It added several terms and phrases to the English language and inspired the 1923 hit tune "Barney Google (with the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes)"[4] with lyrics by Billy Rose, as well as the 1923 record "Come On, Spark Plug!"

An increasingly peripheral player in his own strip beginning in the late 1930s, Barney was officially "written out" in 1954, although he occasionally returned for cameo appearances, often years apart.

First appearing as a daily strip in the sports sections of the Chicago Herald and Examiner in 1919, it was originally titled Take Barney Google, for Instance.

[6][7] The title character, a little fellow (although he shrank in stature even more after the first year) with big "banjo" eyes, was an avid sportsman and ne'er-do-well involved in poker, horse racing, and prize fights.

The "goggle-eyed, moustached, gloved and top-hatted, bulbous-nosed, cigar-chomping shrimp" (according to comics historian Bill Blackbeard) was relentlessly henpecked by "a wife three times his size" (as the song lyric goes).

[8] Beginning on July 17, 1922, the strip took a momentous turn in popularity with the seemingly innocuous introduction of an endearing race horse named "Spark Plug".

Barney's beloved "brown-eyed baby" was a bow-legged nag that seldom raced, and was typically seen almost totally covered by his trademark patched blanket with his name scrawled on the side.

Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz was known to his friends as Sparky, a lifelong nickname given to him by his uncle as a diminutive of Barney Google's Spark Plug.

[10] DeBeck's strip hit its peak of popularity with Spark Plug at about the same time the 1923 song "Barney Google", written by Billy Rose and Con Conrad, was sweeping the country.

Other popular characters and concepts introduced in the strip about this time include "Sunshine", Barney's black jockey, a troublesome ostrich named "Rudy", "Sully", a monocled champion wrestler, and the mysterious hooded fraternity "The Order of the Brotherhood of Billy Goats", a parody of mystic secret societies.

[11] In 1934, an even greater change took place when Barney and his horse visited the North Carolina mountains and met a volatile, equally diminutive moonshiner named Snuffy Smith.

Snuffy Smith was so popular that his name was added to the strip's title in the late 1930s, while the top-billed Barney Google became an increasingly peripheral character in what once was his own comic.

Eventually, Barney Google left Hootin' Holler in 1954 to return to the city, and was essentially written out of the strip except as a very occasional visitor.

Barney has appeared rarely in the feature from the mid-1950s on, but returned to Hootin' Holler for a visit in a series of strips beginning on February 19, 2012.

Snuffy Smith (whose last name is pronounced "Smif" by virtually all the characters in Hootin' Holler) is an ornery little cuss, sawed-off and shiftless.

He also has some proclivity toward stealing chickens, which led to a brief but effective use of his character in a marketing campaign by the Tyson Foods corporation in the early 1980s.

In 1937, he held the post of "Royal Doodle Bug" in the "Varmints" lodge; during this period, the strip heavily employed the catchphrase, "What did the Doodle-Bug say?

Almost all of the characters in the strip (except the infrequently seen Barney Google and the occasional visiting "flatlander") are exaggerated hillbillies in the classic burlesque tradition:[13] sharp-tongued gossipy women such as Snuffy's wife Loweezy; his baby Tater; his mischievous nephew Jughaid; his neighbors Elviney and Lukey[14] (Lucas Ebenezer Hinks);[15][16] the sanctimonious (but nonetheless ungrammatical) Parson; Silas, the ever-parsimonious owner of the General Store; the ostentatiously-badged Sheriff Tait, and others.

On December 24, 1920, DeBeck began a gag panel called Bughouse Fables, featuring his observations of ordinary people doing foolish things, which he signed "Barney Google".

DeBeck added Bughouse Fables as an accompanying topper strip to run with Barney Google on Sundays, from January 17 to May 9, 1926.

Robbing widows and orphans ... was routine for him", according to comics historian Don Markstein, who said the strip popularized the phrase, "Youse is a viper!

"[18] Fantasy author and Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard, a big fan of Bunky, was fond of quoting from the strip, as noted by his friend, Tevis Clyde Smith.

[23] Lasswell, who drew cartoons and posters at the McCarthy Ad Agency and for the Tampa Daily Times, was brought in to create the Snuffy characters, which by 1934, surpassed Barney Google in popularity.

[31] Rose created a special weeklong storyline in the comic strip which began on July 17, 2022 celebrating Spark Plug's 100th birthday.

[32] DeBeck, who had a gift for coining colorful terms, is credited with introducing several Jazz Age slang words and phrases into the English language—including "sweet mama", "horsefeathers", "heebie-jeebies", "hotsy-totsy", and "Who has seen the doodle bug?"

During the mid-1950s, the Louis Marx Toy Company sold four vinyl character figures, two-and-a-half-to-three inches tall, representing Snuffy Smith, Loweezie, Jug Haid and Sut Tattersail.

In November 2021, Comics Kingdom began selling tee shirts in their online shop featuring Spark Plug's grandson, Li'l Sparky.

In July 2022, Comics Kingdom began selling tee shirts in their online shop celebrating Spark Plug's 100th birthday.

In July 2023, Comics Kingdom began selling Snuffy Smith red, white and blue trucker caps in their online shop.

Diminutive actor Bud Duncan portrayed Snuffy in both films, with Cliff Nazarro appearing as Barney in Hillbilly Blitzkrieg.