| Uncle Remus' Walking Stick | |
|---|---|
| |
| Scene of Uncle Remus leaning on walking stick | |
|
Origin |
Disney |
|
Type |
Walking Stick |
|
Effects |
Creates animated birds that sing 'Zip a Dee do dah' |
|
Downsides |
Extended use makes user racist |
|
Activation |
Tapping |
|
Collected by |
Warehouse 13 Agents |
|
Section |
|
|
Aisle |
134784-5726 |
|
Shelf |
105926-3748-600 |
|
Date of Collection |
1945 |
| [Source] | |
Origin[]
Uncle Remus is a fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African-American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris. Harris was a journalist in post-Reconstruction Atlanta, Georgia producing seven Uncle Remus books. The Uncle Remus books are a collection of animal stories, songs and oral folklore from southern African-Americans. Many of the stories are didactic, much like those of Aesop's Fables and Jean de La Fontaine's stories.
Uncle Remus is a kindly former slave who serves as a storytelling device, passing on these folktales to children who gather around him. The stories are written in an eye dialect to represent a Deep South Gullah dialect, at the time of publication his work was praised for the ability to capture plantation Negro dialect. Controversy surrounding the stories didn't start until the mid-20th century as they weren't openly criticized as racist until that point. Now the narrator's “old Uncle” stereotype was considered overly demeaning by many African-American people, reflecting what they considered to be racist and patronizing.
Regardless, Harris pressed that these stories are accurate from the mouth of the slave families that lived at his family's plantation. There was one live-action/animated musical film produced by Walt Disney created around the Uncle Remus character called Song of the South. One of the main and most popular songs “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Song.
Effects[]
When tapped creates animated birds that sing 'Zip a Dee do dah', tapping twice causes birds to vanish. User experiences an alarming amount of racism, both on the receiving and giving ends.