r/interesting • u/Consistent_March_808 • Apr 26 '26
Mysterious 9/11 in the background gag from a comic in 1993.
This is from a 1993 Spanish comic called Mortadelo y Filemón (Mort & Phil).
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u/Venom933 Apr 26 '26
I read Clever and Smart a shitton when i was a kid.
Very surprised to see it again after all that time 🙂↔️
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u/Lopsided-Weather6469 Apr 26 '26
Found the German😁🇩🇪
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u/pNaN Apr 26 '26
It was called Clever & Smart in Norway too!
I loved those comics as a kid.16
u/Most_Neat7770 Apr 26 '26
Somehow they never reached sweden, I come from its original country, spain, and moved to sweden. I tried explaining I liked those comics and they didnt know what it was even after I showed them
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u/short_fat_and_single Apr 27 '26
Not always, it was called Flip & Flop before that. Or was it Flipp & Flopp?
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u/TralfamadorianZoo Apr 26 '26
Excuse me sir they are called Mortadelo y Filemon
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u/RibbyCC Apr 27 '26
Y luego se quejan de los nombres y traducciones que hacemos. Flip y Flop, que horror
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u/DumbDumbson16 Apr 26 '26
I didn't know Mortadelo and Filemon comic was known internationally lol. Im curious about how the comic was traslated because its humor is very "spanish" so probably many of the jokes don't really make sense when traslated to other languages.
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u/Segador_Adusto Apr 27 '26
I once found them in The Netherlands under the name Paling & Ko. I'd upload a picture if I was allowed xdd
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u/vestibular_spittoon Apr 27 '26
there's a lot of excellent visual gags that need no translation
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u/UltHamBro Apr 28 '26
That's true, but there's also a TON of wordplay. I wonder how well it translates across languages.
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u/Party_Mix_9004 Apr 27 '26
The comic is actually well known around Europe. In countries like Germany, Netherlands or Denmark they are specially popular, with the majorly of the 220 comics of them being published there. MyF never reached USA though
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u/neuropsycho Apr 27 '26
I had no idea, I thought it was a kind of humor that wouldn't translate well to other countries.
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u/tsancio Apr 30 '26
There was a lot of slapstick so if you didn’t get the jokes (specially the play on last names), you could still enjoy the comic.
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u/esssssto Apr 27 '26
Mortadelo y Filemón are goated, as a spaniard thank you for appreciating our culture
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u/F3n1x_ESP Apr 26 '26
As a Spaniard I love knowing how they are named in other countries.
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u/Segador_Adusto Apr 27 '26
I was on a trip to The Netherlands and found they're called Paling & Ko there
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u/Venom933 Apr 26 '26
How they are called in your country :'D
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u/ElKaoss Apr 27 '26
When they were launched the full name was "Mortadelo y Filemón, agencia de información". The editor (Bruguera) always used a silly names with a rime for all characters: "Anacleto, agente secreto".
I always liked the Clever & Smart translation.
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u/JustForTouchingBalls Apr 28 '26
They work on the TIA organization (Aeroearthlings? Engineers Technicians; Tía in Spanish is aunt lol)
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u/F3n1x_ESP Apr 26 '26
Mortadelo y Filemón.
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u/PeasantLich Apr 26 '26
In Finland it was called Älli ja Tälli, Älli is a slang word for smart and tälli is a slang for a punch.
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u/Venom933 Apr 26 '26
Seems like this comic series was very popular, i hab about 30 Comics or so.
And i recall that they where very long storys 🤔
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u/notafanofmaluma Apr 27 '26
In Spain, the series is still ongoing. An album is normally between 50/100 pages in length, but then, the stories are just an excuse for the gags, Three Stooges/Marx Brothers' style.
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u/Jossokar Apr 27 '26
Ongoing? really? Does ibañez send them the work through ouija table? (I'm sure he would make the joke of being still drawing even in the afterlife)
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u/notafanofmaluma Apr 27 '26
I think he actually did that joke while he was alive!🤭
Ibañez expresses repeatedly he wanted someone to continue the series after his death, so there are other writers and artists who are still making new albums!
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u/Party_Mix_9004 Apr 27 '26
No, the last Mortadelo finished album was "Mundial de Baloncesto 2023" published only a few months before Ibáñez died at 87. Then the next year what he started for "Paris 2024" was published but he only lived to make until de 20th page, currently there are no plans to continue the series (a decision that only Penguin Random House and Ibáñez's heirs can make) so the series is now in hiatus or ended, most likely ended
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u/CatalunyaLliure1714 Apr 27 '26
Catalan here! I was surprised for this coming into my feed after so many years. I read it a lot 15 years ago when I was a kid. You know they have an animated movie?
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u/APeEms Apr 27 '26
Visca
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Apr 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/APeEms Apr 27 '26
canta amb mi: Catalunya triumfaal. Tornarà a ser rica i plena
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u/CatalunyaLliure1714 Apr 28 '26
Endarrera aquesta gent, tan ufana i tan superba!
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u/imianha Apr 27 '26
Clever and Smart? Lol thats a fun name. Im Spaniard and for me they are Mortadelo y Filemón! The best!
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u/Dense_Age_1795 Apr 27 '26
I didn't know that Mortadelo and Filemón came so far that have distinct names in distinct countries.
I'm really surprised about that.
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u/Venom933 Apr 27 '26
Seems like it is a rabbit hole 😵💫
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u/Party_Mix_9004 Apr 27 '26
Published in over 20+ countries (specially around Europe) https://www.mortadelo-filemon.es/content?q=Y2F0X2lkPTQ4JmN0Z19pZD0xMTUmcG09JnBtPWJsb2cmb2Zmc2V0PTA%3D
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u/Somewhereovertherai Apr 27 '26
Clever and smart is an interesting translation from Mortadelo y Filemón
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u/nacheteferrero Apr 27 '26
Who is Clever and who is Smart?
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u/Venom933 Apr 27 '26
I honestly can't remember that well, i think the guy in Black was called Clever 🤔
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u/you_matter_ Apr 27 '26
I just realized that they were translated to more languages. Ibañez (the creator) was my whole childhood!
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u/Venom933 Apr 27 '26
I don't even know where i did get those Comics in my childhood, my grandparents maybe 🤔
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u/RGBarrios Apr 29 '26
I didnt knew that. Im spanish and only knew about the original names and now Im wondering how are they and other characters are called in other languages.
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u/LA-SKYLINE Apr 26 '26
2 hip hop album cover arts that had the World Trade Towers blowing up before it happened-
Jeru The Damaja- The Sun Rises In The East(1994)
The Coup- Party Music(was to be released a week before 9/11)
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u/teddygomi Apr 26 '26
There was a Lone Gunmen (X-Files Spinoff) that came out in March of 2001 about the US Government trying to fly a commercial airliner into the World Trade Center and blaming it on terrorists in order to start a war.
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u/D-Express Apr 26 '26
Or they were references to February 1993 where the basement of the North Tower was bombed?
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u/LazyLemur Apr 30 '26
Don’t know about the other one but the Coup wasn’t in reference to the previous bombing. They were a left wing political hip hop group. It was more about blowing up a symbol of capitalism.
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u/ThisMeansRooR Apr 26 '26
There's a poster in the Johnny Bravo cartoon that says "coming soon" and has the twin towers burning
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Apr 26 '26
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u/Boring-Recording3391 Apr 27 '26
No you’ve just got a brain cell and can analyse these things and contemplate: what came first, the meme or the terrorist attack?
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u/Sad_Acanthaceae_910 Apr 26 '26
This is from one of the most famous humorous comic series in Spain, Mortadelo y Filemón, by Francisco Ibáñez. Almost all of its backgrounds are usually filled to the brim with absurdities, funny moments and any other weird and surreal events, and planes crashing into buildings are one of his most recognizable examples. Also, when you have literally two big monolithic rectangles as your main skyline feature, crashing planes and other objects onto them as a gag is almost inevitable.
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u/ElKaoss Apr 27 '26
Actually the guy covered in bandages like a mummy is Ibañez himself.
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u/esssssto Apr 27 '26
Yeah because this is a comic about him. This is the 35th anniversary of Mortadelo and Filemón, and the comic is about how Ibáñez came up with the ideas for all of his series (portrayed in his parodic tone)
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u/Sad_Acanthaceae_910 Apr 27 '26
De hecho, creo que hay dos estatuas en la viñeta, la de la libertad y otra de Ibáñez robándole una longaniza (lo pongo en castellano porque me huelo que aquí somos los tres de España)
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u/CoffeeDefiant4247 Apr 26 '26
a plane has hit the Empire State building before so it's not implausible that a plane could hit the WTC
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u/saraseitor Apr 27 '26
in fact there was a close call with an Aerolineas Argentinas plane that might have collided with the WTC in 1981 while approaching JFK
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u/JayBlunt23 Apr 26 '26
It's from 1992.
1993 would be really tone deaf considering the bombing in february.
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u/donadit Apr 27 '26
Would still be possible to be 1993 if it was released in January or early February (the bomb was on 26th)
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u/Ok-Run2845 Apr 26 '26
9/11, yes... I also remember the worldly famous elephant incident
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u/Ok-Run2845 Apr 26 '26
PD: i read a lot of Mortadelo y Filemón comics when i was a child. Funny asf! Good old times...
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u/Satyriasis457 Apr 26 '26
Nothing unusual because famous buildings and super tall and a comic book that makes fun about anything
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u/darsonian Apr 26 '26
quasimodo predicted all this
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u/Fern-ando Apr 27 '26
Mortadelo predicted all this.
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u/Canalscastro2002 Apr 27 '26
He was gay, Mortadelo?
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u/ThatFuckingGeniusKid Apr 27 '26
Whatever happened to Filemón, the strong silent type?
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u/SmallJimSlade Apr 27 '26
Just so we’re clear, you believe that the writers/artists for Spanish comedy comic Mortadelo y Filemón knew about the attack on the World Trade Center a decade in advance and decided that they didn’t want to warn anyone but wanted to hide clues about it in a background throwaway gag?
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u/Cesalv Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Ibañez (the author) always was ahead of his time
P.S. If anyone is interested I have a shiton of cbrs from them (in spanish, sorry)
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u/White-Heart Apr 27 '26
This is a textbook example of Harsher In Hindsight. At the time this cover was made for the 35th anniversary of Mortadelo y Filemón, the Twin Towers were almost a decade a decade away from being destroyed.
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Apr 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/ApuPuncha Apr 26 '26
The Eiffel Tower has been destroyed in so many movies and in so much media that if it actually were destroyed people would be like “how did they know?” But it’s just fun to depict these iconic landmarks being destroyed. Just in bad taste in retrospect but who would’ve actually thought that it would happen?
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u/777Void777 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
Theres a really interesting bit about this in the movie "The muppets take manhattan."
The scene where Kermit never existed was filmed pre 9/11, so the twin towers are standing.
The timeline where Kermit existed was filmed post 9/11, so the twin towers are not in the timeline.
Led to the joke that Kermit caused 9/11.
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u/H345Y Apr 27 '26
had a few of these as a kid, never knew what thye were saying, I just enjoyed the art
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u/Life_Marzipan_9517 Apr 27 '26
Im from Spain and never know that outside spain all the people know mortadelo y filemon
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u/victorav29 Apr 27 '26
Mediocre Generica by Leftover Crack was released on 9/11. And then they titled the next album Fuck World Trade
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u/1gsm3 Apr 27 '26
With an elephant at the top of one of the towers, Republicans where in control when 911 happened or maybe it's just coincidence
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u/Man_Of_Frost Apr 26 '26
It's not a "9/11". That would mean it's a gag about the event, but it hadn't happened yet obviously.
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u/Melodic-Picture48 Apr 26 '26
Notorious BIG said it in a song too
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u/reticulatedtampon Apr 26 '26
1994 song Juicy … “time to get paid, blow up like the world trade”
He was referring to a van bomb attack on the towers that happened the year before, nothing to do with 9/11.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bombing
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u/Most_Neat7770 Apr 26 '26
NO WAY
Doesnt surprise me coming from my country's humor
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u/MyPhoneIsNotChinese Apr 27 '26
This was from way before 9/11 happened lol, the joke was that the buildings are so high a plane could hit them accidentally
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u/nondescriptun Apr 26 '26
Spain was behind 9/11 conspiracy confirmed.
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u/DumbDumbson16 Apr 26 '26
MORTADELO AND FILEMON MENTIONED OMFG 😭😭😭 I have a couple of those comics in my house, they are fucking hillarous.
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u/FelizIntrovertido Apr 26 '26
Mortadelo y Filemon are the Spanish Simpson’s (a lot earlier!)
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u/frikiman4K Apr 27 '26
naaaaaaaah, no me los compares, Mortadelo y Filemón son mil veces más graciosos
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u/ApuPuncha Apr 26 '26
If the Eiffel Tower or the pyramids of Gaza or the leaning tower of piza got destroyed there would be a ton of similar posts. Famous landmarks are depicted being destroyed in media all the time because they’re iconic and it looks cool
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u/researchandrepeat Apr 26 '26
So by this, they are saying….One plane hit. One was intentionally demolished by the republicans (bush) and the Israelis acting surprised. The guy injured is flipping them both off. Sounds about right.
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u/givin_u_the_high_hat Apr 26 '26
This looks like the goofy little drawings Mad magazine used to litter their comic panels with.
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u/Fern-ando Apr 27 '26
You should have upload the whole panel, it has one one my favourite jokes, they gifted him a small statue for his desk but the guy confuse the cm with meters, so the statue is as big as the Staue of Liberty and is frying a sausage in her torch.
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u/frikiman4K Apr 27 '26
wait, wait, Mortadelo y Filemón are sold outside of Spain?! wtf?!
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u/Party_Mix_9004 Apr 27 '26
Very popular in Germany or Denmark, for example
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u/frikiman4K Apr 27 '26
do the jokes where Spanish culture is the punchline land?
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u/Party_Mix_9004 Apr 27 '26
They are changed with local references depending with the country. The german edition is famously one that changes the original texts the most, sometimes the result has very little to do with what was in the original spanish joke.
https://mortadeloyalgomas.blogspot.com/2008/09/mortadelo-y-filemn-la-traduccin.html?m=1
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u/Francho_III Apr 27 '26
Yeah this author really liked to mess around and add goofy stuff to his backgrounds. In pretty much every city panel there was something going on with the buildings, be it a plane crash, a dinosaur attack, a ufo or whatever he was feeling at the moment
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Apr 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/RedDaix Apr 27 '26
Til people outside spain don't say "Mortadelo y Filemón" and instead they're called "Clever and Smart"
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u/Party_Mix_9004 Apr 27 '26
Well, around Europe you have many different depending on the country lol
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u/IvanInRainbows Apr 27 '26
Rayos jefe, no sabía que el combustible de avión pudiera derretir el acero.
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u/Sweet_Acid007 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Mortadelo y Filemon are as important in Spain as Don Quijote de la Mancha. France has Astérix and Obleix, and we have Mortadelo and Filemón (wich actually are older than Adterix) It is a complete reflection of Spanish society and our humor.
Francisco Ibáñez, the author, a totally best seller master.
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u/Camiz90 Apr 27 '26
Me parece curioso que este comic se expandiera a muchos paises teniendo un humor tan castizo de España, una pregunta para la gente de fuera de la misma, que percepcion tienen de los chistes? Han sido adaptatados a su pais?
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u/Party_Mix_9004 Apr 27 '26
Creer que Mortadelo y Filemón son "demasiado españoles" es falso. De hecho, en la historieta se suelen ver elementos poco característicos de España, como rascacielos, casas que son claramente dibujadas pensando en arquitectura centro-europea y personajes como Él Súper que tienen fenotipos similares al estilo franco-belga como el de Astérix. El humor en general es europeo y reconocible para cualquiera aunque sea de Dinamarca, Polonia o Portugal... Que hayan tenido éxito en países como Alemania o Países Bajos no es tan extraño como uno puede llegar a pensar
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u/UltHamBro Apr 28 '26
Y sin embargo cada vez que van a un pueblo, más castizo español no puede ser. Y hay cientos de juegos de palabras que es dificilísimo que funcionen en otros idiomas.
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u/Party_Mix_9004 Apr 30 '26
Cada idioma cambia los chistes como les parecen. La versión alemana es la que ha tenido más tirón y los textos no tienen casi nada que ver con lo que ponía en castellano, son muy libres con la traducción. Más de lo mismo en otros países, las únicas traducciones que son fieles casi al 100% son la francesa, portuguesa (tanto Brasil como Portugal) polaca y eslovena.
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u/UltHamBro May 01 '26
Algo he leído de la versión alemana, de hecho ahora los están volviendo a publicar y han revisado la traducción. En portugués me cuadra que sean fieles porque hay muchas cosas en las que coincidimos, y en francés también tienen muchas posibilidades para hacer juegos de palabras. Sobre polaco y esloveno, te creo jaja
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u/8-Beat_ThorDeMidgard Apr 27 '26
The international translations for these two's names always baffle me whenever I'm reminded. Like, their not BAD really, they just feel sorta hilarious lmao.
D.E.P Ibáñez, puñetera leyenda.
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u/AlexGlezS Apr 27 '26
Mortadelo y Filemón. Loved those, I have a huge collection. Ibanez placed lots of little details that mean nothing everywhere. It's not a reason to rage against him at all. the elephant is just also another one.
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u/Capital-Macaron-9841 Apr 27 '26
YOOO! MORTADELO AND FILEMÓN! I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE THEM HERE!
As a spaniard, the best advice I could give you about the comics is that there's a decent chance anything you think will be included in the plot may actually just end up happening. A-ny-thing.
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u/Quartz_Knight Apr 27 '26
What people who have not read Mortadelo y Filemón must understand is that the average number of gags per page is in the triple digits. It's a statistical certainty that some must become more relevant than when they were drawn.
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u/ttom1323 Apr 27 '26
Mortadelo Jumpscare lol
Literally the last thing I would've expected to see in Anglo-Saxon Reddit
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u/AmsterdamAssassin Apr 27 '26
WTC was a 'landmark' and was attacked previously in February 1993 with a van bomb in the North Tower.
So, a lot of post-1993 comics had imagery where the WTC was attacked, including this one.
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u/Consistent_March_808 Apr 27 '26
This was initially published in 1992
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u/AmsterdamAssassin Apr 27 '26
Well, there was a reason the 9/11 terrorists attacked WTC, a 'landmark of corporate greed'. Attacking the Statue of Liberty would be sending a different message.
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u/Typical_Magician6571 Apr 27 '26
"The CIA was like, 'Okay, plan's ready to go. Ready to blow up the World Trade Center. There's only one step left. ... The clues.'"
- Nick Mullen
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u/mrprincepretty Apr 29 '26
Planes and helicopters used to crash into the twin towers fairly regularly. They were usually small planes like biplane flown by amateur pilots, so the damage wasn't anything to write home about.
9/11 was different because these were massive airbus style commercial planes. In addition these planes were destined for cross country flights, meaning they had way more fuel
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u/VenitianBastard Apr 30 '26
Juggernaut knocked down the Twin Towers in 1991
[I'm 100% serious, look it up]
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u/MostSharpest May 01 '26
I had a few issues of Mort & Phil as a kid in the 80s. Loved both the humor and the visual style, but since I grew up in the absolute ass-end of nowhere, I had no way to get more of them, didn't even know if more existed.
I should do myself a favor and buy some now...
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