http://frederatorblogs.com/refrederator/2006/11/15/all-this-and-rabbit-stew/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:11:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://frederatorblogs.com/refrederator/2006/11/15/all-this-and-rabbit-stew/#comment-478 Dave Kirwan Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://frederatorblogs.com/refrederator/2006/11/15/all-this-and-rabbit-stew/#comment-478 Great post! It's pretty easy to distance ourselves from early, archaic films that simply plopped down racist cliches in lieu of anything particularly clever or humorous. The stereotype WAS the gag, period. Things get trickier viewing cartoons from the 1940's — the way directors and writers of the era would riff on all kinds of 'common knowledge' (truisms, old wives' tales, superstitions, colloquialisms, etc.) still seems fairly sophisticated, and it was inevitable that even major talents like Avery and Clampett would latch onto widely held prejudices as grist for their mill. By in large, golden age cartoons don't date badly — a lot of them play a lot better with an audience than many live action comedies just twenty years old — so it's doubly jarring to see a vintage Bugs Bunny toon build around ugly ethnic notions. Keep up the good work! Great post! It’s pretty easy to distance ourselves from early, archaic films that simply plopped down racist cliches in lieu of anything particularly clever or humorous. The stereotype WAS the gag, period. Things get trickier viewing cartoons from the 1940’s — the way directors and writers of the era would riff on all kinds of ‘common knowledge’ (truisms, old wives’ tales, superstitions, colloquialisms, etc.) still seems fairly sophisticated, and it was inevitable that even major talents like Avery and Clampett would latch onto widely held prejudices as grist for their mill. By in large, golden age cartoons don’t date badly — a lot of them play a lot better with an audience than many live action comedies just twenty years old — so it’s doubly jarring to see a vintage Bugs Bunny toon build around ugly ethnic notions. Keep up the good work!

]]>