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Loony Tunes: Nostalgic, Racist, Obsolete
Looking back at certain television programs from years ago may be difficult to stomach at times, especially when over time they garner such an aura of nostalgia and mystique. Loony Tunes is no different, renowned as an absolute classic but that may be a product of peoples failure to remember the horrid character portrayal of the characters outside of the ones they know and love such as Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Taz, Marvin, etc. This show is a tough pill to swallow in the year 2018 and I understand it is a product of its time airing from 1930-1969 but that still does not give it a pass. One thing that Loony Tunes does make an effort on doing is making sure there is no exclusion, many races and cultures are incorporated into the show, but they are beyond offensive. Which leads into the next point, stereotyping. Loony Tunes portrayal of black, Mexican, pacific islander and asian characters were walking talking stereotypes. From the lazy Mexican Slow Poke Rodriguez, the savage pacific islanders, Bugs Bunnys racial slurs at the buck toothed Japanese men, black characters were portrayed as big lipped, loved watermelon, and even incorporated a slow minded hunter who put on blackface. As a result of what I just discussed it is clear that there is assimilation in Loony Tunes, yet I think that is a product of when the show was made. In its entirety Loony Tunes was exclusively written by white males. The only slight hint of tokenism in Loony Tunes is Speedy Gonzales but he was designed as a stereotype, but was embraced by fans... so that situation is odd. Ideology of difference does apply but I feel almost as if the writers were blinded by their own prejudices to fully grasp a cultures true identity or even accurate represent them. I believe that Loony Tunes' intent was predicated on exaggerating othering, the show is based on characters interaction and in a lot of cases it works on making it clear that people who look different, are different; when that is clearly not true. Finally there is exoticism, Bugs Bunny was used as a tool to interact with a variety of people and places. In establishing that there was an element of exoticism with Bugs Bunny traveling and playing up the differences in foreign countries, whether it was the food, people, or adventures to be had.
Great post! Looney Tunes was a good tv show to analysis these features for and you definitely proved a point. It is interesting how you wrote that the show does not exclude, but that is not a good thing either. They take not excluding and use it to stereotype every other race. Also, this goes with exoticism and how Bugs Bunny travels around encountering these different characters from different places. It reminded me about what we discussed in class and how cartoons get away with a lot more than real actors and environments. It then got me thinking, what would Looney Tunes look like in real life? Definitely not a children show after that and nothing Cartoon Network would actually show. What do you think? What would Bugs Bunny's actor look like?
ReplyDeleteHi Fernando, you certainly brought up many good points relating the concepts we learned in class and Looney Tunes. I remember watching the show as a child and of course, when I was younger I wasn’t able to see these things exist in the show, especially considering that it’s mostly catered toward kids. Now that you talked about it, I can see how much stereotyping Looney Tunes truly has in terms of its characters. Like you said, Looney Tunes probably wouldn’t be taken lightly by audiences in today’s world and so it makes you wonder what the writers’ intents were when writing and producing the show. Some people may even call the writers racist for what they did, which creates a lot of controversy regarding media’s representation of class and race. Is it because they wanted kids to believe in those stereotypes as well? Probably, but at this point, it may be difficult to tell especially since the show is decades old.
ReplyDeleteFlorito Maniego
Very interesting points you made about this show. I grew up watching Looney Tunes and I never paid attention to the details. I guess when you're younger you're not aware of these things so they slip on by. I'm glad you were able to point these out because it makes me look at the show more differently.
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