The Ascent of Joe Btfsplk
A Minor Comic Strip Character Finds a Place in the English Lexicon
Feb 5, 2009
Joe Btfsplk was created by cartoonist Al Capp, as a minor character in Capp’s comic strip L’il Abner. Though a sweet man and a dedicated friend he carried bad fortune – and his own rain cloud – with him everywhere he went, making him lonely and unpopular. Joe Btfsplk was the world’s worst jinx.
L’il Abner ran in American and Canadian newspapers from 1934 to 1977. Capp himself died in 1979. Btfsplk, however, lives on in the North American imagination.
Joe Public: Politics, Sports and Culture
The word “btfsplk” isn’t listed in the Oxford or Merriam-Webster dictionaries, but Joe and his strange last name have become synonymous with ill fortune. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of sports commentary.
Toronto Maple Leaf Mikael Renberg and former NBA basketballer Rod Strickland have been accused of being btfsplks. So have Texas Ranger Eric Hurley and Dallas Cowboys Keith Davis and Terrell Owens. The Daily Whim blog refers to the hard-luck Atlanta Falcons as the Atlanta Btfsplks, and Sports Illustrated’s Joe Marshall once described the Houston Oilers as “a padded collection of Joe Btfsplks huddling behind the high fence that surrounds their practice field”.
As in sports, the political arena is a place where the actions of a few can cause misfortune to rain down on many. It’s no coincidence that Joe’s mangled moniker has been attached to the likes of US senators John McCain, John Kerry and Bob Torricelli, US President Barack Obama (perhaps prematurely) and former US presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. Bush has been targeted more than once, most impressively by social activist Noam Chomsky, who btfsplk-ed the entire Bush-Cheney regime.
The silver screen prefers stars that shine, and director/comedian Woody Allen may be the sole btfsplk in Hollywood. Btfsplk has a stronger footing in the introspective world of poetry, however. Here he is conjured in George Starbuck’s “The Spell Against Spelling,” a poem written in the style of Ogden Nash:
You see, there are Spellers in this world, I mean mean ones too. / They shadow us around like a posse of Joe Btfsplks / Waiting for us to sit down at our study-desks and go shrdlu / So they can pop in at the windows saying "tsk tsk."
Btfsplk Enterprises
Many people identify personally with Joe. Google his name and you’ll find Fred Btfsplk, Judy Btfsplk, Joe’s brother Dennis Btfsplk and a dozen junior Joes, including an “independent Internet professional” advertising his skills online.
This is probably simple self-deprecation, but Btfsplks beware: however lighthearted your intentions there are dangers in associating with the likes of Joe Btfsplk, the world’s worst jinx.
Take the WWII bomber plane “Joe Btfsplk”. This B-17 Fortress brought the boys of Allied regiment 303 home from a raid on Nazi-occupied France, but not without a hole in its fin “as big as a household door” (Roger A. Freeman, The Mighty Eighth).
Take also Joe Btfsplk’s Diner in Banff, Canada. This bright 50’s-style diner was for years a local institution, but the restaurant closed its doors in 2007, apparently due to slow business.
Joe out loud
In order to be part of the lexicon, a word can’t just be read and written. People must also be able to say it. This begs the question: how do you say “btfsplk”?
Al Capp never spoke Joe’s last name, but stuck his tongue out and blew a raspberry when referring to the character he created. “How else would you pronounce it?” he’d ask. The Banff diner called itself “Joe Bit-tif-spliks,” though locals employed a vulgar but affectionate nickname that rhymed with “Joe What Ducks”.
The question of the pronunciation of Joe Btfsplk’s name has even reached the universities, though – typical of academia – the question has gone unanswered. In “A Study of Thinking”, Jerome Seymour Bruner et al refer to the name as unspeakable:
This character is an outcast. People flee at his approach. Capp has aptly named him Joe Btfsplk. "Joe" for the pitiable, human aspect; "Btfsplk" for the unspeakable fate he suffers.
Don’t feel too bad for Joe, though. His fate may be unspeakable, but given his popularity it will be a long time before he meets it.
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