Conan the Librarian
Conan the Librarian is a perennial parody of R. E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian that has appeared in film, television, comics, and fan fiction.
Contents |
[edit] You Can't Do That on Television
The first known appearance of Conan the Librarian is on the comedy show You Can't Do That on Television in the 1982 episode "Heroes."
[edit] Mother Goose and Grimm
Probably the first printed Conan the Librarian reference is in a 1987 Mother Goose and Grimm comic. A pig returning a book to the "Overdue Books" section faces across the desk a scowling and muscle-bound librarian, in typical Conan the Barbarian dress, who from the placard on the desk we know is "Conan the Librarian."
[edit] Reading Rainbow
Conan the Librarian appears in a sketch on a 1986 episode ("Alistair in Outer Space") of the children's television series Reading Rainbow. Unlike the UHF Conan (see below), Conan the Librarian is helpful and shows someone how to get a library card.
[edit] UHF
Conan the Librarian also appears in a brief segment of the 1989 "Weird Al" Yankovic film UHF. In the segment, the exaggeratedly muscular Guardian of the Shelves chastises—in German-accented English—a library patron who is unsuccessful in finding a book and not knowing the Dewey decimal system. He then hefts his enormous sword and slices another patron in two for returning a book overdue.
[edit] Hadley V. Baxendale fiction
In 1987, William Mitchell College of Law library staff created the character Conan the Librarian for a talent show performance, and subsequently wrote The Adventures of Conan the Librarian. This was followed by The Return of Conan the Librarian and Conan the Librarian on the Information Highway. The author of these stories is the fictitious "Hadley V. Baxendale" (a pun on the famous law case Hadley v. Baxendale).
This Conan is an ordinary librarian who lives in the mythical "Information Age".
[edit] Dr. Conan T Barbarian, BA (Cimmeria) PhD. (UCD). FTCD (Long Room Hub Associate Professor in Hyborian Studies and Tyrant Slaying)
In 2011 a faculty profile for Dr. Conan T Barbarian appeared on the Trinity College Dublin School of English website. In his academic history it was said that his PhD was entitled 'To Hear The Lamentation of Their Women: Constructions of Masculinity in Contemporary Zamoran Literature' and that he had earned his position by 'successfully decapitating his predecessor during a bloody battle which will long be remembered in legend and song' in 2006. The entry was removed by the College administration on the 14th of September 2011, after a day of being viewable on the website.[1]
 |
The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (August 2010) |
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010) |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Edwards, Elaine (16 September 2011). "Say hello to Conan T Barbarian, Trinity's new doctor of tyrant slayings". The Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0916/1224304193491.html. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
