| “ | ♪ You better lock up your doors today ‘cause Abu Hassan is on his way! Go in hidin' when I go ridin' from me and my 40 thieves! Your wives and children and money too, I'll steal them from you before I'm through! I'm out gunnin' so start in runnin' from me and my 40 thieves! Abu Hassan! (Forty Thieves: Abu Hassan!) My gang's the roughest, but I'm the toughest and that's no lie! Abu Hassan! (Forty Thieves: Abu Hassan!) You've got to hand it To this bad bandit ‘cause I'm a terrible guy! (Forty Thieves: Abu Hassan! Abu Hassan!)♪ |
„ |
| ~ Abu Hassan singing about himself and his crew. |
| “ | Open sesame! | „ |
| ~ Abu's magic phrase for entering his cave. |
Abu Hassan is a minor antagonist from Popeye the Sailor Man, only appearing in the episode "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves", which parodied the famous Middle Eastern folk tale Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. He is an Arabian thief who pillages Middle Eastern villages and steals all of their belongings. He is the second Popeye villain to be a reincarnation of Bluto after Sindbad the Sailor.
He was voiced by the late Gus Wickie.
Biography[]
In "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves", Abu Hassan rode his horse through the desert, leading his army of forty thieves. Abu proudly sang a song about himself, detailing how horrible of a man he was and what kinds of crimes and misdemeanors he was known to commit.
Meanwhile, in America, Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy were alerted of Abu Hassan and the three of them set out overseas to go and stop him.
When the trio arrived in the Middle East, they stopped by a café for some food. There, a loud and public radio announcement filled the room, singing the song of Abu Hassan, warning the citizens to run and hide to avoid the wrath of the villainous pillager.
Abu Hassan and his forty thieves broke into the village and stole a bunch of fancy objects and priceless artifacts from all the stores and shops. When they got into the café where Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy were at, Popeye knocked Abu off his horse and prepared to fight him in hand to hand combat. Popeye did an assortment of silly things to Abu such as straightening out his knife and yanking his underwear off out from under his pants. After being shown up enough by Popeye, Abu grabbed him, tied him to the rope for a chandelier, and then hung him from the ceiling. Abu summoned his horse and forty thieves and with Popeye out of the way, they were free to rob the rest of the village clean. When they stole everything from the village. This included the unwitting kidnapping of Olive and Wimpy, who were hiding in a stolen vase and oven, respectively.
Abu went back to his cave, where he magically opened the door by saying "open sesame". Popeye tried to follow him in but his speech impediment prevented him from pronouncing the phrase correctly. Instead, Popeye used the fire from his pipe to burn a hole in the door and go through.
In Abu's cave, Abu had Olive working as a slave, washing his laundry for him and all forty of the thieves. Abu also had Wimpy chained up to a rock, while he feasted on a massive meal of stolen food right in front of his face. While Abu wasn't looking, Wimpy was able to kick the chain, causing a reverberation to slide down the chain, hit a basket of chicken at the end, and then send the chicken back to him so it could bounce up into his mouth so he could eat it. Eventually, Abu moved on to the chicken basket, only to find out that it has all mysteriously gone missing. Abu Hassan ranted and raved, ironically claiming that there must be some thieves in his cave.
Popeye slammed himself down on the table and demanded Abu return all of his stolen artifacts. Abu got angry and punched Popeye in the face and then summoned his forty thieves to attack him. One by one, Popeye fought them off but a couple of them toppled Popeye into a trap door, where they hung him from a rope over shark-infested water. Popeye took out his can on spinach and said his own little catchphrase "Open says me!", causing the can to open and for the spinach to magically fly into his mouth. Newly empowered, Popeye lept out of the trap door and fought off the forty thieves for real and then gave Abu Hassan one last beat down.
Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy went back to the recently robbed village to return the stolen artifacts, riding atop a giant carriage full of the stolen gold and jewels. The carriage was pulled like a rickshaw by the now enslaved forty thieves and at the very front of the line, walked Abu Hassan, now paying the price for his evil deeds.
Trivia[]
- Abu Hassan did not appear in the original, story, nor did he have any prominence in any other reiteration of the story, making him an original character to Popeye the Sailor Man.
- Contrary to what the episode's title may lead some to believe, Abu Hassan is not the same character as Ali Baba. In the original story, Ali Baba was the protagonist, while in this episode, his role has been replaced by Popeye, while Abu Hassan plays the role of the story's villain.
- Due to the stereotypical nature of Abu Hassan and the fact that he is basically Bluto masquerading in a form of brownface, the episode he comes from has been banned from broadcast syndication. However, the uncut episode can still be found intact on home video.