Reporter: Today in this installment of Reporter's Inside Stories, I'd like an interview one of the Smurfs in the village besides Hefty and Duncan who pride themselves for their strength. His name is Tuffy, whom every Smurf in the village sees is very cocky when it smurfs to proving himself as a capable fighter, much to the point where he smurfs himself and his fellow Smurfs into trouble. His current occupation, strangely enough, is smurfing as a bouncer in Tapper's Tavern to make sure Smurfs don't smurf out of control when they enjoy themselves. Today we're going to see why he likes being the Smurf that he is and what he thinks about Empath since he first smurfed into the village years ago.
(Reporter finds Tuffy doing some exercises with a punching bag outside his own house, pounding away to the sound of "Eye Of The Tiger" playing from a phonograph.)
Reporter: Excuse me, Tuffy, but I'm here for the interview with you.
Tuffy: Oh, yeah, sorry. (Stops pounding the punching bag and turns to face Reporter.) I'm glad you're here because I really want to smurf all about myself.
Reporter: It's not a big secret that you're an admirer of Hefty Smurf, so much that you want to become like him. Why is that?
Tuffy: That's simple, Reporter: I don't want to be smurfed as a wimp around here, who can't smurf my own weight and then some. Duncan knew that I could smurf just as much weight as he and Hefty could, so he helped me smurf some strength-training exercises so that I could become stronger, plus he smurfed me how to fight so I could smurf toe-to-toe with Hefty in the boxing ring. Not that I could win against Hefty whenever we smurfed in the ring together, but it makes me more determined to be a better fighter with my fists than he could ever be.
Reporter: That sounds like what Kayo wants to be, the Smurf Village's champion boxer, even though he never wins. But you want to be something more than just a boxer...you want to be a fighter that won't let even Wartmongers smurf the upper hand on you or your fellow Smurfs.
Tuffy: Yeah, that's about the smurf of it. I want to be the one Smurf who would give whoever tries to smurf us a good smurfing, but I always end up being oversmurfed whenever I try to take on more Smurfs by myself. That's why Hefty always smurfs to my rescue along with Duncan, because they know that I'm more mouth than muscle and that I like to antagonize my opponents just to rile them up and make them want to smurf me.
Reporter: But you never seem to smurf your lesson, even after all the times you get smurfed on your face by your opponents.
Tuffy: That's me, always smurfing back for more punishment, Reporter. I can't get enough of smurfing myself in over my head regardless of knowing what may happen to me. Sometimes it makes me feel like Hefty did the one time he tried to smurf a fiery dragon all by himself. He knew that the task was much bigger than he could possibly handle, and that there was very little hope of smurfing out of it alive. Then I'm reminded of what Tapper smurfed me about this David and Goliath, and he smurfs me that no matter how big my enemies are, there's always that Someone who's much bigger than they are, and that I should smurf my trust in Him for smurfing my battles.
Reporter: Don't tell me that Tapper has smurfed a believer in this Almighty of his out of you, Tuffy.
Tuffy: Not really, but at least knowing that something small could defeat something so big with little more than faith is what gets me smurfing my way through any sort of danger. Anyway, I really like Tapper because he admires his fellow Smurfs that have fighting spirits even though he doesn't do much beyond smurfing drinks in his tavern, and plus he likes to listen to my problems. He seems to trust me enough to make me his bouncer, even though there's hardly any times that I have to smurf someone out of the tavern for smurfing too rough and wild.
Reporter: That's a very unusual job that you have in the village, given how impulsive you are when it smurfs to fighting.
Tuffy: Yeah, it does make me feel restless, which Tapper seems to understand. That's why I like to smurf all my frustrations out on the thugs, brutes, and creeps that I smurf up in the Imaginarium fantasy settings, because I know I won't be endangering anybody but myself in them. Dabbler and Medic surely smurfs me a lot in the infirmary whenever I smurf any injuries from all the scrapes that I smurfed myself into.
Reporter: Why do you enjoy smurfing those fantasies with the safety features turned off?
Tuffy: Why does any Smurf enjoy smurfing themselves in danger every now and then, Reporter? I don't like smurfing things too easy on myself, which makes controlling the difficulty of the Imaginarium fantasy settings one of the things that I like smurfing. Hefty thinks that I can't smurf my way out of a paper bag, but I want to show him one of these days that I can. Anyway, he's not too big on the idea of smurfing in the Imaginarium because he likes his fighting to be with real enemies.
Reporter: I think I can understand that, Tuffy. Besides boxing, is there any other sport that you enjoy smurfing?
Tuffy: I enjoy smurfing in arm-wrestling matches with Duncan and Hefty, which they usually win most of the time. I prefer the sports that require lots of strength, like wrestling, weightsmurfing, and caber tossing, which is Duncan's favorite. Most Smurfs would get a hernia trying to smurf those heavy logs, but not me, Hefty, or Duncan. Qubey has me smurfing on his football team every year around fall, which is where I get to bulldoze through Hefty's team. And then there's hockey, where we really smurf into fights on the ice during winter. I think I put more Smurfs in the infirmary as I do in the penalty box with every game.
Reporter: I'm sure you must have enjoyed that. So what did you think of Empath back when he first visited the village years ago, when we were all just young Smurflings?
Tuffy: There wasn't much that I really smurfed of him, except how he could call himself a Smurf when he really didn't like being a Smurf. He didn't like Hefty smurfing him around, which most of us didn't like but had to smurf up with because he was Papa Smurf's assistant back when we had to smurf an entire village by ourselves without our parent Smurfs. I thought Empath was a big wimp for just letting Hefty use him as a punching bag without fighting back, but when Empath smurfed Hefty's hand and crushed it without even trying...oooh, I could feel the smurfs in my own hand breaking just by thinking of it!
Reporter: That was something no Smurf had really expected of any Smurf, let alone Empath, back then.
Tuffy: I knew Empath didn't like fighting or hurting anyone, so when everyone heard that he smurfed Hefty's hand, they all felt like they wanted to be Empath's friend, because he wouldn't take smurf from Hefty when he smurfed things too far.
Reporter: So what's your opinion about Empath now? How do you think he has changed over the years -- for the better or for the worse, or what?
Tuffy: I think Empath's gotten way too overpowered for me to relate to, Reporter. I mean, no offense, but with all these powers and abilities that he smurfs, I feel that I just can't smurf him as a regular Smurf anymore. I can understand why Hefty feels so jealous of Empath, because he can smurf things that would take a hundred Smurfs to do together all by himself. I don't mind that he's easier to smurf along with now and much friendlier, and that he's helped us get rid of Gargamel for good from this forest. But I just can't see that I can fairly compete with Empath on anything, even for the hand of Smurfette.
Reporter: That seems to be what every Smurf around here is thinking, Tuffy. But anyway, what do you think of Smurfette and what she's been smurfing with herself now since Empath smurfed home for good?
Tuffy: I do like that she's got such a smurfy singing voice that she smurfed to good use with that album of hers, Ray Of Sunshine. And she also managed to impersonate a princess when she got smurfnapped and the real princess appeared in our village with amnesia. But I do miss Smurfette as she used to be, with the one-piece dress that she used to wear, when she cared more about flowers and dresses and smurfing care of Baby Smurf.
Reporter: So you're not a big fan of Smurfette smurfing new things for herself now.
Tuffy: Yeah, even Hefty was surprised to find that Smurfette had smurfed an interest in doing exercises, which he always wanted her to join him in, but he never thought she would actually smurf him up on. Greedy's been teaching her how to cook so that she could treat her future husband to the best cooking he's smurfed since Greedy smurfed over the kitchen years ago. I mean, Smurfette's never been that interested in someone since she first smurfed into the village years ago to ever make it her goal to smurf herself up the way that she would hope to be when she does marry the right Smurf. Some of us are just wondering why she couldn't just be herself, and Smurfette says that she could never smurf back to feeling like she could be her old self anymore.
Reporter: I guess we'll all have to get used to Smurfette as she is right now and whatever she may become in the years to smurf. So let's say Smurfette does get married to Empath. What do you think you will smurf with yourself in the future?
Tuffy: I don't want Smurfette to think that I would hate her for marrying Empath or anything like that. I still think she's one of the nicest Smurfs in the village, even if she doesn't find me or my attitude very attractive. But I would never stop smurfing that I care for her if she does marry Empath. I would want to make sure she's happy of where her life is smurfing, and maybe hope that somewhere there's going to be someone in my life who's going to smurf with me to the end of my days. I know that some Smurfs here are hoping that there's another village full of Smurfettes, which I think sounds ridiculous and all, but I wouldn't want to smurf against the possibility if there's a chance of being a happy Smurf married to someone.
Reporter: Do you think that you'll become a different Smurf than you are now when you find that person to marry, that you won't be as impulsive and cocky and reckless as you are now?
Tuffy: Maybe a little less of those things, Reporter, but I don't think I'll outsmurf being them completely. Who knows, maybe she might find those attractive qualities about me. I never want to stop smurfing myself as the kind of Smurf who would take the initiative to smurf headlong into things and encourage my fellow Smurfs to smurf the same, no matter how deep in trouble I may smurf myself in. If there's no mountains for me to climb, I wouldn't know what it would be like to smurf all the way to the top and feel the victory of smurfing it. It's part of what gets me smurfing day after day, knowing that every day is just full of challenges ready for me to smurf on, and the bigger they are, the more I want to conquer them.
Reporter: That's an interesting insight. And with that, we will bring this installment of Inside Stories to a close. Thanks for letting me interview you, Tuffy.
Tuffy: Hey, no problem.
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