay, so that was pre Jackie Brown.
Yeah, you're around that time.
I would think it wouldn't be post Jackie Brown.
No, did he blow up after Jackie Brown?
Not blue up, but was definitely relevant enough to probably not be in the Uncle Sam slasher movie.
He landed a role on Breaking Bad season five.
At least, right, Oh was he in that?
Yeah, he was the guy. Sorry for spoilers everybody, if you haven't seen Breaking Bad yet, but he was the guy who brought Oh I can't remember the main character's name, but Malcolm in the Middle's dad supplies when he was Walter White, Yes, when he was hiding out in New Hampshire, Vermont or whatever. He was the guy. He was just basically waiting for him to die so he could take his money.
Here's your things that I'm gonna deliver to your house, and now if you could just give me your money. That's my best impression of him.
That was great. I thought it was Robert Forster speaking just now.
And by the way, Jackie Brown was in ninety seven, so kind of right around that time. Yeah, for my money, the most underrated Tarantino film.
Yeah, maybe Tarantino saw him in Slasher and was like, that's my guy.
You never know.
That was a good movie. I don't know if his most underrated, Yeah, maybe maybe I could see that. Sure, it was a good one.
He's got a lot of overrated movies.
Yeah, he's got a few under his belt for sure. But he's also got some of the greatest of all time.
Agreed, He's all over the map.
Yeah, and I'm really sad to hear that he's planning on making his last movie, although apparently he scuttled the project that was his last movie because people had like spies had infiltrated it, and he got pretty far into it, was like, no, I'm making something else for my last movie.
Then, huh you know that goes Soderberg was supposed to retire to then he did like forty more things.
Okay, all right, well that's good, that's hopeful. So obviously we started talking about Quentin Tarantino and the Uncle Sam Short Stuff, which means short Stuff is out.
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