My role model as a tyke growing up in Minneapolis always was, and will always be, Clellan Card, in his role as Axel Torgeson on his TV kiddie show, Axel and His Dog.
In his role as Scandihoovian paterfamilias to a mangy crew of a dog and a cat (plus, later on, the totally normal, and thus totally irrational, Carmen the Nurse), Axel was a jolly hooligan when it came to mangling the English language. The way he could draw out and provide startling innuendo to his word for a cat -- "pyoo-see-gat" tickled me as a kid, and now, as I think back on it as a so-called sophisticated adult, causes me to grin salaciously.
Africa was pronounced "Ah-FREEK-ka".
Other TV kiddie show hosts were silly, but in a serious sort of way -- with some kind of subliminal message included, like be kind to animals or don't be a litter bug. Axel went way beyond silly to a Zone were Rod Serling would have pushed a custard pie into a space alien's face and then dropped his slacks as he did the hootchie-kootchie . . .
Like many another great clown, Axel's character ranged just this side of madness; he inhabited his own world and followed his own agenda, while introducing limited animation cartoons and going to commercials. For me, the fascination was always to wonder when he would finally break out and demolish the fourth wall completely -- running down his audience on a slice of anthropomorphic lutefisk.
Even as a sullen, world-weary teenager, too lazy and self-centered to take out the garbage or shovel the walk, I couldn't help surreptitiously watching Axel crack wise with senile puns and nonsensical yarns that made a shaggy dog story look like a Chihuahua.
He made non-comformity look as innocent, and easy, as a baby grabbing its own toes.
For creating such good-hearted goofiness for so many years, he's my hero!
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