After watching the Simpsons in class and discussing the elitist humor that show is based on, I began to start to think about all the childhood cartoons that I watched as a child and realized that almost all had a somewhat elitist position, in terms that there were characters designed specifically to be “dumb” and make the audience feel smarter as well as add comedy.
One cartoon that is iconic and universal that I feel best represents this idea of elitist humor is Looney Tunes, specifically Bugs Bunny. In every episode, Bugs Bunny out smarts and makes fun of some other character, whether it’s Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck, Marvin the Martin, Wile E. Coyote, or many others.
In correlation with my final project of caricaturing Alfred and referencing the famous “Hatfield- McCoy feud”, I found a Bugs Bunny cartoon titled, “Hillbilly Hare”, where Bugs Bunny squares off against the two “Coy” Brothers who think Bugs is a “Martin” which is a direct suggestion of the two families, but changes the family surnames.
The cartoon basically introduces the audience to “Ozark County” and it’s backwoods ways, where Bugs, who is trying to vacation away from Elmer Fudd, meets the two Coy brothers who fill in for Elmer in trying to hunt the hare, and as usual are embarrassed and out witted by Bugs. Then while trying to catch Bugs, the Brothers are duped into dancing with a pretty girl who turns out to Bugs in drag. Bugs then distracts the brothers with square dancing calls, and eventually manipulates the calls so that the brothers have to hit each other with logs, dance with pigs, and eventually dance off a cliff and then run away.
I was unable to post the actual video, but here is a link to the full cartoon:
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