Yes, I did watch it and I did smile–seeing Elmer as a ridiculous Viking, Bugs in drag worse than Klinger, and the fat horse. And I’ve seen the ‘sad ending’ in MGM cartoons ten years older than this WB cartoon (Yes, I know rabbits don’t talk and ordinarily dead creatures don’t talk either.). Compare this to the ending of King Lear, in which the king carries the lifeless body of Cordelia.
Aren’t you disgusted that the cartoonists couldn’t come up with their own characters and had to resort to ripping off Wagner? “Why use your own creativity when you can steal someone else’s,” and all that jazz?
Thanks! Also found it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2namHzxp6Sk&feature=PlayList&p=E24EE4638015DCFC&index=23 on youtube.
Never mind. I bought it there, but apparently it is now gone from iTunes.
I’ve been searching for the right words and phrases since I first saw this thread. Perhaps “vices” is a better term than “baser passions” ; after all, in that WB cartoon neither Bugs nor Elmer did anything they hadn’t done in cartoons going back fifteen years or more.
My objection had been the use of iconic characters perverted into those using sexual license, to any degree or kind, and use of illegal drugs (and indulgence in alcohol, for that matter; ever see Velma, Bugs Bunny, or any other such character intoxicated?)
If I had created one of the original characters I believe I would have cause to object to them being “satirized” (so-called) in such a manner, no matter whose idea it is.
But Bugs and Elmer aren’t the ones being satirized. Wagner is. Do you think Wagner would have approved of having his “German national epic” reduced to transvestite and fat jokes?
ALL THAT JAZZ?! Did you have to resort to ripping off a phrase from Kander and Ebb’s Chicago, or couldn’t you have created your own?
I can think of at least one German who wouldn’t have. (And don’t forget the final jab of the cartoon which zings nearly all operas!)
wow, I think dougie_monty may be completely insane. That’s some of the most bizarre nonsense I’ve ever seen anyone post. Especially the lsd thread, that was absolutely hilarious. I now expect dougie to accuse me of saying his friend’s supposed death was hilarious.
Well, he might have cause to object without at the same time having any legal right to stop it.
You’re correct, of course, but given his previous advocacy of lawsuits against cartoon-defilers, I’m assuming that he meant “cause” as in “cause of legal action”.
This guy is definitely an odd duck.
Fuck him! 
He was a vile, anti-Semitic, proto-Nazi who wrote bloated, pompous, overly-long operas. He more than deserved every second of ridicule.
There has to be an explanation for this other than that you consider lesbianism a vice. Right?
Yeah. I think it’s funny that Velma being a lesbian is worse than Velma basically being equated with a woman who tried to kill Andy Warhol.
It’s possible it’s not the lesbianism per se he’s upset about, but the sexualization of a heretofore “innocent” cartoon character.
I could be wrong and it’s the lesbianism, though.
Then it’s a good thing nobody said anything about Daphne. There’s nothing innocent about that vixen.
Yeah, but the difference between you, and the people who created Bugs Bunny and Scooby Doo, is that they have a sense of humor, and understand the concept of parody. And if the Ruby-Spears* catalogue is anything to go by, the folks who invented Scooby Doo have a much more relaxed attitude towards drug use than you do. So the fact that you would object to your characters being used in such a manner is not any sort of evidence that anyone else would object.
[sub]*Scooby Doo was a Hanna-Barbera production, but it was actually created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, who later left Hanna-Barbera to create their own studio.[/sub]
That’s what I’m rooting for. It still brings up a host of questions, though - sexuality is a vice? And then there’s the whole “why is gayness sexualizing when straightness isn’t” thing.
That’s what I’m thinking. There’s mere ignorance and then there’s just total batshit insanity. Unlike the willfully ignorant, I think dougie_monty lives in a world entirely unlike ours and he should be pitied.
Actually, this is the writers’ problem, not dougie_monty’s. The first inkling we have that “Val” is queer is that she tries to rape Daphne. If anyone’s sexualizing gayness, it’s the show.
So I objected to that bit, myself–the difference is that I don’t live in dougie_monty’s bizarro world, and I don’t harber delusions of grandeur that lead me to believe that I can silence any and all artistic expression I personally find distasteful. The creators of the Venture Brothers have a right to parody whatever they want to, and air whatever distasteful representation of cartoon characters they want to, assuming they can get a cable channel to broadcast it, which they can.
TVB is usually pretty funny anyway.
Hostile Dialect,
Hostile Dialect, Narcissist