I love where my mind goes when I'm sleep-deprived

[thehefner]

Every so often, I remember that there actually was a cartoon where a Rooster Frank Sinatra and a Rooster Bing Crosby made a fully-clothed Porky Pig orgasm eggs.

Goddamn but they don't make 'em like that anymore.

Comments

[mandybling.livejournal.com]

I've never heard anyone put it that way... but yeah, that's exactly what's going on.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

BOOSH!

[mandybling.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. XD

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Christ, if you're looking for stuff that we couldn't get away with anymore, try all of Mel Brooks' work, with Blazing Saddles at the top of the list.

I sometimes wonder what kids today must make of old Warner Bros. cartoons that reference real-life celebrities when they were very different from what they eventually became. Even in his post-mortem lionization, nobody really sees Sinatra as the sex symbol he used to be (unlike Liz Taylor, who was sort of retroactively enshrined as the violet-eyed goddess that she used to be, even while she was still alive). And Bing Crosby? Jesus, even our grandparents had long since dismissed him as a safe old fuddy-duddy before he died.

It gets me to thinking about Animaniacs, which had the heaviest referencing of real-life celebs of any cartoon since Warner's golden age of animation. Does that cartoon still run in syndication anymore? What would the little kids of today make of the episodes where Dot Warner hits on a pre-crazy Mel Gibson? Especially in light of his scary-ass phone recording, it almost comes across like having Roman Polanski host a children's game show in retrospect.

[bitemetechie.livejournal.com]

Christ, if you're looking for stuff that we couldn't get away with anymore, try all of Mel Brooks' work, with Blazing Saddles at the top of the list.

Thankfully, Blazing Saddles was the right brand of offensive at the right time, though. I can't think of any movie that mercilessly stabs at the ridiculousness of racists better.

I sometimes wonder what kids today must make of old Warner Bros. cartoons that reference real-life celebrities when they were very different from what they eventually became.

You're assuming that kids today actually watch Warner Bros. cartoons or know who those celebrities are. Looney Tunes have been pulled off the air for several years and have only recently returned to Cartoon Network (like, last month recently) and they're only doing that to gear up for the new Looney Tunes show they're doing. We've pretty much reached that point of Bugs Bunny and Company being nothing more than merchandise mascots in the eyes of every kid under the age of fifteen. The same way Spider-Man is a movie star and a t-shirt, not a comic book.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Fair point about the cartoons, but thanks to the multiplicity of cable channels and Internet websites devoted to The Famous, I suspect kids are more acutely aware of celebrities now than ever more.

[bitemetechie.livejournal.com]

Maybe so, but how many of those channels feature any of the celebrities lampooned in cartoons--past or present? I can't imagine many seven year olds (other than myself at that age) being able to identify Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby in rooster form.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Oh, certainly not Bing or Frank, but Mel, as per my Animaniacs example? Oh, yeah, now more than EVER.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

I almost want to see Dot Warner react to Mel's batshit in canon now. "Ew, I can't believe I ever Hello-Nursed you!"

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

Slightly related: I was singing the Freakazoid theme song to my husband the other day (he wasn't allowed to watch cartoons as a kid, he grew up in a crazy christian cult), and when I got to the origin story, he stopped me and was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, that's seriously his origin? He came from the internet?'

'Yep!'

'So... Freakazoid is 4chan?'

'Ye--OH MY GOD.'

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

For one brief, shining moment, people thought the Internet could do ANYTHING. It was like "radioactivity" in Stan Lee's day.

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

The internet can't do anything?

In all seriousness, 2 of Freakazoid's 3 stated powers/traits ('super-quick', 'strong', 'driving people crazy') are powers/traits of the internet and/or 4chan. It's fairly plausible to say that Freakazoid is a pretty accurate personification of the internet. It's also pretty hilariously cool, imho.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I LOLd so hard at this. God, no wonder Candlejack actually became a meme on

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

... I just realized that skinny rooster that shows up in the auditions before Bing is Cab Calloway.

No wonder I like the guy's music so much.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

I love Cab Calloway. I even love Morris Day's third-rate Cab Calloway impression.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

The world is place full of whimsy and wonder and strange sexual politics.

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

This is in my top ten of cartoons. <3

[deadwalrus.livejournal.com]

They got a pretty good Joe Dolce, too.

Did you ever see High Society? Bing as a rich divorcee Jazz musician, Grace Kelly as a conflicted divorcee rich-kid, Frankie as the hip young reporter covering her remarriage, and Celeste Holm as his photographer. With Louis Armstrong and his band as, essentially, the Greek chorus.

If you haven't seen it, go see it! There's a good bit where Bing & Frank have a drunk sing-off.