Talk:Santa's Little Helper

Name (santa, satan)

anyone else realize the name is an annogram for satan? santa's little helper? people often say satan's little helper... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.138.40 (talk) 01:38, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

On the other hand, dog is an anagram for god.Ortolan88 (talk) 23:59, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Breed

Santa's Little Helper is *not* an Italian Greyhound but simply a Greyhound. Greyhounds are the largest sighthounds, measuring around 30", while Italian Greyhounds are the smallest, measuring around 15". Edokter 21:07, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Greyhounds aren't the largest sighthound. Scottish Deerhounds, Irish Wolfhounds, and Borzois are all larger. Irish Wolfhounds are the largest sighthound. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.177.190.98 (talk) 04:51, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Breed Again

He isn't big enought to be a Greyhound! He could be a very high Italian Greyhound or simply a Whippet (despite the color, I've never seen solid brown Whippet). But he's not a Greyhound! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.210.179.126 (talk • contribs) 08:34, 16 August 2007 (UCT).

It is pretty well established that Santa is a Greyhound. He came from a racing track, and they don't race Whippets professionally in the States. His size pretty much fits a Greyhound, keeping in mind all characters are cartoons. — Edokter • Talk • 11:04, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Whippets do race in the united states. Check the Whippet entry on Wiki to see links to all sorts of racing associations in the U.S. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.69.64.4 (talk) 02:26, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Article name

Why is this article not just called Santa's Little Helper? --Moochocoogle 00:33, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC)

• Because it is the discussion!!--Jerrypp772000 23:56, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

James Leon Evans

Isn't the info about James Leon Evans (from Ultimate (sport)) a needless information? Or am I just wrong? --Fred Bradstadt 22:40, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Animal

This dog is Animal!

Phoney Boney

Since when is this dog's name Phoney Boney, to my knowledge there has not been a reference to SLH's name being Phoney Boney.

Bisexuality

"Even though he's an animal" is a strange term to use, since there is bisexuality and homosexuality in nature as much as in humans.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.63.248.123 (talk • contribs)

So he is bisexual, or is he?

I think i saw him getting excited about some gay dogs on a gay pride parade. Can anyone confirm that, cuz i dont remeber what episode that would be? --Sammy Dogbro (talk) 21:12, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Age

"16 or 8" Doesn't seem to be based on anything. A retired racing greyhound usually isn't over age 5. Unless someone can explain it, I'm changing it to 'unknown'. Edokter 14:05, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

He's not a retired, he was just useless.Davie4264 18:05, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

It is a female

how can a male dog have puppies? --Mhart54com 04:35, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

He sired puppies... It says that in the article. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 05:07, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

I was looking for information about Santa's little helper.

By that I mean the one that helps Santa Claus, yes I know damn well that my headnote sucked, and had to be removed. But can someone please add a headnote about the helper of Santa Claus? Santa's little helper is also a very well known name for the helper of Santa Claus. 200.88.222.147 (talk) 16:39, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Who is his helper? -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 16:47, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean Elves? Rhino131 (talk) 17:35, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Elf#Elves at Christmas. — Edokter • Talk • 18:21, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Moved from article space

Offspring

He sired twenty-five puppies with "She's The Fastest" in Two Dozen and One Greyhounds, as well as another litter with Dr. Hibbert's poodle, Rosa Barks in Today I Am a Clown.

• 25 offspring with She's the Fastest: Rover, Fido, Rex, Spot, Rover II, Fido II, Rex II, Cleo, Dave, Jay, Paul, Branford, Dave II, Jay II, Paul II, Branford II, Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Donner, Blitzen, Grumpy II, King, Queenie, Prince and The Puppy Formerly Known As Prince (NB: Due to an animation mistake, there were 26 puppies in the shot of which the names were sourced from).
• A litter of at least 8 puppies with Dr. Hibbert's dog Rosa Barks, these puppies were given away to townspeople, including Willie, Krusty and Snake.

---

Above was moved from article to talk page, as it's all unsourced WP:OR violations. Once secondary, WP:RS/WP:V sources can be found, it could be moved back into the article, preferably in a paragraph format, instead of a list format. Cirt (talk) 05:57, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Santa's Little Helper/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: J Milburn (talk) 13:23, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Prose

• "In "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (season one, 1989), Homer discovers that he has no money to buy Christmas presents for the family." I think it's worth reclarifying in this sentence that it's the first episode, and the first appearance of SLP
  • Y Added that it was the first episode, the rest belongs in the Creation section. Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:13, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• "Santa's Little Helper has produced several offspring." Odd phrase. Fathered several puppies?
  • Y Fixed. Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:13, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• Seems to be a little bit too much repetition of "the dog" in the role section
  • Hmm... I can't say I agree. I've tried to mix "Santa's Little Helper", "the dog", and "he/his" as much as I can. Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:13, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• "Santa's Little Helper has been forced to leave the Simpson family several times." Unreferenced, not really seeing how these occasions are different from the previous times he left the family.
  • Y Removed. Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:13, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• "Simpsons are forced to give Santa's Little Helper away to an ostrich farm" By whom?
  • Y Fixed. Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:13, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• I'm a little concerned about the fact that a lot of the information you're including in the role section is referenced to episodes themselves- I'd quite like to see some reliable sources outlining the significance of these events to the character/show.
• "from Barbara Woodhouse's authoritarian training methods [in 'Bart's Dog Gets an F'] to Lassie's flawless service to the status quo." Are the square brackets yours? If so, speech marks? Also, could we have the episode the Lassie reference refers to?
  • Yes, they are mine. I added the Lassie episode. But can I really use speech marks within speech marks? Theleftorium ^(talk) 19:29, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
    • Within square brackets, I don't see why not. I can't see anything about it in the MoS- I'll dig out a punctuation guide tomorrow. J Milburn (talk) 19:58, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• "that he liked doing Santa's Little Helper" Not a great phrase
  • Y Fixed. Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:20, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• The "sounds" section feels like it's in the wrong order- I get to the end and Welker's in my head, when it's Castenella who now voices SLP
  • Y Fixed. Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:20, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• "Other dogs featured on the list were Lassie (first), Eddie (fifth), Snoopy (sixth), Scooby-Doo (13th), Rin Tin Tin (14th), Max (20th), Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog (24th), Buck (29th), Chipper (44th), and Tiger (50th).[27]" Why list these specific dogs? Why bother listing any others bu t the winner at all?
  • It helps readers get a better understanding of his popularity. This way you can compare him to other television dogs. Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:13, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
    • Why choose those particular ones? Why not the top five? J Milburn (talk) 18:47, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
      • Because those are all the dogs on the list (and also the only ones that the source mention). Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:50, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
        • Fair. Sorry, I was thinking it was a list of dogs, not just animals. Yep, that works. J Milburn (talk) 20:00, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• "after having his legs broken by Mr. Burns" When did this happen? It's not been mentioned yet
• The long quote from Rabin certainly has a place in the article, but perhaps it could be formatted as a blockquote and the wikilinks removed?
  • Y Done. Theleftorium ^(talk) 19:01, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• Perhaps the paragraph on his stupidity belongs in the role section? Perhaps the development section? It's not really anything to do with the reception, it's a fact about the character
  • Y Moved. Theleftorium ^(talk) 19:01, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• "Santa's Little Helper has made an impact on real life in that a dog walking and pet sitting company in New York City, called "Santa's Little Helper Dog Walking and Pet Sitting", has been named after him.[36]" That's a bit of a boring fact to open with
  • What fact should I open with then? Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:13, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• Repetition of "appeared" in the influence section
  • It's only used three times. Do you have any suggestions on how I can reword it? Because I can't think of anything. Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:35, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• Did he play a part in the movie? Worth mentioning?
  • Y He appeared briefly. I added a small mention. Theleftorium ^(talk) 18:50, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

References (some very picky)

• ""Santa's Little Helper". The Simpsons.com. Retrieved 2011-08-16." Remove space?
• Refs 16-19, 21, 24 have odd italics
• "^ Ellem, Ryan (2005-10-29). "All Creatures Great And Small - Purr-fect cover for vet bills". The Gold Coast Bulletin: p. 060." Odd caps. At the very least, decap "And"
• "^ a b c "Ask Frank". The Frank Welker Homepage (official website). Retrieved 2011-08-14." Listing an author would be good- would also allow a link
• "^ Rabin, Nathan (2010-12-16). "'Bart's Dog Gets An F'". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2011-08-14." Again, not nice caps- at least remove the caps from "An"
• "^ Harris, Craig (2001-04-24). "The Simpsons: Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror Review". IGN. Retrieved 2011-01-07." Remove the caps from "Review"
• "Harris, Craig (2007-09-05). "The Simpsons: Mr. Sparkle Hands-On". IGN. Retrieved 2011-01-07." Caps
  • Y All done. Theleftorium ^(talk) 14:58, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Generally

Sourcing are reliable, pics are appropriate and stability is good. The article's a good one, not too far from GA status, but I would like to see some reliable sources illustrating the significance of the specific episodes you mentioned to the character. I note that there are some repeat mentions of the episodes further down- these would be appropriate. I hope I'm making clear what I'm requesting. J Milburn (talk) 14:09, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Second look through

I'm taking a second read through. I've noted your replies above. J Milburn (talk) 15:25, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

• I'm thinking a hatnote, linking to something like Christmas elf, may be useful.
• "He can often be seen on the show in minor appearances, although there have been some episodes that feature him heavily." I'd remove this line, and replace it with something leading into the next line about his introduction.
  • I rewrote it a bit, but I think it's important to keep the "there have been some episodes that feature him heavily" part since that kind of defines the scope of the section (see my comment below). Theleftorium ^(talk) 16:35, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
• "repo men" Not a very familiar term
• I'm still a little concerned about the lack of secondary sources asserting the importance of those story lines, but I think it's perhaps something that can be overlooked at GA level. I suppose there has to be a degree of judgement from the writers of the article as to what is worth including.
  • Well, the only episodes included are the ones that revolve around Santa's Little Helper (except "Today I Am a Clown", but that's just a one-sentence mention). I don't think there should be a problem with that. Theleftorium ^(talk) 16:35, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
• "In her 2004 book Dog, Ph.D. Susan McHugh noted that" I'm not sure we need to mention that she has a PhD, but a couple of words saying who she is (dog researcher? Dog expert? Naturalist? I don't know) would be good as an alternative
• "methods [in 'Bart's Dog Gets an F'] to Lassie's flawless service to the status quo [in 'The Canine Mutiny']."" Again, speech marks would be good. If you're concerned about speech marks in speech marks, perhaps do not directly quote?
• The structure of the "sounds" para still doesn't strike me as quite right
• In the influence section, how about switching the two paras, and mentioning the espresso before the dog walkers? Closing with the magazine cover works.

It's not looking at all bad. J Milburn (talk) 15:25, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks again! :) I think I've fixed everything (except perhaps the points I replied to). Theleftorium ^(talk) 16:35, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

Yep, that's done it. I think this is one that could hit FA status, if you're interested. Third party sources for the Role section, as I mentioned above, would be a good first step- after that, a peer review and a copyedit, to pick up anything I've missed, and this one might have a shot. In any case, I'm promoting now. Good work! J Milburn (talk) 17:35, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks very much for the great review! Theleftorium ^(talk) 17:58, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

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Color of collar

His collar, when worn, often changes color (even within episodes, re: s28 ep22 Dogtown). I have seen red, blue and black. I can't imagine Homer would buy numerous collars. Probably just always escapes and loses them. Tommyborsh (talk) 04:16, 20 August 2017 (UTC)