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May 9, 2021

Animaniacs: Heterosexist to the Max

In a 1992 episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, Buster and Babs help some outdated black-and-white cartoon characters from the 1930s, who become so popular that Tiny Toons is cancelled to make room for their new show.

Precognitive or not, Tiny Toons was cancelled that spring to make room for Animaniacs (1993-1998).

The frame story: three black-and-white characters, Yacko, Wacko, and Dot, were too zany for 1930s audiences, so they were locked in the water tower at Warner Brothers Studios.

 Fifty years later, they escaped to unleash their zaniness on the world.

Wait -- children were locked in a water-tower prison?

The discomfort continued with the show itself.

First, Tiny Toons had ample gay subtexts, but Wacko and Yacko were preteen horndogs, aggressively heterosexual, sexually aware, and probably sexually active.  When a woman with big breasts comes on state, they all but have orgasms on the spot.  They leap into the arms of the big-breasted nurse so often that their leering "Hello, nurse!" became a catchphrase.

Dot disapproves of the activity, but when a handsome man approaches, she throws herself at him in a fit of heterosexual mania.

Their cartoons were horrible, but the subsidiary features were even worse.

1. Slappy Squirrel, an aging, raunchy cartoon character from the 1930s, and her grandson.
2. The Goodfeathers, gangster pigeons
3. Rita and Runt, a showtune-singing cat and stupid dog.
4. Some others that I don't remember.


The only feature with redeeming value was Pinky and the Brain, about two lab rats who plotted to take over the world. They at least had a gay subtext.  But in 1993 they were spun off into their own show, leaving Animaniacs to promote childhood heteronormativity for another five years.

See also: Pinky and the Brain


11 comments:

  1. I think that Animaniacs had a bit where two guys get married and one of stars officiates.

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  2. Pinky and the Brain later became Elmyra's pets. Interesting case: The fans AND the writers hated Elmyra. The producers loved her though. At least they had the dignity to put it in the theme song: "It's what the network wants, so why bother to complain?"

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    Replies
    1. Elmira was supposed to be the modern counterpart to Elmer Fudd, but they couldn't have her trying to shoot and kill animals, so she would "hug them to death" instead. I agree that she was very annoying, and too juvenile to fit in with the other characters, who were around junior high age.

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    2. The biggest problem with that show is that it violated Elmyra's whole reason for being. Elmyra is a figure of invincible stupidity; she's simply too dimwitted to notice or care about the world around her. On VERY rare occasions she could be sympathetic (ie, when Monty break her heart) but that wasn't often.
      The show basically just tried to dial her down into an exceptionally stupid pre-teen girl and that wasn't nearly as funny.
      I do, however, cherish the bit where The Brain shines a flashlight on the wall and convinces her it's a portal to another dimension filled with ponies and lollipops. "Run, Elmyra! Jump into the light!" BAM! "Now, Pinky, tonight's plan..."

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  3. Well, Wakko's officially nonbinary. I mean for the sake of a pun, but still...

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    Replies
    1. That was in the new series, where in one episode he claimed to be "other" so he could get onto Noah's Ark with his siblings ("one of each gender). Generally he goes by he/him and has a masculine presentation.

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    2. Also a pun about them pushing an agenda. He doesn't have...

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  4. Hate to break it to you, but all three of the main-- and ESPECIALLY Yakko-- have the exact same energy of NPH in the White Castle movies and that other thing he was in.

    I think you know what I'm gettin' at.

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    Replies
    1. Go ahead and break it to me -- I won't be heartbroken over the revelation. Actually, I don't know what you are talking about. I don't know what NPH is, and I didn't know that the Animaniacs were in the "Harold and Kumar" movies.

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    2. NPH is Neil Patrick Harris and I believe he means to say he plays over the top heterosexual in Harold & Kumar to cover the fact that he is not.

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    3. So you are saying tht the Animaniacs are parodying the "White Castle" movies? But they premiered 11 years before "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle."

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