Trivia Mafia’s resident comics expert Ira is here with some examples of how the English language has been impacted by comic strips.

Newspaper comic strips probably don't figure much into your daily life. Unless you're a regular reader of a print-edition daily paper (or The Comics Curmudgeon), you might even have forgotten that newspapers still have a section devoted to comics. You'd have to go back to the late '90s heyday of "Dilbert" to find the last time a comic strip made a noticeable impact on the cultural zeitgeist. In an era where the influence of traditional newspapers is disappearing as quickly as corporate scavengers can consolidate the global discourse, newspaper comics are an afterthought of an afterthought.

Back in the day, though, the funnies loomed large on the American cultural landscape. They inspired hit songs, beloved Broadway musicals, and all manner of merchandise. In fact, some of the oldest comic strips are so deeply embedded in the culture that most people are unaware of their influence.

Take Buster Brown, for instance. He was the most famous creation of R.F. Outcault, also the cartoonist behind "Hogan's Alley," generally regarded as the first ongoing newspaper comic strip. At the turn of the 20th century, Buster was America's favorite bad boy, a nattily dressed brat who hung out with his talking pit bull Tige and delighted in creating mischief for the adults in his orbit. He served as a prototype for Dennis the Menace, Calvin, Bart Simpson, and countless other good-hearted but misbehaving cartoon kids.

Buster's fame took on a different dimension in 1904, when he was licensed as an advertising mascot for the Brown Shoe Company. For much of the next century, Buster and Tige appeared in ads for the kinds of shoes that kids were forced to wear for dressy occasions. The company even employed adult actors to portray Buster and Tige at fairs and public events, to disturbing effect.

While his influence has faded in the modern day, there was a long period where "Buster Browns" was used as a generic term for boys' dress shoes. As inescapable as Buster was in the children's clothing game, though, he was outshone by one of his supporting players in the long run. Buster had a neighborhood friend (incorrectly identified as his sister by some sources) who was also licensed by the Brown Shoe Company. She might not have headlined the comic strip, but she branded herself indelibly on the world of footwear. Her name, and that of her signature shoes? Mary Jane, of course.

For our next stop on the comic strip branding tour, let's start by debunking a story I really wish was true. In 1936, comic artist E.C. Segar introduced a new character to "Thimble Theater," the strip best known as the birthplace of Popeye. Eugene the Jeep was an unidentifiable animal who looked a little like a polka-dotted dog-monkey and hailed from another dimension. He became an indispensable part of Popeye's entourage due to his interdimensional abilities to teleport and defy gravity, among other assorted powers.

The popular story goes that Popeye-loving WWII-era soldiers applied the "Jeep" nickname to a new line of go-anywhere light utility vehicles, which eventually evolved into the automotive brand name we have today. While there seem to be elements of truth to this, the word "jeep" had been used as military slang for quite a while before Eugene first appeared in the comics. It originally referred to a poorly made or untrustworthy vehicle, or sometimes to a raw new recruit. It's a bit of a bummer to learn that Jeeps aren't technically named after a "Popeye" character, but I'm pleased that Eugene at least had a hand in redefining them.

For another common word redefined by "Popeye," we turn to the sea. In 1933, E.C. Segar launched "Plunder Island," possibly the most celebrated storyline in his years of producing "Thimble Theater." (I personally count it among the great works of American fiction, but I'm like that.) That story sends Popeye and friends on a treasure hunt that's waylaid by the Sea Hag, a witch with her own designs on the treasure. Her enforcer is a towering, zombie-like creature named Alice the Goon, who proves nearly as strong as Popeye himself.

The word "goon" was in common use well before 1933, but up to that point it referred only to someone foolish and ungainly. While that definition is still used today, "goon" is more often applied to hired muscle, hockey brawlers, and other assorted tough types. We have Alice to thank for that.

Finally, let's turn to America's first beloved Gump. Long before Forrest made his run, newspaper readers were enamored of "The Gumps," a comic strip launched by Sidney Smith in 1917. In its early days, it was a domestic comedy following the daily lives of chinless everyman Andy Gump and his average middle-class family – a novel idea at the time and an important ancestor to the TV sitcom.

As the series went on, Smith started introducing ongoing storylines that sent the family on globe-trotting adventures. It became the first continuity-based comic strip ever published. It was also one of the most popular pieces of pop culture in its era, spawning heaps of licensed merchandise, pop songs, animated shorts, live-action movies, and a radio series. In 1922 Andy Gump ran for congress in the strip, launching a long tradition of comics characters running for office and earning himself more than a few real-world write-in votes. That was the same year Smith became the first cartoonist to command a six-figure annual salary.

As popular and influential as "The Gumps" proved to be in its time, it ended its run in 1959 and has mostly fallen into obscurity these days. Still, its legacy continues in one of the last places you'd think to look. Massena Gump was a real-life California entrepreneur who purchased a septic system business for $300 in the '40s. As you'd have to think was the case for most men of the era with the surname of Gump, he was nicknamed "Andy" after the comic strip. He eventually adopted it as his professional name.

During California's post-war construction boom, demand for portable toilets that could be used at worksites skyrocketed. Gump pivoted to building portable toilet facilities in his garage and renting them out to construction companies. He branded each facility with the slogan "Another Andy Gump." While the company was never officially affiliated with the comic as far as I can find, they employed a clearly Andy-inspired mascot that at least implied a connection between the two.

The business continued to grow and soon became a go-to company for Hollywood film shoots, concerts, and sports events, including the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. 80 years later it remains an iconic business in Southern California, to the extent that "Andy Gump" is a generic term for a portable toilet amongst Angelenos. That's about as odd a path to immortality as a once-ubiquitous fictional character could follow, but people still have the name of Sidney Smith's creation on their lips 107 years after his introduction. That's a lot more than you can say for "Somebody's Stenog."