Ein Volk, Ein Smurf, Ein Poppa!
I'm not sure if I've shared my crypto-Nazi Smurf theory with the general public before, but a recent comment in my Scooby Doo entry has reminded me that I ought to make my musings known.

I'm not the first person to detect a sinister political agenda in The Smurfs, of course. A lot of people have seen them as a Communist front like the American Dental Association (fluoride in the water? They're trying to corrupt our precious bodily fluids!) Others, like George Will, take a more cautious approach and see them more as watered-down Euro-Socialists, though here as usual Will is smurfing out the wrong smurf. The "Smurfs are Communists" theory is a common one, actually, and there is some evidence for it, but I have a different take on things: the Smurfs are Nazis.

Some of my evidence is the same as the evidence for the Communist theory -- both Communism and Nazism are extremely communitarian political philosophies, exalting society as a whole and downplaying the individual. They all look alike. They all dress alike. Many of them have names that simply define their function in society, e.g. Farmer Smurf. But which flavor of communitarians are the Smurfs?

These aspects of Smurfy society lead me to believe they're fascists:

1) The cult of personality around the great leader, Papa Smurf. While Communist societies sometimes also have leadership cults (Stalin, Mao, etc) they are much more important to Fascist societies.

2) Uniforms. Mao experimented with uniforms for civilians, but that degree of regimentation is more prevailent in fascist societies, as when the Nazis started putting civilian government functionaries in uniform.

3) Unity through attacks on minorities. A central theme in Fascism is unity against an internal threat. Intellectuals and religious minorities are favorite targets in fascist societies, and Brainy Smurf is the fascist stereotype of the intellectual: arrogant, ambitious, and essentially useless to the society. The Smurfs consistently unite in beating Brainy up and driving him from the village in an ongoing personal Krystalnacht.

4) Gargamel. This is the key to defining The Smurfs as Nazi rather than a garden variety fascist program. Gargamel the evil wizard fits pretty much all the Nazi (and earlier European) stereotypes of the Jew -- a miser, dressing in threadbare black (the classic "ewige Jude" image). He has a large hook nose, a high forehead, and bad posture (watch the Nazi "race scientist" in Europa, Europa describing Jewish characteristics to a class of Hitlerjugend and see how well Gargamel fits). He plots to kill the master race, using their bodies for foul magical rituals -- to make gold of course, being the greedy Jew -- and eating the rest (as Jews were accused of using the blood of Christian children to make matzoh in the medieval blood libel). Even the names Gargamel and Azrael have an old testament feel to them.

Then there's Smurfette. Nazism had a strong misogynistic streak to it, and Smurfette was depicted as an evil artificial construct designed to disrupt and betray the all-male ideal Smurfy society. As created she was a brunette. When she was purified and turned into a good and truly smurfy Smurf she became a blonde. The good blonde/evil dark haired people dichotomy is alien to Communism but fits perfectly with Nazism.

Finally, there was an episode where some Smurfs started changing color (turning purple) and speaking strangely. The threat of the purple Smurfs overrunning the village was ended when the blue Smurfs gassed the purple ones. In the cartoon this was a cure, but the subtext is obvious.

Footnote on the ever-fascinating vagaries of the LJ spell checker: it recognizes "smurf" as a word but not "smurfy" or "Smurfette." For the latter, one of LJ's suggested alternatives was "smutty." Read into that what you will.