Tintin Forums

I think Garen's right - it's a mistake in the spelling - I always thought it was spelled sonny jim but as it's slang I suppose the spelling could vary.

The Macquarie slang dictionary has it as
noun an affectionate appellation to a male, often used in remonstrance: Listen here, sonny Jim

As pointed out earlier it's similar to a couple of other British terms of endearment - "sunshine" and "Jimmy" (Scottish Glaswegian), but you wouldn't normally use it to refer to yourself.

I'd bet that people have been making the switch between sonny and sunny for a long time now, not just in Tintin: Neil Munro wrote the stories of the Vital Spark, of which Para Handy and Sunny Jim were part of the crew, from around the time of WWI; given that Wagg is the self-crowned king of the life-and-soul-of-the-party set, I'm sure he was talking about his "sunny" disposition...

I think this is a very good example of the translators (specifically Michael Turner, as he produced the "Waggese" effortlessly, according to LL-C) inserting something into the translation - a nuance of character maybe not found in the original. Or is there some nuance in the French that I am not aware of? Perhaps his use of language suggests the world of haute coture to a French reader?

Would anyone (Jyrki21, Trifonius, Gustav?) who have access to non-English/French edition books mind checking their copies of Tintin and the Picaros, and letting us know what Wagg says in the last frame of page 51?

Though I do have Tintin/Kuifje/Tenten/Tim books in a several languages (English, French, Hebrew, Turkish, German, Dutch), unfortunately I only own Picaros in English, and my cousin in Vancouver has had it for years! But if I happen to stumble across it in another, I'll be sure to let everyone know. :)

While doing some research for Rainbow Orchid I happened across this advertising slogan for a breakfast food from the 1920s called 'Force'...

"High o'er the fence leaps Sunny Jim,
Force is the food that raises him."

Note spelling of Sunny! Just had a quick look on Google, and there's a pic of Sunny Jim at http://www.lavasurfer.com/cereal-othercereals.html - there seems to be quite a lot out there on this marketing character, and I get the feeling (after only a very quick look) that Force may even be his origin...

http://www.abc.net.au/classic/breakfast/stories/s994023.htm

I suppose Sunny Jim was possibly used in a 'who do you think you are? Sunny Jim?!" kind of way. Wagg would surely see himself as a Sunny Jim, and probably starts his day with a bowl of 'Force'. I'm certain LL-C and MT would have been well aware of this character.

You learn something new everyday.

I had a university lecturer in the 80s who was wont to come out with the "Force" jingle about Sunny Jim, but until you mentioned it, tybaltstone, I'd mis-remembered it as "Lucky Jim" (mind you, this was the same lecturer who once for fun did an off-the-cuff lecture on "the Arthurian Grail Quest metaphors" to be found in the stories of Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, so he was coming out with quite a lot...), because there was a cardborad box for Force serial being used to stor books in a cupboard, which he came across from time-to-time.

I think that as long as English is a language filled with homophones such as sonny/sunny, it will be likely that there will be such confusions; in this case, it doesn't make much of a difference - the meaning is fairly abstract.

There was a cartoon character called Sunny Jim, who advertised a breakfast cereal called "Force" wheat flakes in the early-mid 20th century. He was a smiling, marching white bearded guy with a top hat. I am sure an internet search would turn him up. A cereal company resurrected him for a while in the 1980s or 1990s, pointing out the nostalgic wholesomeness of their cereal. Here is a link to a page showing a picture, and a description:

http://www.lavasurfer.com/cereal-othercereals.html

I was just looking at the character guide (very absorbing), and after a bit more research it does seem as though the origin of the name 'Sunny Jim' is definitely the breakfast food 'Force'. The term 'Sonny Jim' is the phrase used for someone you are talking to, perhaps with a slightly condescending yet familiar way - and it may have even deviated from the marketing character of Sunny Jim..

I think LL-C and MT were indeed referring to the character of Sunny Jim (due to the spelling) and were aware of the character as an energetic figure who can do anything / does everything, who Wagg identifies himself with. So perhaps important enough for a small update?

See Frankymole's message above, and my message 3 above.

Could someone close this topic, please?
P.S. 1. (see Harrock n roll's post above) Jolyon Wagg is apparently self-loving?

miloumuttmitt wrote:
Could someone close this topic, please?

Why? If you don't want to follow it, don't read it, surely?

The whole point of on-line forums, to me at least, is that they allow for dynamic input, over time, unlike print media which are immediately finite.

If Garen has taken the time to do further research on the topic, and established that the character was the basis for the expression, then I for one am glad to read it. You may not think that the input is valuable, but if it corroborates the case for an opinion which has been a topic of discussion, then it has a place here.

I agree that unreasoned posting to a thread, or the needless ressurection of a moribund thread to say, "I agree!", (after probably re-posting the entire previous message) is the bain and blight of many forums on the web, but here we seem to have a group who are genuinely building a collection of data which will enhance the understanding of our pet subject, which is very welcome.

And now a swerve back topic-wards: I wonder if Michael Turner was a "Force"-fed child?

I agree.

May the "Force" be with you ...