Eugene the Jeep

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Eugene the Jeep is a character in the Thimble Theatre comic strip, which stars Popeye. His first appearance was in the March 16, 1936 strip. Eugene was a gift to Olive Oyl from her Uncle Ben who found Eugene in Africa. His diet consisted of only orchids. He resembles a bear in terms of ears and head, but he has a very large nose, a long tail, and a protruding stomach. He is known for his superhuman abilities.

Attributes:

Yellow in color
Roughly the size of a dog
Walked on his hind legs
The only thing that he could say was the word "Jeep"
Always told the truth (by means of body language or vocal inflection when asked fairly simple "yes or no" style questions)

Abilities:

Said to be able to cross into the fourth dimension
Ability to solve complex problems for Popeye and Olive Oyl
Could walk through walls and walk on ceilings
Limited form of teleportation since he could disappear and reappear in other places

In an August 9 strip entitled "Wha's a Jeep?", Popeye asks Professor Brainstine what exactly a Jeep is, and gets the following response:

A Jeep is an animal living in a three dimensional world-in this case our world- but really belonging to a fourth dimensional world. Here's what happened. A number of Jeep life cells were somehow forced through the dimensional barrier into our world. They combined at a favorable time with free life cells of the African Hooey Hound. The electrical vibrations of the Hooey Hound cell and the foreign cell were the same. They were kindred cells. In fact, all things are to some extent are relative, whether they be of this or some other world, now you see. The extremely favorable conditions of germination in Africa caused a fusion of these life cells. So the uniting of kindred cells caused a transmutation. The result, a mysterious strange animal.

It has been theorized that the Jeep vehicle was named after this character: soldiers in World War II may have nicknamed the machine after the then-popular character because they shared an ability to "go anywhere". However, the word jeep was used as a slang term before the introduction of the classic Jeep. See Jeep.