Reporter's Inside Stories: An Interview With Sweepy

Reporter: Here we are, with another new installment of Reporter's Inside Stories. Today we'll be smurfing to one of our fellow Smurfs whose name and reputation isn't very popular, but not for reasons like with Jokey, Brainy, Sneaky, or Nudie, who make us all wish for the worst to happen. His name is Sweepy, and he's the village chimney sweep who makes his smurfing out of cleaning every Smurf's chimney even as he smurfs a mess in other Smurfs' houses smurfing the job. Today we'll be smurfing with him about why he likes his job so much and what he does about the Smurfs who don't appreciate his work.

Sweepy: (from the top of Reporter's chimney) Here I come, mate! Smurf out below!

(Sweepy comes down into Reporter's house through the chimney and fills the room with a cloud of soot, causing Reporter to cough and open up a window.)

Sweepy: There! That ought to smurf the trick! I guess I'm right on time to smurf your interview with me, Reporter.

Reporter: That was quite the entrance you smurfed for one, Sweepy. Don't you try to make it a point to warn your fellow Smurfs that you'd be smurfing down their chimneys?

Sweepy: I try to do that, mate, but you know not every Smurf thinks that they should be ready for me to smurf through the chimney to give it a good sweep. I don't do it because I want to mess up people's houses, because I know how nice and neat everybody wants things to be when I'm through with my job. My poor cousin Tidy is perhaps the Smurf who likes my job the least because he smurfs through the trouble of doing laundry and smurfing houses to be nice and clean.

Reporter: I'm pretty much aware of that. Yet it doesn't bother you much that your fellow Smurfs don't appreciate your work because it's so necessary.

Sweepy: Aye, it's a real heartsmurfer, all right. Sloppy understands what it's like to smurf another of the dirty jobs around the village, and so does Recycler, because there will always be garbage and manure as long as there will be Smurfs who will produce it. But imagine what the village would be like if there were no Smurfs around to smurf the jobs that I or those Smurfs do on a regular basis. My fellow Smurfs would be smurfed out of their houses and homes because the smoke from their fireplaces wouldn't have any way to escape. It takes a Smurf like me with my unique skills to keep those Smurfs from smurfing their own fumes.

Reporter: Yeah, it does help for all of us to breathe easier, I can say that. I notice that you don't always carry a ladder with you when you smurf up to the chimneys.

Sweepy: Not when I have this handy-dandy little tool with me, mate! It's something my own Papa Smurf used when he was smurfing chimneys in his day, and when you combine that with a Smurf's ability to jump a good smurf upward, you can smurf even to the highest of chimneys...well, at least the ones in the village. I always like practicing my jumps by smurfing pole vaults with this thing when I'm not at my work, because you never know when such a thing might smurf in handy.

Reporter: Like when you had to smurf into Greedy's kitchen to smurf Baby Smurf out of a fire when it smurfed up in flames, correct?

Sweepy: Aye, very much so. Poor Greedy and his kitchen helpers, they just don't appreciate having me around to clean their chimneys because their jobs constantly require it. I never want to see their kitchens burn down, though, because we wouldn't be smurfing any of their great meals without them.

Reporter: I agree, Sweepy. But you do have friends in the village who help you when you feel that nobody appreciates the work that you smurf around here.

Sweepy: Tapper is one of my friends, mate. He's been smurfing with me since we were young ones with our parent Smurfs. Even before he smurfed that holy book, he and I smurfed along pretty well, he learning how to smurf up the brews for his Papa Smurf's tavern and to serve them like his Mama Smurf, and I with my Papa Smurf and his own line of work. He knows that dirty jobs are just as important as clean ones, and sometimes he wishes he could get all dirty smurfing up the important jobs like me, Sloppy, Recycler, and even Miner. I just want to be a people Smurf like him because he simply knows how to talk to his fellow Smurfs without being a snoop.

Reporter: It must be interesting to know how the both of you smurfed along quite well, even as you're now both part of the Barber Smurf Quartet that smurfed its first performance at the Smurfstock Festival.