Memo to Cartoon Network

Over the summer, I was sick for a couple of days, which gave me a great excuse to catch up on my daytime TV. It was the usual mélange of crisis-ridden housewives on talk shows; muscular, long-haired men on the Spanish soap operas; and whatever crappy movie was on Comedy Central.

Looking through these channels, wishing I had Netflix, something seemed wrong. Something was missing. Something familiar,constant in my life was gone, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Then it hit me. Looney Tunes were MIA. From the time I was little, I never liked educational kids’ shows or public TV, and instead opted to watch a rabbit outsmart an angry little man with a speech impediment.

So where did these cartoons go? They were an integral part of my childhood. They were even more important to people older than I.
When I turn on the cartoon channels now, I can’t stand what I see. Every show has become formulaic, stiffly animated, and written to make sure that there is so little subjective material, Mr. Rogers looks dirty by comparison. And it only gets worse when you see the shows meant for younger children. As a child, I remember being fascinated by the characters eyes popping out, jaws dropping to the ground, and watching them get smashed into pancakes by anvils.

Now, it’s as if the writers and animators just assume that all kids want to see is a pink, Spanish-speaking, coveralls-wearing walrus presenting multi-culturally sensitive, half-hour lecture on the importance of sharing. What are these kids going to laugh at? A show about not playing in traffic drawn in South Korea or Taiwan by people who draw only because it’s profitable? Unfortunately, that’s a good description of more than a few cartoons out there.

Which brings me to the real point: animation today sucks. The cartoons I see don’t exhibit very much care, originality, or form. The characters are ugly, the jokes aren’t funny, and the backgrounds are done in all of the ugly purples, yellows, and browns we tried to get rid of along with the 1980’s.

The rest of the media is no help either. With the recent incidents of youth violence, politicians, parents’ groups, and anyone who feels like being loud are quick to point fingers in a few places. They blame violent movies, literature, music, and images. But Looney Tunes?

Maybe I’m in a minority here, but I have never once had the desire to hit a duck with a giant wooden mallet, or shoot a canary at point-blank range. What else can we pin on Looney Tunes? Creating racial tension? You’d think not, but Turner Industries, owner of Cartoon Network, seems to think differently. There hasn’t been a Speedy Gonzalez cartoon broadcast since 1999 on their network, due to “negative stereotypes of Hispanic peoples.”

Why are these cartoons disappearing? I believe that the cartoons are not so much for the children as they are for the parents. Parents, not wanting their kids to get sucked in by all that TV violence and trash, will gladly plop their kids in front of a show because they believe it’s “educational,” and therefore “better.” What they don’t realize is the effect that they have on kids.

Educational shows have discouraged kids from doing things like playing games where sticks imitate weapons, exploring the woods, or even chasing snakes and frogs. Working as a summer camp counselor, I have noticed kids are not playing the same way I did.

After seeing a large raccoon run off into the woods one evening, I did the natural thing and went chasing after it, expecting a group of eight-year-old boys to follow close behind. However, they did quite the opposite. They wanted to avoid the raccoon at all costs. When I asked why, three of them answered that they saw on some TV show that animals had rabies and were dirty.

Two weeks later, back home, I turned on the TV and it happened to be on PBS. And sure enough, it was a kids’ show explaining rabies.

Maybe the kids are getting smarter, but I was a lot happier at age eight chasing after woodland mammals not knowing what neurological diseases they carried.

7 Responses

1. 7:53 AM on December 15th, 2006deshawn freemen:

   bring them back!

2. 8:44 AM on December 22nd, 2006Anonymous:

   bring back Batman: The Animated Series. Best US cartoon ever!

3. 2:38 PM on December 22nd, 2006Anonymous Dad:

   I assume that comment number two is delivered in Comic Book Guy voice, right?

4. 8:34 PM on December 23rd, 2006Anonymous:

   I assume comment number three has actually seen Batman: TAS for him to make such a statement.

5. 12:56 AM on January 1st, 2007Tao Zheng:

   Stupid typical American Racist. You no insulte People of My Land.

6. 10:18 AM on January 30th, 2007The Stubinator:

   Here here, bring back the toons.

7. 11:55 AM on January 30th, 2007Marc:

   “A show about not playing in traffic drawn in South Korea or Taiwan by people who draw only because it’s profitable?”

   Eric, what do you mean Taiwan and South Korea? That makes no sense at all. Most animated series are Japanese. Anime IS a Japanese word.

   Get your Asians right.

Leave a Comment

All comments are moderated. If your comment contains profanity or libelous content, please don't waste our time.