The Ten Worst Cartoon Characters of all Time - Number 8

We're now at number eight in our listing of the ten worst cartoon characters of all time.   I've received a few emails and messages giving me your suggestions for worst cartoon character, so now may be a good time to post one of the rules I just made up for this little venture.   To qualify as Worst Cartoon Character, the cartoon character must actually star in a series of cartoons.  So this leaves out sidekicks and supporting characters.   As annoying as The Great Gazoo might be, he does not qualify.   Neither do characters from full-length animated films.  You need to appear is a series of films to qualify   More rules may be posted as I think them up.

Now, onto my choice for the number eight Worst Cartoon Character of all Time:

10. Baby Huey
9.  Squiddly Diddly
8.  Buzzy, the Funny Crow

It's pretty sad when you have to have "funny" as part of your billing so that audiences will understand that you are supposed to be funny.  Buzzy the Crow starred in a series of cartoons for Paramount / Famous studios, the studio that brought senseless cartoon violence to a peak.  Buzzy was not only pointless and violent but he was also offensive to boot.   His voice, an imitation of Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, has been pointed out as an example of black stereotypes in cartoons.   In recent years, his voice has been dubbed over to remove the black dialect.   

A Buzzy Book

Every Buzzy cartoon follows the same format:  the dumb cat (usually Katnip) has some ailment or habit that he needs to kick.  It could be smoking, baldness, hiccups, insomnia - all of these were tastefully dealt with in a Buzzy cartoon.  The cat researches a cure and finds that every book recommends eating fresh crow meat to remedy his condition (does the FDA know about this?).  So, the cat will try and catch Buzzy, who then offers the cat his own home remedy in exchange for his life.  Violence ensues.  And as i mentioned in my previous post about Baby Huey, there was nothing subtle or sophisticated about the violence in a Paramount cartoon.  The biggest problem with these cartoons is that your sympathy is on the wrong character from the start of the film.  You feel for the cat, so all the violence that befalls him makes you hate that darn bird all the more.

Buzzy began his screen life in 1947 and made several films through the late 40's and early 50's.   He was eventually features on merchandise and in the Harvey comic books as a back feature. 

Here is an example of a typical Buzzy Cartoon.   Black Stereotypes, smoking and violence,,,  Yeah, I doubt you'll see this one on TV anytime soon.  It also has a gimmicky ending that had been cut from TV prints, now re-introduced for your enjoyment (I use the term loosely).  

The Ten Worst Cartoon Characters of all Time - Number 10

Last week, I took my nieces and nephews to The Greatest Cartoons of all Time, an annual event held at the Alex Theater in Glendale.  On the drive there, one of my nephews asked me what I thought was the worst cartoon character of all time.  Being a cartoon buff, I was somewhat insulted by the question - there are no bad cartoon characters, just bad scripts.  But later, sitting at my computer, several examples of just-plain-bad cartoon characters began to pop intro my brain.  Within 30 minutes, I had compiled a list of what I consider the worst cartoon characters of all time.  To be fair, this list only contains cartoons that I have, at one point in my life, watched and have some knowledge of...   So obscure characters like "Spunky and Tadpole" didn't make the list, despite how bad I am sure they are.   We'll start with number 10, and work our way up over the next few weeks until we get to the #1 absolute worst cartoon character of all time.   Here we go...

NUMBER TEN:   Baby Huey

 

The world of cartoons has a large number of idiots; Baby Huey is probably the biggest, most idiotic character of them all.   Baby Huey is a gigantic baby duck that has the IQ of a rock.  In most cartoons, he wants to play with the neighborhood ducklings, but the little ducks don't want anything to do with him (you know how cruel kids can be at that age).  He eventually ends up playing with a bloodthirsty fox who has plans to eat Baby Huey, but every plan to murder the duckling are thwarted by either Baby Huey's indestructible body or his indescribable stupidity. 

Baby Huey began his career in the 1949 Paramount Noveltoon Quack a Doodle Doo.  He starred in several Paramount cartoons in the 1950's and was featured on Casper's Saturday morning cartoon show.   He also had a long run of comic books and was even resurrected for an all-new TV series in 1994.   He also starred in a direct-to video movie in 1999, Baby Huey's Easter Adventure.  To top off his career, President Bill Clinton once compared himself to Baby Huey in a 1993 interview:  "I'm a lot like Baby Huey. I'm fat. I'm ugly. But if you push me down, I keep coming back."  I'd be the last person to argue with a president. 

Baby Huey cartoons share traits that were common with all Paramount cartoons at the time; while they are well-produced and animated, they are exceedingly and senselessly violent.  Even I have a tendency to cringe at least once during a Baby Huey cartoon.  We'll get another example of Paramount's violence in another top ten listing.   For now, here is a typical Baby Huey short:   Git Along Li'l Duckie, from 1955.

Saturday Morning Cartoon - Santa's Surprise

I am continuing my annual tradition of posting a few Christmas-themed cartoons in the weeks before Christmas.   This year I'm starting with Santa's Surprise, a Paramount Noveltoon from 1947.   This was the first appearance of Little Audrey, who replaced Little Lulu when Paramount decided they no longer wanted to pay for the rights for the Little Lulu character.  Little Audrey went on to appear in several other cartoons and a long-running series of comic books from Harvey.   Also appearing in this cartoon is one of the most stereotypical set of children since the Our Gang comedies.   Still, it's a cute cartoon to launch the holiday season here at JoeFood.   Look for the December calendar with only 30 days.  Enjoy!