Muttley: poster dog for the post-post-modern age

Here at the Scenester, we always pride ourselves with over-thinking things through to excess. It is, after all, what makes the absurdities of life in the urban jungle a bit more sensible. "Traffic isn't traffic," as one notable person once said, "It's just an illusion." Perhaps that's framing things a little too transcendentally. As the philosopher once famously said, and I am merely paraphrasing him here, "Shit happens." Which is why this discussion is about something a little bit closer to Earth.

Remember Muttley the canine sidekick of Dick Dastardley in the late-1960s cartoon series the Wacky Races? As an underling to the villain of the show, he demonstrates just how to "stick it to the man" in ways that are viscerally important to the show's success. His boss is a ruthless task master always plotting to get ahead by bending the rules. While he concentrates on concocting evil plans, Muttley is the one he relies on to do all the dirty work. Here he is in one clip scrubbing the deck, day-dreaming about casting away and finding some island paradise.

Sound familiar?

All of us who are engaged in the "rat race" and "working for the man" can identify with his situation. It doesn't matter if you're a blue collar, white collar or green collar worker. Whatever the colour of your collar, and even if you work for yourself, or do something you love for work, or don't work at all, there is always someone to whom you owe your livelihood to. That someone may be the corporation, the client, or even the government who helps you pay your bills and on whose terms you come to terms with your material existence.

By undermining his leader, the viewer is not so sure who's side Muttley is on. Is he just a conscript to Dick Dastardly's sinister plans or is he a willing participant? On the one hand, he curses every time he is ordered to do some menial task, which is where the memorable "rasslin frasslin" line of his comes from (a way to beat the sensors at their own game!). That wouldn't be the case if he were ideologically wedded to Dastardly's dark vision. On the other hand, he obediently follows him like the loyal dog that he is.

Yet his indifference to the success of their venture is emitted each time Dick Dastardly trips up on his plans by that effervescent laugh of his. Again, Muttley is like most of us who just go along for the ride, doing whatever it takes to cross the finish line, engaging in a hearty laugh whenever that new fangled modern theory that the system foists on us, the latest flavour of the month, gets turned into dog poo by that thing called reality.

Indeed, if the Wacky Races is a metaphor for modern life, Muttley is the poster dog for the post-post modern age, who is dependent on the system for a living, but is by no means a mere victim of his circumstance. So the next time the proverbial shit hits the fan where you work, remember Muttley and engage in that snickering laugh of his...behind the boss's back, of course!