Naming follies.

[kickaha]

Gorilla Grodd. Who the heck calls themselves MySpecies MyName? I mean, a one-off hyper-intelligent member of said species maaaaaaaaybe, but Grodd comes from a whole race of intelligent gorillas. It'd be like running around in our society calling yourself Human Harold.

Yes, it's silly, but it just struck me as odd. (Yes, I know, I know... geeeeeeeeeeek...)

Comments

[badger.livejournal.com]

How often do we see him within the context of his species? Most of the time he's in the company of humans, either baseline, post-, or meta-, or other sentients of varying origin. If I was hanging out in his homeland I'd probably introduce myself or get called "Human" (although given the greying beard some gorilla fancying himself witty would probably fall down laughing calling me "Silver*face*"). So yeah, the "Gorilla" part is a useful label for me.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Oh I can understand other sentients using the species label first in many cases, what I find amusing is that he calls *himself* that.

I love the sheer inanity of this conversation. :D

[badger.livejournal.com]

(me, in Gorilla City, picking up the telephone)

*ring ring*

"GRUNT."

"(clears throat the way I have to before saying anything in German) Err, grunt. This is the Human Steve."

"What do you want, Silverface?"

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

If they ever had him throwing the definite article in there, it'd make more sense. "I am Human Steve" when in person and they can see you might be a bit of redundancy, no?

In retrospect, I think someone (Geoff Johns or Mark Waid, I can't recall who had control of the title at the time, I think Waid) noticed this in Flash - anytime the scene shifted to Gorilla City, or the humans were conversing with citizens of there, they just referred to him as "Grodd". Makes much more sense than a bunch of members of a species all prefacing their names with the bleedin' obvious. "Hi, I'm Human Steve." "Nice to meet you Human Steve, I'm Human Jason." "No kidding? On what side?"

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

What you obviously missed is the fact that, in young Grodd's elementary school, there were no fewer than four students named "Grodd", and the epithet was added to make it easier to tell to which Grodd the speaker was referring.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

This would be the all-gorilla elementary school in Gorilla City? *ahem* ;)

(As one of *five* Jasons in my kindergarten class though, I understand the need for an alternate appellation.)

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Sure, why not? The other three Grodds had distinguishing features and/or those admired by gorilla society--you had Tall Grodd, Blonde Grodd, and Smart Grodd--but all of Gorilla Grodd's characteristices were either nondescript or objectionable, he being slight, weak, and having questionable hygienic habits. He was, in fact, such a poor example of his species that the label "Gorilla Grodd was applied as yet another way for this classmates to mock him. This incessant mockery was, of course, the thing that drove him both out of his society and to world domination as a vocation.

They called him "Gorilla Grodd", but he'll show them. HE'LL SHOW THEM ALL.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

... that may be the best origin story ever. I concede the point out of sheer aesthetics.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

I'm just having a guess, you understand...

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Oh I don't care. I'll take it. An origin story that takes a silly character and drives them straight into Camp Campy gets my vote.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Heh. You missed my point, which was, "Nothing autobiographical to see here, let's move along." :)

[meep.livejournal.com]

What about Grape Ape?

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

I prefer to believe that his name is actually Gray Paype, and that we're just mishearing it.

Well, that and since it's the only thing he *can* say, IIRC, it tends to support the semi-sentient mimic theory, whereas Grodd is supposed to be hyper-intellig....

...

My brain just popped.

[meep.livejournal.com]

...wait a sec, he can only say his name?

...is Grape Ape the forerunner of Pokemon?

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh, I hadn't thought of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su2NVKayZ8U

[kaneda-khan.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just a subterfuge. BEHOLD!

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

I had indeed discounted the Invader Zim school of disguise... but that brings up the question - if he's not a gorilla...

Oh my god, it's the guy in the suit from the Patterson film, come back to KILL US ALL!