Cartoon
The Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show
The Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show
WWE Smackdown

Animal
Larger Rascal






Outfit: speedsuit / high-tops / beanie

Tagline: "Okey-dokey!"

Plot summary: The "Our Gang" series of comedy short films about a troupe of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together broke all kinds of barriers in media: it was the first series to feature Caucasian kids and African-American kids as equals (which, without looking back through a shitload of sugar-coating, means "the black kids still acted like mammies and ate watermelon and were ignorant, but the white kids were pretty dumb too"). It was the first series to pit poor kids against rich kids. It was the first series to pit kids against adults. Director Hal Roach, long before everything had to be pasteurized and processed so the red states could enjoy their mush with a Smash Mouth soundtrack, dared to film kids just being kids, and it worked.

One of the reasons it worked so well was George "Spanky" McFarland, a little fat kid who fucking ruled it by being the 1930s Ralph Wiggum, yelling indiscriminate nonsense and participating in a collection of the most absurd conceptual acts ever caught on film. Once, toddler Spanky punched a grown man in the face for trying to take his picture. Another time, he asked a savage (an actual African savage, who'd broken free from the circus or whatever) if he "liked weenies," then fed him said weenies. It wasn't even a joke. It made no sense, and even 70 years later is difficult to reason. It was excellent.

Spanky was the big star, a cute little baby who perpetuated the ridiculous, and then eleven or so years later he was still around, and was still a fat kid, but he wasn't cute, and he couldn't leave because he'd been there for eleven years, and it was all terrible and embarrassing. This, sadly, is the Spanky we remember. (more)

User Comments: Yeah, older Spanky was pretty much the word "yeesh" in living boy form. His whole "CONSARNIT!" schtick didn't work when he was a teenager, so by then the crimes against quality being perpetrated by Alfalfa and the like could not be overcome or excused. Even longtime Rascals fans hoped Spank would try to steal their exhaust pipe gag so they could beat him to death. Can our generation really understand? Okay, try this. You remember Michelle on Full House? You remember how she started off as a dumb ugly frog baby, but when she/they gained cognizance she started YOU GOT IT DUDEing and YOU'RE IN BIG TROUBLE MISTERing? Do you remember how awful that was? Imagine if Full House had gone on for like six more seasons, and Michelle was 14 and still asking for "owse cweam," or telling Uncle Jesse that she's his little princess. You would've barfed your fucking feet out of your mouth, wouldn't you?

Animated Spanky is 100% that Spanky and 0% good baby Spanky. When the 1980s came along and updated the Rascals, Buckwheat got to be a computer genius and Darla got blue eyes, but Spanky just stayed shitty Spanky. Look at him. He looks like fucking Marlon Brando, like his boytits are gonna fall out of his jumper but he's going to be too lazy to put them back in. His role on the cartoon was to look surprised and have his hat move slightly higher into the air than his head, and that role could've been played by every other character to ever appear in any cartoon ever.

Augh, Spanky, what it must've been like to peak at 2. Even the Beaver got a childhood before he became worthless.

User Rating: 3.9/10 (84,747 votes)