Did you know?- FlapJack’s Dr. Barber
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is a kids’ cartoon that was first released in 2008. This series is known for Flapjack’s annoying cackling as he goes on adventures with Bubbie the Whale & his best friend Cap’n Knuckles. They quest to find Candied Island & meet many people along the way. One of the characters we meet is Dr. Barber. HE is known to be very disturbing as he has skeletons oddly placed around the barber shop. He is both the islands doctor/surgeon (always looking to cut something or someone… open & perform “surgeryyyyy”) & barber. To say he’s scissor happy is an understatement. The running joke/ point of discomfort & disbelief is that he quickly switches from Barber to Doctor throughout the series. This makes us feel he is unqualified for one or either of the jobs because… who does that???
The real gag is how accurate this reference actually is. Barbering is one of the oldest professions, dating back to the Glacial age over 20,000 years ago. In Rome, barbering services such as shaving, hair styling, massaging, & beard grooming was largely used as a social status. While a large portion of the day was spent at the barber shop, the rich noblemen booked private appointments which included communal bathing, or “Roman Baths”. Hair grooming & cleanliness was a status of regality, typically reserved for clergy men, royalty, & the upper class. Religion, occupation, & politics dictated the styles & practices at the time. In Greece, hair was deemed as “source of the brain’s inspiration & intellectual capacity. The Irish believed burning or burying hair would make sure no evil spirits harmed the individual. Whew, that’s a lot of info. We’re almost there.
By the Middle Ages, barbers entered the world of medicine. Monks & priests had become the physicians of the time. Bloodletting was a very common practice. This was the use of incisions to allow blood to flow out of the body, which was believed to allow disease to exit one’s system. Barbers were trusted by the clergy & religious leaders to properly perform procedures on the head, face, & neck as they were trained with using sharp blades with steady hands. In 1163, it was deemed inappropriate for clergy to perform surgeries, teeth pulling, bloodletting, & other healing processes. Barbers were endowed with this responsibility. For thousands of years all barbers were Barber-Surgeons. They now specialized in all barbering practices along with specialized medicine.
Ight, boom. Let’s wrap it up. The writer’s played on the idea that the local barber of Stormalong shouldn’t also be the physician. They play on the idea that he is too happy & excited to use multiple kinds of blades, that he should stick to one lane. However, his role is very historically accurate as the roles of physicians were handed to the barbers by the leaders of society (religious leaders, politicians, & nobleman).
