Gumby is a green clay humanoid figure who was the subject of a series of television shows, animated using stop motion photography, known as claymation. The shows also featured Pokey, an orange clay horse, and Gumby's nemesis, the Block-heads . Created by Art Clokey, Gumby first appeared on the Howdy Doody show in 1956 and was given his own NBC series in 1957. Newly produced episodes were added in 1962, 1966-67 and 1988.

The modern Gumby adventures also starred Prickle (a yellow dinosaur), Goo (a blue mermaid blob who could fly), Gumby's sister, Minga and also Denali, the great Mastodon.

The Gumby images and toys are registered trademarks of Prema Toy company . The Library of Congress had Gumby as a spokescharacter from 1994 to 1995, due to a common sequence in his shows where Gumby walks into a book, and then experiences the world inside the book as a tangible place.

A parody of Gumby also made appearances in the occasional sketch in the early years of Saturday Night Live, and was played by Eddie Murphy in a green foam costume. Murphy's Gumby smoked a cigar and talked like an arrogant celebrity indignant at his waning fame, frequently exclaiming, "I'm Gumby, damn it!"

Gumby was also the name of a character in several sketches on the BBC comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus. This Gumby was a man who wore a knotted handkerchief on his head and shouted everything very slowly, including his catchphrase "My brain hurts!" He was played by various members of the Monty Python team over the course of the series, some sketches featuring several Gumbies shouting slowly at each other.

External link

• Gumbyworld.com