Oliver Wendell Jones
Encyclopedia
Oliver Wendell Jones is a fictional character in Bloom County
, Outland and Opus
, three comic strips by American
cartoon
ist Berkeley Breathed
.
into forbidden files with his Banana Jr. 6000 computer, and would be grounded or spanked by his father when he was caught. He once framed Steve Dallas
for breaking into the IRS
computers.
Calls Women 'America's Most Valuable Resource'". Milo, who accompanies Oliver, immediately alters it on the basis of being "too wordy" and the final edition reads "Reagan Calls Women 'America's Li'l Dumplin's
'", sparking nationwide outrage and a mass dumpling pelting attack on the White House by feminists (the comment was based on a real comment made by Hayden Fry
, the football
coach for the University of Iowa
which provoked similar outrage in real life). He also reprogrammed NASA's Space Shuttle re-entry trajectory to cause the shuttle to land in on their neighbor's beet patch; his dad commented that that was kinda funny, but that Oliver was still in BIG TROUBLE. Hacking the IRS to give Dad a multi-million dollar rebate didn't quite go as planned either.
Among his other accomplishments is building an atomic bomb for a science project, a feat that got him suspended from school. He also hijacked HBO's transmissions claiming to be leader of the "People's Revolutionary Anti Scrambling Front for the Liberation of Public Airwaves etc, etc.". In this stunt reminiscent of Captain Midnight's similar hijacking of HBO, Oliver appeared on television wearing a black hood similar to G.I. Joe
's Cobra Commander
.
as an example - which was something that Oliver did not appreciate. Through the years, Oliver's mother had a wall sized Michael Jackson photo covering Oliver's room, bought him a Michael Jackson glove, a Michael Jackson Caucasian
kit and the Michael Jackson facial distorter (basically a tabletop vise
for the face).
Oliver was named for United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
, and it is also similar to the full name of the M*A*S*H character Spearchucker Jones, Oliver Harmon Jones.
Prototype testing proved successful on Steve Dallas who, after finding his skin a little darker, believed that he had ventured into The Twilight Zone
and began looking for Rod Serling
in the bushes.
with balloons attached to it, with a crucial design flaw that there is no way to steer. It was meant as a way to take Cutter John to Washington DC so he could use the Electro-photo pigmentizer on the South African ambassador to the United States, thus turning him dark-skinned and creating social chaos in South Africa to help bring down apartheid.
. A few bugs plagued it in the beginning. Oliver's first attempt at teleportation landed him part way in the floor. Another attempt resulted in his father's automobile
being transported into orbit around Pluto
. The largest disaster was due to Bill The Cat
's presence in the transporter with Oliver, which changed Oliver into half-human half-cat, a la The Fly
.
cure made out of sweat from Bill the Cat (originally intended as a deodorant until it caused rampant underarm hair growth in Oliver's dad). When users began to develop feline characteristics (most notably Bill's trademark "ack" noises), the government declared the tonic a controlled substance. The price of the tonic skyrocketed, and the gang began selling it underground. Criminals began to get in on the action. The whole series was a thinly disguised commentary on the drug wars
. The craziness ended when Congress legalized the scalp tonic which caused the market to collapse, and production to cease; without a supply of the tonic, Oliver's dad went totally bald (by sneezing his hair off).
was doing the same (this caused him to bang his head on the wall several times). Oliver then wrote a letter to Hawking, ridiculing
him and his mathematical abilities. Hawking responded by mailing Oliver a thermonuclear bomb (which never actually detonated). Oliver eventually beat Hawking to the equation, and attempted to explain it to Opus
. Under closer examination, however, the equation disproves the existence of flightless
waterfowl
, and Opus begins to be erased, as if with a pencil
eraser. Oliver then discovers that he "forgot to carry the two" and corrects the equation, and Opus pops back into existence, if a bit disheveled.
Bloom County
Bloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where...
, Outland and Opus
Opus (comic strip)
Opus was a Sunday strip drawn by Berkeley Breathed for a period of five years, 2003 to 2008. It was Breathed's fourth comic strip, following The Academia Waltz, Bloom County and Outland....
, three comic strips by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
ist Berkeley Breathed
Berkeley Breathed
Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed is an American cartoonist, children's book author/illustrator, director and screenwriter, best known for Bloom County, a 1980s cartoon-comic strip that dealt with sociopolitical issues as understood by fanciful characters and through humorous analogies...
.
Fictional character biography
The genius of the bunch, he was always hackingHacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
into forbidden files with his Banana Jr. 6000 computer, and would be grounded or spanked by his father when he was caught. He once framed Steve Dallas
Steve Dallas
Steve Dallas is a fictional character in the American comic strips of Berke Breathed, most famously Bloom County in the 1980s.He was first introduced as an obnoxious frat boy in the college strip The Academia Waltz, which ran in the University of Texas's Daily Texan during 1978 and 1979...
for breaking into the IRS
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
computers.
Hacking
His first such hacking endeavor in Bloom County occurred only days after his first introduction to the series, where he alters the print newspaper's front page of the New York Times, which has the headline, "ReaganRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
Calls Women 'America's Most Valuable Resource'". Milo, who accompanies Oliver, immediately alters it on the basis of being "too wordy" and the final edition reads "Reagan Calls Women 'America's Li'l Dumplin's
Dumpling
Dumplings are cooked balls of dough. They are based on flour, potatoes or bread, and may include meat, fish, vegetables, or sweets. They may be cooked by boiling, steaming, simmering, frying, or baking. They may have a filling, or there may be other ingredients mixed into the dough. Dumplings may...
'", sparking nationwide outrage and a mass dumpling pelting attack on the White House by feminists (the comment was based on a real comment made by Hayden Fry
Hayden Fry
John Hayden Fry is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Southern Methodist University , North Texas State University, now the University of North Texas , and the University of Iowa , compiling a career college football record of 232–178–10...
, the football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
coach for the University of Iowa
Iowa Hawkeyes football
The Iowa Hawkeyes football team is the interscholastic football team at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have competed in the Big Ten Conference since 1900, and are currently a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association...
which provoked similar outrage in real life). He also reprogrammed NASA's Space Shuttle re-entry trajectory to cause the shuttle to land in on their neighbor's beet patch; his dad commented that that was kinda funny, but that Oliver was still in BIG TROUBLE. Hacking the IRS to give Dad a multi-million dollar rebate didn't quite go as planned either.
Among his other accomplishments is building an atomic bomb for a science project, a feat that got him suspended from school. He also hijacked HBO's transmissions claiming to be leader of the "People's Revolutionary Anti Scrambling Front for the Liberation of Public Airwaves etc, etc.". In this stunt reminiscent of Captain Midnight's similar hijacking of HBO, Oliver appeared on television wearing a black hood similar to G.I. Joe
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a military-themed line of action figures and toys in Hasbro's G.I. Joe franchise. The toyline lasted from 1982 to 1994, producing well over 500 figures and 250 vehicles and playsets. The line reappeared in 1997 and has continued in one form or another to the...
's Cobra Commander
Cobra Commander
Cobra Commander is a fictional character from the G.I. Joe franchise. He appears in the toyline, animated series , comic books, video games, and movie as the usual principal antagonist. He is the supreme leader of the terrorist organization Cobra, and archnemesis of the Joes...
.
Mothering
Oliver's mother always tried to get him to emulate someone "normal" - though she always used Michael JacksonMichael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
as an example - which was something that Oliver did not appreciate. Through the years, Oliver's mother had a wall sized Michael Jackson photo covering Oliver's room, bought him a Michael Jackson glove, a Michael Jackson Caucasian
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
kit and the Michael Jackson facial distorter (basically a tabletop vise
Vise (tool)
A vise or vice is a mechanical screw apparatus used for holding or clamping a work piece to allow work to be performed on it with tools such as saws, planes, drills, mills, screwdrivers, sandpaper, etc. Vises usually have one fixed jaw and another, parallel, jaw which is moved towards or away from...
for the face).
Oliver was named for United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...
, and it is also similar to the full name of the M*A*S*H character Spearchucker Jones, Oliver Harmon Jones.
The Electro-Photo Pigment-izer
This skin-darkening invention was created to flash the white South African ambassador in a desperate attempt to destroy the apartheid regime, but the mission nearly killed Opus and landed Cutter John in Communist Russia where he was held as a political prisoner.Prototype testing proved successful on Steve Dallas who, after finding his skin a little darker, believed that he had ventured into The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
and began looking for Rod Serling
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
in the bushes.
Starchair Enterpoop
The Starchair Enterpoop was Cutter John's wheelchairWheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
with balloons attached to it, with a crucial design flaw that there is no way to steer. It was meant as a way to take Cutter John to Washington DC so he could use the Electro-photo pigmentizer on the South African ambassador to the United States, thus turning him dark-skinned and creating social chaos in South Africa to help bring down apartheid.
The Teleportation Device
This was an attempt to transport matterMatter
Matter is a general term for the substance of which all physical objects consist. Typically, matter includes atoms and other particles which have mass. A common way of defining matter is as anything that has mass and occupies volume...
. A few bugs plagued it in the beginning. Oliver's first attempt at teleportation landed him part way in the floor. Another attempt resulted in his father's automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
being transported into orbit around Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
. The largest disaster was due to Bill The Cat
Bill the Cat
Bill the Cat, or Bill D. Cat, according to the final Outland strip, is a fictional cat appearing in the works of cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, beginning with the comic strip Bloom County in the 1980s and continuing in Outland and Opus in the following decades...
's presence in the transporter with Oliver, which changed Oliver into half-human half-cat, a la The Fly
The Fly (1986 film)
The Fly is a 1986 science fiction horror film co-written and directed by David Cronenberg. Produced by 20th Century Fox, and Brooksfilms, the film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz. It is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name, but retains only the basic premise of a scientist...
.
Scalp Tonic
Oliver developed a baldnessBaldness
Baldness implies partial or complete lack of hair and can be understood as part of the wider topic of "hair thinning". The degree and pattern of baldness can vary greatly, but its most common cause is male and female pattern baldness, also known as androgenic alopecia, alopecia androgenetica or...
cure made out of sweat from Bill the Cat (originally intended as a deodorant until it caused rampant underarm hair growth in Oliver's dad). When users began to develop feline characteristics (most notably Bill's trademark "ack" noises), the government declared the tonic a controlled substance. The price of the tonic skyrocketed, and the gang began selling it underground. Criminals began to get in on the action. The whole series was a thinly disguised commentary on the drug wars
Drug wars
Drug wars may refer to:* War on Drugs, as led by the United States of America* Mexican Drug War, as led by Mexico* Puerto Rican Drug War* Drugwars, a video game...
. The craziness ended when Congress legalized the scalp tonic which caused the market to collapse, and production to cease; without a supply of the tonic, Oliver's dad went totally bald (by sneezing his hair off).
The Grand Unification Theory
After Oliver began searching for an explanation of the universe in the form of an equation, he was told that Stephen HawkingStephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
was doing the same (this caused him to bang his head on the wall several times). Oliver then wrote a letter to Hawking, ridiculing
Hate mail
Hate mail is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient...
him and his mathematical abilities. Hawking responded by mailing Oliver a thermonuclear bomb (which never actually detonated). Oliver eventually beat Hawking to the equation, and attempted to explain it to Opus
Opus the Penguin
Opus the Penguin is a character in the comic strips and children's books of Berkeley Breathed, most notably the popular 1980s strip Bloom County. Breathed has described him as an "existentialist penguin" and the favorite of his many characters...
. Under closer examination, however, the equation disproves the existence of flightless
Flightless bird
Flightless birds are birds which lack the ability to fly, relying instead on their ability to run or swim. They are thought to have evolved from flying ancestors. There are about forty species in existence today, the best known being the ostrich, emu, cassowary, rhea, kiwi, and penguin...
waterfowl
Waterfowl
Waterfowl are certain wildfowl of the order Anseriformes, especially members of the family Anatidae, which includes ducks, geese, and swans....
, and Opus begins to be erased, as if with a pencil
Pencil
A pencil is a writing implement or art medium usually constructed of a narrow, solid pigment core inside a protective casing. The case prevents the core from breaking, and also from marking the user’s hand during use....
eraser. Oliver then discovers that he "forgot to carry the two" and corrects the equation, and Opus pops back into existence, if a bit disheveled.