Friday Photo Flashback

I will state up front that today’s flashback does not involve a personal/family photo. It does have a personal/family story, though.

As a kid, my dad introduced me and my brother to so many classics. He introduced us to old radio shows, old movies, the Three Stooges and the Little Rascals. He used to go to the library and bring home their 16mm projector and movies to play on it. One of those movies was a Little Rascals short entitled “The Kid From Borneo.”

I’ll state here that this short is not quite politically correct. When the Little Rascals aired on TV, this one was not played. The short was referred to as “offensive” to some viewers. This short kind of falls into the same situation as the old Amos and Andy shows, I suppose.

The premise of the short is this: Spanky’s Uncle George is in town. Uncle George manages a show called “Wild Man from Borneo.” It features a tribal-attired man who is said to have “the mentality of a seven-year-old child.” The kid’s dad does not want Uncle George in the house, so their mom sends them to the show to visit him. She gives them the letter that Uncle George has sent with a photo of the Wild Man on it. Naturally, the kids think the Wild Man IS Uncle George.

As the children attempt to talk with “Uncle George” and speculate that he might be a cannibal, the Wild man spots Stymie’s candy and shouts “Yum, Yum Eat-Em-Up!” In an effort to take the candy, he chases the children (who are now convinced that “Uncle George” is indeed a cannibal) back to their house. Once there, he repeatedly says “Yum, Yum, Eat-Em-Up!” while chasing the kids throughout the house. While in the kitchen, Spanky keeps handing the Wild Man food from the ice box, which he eats without hesitation.

When we watched this particular scene we always laughed. Spanky is so young here, and he keeps handing stuff to Uncle George. “You like Sardines?” Uncle George eats them, can and all. Then Spanky says, “Here’s the opener!” and the Uncle George eats that, too. Spanky they asks, “You like Weinies?” and hands Uncle George a bunch of hot dogs. There’s a gallon of Port Wine in the fridge and Spanky says, “I don’t know what this is, but I’d like to see you drink it!” He does. Every time Spanky offers something, it made us chuckle. My dad and I always laughed when Spanky handed Uncle George a big deli roll of bologna. “You like baloney, Uncle George?”

I tell you all of that to share this. My dad and I had talked about this short recently and when a picture of the Wild Man showed up on a page I follow, I took it and had some fun with AI. I plugged in the photo of him, and a photo of me. I told AI to make me a toddler, but keep the glasses and beard. I told them to put me by an ice box and to have me hand thing of bologna to Uncle George. This is what it came up with:

This is probably only funny to my dad and I, but it truly made me belly laugh.

Next week, back to “real” photos.