How many of us old farts were screwed up by watching Looney Tunes?

[markw]

'In today’s outrage culture, nothing is sacred - not even memories of Saturday mornings spent watching “Looney Tunes.”

Murder and suicide is sure a problem among animated wabbits, ducks, and hunters, and I’m sure today’s kiddos aren’t capable of figuring out that “Looney Tunes” is fake. I mean, you run into talking wabbits all the time.'

Linky HERE

Seriously, if some kids don't know this is npot real then that points to some pretty poor parenting skills and that some people should not be allowed to reproduce.

Abbada abbada abbada...

 

[agarwalro]

The quoted Slate article is here.

Damn flat design language! Had to hover over a few bold sections to find the link. It is the bold but not italicized 'that' just before the first quote.

 

[herbu]

Yep. That's progress... thus "Progressives". Yesterday my wife saw a story where some group wants to designate "Sexual Predator" as a legitimate sexual orientation.

I believe the pendulum of social conscience swings similarly to the Peter Principle. It swings beyond the point of reason before it stops and starts swinging the other way. It is inconceivable to me that we have not reached that point, and the general, (majority), populace will begin to push back. I pray so.

 

[Adam]

...some group wants to designate "Sexual Predator" as a legitimate sexual orientation.

What...the...eff? Yeah, it's probably a group of sexual predators. Sorry, I can't help myself on the semantics - it's not an orientation; it's an inclination. Using that same reasoning of what's legitimate, though, perhaps my views on how to deal with those people are now "legitimate." Let's just say it would add a whole new pay-per-view dimension to "Shark Week."

 

[agarwalro]

You watch some evening "kids oriented" cartoons on Nick and Cartoon Network and the amount of innuendos make the overtly violent yet slapstick jokes of Loony Tunes and Tom & Jerry seem like Nosferatu to today's gore horror flicks. There may not be any depiction of violence, yet the implied consequences are far from kid friendly. If anything, cartoons today may be creating a generation of kids with far deeper sociopath like morals than Loony Tunes or Tom and Jerry ever did.

To Mark's point, failures in parenting get attributed to a multitude of external influences. TV, Friends, Cell Phones, Teachers, Video Games, Internet, Movies, you name it, but, never the Parent. My ex's 8 year old niece has been allowed to watch 'Adventure Time with Finn and Jake' and 'Regular Show' since she was 4 and are her favorite. Her parents watch them too, yet seem blissfully unaware of the content. They are cartoons right, what harm can it do? Adventure Time is one of the most bizarre "kid show" I have ever sat through and in my book Regular Show is probably okay for 10+ year olds, yet rated as 'E', for Everyone.

 

[herbu]

Mark makes a good point. Kids have always, and will always, develop their aggressive and preditory/survival instincts during childhood. Flash Gordon and Martians, Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, cartoons, dodgeball, even tag, are all ways kids learn how to handle their own personality. By removing the outlets that are pure and clear fantasy, the kids go straight to more realistic video games and movies. Is it more healthy for your pre-teen to watch Bugs Bunny or Die Hard? (Oh, you think kids don't see those R-rated movies? Really?)

Why do you think Zombies, Vampires and Werewolves are so popular now? It is because you can play killing them without offending anybody.

Suppose everything works the way some progressives want. Kids have absolutely no exposure to violence or aggression, in any form, until they're 17. Then their first exposure to anything outside of hugs and rainbows is the movie Saw, or Kill Bill, etc. What a well adjusted society they would produce.

 

[crossedover]

I think kids should know what a jackass is

 

[j_garcia]

I watched them for years. Haven't bashed someone over the head with a giant mallet yet.

 

[markw]

Yep. That's progress... thus "Progressives". Yesterday my wife saw a story where some group wants to designate "Sexual Predator" as a legitimate sexual orientation.

If you think that's bad, then you'll love this.

How broken does something have to be before you realize it can't be fixed?

I watched them for years. Haven't bashed someone over the head with a giant mallet yet.

But, can you tell me that you haven't been temped? Sometimes I think the only reason I haven't is because I didn't have one available at the time.

 

[j_garcia]

Thought about doing plenty of those. Yes, there are times I would have liked to drop a safe on someone and then pull them out from under it and do it again

 

[herbu]

If you think that's bad, then you'll love this.

Unbelievable. Love the interview. "I watch a lot of crime dramas on TV, so I know...". Hilarious!
More typical, though, is the endeavor to analyze and assign fault somewhere other than the decisions of the perpetrator. We are all filled with goodness and love, and any action to the contrary is due to some influence beyond our control.

 

[Midwesthonky]

I think some of this comes from the need by academic intellectuals to find the root cause, the source of why that person did what they did. Rather than just accepting that person knew better but still chose to go against society's accepted conduct. It was only a few millenia ago that it was considered great entertainment to watch people fight to the death.

I also think part of it comes from our modern legal system. The defense aims to deflect fault from the criminal and gain sympathy with the jury through the "It's not my fault..." philosophy. Now, I do blame lawyers, but we still have one of the best legal systems in the world so I won't complain too much. But I also think we put too much emphasis on environmental factors. I'm a former latch-key kid from a divorced set of parents and lived in poverty at times and watched extended hours of Looney Tunes and Gilligan's Island. I haven't axe-murdered anyone (I used something else). So just because you grew up with these "factors" doesn't mean you can't know right from wrong.

At some point, people need to realize that when they know where they will hide the body, then it's just time to stop and walk away before you actually have to hide the body.

There is a former boss that I would love to say this too. I quit that job when I figured out where I was going to hide his body. I would love to see his face when I tell him that and he realizes it's implications.

 

[MidnightSensi2]

Where can I buy these old cartoons? The violent ones lol.

..
Dave Chappelle covered cartoons loonngg ago.. hehe..

 

[tcarcio]

Mark said] But, can you tell me that you haven't been temped? Sometimes I think the only reason I haven't is because I didn't have one available at the time. [/QUOTE]


My order to Acme is in......

 

[Midwesthonky]

Where can I buy these old cartoons? The violent ones lol.

I bought mine from Amazon as part of a multi-DVD set. Even so, I think it was edited as the most controversial (race-wise) did not make it onto the set. We have a couple of sets of them. They are fun to watch and bring back memories. Better than watching reality TV. At least the cartoons look and act more realistic.

 

[shadyJ]

What the original author misses is that the older Looney Toons were not intended just for children, they were meant to entertain adults too. They weren't meant for children alone. They were theatrical releases that played before the feature along with a newsreel and had to appeal to the entire audience. When Looney Toons fell into television programming in the 60s, then it fell into the ghetto of straight children entertainment. You can tell the shorts created for broadcast TV and shorts created for threatical distribution not only by the exclusion of adult humor, but the lowering of quality in every respect, animation, wit, writing, re-used music scores, and so on. Same goes with all the golden age cartoons, Pop-eye, Tom and Jerry, and Disney to a lesser extant. There is nothing to discuss about the original article because the author doesn't even understand the context for things he is talking about, so this is not worthy of debate.

 

[rnatalli]

I sometimes put Looney Tunes on for my daughter. She really likes the three little pigs using Brahm's Hungarian Dance. I remember similar arguments about Tom and Jerry. In my eyes, totally ridiculous to blame these old cartoons, but would be fun to see a 4-year-old try and drop a piano on someone.

 

[markw]

It would be more fun seeing someone try to send a four year old who can lift a piano to her room.

 

[j_garcia]

 

[rnatalli]

Love the Stooges! Was watching the one where they were exterminators the other night.