Current Events > WTF evidently Daffy Duck was conceptualized as WWII propaganda

(+) Yeah! (+)

Been watching old cartoons on Prime. The first Daffy Duck I saw was about Daffy fighting the Japanese. The second was an ad for War Bonds. And now in the third, Hitler sends a Nazi goat to eat American scrap to sabotage the war effort.

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You didn't know of the Looney Tunes war propaganda?

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Oh boy, who will tell TC about Donald Duck?

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That's the subject matter for basically every cartoon during that time.

Bugs Bunny was also made an honorary Marine IRL, and they made a series of 28 shorts for the armed forces starring a character named Private Snafu.

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Error1355 posted...

You didn't know of the Looney Tunes war propaganda?

Yeah I knew of it but of the Looney Tunes stuff on these collections, all the propaganda is Daffy. There are Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny and Merry Melodies cartoons in these collections too and they haven't been that way.

Come to think of it, maybe Daffy is just older than Elmer. I hadn't thought of that. These Daffy ones are black and white while the others are color.

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I think Popeye fought in WW2 as well.

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evilpresident posted...

I think Popeye fought in WW2 as well.

Popeye is the best btw. It's by far the best-animated stuff here, and he's also the most relatable character.

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DevsBro posted...

Popeye is the best btw. It's by far the best-animated stuff here, and he's also the most relatable character.

out of curiosity, relatable how lol?

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It was extremely detestable that Disney and Warner Brothers would target kids with the institutionalized Racism and Xenophobia of the time. I refuse to buy reproductions of any WW2 era cartoons and comics or compilations because it was extremely terrible what they were doing.

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Weezy_Tha_Don posted...

out of curiosity, relatable how lol?

By his circumstances. Half the time, the episode is about Bluto trying to steal Olive's affections, and then there are also episodes about simple everyday stuff like babysitting or termites. He' s a total everyman--just one who ends up having superpowers at the end of the episode, lol.

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Duncanwii posted...

It was extremely detestable that Disney and Warner Brothers would target kids with the institutionalized Racism and Xenophobia of the time. I refuse to buy reproductions of any WW2 era cartoons and comics or compilations because it was extremely terrible what they were doing.

Back then they were shorts shown before the main movie, and made more for adults than kids.

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superpowers for eating his vegetables, the first time cartoons ever tried to teach kids a good lesson

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DevsBro posted...

By his circumstances. Half the time, the episode is about Bluto trying to steal Olive's affections, and then there are also episodes about simple everyday stuff like babysitting or termites. He' s a total everyman--just one who ends up having superpowers at the end of the episode, lol.

that makes sense. in my mind I was like how is a speech impediment and tumors in your forearm relatable lol

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Foppe posted...

Back then they were shorts shown before the main movie, and made more for adults than kids.

My point was that the racism and xenophobia imposed on the public by the government was inexcusable and honestly speaking was not appropriate.

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Then again there's also Betty Boop and Felix the Cat, which have relatable stories too but, well, Felix is a cat and Betty Boop is annoying lol.

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Yea everything was used for propaganda back then. Kids to adult, you couldn't turn a corner without some sort of WW2 Propaganda.

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TheVipaGTS posted...

Yea everything was used for propaganda back then. Kids to adult, you couldn't turn a corner without some sort of WW2 Propaganda.

It. Was. Inexcusable.

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Duncanwii posted...

It was extremely detestable that Disney and Warner Brothers would target kids with the institutionalized Racism and Xenophobia of the time. I refuse to buy reproductions of any WW2 era cartoons and comics or compilations because it was extremely terrible what they were doing.

Lmao wow.

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Duncanwii posted...

It. Was. Inexcusable.

and that's why it doesn't happen on that level anymore. You're not gonna see Spongebob fighting Putin. So no one is excusing it. that's just how it was back then.

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So TC you are aware that Donald was probably even worse right?

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Bro, there's a Daffy Duck cartoon where he fights a Nazi eagle until he gets shut into a cannon. The Nazi eagle lights the cannon, and it shoots Daffy as a "human cannonball" wielding two American flags all the way to Berlin, and he bashes Hitler in the head with a mallet.

A lot of the Looney Tunes propaganda is regrettable, and a bunch of it from before and during WWII is like super racist and is probably better off being forgotten. But this cartoon where Daffy makes Hitler cry like a little bitch? Pure fucking gold.

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Though not a cartoon, The Three Stooges had their share of poking fun at our enemies.

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Here it is:

https://youtu.be/0LgUPJG9eOE

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Duncanwii posted...

My point was that the racism and xenophobia imposed on the public by the government was inexcusable and honestly speaking was not appropriate.

It was a whole different world back then.
African Americans were not allowed to drink from the same tap as whites or bathing in the same pool, you cant really judge the past by modern standards because they have changed so much, and that is why we need these old propaganda, to show how much we have changed in such a short period of time and that we cant let it go back to how it was.

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MrMallard posted...

Here it is:

https://youtu.be/0LgUPJG9eOE

Yeah that's the first one I mentioned. It's actually the least offensive of the three I think.

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Foppe posted...

you cant really judge the past by modern standards

Yes. Yes you can. And I do.

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PrettyBoyFloyd posted...

Though not a cartoon, The Three Stooges had their share of poking fun at our enemies.

There's an exceptionally poorly aged short where they're confronted with escapees from a Japanese detainment camp.

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Never knew any of this cartoon propaganda stuff. Interesting.

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Phewfus posted...

What's wrong with daffy duck making fun of German socialists?

Treating an entire country of people as inhuman because of the actions of a few is wrong.

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Daffy pre-dates WW2, but most cartoons and other forms of media were used that at the time. You had to get people energized or else they start thinking "maybe Nazi rule won't be that bad, and may be preferable to this gas and food rationing we have going on between being guilted into scrap drives and buying bonds." People can complain about some issues now, but at the time, it's hard to think you should have tried to be less racist to groups with actively stated goals of world domination and ethnic cleansing. Today people want to punch and vilify people they think want that.

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DevsBro posted...

Yeah that's the first one I mentioned. It's actually the least offensive of the three I think.

For sure. Looney Tunes propaganda is like notoriously racist, but this one is unequivocally great.

There's a cartoon where Bugs is being hunted by like a really stupid racist caricature of a black man, with the racist lips and everything. It is literally an Elmer Fudd cartoon where the hunter is 10x as incompetent as Fudd, completely unfunny and charmless due to a slow-witted drawl, and only exists to be a truly horrific and disgusting caricature of another race rather than to be entertaining in any other way.

It could have been a subpar Elmer Fudd cartoon, but they used the whole thing to depict a slow-witted, drawling racist caricature of a black man with large white lips. It's fucking mortifying.

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Phewfus posted...

What's wrong with daffy duck making fun of German socialists?

It hurts some peoples feelings.

And I'm pretty sure they had nothing good to say about us either.

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TheVipaGTS posted...

and that's why it doesn't happen on that level anymore. You're not gonna see Spongebob fighting Putin. So no one is excusing it. that's just how it was back then.

Great, now I wanna see Spongebob fight Putin.

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American exceptiobalism.

Duncanwii posted...

It was extremely detestable that Disney and Warner Brothers would target kids with the institutionalized Racism and Xenophobia of the time. I refuse to buy reproductions of any WW2 era cartoons and comics or compilations because it was extremely terrible what they were doing.

It was wartime and they boosted morale. Stop being naive.


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Duncanwii posted...

Treating an entire country of people as inhuman because of the actions of a few is wrong.

The actions of a few?

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Duncanwii posted...

Treating an entire country of people as inhuman because of the actions of a few is wrong.

Most of Germany was in support of the Nazi party at the time.

And this was America making fun of it's war enemies before they even found out Germany was gassing their own citizens.

DevsBro posted...

And now in the third, Hitler sends a Nazi goat to eat American scrap to sabotage the war effort.

Also Hitler eats carpet, which I kinda don't think was an intentional innuendo?

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funny that Duncan goes to bat for modern Nazis though

Phewfus posted...

German socialists?

Now this is shitposting

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Phewfus posted...

Most of Germany was in support of the Nazi party at the time.

Because it was against the law not to be. Most of Germany wasnt for the Nazi stuff.

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i understand Duncan's overall point, he just needs to be more sensible about the entire situation. You don't have to like that they did it, but that's unfortunately the way things were at the time, and not just with cartoons. the entire nation was like that at war time. Propaganda was a huge tool around the world. Still is. Of course its not as big as it used to be and people are a little more educated (or at least have the tools to be) in situations like this, and we now understand there are certain lines that probably shouldn't be crossed (Which is why the Rugrats didn't go Afghanistan in the early 2000s). Just be happy that we learned from that and were able to progress as a nation instead of being stuck in those ways.

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Duncanwii posted...

Treating an entire country of people as inhuman because of the actions of a few is wrong.

Those german troops probably would've tortured you for fun if they got their hands on you. It's fair.

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evil_zombie11 posted...

Those german troops probably would've tortured you for fun if they got their hands on you. It's fair.

I mean, the civilians were not the troops, but Duncan also has me blocked so I dont see the full context here to know which hes talking about

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Foppe posted...

Oh boy, who will tell TC about Donald Duck?

remember when donald called daffy the n-word

ASithLord7 posted...

I mean, the civilians were not the troops, but Duncan also has me blocked so I dont see the full context here to know which hes talking abouy

Hmmmm Yeah that's true. He says the propaganda and indoctrination was wrong.

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Do those cartoons really make much fun of the average citizen? More so than any other cartoon from that era? almost every one had stereotypes of people from different nations. It seems like they mostly went after the leaders and troops. For the most part, at the time the us vs them mentality was huge...hell we even took some American Citizens who we thought to be "them" because of their race and stuck them into camps. That's just the unfortunate reality of the world at the time so its not absurd that it would leak into the media being produced.

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I think we can all agree that the cartoon where Bugs Bunny massacres an island of Japanese soldiers while rattling off racial slurs hasn't aged well at all.

Looney Tunes have also created pointlessly racist cartoons outside of the context of the war, like my example of the racist hunter cartoon who could have been replaced by Elmer Fudd.

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What was the racist hunter?

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Foppe posted...

Oh boy, who will tell TC about Donald Duck?

You mean the Donald Duck short about him working for nazi's but it turns out to be a nightmare and he loves america?

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spikethedevil posted...

What was the racist hunter?

MrMallard posted...

There's a cartoon where Bugs is being hunted by like a really stupid racist caricature of a black man, with the racist lips and everything. It is literally an Elmer Fudd cartoon where the hunter is 10x as incompetent as Fudd, completely unfunny and charmless due to a slow-witted drawl, and only exists to be a truly horrific and disgusting caricature of another race rather than to be entertaining in any other way.

It could have been a subpar Elmer Fudd cartoon, but they used the whole thing to depict a slow-witted, drawling racist caricature of a black man with large white lips. It's fucking mortifying.

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