View source for Mutt and Jeff

{{Short description|1907–1983 American comic strip}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox comic strip
| fgcolor     =
| bgcolor     =
| title       = Mutt and Jeff
| image       = [[Image:MuttandJeffAdvertisement.jpg|240px]]
| caption     = ''Overland Monthly'' ad (January 1916).<ref>{{cite journal |title=Mutt and Jeff ad|date=January 1916 |journal=Overland Monthly |volume=LXVII |issue=#1 |pages=lx}}</ref>
| author      = {{ubl|[[Bud Fisher]] (1907–1932)|[[Al Smith (cartoonist)|Al Smith]] (1932–1980)|George Breisacher (1980–1983)}}
| illustrator = 
| current     = 
| url         = {{URL|gocomics.com/muttandjeff/}}
| status      = Concluded; reruns
| first       = November 15, 1907 
| last        = June 26, 1983
| altnames    = A. Mutt
| syndicate   = {{ubl|[[King Features Syndicate]] (1907–1915)|[[Wheeler Syndicate]] / [[Bell Syndicate]] (1915 – c. 1944)|[[Field Newspaper Syndicate]] (1944–1983)|[[Andrews McMeel Syndication]] (reruns)}}
| publisher   = 
| genre       = [[Humor comics|Humor]]
| rating      = 
| preceded by = 
| followed by = 
}}
[[File:Muttandjeffalla51.jpg|right|thumb|''Mutt and Jeff'' as reprinted in ''All-American Comics'' #51 (1943).]]

'''''Mutt and Jeff''''' is a long-running and widely popular [[America]]n newspaper [[comic strip]] created by [[cartoonist]] [[Bud Fisher]] in 1907 about "two mismatched [[wikt:tinhorn|tinhorns]]". It is commonly regarded as the first [[daily comic strip]]. The concept of a newspaper strip featuring recurring characters in multiple panels on a six-day-a-week schedule had previously been pioneered through the short-lived ''[[A. Piker Clerk]]'' by [[Clare Briggs]], but it was ''Mutt and Jeff'' as the first successful daily comic strip that staked out the direction of the future trend.

''Mutt and Jeff'' remained in syndication until 1983, employing the talents of several cartoonists, chiefly [[Al Smith (cartoonist)|Al Smith]] who drew the strip for nearly fifty years. The series eventually became a [[comic book]], initially published by [[All-American Publications]] and later published by [[DC Comics]], [[Dell Comics]] and [[Harvey Comics]]. Later it was also published as [[cartoon]]s, films, pop culture [[merchandise]] and reprints.

==Syndicated success==
[[Bud Fisher|Harry Conway "Bud" Fisher]] was a sports cartoonist for the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' in the early 1900s, a time when a newspaper cartoon was single panel. His innovation was to tell a cartoon gag in a sequence, or strip, of panels, creating the first American comic strip to successfully pioneer that since-common format. The concept of a newspaper strip featuring recurring characters in multiple panels on a six-day-a-week schedule actually had been created by [[Clare Briggs]] with ''[[A. Piker Clerk]]'' four years earlier, but that short-lived effort did not inspire further comics in a comic-strip format. As comics historian [[Don Markstein]] explained,
{{blockquote|Fisher's comic strip was very similar to ''A. Piker Clerk'', which cartoonist Clare Briggs ... had done in the very same daily format for ''[[The Chicago American]]'' in 1903. But tho Fisher was born in Chicago, it's unknown whether or not he ever saw the Briggs strip, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say he had an idea. Despite the Briggs primacy, ''A. Mutt'' is considered the first daily strip because it's the one that sparked a trend in that direction, which continues to this day.<ref name=toonopedia-fisher />}}

''A. Mutt'', the comic strip that became better known by its later title, ''Mutt and Jeff'', debuted on November 15, 1907 on the sports pages of the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]''. The featured character had previously appeared in sports cartoons by Fisher but was unnamed. Fisher had approached his editor, [[John P. Young]], about doing a regular strip as early as 1905, but was turned down. According to Fisher, Young told him, "It would take up too much room, and readers are used to reading down the page, and not horizontally".<ref>''The Comics Journal'' #289, April 2008, p. 175.</ref>

This strip focused on a single main character until the other half of the duo appeared on March 27, 1908. It appeared only in the ''Chronicle'', so Fisher did not have the extended lead time that syndicated strips require. Episodes were drawn the day before publication, and frequently referred to local events that were currently making headlines or to specific horse races being run that day. A 1908 sequence about Mutt's trial featured a parade of thinly-disguised caricatures of specific San Francisco political figures, many of whom were being prosecuted for [[Graft (politics)|graft]].

On June 7, 1908, the strip moved off the sports pages and into [[William Randolph Hearst|Hearst]]'s ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'' where it was [[print syndication|syndicated]] by [[King Features Syndicate|King Features]] and became a national hit, subsequently making Fisher the first celebrity of the comics industry.<ref name=toonopedia-fisher>[http://www.toonopedia.com/fishrbud.htm "Bud Fisher] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20120524153352/http://www.toonopedia.com/fishrbud.htm Archived] from the original on April 4, 2012.</ref> Fisher had taken the precaution of [[copyright]]ing the strip in his own name, facilitating the move to King Features and making it impossible for the ''Chronicle'' to continue the strip using another artist.

A dispute between Fisher and King Features arose in 1913, and Fisher moved his strip on September 15, 1915, to the [[John Neville Wheeler|Wheeler Syndicate]] (later the [[Bell Syndicate]]), who gave Fisher 60% of the gross revenue, an enormous income in those times.<ref name=toonopedia-fisher/> Hearst responded by launching a lawsuit which ultimately failed.<ref name=BDzoom>{{Cite web|last=Michel|first=Nathalie, ''BdZoom''|title=Conaissez-vous Mutt and Jeff?|url=http://www.bdzoom.com/index.cfm?page=display&class=article_general&object=dosx20070811114140&rub=interview|language=fr|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20070823051509/http://www.bdzoom.com/index.cfm?page=display&class=article_general&object=dosx20070811114140&rub=interview|archive-date=August 23, 2007|df=mdy-all}}</ref> By 1916, Fisher was earning in excess of $150,000 a year. By the 1920s, merchandising and growing circulation had increased his income to an estimated $250,000.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21568586-internet-has-unleashed-burst-cartooning-creativity-triumph-nerds|title=Triumph of the nerds|newspaper=The Economist|date=December 22, 2012}}</ref>

In 1918, ''Mutt and Jeff'' added a [[Sunday strip]] and, as success continued, Fisher became increasingly dependent on assistants to produce the work. Fisher hired Billy Liverpool and Ed Mack, artists Hearst had at one point groomed to take over the strip, who did most of the artwork.<ref name=lambiek-liverpool>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Billy Liverpool|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/l/liverpool_billy.htm}}</ref><ref name=lambiek-mack>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Ed Mack|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/m/mack_ed.htm}}</ref> Other assistants on the strip included Ken Kling, [[George Herriman]], and [[Maurice Sendak]] (while still in high school).<ref name=lambiek-herriman>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=George Herriman|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/h/herriman.htm}}</ref><ref name=lambiek-sendak>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Maurice Sendak|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/s/sendak_maurice.htm}}</ref>

Fisher appeared to lose all interest in the strip during the 1930s, and after Mack died in 1932, the job of creating the strip fell to Al Smith.<ref name=lambiek-fisher>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Bud Fisher|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/f/fisher_b.htm}}</ref><ref name=lambiek-smith>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Al Smith|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/s/smith_al.htm}}</ref> In c. 1944, the new Chicago-based [[Field Syndicate]] took over the strip. ''Mutt and Jeff'' retained Fisher's signature until his death, however, so it wasn't until December 7, 1954, that the strip started being signed by Smith.<ref name=BDzoom/>

Al Smith received the [[National Cartoonists Society]] [[National Cartoonists Society#Newspaper Comic Strips|Humor Comic Strip Award]] in 1968 for his work on the strip.<ref name=NCS>{{Cite web|last=National Cartoonists Society|title=Newspaper Comic Strips – Humor Strips|url=http://www.reuben.org/ncs/archive/divisions/strips.asp}}</ref> Smith continued to draw ''Mutt and Jeff'' until 1980, two years before it ceased publication.

In the introduction to ''Forever Nuts: The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff'', [[Allan Holtz]] gave the following reason for the strip's longevity and demise:

{{blockquote|The strip's waning circulation got a shot in the arm in the 1950s when President Eisenhower sang its praises, and then again in the 1970s when a nostalgia craze swept the nation. It took the 1980s, a decade focused on the here and now, and a final creative change on the strip when even Al Smith had had enough, to finally allow the strip the rest it had deserved for decades.<ref name=Nuts>''Forever Nuts: The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff'' by Bud Fisher, edited by Jeffrey Lindenblatt; {{ISBN|1-56163-502-2}}</ref>}}

During this final period it was drawn by George Breisacher.<ref name=lambiek-breisacher>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=George Breisacher|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/b/breisacher_george.htm}}</ref> Currently, [[Andrews McMeel Syndication]] continues to syndicate ''Mutt and Jeff'' under the imprint ''Classic Mutt and Jeff'' (in both English and Spanish language versions) under the copyright of [[Pierre de Beaumont|Pierre S. de Beaumont]] (1915–2010), founder of the [[Brookstone]] catalog and retail chain. De Beaumont inherited ownership of the strip from his mother, Aedita de Beaumont,<ref>Fox, Margalit. [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/business/19beaumont.html "Pierre de Beaumont, Brookstone Founder, Dies at 95"]. ''The New York Times'', March 18, 2011.</ref> who married Fisher in 1925 (the couple parted after four weeks, but never divorced).<ref>"Private Lives", ''Life'' magazine, December 28, 1936, page 62</ref>
[[Image:Mutt and Jeff - motorcycle cop.jpg|thumb|610px|A ''Mutt and Jeff'' strip from 1913.]]

==Characters and story==
{{norefs|section|date = January 2024}}
'''Augustus Mutt''' is a tall, dimwitted racetrack character—a fanatic horse-race gambler who is motivated by greed. Mutt has a wife, known only as '''Mrs. Mutt''' (Mutt always addressed her as "M'love"; Al Smith revealed in a ''Boston Globe'' newspaper column that her first name was '''Ima''' – and conceded that he did not use it often because it was not a complimentary name). The Mutts's son was named '''Cicero'''. Mutt first encountered the half-pint '''Jeff''', an inmate of an insane asylum who shares his passion for horse racing, in 1908. They appeared in more strips together until the strip abandoned the horse-race theme to concentrate on Mutt's other outlandish, get-rich-quick schemes. Jeff usually served as a (sometimes unwilling) partner. Jeff was short, bald as a billiard ball, and had [[mutton chop]] sideburns. He has no last name, stating his name is "just Jeff—first and last and always it's Jeff". However, at one point late in the strip's life, he is identified in the address of a cablegram as "Othello Jeff". He has a twin brother named '''Julius'''. They look so much alike that Jeff, who cannot afford to have a portrait painted, sits for Julius, who is too busy to pose. Rarely does Jeff change from his habitual outfit of top hat and suit with wing collar shirt. Friends of Mutt and Jeff have included '''Gus Geevem''', '''Joe Spivis''', and the English '''Sir Sidney'''. Characteristic lines and [[catchphrase]]s that appeared often during the run of the strip included "Nix, Mutt, nix!", "For the love of Mike!" and "Oowah!"{{citation  needed|date = January 2024}}

The original inspiration for the character of "Jeff" was Jacques "Jakie" Fehr, a tiny ({{height|ft=4|in=8|out=cm}}) irascible Swiss-born shopkeeper in the village of Occidental, California. One summer day in 1908, Fisher, a member of San Francisco's [[Bohemian Club]], was riding the North Pacific Coast narrow gauge railway passenger train northbound to the [[Bohemian Grove]], the club's summer campsite. During a stop in Occidental, Fisher disembarked in order to stretch his legs and observed the diminutive walrus-moustached Fehr in heated altercation with the tall and lanky "candy butcher", who sold refreshments on the train and also distributed newspapers to shops in towns along the train route. The comic potential in this scene prompted Fisher to add the character of Jeff to his ''A. Mutt'' comic strip, with great success.

==Interactions with real people==
[[File:Mutt and Jeff 1924 01 02.jpg|thumb|left|Jeff asking Bud Fisher for a favor, 1924.]]
A recurring theme in the strip has the two characters interacting with celebrities, including sports figures, actors, and politicians. They often refer to these real-life people in a chummy way, such as actor [[Douglas Fairbanks|"Doug" Fairbanks]] and President [[Herbert Hoover|"Herb" Hoover]]. Sometimes they interact with the author, as shown in this 1924 comic in which Fisher includes a caricature of himself.

==''Cicero's Cat''==
[[File:Ciceroscat8842.jpg|right|thumb|320px|Bud Fisher's ''Cicero's Cat'' (August 7, 1942).]]
Starting on October 27, 1926, the Sunday page included a [[topper (comic strip)|topper strip]] about Cicero, Mutt's son. On December 3, 1933, the topper began to focus on Cicero's pet, Desdemona. Under the title ''Cicero's Cat'', this pantomime strip ran until 1972.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holtz |first1=Allan |title=American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide |date=2012 |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472117567 |page=106}}</ref>
<!--unsure about where/what to do with the following section:
==Trivia==
Before Smith began drawing the strip, Mack introduced a plotline featuring Mutt running for President, during the [[U.S. presidential election, 1928|1928 Presidential election]] when the same-named Governor [[Al Smith]] was a candidate. Mutt was the first cartoon character to seek the nation's highest office; he was followed in this ambition by the likes of ''[[Pogo (comics)|Pogo]]'' and ''[[Howard the Duck]]''.
-->

==Comic books and reprints==
* The [[Cupples & Leon]] Company produced at least 18 reprint collections of ''Mutt and Jeff'' daily strips, in 10" x 10" softcover books from 1919 to 1933. They also published two larger hardcover editions, ''Mutt and Jeff BIG Book'' (1926) and ''Mutt and Jeff BIG Book No. 2'' (1929).
* Mutt and Jeff also appeared in [[comic books]]. They were featured on the front cover of ''[[Famous Funnies]]'' #1, the first modern format comic book, and reprints appeared in [[DC Comics]]' ''[[All American Comics]]''. It has been suggested that some of the Mutt and Jeff material published by DC Comics were new stories drawn by Sheldon Mayer.
* In 1939, DC gave them their own comic book, published until 1958 for 103 issues, that consisted entirely of newspaper reprints. [[Dell Comics]] took over the feature after DC dropped it, but their tenure only lasted for one year and 12 issues. Many of the Dell issues featured new, conventional-length stories drawn by Smith.
* [[Harvey Comics]], which had several other comic strip reprint comics running at the time, picked up ''Mutt and Jeff'' from Dell, and this version of the comic ran to 1965 for a total of 33 issues, plus two short-lived spinoff titles: ''Mutt & Jeff Jokes'' and ''Mutt & Jeff New Jokes''. These later versions also included Smith's ''Cicero's Cat''.
* In 2007, comics publisher [[NBM Publishing|NBM]] published a reprint volume, ''Forever Nuts: The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff''.<ref name=Nuts/> {{ISBN|1-56163-502-2}}

==Stage shows and sheet music==
[[File:Mutt and Jeff theater production circa 1912.JPG|thumb|A scene from the 1912 stage show.]]
[[File:Mutt and Jeff 1918.jpg|thumb|Advertisement (1918)]]
* ''Mutt and Jeff: A Musical Comedy Song Book'' (1912) Songs include: "The Barn-Yard Rag"; "Sail on Silv'ry Moon"; "Mr. Ragtime Whippoorwill"; "Oh You Girl!"; "A Mother Old and Gray"; "Let Me Call You Sweetheart"; "Years Years Ago"; "If I Forget"; "Bohemia Rag"; "Undertaker Man"; "Tell Me That You Love Me"
* ''The Face in the Flag I Love'' (from ''Mutt and Jeff in Panama'', 1913)
* ''At the Funny Page Ball'' (1918)
* ''Mutt and Jeff on Their Honeymoon'' (aka ''Mutt and Jeff Divorced'', 1920) Songs include: "My Dearie"; "My Dixie Rose"; "The Wild Irish Rose That God Gave Me"; "Why Can't My Dreams Come True"; "Just One Little Smile"; "Songs My Mother Sang to Me"; "When Someone Dreams of Someone"; "When I Am Dreaming of You"
* ''Mutt and Jeff: And They Called It the Funny Sheet Blues'' (1923)
* ''Mutt and Jeff Songster'' (Date unknown)

===Program from ''Mutt and Jeff Divorced'' (1920)===
<gallery>
File:Mutt and Jeff Divorced front 1920.jpg|Front of program for stage show.
File:Mutt and Jeff Divorced program 1920.jpg|Inside of program.
File:Mutt and Jeff Divorced back 1920.jpg|Back of program.
</gallery>

==Motion pictures==
===Live-action===
{{Main|List of Mutt and Jeff live-action shorts}}
In early July 1911, during the [[silent film|silent era]] of motion pictures, at [[David Horsley]]'s [[Nestor Studios|Nestor Comedies]] in [[Bayonne, New Jersey]], [[Al Christie]] began turning out a weekly one-[[reel#Motion picture terminology|reel]] live-action ''Mutt and Jeff'' [[comedy film|comedy]] [[short film|short]], which was based on the comic strip.

The ''Mutt and Jeff'' [[serial film|serial]] was extremely popular and after the Nestor Company established a [[movie studio|studio]] in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]], in late October 1911, Christie continued to oversee a weekly production of a one-reel episode.

In the fall of 1911, Nestor began using an alternate method of displaying the [[intertitle]]s in the ''Mutt and Jeff'' comedies. Instead of a [[cut (transition)|cut]] to the dialogue titles, the dialogue was displayed at the bottom of the image on a black background so the audience could read them as a [[Subtitle (captioning)|subtitle]], which was similar to the way they appeared in the cartoon strips. Horsley was very proud of the device and claimed to have entered a patent on it. He advertised the ''Mutt and Jeff'' movies as "talking pictures".<ref>Eileen Bowser. ''The Transformation of Cinema 1907–1915''. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1990. p. 144. {{ISBN|0-684-18414-1}}.</ref>

The first actors to portray Mutt and Jeff in the comedy shorts were Sam D. Drane, a tall man noted for his resemblance to [[Abraham Lincoln|President Lincoln]], whom he actually played in his last movie, ''The Crisis'' (1916), as A. Mutt, and Gus Alexander, whose nickname was "Shorty," as Jeff. When Alexander left the serial, Christie hired the actor [[Bud Duncan]]. Duncan played Jeff in two installments before the serial ended in 1912.<ref>Anthony Balducci. ''Lloyd Hamilton: Poor Boy Comedian of Silent Cinema''. McFarland. 2009. p. 19. {{ISBN|0-7864-4159-3}}.</ref>

===Animation===
{{Main|Mutt and Jeff animated filmography}}
[[File:Mutt & Jeff in A Tropical Eggspedition (Fox, 1919). One Sheet.jpg|thumb|260x260px|1919 poster for an animated short]]
In 1916,<ref>http://www.filmpreservation.org/userfiles/image/PDFs/MuttJeff_Hanna.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521075415/http://www.filmpreservation.org/userfiles/image/PDFs/MuttJeff_Hanna.pdf |date=May 21, 2013 }} {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref> Fisher licensed the production of ''Mutt and Jeff'' for animation with pioneers [[Charles Bowers]] and [[Raoul Barré]] of the [[Barré Studio]]. The animated series lasted 11 years and more than 300 animated ''Mutt and Jeff'' shorts were released by the [[Fox Film Corporation]], making it the longest continuing theatrical animated movie serial and second longest to ''[[Krazy Kat]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenburg |first1=Jeff |title=The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons |date=1999 |publisher=Checkmark Books |isbn=0-8160-3831-7 |access-date=6 June 2020 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816038312/page/36/mode/2up |pages=37–39}}</ref>
[[Image:dog-gone crop.jpg|left|thumb|Mutt and Jeff in ''[[Dog Gone (1926 film)|Dog Gone]]'' (1926).]]

In 1971, a feature film was released consisting of eleven redrawn colorized Mutt and Jeff silent films, with the short ''Slick Sleuths'' used as the frame, titled ''The Weird Adventures of Mutt & Jeff and Bugoff'', which added new dialogue and soundtrack songs. In this film, Mutt and Jeff are USA government agents, and they have been assigned to track down SMOGPOO's top secret agent Bugoff, a master of disguise attempting to steal secrets all across the world. Bugoff is the Phantom character in ''Slick Sleuths'', but now he is coloured pink. Radio & Television Packagers, Inc. were the producers of the film, which received a very limited theatrical release, primarily being shown on the [[16 mm film|16MM]] circuit.

In 2005, Inkwell Images released a DVD documentary entitled ''Mutt and Jeff: the Original Animated Odd Couple''; several ''Mutt and Jeff'' animated cartoons are included on the disc.<ref>[http://www.inkwellimagesink.com/pages/cartoons/MuttAndJeff.shtml ''Mutt and Jeff: the Original Animated Odd Couple''] at the Inkwell Images home page</ref> Also, individual Mutt and Jeff cartoons have been mixed with other titles on low-cost video collections, such as the ''Cartoon Craze'' DVDs from Digiview Productions. CartoonsOnFilm has been working on a long-term goal of restoring all surviving Mutt and Jeff cartoons.

==In popular culture==
* Any pair of individuals of different sizes has come to be known as a "Mutt and Jeff".
* In the TV series ''[[ER (TV series)|ER]]'' [[Mark Greene]] and [[Susan Lewis]] were referred to several times as "Mutt and Jeff" of Emergency Medicine by [[Doug Ross]].
* Mutt and Jeff, Texas, was a small community located at the intersection of [[Texas State Highway 37|State Highway 37]] and [[Farm to Market Road 14]], near [[Big Sandy Creek (Sabine River)|Big Sandy Creek]], six miles from [[Winnsboro, Texas|Winnsboro]]. The town was so named in the 1920s because of two area merchants, who reminded locals of the comic strip characters. The population decreased during the 1930s, and Mutt and Jeff, Texas, was abandoned by the early 1960s.<ref>[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrmar "Jenkins, Rachel"]. Texas State Historical Association: ''[[The Handbook of Texas Online]]''.</ref>
* The "[[good cop/bad cop]]" police interrogation tactic is also called "Mutt and Jeff".<ref name =phrase/>
* In [[rhyming slang]], "mutton" is used as a shortening of "Mutt'n'Jeff", meaning "deaf".<ref name =phrase>The Phrase Finder. [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/252125.html "Mutt and Jeff"]</ref>
* In [[Frank Henenlotter]]'s ''[[Frankenhooker]]'', when Jeffrey Franken is going through various body parts, he refers to two mismatched breasts as "Mutt and Jeff".
* In the TV series ''[[Twin Peaks]]''{{'}} pilot, Bookhouse Boy biker Joey Paulson says to the fellow biker sitting next to him at The Roadhouse, "Scotty, Mutt and Jeff just crawled in" when Bobby Briggs and Mike Nelson enter the bar.
* In [[Walt Disney Company|Disney]]'s ''[[Aladdin (2011 musical)|Aladdin]]'' stage musical, Mutt and Jeff are referred to by name as examples of great friends.
* In a ''[[Gasoline Alley (comic strip)|Gasoline Alley]]'' sequence begun on October 19, 2015, Mutt telephones Walt Wallet with news regarding Jeff.
* [[Paul Brickhill]] (in ''[[The Dam Busters (book)|The Dam Busters]]'') referred to two test pilots as Mutt and Jeff.
* In the 2002 ''[[The Simpsons|Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Helter Shelter (The Simpsons)|Helter Shelter]]", in which the [[Simpson family|Simpsons]] participate in a reality television game show in which they live in a [[Victorian house]] and have access to items available only in 1895, [[Bart Simpson|Bart]] laments having access only to ''Mutt and Jeff'' comic books and is quoted as saying, "This has been the worst week of my life. I miss my toys and my video games. Mutt and Jeff comics are NOT funny! They're gay, I get it!".<ref>TV.com accessed 7/22/09 {{cite web |url=http://www.tv.com/the-simpsons/helter-shelter/episode/129860/trivia.html |title=The Simpsons: Helter Shelter Trivia and Quotes on TV.com |access-date=2016-04-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100504010953/http://www.tv.com/the-simpsons/helter-shelter/episode/129860/trivia.html |archive-date=May 4, 2010 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> ''Mutt and Jeff'' was not created until 1907.
* Mutt and Jeff, better known in Spanish as Eneas and Benitín, are mentioned in the song "Día de Enero" (English: "January Day") by Colombian singer [[Shakira]] in her sixth studio album ''[[Fijación Oral 1]]''.
* In the 1973 film ''[[The Sting]]'', [[Robert Redford]]'s character Johnny Hooker refers to the mark's bodyguards as "Mutt and Jeff".
* In the musical ''[[Annie (musical)|Annie]]'', Mutt and Jeff are referred to in the song "We Got Annie".
* In [[Kim Stanley Robinson]]'s book ''[[New York 2140]]'', the chapters concerning the characters Jeff Rosen and Ralph Muttchopf are titled "Mutt and Jeff".
* In the 2020 ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' episode "Ghandi Mulholland in: Plastic Doesn't Get Cancer", Mutt (voiced by [[Matthew Senreich]]) and Jeff (voiced by [[Seth Green]]) are erased from existence after becoming too obscure.

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[http://wordsmith.org/words/mutt_and_jeff.html A.Word.A.Day]
*[http://www.gocomics.com/muttandjeff/ ''The Classic Mutt and Jeff'' strips] GoComics
*[http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/133043843.html A suicide-themed Mutt and Jeff strip from November 1911] {{Subscription required}}
* {{Internet Archive short film|id=SlickSleuths|name=Slick Sleuths}}
* ''[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2106006/slick-sleuths/ Slick Sleuths]'' at the [[Turner Classic Movies|TCM Movie Database]]
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/muttjeff.htm ''Mutt and Jeff''] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://arquivo.pt/wayback/20091016111254/http://www.toonopedia.com/muttjeff.htm Archived] from the original on April 4, 2012.

{{Andrews McMeel Universal}}

[[Category:1907 comics debuts]]
[[Category:1983 comics endings]]
[[Category:American comic strips]]
[[Category:Animated films based on American comics]]
[[Category:Comics adapted into animated series]]
[[Category:Comics characters introduced in 1907]]
[[Category:Comic strip duos]]
[[Category:Fictional gamblers]]
[[Category:Gag-a-day comics]]
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