Salacious B. Crumb

I have a bad feeling about this…

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"Beast!"

―C-3PO^[6]

Salacious B. Crumb was a Kowakian monkey-lizard who worked as a jester in the court of the crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure during the Galactic Civil War. Known for his shrill laughter, Crumb kept his master amused until his death during the rescue of Han Solo by members of the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Biography[]

Coming into Jabba's service[]

BibFortuna Jabba Ep6 — Salacious Crumb came into the service of Jabba Desilijic Tiure.

A male Kowakian monkey-lizard from the planet Kowak,^[1] Salacious B. Crumb was known for his shrill, cackling^[4] laughter and sophisticated sense of humor like his fellow monkey-lizards. Many individuals of his species served as favored pets among denizens of the underworld, retaining their apparently hilarious-sounding names, and Crumb was no exception,^[7] becoming the unofficial^[4] court jester of the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure. Crumb's association with Jabba began when the thief stowed away on the Hutt's starship, and was found and captured by the Twi'lek Bib Fortuna.^[1]

Jabba struck up a unique deal with the monkey-lizard; if Crumb could amuse Jabba at least once a day, he would be allowed to eat and drink as much as he pleased, but, if he failed, he would be slain. Crumb lived in this manner for over a dozen standard years,^[8] and henceforth sat beside Jabba to mercilessly tease and imitate captives, amusing his master greatly with his mimicry and laughter.^[1] Crumb even imitated visitors, courtiers, and even Jabba himself, and used his position on the Hutt's dais to steal morsels of food. Jabba's noxious pet was tolerated because of the amusement he brought Jabba, and because of his unwavering support for his master.^[4]

Darth Vader's visit to Tatooine[]

"If you value that creature's life, you should tell it to never again do that in my presence."

―Darth Vader to Jabba regarding Crumb's manners^[9]

Crumb was present at Jabba's side when the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader arrived in Jabba's Palace to negotiate with the Hutt,^[10] and later accompanied his master aboard the sail barge Khetanna to celebrate with Vader. Crumb laughed uproariously as Jabba's gangsters fired at a herd of banthas, causing Vader to threaten the creature's life should he laugh again in his presence.^[9]

Han Solo's rescue[]

CrumbLaugh — Crumb laughs as Jabba captures Solo and Organa.

In 4 ABY, Crumb was present when members of the Rebel Alliance came to rescue Han Solo, whom had been frozen in carbonite and hung on the wall of Jabba's audience chamber as a trophy. Crumb was seated before Jabba on his dais when the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 arrived to deliver a message from the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. The droids were offered to Jabba as sign of goodwill from Skywalker, though the Hutt declared that he would not give up his "favorite decoration", causing Crumb and the rest of the court to laugh.^[6]

Later that day, Crumb witnessed a performance of "Jedi Rocks" by the Max Rebo Band. After demanding a repeat, Jabba tried to bring his enslaved dancer Oola closer to him, but she refused, causing Jabba to activate a trapdoor that dropped her into the rancor pit. As Pateesa ate her, Crumb laughed along with several of the courtiers. Immediately afterwards, Princess Leia Organa arrived disguised as the bounty hunter Boushh. As part of her plan to infiltrate Jabba's palace, she brought along the Wookiee Chewbacca as her prisoner. Jabba proceeded to haggle with Organa over the Wookiee's bounty, but as negotiations became more tense, Organa pulled out a thermal detonator in order to force Jabba to agree to her price. This caused Crumb to hide in fear. Once Jabba and Organa struck a deal, Crumb reemerged as the court resumed their revelry. Later that night, Crumb was hiding alongside Jabba as part of the Hutt's plan to capture Organa when she freed Solo from carbonite. After Solo was sent to the dungeons, Crumb laughed at Organa's disgust as Jabba enslaved her.^[6] Jabba and his court then celebrated late into the night.^[3]

Death[]

The next morning, a still-awake Crumb sat beside Jabba and Organa while they slept on the dais. Skywalker suddenly emerged, having gained access to the audience chamber by mind-tricking Fortuna. Once Jabba awoke, Crumb watched the Jedi try to coerce the Hutt into releasing his friends. As their conversation became more heated, Jabba dropped Skywalker into the rancor pit, but the Jedi killed Pateesa. An enraged Jabba declared that Skywalker, Solo, and Chewbacca were to be taken to the Great Pit of Carkoon and fed to the sarlacc, with Crumb laughing at the Rebels' impending death. Crumb then accompanied his master on the Khetanna to Carkoon.^[6]

When Skywalker managed to free himself and as the Rebels began fending off Jabba's Guards; general mayhem broke out on the sail barge. Leia cut off the lights of the barge, Jabba's guests, including Crumb, ran in search of an exit from the barge while Organa seized the moment to choke Jabba to death with her chain.^[6] Upon discovering that his master was killed, Crumb became enraged and assumed that Skywalker's droids had something to do with it. He therefore attacked C-3PO and started pulling out the droid's photoreceptors, only to be electrocuted away by R2-D2. When the sail barge exploded, Crumb was thrown into the pit and eaten by the sarlacc.^[11]

Personality and traits[]

"Salacious was a natural performer, and he was blessed with a panoply of physical features suitable for a crowd-pleasing clown: floppy ears, messy hair, wide-and-oh-so-hypnotic eyes, gangly limbs, clumsy movements, and an infectious cackle. But he didn't possess much of a brain between those outsize ears."

―Lugubrious Mote^[12]

Crumb btm — As Jabba's jester, Crumb was a fixture in the gangster's court.

A Kowakian monkey-lizard with a distinctive shrill cackle, Salacious Crumb usually sat on Jabba's lap, where he frequently stole food and mimicked, as the palace's unofficial jester, Jabba's courtiers, visitors and sometimes even Jabba himself. In fact, Salacious was just tolerated because his antics amused the Hutt and because of his unwavering support of his master.^[4]He also loved tracking Jabba's tail move back and forth.^[13]

Salacious was also known for his lack of respect, a trait which was demonstrated when the Sith Lord Darth Vader arrived to negotiate with the Hutt. Aboard Jabba's sail barge Khetanna, he laughed uproariously as the Hutt's gangsters fired at a herd of banthas. The Sith Lord threatened the jester's life should he laugh again in his presence.^[9]He would even sometimes mercilessly tease Jabba's captives and enjoyed watching Jabba torment others.^[13]

Salacious knew many individuals' secrets and he was completely willing to use those secrets for his own personal gain or amusement. He had no moral code and was only loyal to Jabba.^[13]

According to the mole-flea Lugubrious Mote, Salacious was not very intelligent. She described him as "dumber than a newborn rancor."^[12]

Behind the scenes[]

"Wouldn't it be funny if there was a little tiny creature that sat on the shoulder of one of the creatures and repeated everything that the big creature said during the argument?"

―Ben Burtt's original idea for Salacious B. Crumb^[14]

TimRoseandSalacious B — Tim Rose and the Salacious B. Crumb puppet

Salacious B. Crumb was voiced by Mark Dodson and controlled by puppeteer Tim Rose, who also worked with the puppet of Admiral Gial Ackbar, in the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. As seen in the 1985 documentary From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga, Rose actually gave Crumb a voice (other than Crumb's laughing as seen in Return of the Jedi), which he frequently used in conjunction with the puppet to joke around on set, but his voice was ultimately replaced with Dodson's. Salacious B. Crumb ended up being actor Anthony Daniels' favorite character of the series.^[15] Sound designer Ben Burtt described Salacious' laugh as a "funny, hyena-like laugh."^[14]

The original idea for the character of Salacious came from Ben Burtt. He said it would be funny to have a small creature sitting on the shoulder of another creature and repeating everything the larger creature said during arguments.^[14]

The puppet for Salacious was created by Tony McVey. Its name was accidentally created by The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi puppeteer Phil Tippett. George Lucas had given them the task of deciding the character's name. While trying to decide on a name, Tippett and his crew went out to lunch. They had drunken "a few pitchers of beer," and on exit Tippett decided to bend down to tie his shoes. He said "Wait a minute, guys, while I tie my soolacious," slurring the word "Shoelaces." A crew member immediately recognized its potential. While George Lucas initially rejected the name for Jabba's jester, he changed it to Salacious and added the word "Crumb" for the character's surname as an homage to underground comic book artist Robert Crumb.^[15]

According to Michael Carter, the actor who played Jabba's majordomo Bib Fortuna, in a TheForce.net interview, during the filming of Jedi, there were several scenes which involved Jess and Salacious B. Crumb, but these scenes, according to him, were cut from the final edit of the film.^[16] However, some of these scenes appeared in the non-canonical "Lapti Nek": The Music Video from Jabba's Palace and in Warwick Davis' documentary Return of the Ewok.

Salacious Crumb appeared in concept art for "Chapter 16: The Rescue," kept in a cage by Bib Fortuna after the latter took over Jabba's palace. According to artist Christian Alzmann, the idea was that Crumb and Fortuna had both been competing for influence under Jabba.^[17]