What's up Doc?

Old Looney Toons on the television when I got up, I can't tell you how much I enjoy Daffy Duck. I copied a line of his as my facebook status then tried to pick out a good follow up from Bugs Bunny but he spoke too fast and everything he said was funny because of the context of the last comment on the last comment which was built up on the situation- it didn't make for a pithy statement.

I went a walking today with the chief purpose of hitting up the library, grabbing some fruit juice, fresh air, and some sunlight (Vitamin D activation has been on my mind lately- I've also been drinking, relatively speaking, a lot of chocolate milk of late) I passed a dentist office that had Tom and Jerry playing inside and I stopped to wonder why it is that I like most Looney Toons but HATE Tom and Jerry.

The chief difference I can think of is that Tom and Jerry don't speak, and just spend their days commiting violence upon each other. Whereas Bugs and co are all about the wordplay, especially malapropisms, and I'll say conversations with the audience beyond the fourth wall (not neccesarily in the form of speech, but in winks to the camera, and of course any small sign with "Help!" emblazoned on it)

But there's still a mean streak to the Looney characters that I do enjoy, at least when I compare to the sickly sweetness of Casper and that group (which I also saw a bit of today). Maybe Casper is supposed to skew younger, like that generations Barney or something.

But everything in degrees- even if it's the protagonist doing it to a so called "bad guy" they can go too far, especially if the antagonist is too sympathetic, and then I just get frustrated by the whole thing- the best example being my reaction to a fair number of Animaniacs cartoons where the main characters will torment Dr. Scratchn'sniff for no reason- the doctor is even trying to help them out, even if it is perhaps a misguided attempt at help.

Of course I cite this example even though one of my favourite gags of all time comes from it: "How do you feel?" "With my hands."

Actually that's the truncated version, the whole thing is even better. "How do you feel?" "I feel my shirt." "No, no, no, that's what you are touching.. how do you FEEL?"

And that'll keep going for a while.

While I'm on the subject and it was just on in the background here: Scooby Doo. I know a lot of people who LOVE the thing- but it's basically the most boring show I can think of. If there was any way I could get the clues along the way, get some suspects and whatnot, and solve the mystery for every show, then it'd be the best thing around, I'd be nuts for it- but it isn't until the last few minutes of the show that it's even acknowledged that it's an old man in a costume that's been chasing them around. I believe the've been better about that in recent series, lampshading the fact that it's someone in a costume the whole time, but the "gang" is still terrified the whole way through and the audience still aren't given the necessary clues to suss the whole thing out.

Hmm, maybe that's enough cartoon talk... oh but I had a thought on the commentary of 'Itchy and Scratchy'... though now that I think about, with clips from a 20+ year old show you could probably make a case for it saying just about anything at this point. Not that that's too different from most fields of study. Unless it's Hitler studies (hey I'm making a reference to a book, howdyalikethat?).