[1] The story is considered a parody on the still ongoing language war between French- and Dutch-speaking communities in the authors' native Belgium.

They part, returning to their own sides of the village, failing to agree on the subject, and as a result there is much tension in the air.

The next day, Papa Smurf tries to lift the tension by insisting that they play ball together in a friendly manner.

The tension returns, this time apparently to stay, with insults being traded and both sides trying to assert their indifference and superiority over the other.

All this time, Papa Smurf has been in his laboratory working on his experiment — the nature of which is never revealed — but when he finally succeeds and calls on the other Smurfs to celebrate, it is already too late: the fuse that was set long ago has exploded with both North and South finally coming to blows in an all-out battle.

Gargamel's cat Azrael is taken aback when he hears the voice of his master coming from Papa Smurf's body and goes his own way, overwhelmed by confusion.

To prevent further clashes, he decrees that all the terms pronounced differently on the north and south sides of the village are now banned from use, so it should henceforth be "an object to unscrew bottles".

[6] In this story, Peyo and Yvan Delporte make open political comments about the still ongoing language conflict between French- and Dutch-speaking communities in Belgium.

The story also illustrates how easily systems with undeveloped institutions fall into disarray as the few authorities that there are suddenly stop functioning:[7] Papa Smurf is the only regular decision-making body in the community of Smurfs and his failure to get involved in the debate leads to the breakdown of order.