11. Dr. Seuss created a character called the Technical Fairy, First Class
A character within the Private Snafu films appears in nine of the shorts, dressed in an Army uniform hat, shorts, and socks, and wearing the translucent wings of a fairy, upon which the rank symbol of technical sergeant appears. When Snafu is unhappy with an assigned task, or with some other aspect of his situation, the Technical Fairy appears, with a total of nine of the shorts featuring his character. His role is to grant Snafu’s wish, which usually leads to a task being incorrectly completed, or ignored altogether. The result is chaotic, and the viewers are left with the impression that ignoring procedures, or protocols, or other aspects of military life invariably led to some form of disaster which all too often was to be suffered personally.
In a 1944 short, Snafuperman, Snafu annoys his bunkmates while they are trying to study by listening to music at high volume. An argument with his fellows led to him being visited by the Technical Fairy, who grants Snafu powers similar to Superman’s. Tasked with bombing Berlin, Snafu – unable to read a map because of his lack of studying the subject – instead bombs Washington DC. He later accosts an American tank, believing it to be Japanese, and subsequently blows himself up when he fails to properly identify a German bomb as having a time-delayed fuse. He survives though, to demand a field manual from the Technical Fairy as he is recovering in the hospital. Thus the trainees were demonstrated the virtue of diligent study and the perils of taking shortcuts.