Your Saturday Morning Cartoon on a Friday
Yes, I am back, but still not posting (ok...this just contradicts this very sentence- just humor me). I am working on a post for Gayle, regarding the 60 Minutes stem cell issue. They did 2 agenda-driven stem cell segments in the space of 3 weeks! And if you go to their site, it appears to be another anti-military story and a scare-piece on the ports issue for this Sunday.
In the meanwhile, I leave you with this Saturday morning cartoon, in relation to the Danish cartoon controversy:
I found a site (do take a click...it really is a fascinating study)that had some interesting explication on stereotypes in cartoons for the past several decades.
Some are pretty offensive by today's standards (and perhaps, by any standards). And downright racist! But I think they should be appreciated for what they are and what they offer, recognizing stereotypes where you see them, but not be enslaved by the knee-jerk political correctness which we have been conditioned into for the past 3 decades. Whenever one feels the need to judge works of the past, one should also take into account the context of the times in which it was created.
As an Asian-American with ties to Japanese heritage, I approve of the unflattering caricature of a Nip.One thing to keep in mind too, if you feel yourself wince when you recognize your ethnicity offensively caricaturized in art and print, is that these cartoons are equal-opportunity caricaturists. White folk are equally lampooned in stereotypes and made to look ridiculous.
I remember watching this Bugs Bunny cartoon, and others when I was a wee lad. The two Arabic characters who appear in this episode, "Ali Baba Bunny", are made to look stupid and the butt of Bugs Bunny's jokes and antics. Well, as a kid, I don't remember coming away from it, thinking all Arabs are stupid and like this. What I saw were two stupid cartoon characters who are the foil to my hero Bugs. Of course they are to be made stupid and ridiculous. No character in these is made to be dignified.
Labels: Saturday Cartoon
posted by The WordSmith from Nantucket at 3/03/2006 10:10:00 AM
5 Comments:
You are working on a post for me? How nice! :)
I can't as you know, watch the cartoon video! Dang, that drives me nuts! :(
Anyway, I share your opinion of the BS of political correctness. Cartoons are cartoons, period. (Although the Muslims don't seem to have any sense of humor about them, but I don't believe they have much of a sense of humor about anything.
I loved Speedy Gonzales...I wanted to learn more Spanish because of him. Never thought less of Hispanics, either.
Humor is universal. If we could learn to laugh at ourselves and our prejudices, the world would be a much happier place.
Oh the cartoons of the good old days. The freedom to poke fun with gentle humor.
Too bad that's all been swept away by the politically correct crowd and now the sword wielding sand people.
Now,the only cartoons that will be allowed are those that mock Christianity and Judaism. But mostly Christianity.
I remember when I first started getting to an age where I could understand puns...and one of the episodes I remember, I think Bugs Bunny is flying through the air toward Baghdad, and he turns to us viewers and says, "Look! I'm a hare-plane."
I don't know why I remember that line, but I do. It was like a light bulb had gone off in my head, and I "got it".
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