Gumby and Pokey Facts

•"Gumbo" is oil-driller lingo for the sedimentary layer of clay on top of a petroleum field.

•"Gumby" is the Latin diminutive of "Gumbo," his father's name. The clay boy's Mother is named "Gumba." Creator Clokey admits that after seven years of Latin in school, that's the only time he ever put the language to good use.

•The trademark bump on Gumby's head came from an old photograph of Clokey's father in which a cowlick appears to give him an unnatural bump, or as Clokey puts it, "the bump of wisdom that the Buddhists have."

•To produce each show requires 60 artists and technicians turning out approximately two minutes of film every eight working hours. Gumby and his pals may be moved up to 9,000 times in a 6-minute episode.

•Good thing Gumby characters are so simple. Because he's made of plasticine which disintegrates quickly, animators go through five or six Gumby's per scene.

•Cartoon characters of the gods? Valleys and fault lines created a 40 mile formation on Venus that looked just like the green boy to scientists watching pictures come in from the Magellan spacecraft. In 1990, they nicknamed the formation "Gumby."

•A few years ago rap fans were sporting the Gumby, a hairstyle with the sides shaved (a "fadeaway") and a tilted bump on the top.

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