Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
Ricochet co-czar Rob Long has a tremendously funny review in the March Commentary (sorry, behind the firewall) of The Oxford Book of Parodies. (Despite his co-czarship, he has not forced me to write this, and that whip he is using does not hurt. Really.) I laughed out loud -- as did Rob, apparently -- at Gavin Ewart's "A Wordsworthian Sonnet for Arnold Feinstein, Who Mended My Spectacles in Yugoslavia."
As for the title of this post, Rob starts the review by asking why Mickey Mouse is more famous than Bugs Bunny, even though he finds Bugs funnier and more talented. I'm not sure what it has to do with the book, but it is an excellent question. I would ask Ricochet readers which one they find funnier, but I am confident that such a discerning crowd would be unanimously in the Bugs camp, so I won't bother.
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Aug '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
Who would be the master between these two , and by what right ?
Goofy and Pluto
May '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
As an aficionado of the Golden Age of Radio, I have always preferred Looney Tunes over the Disney shorts. The cartoons are even funnier if you are culturally plugged into that era. When my daughter was younger she would listen to episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly and Burns and Allen and it was a delight to watch her squeal when she heard something in the cartoons that made reference to one of her "bedtime shows."
The Looney Tune cartoons were well-written, well-animated and fantastically voiced. Mel Blanc was a genius, and Arthur Q. Bryan is underappreciated. Bryan was also a regular on Fibber McGee, as the long suffering and never paid Doc Gamble.
Aug '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
Readers of the excellent Understanding Comics might argue that it is the graphic presentation that makes Mickey a more appealing character. Look at Mickey from a drawing perspective. His head is three circles overlapping. These provide a smooth, aesthetically pleasing image that inspires empathic sympathies from moment one. A male looking at Mickey is more likely to view Mickey as "everyman" than he is looking at Bugs.
Bugs Bunny is a funnier character, then again he's supposed to be funny. Mickey may have started as a comedic character, but he has evolved beyond that. Compare any of the "Coyote/Trickster" inspired storylines of Bugs with the struggling everyman approach of Mickey's opus "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Bugs is a demigod, Mickey is me.
I have been disconcerted of late of the deep anti-Disney sentiments here at Ricochet. First, Ricochers begin insulting "Disney Jr." misguidedly. The pedagogy of Disney's children's shows are masterful. They teach problem solving and conflict resolution without being "hippie" about it. Sesame Street is worthless distraction, Clubhouse Mickey is must see TV.
Take a recent "Fish Hooks" as an example. The lesson? Work hard for your money and don't borrow extravagantly.
Dec '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
EJHill: As an aficionado of the Golden Age of Radio, I have always preferred Looney Tunes over the Disney shorts. The cartoons are even funnier if you are culturally plugged into that era. When my daughter was younger she would listen to episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly and Burns and Allen and it was a delight to watch her squeal when she heard something in the cartoons that made reference to one of her "bedtime shows."
· Feb 28 at 3:35pm
Not to mention that Foghorn Leghorn is a direct parody of Sen. Beauregard Claghorn from the old Allen's Alley radio show.
May '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
It got so bad that Kenny Delmar had to get permission from Warner Bros. to do a voice he originated! That's a joke, son! A joke, that is!
Dec '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
Not me, bub.
But I think one of the great mysteries of modern show business is how Roger Corman's frugality saved Disney's animation.
Corman saw a film set (an office) that was going to be torn down in two days and he knew that the end of 1959 would be the beginning of residual payments to film actors. So he managed to shoot The Little Shop of Horrors in two days and a night.
That movie must have affected Alan Menken and Howard Ashman the way it did me, because they wrote the off-off-Broadway musical "Little Shop of Horrors."
That musical must have impressed somebody, because Frank Oz directed it as a major Hollywood release.
That must have impressed the folks at Disney (Eisner and Katzenberg, one supposes), because they hired Ashman to write one of the songs for Oliver and Company, toward the nadir of the post-Walt Disney animated features.
And that gave Ashman and Menken the in to pitch The Little Mermaid. And that marked the start of Disney's comeback.
Jul '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
EJ, how could you leave out the genius that is Chuck Jones?! Pure directing Master.
Looney Tunes rock!
"Kill the Wabbit.... Kill the Wabbit...."
My DVD collection consists of courses from The Teaching Company and Looney Tunes. That's All Folks.
I've never understood the appeal of Mickey Mouse.
Edited on March 1, 2011 at 1:24amRe: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
This is deeply satisfying. Thanks, Tevi, for starting this thread. (Your stock is in the mail. That's how we compensate folks here at Ricochet. With stock! Wonderful, worthless, stock!)
It's Bugs, of course. And Nathaniel may be right about the three circles or whatever, but when it's laughs and entertainment you want, it's Bugs. He was Bob Hope before Bob Hope. And Bill Murray before Bill Murray.
May '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
Except Hope was a big star long before Bugs, first on Broadway (Roberta) and then radio and the movies. The Big Broadcast of 1938 was out at least two years before the Bugs as we know and love him showed up in A Wild Hare.
But I'll forgive a small slight toward Hope from any professional writer. Larry Gelbart once recounted a story of how Bob made paper airplanes from his writers' checks and chucked them from a balcony. The writers, of course, found out what each other was making because they had to open the airplanes to find out what check belonged to whom.
Jan '11
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
Daffy Duck (voiced of course by Melvin Jerome Blanc, patterned after Leon Schlesinger)
May '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
And since we're talking show bid-ness, I see where Jane Russell has passed at age 89.
My favorite memory of that most buxom-star is that our boys in Korea named a hill after her, leading an AP reporter to file the following line: "The Marines repelled a Red probe on Jane Russell and still held the height." The imagery that created in my young mind still resonates.
Nov '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
There's an interview floating around somewhere done by CBC with Mel Blanc before he died; there's so much more to Bugs than just the humour (which is outrageous). From the first intro to classical music that most of us had in the 50's via Bugs, to Bugs' general technique of letting the bad guys hoist themselves on their own petards, Blanc worked these things out in a way that was enormously palatable...
FWIW though, my favourite cartoon isn't Bugs, but this little amusing little morality play from Max Fleischer: Small Fry Political correctness has killed cartoons....
Dec '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
That must be so much more satisfying that the interviews that were conducted with him after he died.
Oct '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
For those of you who think Bugs trumps the Mick: How many of you have Bugs memorabilia? How many of you have Bugs-adorned clothing? How many of you have Bugs window stencils or Bugs trailer-hitch covers on your cars or trucks? How many of you have seen a Bugs Bunker on a golf course?
Case closed.
Edited on March 1, 2011 at 3:42amJun '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
MIckey & his friends are incredibly lame. Bugs & Looney Tunes rule. And a hat tip goes to Fractured Fairy Tales.
Dec '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
Bugs, of course. But mostly because the whole thing was like a Spike Jones song in animation.
Jan '11
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
Jimmy Carter:
"Kill the Wabbit.... Kill the Wabbit...."
Thank you. That chant has been in my head for decades, now it has presidential status. My favorite opera.
Jul '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
dittoheadadt: For those of you who think Bugs trumps the Mick: How many of you have Bugs memorabilia? How many of you have Bugs-adorned clothing? How many of you have Bugs window stencils or Bugs trailer-hitch covers on your cars or trucks? How many of you have seen a Bugs Bunker on a golf course?
Case closed. · Feb 28 at 6:40pm
Edited on Feb 28 at 06:42 pm
I have the Tazmanian Devil, Yosemite Sam, and Beaky Buzzard tattoos. Not counting the clothes and memorabilia You mention.
Sep '10
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
dittoheadadt: For those of you who think Bugs trumps the Mick: How many of you have Bugs memorabilia? · Feb 28 at 6:40pm
Edited on Feb 28 at 06:42 pm
You realize, this means war.
My father was cleaning out the attic recently and found the old stuffed Bugs Bunny I had when I was 3 years old. I remember loving that thing. My Bugs had--er, has--a string one can pull to hear him say "What's up, Doc?" and other pearls of rabbit repartee. Alas, the playback device seems to have broken, but he still looks good. Better than most stuffed animals from that era. Way better than Mickey Mouse.
Re: Long's Eternal Question: Mickey vs. Bugs?
Bugs is funnier, and the cartoons - at their peak, the McKimson / Jones axis - are the best of the genre. The acme, if you wish. But they're from a different era. The Mouse was, as noted earlier, an Everyman - scrappy, clever, helpful, brave but not fearless. Little kids love him because he's friendly and identifiable, and there's nothing wrong with that.
And there's something cool about the fact that everyone who's voiced him has been imitating Walt Disney himself.
The real distinction was made by Bill Murray: we all want to be Bugs, but fear we are Daffy.