My brother is providing some good blog fodder these days. Here’s the last email I got from him, published with his (and his girlfriend’s permission):
“Donna was saying how I “poke and prod” her out of her bubble, i.e. make her think about things differently. So she called me pokey. So I called her gumby. And then we realized that we are like the actual characters!”
and then Songbae included excerpts from the gumbyworld website:
Pokey: Gumby’s Best Pal
The Gumby series was successful because it presented its audience with the engaging duo of Gumby, an adventurous hero, and Pokey, a complainer, masquerading as a realist. Gumby may have his feet on the ground, but his head is in the clouds. Pokey, on the other hand, is tied to the earth.
That’s why he has the colors of earth, orange and black, which together make the color of the rich soil that is the basis for all growth on earth.
Pokey’s Personality
Where Gumby is idealistic, Pokey is skeptical. Where Gumby is trusting, Pokey asks questions. When Gumby takes chances, Pokey often gets dragged along against his will, but ends up appreciating the experience. The two save each other with regularity. In every episode Pokey gives advice, and sometimes, Gumby listens to him.
Sometimes Pokey is just plain cranky and pessimistic, poking and gibing at Gumby. He loves to be sarcastic. He mutters under his breath, drags his feet, and doesn’t like it when Gumby takes advantage of him, as in Pokey Minds the Baby. When Gumby decides he wants to find the Hidden Valley, Pokey mutters, “I don’t see how we can find Hidden Valley if no one else ever did.”
Pokey loves to have the last word. In the episode, A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts, Gumby’s trees produce watermelons instead of coconuts. Poke points out that the crop was a little different from the expected by saying, “Some coconuts”, before a watermelon falls on him and covers him with the crushed fruit. “Not bad”, mutters Pokey as he licks his lips.
