Amarillo Gorillas

35

I get irritated by the fact that so many teams feel the need to put blatant winter references into their logos, as if their fans would think the team played field hockey if they didn't. But there is such thing as going too far in the other direction, and the Gorillas have done it. A jungle? I could be wrong, but I don't think there are many ice rinks in Nairobi.

The gorilla in Amarillo's logo, much like the duck in Quad City's, is one of a handful where it's not just a cartoon character in general, but rather it reminds me of a specific cartoon character. In this case, it's the gorilla voiced by Rosie O'Donnell in Disney's Tarzan movie. Or at least, it's the top half of that gorilla. What happened to this creature's lower torso and legs?

But the logo does get off lighter than they probably deserve to. First of all, gorillas are one of the few animals that can't fairly be accused of being anthropomorphized. And with the gorilla simply carrying a stick, I can't reasonably say it's supposed to be a hockey player -- there are no gloves, no jersey, and no helmet. And with the legs missing, there are certainly no skates -- I know that gorillas are knuckle-walkers, but that doesn't mean you'd put ice skates on the hands, does it? I suppose if you had any sense, you wouldn't come near enough to a gorilla to even think of putting skates on his hands, feet, or anything else.

While I'm harping on his equipment, I'd just like to add that this is the sorriest looking hockey stick I've ever seen in a logo. It looks like the shaft has a twist under his hand (notice how the butt isn't turned at the same angle as the rest of the shaft), it's so warped it looks like it's melting, and the chip in the tip of the blade almost makes it look like a stone hockey stick from an episode of "The Flintstones". The jungle vine used as hockey tape just completes the look.

Finally, a couple of notes about the scoring. I know that "Amarillo" and "Gorilla" aren't technically examples of alliteration (more of a half-assed rhyme than anything else), but there was simply no way I was letting them get away with that, so I gave them the alliteration penalty anyway. Second, as was the case with Quad City, the "cartoon" penalty is egregious since I can identify which character it is.

Final Score: 35 points.
Penalties: Alliteration, 2 pts; Cartoon (egregious), 26 pts; Name-Logo, 2 pts; Equip-Logo, 5 pts.
Bonuses: None.