Love me some Mississippi Mud . Put down two of those and a few IPA ' s while watching football today <| sep |> They don ' t know . If they need to they will need to dig . <| sep |> Me too so sad not sad at all <| sep |> NGF right . <| sep |> OriginAt the time he came up with the idea for the Smurfs , Peyo was the creator , artist , and writer of the FrancoBelgian comics series titled Johan et Pirlouit translated to English as Johan and Peewit , set in Europe during the Middle Ages and including elements of swordandsorcery . Johan serves as a brave young page to the king , and Pirlouit pronounced Peerlooee functions as his faithful , if boastful and cheating , midget sidekick . In 1958 , Spirou magazine started to publish the Johan et Pirlouit story La Flte six trous The Flute with Six Holes . The adventure involved them recovering a magic flute , which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus . In this manner , they met a tiny , blueskinned humanoid in white clothing called a Schtroumpf , followed by his numerous peers who looked just like him , with an elderly leader who wore red clothing and had a white beard . Their first full appearance was published in Spirou on October 23 , 1958 . The characters proved to be a huge success , and the first independent Smurf stories appeared in Spirou in 1959 , together with the first merchandising . The Smurfs shared more adventures with Johan and Pirlouit , got their own series and all subsequent publications of the original story were retitled La Flte six Schtroumpfs also the title of the movie version of the story . Schtroumpf is pronounced like the German word Strumpf meaning sock . However , according to Peyo , original author of the original Smurfs comic strip , the original term and the accompanying language of the Smurfs came during a meal he was having with his colleague and friend Andr Franquin at the Belgian Coast . Having momentarily forgotten the word salt , Peyo asked him in French to pass the schtroumpf . Franquin jokingly replied Here ' s the Schtroumpfwhen you are done schtroumpfing , schtroumpf it back . and the two spent the rest of that weekend speaking in schtroumpf language . The name was later translated into Dutch as Smurf , which was adopted in English . With the commercial success of the Smurfs came the merchandising empire of Smurf miniatures , models , games , and toys . Entire collecting clubs have devoted themselves to collecting PVC Smurfs and Smurf merchandise .