Editing Zippy the Pinhead (section)

==Characters and story==
Zippy's original appearance was partly inspired by the [[Microcephaly|microcephalic]] [[Schlitzie]], from the film ''[[Freaks (1932 film)|Freaks]]'', which was enjoying something of a cult revival at the time, and [[P. T. Barnum]]'s sideshow performer [[Zip the Pinhead]], who may not have been a [[microcephalic]] but was nevertheless billed as one.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zippythepinhead.com/pages/aaishehavingfunyet.html |title=Are We Having Fun Yet? |publisher=Zippythepinhead.com |access-date=2013-02-18}}</ref>

Griffith has never committed himself to a set origin story for Zippy; no fewer than five have appeared:
* a strange visitor from another planet
* a pinhead who wandered away from the circus
* an android whose inventor didn't live to see its imperfections
* the secret identity of a jaded heir to a fortune who decided to apply Zen to everyday life
* a college student who inexplicably turned into a pinhead

Griffith also never committed himself to any set time period or home location for Zippy. 

Griffith compares the creation of the strip to [[jazz]]: "When I'm doing a ''Zippy'' strip, I'm aware that I'm weaving elements together, almost improvising, as if I were all the instruments in a little jazz combo, then stepping back constantly to edit and fine-tune. Playing with language is what delights Zippy the most."<ref name=is>{{cite web| url= http://www.zippythepinhead.com/pages/aaishehavingfunyet.html |title= Is he having fun yet?| website= zippythepinhead.com}}</ref>

Zippy's favorite foods are [[taco sauce]] and [[Ding Dongs]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zippythepinhead.com/pages/aacast.html |title=Cast of Characters |publisher=Zippythepinhead.com |access-date=2013-02-18}}</ref> He sometimes snacks on [[Polysorbate 80]]. 

Zippy's signature expression of surprise is "Yow!" Zippy's unpredictable behavior sometimes causes severe difficulty for others, but never for himself. (For example, drug dealers tried to use him as a [[drug mule]], but lost their stash or were jailed.)

He is married to a nearly identical pinhead named '''Zerbina''', has two children, '''[[nuclear fuel|Fuelrod]]''' (a boy) and '''[[nuclear meltdown|Meltdown]]''' (a girl), both apparently in their early teens, and owns a cat named '''Dingy'''. His parents, '''Ebb''' and '''Flo''', originally from Kansas, live in Florida. Zippy's angst-ridden twin brother '''Lippy''' also frequently appears. He is portrayed as Zippy's total opposite, often dressed in a conservative suit, thinking sequentially, and avoiding his brother's penchant for non-sequiturs. In a daily strip dated 8 March 2005, he is depicted as being deeply moved by the poetry of [[Leonard Cohen]], the landscape paintings of [[Maxfield Parrish]], and the music of [[John Tesh]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://zippythepinhead.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ZTP&Product_Code=8-Mar-05&Category_Code= |title=Lippy's Lite Side |publisher=Zippy the Pinhead |access-date=2013-02-18}}</ref>

He has four close friends:
* '''Claude Funston''', a hapless working man
* '''Griffy''', a stand-in for Bill Griffith, who often appears in the strip to complain about various aspects of modern life to Zippy, who encourages him to mellow out
* '''Shelf-Life''', a fast-talking schemer always looking for "the next big thing"
* '''Vizeen Nurney''', a 20-something lounge singer who, despite her rebellious image, has an optimistic and sympathetic nature

A humanoid [[toad]], '''Mr. Toad''' (less commonly "Mr. the Toad") who embodies blind greed and selfishness, appears occasionally (along with his wife, '''Mrs. Toad''', and their children, '''Mustang''' and '''Blazer'''), as do '''The Toadettes''', a group of mindless and interchangeable amphibians, who pop up here and there; and the '''Stupidity Patrol''', described by Bill Griffith as "cruising the streets of [[Los Angeles|L.A.]], correcting the behavior of insensitive louts".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zippythepinhead.com/pages/aacast.html |title=Cast of Characters |publisher=Zippythepinhead.com |access-date=2013-05-02}}</ref> (Mr. Toad first appeared in [[underground comix|underground]] strips done by Griffith in 1969.)<ref name= lambiek>{{cite web | url= http://www.lambiek.net/artists/g/griffith.htm |title= Bill Griffith | website= Lambiek.net| publisher= Lambiek Encyclopedia| date= July 10, 2016| access-date= June 7, 2017}}</ref> 
[[Image:Doggie Diner 1.jpg|thumb|right|The actual sign for the San Francisco Doggie Diner, commonly portrayed in the comic strip as one of Zippy's conversational foils]]

Another occasionally occurring character is '''God''', appearing either as a disembodied head or a head superimposed on various peoples' bodies. He is depicted as either conversing with Zippy on various philosophical topics, or commenting on humanity in general.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://zippythepinhead.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ZTP&Product_Code=19-Jun-13&Category_Code= |title=Stand Back! |publisher=Zippythepinhead.com |access-date=2016-12-07}}</ref>

In his daily-strip incarnation, Zippy spends much of his time traveling and commenting on interesting places; recent strips focus on his fascination with roadside icons featuring giant beings; Zippy also frequently participates in his long-running conversation with the giant fiberglass doggie mascot of [[San Francisco]]'s [[Doggie Diner]] chain (later, the Carousel diner near the [[San Francisco Zoo]]).  For a while the Zippy website encouraged people to send photos of interesting places for Zippy to visit in the strip.

In 2007, Griffith began to focus his daily strip on the fictional city of Dingburg, [[Maryland]], Zippy's "birthplace" which, according to the cartoonist, is located "17 [[mile]]s [[west]] of [[Baltimore]]."<ref>{{cite web|last=Cavna |first=Michael |url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2008/10/the_morning_line_from_blues_to.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022153722/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2008/10/the_morning_line_from_blues_to.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 22, 2012 |title=Cavna, Michael. "The Morning Line: 'Zippy' Creator Draws on Real (Pungent) Maryland," ''The Washington Post'', Tuesday, October 21, 2008 |publisher=Voices.washingtonpost.com |date=2008-10-21 |access-date=2013-02-18}}</ref> Griffith said:
{{cquote|Over the years, I began to expand Zippy's circle of friends beyond my usual cast of characters to a wider world of people like Zippy--other pinheads. I kept this up for a few months, happily adding more and more [[muumuu]]-clad men and women until one day the whole thing just reached critical mass. The thought then occurred, 'Where do all these friends of Zippy live? Do they live in the real world which Zippy has been seen escaping for years—or do they live apart, in a pinhead world of their own?' Thus Dingburg, 'The City Inhabited Entirely by Pinheads' was born. It even had a motto: 'Going too far is half the pleasure of not getting anywhere'. The logical next step was to imagine Dingburg streets and neighborhoods—to create a place where Zippy's wacky rules would be the norm and everyone would play 24-hour Skeeball and worship at the feet of the giant [[Muffler Man]]. Zippy had, at last, found his hometown.}}

In regard to Zippy's famous catchphrase, at the 2003 [[University of Florida]] Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, Griffith recalled the phone call from ''[[Bartlett's Familiar Quotations|Bartlett's]]'':
{{Quote|When ''Bartlett's'' approached me ... five or six years ago, I got a call from the editor. And he was going to give me credit for the 'Are we having fun yet' saying, but he wanted to know exactly where Zippy had first said it. I did some research (I had no idea), and I eventually found... the strip 'Back to Pinhead, the Punks and the Monks,' from ''Yow'' #2{{efn|''Yow'' was a three-issue Zippy comics series published by  [[Last Gasp (publisher)|Last Gasp]] in 1979–1980; the title of the series was changed to ''Zippy'' for the final issue.}} in 1979... That's the first time he said, 'Are we having fun yet?' Certainly not intended by me to be anything more than another non sequitur coming out of Zippy's mind.<ref>Griffith, Bill. [https://imagetextjournal.com/still-asking-the-unanswerable-question-are-we-having-fun-yet/ "Still Asking the Unanswerable Question, 'Are We Having Fun Yet?',"] ''ImageText Journal'' Vol. 1, No. 2 (2005).</ref>}}