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WackyRacesAntHill Mob

The Ant Hill Mob is a group of characters in Wacky Races. Clyde was voiced by Paul Winchell and Ring-a-Ding was voiced by Don Messick.

About the Mob[]

They are 1920s gangsters who compete to win cross-country races. Clyde is the leader of the gang, which includes Ring-a-Ding, Danny, Rug Bug Benny, Mac, Kirby, and Willy. Although he is sometimes rude to the rest of the gang, Clyde actually cares for them. In one episode, when the rest of the gang was stuck in the Creepy Coupe, Clyde was menacing the Gruesomes: "All right, you creeps, where are my boys?"

The gang drive in car number 7, The Bulletproof Bomb (also known as The Roaring Plenty), and are pint-sized characters, a reference to the Seven Dwarfs. In the very first episode, "See-Saw to Arkansas", they even disguise themselves as the Seven Dwarfs to escape from a policeman. Their usual method of improving the speed of their car is "getaway" power, which they achieve by extending their feet through the floor of the car and running, the same way Fred Flintstone accelerates his own prehistoric car.

Clyde is probably named for criminal Clyde Barrow. This is further reinforced in a dialog where he threatens the boys with, "Youse want I should tell Bonnie on you?", an apparent reference to Barrow's henchwoman, Bonnie Parker. When Wacky Races is dubbed in French, Clyde's name was changed to "Al Carbone", a play on Al Capone.

Ring-a-Ding usually queries Clyde's orders or causes the plan to go wrong in some way. Clyde also sometimes calls him "Ding-a-Ling" instead of "Ring-a-Ding."

Chug1

Perils of Penelope Pitstop Ant Hill Mob with Chugga-Boom

The Ant Hill Mob re-appears in a spin-off of Wacky Races, called The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. This time they were Penelope's knights in shining armor, but with a car instead of a horse. They all had different names, except Clyde, who wore a gray suit, and his wingmen all wore blue outfits. Also, their car changed with a whole new look, personality and name, Chugga-Boom.

Their names and personalities are different in this cartoon. "Yak Yak" cannot stop laughing and almost always would laugh during times of peril although he does not mean to. "Softy" cannot stop crying and will mostly do so during a genuinely happy moment. "Pockets" always had gadgets in his pockets. "Zippy" could run really fast. "Snoozy" always falls asleep, sleep-talking and "Dum-Dum" completely lacks all common sense.

Before Wacky Races, the name was used in the Atom Ant short "Wild, Wild Ants". Here, the Ant Hill Mob is a bunch of biker ants who steal the picnickers' food.

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