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"Smurf Versus Smurf" (original French title Schtroumpf Vert et Vert Schtroumpf, literally "Green Smurf VS. Smurf Green") is a comic book story created and published by Peyo. It has appeared in the Random House comic book version of "The Smurfic Games" under the title "Smurf Of One And Smurf A Dozen Of The Other". It has recently been released by Papercutz in English with "The Painter Smurf", "The Smurf Vacation", and "Easter Smurfs" as its additional stories.

Characters[]

Smurf Versus Smurf[]

Smurf Games[]

Plot Summary[]

Smurf Versus Smurf[]

The story begins with Papa Smurf sadly walking through the forest, talking of something that has happened among the Smurfs. He arrives to Gargamel's castle and patiently waits for the evil wizard to return from the forest.

The story returns few days into past, when the Smurfs were still living in peace. Two Smurfs walk through the village to Handy to borrow his corkscrew. As they arrive, the Smurf asks Handy for the corksmurf and Handy corrects him that it's called smurfscrew. They both think how strange the language of the other side of the village is, and the Smurf then leaves with the corkscrew. Eight days later, Handy returns to have his smurfscrew back, but they get into an argument what's right - corksmurf or smurfscrew. They decide to go ask Papa Smurf, but Papa is busy with his experiment and tells them to come back later with their little argument. When they leave, they still argue, attracting the attention of other Smurfs. They all start arguing whether it's right smurf in the first part of the word or smurf in the end of the word. Brainy even gets his dictionary and starts lecturing about their language. Finally, everyone leaves, with two southern Smurfs going past the Little Red Smurfing Hood sign, a play that will be performed tonight, and correct it into Little Red Riding Smurf.

In the evening, the Little Red Smurfing Hood is performed, and the play goes well until the actors say "a smurf of butter", with a southern Smurf correcting this into "a crock of smurf". The second act begins, and "a smurf of butter" is repeated. This time, even more Smurfs stand up correcting the actors and the situation just becomes worse when another "northern Smurf sentence" is spoken. The actors now try to shut the public, but one of them get a berry into the head. They get into a big fight, but Papa stops them, saying that it doesn't matter if you say Smurf green or green Smurf. As Papa goes back to work, the Smurfs get into another language war and start fighting again, unbeknownst to Papa, who is happy to have resolved their conflict.

The next day, there is no sign of any fight last night. The Smurfs notice that Papa has worked all night, as he finally comes out to organize the work at the bridge. He asks Poet to go get the tools from Handy, but Poet rages, saying that he'll never do it, because Handy is from northern village and he doesn't want to see those Smurfs again. Papa stops a northern Smurf from fighting him and tells them they won't work at the bridge if they will play smurfball together (while he can continue his work). They happily take the opportunity and they play without arguments until the ball flies to Grouchy, who kicks it. The southern Smurfs say it's against the rules, with northern telling them that they can do it. Suddenly, they begin playing football, with Brainy becoming the referee. A Smurf gathering wood comes over to see the game and watch along another Smurf, who cheers for south. He and northern Smurfs cheer back and both sides fight again, with Papa still thinking it's all over.

The situations worsen in the next days, such as southern Smurfs not taking Jokey's presents, the sides joking about each other or arguing whose moon is more beautiful, and of course still arguing about the language. Caused by Brainy, both sides decide to go to the other part of the village making demonstrations. They miss each other as everyone is on different part of the village which makes both sides angry. So, the northern Smurfs decide to do it another way.

The next day, a northern Smurf is painting a line that would separate the north and south. He strikes the door, and a Smurf opens him while he continues painting through his house. Most of the Smurfs gather around the line, when Brainy starts lecturing that they shouldn't paint on the floor, with both sides kicking him over. Meanwhile, Farmer (who is southern Smurf) decides to look how his cabbage grows and sees that he should water it, but also realizes that the well is through the line. He finally comes up with an idea and goes the northern Smurf guard at the line. The Smurf show Farmer a corkscrew and Farmer calls it smurfscrew. Then he gets water and to get back to the line, which he crosses by telling a southern Smurf guard that the thing in his hand is called corksmurf. Back at his fields, he successfully waters his plant while a Smurf whose house got painted is still in shock.

And so heated that no Smurf is even listening to Papa Smurf anymore, so he goes to get the help of Gargamel. As the evil wizard arrives to capture Papa Smurf, he locks eyes with the human and chants a spell that causes the both of them to change into each other's forms: Papa Smurf is now Gargamel and Gargamel is now Papa Smurf. As Papa Smurf uses his Gargamel form to unite the Smurfs together and to end their silly conflict over words, Gargamel in his Papa Smurf form finds the reverse chant and uses it on the village leader to restore their natural forms. However, Gargamel in his restored form doesn't get far with his captured Smurfs when he is attacked by a confused Azrael who still thinks that the person in Gargamel's form is really Papa Smurf. And when Gargamel tries to find his way back to the Smurf Village, he ends up back at his own castle, fussing and fuming at the Smurfs. Later on, Papa Smurf calls a meeting together with all his little Smurfs that they should no longer use compounded words when communicating, which solves one problem... yet starts up another debate much to his dismay.

More Olympic Smurfs[]

A series of one-page vignettes set around the theme of Smurfs participating in various sports.

Background Information[]

  • Part of this story was used as the basis for the Smurfs cartoon special called "The Smurfic Games" that was aired in 1984, with the division between Smurfs in the village being east and west instead of north and south as it is here in "Smurf Versus Smurf".
  • The Random House English version title is based on the common phrase "six of one, half-dozen of the other" which means that two things which people refer to differently are actually the same thing.
  • Part of "Smurf Versus Smurf" was also used as the basis for the cartoon version of "Romeo And Smurfette", where Papa Smurf and Gargamel switch physical appearances.
  • The story is based on the real-life language division of the French and Dutch-speaking people in Peyo's native country of Belgium. The Dutch speakers mostly live in the northern part of the country called Flanders, while the French speakers mostly live in the southern part called Wallonia. Brussels, the capital city, is bilingual.

Sources[]

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