Comedian Flip Wilson used to appear on his TV show in drag as the character Geraldine. As Geraldine, he popularized the expression "what you see is what you get."
The joke was so obscure even in the early '70s, it's almost as if it was "outdated" at birth. I remember cringing over that line when I saw the movie for the first and only time in 1972.
As nearly as I can figure, what Bakshi was going for was, an urbane and sophisticated black male in Harlem at the time would be somebody who might appear to others as "effiminate," but was just as likely to identify himself as heterosexual or bisexual as gay. He knows who he is, but isn't necessarily going to reveal his true identity to a bunch of giggly young women who are probably really only interested in his money-- and who may have jumped to the conclusion that he's a gay man looking for a "beard."
In other words, he's saying "what you see is not necessarily what you get... and I'm not about to tell you what you would get if I were interested in you, because I'm not interested in you."
At least, that's what I think Bakshi was going for. I'm not black and I've never physically visited Harlem, so I can't say for sure.
It was a joke that falls flat nowadays because it fell flat in 1972. Like a whole lot of "Fritz the Cat" fell flat in 1972. Nowadays, it falls even flatter because hardly anybody remembers Flip Wilson and Geraldine.
Although this film did astoundingly well at the box office, a lot of major R. Crumb fans like myself thought it was only good for the opportunity to hear Billie Holiday sing, and to see a few scenes that were taken straight out of Crumb's comics without any additions by Bakshi. Every time Bakshi tried to give us his "new and improved" version of R. Crumb by adding something that wasn't in the comics, he fell flat on his unfunny face.
Well, almost every time. I still remember, from 40 years ago, the line in which Fritz invokes "white guilt" by talking about how he's aware that historically, crows have been oppressed by cats. That line was clever enough, it made me chuckle. But not enough to make me LOL.
"I don't deduce, I observe."
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strykerspurlock_34
12 years ago
Thank you. Very informative. Surprisingly enough, I actually knew of Flip and Geraldine, but I thought the crow was pronouncing it as "Gerald Dean." Even knowing that, however, I still wouldn't have got the joke without your explanation. It's funny to think it was outdated as soon as it came out!
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12 years ago
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strykerspurlock_34
12 years ago
Oh, I see.
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Petronius Arbiter II
12 years ago
The Geraldine reference was not outdated, it was the obscure humor itself that seemed outdated at the time. It was a very New Yorkish joke. Finding anything possibly funny in it meant you had to have a fairly good acquaintance with New York, and at least a moderately good passing acquaintance with Harlem culture.
Outside of metropolitan New York City, people who had spent years and years watching TV shows dominated by NYC-based actors and producers, and a very New Yorkish sensibility, had often gotten just plain tired of all that. People in the rest of the USA were more interested in the California sensibility, and had been getting that way for a long time.
Philadelphia native Robert Crumb's comics represented a San Francisco-based sensibility much more than an East Coast sensibility. That's where Crumb was living at the time of his most famous work, including "Fritz." Ralph Bakshi never figured out how to bring anything other than a very East Coast sensibility to his version of "Fritz." At the time, East Coast was all he knew. That's what seemed stale and outdated even then.
I haven't seen all that much of Bakshi's later work. "Wizards" is the only one I liked enough to see twice. "Wizards" I like very much.
"American Pop" was fine, but nothing to write home about. "Lord of the Rings Part I" is marred by the (apparently permanent) absence of a "Lord of the Rings Part II;" by the fact that when the rotoscoping worked, it worked well, but when it failed, it failed pretty badly; by the bland scriptwriting and vocal acting. It makes an interesting companion piece to Peter Jackson's work, though, and may have had some helpful influences on Jackson's LOTR films.
"I don't deduce, I observe."
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12 years ago
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torpedoboy4
11 years ago
I got the Geraldine joke and it was moderately funny (leftover memories from my 70s childhood of Flip Wilson). I think the build-up to the punchline was funnier though. The White female characters' unsolicited proclamations of empathy and understanding definitely made me cringe, but maybe it's because I've been in that exact situation. Bakshi, somehow, is a master at teasing out and exploiting these slippages in racial and class understanding. I am Black, and I LOVE Bakshi's vision. Oh, and getting that Geraldine joke has nothing to do with having been to Harlem, but it does have to do with having at least a working knowledge of Black 70s vernacular.
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Petronius Arbiter II
11 years ago
I think you and I are talking past each other, Torpedoboy. I got the joke, I just didn't think it was funny.
As for the (self-promoting) Horndog, I just don't know what to say to anybody who thinks "Crumb never did anything worthwhile." Might as well be speaking Extraterrestrial as say anything like that to me.
"I don't deduce, I observe."
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