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Squiddly Diddly

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Squiddly playing the saxophone, the guitar, and the bongos.

Squiddly Diddly is an anthropomorphic animated squid, created by Hanna-Barbera, who was featured in his own cartoon segment on The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show beginning in 1965.[1][2]

Fictional character biography

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The round-headed, sailor-hatted Squiddly (who resembles an octopus—albeit with only six tentacles—rather than a squid) is kept captive in an aquatic park known as Bubbleland and resides in a pool with his name on it.[3] Squiddly Diddly is an aspiring musician and entertainer who makes many attempts to escape and attain musical stardom, but he is constantly foiled by Bubbleland's administrator Chief Winchley.

In some episodes, Squiddly Diddly manages to escape, but chooses to return to Bubbleland after finding the outside world to be too harsh. Other times Squiddly and Chief Winchley have to work together to solve problems in Bubbleland. The cartoons show people applauding Squiddly Diddly's musical talents, but they often depict terrified people who mistakenly believed that octopuses are hostile.

List of episodes

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Season 1 (1965–66)

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Nº Ep Title Air date
11"Way Out Squiddly"October 2, 1965 (1965-10-02)
Two aliens kidnap Squiddly and take him for a wild ride in their spaceship.
22"Show Biz Squid"October 9, 1965 (1965-10-09)
Overshadowed by dolphins, Squiddly leaves to become a big star.
33"The Canvas Back Squid"October 16, 1965 (1965-10-16)
Squiddly is hired to fill in for a pro-wrestler.
44"Nervous Service"October 23, 1965 (1965-10-23)
Squiddly is enlisted into the Navy.
55"Westward Ha!"October 30, 1965 (1965-10-30)
Squiddly goes to the west to imitate his favorite western shows.
66"Sea Grunt"November 6, 1965 (1965-11-06)
Squiddly is cast in a TV show.
77"Chief Cook and Bottle Washer"November 13, 1965 (1965-11-13)
Squiddly has too many chores, so he runs away and joins the pirates.
88"Squid on the Skids"November 20, 1965 (1965-11-20)
Squiddly tries to woo a female squid.
99"Double Trouble"November 27, 1965 (1965-11-27)
Squiddly unexpectedly gets popular at a costume party.
1010"Squid Kid"December 4, 1965 (1965-12-04)
A little boy takes Squiddly home with him.
1111"Booty and the Beast"December 11, 1965 (1965-12-11)
Squiddly and Chief Winchley try to find buried treasure.
1212"Clowning Around"December 18, 1965 (1965-12-18)
Squiddly runs away to join the circus.
1313"Surprise Prize"December 25, 1965 (1965-12-25)
Squiddly and Winchley go to an island, where Squiddly is worshipped as a god.
1414"Naughty Astronaut"January 1, 1966 (1966-01-01)
Squiddly is mistaken for an alien, and is chased by the army.
1515"The Ghost Is Clear"January 8, 1966 (1966-01-08)
Squiddly Diddly babysits a young ghost named Wilbur.
1616"Lucky Ducky"January 15, 1966 (1966-01-15)
A Tasmanian duck arrives in Bubbleland and tries to manipulate Squiddly into giving him his own tank.
1717"Foxy Seal"January 22, 1966 (1966-01-22)
After being tricked into leaving Bubbleland by Slippery Seal, Squiddly helps protect a fox from being hunted.
1818"Squiddly Double Diddly"January 29, 1966 (1966-01-29)
Squiddly has been replaced by a foreign spy to obtain the blueprints for Bubbleland.
1919"Hollywood Folly"February 5, 1966 (1966-02-05)
Squiddly goes to Hollywood to become a star.
2020"One Black Knight"February 12, 1966 (1966-02-12)
Squiddly is swindled into an inheritance of a castle haunted by the Black Knight's ghost -- the butler would have him believe so.

Season 2 (1966)

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Nº Ep Title Air date
211"Yo Ho Ho"September 10, 1966 (1966-09-10)
Squiddly finds a time machine and travels back to Captain Kidney's pirate days.
222"Phoney Fish"September 17, 1966 (1966-09-17)
Two criminals named Knuckles and Tiny pose as snorkel fish in order to rob the Bubbleland box office.
233"Gnatman"September 24, 1966 (1966-09-24)
Squiddly Diddly and Chief Winchley each pose as the superhero Gnatman in order to fight crime.
244"Robot Squid"October 1, 1966 (1966-10-01)
Winchley replaces Squiddly with a robot version.
255"Jewel Finger"October 8, 1966 (1966-10-08)
Squiddly accidentally swallows a precious pearl necklace hidden by a thief in Bubbleland.
266"Baby Squidder"October 15, 1966 (1966-10-15)
Squiddly must keep a wandering boy safe.

Voice cast

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Home video

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On November 3, 2015, Warner Archive released The Secret Squirrel Show: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This release contains all the Squiddly Diddly shorts.

The episode "Way Out Squiddly" is also available on the DVD Saturday Morning Cartoons Vol. 1.

Squiddly Diddly in other languages

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In other media

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Squiddly Diddly (middle right) participates in the Superstar Olympics. From Hanna-Barbera Presents #6.
  • In 1966, Hanna-Barbera Records released Squiddly Diddly's Surfin' Surfari on LP.[4]
  • Squiddly Diddly was featured in Yogi's Gang (1973) voiced by Don Messick.
  • Squiddly Diddly made a lone comic book appearance in 1966, as a back-up feature in the only issue of Secret Squirrel, published by Gold Key Comics, and again in 1996, courtesy of Hanna-Barbera Presents #6, published by Archie Comics.
  • Squiddly and Chief Winchley appeared in Yogi's Treasure Hunt.
  • Squiddly Diddly made two appearances on Yo Yogi!. First, he appeared in the episode "Mall or Nothing" where he is juggling for the Mall-a-thon. Then, he made a cameo in the episode "The Big Snoop" where he is amongst those looking for Super Snooper when he ends up kidnapped. In the former episode, he was voiced by Don Messick.
  • In the British comedy Only Fools and Horses Christmas Special 1989 "The Jolly Boys' Outing", Squiddly Diddly was cited by Del Boy as the reason for the failure of his seafood stall, since people were unwilling to consume creatures they had become fond of.
  • Squiddly Diddly has been seen on HBO's The Ricky Gervais Show, where the character is involved in a few scripts, including being side by side with a killer octopus and giving Karl Pilkington a rectal examination.
  • Squiddly Diddly appears in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episodes "SPF", "Gone Efficien...t" and "The Death of Harvey". Chief Winchley makes a cameo in "Juror in Court".
  • Squiddly Diddly made a cameo in a 2012 MetLife commercial entitled "Everyone".
  • Squiddly Diddly's body is shown in Janni Nemo's office in the 2015 graphic novel Nemo: River of Ghosts, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill.
  • Squiddly Diddly made a cameo as an animatronic in the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Chubby Cheese".
  • Simon Cowell has two dogs named Squiddly and Diddly, a catchphrase he has often used on reality TV shows over the years.
  • Squiddly Diddly appears several times in Mark Russell's 2018 comic book Exit, Stage Left!: The Snagglepuss Chronicles.
  • Squiddly Diddly makes a cameo in the Wacky Races episode "Wacklantis" as various sea life are summoned by the king of Atlantis.
  • Squiddly Diddly makes two cameo appearances in Scoob!, as part of a mural on the side of the building and on a billboard for Bubbleland.
  • Squiddly Diddly makes an appearance as a silhouette in the 2020 Animaniacs revival segment "Suffragette City".
  • Squiddly Diddly appears in Jellystone!, voiced by Niccole Thurman.[5][6] While the original promo image presented Squiddly as a male, the character is female in the actual series.[7] She works at a music store. Chief Winchley have yet to appear.
  • Squiddly Diddly is the star of his own poem, "The Story of Squiddly Diddly", which was written by Theodora Shilliton and won at 2021's National Poetry Day. The poem involves the titular squid as he tries to stop people from polluting the ocean while befriending a tuna, a sea turtle, and a sea cow along the way.

References

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  1. ^ "Squiddly Diddly". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on May 28, 2024. Retrieved June 4, 2008.
  2. ^ "Squiddly Diddly". 1965.
  3. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 99–100. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  4. ^ Dave Wagner (July 6, 2007). "Squiddly Diddly's Surfin' Safari LP". Children's Records & More. Retrieved June 20, 2011.
  5. ^ "HBO Max Sets New Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Robert Zemeckis Hybrid Series 'Tooned Out', More for Kids & Family Slate". 29 October 2019.
  6. ^ "Trailer: Hanna-Barbera Favorites Return in HBO Max Original 'Jellystone!'". 24 June 2021.
  7. ^ "Jellystone! I Official Trailer I HBO Max Family". YouTube. June 24, 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
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