SYNCRO-VOX? OR BOTOX?

Stevie Nicks (L) and Clutch Cargo (R). What do they have in common?

The Missus and I were having a discussion with our friends Marc and Shelly yesterday when the topic of Botox came up.

It seems Shelly was watching Charles Osgood’s Sunday morning television show earlier in the day, a show that featured an interview with Stevie Nicks. Oldsters like me will remember Stevie Nicks as the singer-songwriter of Fleetwood Mac - not a noodle dish with grated Cadillac, but, rather, a pop band that saw its greatest success in the 1970’s and 1980’s when Nicks was a member.

Shelly figured out that ol’ Stevie - now 59 years old but with quite a few cocaine-fueled Years o’ Dissipation behind her - must have had some major Botox work recently, because during the interview her face was almost completely expressionless. Only her lips seemed to be capable of movement, as though she were a human ventriloquist dummy.

Hmmm. A face that was completely immobile save for the lips? Where had I seen that before?

That's when it struck me...



Clutch Cargo! Remember him?

Clutch Cargo! Exemplar of Extreme Animation Cheepnis, with theme music consisting solely of Flute and Bongo, possessed of that same ventriloquist dummy quality!

Clutch Cargo’s bizarre style of low-budget animation has heretofore been credited to the Syncro-Vox optical printing system, but now we know the truth. Botox has apparently been around since 1959!