February 3, 2006

The 100 Greatest Dogs of Pop Culture History.

A perfect list. (Via Throwing Things.) I like the rows of pictures to scroll down toward #1. When I saw that Pluto was #25, I got really excited. Which dogs outranked Pluto? They must be really great dogs. I had guessed Lassie would be first. (Wrong.) I was hoping to see Ren do well. (He did.) I was happy to see the recognition given to Tige. I like the nice balance between film dog and cartoon dog, with some nice variations in there, like Slinky Dog, Spot, and Cerberus. Hey, what about Flub-a-dub? Flub-a-dub was a dog, wasn't he? (Oh, I guess not.) Well, what about Cleo?

23 comments:

Unknown said...

What, no Neil? I demand a recount!

David53 said...

No way Ren Hoek is number 6, he's in the 40s or 50s at best.

XWL said...

I like the list you linked, and can't quibble too much.

But if I were them I'd include this puppy.

He hasn't been around long, but I'd hate to consider the consequences of not including him in the top 100.

SippicanCottage said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tibore said...

No mention of Tex Avery's Spike the Bulldog either. Droopy's nemisis and a recurring guest star in the Tom & Jerry cartoons, but he doesn't make it. Yet, Parappa the Rapper's included at #39. Beh.

And what about Marc Anthony of the Chuck Jones classic "Feed the Kitty" short?

On the other hand, including Junk Yard Dog just made my day :)

Who the heck is the Spike at #85?

And, as a digression:

"You make me so angry Mr. Bunny... I'll be forced to shoot you with my interplanetary DI-sintegating ray."

God bless cartoon physics, where the tragedy of getting hit with a disintegrator ray is easily undone by the RE-integrator one. Now if I can just figure out how to cross a canyon without falling down by just not looking down... :)

Heh... Marvin...
Where's the Kaboom? There's supposed to be an Earth shattering Kaboom.

SippicanCottage said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pancho said...

"The average dog is a nicer person, than the average person"

Meade said...

"And in his own dim way he learned the law of meat. There were two kinds of life, -- his own kind and the other kind. His own kind included his mother and himself. The other kind included all live things that moved. But the other kind was divided. One portion was what his own kind killed and ate. This portion was composed of the non-killers and the small killers. The other portion killed and ate his own kind, or was killed and eaten by his own kind. And out of this classification arose the law. The aim of life was meat. Life itself was meat. Life lived on life. There were the eaters and the eaten. The law was: EAT OR BE EATEN. He did not formulate the law in clear, set terms and moralize about it. He did not even think the law; he merely lived the law without thinking about it at all." - Chapter 5
THE LAW OF MEAT

reader_iam said...

This is the second time in just a few days that I've come across a reference to Tige, after not having thought of him for literally decades.

So I'm hearing in my head (again! twice in a few days!): I'm Buster Brown/I lives in a shoe/That's my dog Tige/He lives in there too.

And could a kid's show today include the line: "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!"?

reader_iam said...

And what about Patrasche, "The Dog of Flanders"?

I tear up as I write thinking about how much I cried as a kid in the '60s when I saw that movie (the 1960 version) at a Saturday matinee. First movie to ever make me cry. I'll never forget it. Embarrassed the hell out of my little brother.

reader_iam said...

OK, I guess Patrasche isn't really an example of Pop Culture. (Though it's cool that he's named after Rubens' dog.)

bearbee said...

Multiple Emmy winner Wishbone ranked as 54?????!!!! Unnnbelievable...

Have you seen him as "Cyranose", as the great Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyles' "The Slobbery Hound"
or as Ariel in "Shakespaw"

These are only a handful of brilliant performances.


pffffttttt........

Susan said...

I'd add Target dog.

joated said...

Wow! Great link, Ann, and some fantastic comments. I thought the 100 was pretty complete until I started reading the comments.

PatHMV said...

A fine list, though they ranked Lady & the Tramp way, way too low.

And they left out the RCA dog.

Icepick said...

Patrick, Nipper (#50) is the RCA dog.

My wife is upset that they didn't have Buttons from Animaniacs.

Also missing is the sheepdog that Wile E. Coyote was always matching wits with. For that matter, if they're going to have White Fang, shouldn't Wile E. make the list?

Susan said...

How about Fly and the other border collies from Babe?

bearbee said...

Need a second category for the nameless but highly recognizably character performer/iconic figure.

Who can forget the dog in Shane? S/he was in 2 scenes.When the evil Jack Wilson (Jack Palance) enters the bar s/he slowly
rises, head tucked low with tail even lower and proceeds to walk stiff legged out of the bar.

Brilliant .......

Anonymous said...

My main question (on the negative side) is how is it even possible that the dog from "The Dukes of Hazzard" (a show I liked even) could wind up at Number 10. To me that seems about 60 places too high. That puts him ahead of Pluto, for one, and even more egregiously, in front of Toto from "The Wizard of Oz". Any way you measure it, Toto is more significant than Flash (who I don't particularly even remember). Toto is known by more people, will be known well after Flash is forgotten and even has a catchphrase or two, of sorts, based on him - "I have a feeling we're not in Kansas any more, Toto." and "And you're little dog, too."

Anonymous said...

"OT, but next time you see a copy of The Poky Little Puppy, check out how much text it has. Scary how kids' books have become so untexty."

My next-door neighbors have a five-year-old and what I find scary is how many of the books require batteries. Who has time for text when you're looking for batteries for a book!"

Kurt said...

I was pleasantly surprised to see that #21 Lucky/Fido made the list!

Joan said...

I was happy to see Kipper made it, he's a dear.

But what about Max, the Grinch's dog? Surely he's more famous than some of these other characters? Hasn't everyone seen (and loved) "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"? (The original animated version, that is.)

Chris Althouse Cohen said...

Toto should be #1. Or at least in the top 5. Not #14.