Snively Whiplash

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Snidely Whiplash is the cartoon archvillain to Dudley Do-Right in the tongue-in-cheek Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties segments of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show by American animation pioneer Jay Ward.

The character was voiced by Hans Conried in the original cartoon series. Snidely was later played by Alfred Molina in the live action Dudley Do-Right movie, which starred Brendan Fraser as Dudley.

Whiplash is the stereotypical villain, in the style of stock characters found in silent movies and earlier stage melodrama, wearing black clothing, cape, and a top hat, and twirling his long handlebar moustache. He has a henchman named Homer, who usually wears a tuque. In the cartoon's opening segments, Snidely is seen tying Nell Fenwick to a railroad track. He is the antithesis of Do-Right, a picture-perfect stereotype of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police do-gooder.

In one cartoon episode Whiplash and Dudley change hats; Dudley becomes a Super-villain and Whiplash becomes the Fearless RCMP who receives a medal for bringing the evil Dudley Do-Right in.

A similar villain design derived from the same archetype was later used for Hanna-Barbera villain Dick Dastardly.

Cultural references[edit]

  • Family Guy paid homage to Snidely Whiplash when it was revealed on the episode Mother Tucker that Peter Griffin has an evil twin brother Thaddeus, who looks exactly like Peter but talks and dresses like Snidely, and wears an identical long moustache.
  • One of Lee Publications' invisible ink books contains a puzzle in which Snidely Whiplash has kidnapped a beautiful circus acrobat.
  • The Sims 2: Bon Voyage features a character who picks pockets and strongly resembles Whiplash.[citation needed]
  • In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Restless", Buffy states that she preferred her bad guys to be "straight up, black hat, tie-you-to-the-train-tracks, 'Soon-my-electro ray-will-destroy-Metropolis!' bad."
  • Hall-of-Fame relief pitcher Rollie Fingers of the Oakland A's was nicknamed "Snidely Whiplash" because of his handlebar moustache.
  • Droopy does his impression of Snidely Whiplash in his cameo in the Roger Rabbit short Roller Coaster Rabbit after tying Jessica Rabbit to the tracks of the rollercoaster Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman are riding in.
  • In the tv series Gargoyles, Elisa's brother Derek says that David Xanantos is not the reincarnation of Snidely Whiplash.
  • A Metalcore band from Sacramento, CA takes their namesake from Snidely Whiplash.
  • Former Georgia Bulldogs basketball coach Dennis Felton is known as "Snidely Whiplash" to rival fans due to his strong resemblance to the cartoon character, and the especially villainous style of basketball his teams play.