The Most Bizarre Classic Cartoon Fan Theories

After enjoying popularity as a European comic strip for decades, the Smurfs became an American pop culture sensation in the 1980s. And contrary to the down-with-Communism, up-with-materialism sensibility of the decade, the Smurfs all worked not for personal wealth accumulation, but for the betterment of Smurf Village, each knowing their place and carrying that assigned task as their own name. For example, Brainy Smurf solved problems because he was smart, and Brawny Smurf could lift heavy stuff because he was so strong. 

In 2011, French sociologist Antoine Buéno suggested in The Little Blue Book that the Smurfverse was "steeped in Stalinism and Nazism," as their leader Papa Smurf demonstrated "authoritarian and paternalistic characteristics," like some kind of fascist. Smurfs don't own property and have a collective economy, a la socialism or Communism. As far as the Nazi similarities go, Bueno noted that Smurfette, with her long blonde hair and small nose is the "Aryan ideal of beauty," and that the villain, Gargamel, "is ugly, dirty, with a hooked nose who is fascinated by gold" — all negative stereotypes of Jewish people.

Unsurprisingly, the Smurfs' creator, the Belgian artist known simply as Peyo, took issue with this. "I disagree with his interpretation," he retorted. "It is between the grotesque and the not serious."