Blog Shog: Damn you, Chuck Jones!

There's a campaign on FB right now to protest child abuse, asking people to change their profile pics to their favorite cartoon character from childhood. I'm down with it--I don't know what kind of effect it's going to have, but, hey, I loooooove cartoons, so... I went with Daffy Duck.

Not the evil, mean, jealous horrible Daffy of the Chuck Jones cartoons; no, I hate that Daffy. He's an asshole, a cheap foil for Bugs Bunny, and personally, while I respect Chuck Jones's work to a point, I also have some serious issues with the blatant racism of his cartoons (Tex Avery had a good go at everyone, but so did Chuck, and while you don't see the African American stereotype cartoons being shown, the horrible Irish ones are still out there and shown without apology or what have you) and what I consider the cheapening of the characters of both Daffy and Bugs. The rivalry didn't work--it was just ugly shit, got old real quick, and, quite frankly, boring.

There, I've said it.

While the cartoons of Bob Clampett... Bob was just as guilty of stereotyping as the others, but at the same time, I find it a lot easier to forgive Bob. He was insane, and his gags... I love a good Bob Clampett gag. He was maaaaaaad. (And if you look at the work of John K. & the 'toons that glommed on to the Ren & Stimpy style of gonzo cartooning, you are witnessing the heirs of Bob Clampett. John Kricfalusi tells of hanging with Bob Clampett on the extras on one of the Looney Tunes Golden Collections, unabashedly touting the genius of Bob over the other Warner directors, and I have to say that I am on that bandwagon.

So in response to a Certain Australian Gentleman's question regarding why the cartoon thing, I made this statement:

I changed my pic in protest of the destruction of Daffy Duck-from wild & crazy mallard, a star in his own right, reduced to a mere comic foil, a bitter shadow of himself! Curse you, Chuck Jones! The heirs of Bob Clampett shall rise up & reclaim our sullied hero!

(The pic is from The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, one of Bob Clampett's best... hysterical pastiche & tribute to the craze of the day, Dick Tracy. Daffy & Bob at their finest. :-)