Bodybuilding in Al Capp's Lil' Abner

Amazing how some things in pop culture can be totally everywhere one minute and then totally vanish forever the next. Most people that know something about "Li'l Abner" know about it from the Broadway musical, but at one point it was a pop cultural phenomenon.

Essentially, the jokes are all about laughing at the dumb, hick ways of rural poor people - a now radioactively politically incorrect style of humor, which may explain why this isn't paid attention much these days.

This strip is from 1956 and features "Tiny" Yokum, an overdeveloped 15 1/2 year old muscular kid that gets bamboozled by some Charles Atlas type, who exploits him for his overdeveloped hick muscles.

Tippy Teen #25

Continuing the theme from the last post of upbeat Americana (or Mexicana, as it was last time) here's the cover of TIPPY TEEN from 1969:

I've always thought it interesting that on a lot of occasions featuring muscular guys in popular culture, they're often portrayed as vain, sexually disinterested, self-absorbed, and utterly unthreatening to other men.