Japhet and Happy - Characters

Characters

The main Noah Family characters initially were Japhet, a boy, his brothers Shem & Ham, their parents Mr & Mrs Noah. Selina and Matilda were their cousins who lived with them together with Fido the dog. They all lived in a house on Ararat Avenue in South West London, as mentioned on the 1924 book.

The human Noah Family characters were styled like wooden puppets with human faces but without elbow or knee joints or fingers. The styling changed in the early years from very skinny and stick-like bodies to the more familiar rounded figures as seen by 1924. An early-introduced character was an elderly gentleman, Mr Cheery, who helped Japhet when he was lost in an early story. His adopted son, Tim Tosset featured in the earlier strips but had left by the time Happy was introduced in c1926-27. Happy was a small fat bear that never spoke, unlike other cartoon animals. Later additions included Oswald the tortoise who had a liking for hiding. Jerry was their odd-job handyman who was an ex-sailor & dressed similarly. Adelaide was an Ostrich, Archibald (Archie) was a donkey and Gerald was a goat. Their garden later had a Golobosh Tree brought from a trip visiting the Panjandrum. By the time of a 1950s annual, Cracky the dog & Pukky, a parrot-type bird, were added. Despite the Noah characters names, there was no actual religious theme to the series.

The cartoon strips included a whimsical take on everyday life and misunderstandings through the eyes of Japhet including scenes at school and appearing in a Circus. In later annuals from the mid-1930s visits were made to an imaginary African country 'Andamalumbo' where they met His Highness the Grand Panjandrum of Andamalumbo, Lord of the Golden Umbrella, Eater of the Purple Goloboshes, and wearer of the Top Hat (as quoted from the 1933 Annual). The Panjandrum could speak no English, but an invented phrase he used as Welcome was Wamblety Oola. In later stories The Panjandrum and his friend Bom would visit the Noah's in England. Also see Panjandrum for a later use of this Samuel Foote invented word, probably influenced by its popularised pre-War usage in the 'Japhet and Happy' strips.