Supes vs T. Tuxedo

[Super Monkey]

As a kid I really hated scooby doo and flintstones, I never understood why they were so popular. Still don't.

Classic Warner bros cartoons= LOL funny esp those by Bob Clampett and Frank Tashlin

I never knew who Bob Clampett was until I was an adult and it turns out that he was the one who made most of the really great classic toons! Now I look for his work. Other favorites were Tex Avery and the Fleischer bros.

[TELLE]

I never even laughed at Warner Bros --I went from watching them to studying them as a teen (especially when I discovered lost syndicated toons broadcast in other cities or when I bought tapes of them or saw some at comic cons) to laughing at them as an adult.

I did laugh at Roger Ramjet, George of the Jungle, Superchicken.  Sometimes at Bullwinkle.  But for the most part I was like Nightwing, preferring plot/adventure, even in Wacky Races/Laffalympics/Yogi's Space Race.

[nightwing]

I did laugh at Roger Ramjet, George of the Jungle, Superchicken.  Sometimes at Bullwinkle.  But for the most part I was like Nightwing, preferring plot/adventure, even in Wacky Races/Laffalympics/Yogi's Space Race.

Wow, Yogi's Space Race.  Definitely a contender for worst cartoon of all time.  "Limited" animation and the art was just plain rotten.  Plus every episode ended with the gang (Yogi, Huck, whoever) all stopping at the Space Disco for a dance sequence.  Utter dreck.

You know what I never found funny? MGM cartoons.  Disney was bad enough, aimed as it was at 18-month-olds (and slow ones at that), but the MGM stuff was the worst.  There was a cruelty to those shorts, a crassness that just gets uglier with the passage of time.  

The violence in Tom and Jerry is an obvious issue (and ably lampooned by the Simpson's "Itchy and Scratchy"), but there was also a sort of "adult" sensibility, and not in a good way.  There was the "sexy" stuff like Little Hot Riding Hood and the girl who does the balloon dance while the lecherous wolf drools, and of course there were all the times when explosions or falls down coal chutes left characters with black faces, whereupon of course they launched into minstrel acts ( ).  Plus I'm convinced Tom and Jerry ruined cartoons for all of us as far as mobilizing the anti-violence groups.  I mean, who could seriously be threatened by the Road Runner cartoons?  Are we supposed to believe toddlers would start rolling boulders on each other or playing with unattended sticks of dynamite based on Wile E Coyote's antics?  But Tom and Jerry had their adventures in the house, using weapons any kid could get hold of to terrorize his sister or the family pet: irons, razors, electrical outlets, fireplace pokers, butcher knives.  Compare these shorts to the far superior Sylvester and Tweety stuff -- just as "rough" but nowhere near as mean-spirited -- and you have to wonder what kind of sadistic misanthropes were running the MGM shop.

[Super Monkey]

Road Runner cartoons are horrible, it's the same cartoon over and over and over again.

The MGM shop was a product of their time. Those toons would never get made today, if they were to be made today, they would be clearly marked not for children, LOL.

[MatterEaterLad]

Is there any proof that animated cartoons appeal to children more?

I've always had the feeling that adults decided that and told their children it was true. And therefore people made cartoons that appealed to them as adults.

I never laughed at the "Flintstones" jokes or understood the parody of "Fractured Fairy Tales", I just followed the stories like any stories. If I watched "Steamboat Willie", as a kid I was more weirded out by Mickey playing farm animals as musical instruments than by any references that went over my head in a 1940s movie.

[TELLE]

I enjoy quite a few WB and MGM cartoons as an adult --they were shown in front of adult movies, once upon a time, and think the violence is hilarious.  Even Road Runner who I used to hate (how did they create comics of them? --a question for Mark Evanier) is funny now, in parts.  Or maybe comforting, since I know most of the gags by now.  Saw a few WWII Tom and Jerry toons recently on TCM and laughed at a few parts in a kind of "heh, isn't it funny what they thought would be funny in 1944?" and "heh, there's a reference to an old movie star and there's an old household appliance that we don't use anymore but which I find interesting because I collect old pop culture and antiques and the gag they built around it is original" -kind of way.

[jamespup]

Even Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Cans encourage feelings of nostalgia since Campbells Soup doesn't look that way anymore

[MatterEaterLad]

Except for Tomato and Chicken Noodle, which have kept the "old" look.