Gremlin

Creature name	Gremlin
Image name	Gremlin Mascot of 482nd Bomb Group (Heavy).jpg
Grouping	Mythological creature Fairy
Sub grouping	Mischievous spirit
Country	Western Hemisphere Europe (initially)
First reported	In folklore
Status	Akeem

Gremlin is an English folkloric creature, commonly depicted as mischievous and mechanically oriented, with a specific interest in aircraft. They are reputedly mischievously inclined to damage or dismantle machinery.

Aviation gremlin legend

Origins

by Roald Dahl]] 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". Since the Second World War, different fantastical creatures have been referred to as gremlins, bearing varying degrees of resemblance to the originals.

The term "gremlin" denoting a mischievous creature that sabotages aircraft, originates in Royal Air Force (RAF) slang in the 1920s among the British pilots stationed 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. Later sources have sometimes claimed that the concept goes back to World War I, but there is no print evidence of this.An article by Hubert Griffith in the servicemen's fortnightly Royal Air Force Journal dated April 18, 1942, also chronicles the appearance of gremlins, although the article states the stories had been in existence for several years, with later recollections of it having been told by Battle of Britain Spitfire pilots as early as 1940.

This concept of gremlins was popularized during the Second World War among airmen of the UK's RAF units, 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 aircraft 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. In reality, the gremlins were a form of "buck passing" or deflecting blame. He would have been familiar with the myth, having carried out his military service in 80 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 wrote his first children's 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 live action/animated full-length feature film, offering Dahl a contract. The film project was changed to an animated feature and entered pre-production, with characters "roughed out" and storyboards created. Reviewed in major publications, Dahl was considered a writer-of-note and his appearances in Hollywood to follow up with the film project were met with notices in Hedda Hopper's columns.

The film project was reduced to an animated "short" and eventually cancelled in August 1943, when copyright and RAF rights could not be resolved. 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.

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 eyewitness testimony of these creatures, which appeared in an academically praised and peer-reviewed publication, describing 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.

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.

Aircraft gremlins in film and media

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. 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 one that was 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 and based on the short story of the same name by Richard Matheson, featured a gremlin attacking an airliner. This episode was remade as a segment of (1983). 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 a passenger, just recovered from a mental breakdown, who sees the Gremlin on the aircraft's wing. No one else sees the Gremlin and Shatner's character is removed from the aircraft 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 numerous parodies: in 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 aircraft, and a gremlin similar to that which appeared 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 , Alex has a dream where he sees Mort (Alex calls him a gremlin) messing with the engine and falling off the aircraft.

In , 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.'

In the Extreme Ghostbusters episode Grease the Ghostbusters had to capture a gremlin that was damaging New York's machines. Surprisingly, the Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner is referenced.

In the Johnny Bravo episode The Man Who Cried Clown, which is part of The Zone Where Normal Things Don't Happen Very Often, Johnny sees an evil clown on the wing of the aircraft and is having difficulty convincing anyone of its existence. When he gets rid of the evil Jacobs, he is informed that it and a good clown were needed to keep the aircraft in balance during flight.

In the cartoon series Eek the Cat the episode 'The Eex Files' starts out with Eek on a aircraft beside a man claiming to see someone outside on the wing. Of course, when he looks there is no one there. At the end of the episode, Eek is dropped off by an alien on the wing of the aircraft and meets the gremlin, then promptly offers to help him "find his wallet". The final scene shows the half-crazed man looking out the window and "spazzing out" when he sees them both tearing up the wing.

In the cartoon series American Dragon Jake Long one of the episodes features gremlins who mess with any type of mechanical devices and cause a lot of trouble during the episode until they are put to sleep and captured.

Other gremlins

Gremlin Americanus: A Scrap Book Collection of Gremlins by artist and pilot Eric Sloane may predate the Roald Dahl publication. Published in 1942 by B.F. Jay & Co, the central characters are characterized as "pixies of the air" and are friends of both RAF and USAAC pilots. The gremlins are mischievous and give pilots a great deal of trouble, but they have never been known to cause fatal accidents but can be blamed for any untoward incident or "bonehead play", qualities that endear them to all flyers.

See also Ssh! Gremlins by H.W. illustrated by Ronald Niebour ("Neb" of the Daily Maily), published by H. W. John Crowther Publication, England, in 1942. This booklet featured numerous humorous illustrations describing the gremlins as whimsical but essentially friendly folk. According to "H.W.", contrary to some reports, gremlins are a universal phenomenon and by no means only the friends of flying men.

Not all depictions of gremlins show them on aircraft. Joe Dante's 1984 movie Gremlins and its sequel, portray gremlins as malicious creatures whose only goal is to wreak havoc, whether in a small town or in a New York City skyscraper.

DC Comics' Stanley and His Monster depicts a gremlin named Schnitzel, who speaks with a thick German accent and is always trying to avoid an immigration officer, as he is an illegal alien.

American Motors produced a vehicle called the Gremlin between 1970 and 1978. A cartoon styled Gremlin icon was featured in advertisements as well as on the cars' gas caps.

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

Gremlins

Gremlin Graphics, the now defunct video games studio

References

;Citations ;Bibliography

Conant, Jennet. The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. ISBN 978-0743294584.

Dahl, Flight Lieutenant Roald. The Gremlins: The Lost Walt Disney Production. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2006 (reprint and updated copy of 1943 original publication). ISBN 978-1-59307-496-8.

De La Rue, Keith. "Gremlins." delarue.net, updated August 23, 2004. Retrieved: October 11, 2010.

Donald, Graeme. Sticklers, Sideburns & Bikinis: The Military Origins of Everyday Words and Phrases. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-1846033001.

Gower, Pauline. The ATA: Women with Wings. London: J. Long, limited, 1938.

"Gremlins." Fantastic Fiction, a British online book site/biography source. Retrieved: October 11, 2010.

Hazen, John W. "Gremlin." Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1972. ISBN 978-0308400900.

Merry, Lois K. Women Military Pilots of World War II: A History with Biographies of American, British, Russian and German Aviators. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2010. ISBN 978-0786444410.

Sasser, Sanford, Jr., ed. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aviation and Space, Volume 6. Los Angeles: A.F.E. Press, 1971, p. 1094. ISBN 978-0308400900.

Sturrock, Donald. Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. ISBN 978-1416550822.

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

---- Category:English folklore Category:English legendary creatures Category:European legendary creatures Category:Fictional life forms Category:In-jokes Category:Technology folklore