Another Digression on Alter Egos

The awesome UU and Pinhead provided the, um, enlarged inspiration at left for this particular post, which is about those wacky MTV Animation artists and their very clever use of alter egos to remind us of pop culture past.

One of the late season alter egos of Quinn Morgendorffer was this one on the left, identified on the MTV website with the caption: Quinn poses for a glamour shot as Jayne Mansfield.

What makes Quinn become Jayne Mansfield, though?

First of all, some background. Unless you are as old as me (or, worse, older), you might not know that Vera Palmer, a.k.a. Jayne Mansfield, was a buxom movie star from the 1950s and 1960s. She was a Playboy centerfold star, too, and a nightclub star, a Broadway star, a television star, and a paramour of both JFK and RFK. (Good Lord!) Because she liked to show off her ample bust, she was once introduced on a late-night talk show with the legendary phrase, "Here they are, Jayne Mansfield!" (This story was later mutated to have been said about Dolly Parton by Johnny Carson, but that was not true.) She played the violin and other musical instruments, sang quite well (once with none other than Jimi Hendrix on guitar), entertained American soldiers in Vietnam on USO tours with Bob Hope, and got married to one of her husbands while wearing a transparent gown. She knew how to live large, and she did. She almost became Ginger on Gilligan's Island, but turned down the part. Her impact on pop culture is incalculable.

Quinn becomes Jayne Mansfield because: 1. she has Jayne's 40-inch chest, 2. she has Jayne's hairstyle (with Quinn's trademark bangs), and 3. she's wearing a leopard-skin bikini. Do not underestimate the leopard-skin bikini. Jayne liked bikinis and was fond of ones with leopard prints. One female reviewer for the Miami Herald, in an article about how the bikini became so widespread in use and so beloved by the public, wrote, "In the beginning... there was Jayne Mansfield."

It is said that Jayne Mansfield was one thing that Brittany Taylor isn't: smart. She could pander as well as anyone, but behind the 40-inch breasts was a powerhouse mind and a hard-driving actor/entertainer with an extraordinary range of professional skills. It was literally impossible for her to fail at life.

This post closes with a thought from her: If you're going to do something wrong, do it big, because the punishment is the same either way. Enjoy.