Simon Bar Sinister

Are you wondering where I could possibly be going with a character from the old Underdog cartoon? I should hope so, because the whole point of blogging is to get your attention.

Back when network censorship of TV programs was a real thing, writers and actors would try to get questionable material past the censors. Perhaps it was to make a point, or perhaps just for giggles to see what they could get away with. They certainly got away with something on that beloved kids cartoon. Surely neither kids nor adults caught the joke.

You see, a bar sinister is a slashed line symbol on family crests of medieval times (this one, /, I think). Sir Walter Raliegh supposedly came up with it. The inclusion on a coat of arms allegedly signals that the person who had it on his crest was an illegitimate child. The developers of Underdog, then, managed to get past watchful dragons a character named more or less literally Simon the...well, you know.

It was rather clever, I must admit. The censors would definitely not have allowed it had they caught it.