What's Up Doc
“Just Thinking"
May 1st, Happy May Day, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. May is also the Month of Mary, making May 1st a meaningful opening to a month centered on faith, humility, and devotion. We celebrated this in parochial school by placing a crown of flowers on a statue of Mary, while singing “Ave Maria”.
Growing up in the 60s, there were countless influences that helped shape my character. Being raised in San Francisco, those influences were far more open‑minded than they might have been in other parts of the country. As a young kid with a head full of mush, I was living at ground zero for the Summer of Love in 1967, when tens of thousands of young people flocked to the city embracing peace, free love, psychedelics, and anti‑war protests. A favorite outing for the Barberini family was jumping into the County Squire for a trip to Haight and Ashbury to see the hippies, followed by a stop at Play Land for Its-It’s.
Luckily for this young man, I was kept grounded by a strong family unit, the steady guidance of the Daughters of Charity, and several fine coaches with great character.
While those influences were substantial, I found myself thinking this week about something else that I thoroughly enjoyed and that quietly had a lasting impact on my life: Looney Tunes. From the moment you heard that instantly recognizable opening song, you knew exactly what was coming next, a series of short, animated features starring some of our favorite and most unforgettable cartoon characters.
The characters featured in Looney Tunes were over the top personalities that were rooted in human behavior. Bugs Bunny was the clever underdog who remained cool under pressure, sarcastic, and always in control. Daffy Duck was insecure with ego and a penchant for failure. Elmer Fudd represented authority figures easily outwitted by those who challenged the rules. Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote became a perfect metaphor for persistence, obsession, and failure.
What set Looney Tunes apart was its intelligence, the humor relied on irony, wordplay, satire, and cultural references and even touched on politics. While we might laugh at Wile E. Coyote falling off a cliff, we didn’t always get the references to Wagner, Shakespeare, or a film reference, but we were trusted to get it, or at least to grow into it.
While watching these skits we were taught the mechanics of comedy itself, the timing, the exaggerated pauses, and the visual rhythm that taught us to understand comedic beats long before we knew that the concept existed. Physical humor was extreme, characters could be flattened, blown up, or dropped from impossible heights, yet always survived to try again. We relied on endless resilience and took comfort in knowing that they were coming back for more. No matter how badly things went, even after a piano fell from the sky, the character stood back up.
We were exposed to classical music thanks to cartoons like What’s Opera, Doc? or The Rabbit of Seville, composers such as Rossini and Wagner became unintentionally familiar. Visual gags were matched with music, helping us to feel the music rather than studying it.
The surreal visuals, bending physics, breaking the fourth wall, and talking directly to the audience, encouraged creative thinking. The cartoons suggested that rules could be bent, logic could be challenged, and imagination mattered
Unlike many children’s programs that came later, Looney Tunes didn’t talk down to its audience. Created primarily between the 1930s and 1950s by Warner Bros. The cartoons were originally made as theatrical shorts, not explicitly for children. By the 1960s, however, they had found a second life on television, becoming a staple of kids’ programming.
Our favorite characters became instantly recognizable across society—Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird and Granny, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, Speedy Gonzales, and the Tasmanian Devil (Taz). Along with their many supporting characters, they were true household names. Their personalities, antics, and endlessly quotable lines didn’t just entertain us, they seeped into our daily conversations and became part of the shared cultural language of a generation.
A closing thought, I think that Acme was a precursor for Amazon, Wile E. Coyote could get what every he wanted with same day delivery.
After this, I’ll have to follow up with an article about the social impact of “The Three Stooges”.
Let me know what you think.
Comments
Post a Comment