Stop! You must not hop on Pop!

In "Malk and banned books," I posted an old Simpsons clip Wandering Gondola found. I commented on the fact that it showed a Dr. Seuss book being banned, and that the school band was playing "God Save the King," but it took our sharp-eyed friend Debbie to point out the connecting link between these two things. The banned Seuss book is Hop on Pop. The students are playing "God Save the King," but when the teacher leaves, one of them points out that now "we can play the forbidden music," and the band switches to playing "Pop Goes the Weasel." In each case, what is banned is Pop.

Actually, Hop on Pop is a self-banning book, since it says, "Stop! You must not [title of the book]!" A bit self-referential, kind of like Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book.

Debbie and William Wright had some ideas about possible meanings of this Pop ban, mostly starting from the assumption that Pop means Papa -- i.e., father or pope (or potato, I suppose). I'll circle back to that reading, but my initial train of thought went in a different direction: not to Papa but to poppy.

Why are we even talking about "Malk" in the first place? Because of a controversy over whether a particular word in the Old Testament should be read as malkam or Milkom, the latter being the god of the Ammonites (probably; some people think it should always be read as malkam and that the cult of "Milkom" never existed). This god was prominently featured in my December 2023 post "Milkommen." Also featured in that post was a book about opium called The Milk of Paradise:

Olaf left a comment on my "Malk and banned books" post pointing out that the "Vitamin R" on the Malk carton in The Simpsons was probably a reference to Ritalin. Ritalin is a stimulant, not an opiate, but the idea of "milk" which is actually a psychotropic drug is still a clear link to The Milk of Paradise. Rereading my "Milkommen" post just now, I was surprised to discover that it includes this sentence:

"We would pop champagne and raise a toast" is a recurring line in "Kings & Queens."

There's that word pop again, and in connection with yet another psychotropic drug, alcohol. "Kings & Queens" ties right in with the Malk theme, since malkam means "their king," and I even published a post called "King Malk's crown."

That post was about a movie in which the John Malkovich character (whose name has the interesting meaning "Heathen Passover") plans to become King of England -- which brings us to William Wright's recent post "Crucifying John Malkovich." He recounts a dream in which a group of men, including Malkovich, walked into a Mormon-looking church carrying crosses, on which they were later crucified upside down along the walls of the church. (I thought he said there were 14 crucified men, which would correspond to the 14 Stations of the Cross displayed along the walls of many Catholic churches, but rereading it now I see he didn't actually specify a number.) William's interpretation is that Malkovich and company represent the Great and Abominable Church -- the leaders of a counterfeit religion that persecutes the true Saints of God -- and that Malkovich specifically represents Brigham Young (and various other characters whom William identifies with Young).

Like William, I consider myself a "Mormon" but believe that the institution that used to call itself the Mormon Church is deeply corrupt. Longtime readers will know that the tag I use for posts calling out the corruption of the CJCLDS is "Satan popping on the apricot tree." Popping! And "on the tree" is a poetic way of referring to crucifixion. For example, Christ is said to have borne our sins "in his own body on the tree" (1 Pet. 2:24).

An upside down cross represents both St. Peter, the first pope, and Satan. Going back to Debbie and William's reading of pop as papa, "Satan popping" could mean Satan playing the role of a pope or religious leader. This fits right in with the poppy reading as well, since organized religion has famously been characterized as "the opiate of the masses."

In a comment, William Wright refers to Satan's role in overseeing religious teaching in the Mormon temple ritual:

One can analogize the LDS temple endowment where Satan is asked how the people are receiving his teaching. "Very Well", was his reply. Perhaps a strong dose of "Vitamin R" helps with that reception.

The endowment ceremony used to include a "preacher" character who taught Protestant doctrines, was rejected by Adam, and was ultimately revealed to be in the employ of Satan. By the time I went through the temple, this character had been removed, but Satan's lines referring to his preaching were retained, resulting in this oddly self-referential scene, to which William alluded:

PETER: Good morning.

LUCIFER: Good morning gentlemen.

PETER: What are you doing here?

LUCIFER: Observing the teaching of these people. [indicating with a gesture the audience of worshipers in the temple]

PETER: What is being taught?

LUCIFER: The philosophies of men, mingled with scripture.

PETER: How is this teaching received?

LUCIFER: Very well!

There is no longer a Protestant preacher for Lucifer to be referring to, so the script was, incredibly, changed to make him refer to the Mormon temple ceremony itself! Very meta, a bit like Hop on Pop saying, "Stop! You must not [read] Hop on Pop!"

A bit later in the ceremony, Peter and his fellow Apostles come back and tell Satan who they are:

PETER: I am Peter.

JAMES: I am James.

JOHN: I am John.

LUCIFER: Yes, I thought I knew you. What are you going to do now?

PETER: We will dismiss you without further argument.

LUCIFER: Aah! You have looked over my kingdom, and my greatness and glory. Now you want to take possession of the whole of it. I have a word to say concerning these people [again indicating the audience of worshipers]. If they do not walk up to every covenant they make at these altars in this temple this day, they will be in my power!

PETER: Satan, we command you to depart!

And depart he does, though clearly against his will.

This, in connection with the pop theme, made me think of a scene from the P. G. Wodehouse book The Code of the Woosters. Roderick Spode (an "amateur dictator" based on British fascist Oswald Mosley) has found a book in which Gussie Fink-Nottle has been writing unflattering things about Spode and others. Bertie Wooster discovers Spode beating on Gussie's door, threatening him with violence.

Spode believes that Wooster knows a scandalous secret about him (though in fact he does not), and Wooster uses this to control Spode. Although Spode hates Wooster, he feels he has no choice but to obey him, in much the same way that Lucifer obeys Peter in the ceremony.

"Give me that book, Spode!"

"Yes, I would like you to look at it, Wooster. Then you will see what I mean. I came upon this," he said, "in a rather remarkable way. . . ."

I think Roderick Spode's idea was that we were going to pore over the pages together. When he saw me slip the volume into my pocket, I sensed the feeling of bereavement.

"Are you going to keep the book, Wooster?"

"I am."

"But I wanted to show it to Sir Watkyn. There's a lot about him in it, too."

"We will not cause Sir Watkyn needless pain, Spode."

"Perhaps you're right. Then I'll be getting on with breaking this door down?"

"Certainly not," I said sternly. "All you do is pop off."

"Pop off?"

"Pop off. Leave me, Spode. I would be alone."

And Spode has no choice but to "pop off," leaving the stolen book with Wooster.

One more thing: When I was a seminary student, we had to memorize various scriptural passages and references, and one of these was John 10:16 -- "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold," etc. I was assigned to create a mnemonic for this, and I drew a picture of a pope driving a pickup truck. "4x4" was written on the bed of the truck, and a flag flying from it said "Pope John X" -- so that's John 10:16. There were lots of sheep in the bed of the truck, and the pope was shouting into a megaphone at some sheep outside, saying, "Come join the fold!"

For some reason, yesterday I randomly thought of that old picture and tried (with limited success) to recreate it using AI:

The AI portrayed the pope as the sinister Francis. I imagine him shouting "Hop in!" but I can't think he's taking those sheep anywhere good -- to une Pâque sauvage, perhaps.

Stop, sheep! You must not hop on Pop!

Note added: Debbie suggests in a comment that the yellow creatures hopping on Pop might be weasels, saying the ears look similar. I googled weasel so I could take a look at the ears, and this sidebar popped up:

If you search for weasel's main prey, the main answer that comes back is voles and mice. The sidebar, though, highlights chipmunks. See my "Round leaves and chip monks" and William Wright's "Alvin, Chipmunks, Wisemen, and 'a chance to find if all we've dreamed in dreams was true'." William identifies Alvin and the Chipmunks with Three Wise Men, one of whom (in his interpretation) is none other than St. Peter -- so this is conceptually very close to the trio of Peter, James, and John in the temple scene I've quoted above.