gremlin

Gremlin is an English folkloric creature, commonly depicted as mischievous and mechanically oriented, with a specific interest in aircraft. Although their origin is found in myths among airmen, claiming that the gremlins were responsible for sabotaging aircraft, John W. Hazen states that "some people" derive the name from the Old English word gremian, "to vex".^[1] Since World War II, different fantastical creatures have been referred to as gremlins, bearing varying degrees of resemblance to the originals.

The airplane gremlin legend

This good luck gremlin mascot flew with 482nd Bomb Group (Heavy) 1942-1945.

The word "gremlin" originated in Royal Air Force (RAF) aviators' slang in Malta, the Middle East and India, with the earliest recorded printed use being in a poem published in the journal Aeroplane, in Malta on April 10, 1929.^[2] The concept of gremlins responsible for sabotaging aircraft was popularised during World War II among airmen of the UK's RAF, in particular the men of the high-altitude Photographic Reconnaissance Units (PRU) of RAF Benson, RAF Wick and RAF St Eval. The creatures were responsible for otherwise inexplicable accidents which sometimes occurred during their flights. Gremlins were also thought at one point to have enemy sympathies, but investigations revealed that enemy planes had similar and equally inexplicable mechanical problems. As such, gremlins were portrayed as being equal opportunity tricksters, taking no sides in the conflict, and acting out their mischief from their own self-interests.^[3] In reality, the gremlins were a form of "buck passing" or deflecting blame.^[3] This led the folklorist John Hazen to note, "Heretofore, the gremlin has been looked on as new phenomenon, a product of the machine age — the age of air."^[1]

An early reference to the Gremlin is in an article by Hubert Griffith in the servicemen's fortnightly Royal Air Force Journal dated April 18, 1942^[4] although that article states the stories had been in existence for several years, and there are later recollections of it having been told by Battle of Britain Spitfire pilots as early as 1940.^[5] Later sources have sometimes claimed that the concept goes back to World War I, but there is no print evidence of this.^[6]

Disney's version of fifinella.

Author Roald Dahl is credited with getting the gremlins known outside of the air force. He would have been familiar with the myth, having carried out his military service in the 80th squadron of the Royal Air Force in the Middle East. Dahl had his own experience in an accidental crash-landing in the Libyan Desert. In January, 1942 he was transferred to Washington, D.C. as Assistant Air attaché. There he eventually authored his novel The Gremlins, in which he described male gremlins as "widgets" and females as "fifinellas". Dahl showed the finished manuscript to Sidney Bernstein, the head of the British Information Service. Sidney reportedly came up with the idea to send it to Walt Disney.

The manuscript arrived in Disney's hands in July 1942, and he considered using it as material for a film. The film project never materialized but Disney managed to have the story published in the December, 1942 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. About half a year later a revised version of the story was published in a picture book published by Random House (later republished in 2006 by Dark Horse Comics.) Thanks mainly to Disney, the story had its share of publicity which helped in introducing the concept to a wider audience. Issues #33-#41 of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories published between June, 1943 and February, 1944 contained a nine-episode series of short silent stories featuring a Gremlin Gus as their star. The first was drawn by Vivie Risto and the rest of them by Walt Kelly. This served as their introduction to the comic book audience.

A Disney-style Gremlin, as the mascot of Minnesota Wing Civil Air Patrol.

While Roald Dahl was famous for making gremlins known world wide, many returning Air Servicemen swear they saw creatures tinkering with their equipment. One crewman swore he saw one before an engine malfunction that caused his B-25 Mitchell bomber to rapidly lose altitude, forcing the aircraft to return to base. Folklorist Hazen likewise offers his own alleged eye-witness testimony of these creatures, which appeared in an academically praised and peer-reviewed publication, which describes an occasion he found "a parted cable which bore obvious tooth marks in spite of the fact that the break occurred in a most inaccessible part of the plane." At this point, Hazen states he heard "a gruff voice" demand, "How many times must you be told to obey orders and not tackle jobs you aren't qualified for? — This is how it should be done." Upon which Hazen heard a "musical twang" and another cable was parted.^[7]

Critics of this idea state that the stress of combat and the dizzying heights caused such hallucinations, often believed to be a coping mechanism of the mind to help explain the many problems aircraft faced whilst in combat.

Airplane gremlins in film

Falling Hare (1943), in which a gremlin torments Bugs Bunny.

• In 1943, Bob Clampett directed Falling Hare, a Merrie Melodies cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny. With Roald Dahl's book and Walt Disney's proposed film being the inspiration, this short has been one of the early Gremlin stories shown to cinema audiences in which multiple gremlins featured.^[8] It features Bugs Bunny in conflict with a gremlin at an airfield. The Bugs Bunny cartoon was followed in 1944 by Russian Rhapsody, another Merrie Melodies short showing Russian gremlins sabotaging an aircraft piloted by Adolf Hitler. The gremlin in "Falling Hare" even has a color scheme that reflects that used on U.S. Army Air Forces training aircraft of the time, using dark blue (as on such an aircraft's fuselage) and a deep orange-yellow color (as used on the wings and tail surfaces).
• A 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" directed by Richard Donner, featured a gremlin attacking a plane.^[9] This episode was remade as a segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).^[10] In the original television episode, the gremlin appears as an almost ape-like creature which inspects the aircraft's wing with the curiosity of an animal and then proceeds to damage the wing. William Shatner plays the passenger who sees the Gremlin on the plane's wing. No one else sees the Gremlin and Shatner's character is removed from the plane on a stretcher with symptoms of psychosis. In the movie segment, the gremlin more resembles a troll or a goblin, with green skin and a frightening grin. This incarnation of the gremlin appears to be more intellectual and menacing, and is also shown to be capable of flying. The episode was famous enough to inspire at least three parodies:

William Shatner in the The Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1963).

• • A gremlin makes an appearance in a Halloween special of The Simpsons paralleling The Twilight Zone's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", (the segment is even named "Terror at 5½ Feet") in which the gremlin attempts to destroy the wheel of Bart's school bus.
  • A Tiny Toon special titled Night Ghoulery (a spoof of Night Gallery, with Babs presenting in Rod Serling's style) has a segment named "Gremlin on a Wing", which parodies "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" as well, with Plucky in William Shatner's place, accompanied by Hamton in an airplane, and a gremlin similar to that which appearen in Bugs' short Falling Hare. In fact, this gremlin is so persistent, he even appears at the end as if he had impersonated the stewardess (who looks remarkably similar to Star Trek character Lt. Uhura).
• In Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa, Alex has a dream where he sees Mort (Alex calls him a gremlin) messing with the engine and falling off the plane.
• In Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. When Nature Calls, Jim Carrey's character, Ace, starts a parody gag of The Twilight Zone's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", impersonating William Shatner and insisting that 'there is something on the wing.'

See also

• Fifinella
• Femlins — female gremlins featured in Playboy magazine
• Machine Elf
• The Crooked Gremlins (webcomic)
• Froggy the Gremlin, a character on an American TV show in the 1950s

Notes

External links

• A longer article examining the Gremlin's origins
• The Inducks' list of Gremlin appearances in Disney comics
• More Info on the Dark Horse reprint of Disney and Dahl's Gremlins book