Wicked Willie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wicked Willie is a humorous British cartoon character personified as a talking penis, created by Gray Jolliffe (illustrator) and Peter Mayle (writer). He first appeared in the book Man's Best Friend, published in 1984.[1] He has subsequently appeared in Wicked Willie – The Movie,[2] and the board game, The Wicked Willie Game.[3] Jolliffe has said that the idea for Wicked Willie came to him one day, while he was in the bath.[4] A more detailed history of Wicked Willie is found in the book Wicked Willie Reloaded.[5][6]
Journalist Peter Silverton described it thus: "...comic books about a man and his Wicked Willie. It was a dialogue—mostly about women, of course—between the two. Its irony is that the 'dreadful little trouser mole' is by far the sharper of the two brains".[7]
Author Peter Mayle describes Wicked Willie as "a rampant penis".[8] In her book Communicating Gender, Suzanne Romaine notes:
- "The personification metaphor suggests that the penis leads a life of its own. It has been popularized in Britain in the form of the Wicked Willie books, where Willie is referred to as "Man's Best Friend".[9]
Scottish feminist linguist Deborah Cameron notes that:
- "In England, there is a popular cartoon character called "Wicked Willie" [...] The underlying conceit is that men secretly regard their penis as an individual in its own right (and one to whom they are deeply attached). Though the cartoon is a joke, it presumably speaks to a widely recognized, culturally constructed experience of the penis as an uncontrollable Other, with a life of its own".[10]
The character also contributed to the permissiveness and acceptance of sex on the high street. British journalist Libby Purves writes:
- "High street shops no longer bother to put their hopping penises on a high shelf, and nor do bookshops selling Wicked Willie and the like."[11]
