Jeremy Hillary Boob, Ph.D.

"Jeremy Hillary Boob, Ph.D., is a fictional character appearing in the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine."

Jeremy Hillary Boob was originally named Jeremy Y. du Q. Adams, after Southern Methodist University professor Jeremy DuQuesnay Adams. The character of Jeremy was intended as a parody of public intellectuals and polymaths, most notably theatrical director and doctor, Jonathan Miller, whom story writer Lee Minoff had previously worked with. He is also alleged to have been inspired by Cambridge poet J.H. Prynne.

From 2016: "The Dallas Man Who Inspired Yellow Submarine's Jeremy Hillary Boob Has Died."

“What parents do to kids is awful,” [Jeremy DuQuesnay Adams] said in an interview with the Observer in June, 2015. Back in the '60s, he was going by Jeremy Y. du Q. Adams, which his friend Erich Segal, who invented the character, loved. The character’s name was originally Jeremy Y. du Boob before being changed to Jeremy Hillary Boob....

Apparently, "Hillary" is funnier than "Y. du Q."

Adams was a professor of history specializing in Medieval Europe. He also wrote books at a furious pace, which is why Jeremy Hillary Boob is using his feet to write “footnotes” for his 19th book in the film....

Segal gave Adams’ character fitting Latin tag lines like “Ad hoc, ad loc and quid pro quo. So little time—so much to know!” “I don’t think I went around saying that,” Adams said. “I hope not. Maybe I did.” Adams was studying at Harvard in the '60s when he met Segal, who was working on the screenplay for Yellow Submarine....

Adams also showed us his “Yellow Submarine Room,” an entire room painted yellow and packed full of memorabilia based on the film.... Adams remembered the film as representative of a certain 1960s sentiment, when people really believed that love is all you need....

Erich Segal went on to write "Love Story," which has that quote about love that's almost as famous (and false) as The Beatles "All you need is love": "Love means never having to say you're sorry."

Maybe like me you're still dogged by the old question: Was "Love Story" based on Al Gore? Here's how the NYT processed the embarrassing claim (in 1997, perhaps as part of clearing the path to his cheesily tragic presidential run):

Erich Segal... knocked down recent reports, based on comments by the Vice President, that Mr. Gore and his wife, Tipper, were the models for the young lovers in his 1970 book and the subsequent movie starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw.

Those reports were half-true, Mr. Segal said: The character of the preppy Harvard hockey player Oliver Barrett 4th was modeled on both Mr. Gore and his college roommate, the actor Tommy Lee Jones.

But it was Mr. Jones who inspired the half of the character that was a sensitive stud, a macho athlete with the heart of a poet, Mr. Segal said. The author attributed to Mr. Gore only the character's controlling father and feeling that his family was pressuring him to follow in Dad's footsteps....

But the character of the cool, smart-mouthed Radcliffe musician, Jenny Cavilleri, was in no way based on Mrs. Gore, Mr. Segal said, and the wild romance in the novel was not inspired by the couple. ''I did not draw a thing from Tipper,'' he said. ''I knew her only as Al's date.''...

Mr. Segal said he had been ''befuddled'' by the report, which was published in Time magazine this week, and had called the Vice President to find out what had happened. Mr. Gore told Mr. Segal that the whole thing was a misunderstanding. Then, Mr. Segal said, Mr. Gore told him, ''Let's remember what happened.'' And, he said, ''It's important now.''...

It has been a difficult year for Mr. Gore, who was implicated in questionable campaign fund-raising practices. An article that the famously wooden Vice President was the model for a strong, romantic hero might have cast him in a softer light as he approaches an anticipated run for the Presidency in 2000.

The Time magazine article about the Vice President included this passage: ''Around midnight, after a three-city tour of Texas last month, the Vice President came wandering back to the press compartment of Air Force Two. Sliding behind a table with the two reporters covering him that day, he picked slices of fruit from their plates and spent two hours swapping opinions about movies and telling stories about old chums like Erich Segal, who, Gore said, used Al and Tipper as models for the uptight preppy and his free-spirited girlfriend in 'Love Story.' ''...

If only Erich Segal had backed up Al Gore's bullshit story that he and Tipper were the models for the characters in "Love Story," Gore would have won!

By the way, I love the detail "he picked slices of fruit from their plates." Gore.

And speaking of funny names, what about Dingell-Norwood?