Guns in animation: Once a reliable gag, now taboo
So this is how we had planned to get ping pong balls shooting all over the screen. It seemed to make perfect sense, and a ping pong ball gun seemed pretty harmless. After some notes from Fred and crew, the gun became this:
The ping pong balls will now be scattered all around the room (notice I didn’t say “get shot”) by this Rube Goldberg meets “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” contraption.
In this case, it makes sense, as the device that distributes the ping pong balls is made up of random parts. Random parts… Random Cartoons… get it? It makes sense and is a better choice in this case.
This brings me to a larger issue though, and one that I think should be discussed more in the industry.
In animation today, guns are a no-no. It used to be a reliable gag in animation, to have a character get blasted in the face by a gun.
What would Elmer do without his trusty rifle back in the day? Watching Bugs smooth talk and wisecrack his way out of mortal danger was interesting and very entertaining. Some cartoon characters, if pitched today, might not ever get off of the drawing board…
How many “Fresh Hare” or “Rabbit Seasoning” type cartoons are we missing out on? Are we really saving children by taking guns out of cartoons?
I think if we take out all of the “dangerous” bits from animation, we’ll be left with a bland art form. I would guess that 85% of animation produced today is watered down and bland. There is a reason that Refrederator and Channel Frederator are so popular. Those shorts aren’t bland.
Do you need guns to be funny?
No.
Should guns be taken out of cartoons if they are funny?
No.
Thanks for reading through this long post!
Thoughts?
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On July 18th, 2006 at 12:00 am
And bring back anvils too!
On July 18th, 2006 at 12:00 am
the weird rube goldberg contraption flicking the ping pongs into the air is actually funnier. you can squeeze in a small amount of personality into the hand-thing in the amount of time you have. I think it works, and works well, as opposed to the ping pong gun.
-jx
On July 18th, 2006 at 12:00 am
I like the contraption better as well, but it gave me the chance to mention the “guns in cartoons” issue. I wonder how much damage the “The Lone Ranger”, “Zorro”, and “Davey Crockett” shows did to the kids of that generation?
On July 18th, 2006 at 12:00 am
You know, typically I’m annoyed by how many things you can’t do in a cartoon these days. You can’t show them eating candy or junk food (poor Wimpy and Shaggy and Scooby) you can’t show them drinking, certainly nothing out of a bottle with three “X’s” on it, you can’t have a character smoking (I can almost understand that one, but what if we only showed the bad guys smoking?). But guns I can stand behind. Back in the day it wasn’t so easy to run into a gun, and now they are everywhere, and if my son found one I would hate for him to shoot anyone thinking they can get up after it. And I agree, there just aren’t enough anvils in cartoons anymore either.
On July 19th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Fred on guns: Though I probably know the answer I didn’t even ask Nickelodeon about the gun issue. Normally, I chafe at the issues of political correctness on just on personal contrariness. But, for whatever reason, I just don’t like guns. Maybe Manny’s got the right idea, but I just don’t like them, so I figure I get keep them out of our productions if I want to. All that said, if I were Floyd I’d be crazy about getting the gong too. It’s annoying to have creative work knocked around because of a seemingly arbitary point of view. And, after all, it’s all in the eye (and ear and head) of the beholder. One man’s gun is another’s cigarette. Sorry Floyd, I’m a wimp.
On July 21st, 2006 at 12:00 am
The contraption is actually more fun in this case. I blogged about the guns in animation issue because the day after we swapped the gun for a contraption, my kids were watching (and I was watching, too) an old Tom & Jerry episode where Tom shoots a pistol at Jerry, while Jerry is hanging from Tom’s tail. Jerry gets away of course, and Tom’s tail is left blasted and smoldering. You don’t see that kind of thing in animation any more… maybe that’s for the best.
On July 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
“You don’t see that kind of thing in animation any more… maybe that’s for the best.” Not to be a complete hypocrite, but like you, I’m thrilled that stuff was in cartoons. Not because there are guns, but because they’re funny. I got to know Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna well enough though, that I can assure you that if they were playing by “no guns” rules they would have made films just as funny. I know it’s a blinding glimpse of the obvious, but their ability to be funny on film had absolutely nothing to do with what rules they were playing by (they certainly couldn’t do lots of the things contemporary film comedians can do), their funniness was because they were talented. Great film comedians are great with whatever rules they play by.
On July 23rd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Great insight, Fred. I guess it’s easy to get wrapped up in the specific props, and miss the gag itself. Kind of like a forest for the trees thing.