Cartoons

What happened to cartoons that were funny?

Saturday morning cartoons used to be a laugh riot with fun times and hilarious action.

Now, they seem to be more interested in being politically correct statements of how we should promote a particular agenda or ideology.

How I miss seeing Road Runner best Wiley Coyote and Bugs Bunny get Elmer Fudd so befuddled that he was seeing red.

Cartoons now seem to believe that they must have some high moral message and call themselves "edutainment" in order to be on television.

One of the funniest cartoons that I have ever seen is the one that features Bugs Bunny going head to head against a wrestler named "The Crusher". It is an impressive display of what a cartoon should be. Witty, funny and slick, Bugs takes on the Crusher and not only gets his goat, he barbecues it in a hilarious show of brains over brawn that turns the would be package of 'fresh meat' into the conquering hero.

Of course, a hysterical aside to the whole shtick is the 'gay nature boy' Ravishing Ronald who is the appetizer for the Crusher. Stuffing Ravishing Ronald into his own hairnet and using him as a speed bag for his warm-up, the mentally lightweight Crusher is enjoying what will be his swan song - only he doesn't know it yet.

And that is what makes the cartoon funny.

We KNOW that Bugs Bunny will best this cretin at his own game by use of devious and dubious means. And it makes it all the more funny because Bugs has the ability to frustrate the Devil himself in the antics he gets up to and out of during the course of the cartoon.

Sure, there are other laugh riots that Bugs has perpetrated. The outrageous activity just never stops when Bugs is on the screen.

I absolutely LOVE the episode where Bugs is playing the part of Leopold Stokowski in order to humiliate the high brow and musically 'superior' opera singer who has trashed his banjo and tuba.

That he does it with so many sight gags and improbable circumstances makes it funny. But the floating glove directing the whole note of the 'nice, fat opera singer' is beyond funny. It is a universe of humor unto itself.

Sending off a letter and waiting for the postal delivery of ear muffs while the singer holds out the note is just a comic reminder of what most of us decidedly low-brow folks feel about most opera that doesn't involve a boy named Peter or a wolf. It is a long note bore awaiting a final chord to spare us from the 'culture' that we just don't want.

Now, lest it be said that I am an anti-cultural snob, know that I have been moved by opera and absolutely love the grandeur of a well played Carmen and the seething evil of Mephistopheles. But I also appreciate the fact that most of us also want things to be a little more digestible from time to time.

Milk before meat, you might say.

Everything doesn't have to be a learning experience custom designed to fit in a time slot.

Sometimes, it's just nice to have a good laugh. Even if it is at the expense of an overblown or musclebound idiot who doesn't know the rabbit is going to win.