The Smurfs (French: Les Schtroumpfs; Dutch:
De Smurfen) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional
colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped
houses in the forest. The Smurfs was first created and
introduced as a series of comic characters by the Belgian comics artist
Peyo (the pen name of Pierre Culliford) in 1958, wherein they were known
as Les Schtroumpfs. There are more than 100 Smurf characters, and
their names are based on adjectives that emphasise their
characteristics, such as
"Jokey Smurf", who likes to play practical jokes on his fellow smurfs.
"Smurfette" was the first female Smurf to be introduced in the
series. The Smurfs wear Phrygian caps, which came to represent freedom
during the modern era.
The word “smurf” is the original Dutch translation of the
French "schtroumpf", which, according to Peyo, is a word he
invented during a meal with fellow cartoonist André Franquin when he
could not remember the word salt.