Little Orphan Annie - Parodies, Imitations and Cultural Citations

Parodies, Imitations and Cultural Citations

Between 1936 and 17 October 1959, the comic strip Belinda Blue-Eyes (later shortened to Belinda) ran in the United Kingdom in the Daily Mirror. Writers Bill Connor and Don Freeman and artists Stephen Dowling and Tony Royle all worked on the strip over the years. In The Penguin Book of Comics Belinda is described as "a perpetual waif, a British counterpart to the transatlantic Little Orphan Annie."

The strip also influenced Little Annie Rooney (Jan. 10, 1927-1966) and Frankie Doodle (1934-1938).

In 1995, Little Orphan Annie was one of 20 American comic strips included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative U.S. postage stamps.

Little Orphan Annie lent itself easily to parody, which was taken up by both Walt Kelly in Pogo (as "Little Arf 'n Nonnie" and later "Lulu Arfin' Nanny") and by Al Capp in Li'l Abner, where Punjab became Punjbag, an oleaginous slob.

Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood satirized the strip in Mad as "Little Orphan Melvin", and later Kurtzman produced a long-running series for Playboy, Little Annie Fanny, in which the lead character is a busty, voluptuous waif who continually loses her clothes and falls into strange sexual situations.

Children's television host Chuck McCann became well known in the New York/New Jersey market for his imitations of newspaper comic characters; McCann put blank white circles over his eyes during his over-the-top impression of Annie.

Little Orphan Annie was also parodied in an episode of the stop-motion television series Robot Chicken in which Little Orphan Annie fails to grasp the true meaning of a hard knock life when a fellow orphan shows that their lives are relatively decent compared to orphans around the world.

The 1980s children's television program You Can't Do That on Television in its later banned "Adoption" episode, parodied the character as "Little Orphan Andrea". Andrea, like Annie, sported curly red hair and a red dress but unlike her, was a very naughty orphan who had a habit of beating up other kids. A less well-known (or rather, notorious) example was the 'Daddy Fleshbucks' side-story from American Flagg!. The title was parodied in The Simpsons' episode Little Orphan Millie. In the early 1970s, a flavored ice treat for children called Otter Pops (with cartoon otters as flavored mascots such as "Alexander the Grape") featured a character dubbed "Little Orphan Orange."

In the 1983 film A Christmas Story, the main character Ralph is a fan of the Little Orphan Annie radio drama, listening to the show religiously while waiting for his Ovaltine decoder pin. Once he receives the pin, he anxiously copies the show's secret code, but is frustrated upon decoding it to Ovaltine's slogan "Be Sure to Drink your Ovaltine".

Jay-Z has referenced Little Orphan Annie in at least two of his songs.

"Orphan Annie eye" (empty or "ground glass") nuclei are a characteristic histological finding in papillary carcinoma of the thyroid gland.