Bear Facsimilia

January 07, 2026

So, bears are animals. You probably didn't need me to tell you that. They're these massive, furry, dangerous mammals. You do not want to encounter them in the wild, they have very sharp teeth and claws and are more than willing to use them to rip your face off. They are also, in appearance, very cute! I would never want to be in close proximity to them, but when you look at them from afar, maybe through a remote camera, they are adorable creatures when they are just going about their day. Catching salmon, eating honey... People have caught onto this fact, such that bears are considered a classic element in cutesy aesthetics. They have been made into toys and cartoon characters.

The "teddy bear", cute little plush toys of bears, first started popping up in the early 1900s. They seemingly popped up independently in both America and Germany. The American version came to be known as "Teddy" due to the U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, who had some sort of anecdote about bear hunting that was topical at the time. The anecdote was subject to political cartoons, which depicted a cute little bear as the bear in the story. The toymaker Morris Michtom saw these cartoons and was struck with inspiration.

Meanwhile, in Germany, the toymaker Richard Steiff made a plush bear of his own design, most likely a couple months earlier than the American guy. His company displayed them at a toy fair, and a businessman there liked them so much that he ordered several thousand of them to his company in New York.

Rumor has it, the German bears never made it to New York. The boat that they were on was in a wreck. This is totally unconfirmed, but it's fun to think about a bunch of teddy bears getting shipwrecked on a secluded island.

Also, and this is off-topic, the businessman who bought the German bears was named Hermann Berg, and he was the brother of a famous composer named Alban Berg. Alban was apparently OBSESSED with the number 23, he was always incorporating it into his music. It reminded me of how Weird Al Yankovic is obsessed with the number 27.

Bears are also a popular subject for cartoons. You have the likes of Yogi Bear from the '50s, Baloo from the '60s, Brother Bear from 2003. All of which depict bears as these cute, lovable companions. Well, maybe not Brother Bear... They kill people in that one. Though they are still cute and lovable regardless of this.

And then there's Pooky, from Garfield. It is Garfield's pet teddy bear, and perhaps the only creature to which he shows kindness. He plays with it, eats with it, dances with it, beats up Odie with it, sleeps next to it.

And then, there are toys of Pooky. Now, what I want to call attention to is the fact that Pooky over here is NOT a regular teddy bear. Looking at the scene that this toy depicts as a whole, it is a toy version of "Garfield and his toy". Pooky is a toy of a toy.

Now, on the first layer, you have actual bears, the animals. The living creatures that exist in reality. We can call this Layer 0. After that, you have Layer 1, teddy bears. Simulacra of real bears, made out of fabric and stuffing. Then you have Layer 2, Pooky, a depiction of a teddy bear, the object, in a comic strip. A drawing, a facsimile of a physical teddy bear. And then you have Layer 3, the Pooky toy. A facsimile of a facsimile of a simulacrum of a real being. Layers upon layers removed from what it is actually representing.