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(Alice in Wonderland, chapter 9) Carroll enjoyed such puns on Victorian fashions and etiquette, and showed this frequently. The description and drawing by John Tenniel gives comedic value to the Mock Turtle, as he is clearly an assemblage of creatures, therefore not a real turtle as his name rightly suggests. The Mock Turtle is a very melancholy character, it is thought because he used to be a real turtle. He tells Alice his history of going to school in the sea, but cannot understand the school system that Alice describes to him- least of all the poetry she recites. Ironically, she cannot understand it either. This is a pun on the two meanings of "school", referring in the turtle's usage to a school of fish or marine animals, and by Alice to an institute of learning (see (school).
[edit] OriginsTo say that the Mock Turtle's name is a pun on the name of the soup is incomplete. The Tenniel illustration of the Mock Turtle specifically depicts it as a collection of creatures that make up the ingredients of mock turtle soup; they are not random. The pun is not only of the name, but of the nature of the soup itself. Traditionally, mock turtle soup takes the parts of a calf that were not frequently used and often discarded, including the head, hooves, and tail; and uses the non-muscular meat to imitate turtle meat. Tenniel's illustration shows the Mock Turtle with the body of a turtle, and the head, hooves, and tail of a calf. The complicated pun, then, is both word-play and picture-play. [edit] Cultural referencesThe Mock Turtle makes an appearance in the computer game American McGee's Alice, having the head of a bull and the body of a turtle. In the beginning, Alice has to help the Mock Turtle find his shell, which was stolen by the Duchess. There is also a Mock Turtle in The Elder Scrolls Legends: Battlespire. It is an Easter egg hidden in the first level of the game, and its name backwards is the answer to a riddle. The turtle will tell you its life story, about how it was once a real turtle and studied various obscure turtle disciplines such as Speculative Ontology, Mystery, Seaography, and Laughing and Grief. The Manchester band, "The Mock Turtles", had a UK hit in the early 90s with the song, 'Can you dig it?' "The Mock Turtle" was the name of a costumed criminal obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and other fantasies in the Astro City universe (as a possible reference to DC comics' similarly Wonderland-obsessed villain, the Mad Hatter). He was introduced (and promptly killed) in the Tarnished Angel story arc. Jazz rock band Steely Dan recorded a demo entitled "The Mock Turtle Song;" this song was never recorded for a studio album but has been released on compilations and the band has played it live. The lyrics were directly taken from a song in the section in the book ("The Lobster Quadrille"). The Noise band Mock Turtle from Warren, Michigan is named after the character. Jazz fusion band Bruford recorded a song entitled "Fainting in Coils", which is included as the fifth track of the band's 1979 release One of a Kind. The song includes narration by band founder Bill Bruford consisting of a 74-word excerpt from the "The Mock Turtle's Story." In this excerpt, the Mock Turtle tells Alice about some of things he studied in school, which among other things included "...Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils." In Batman: The Animated Series, The episode "Mad as a Hatter" introduces the infamous villain, The Mad Hatter. During his date with the young co-worker, Alice, he asks her if she recalls the song of the Mock Turtle. He begins to dance gleefully, singing "Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?" At the end, after he loses Alice, he says "Would not, could not, would not, could not join my dance..." as the camera pans out and focuses on a statue of the Mock Turtle shedding a tear. In the 1940 screwball comedy "His Girl Friday", when character 'Earl Williams' attempts to get out of the roll-top desk he's been hiding in, 'Walter', played by Cary Grant, says, "Get back in there, you Mock Turtle." Grant played "The Mock Turtle" in the 1933 film version of Alice in Wonderland. [edit] Film & Television Incarnations
[edit] References
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