Schtroumpf is the original French name for the Smurfs, the small blue characters created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo and first published in 1958. In French, the word is famously used as a flexible substitute for almost any noun or verb, which helped the joke travel beyond the comics into television, films and online humour. English-speaking audiences know the characters simply as Smurfs, but the French word has kept a cult appeal as a meme sound because it sounds instantly playful and unmistakably cartoonish, even to listeners who do not speak French.