Wum (cartoon)

Wum is a cartoon character by the humorist and cartoonist Loriot .

Emergence

In the fall of 1970, the ZDF showed short cartoon spots in which a dog encouraged its master, a male with a bulbous nose, to do something for his mind and watch Three Times Nine . Loriot had used both characters several times in his comic books. Wim Thoelke found out about this while working on the second edition of the show and had the spot shown on a studio monitor. Then he took the dog into the program: At the end of the program, he spoke to the character, with Wim standing in front of a screen. The first time it was a huge success, the audience was asked to find a name for the animal. The most mentioned were Kuli and Wum , the former with regard to the quizmaster colleague Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff , who was supposed to give him his opinion, the latter based on Wim. So Wum was born in early 1971. He was sitting on a red stool with which he could swing - such chairs filled with plastic foam balls were very common at the time. So that the children - who were even more enthusiastic about the cartoon than the adults - didn't have to stay up until 9.45 p.m., the conversation with Wum was moved to the middle of the program.

Hit parade

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

I wish I had a little kitty   DE 1  gold 10/30/1972 (28 weeks) Abbl-dibabbl   DE 34 09/10/1973 (8 weeks)

Since musical performances were an important part of the show, it made sense to have Wum sing as well, which was Loriot's spoken chant. In December 1972, for example, the banjo song I wish for a little kitty for nine weeks made it to first place in the single charts . For the success there was a gold record for 500,000 records sold by the music label. The text is also by Loriot, the music was written by Bert Claus and Jean Thomé as well as Elvira Ochoa, who also composed the other Wum-und-Wendelin singles. The proceeds from the sale went to the problem child campaign .

Discography

• Wums singing: I wish for a little kitty / I'm a little dog (1972)
• Wums singing: Abbl-Dibabbl / … point half past eight (1973)
• Wum and his three fat elephants: A fat elephant (B-side: instrumental version with the artist's name Wum on the piano ) (1973)
• Wum & Wendelin: What are you playing there / My name is Wendelin (1979)

The big prize

Early appearances

The figure was retained for the three-by-nine follow-up program The Grand Prize , which, together with Walter Spahrbier, underscored the continuity of the problem child campaign . Here Wum appeared before the third round and thus unchanged at about 8.40 pm: Wum shouted “Thöööölke”, whereupon Wim Thoelke stepped in front of a large screen on which Wum appeared. The two were talking about something; Wum then ended the conversation with a reference to the deadline until which lots could be bought for the next show - usually "... Saturday (later also:" Saturday ", once also" Saturday evening ") in eight days" -, and his right ear formed a "memory knot". Wum sat unchanged on his red stool.

Wum and Wendelin

With the first issue in 1975, an initially nameless gray, somewhat larger elephant was added. From now on the ottoman, which had meanwhile also fallen out of fashion, was no longer available, both animals sat next to each other on a two-seater sofa. Above all, the additional figure offered further opportunities in conversation with the showmaster. The name for the new figure came about again through an audience survey, it resulted in a majority for Wendelin. At the end of the conversation, Wendelin also knotted a part of his body, namely his trunk, to mark the deadline.

Already in 1974 there was the elephant in three versions for the single Wum and its three fat elephants .

The collected skits were published as Loriots Wum and Wendelin by Diogenes Verlag .

The blue Klaus

Again later the blue Klaus occasionally added to the scenery, a smaller figure in human form. He came swiftly into the picture with a flying saucer that was hardly bigger and landed at the feet of the two animals. Then a lid opened and the alien was included in the conversation. The blue Klaus was originally green. The French cartoonist Pat Mallet appealed, however, because he had been producing little green men for a long time, and an agreement was then made on the color blue.

More figures

There was also the lazy dog ​​Hugo and the pig Fräulein Berta as a boastful secretary.

production

The cartoon recordings were made in a studio on Lake Starnberg, Loriot's residence. For this purpose, the texts were first written, then spoken by Loriot and finally the animation was drawn accordingly. Loriot gave his voice to all characters and can also be heard on the records. Jörg Knör only took over the dubbing in 1986 , and you could hardly hear any difference.

right

Since it was originally only about a few commercials, Loriot had not had the dog protected. Wim Thoelke campaigned for this to be done retrospectively for everything except television rights. This involved millions of merchandising products sold.

The end

With the end of the quiz show, no more sequences from Wum appeared.

Since 2003, published weekly Wum and Wendelin - cartoons in the TV magazine Gong , which are designed by subscribers from the Loriot team.

literature

• Wim Thoelke: Stars, colleagues and crooks - a kind of autobiography . Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1995, ISBN 3-404-61362-7 .

swell

1. ^ Wim Thoelke: Stars, colleagues and crooks: A kind of autobiography . Lübbe, 1995, ISBN 978-3-404-61362-5 , encounters.
2. ^ ^{A b} Günter Ehnert: Hit balance sheet - German chart singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 447 .
3. ↑ Search - Official German Charts. Retrieved May 16, 2020 . 
4. ^ Biography of Jörg Knör. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .