Where did the Smurfs get their hats (2018)
pipelinecomics.com146 points by andsoitis 2 days ago
146 points by andsoitis 2 days ago
This is almost certainly completely wrong, the smurfs get their hat designs from the type of hats that gnomes and dwarves and goblins usually wear in germanic folklore, the most well known of all being the garden dwarves, whose design also inspired the dwarves in snow white. The design of garden dwarves is quite recent and apparently come from miners. The hats were filled with straw to protect the miner's head from the ceiling.
But the article does cover that. German gnomes (Kobolde, especially Hödekin) are usually depicted with pointy hats, or at least ones that curl backwards. The smurf hats are clearly wearing Phrygian caps.
the first smurf drawings had pointy hats, the curve is most likely a stylistic evolution.
https://www.lm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/schtr...
That’s still arguably a classic Phrygian cap design. Whatever or not that was the intention/inspiration, it does resemble them - the hats you just showed are not perfectly conical, there’s a flip at the top.
The article does state that the Smurfs and the French got the wrong hat and that it's supposed to be a conical pileus rather than the crooked phrygian.
"In Rome, a freed slave had his head shaved. Then, they would wear a pileus, in part to keep their head warm. The hat was a sign of the slave’s freedom/liberty.
Somewhere along the line in the French Revolution, they adopted the freed slaves’ head gear as their own symbol of freedom, but picked the wrong one."
Fun fact: You can see a pileus on the Ides of March coin reverse from 43 BC, minted by Brutus to commemorate the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March_coin
People have been using silly hats for political purposes for millennia.
A quick Google image search for "garden gnome" and "gartenzwerg" shows that both types are quite common. But they originally didn't necessarily have the hats common today. These are the oldest surviving garden gnomes according to [1]:
Schloss Mirabell: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mirabellgarten_%E7%B... (1690-1695)
Schloss Greillenstein: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schloss_Greillenstei... (around 1700)
A simple thanks for sharing these images. I had no idea that garden gnomes could be so artful, interesting, or powerful as those in these two images.
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Not AI. Indexed in 2020 by the wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20201001000000*/https://www.pipe...
Why GPT writing sounds like the median lazy blog post of five years ago is left as an exercise for the reader.
What, you think the article was written by AI? Why?
It's 2025, you can flip a coin and be correct half the time, and no consequences if you're wrong.
Looks like there are consequences, they’re being called out, which is good
Being called out anonymously and never thinking about it again, that's gotta sting
I guess because it is full of guesswork and devoid of real factual research (at least for the main headline question). But it turns out that bloggers looking for content and lacking any skill are also capable of writing plausible-sounding slop.
I just assumed that Tailor Smurf (https://smurfs.fandom.com/wiki/Tailor_Smurf) made them
Fun random fact, the tool used to animate the smurfs hats in 3 out of 4 CG smurfs films, was actually created for Doctor Manhattan’s junk for the original Watchmen film.
Sounds like a joke. Spring rigs and soft body physics have been included in various cg animation software for decades at this point.
I'm proud that I managed to guess it, it's a Phrygian cap.
Dutch catoonist Dirkjan revealed the real answer already years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/dirkjan/s/zszexnXLRu
ChatGPT's translation:
Panel 1 Waiter: "Sir, I’d like to ask you to take off your cap in this restaurant." Smurf: "Take off my cap? You’re not asking me to take off my pants, are you?!"
Panel 2 Waiter: "That’s not the same." Smurf: "That is the same."
Panel 3 Cook (to waiter): "Let him put his cap back on." Waiter: "That’s maybe better."
I feel like Kagi's version is better.
https://translate.kagi.com/?from=nl&to=en&text=MiJNHEER%2C+i...
I'll do a manual one that's more correct and captures the spirit better:
Panel 1
Waiter: "Sir, please take your hat off in this restaurant."
Smurf: "Take off my hat? You wouldn't ask me to take off my trousers either, would you!"
Panel 2
Waiter: "That’s not the same at all."
Smurf: "Yes it is!"
Panel 3
Cook (to waiter): "Let's let him put his hat back on."
Waiter: "Yes, let's."
+1 for Dirkjan, always. Another classic https://dirkjan.nl/cartoon/20231004_3677623503/
And this one always gets me too: https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fw... with the "Jesmurfa's witness"
I don't get that first one :(
The smurf's being asked to remove his hat since wearing it in a restaurant is considered impolite. When being pressed the smurf says 'I don't ask you to remove your pants'. When it's revealed the smurfs genitals are under his hat Dirkjan's mate says 'maybe we should let hem keep his hat on'.
Oh no I meant the Pranfeuri one.
Edit: Typing that out me realise that I could just search for that word. Apparently it's just absurdist: https://www.reddit.com/r/learndutch/comments/17nvt4g/pranfeu...
Or maybe the artist was inspired by the connection of the Phrygian cap with psychedelic "liberty cap" mushrooms (Psilocybe semilanceata), which are distributed widely across Europe and associated with elves, fairies and various other wee folk?
I don't know but their houses are definitely amanita muscaria.
Which makes sense as you want your house to be as inedible as possible.
I assume they have some method of keeping snails, woodpeckers and other animals resistant to the poison at bay.
Amanita muscaria is not inedible, it just needs to be processed correctly.
I happen to know a person who experimented with eating dried caps and I don't think there exists a process that actually makes them harmless. Unless of course you're isolating muscimol, but I don't think that should count as eating the fungus.
While liver damage is mitigated by the fact that the organ in question regenerates, nerves don't.
I happen to be a person who ate the dried caps directly and experienced not only no ill effects but no effects whatsoever several times.
Smurfs are most probably bald, as discussed in this thread on a good old fashioned forum:
https://bluebuddies.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/1/1485....
And my unopular opinion is that Smurfette is most probably wearing a wig.
Smurfette isn't an actual Smurf, she's a construct made by Gargamel (yes, this is actual Smurf canon), so presumably her hair is also some sort of construct.
Why is that website?
The world would be so much better if there were only facebook, instagram and youtube apps. But then again I'm a Grouchy Smurf.
https://bluebuddies.com/smurf_fun/smurf_personality_test/smu...
Because that's where I found that discussion. Is there a problem with that website?
I can't believe they re-colored the entire first comic to make the Smurfs purple and not black. That's hilarious
Maybe the white on top of their heads IS their hair? And Papa smurf was old and bald and used a hat to blend in.
From a drawing perspective the hat is fairly simple (3-4 lines), looks good and quick to sketch - speed mattered when drawing lots of Smurf’s.
Idk about all that, but the Smurfs are probably commies right?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/06/smurfs-accused...
The conspiracy theories I have heard:
- Gargamel is a priest, the smurfs are prosecuted by the church
- Papa smurf wears red and has a beard because of ideological reasons, the smurfs political and economic system resembles communism
- Smurfs represent the seven deadly sins/seven capital vices
Lust: Enamored smurf
Gluttony: Baker smurf
Avarice: Greedy smurf
Sloth: Lazy smurf
Wrath: Grouchy smurf
Envy: Brainy smurf
Pride: Vanity smurfThe first time I saw the smurf hat is in the 70s, on a 20 cents Mexican coin.
Speaking of Gnomes.. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLVGfItCRsm/?igsh=aDdmdWw0M3M...
The Phrygian cap was also the mascot for the Paris Olympics https://www.olympics.com/fr/olympic-games/paris-2024/mascot
> Somewhere along the line in the French Revolution, they adopted the freed slaves’ head gear as their own symbol of freedom, but picked the wrong one.
That’s just so typical of the French Revolution.
Actually happy to see something very niche that i was taught in school.
I have bigger questions about their long-johns than the hats.
- Why long pants instead of shorts? It does make them look more dignified, I suppose.
- Why white, you know that's just going to stain the feet something terrible.
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It’s interesting to me. So I guess HN worked.
Feel free to flag articles you don’t like. Maybe others will agree.
> signed up for the first time to write this.
Should have spent that time reading the guidelines champ.
