THEFLIPISMSTORY

Carl Barks made 250 10-pager Donald Duck stories for the Walt Disney WDCS comic book series. Most of them presented the primary character in novel situations that were spawned from Barks' vivid imagination, which, in turn, has meant that the stories are easily recognizable and highly treasured my his many readers. One of the most memorable of these inventive and entertaining tales premiered in WDCS149 known as 'Flipism' from 1953. This is the story.

THE STORY

WDCS149 'Flipism' - 1953

Synopsis:

Donald Duck happens to overhear a lecture held by a fraudulent 'professor', claiming that Flipism - the philosophy of using coin flipping to decide one's fate - is the solution to any problem. From now on Donald is letting all the decisions of his life depend on tosses of a coin. Persuaded by the blessings of Flipism Donald sets out on a troublesome car trip with disastrous consequences.
When Donald at long last sees the error of his ways he decides to find the fraudster and confront him. To that end he uses the otherwise useless Flipism for the last time in order to get his money (and sanity for that matter) back.

Scattered comments:

A fraudulent and fast-talking charlatan, professor Batty, postulates that 'life is just a gamble' and that Donald can leave all his life's actions and decisions to the tossing of a coin: Why worry? Let Flipism solve your problems! For one dollar - only one dollar - I will sell you this brilliant book explaining the methods and benefits of Flipism! Feebleminded and gullible Donald is convinced and goes forth in pursuit of happiness only to realize that his world is slowly falling apart.

Donald behaves totally irresponsibly in this story in which he drives his nephews around in the countryside with little - or no - consideration for their well-being. He even manages to crash his car in a head-on collision by driving the wrong way on a one-way road! Donald's life becomes one disaster after another, because he refuses to let sound judgement guide him.

Barks made Donald a pseudo leader (this time by travelling in his car) by letting all his decisions depend on tosses of a coin. This biting satire stars Donald as a ... misleader without a clue or any common sense at all.

A somewhat biased judge flaunts a menacing message on the front of his podium.

Fate brings Donald to a situation where he actually stops thinking, and consequently he encounters a lot of unnecessary problems. Barks does not offer a moral as such in this story, but the moral would be that you are your own master and that you should always take responsibility for your own life.

THE TITBITS

When Barks' pseudo-scientific invention is mentioned among readers the terms Flipism and Flippism are used rather randomly. The correct version is Flipism (with one P), but the practitioners are named Flippists (with two Ps).

In parts of the story Donald talks in rhymes! Examples: It came down Tails! We hit the Trails! - Heads the little coin doth Say! We will travel Thisaway! His governing credo is:
Life is but a Gamble!
Let Flipism chart your Ramble!

We learn that Daisy has a sister living in an apartment house in either Dizzy Street or Coma Way.

The story's final panel reveals that Flipism actually (by chance!) worked in Donald's search for professor Batty, showing that the frightened charlatan is located in the apartment next door. This is the only end panel in Barks' production that shows a solo villain and no primary characters.

This story marks the first appearance of the nieces April, May, and June; they are just seen in the last page accompanying the nephews. The basic idea - pairing the nieces with the nephews - was interesting, because with the right plots there would have been ample room for them to either team up or play against each other.

In 1953 Barks wrote the story in which veritable forests of traffic signs played a prominent part. Barks satirized the excess numbers of puzzling road signs which, in the story, brought Donald down. Things have not exactly improved much since then...

Besides the sign issue Barks gladly satirized diverse new movements such as fads and phenomena (you can see many examples scattered in this website). One favourite aversion was irresponsible charlatans and the immense powers they can have. Such deplorable characters were frequently speared in the stories, and Batty is just one of them.

The most often quoted Ism in Barks' stories is undoubtedly his use of the invented term Flipism that brilliantly illustrates the act of tossing a coin into the air. And the term has since successfully entered many nations' vocabularies in the national lingos. Here are some European examples presented in alphabetical order: Atmasyonizm (Turkey), Esencialismo (Spain), Flippismo (Italy), Höpsismi (Finland), Klavisme (Sweden), Knobelisme (Holland), Knoblismus (Germany), Kronisme (Norway), Piloufacie (France), and Platisme (Denmark).
The Danish version is especially quite remarkable, because the term incorporates several meanings: Plat is the word for Tails as in Heads and Tails, but Plat also means corny or banal, and a Plattenslager is a con-man, such as the story's charlatan professor. Furthermore, the term Platitude sums up the whole plotline...

Daisy knows exactly what to say to poor Donald when he misses their date. She manages to scold poor Donald for more than 5 minutes using her overwhelming oratorial powers.

BONUS

An afterthought: One of Denmark's greatest sons was Piet Hein (1905-1996), who is also known internationally as an inventor, a philosopher, an author, a mathematician, and a poet. He is especially known for his groundbreaking design of the Superellipse and for his numerous Grooks (Gruks in Danish), that are short, humourous, and sharp rhyming comments to events in daily life, and they most often end in a punchline that makes the reader ponder.
One of the thousands of Hein's memorable Grooks is presented below. It was first published in Danish, but being a word equilibrist in English and other languages as well Hein also made an international version of the same Grook.

PSYKOLOGISK HUSRÅD

Stejler man foran et vanskeligt valg
og vil ha det afgjort prompte,
er det et såre fornuftigt princip
at platte og krone om det.

Ikke at valget skal ske pr. hazard,
imens man selv sidder og måber,
men lige når mønten er kastet til vejrs,
så véd man præcis, hvad man håber.

A PSYCHOLOGICAL TIP

Whenever you’re called on to make up your mind,
and you’re hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you’ll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.

No – not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you’re passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you’re hoping.