Rut-Ro! It's a Conspiracy!

Rut-Ro!

  Chances are, if you're somewhere between age 6 and 60, you probably know just what that means. It's cartoon dogspeak, of course, for "Uh-Oh!"  Like many foreign phrases, it can convey a range of meanings in just two syllables, anything from "Oops" to "Oh S***!"

  But who said it first? And who decided that animated mutts should speak in a language where everything begins with the letter R?  Let's face it, if you'd never heard it before, "Mutt-Mo" or "Zut-Zo" could make just as much sense, no?

   First things first.  The first cartoon canine to utter the now immortal phrase Rut-Ro was none other than Astro Jetson, a/k/a Tralfaz. (If you don't know where Tralfaz comes from, to quote Annie Savoy, you could look it up.  If you don't know who Annie Savoy is, I give up.  Don't expect me to do all the heavy lifting here, folks.)

  Astro was the quintessential cartoon dog -- smart, loyal, capable of understanding English, and of speech -- as long as every word started with R.

   Some time later, another telegenic pup came along, name of Scooby Doo.  He and his merry band of meddling kids roamed the country in the Mystery Machine, solving crimes before the police, foiling the aims of various and sundry villains and ne'er do wells.  

  For animation lovers, the series raised numerous existential questions:  Was Freddie really gay or did he just dress like it?  Why were Daphne and Velma portrayed in the classic Ginger/Mariann dichotomy rather than having brains and beauty in one female character? And why exactly did both Shaggy and Scooby perpetually have the munchies?

  And perhaps most perplexing of all was the fact that Scooby spoke the same language as Astro.  "Rut-Ro" was as common as Scooby Snacks whenever the lovable Great Dane was around.

  After spending a considerable amount of time researching this issue -- at least 90 seconds, anyway -- I have discovered the answer to the one mystery Scooby and the gang couldn't solve.  According to that unbiased, unimpeachable, trusted information source Wikipedia, Astro and Scooby spoke the same language for one simple reason:

  THEY HAD THE SAME VOICE!

  More specifically, Hollywood voice actor Don Messick voiced both characters.  Messick, well known for other cartoon characters, including Bamm-Bamm Rubble, Boo Boo Bear and Papa Smurf,  created Astro's trademark R-centric speech in 1962.  Seven years later, he voiced Scooby in the same voice.  Messick also voiced the cartoon villain sidekick dog  Muttley's classic snicker.

  Now some among us might wonder if the the Astro/Scooby/Muttley combo is really a secret language for dogs, who are patiently biding their time, using it as a means of communication to coordinate their own plot to take over the world and make bacon the international unit of currency. I asked Snickerdoodle the Wonder Pup what she thought of that theory.

  She snickered and said it was, and I quote, "Rabsorootry ririculous."

  Hmmm ....

Rut-Ro.

Postscript -- Sparky the Wonder Cat  was sitting on the desk as I wrote this.  No joke, he clicked on the mouse in an apparent attempt to delete part of what I just wrote.  That can only mean this is bigger than I thought.  Now it's a cross-species conspiracy!

RUT-RO!