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Superhero Smash Season IV—Audio Issue #62: Tarzan

Original Air Date

  • June 25th, 2026

Part 1: The Hero (Begins @ 11:00 a.m.)

Super Show ID 1: Superhero Smash (0:30)

  • Good morning, listeners. You’ve waited all week, and it’s finally here: Another great episode of Superhero Smash on WIUP FM 90.1!
    • Featuring “The Best in Superhero Music and Comic Book Lore”
    • Superhero Smash is a musical force for good!
  • I’m your host, Dr. Gian Pagnucci, but you can call me The New Professor X
  • All summer long, I’ll be playing great music and talking about superhero movies, comics, and history
  • And I’ll have plenty of great guest stars this summer, too
  • But no matter what cool stuff I discuss, you don’t have to worry because this is a NO SPOILERS show
  • Contact me, the new Professor X, via email: SuperheroSmash3000@gmail.com

Issue Theme

  • Finding Where You Belong

Here comes Tarzan! (1:00)

  • We started with Godzilla rising from the bottom of the ocean
  • Then we encountered King Kong deep in the heart of Skull Island
  • But the jungle holds many secrets, so we will explore some more of them today on Superhero Smash
  • Today I’ll be talking about Tarzan, the Lord of the Jungle
  • Tarzan is powerful, able to wrestle a lion with his bare hands
  • And his senses are as keen as any jungle animals
  • Is Tarzan a superhero? Well, he doesn’t have much of a costume
  • But he is great at rescuing damsels in distress
  • Deep in the emerald shadows of the jungle, a cry echoes—half-man, half-myth—the call of Tarzan!
  • This is Superhero Smash and today we swing through the jungle with the King of the Apes!

Heroic Opening Song for Tarzan (3:50)

  • Tarzan Sound Effect (0:03)
    • “Tarzan Yell” by actor Johnny Weissmuller in 1932 for Tarzan the Ape Man
  • “Tarzan Boy” by Baltimora

The World That Created Tarzan (5:00)

Today we head into the jungle

  • Not just a place of vines and shadows and distant drums
  • But a world imagined at the turn of the twentieth century
    A world where the map still had blank spaces
    Where the line between civilization and wilderness felt fragile
    And where the question lingered:
    What happens when a human being grows up without society?
  • Tarzan of the Apes was published in 1912 by Edgar Rice Burroughs
    • Complete Collection of Tarzan Novels | Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • The stories were originally released in pulp fiction magazines
  • 1912 was a time of industrial expansion
    • A time when cities grew louder
    • Machines grew faster
    • And people began to wonder what was being lost
  • And so Burroughs created a myth
    • A child of English aristocrats
      Left orphaned in the African jungle
      Raised not by humans
      But by apes
  • It’s a fantasy of escape
    But also a fantasy of power

    • Because Tarzan is not just a survivor
      He is stronger than the animals
      More intelligent than the creatures who raised him
      And, eventually,
      More noble than the civilization he left behind
  • This is where Tarzan becomes more than a story
    • He becomes an idea
    • The idea that beneath the suits and schedules
      Beneath the lectures and meetings and endless noise
      There is something older
    • Something instinctive
    • Something powerful
  • Tarzan is the dream that we could return to that ancient world
    And not just survive it

    • But master it
  • And yet
    There’s tension in that dream

    • Because Tarzan stands between worlds
      Not fully animal
      Not fully civilized
  • He is the bridge
    • And that makes him heroic
    • But it also makes him isolated
  • You can already hear the echo of other heroes, can’t you
    • Superman between Krypton and Earth
      Batman between order and chaos
      Even the Hulk between intellect and rage
  • Tarzan may be older than them all
    • But the DNA of the superhero is already here
    • Strength
      Isolation
      Moral clarity
      And a world that needs protecting
  • So today
    We don’t just enter the jungle

    • We enter the birthplace of a myth
  • But you don’t walk into the jungle
    • Not really
  • Because the jungle isn’t just danger
    • It’s distance
    • It’s scale
    • It’s a world that reminds us how small we are
      And how much we don’t understand
  • And maybe that’s why Tarzan still matters
    • Because he doesn’t conquer that jungle world
    • He belongs to it
  • And for a moment
    Through his story

    • We get to belong to it too

Tarzan Song 1 (4:55)

  • “Africa” by Toto

Part 1: The Hero (Ends @ 15 minutes)

Part 2 The Origin Story (Begins @ 15 minutes)

Super Show ID 2: Superhero Smash (0:30)

The Origin of Tarzan (4:00)

Tarzan’s origin story begins with loss

A shipwreck
A distant shore
A man and a woman attempting to carve out life in a place that does not want them

And then
Death

The jungle does not negotiate
It does not compromise
It simply takes

Leaving behind a child

That child should not survive

But Tarzan does

He is found by Kala
An ape who has just lost her own infant
And in that moment
Grief transforms into compassion

She takes him in

And that is the first truth of Tarzan’s story

He is not raised by savagery
He is raised by love

But love is not enough to make him one of the apes

He grows
Different

Weaker in some ways
Stronger in others

He learns to climb faster
To swing farther
To think

He watches

And then something remarkable happens

Tarzan teaches himself to read

Among the ruins of his parents’ cabin
Among the books left behind
He unlocks language

It’s a stretch, but Burroughs does a great job making it seem plausible

Imagine that

A child raised without human society
Decoding the written word
Teaching himself what it means to be human

He becomes something entirely new

Not ape
Not man

Something in between

And this is where Tarzan becomes a myth again

Because his origin story is not just about survival

It is about identity

Who are you if no one tells you who to be?

Who are you if you belong nowhere?

Tarzan answers that question by becoming the best of both worlds

The strength of the jungle
The intellect of humanity

But that balance does not come easy

  • He fights for acceptance
  • He fights for leadership
  • He fights to define himself

And when he finally takes his place
When he finally becomes the one others follow

You realize

This is not just a boy who survived

This is a legend being formed

  • One swing
    One battle
    One decision at a time

And all of it driven by a simple truth

Tarzan is searching

  • Searching for connection
    For understanding
    For a place to belong

And in that search

He begins to sense it

That he is not one thing

  • Not only of the jungle
    Not only of the world he came from

But something that lives between

  • Two ways of being
    Two ways of seeing
    Two ways of belonging

The wild calls to him
The past calls to him

And somehow
Both are true

This is where his story truly begins

Not as a boy choosing one world

But as someone who must carry both

  • Two lives
    Two identities
    Moving forward together

And the jungle listens

As if it already knows

He will walk a path
That bridges what should never meet

Two worlds

One family

And a destiny just beginning to awaken

Tarzan Song 2 (3:31)

  • “Two Worlds” by Phil Colins from Tarzan Soundtrack

The Superhero Smash Comic Book Vault: First Appearance of Tarzan (4:00)

  • The Comic Book Vault Sound Effect (0:12)

1) First Comic Appearance (Comic Strip — the true first)

  • Title: Tarzan of the Apes
  • Type: Daily newspaper comic strip
  • First appearance: January 7, 1929
  • Publisher / Syndicate: Metropolitan Newspaper Service (later United Feature Syndicate)
  • Writer: R. W. Palmer (adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs)
  • Artist: Hal Foster
    • Foster became famous for doing the art on the Prince Valiant newspaper comic strip
    • Prince Valiant is widely considered one of the greatest comic strips ever created
    • It had extremely detailed, realistic artwork and the stories had high historical accuracy
  • Notes:
    • Adapted directly from Burroughs’ 1912 novel
    • This is considered the first comic appearance of Tarzan in any sequential art form

2) First Comic Book Appearance (reprints)

Tarzan did not immediately debut in comic books—early comic books just reprinted the newspaper strips.

  • Tarzan’s earliest appearances were in:
    • Titles like Tip Top Comics (mid‑1930s)
    • Also Sparkler Comics and similar anthology series
  • These are:
    • Format: anthology comic books
    • Content: reprints of the 1929 strip, not new material

3) First Original Tarzan Comic Book Story

  • Title: Four Color Comics #134 (Tarzan feature)
  • Publisher: Dell Comics (Western Publishing)
  • Year: 1947 (cover-dated late 1940s)
  • Writer: Adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs material
  • Artist: Jesse Marsh
  • Notes:
    • This is widely recognized as the first original Tarzan comic book story (not a strip reprint)
    • Marsh is the first dedicated comic-book artist for Tarzan
  • Tarzan Four Color #134 CGC 8.0 Dell Comic 1947 Devil Ogre - Picture 1 of 2
  • Value on eBay today: $625 (CGC graded 8.0 on a 10-point scale)
    • Not a bad price for Tarzan’s first original comic book appearnce

4) First Ongoing Tarzan Comic Book Series

  • Title: Tarzan #1
  • Publisher: Dell Comics
  • Date: January–February 1948 [heykidscom…fandom.com]
  • Writer: Adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • Artist: Jesse Marsh

Tarzan Song 3 (4:31)

  • “Superman’s Song” by Crash Test Dummies

Part 2: The Origin Story (Ends @ 30 minutes)

Part 3: The Super Romance (Begins @ 30 minutes)

Super Show ID 3: Superhero Smash (0:30)

  • You’re listening to Superhero Smash on WIUP FM 90.1
    • Featuring “The Best Superhero Music and Comic Book Lore” in the Jungle Universe, Monster Universe, the Marvel Universe, the DC Universe, and our Universe too!
    • I’ve got every universe covered here on
    • Superhero Smash: A musical force for good!
  • Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
  • Or email the New Professor X using the address SuperheroSmash3000@gmail.com
  • If you are enjoying today’s show, you can catch more Superhero Smash on Thursday mornings at 11:00 a.m. all summer long on WIUP FM 90.1

Superhero Smash Super Shout-out: To Giannis Antetokounmpo (0:10)

  •  Speaking of Superman and other heroes, let me give a Superhero Smash Super Shout-out to Giannis Antetokounmpo, NBA champion who has just been traded from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Miami Heat
    • Giannis helped the Bucks win the NBA title in 2021, their first after a 30 year drought (they won in 1971)
      • Milwaukee Bucks beat Phoenix Suns to win NBA championship ...
    • So I better give a Superhero Smash Super Shout-out to all those Bucks fans, like me, who wish Giannis well but are very sad to see him go. Hang in there Bucks fans, hopefully another hero will arrive soon!

Super Romantic Interlude: Me Tarzan, You Jane (3:00)

  • As Legion of Superhero Smash Listeners know, I always have a super romantic interlude during the show

Like most bachelors, Tarzan was doing pretty well living the single life

  • He had his own pad
  • He had a big group of friends
  • He ate tons of meat, although I’m sure he would’ve liked having a grill

Then along came Jane, and Tarzan’s world got turned upside down

Which of course leads to talking about that famous line everyone thinks they know

  • “Me Tarzan … you Jane”

There’s actually a great behind-the-scenes story about that line

1. The big surprise: Tarzan never said it

The famous line “Me Tarzan, you Jane” is basically a myth

It does not appear in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ original novels
It was never spoken in the classic Tarzan films either

What did happen is this:

  • In the 1932 film Tarzan the Ape Man, there’s a scene where Jane tries to teach Tarzan words—
    “me,” “you,” “Jane,” “Tarzan”
  • But he struggles with pronouns and just repeats names back and forth in a kind of awkward, funny exchange
  • Over time, audiences and comedians compressed that whole scene into one simple line
  • And that’s how the legend was born.

2. Where the phrase really came from

The line actually became popular because of:

After that, his quip became an oft-used comic catchphrase that many people mistakenly assume came from one of Weissmuller’s Tarzan movies.

  • Comedy routines and parodies that simplified Tarzan into a “jungle caveman” stereotype

So the line isn’t canon—it’s pop culture shorthand.

3. Why Disney leans into it anyway

Even though the line isn’t really in the 1999 movie, Disney absolutely uses the idea behind it in Tarzan (1999):

  • Jane teaches Tarzan language step-by-step
    Their interaction is about learning, miscommunication, and connection [screenvue.com]
    It becomes a key moment where two completely different worlds begin to understand each other

So Disney isn’t using the cliché as a joke—they’re reclaiming it
Instead of “primitive speech,” it becomes:

  • The start of language
    The start of identity
    The start of relationship

  • And once that begins
    Everything changes

    Because for the first time
    Being alone isn’t enough

    Now there’s someone out there

    And somehow
    He knows

    He’s trying to reach her

Tarzan Song 4 (3:50)

  • “The Banjo Song” by Mumford & Sons

Superhero Smash Super Shout-out: To Sarah (1:00)

  • Let me also give a Superhero Smash Super Shout-out to Sarah
    • She celebrated her birthday at the Mumford & Sons concert in Hershey, PA
    • The show was fantastic
    • Their most famous song is “I will Wait for You” but they have tons of great songs like “The Banjo Song” I just played
    • Check them out!

Part 3: The Super Romance (Ends @ 40 minutes)

Part 4: The Good Deed (Begins @ 40 minutes)

Super Show ID 5: Superhero Smash (0:30)

PSA: Visit the IUP Kathleen Jones White Writing Center (1:00)

  • This is a great time to swing into the the IUP Kathleen Jones White Writing Center
    • The Writing Center is open all summer long, and the Writing Center tutors will help IUP students with any writing challenge, no matter how dark and forboding
    • You can get help from the Writing Center remotely this summer, via Zoom, where you can talk directly with a tutor, or asynchronously, where a tutor will give you comments on your paper
  • Let me cue that Writing Center Theme Song!

Writing Center Theme Song (0:30)

  • “I Love the Writing Center” by Dr. Weinstein

Superhero Smash Super Shout-out: To Dr. Dan Weinstein (0:10)

  • And let me also give a Superhero Smash Super Shout-out to Dr. Dan Weinstein, the Director of the Writing Center and LLW Associate Professor
    • Dr. Weinstein doesn’t climb a lot of trees, but he can give a jungle call with the best of them!
    • Tarzan Sound Effect (0:03)

Super Good Deed for the Week: Learn Someone Else’s World (4:00)

  • Superhero stories are about doing good
  • And in that spirit, I have been trying to make Superhero Smash be a musical force for good
  • Tarzan’s story isn’t just about strength
    • It’s about learning
  • Tarzan doesn’t just meet Jane
    • He tries to understand her world
    • Her language
    • Her ideas
    • Her way of seeing things
  • And Jane does the same for him
  • That’s what changes everything
    • Not power
    • Not dominance
    • But the willingness to learn from someone who is different
  • This week’s challenge is to channel that same kind of world-protecting energy.

The Superhero Smash Move: This Week, the Tarzan Lesson

For this week’s Superhero Smash Move, try the following:

  • Step into someone else’s world
    • Ask a question you normally wouldn’t ask
    • Listen longer than you normally would
    • Try to understand someone’s perspective instead of just reacting to it
  • It could be someone from a different background
    • A different major
    • A different generation
  • The key is this: Connection doesn’t start with just talking. It starts with learning.

Super Examples

If you aren’t sure what to do, here are a few powerful possibilities:

  • Maybe you’re in a class where someone always seems to think differently than you
    • Instead of dismissing it, ask them how they got there
  • Or maybe there’s someone you interact with every day, but you’ve never really had a conversation beyond the surface
    • Take a minute, ask one real question, and actually listen to the person’s answer
  • No debate, No correction Just understanding

Channel Tarzan’s Energy

  • Try to listen first
  • And hear before you speak

That’s This Week’s Superhero Smash Move

  • Tap into Your Inner Tarzan
  • Not just surviving the jungle
    • But learning to understand what’s beyond it
  • Don’t just stay in your world
    • Learn someone else’s
  • Super good deed!

Tarzan Song 5 (3:01)

  • And when you do that
    • When you open yourself to someone new
  • You’ll realize something
    • We’re not as different as we think
  • “Strangers Like Me” by Phil Collins, again from the Tarzan Soundtrack

Part 4: The Good Deed (Ends @ 50 minutes)

Part 5: The Fantastic Finish (Begins @ 50 minutes)

Super Show ID 5: Superhero Smash (0:30)

The End of Tarzan, For Now! (3:00)

  • Tarzan is headed back into the jungle, but he will return

Super Show ID 6: Superhero Smash To Be Continued Next Issue! (2:00)

  • ALMOST the Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel
    • If you are enjoying today’s show, you can catch more Superhero Smash on Thursday mornings at 11:00 a.m. all summer long on WIUP FM 90.1
    • But next week I’m heading out of town for the Fourth of July, so you’ll have to wait 2 weeks, until July 9th for the next great issue of Superhero Smash

A Smash Announcement! (3:00)

  • Before we head into the July 4 break…
    • [a slight lean in, lower your voice]
  • a quick teaser.
  • For over 3 years, you’ve heard one host name behind this mic…
    • [steady, reflective]
  • but every good story… hits a turning point.
    • [brief pause]
  • And when Superhero Smash returns—
    • [rise in energy]
  • the show stays the same…
  • the stories get bigger…
  • but the host name?
    • [pause—let it hang just a beat longer than feels natural]
  • …it hits harder.
  • Stay tuned.
    • [smile in your voice]
  • A bigger smash is coming.

Tarzan Song (3:01)

  • “Tarzan & Jane” by Toy-Box

Super Show ID 7: Superhero Smash To Be Continued Next Issue! (2:00)

  • That’s a wrap of Tarzan for this week!
  • Superhero Smash is a musical force for good!
  • Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
  • And remember, while Superhero Smash is about the exploits of amazing individuals,
    • “You don’t need superpowers to be a hero. The only thing it takes to be a hero is the courage to do what’s right when someone needs your help.”–Gian Pagnucci

The Superhero Smash Back Issue Bin! (1:00)

  • Legion of Superhero Smash Fans will recall that I kicked off Season IV by talking about Supergirl
  • Back Issue Bin: Season IV
  • Tomorrow, she flies into a movie theater near you!
  • That’s right. The new Supergirl movie officially premiers on Friday, but special previews will already be screening tonight
  • I can’t wait to watch it
    • Different worlds
    • Different identities
    • Figuring out who she is
  • Sounds a little like Tarzan… doesn’t she?
  • So let’s send you out with a super song that lives between worlds

Heroic End Credits Song for Tarzan (3:24)

  • “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” by Cake

Part 5: The Fantastic Finish (Ends @ 60 minutes)

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