Corporal punishment or physical punishment is a certain form of punishment that is intended to cause physical pain to a person. It has been also most often practiced on minors from home to school settings. In modern societies, however, corporal punishment is looked down upon as a form of abuse, although opinions may vary as far as what constitutes abuse.
In Smurfs media[]
1980s Cartoon Show[]
There are several episodes of the cartoon series that mention, show, or have corporal punishment offscreen. However, it seems that this has been mildly used due to purposes of involving any form of violence in children's shows. Various forms of physical punishment such as whipping or sometimes spanking are these types that are included.
In the episode "Now You Smurf 'Em, Now You Don't", the trolls whip Vanity and Greedy for getting distracted with the forced labor they put the two Smurfs into in order to make them continue their job.
In the episode "The Cursed Country", Monulf is seen punishing a Smurf by whipping him. Johan also takes the whip from him and uses it on Monulf to either both harm or tie him up in which he did.
In the episode "Sister Smurf", the old hag attempts to whack Laura's brothers with her broom by saying that she will teach the two boys a lesson when they were trying to save Laura along with the unnoticed Smurfs.
In the episode "The Magic Fountain", Graco whips one of the Feebles in his inn.
In the episode "All Hallows' Eve", Gargamel insists he will give some children a good rap on the knuckles with his stick if they bother him for candy on Halloween. This could mean Gargamel believes in using physical punishment on children, probably due to his ill-temper.
In the episode "The Magic Earrings", when Gargamel's mother comes into his house quite upset for not giving him a present, she chases him and the scene jumps to the outside of Gargamel's house with the sound of beatings. This is hinted that Garamel's mother beat his son for not giving him a present, and can be assumed she beat her son whenever Gargamel misbehaved during his childhood.
In the episode "Lumbering Smurfs", the overseer attemps to whip Ludwig for continuously saying the forest was haunted.
In the end of the episode, "Wedding Bells For Gargamel", after the wedding incident in the chapel, Mummy is seen slapping Gargamel with a purse for ruining his own wedding while explaining to Madame Lavinia that her son will pay for the incident.
It isn't to be assumed that in "The Master Smurf", Greedy was using his wooden spoon as a "rod-of-discipline" when he became the "Master Smurf" and controlled the other Smurfs although he did use the spoon to prevent Smurfs from touching the silver crown, which won't count. However, it could seem that Greedy used his spoon as his own "scepter".
In the episode "The Incredible Shrinking Wizard", Gargamel chases and spanks Azrael with a broom.
In the episode "Smurfette's Golden Tresses", Hogatha whacks Harold (called "Edgar" in the episode) for mistaking her for a squirrel and attacking her.
In the episode "Wild And Wooly", the young shepherd tells Wooly and the Smurflings that his father will "thrash" him when he finds out the wool has been taken.
In the end of the episode "Master Scruple", Gargamel was probably spanking Scruple, as heard when the scene clips to outside Gargamel's house after Gargamel became furious with Scruple for making fun of him for loosing both Gourdy and the Smurfs. This counts as another offscreen corporal punishment scene.
In the episode "I Was A Brainy Weresmurf", Malakov used his whip to punish Brainy and catch the Smurfs with.
In the episode "Dancing Bear", Malakov, who also appears in this episode as well, whips Cubby with his whip whenever he was fed up with him, not to mention Malakov using it to catch the Smurfs once again.
In the episode "Snappy's Puppet", Greedy tries to hit either Gawogga Wogga or Snappy with his wooden spoon when GW made Snappy ruin Greedy's cooking.
In the episode, "Mummy Dearest", Gargotec whips Hefty, Greedy, Clumsy, Grandpa, and Smoogle when he made them build the pyramid.
Comic Books[]
In the comic book version of "The Smurfs And The Magic Flute", a man attempts to thrash Johan when he thought Johan was the one who shot him, thanks to Peewit who played the magic flute that made Johan dance.
In the comic book story "The Handy Smurf", Handy is punished by the Smurfs by being placed in a "butt-kicking machine" for drilling the pan and turning it into a strainer with his power drill, which ruined Smurfette's cake.
In the comic book story "Easter Smurfs" from "Smurf Versus Smurf", Papa Smurf is seen chasing Brainy with a rolling pin for giving him Jokey's explosive egg, which might've seem that Papa Smurf was expecting to beat Brainy due to his anger although it's hard to tell if Papa believes in corporal punishment.
In the comic book story of "The Clockwork Smurf", Gargamel spanks the fake Clockwork Smurf in front of Azrael for assaulting him, although it made the real Clockwork Smurf and Handy laugh.
In the comic book story "The Jewel Smurfer", the crook threatens to lash Geoffrey.
In the comic book story "The Smurf Menace", the Gray Smurfs use whips to keep the normal Smurfs in line when they were captured and taken as prisoners within the Gray Smurf Village.