Big Bad Jewish chicken?

[Wilmer Rivers]

Even Flood asks an interesting question about an Arabic edition of a
Disney comic book:
> Why is Gyro without a hat in
> this edition? It has been removed, making Gyro look somewhat 
> with a strange tonsure.
> 
This is pure speculation, but maybe the editors were afraid that the
hat makes Gyro look more like a Jewish chicken?  Granted, the hat isn't
a yarmulka (sp.?), but I suspect you can't be too cautious about that
sort of thing in Arabic comic books.  After all, before American tele-
vision executives could sell the Western series "Bonanza" to Saudi tv,
they had to convince the authoritites there that the characters were in
fact not Jewish.  Apparently the Saudis thought the family name of the
ranch owner was Ben-Cartwright, and with his sons being named Adam and
Joseph, it was considered unacceptable entertainment in that country.
Do you suppose that someone might consider the character of Gyro, wear-
ing a hat, to be Jewish?  I know this sounds far-fetched, but the world
is a weird place.  At least we can still keep him as a character in the
USA, since he definitely isn't an Indian.  [Just as an afterthought -
what do you suppose the Saudi Disney publishers would do to edit a story
in which Gyro meets our old pal, Yosuf Aiper?]

Wilmer Rivers