http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/abc/20010504/ts/bugsbunny010504_1.html

Friday May 04 11:13 PM EDT

Racially Charged 'Bugs' Cartoons Pulled

By ABCNEWS.com

The Cartoon Network is pulling several 1930s-era Bugs Bunny cartoons because the episodes feature racially charged scenes.

Most fans of wacky cartoon rabbit Bugs Bunny remember him posing as the Barber of Seville or escaping Yosemite Sam's stew pot.

But some less familiar Bugs skits are so controversial they are being banned from a cartoon retrospective in the works for next month on the Cartoon Network.

Executives had planned a complete run of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, but decided to omit 12 of the animated shorts because they were considered too racially charged, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

In an episode called "All This and Rabbit Stew," Bugs distracts a black rabbit hunter by rattling a pair of dice. In another episode, Bugs imitates a blackfaced Al Jolson. In another, he calls an oafish, bucktoothed Eskimo a "big baboon."

The controversial episodes, dating back to the 1930s and '40s, are representative of the racial stereotypes common in early cartoons. Unflattering depictions of blacks, American Indians, Japanese and Germans are quite common in cartoons of that era.

The retrospective was being billed as a historic television event, but executives eventually realized how offensive some cartoons would be to some viewers.

Thinking Twice About Historic Episodes

At first, Cartoon Network executives had planned on running the controversial episodes late at night along with prominently displayed disclaimers. But the network changed course and decided to eliminate the dozen cartoons from the lineup.

Warner Bros., the company that owns Bugs Bunny, had protested the inclusion of the 12 episodes in the annual Cartoon Network event, entitled "June Bugs," but didn't go so far as to veto them, the Journal reported. Warner Bros. reportedly expressed its worry that the episodes might affect the company's extensive merchandising ventures.

The Cartoon Network, owned by AOL Time Warner, Inc., holds a licensing agreement with Warner Bros. for the entire library of Bugs Bunny cartoons.

This isn't the first time Warner Bros. cartoons were pulled for their racially charged content. Others lampooning blacks were taken out of circulation in the late 1960s, animation expert Jerry Beck told the Journal. Cartoons featuring stereotyped American Indians were taken out of circulation about five years ago.

-- (in@the.news), May 06, 2001

Answers

Elmer Fudd is a white boy, whose goat is always gotten by the the rabbit. So is Yosemite Sam. How come Bug's making fun of them is not ipso facto a racial sterotype making fun of white males?

Oh. Making fun of white males is cool.

Cartoon Network's racism is flagrant.

-- SillyNess (dumb@as.bunnies), May 07, 2001.

Some years ago, I saw a Porky Pig cartoon in which the Porcine One was doing carpentry work on his house. At one point, Porky began to hammer a nail and hit his hand instead. With his hand throbbing in that cartoonish way, he uttered the following:

"Son of a bi- bi-, son of a bi- bi-, son of a bi- bi, GUN!"

And then after a pause, Porky looked at the camera and said:

"I bet you thought I was gonna say 'son of a bitch,' didn't you?"

Floored me at the time, and I've never seen it since. Has anyone else seen that particular cartoon?

-- Walt Dizzy (walt.dizzy@cartoon.network.com), May 07, 2001.

No, but I did see one in which Porky said; "I'd like to f..ff...ff...f....like to fff ffff fff..I'd like to kiss her!"

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), May 07, 2001.

I imagine Cartoon Network's decision was driven primarily by the potential for alienating viewers and the effect of that on the network's bottom line. Considerations about morality tend to get left in the dust when a corporation is faced with a decision.

I can understand those who have been targeted by systemic discrimination, reacting more strongly to being stereotyped than others might. But I don't see how we can reach closure about the past by refusing to look at it.

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), May 07, 2001.

The Ostrich/Man a noble bird?

To truth it surely shall demur.

Make it go away, I say!

No more what was will be today!

Bury it! Don't look at it!

Ignominy shan't be our fate!

What lessons may history teach this noble bird?

None, in this theater of absurd.

-- For Mel (howe9@shentel.net), May 07, 2001.

Remeinds me of the "Little Rascals" or "Our Gang" comedies. At first, they drew a lot of fire and were censored because they acutally put black kids in with white kids (Oh my!) Then later, they caught hell because the black kids were portrayed as urchins (just like all the other kids) and stereotyped. Ah well, I still watch 'em, and when Buckwheet says "I wish my brother was a monkey", and Stimey says "Well all he needs is a tail", it still breaks me up. (Sorry)

And since I'm condemned already ---- I remember a poster in the early 70's of Daisy Duck as a reclining nude with rather large! breasts and doe eyes. I still wish I had bought one.

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), May 07, 2001.