The Perils of Penelope Pitstop - Characters - The Ant Hill Mob

The Ant Hill Mob

Penelope was often rescued from peril by the Ant Hill Mob, a group of seven diminutive men with exaggerated personality traits, clearly owing quite a bit to the characters of the Seven Dwarfs in the Walt Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as well as the Keystone Cops which they obviously imitated twice in the series. The seven members usually were portrayed as having unique usable talents such as Zippy's speed, Pocket's technical intellect and gadgetery, and Dum Dum's marksmanship though at times the members were obviously not effective in using their skills as Pitstop's guardians. The seven members are:

• Clyde – The leader, a caricature of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar and the one in the gray suit; When he gives instructions to the others, they always respond: "Right, Clyde." He gets irritated when the mob screws up or when a certain member of the mob (especially Dum Dum) misinterprets his instructions. His catchphrases are "Oh brother!", "No kiddin'!", and "You Dum-Dum!". He was voiced by Paul Winchell.
• Dum Dum – (Ring-A-Ding in Wacky Races) Played stupid and is identified by a plum-colored stripe on his hat; his catch phrases are "Here we come, Penelope!" and "What'll we do now, Clyde?". Like his Wacky Races counterpart, he was normally the cause of a plan's failure. Dum Dum also has trouble remembering his own name, and speaks like a clown. He was voiced by Don Messick.
• Pockets – Able to bring out useful objects to get the Mob out of trouble, even ones of ridiculous size. He has a green stripe on his hat, and pockets all over his suit (hence his name). He was voiced by Don Messick.
• Snoozy – The dozy one, sleeping through moments of emergency; but despite sleeping on the job, he's always aware of what's going on at the present time and appears able to pilot Chugga-Boom (the mob's car) while asleep. He can dream up a suggestion that Clyde finds very reasonable. Snoozy has the blue stripe on his hat, and leans over when upright, with his head on Dum Dum's shoulder. Snoozy is the only member of the Mob other than Softy who is portrayed reliably without a full head of hair. He is a pun on The Seven Dwarfs's Sleepy. He was voiced by Don Messick.
• Softy – Cries at any possible emotional or stressful moment; whether those moments were happy or sad was irrelevant; he often chimes in mother memories. Very seldom does he smile, or even laugh. Viewers can identify him by both his constant blubbering, and his hat's pink stripe. He was voiced by Paul Winchell.
• Yak Yak – The talkative one, made a kind of 'yuk yuk' laugh, no matter how disastrous the news he was imparting. The worse the news he imparts, the harder he laughs. Yak Yak would laugh distinctively when The Mob was in peril, recognizing the danger but would still laugh ("We're gonna crash!! Heeheeheehee!"). Yak Yak is identified by his hat's chartreuse stripe, and his blonde hair. He was voiced by Mel Blanc.
• Zippy – A fast runner and a fast talker. If Pockets cannot provide what the mob needs, Clyde will send Zippy somewhere to get it (which is where he tends to mess up). Whenever Zippy screws up, Clyde would sometimes call him Dippy-Zippy. Like Clyde, his hat has a red stripe on it. He was voiced by Don Messick.

The Ant Hill Mob had previously appeared in Wacky Races alongside Penelope Pitstop, although of all seven Mob members, only Clyde kept his Wacky Races name here. The Mob's original Wacky Races car, the Bulletproof Bomb, was replaced by "Chugga-Boom" (voiced by Mel Blanc), which was mostly articulate and seemed to have a mind of its own though at times the Chugga-Boom seemed completely inanimate and was at those times drawn without eyes on the headlights.