"Kickapoo Joy Juice" was a fictional beverage coined in the American
comic strip Li'l Abner.
Al Capp, the
cartoonist, described the beverage as "a
liquor of such stupefying potency that the hardiest citizens of
Dogpatch, after the first burning sip, rose into the air, stiff as frozen
codfish". It was said to be an elixir of such power that the fumes alone have been known to melt the rivets off battleships.
Capp asserted in 1965 that the cartoon "never has suggested that the drink is
moonshine", in response to claims that the Kickapoo Joy Juice of
Li'l Abner was an illicitly distilled liquor. Brewed by
Hairless Joe and Lonesome Polecat, two of the comic strip's backwoods
poachers, the ingredients of the brew are both mysterious and all-encompassing, (much like the contents of their cave, which has been known to harbor
prehistoric monsters.) When a batch "needs more body", the formidable pair simply goes out and clubs "a body" (often a moose), and tosses it in. Over the years, the "recipe" has called for live grizzly bears, panthers, kerosene, horseshoes and anvils, among other ingredients.