Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips

[E-Sabbath]

They said the toons would never air again.
They were jingoist. Racist. A relic of a time long past.

And on Memorial Day, Cartoon Network is showing them all.


Or at least some of them. Saw an advert in the TV Guide. WWII Cartoons, Memorial Day. This should be fun!

[Mr. Green Fool]

But not Bugs Nips the Nips.

I'm sure of it.

[racinchikki]

Well, they're showing CLIPS of a lot of them. They're only showing four of 'em all the way through. There's a blurb on cartoonnetwork.com about it.

[mobo85]

This special was originally shown last 4th of July, and it's a good one. The cartoons are shown in historical context, so all the now-politically incorrect caricatures are explained. Though no full anti-Jap cartoons are shown, there are a lot of clips, plus four full anti-Nazi cartoons.

WATCH how the cartoon stars supported the war effort at home!
SEE the Three Pigs fight Adolf Wolf in Tex Avery's first MGM cartoon!
SAVE scrap metal with Daffy Duck as he avoids a Nazi goat in glorious black and white!
COVER YOUR EYES as Bugs Bunny dances Wagner-style with Joe Gobbels in the Black Forest!
and LAUGH as a bunch of gremlins from the Kremlins sabotage Hitler's personal warplane!

It's Toonheads: The Wartime Cartoons. May 26th at 9pm Eastern and Pacific on Cartoon Network. Don't miss it!

[Olentzero]

Oh sweet Lord a'mighty. I am so there.

[E-Sabbath]

Personally, I was hoping for some Private SNAFU.

[Olentzero]

Hey, they had Private SNAFU on a recent Toonheads episode - one that didn't get run originally, I think, because it featured a new "bomb" that the gov't felt was a little too close to a certain project they were working on at the time.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

But anyone is invited to come over to my house anytime for a private screening of the subject cartoon, as well as other works that are now deemed "Too Hot for TV.":D

[JustPlainBryan]

<slight hijack>

Is there any place on the web where I can find politcially incorrect cartoons from the past for sale?

[nineiron]

There is just something so surreal about hearing Bugs say [I forget the exact situation], "There you go, slanty-eyes!" to one of the Japanese caricatures. Looking back, I'm amazed they even showed it when I was young (I'm only 30 now).

[Fenris]

Originally posted by E-Sabbath
Personally, I was hoping for some Private SNAFU.

Just as an aside, ALL the Private SNAFUs (and the one Private TARFU) are available on a DVD from Bosko Video. I got mine at Borders Books. VERY worth getting (even if the bastards do watermark the cartoons in the corner)

Fenris

[Fern Forest]

You can get "All This and Rabbit Stew" through Yahoo (http://broadcast.yahoo.com/home.html), but from Canada's YTV I believe.

Click on TV

You can watch it for free and download it for $5 with a credit card. There's a "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves" here (http://www.toontracker.com/coalblack/coalblack.htm) but it's really poor.

I think some of these are out there on VHS tape, in fact I'm sure of it. I'll see if I can find any links.

[Fern Forest]

This page (http://www.toonzone.net/looney/ltcuts/ltcuts11.html) talks about getting certain cartoons on VHS.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

For Canadian Dopers: The Movieola digital channel is showing a real grab bag of old cartoons, including a lot that I am truly amazed to see .....old Warner Brothers, and a lot from miscellaneous studios that I had simply never heard of. I've seen "All this and Rabbit Stew" there for example, and "Little Black Sambo." Well worth checking out for fans of old animation.

[Gala Matrix Fire]

Help! I live in Mountain Time Zone, and my TV guide makes no mention of Cartoon Network showing these cartoons, and the Cartoon Network website doesn't say what time they're showing them in Central and Mountain Time Zones. Are they just not showing them for us!! Are we too unsophisticated? Waah, I wanna see 'em!

[Fern Forest]

It's called "Toonheads" and it comes on this Sunday in the hour before the first "Home Movies."

It'll be a great night of cartoons.

[LolaBaby]

I'll try to watch it. I'm Japanese, but it won't bother me, considering the context in which these were created.
*shrugs*

[Weirddave]

Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips and the others can usually be found on a file sharing program like Kazza or Morpheus. I recommend Morpheus of Kazza lite, the regular Kazza loads your computer up with spyware.

[Baker]

LolaBaby, did you mean you are a Japanese citizen living in the US, or are you an American citizen of Japanese descent?

[Exapno Mapcase]

I got home in time to watch the last 45 minutes of it. I was surprised at how crude and unfunny the cartoons were. Was it really necessary to show five minutes of Hitler making a fool of himself talking faux German and then actually have a hand appear in front of him with a sign saying "Isn't He Silly?" Whatever happened to letting pictures speak for themselves? There were a few instances of actual creativeness but for the most part, these propaganda pieces were so heavy-handed as to be almost unwatchable. No modern audience would sit through the equivalent, and I'm amazed that even in wartime 40s audiences would.

[Fern Forest]

These are the ones they showed in full.

Blitz Wolf (1942) - Not very funny. Seems like just an excuse for the animators to insult Hitler. Definately not enough to hold a cartoon for several mintues.

Scrap Happy Daffy (1943) - Some great gags. Daffy inadvertantly insulting himself. Glasses on the butt. Daffy lamenting what he could do with some spinach.

Herr Meets Hare (1945) - Not bad, typical Bugs Bunny stuff. I'm not sure I get the final joke though. Nice little precursor to What's Opera Doc?

Russian Rhapsody (1944) - Now 5 minutes is gross exaggeration. It was 70 seconds. And done before in other great comedies by no less the Charlie Chaplin. The majority of the toon deals with the Gremlins singing songs and destroying the plane which is pretty funny and enjoyable.
-------------------------

Now what they don't show is any toons with any major stereotypes. Just Hitler, Guerig and Himmler. So no

Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944) which is a very funny cartoon, with great gags and would definately be one of everyone's favorite bits weren't it not for the outrageous stereotypes, especially at the Ice Cream truck, sheesh. Most of it is in the same vein as Wackiki Wabbit (1943) which is my favorite Bugs Bunny toon. I love his thinking cap. I need one of those.

What's scary is that this I don't find these shorts so shocking since I see them still in our entertainment, only rather then Japanese and Germans we got Arabs and a few others. It's not nerely so blatant but they're still there.

[Katisha]

Crud. I'd planned on watching this, but the OP stuck in my head and mobo85's didn't, so I thought it was on Monday and I missed it.

*pouts*

They're not going to rerun it anytime soon, are they?

[LolaBaby]

Originally posted by Baker
LolaBaby, did you mean you are a Japanese citizen living in the US, or are you an American citizen of Japanese descent?

Born and raised in Hawaii.

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by Osiris
Herr Meets Hare (1945) ... I'm not sure I get the final joke though.

Goering and Hitler both look into the sack (in which the falcon has trapped Bugs) in turn, and exclaim "Gott in Himmel!" and run away.

When Bugs emerges, he's dressed like Stalin, complete with moustache and pipe. Saying something about the flavor of the tobacco.

[MovieMogul]

Grrrr. I saw the blurb in TV Guide too so assumed it was today = Missed it. &*#!

[mobo85]

Originally posted by Ukulele Ike
When Bugs emerges, he's dressed like Stalin, complete with moustache and pipe. Saying something about the flavor of the tobacco.

"Does your tobacco taste different lately?" which I believe was a slogan for Lucky Strike cigarettes.

Russian Rhapsody also had a Hitler-scared-of-Stalin joke in it. And I personally thought the Hitler-speak in that cartoon was humorous for a short gag. "...with the Fritz Freleng and the what's cooking doc..."

[Just Some Guy]

I'll agree the Daffy Duck one wasn't very good. I thought the animation quality for it was awful the gags weren't entertaining.

On the other hand I really enjoyed at least the beginning of Blitz Wolf. Especially the pigs having signed a Neville Chamberlain-esque treaty with the wolf. But I was expecting the wolf to roll over the third pig's Maginot Line like house as well from the way the cartoon was starting.

[Freudian Slit]

Well I watched the last two because my bro was watching- "Russian Rhaposdy" and "Herr Meets Hare." Well, okay, they were...bizarre, to say the least. Did people really get sucked into this sort of thing, or was it more tongue in cheek, like that Afghanistan episode of "South Park"?

Anyway I don't know if I was entirely entranced (those Gremlins were scary as hell!!), but maybe it's because I was raised on a diet of Simpsons and Futurama and Family Guy. I mean, the quality of animation has changed a lot in the past sixty years.

[Squish]

Fifty years from now Simpsons and South Park are going to look really strange to that generation.

Taken in the context of the times, the stereotyping doesn't bother me; it's pretty typical for countries during a war to dehumanize their enemies.

I'm not defending racism, mind you, I'm just saying that the perspective of the years should eliminate a knee-jerk response. For instance, I grew up in very rural Pennsylvania; I'm sure there wasn't a black family within 50 miles. Yet I had a large collection of rag dolls made by a very talented local lady, and almost everyone of them was black. Were my family racist? Nope; in fact in the late 50s while travelling, my parents stood up to a diner owner who wanted to refuse service to a group of black travelers. My father told him, "If you're open for us, you're open for them. These people want to eat just like we do."

Uh-oh...kinda got o/t there, didn't I?

[CaptMurdock]

In "Blitz Wolf" there was a sign that said "NO [something] DOGS ALLOWED." The [something] was blurred out deliberately. Any idea what it was?

[KXL]

In "Blitz Wolf" there was a sign that said "NO [something] DOGS ALLOWED." The [something] was blurred out deliberately. Any idea what it was?

It was "Japs" -- this is visible on version of "Blitz Wolf" on the Tex Avery Laserdisc Collection.

[KXL]

To clarify: The sign had read "No Dogs Allowed." The Pig had crossed out "Dogs" and written "Japs." That "Japs" was what Cartoon Network (or someone) had blurred out.

[Eve]

I was a bit disappointed overall with the cartoons they showed—but for me, nothing can ever beat the pre-Code Betty Boops. It made me wonder if Japanese and German theaters were showing anti-U.S. cartoons with wild FDR caricatures.

One or two moments gave me the willies: Bugs Bunny piloting a plane into a skyscraper (it wasn't in one of the full-length cartoons, just a quick clip during the narration segment), and the Statue of Liberty pulling out a machine gun and blasting away at incoming enemy planes. I DID jump up and applaud at THAT moment . . .

[Olentzero]

OK, Eve, coupla quick corrections.

a) Bugs didn't pilot the plane into a skyscraper, he piloted it between two skyscrapers, doing a quarter barrel-roll in order to keep the damn thing airborne. It was a clip from the same cartoon where the gremlin and Bugs discussed gas ration cards at the end.

b) You, of all people, should know the difference between a Flit gun and a machine gun.

I watched it with the Tzeroling and had to explain a lot to her 'cos she didn't know much about the war. I think she got most of it.

I am glad they handled the Japanese caricatures the way they did; stuff like that needs to be put in context and really shouldn't be broadcast completely without comment.

Exapno Mapcase, ask the generation of your family that grew up during the war (if they're still around) about going to see the movies at that time. It wasn't just the one film "in and out" kind of thing we do today; an afternoon at the movies literally was a whole afternoon, with a newsreel and a cartoon, and probably a short feature film before the main feature. I daresay a date at the movies could easily have been four to five hours.

[Eve]

OK, so I was doing something else while I was watching . . . But Bugs did pilot the plane toward the buildings!

[mobo85]

Originally posted by KXL
To clarify: The sign had read "No Dogs Allowed." The Pig had crossed out "Dogs" and written "Japs." That "Japs" was what Cartoon Network (or someone) had blurred out.

According to Jerry Beck, animation historian and producer of this special, the only print Turner had of Blitz Wolf was this one, which had the word "Japs" removed from the sign, and also removed another gag regarding the Japanese. The very long gun one of the pigs has bombs Japan, leaving only a sign reading "Doolittle dood it!"

[Exapno Mapcase]

Olentzero, I'm no Eve, but I'm pretty knowledgeable about entertainment history. If you look at other public entertainment of the time, radio, movies, books, you'll see a huge amount of propaganda throughout the war years, but only the poorest-done bits of it were as petty and heavy-handed as was shown in these cartoons. (Admittedly, comic books came pretty close. Maybe there's something about the medium.) Today we're more used to cartoons placing their jokes in backgrounds and insinuating their messages into the main entertainment, and that seems to be an extremely effective mode of conveying their intent.

The crudeness of the content of these propaganda cartoons is even in contrast to the non-propaganda cartoons of the era. I was surprised and disappointed. I expected better.

[Olentzero]

Ah, I misunderstood the thrust of your argument. I thought you were complaining about the length, rather than the content. Don't know how I got that impression.

In any case, I think the answer lies in the fact that deadlines were just as much a part of the cartoon studios' existence back then as they are now for today's animators. I'm not sure how many new releases were expected to have new cartoons accompanying them, but it seems likely that the rate of WB's output necessitated a lot of hard and fast work over at Termite Terrace. My guess is that the order of the day was "Make Hitler look like a total shmuck" and the boys went with whatever ideas they could come up with in the time allotted.

[Guy Propski]

Eve--the gremlin piloted the plane towards the skyscraper; Bugs grabbed the wheel and executed the half-barrel roll to avoid collision.

[Fern Forest]

That's also one that got a lot of airtime. I remember seeing it throughout my life.

[Eve]

Well, yes, Guy, but it still gave me the willies.

I have a number of 78 records from WW's I and II, which contain some lyrics unplayable today. One that cracks me up, though, is "Good-Bye, Mama, I'm Off to Yokahama," with the deathless line,

"A million fightin' sons of Uncle Sam, if you please,
Will soon have all those Japs right down on their Jap-a-knees . . . "

[KXL]

"A million fightin' sons of Uncle Sam, if you please,
Will soon have all those Japs right down on their Jap-a-knees . . ."

Ever so effectively parodied by Tom Lehrer in “So Long, Mom”

Remember, mommy,
I'm off to get a commie,
So send me a salami
And try to smile somehow.
I'll look for you when the war is over,
An hour and a half from now!

[Olentzero]

Guy - I thought a half barrel-roll put you feet skywards. Have I been gravely mistaken all this time?

[drollman]

Eve, along those same lines: There is a rare recording by Danny Kaye called "I Paid My Income Tax Today." A tune in which he goes on (and on and on) about how good he feels about paying his income tax to help out the war effort. One of the lines in the tune:
"A hundred bombs to bomb Berlin,
They're all paid for and I chipped in!
I paid my income tax today!
I'm squared up with the USA,
We have to win this war somehow,
Uncle Sam was worried but he isn't now!
I paid my income tax today."

I don't want to go off on a rant here, but like 'em or hate 'em these war-era cartoons are part of our history. We can be embarassed and amazed at what and who they portray, but it's still history. To lock them in a vault until the films deterirorate beyond all hope is wrong. This is the "Disneyfication" of our history. Suddenly we're all sensitive about it; but back in the war years, this is how a majority of society thought-right or wrong. Look at it this way: 50 years from now we'll probably be amazed how society treated same-sex couples. But I could be wrong.

Drollman! --Over 200 posts with a spelling mistake!

[kingpengvin]

I wish I could have seen these, but crude flagrant propaganda is not just a relic from the past.
How many doctored Osama pictures did you see after he was named as the man behind 9/ 11? For thos who saw this can you tell me how sophisticated were they compared to the toons of yore?

[Lute Skywatcher]

Originally posted by mobo85
According to Jerry Beck, animation historian and producer of this special, the only print Turner had of Blitz Wolf was this one, which had the word "Japs" removed from the sign, and also removed another gag regarding the Japanese. The very long gun one of the pigs has bombs Japan, leaving only a sign reading "Doolittle dood it!" I thought that was a very odd edit at the end of the very long gun. I was expecting the pigs to shoot but nothing happened, it just cut to the wolf.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Originally posted by Olentzero
Guy - I thought a half barrel-roll put you feet skywards. Have I been gravely mistaken all this time? Methinks Guy meant a quarter roll.