Yakko - Y

Yakko, Wakko & Dot.

If those names mean absolutely nothing to you, you are probably not a cartoon enthusiast of a certain age.

Back when I was probably starting to be past the prime cartoon watching age (at least according to other girls my age) a funny thing happened to children's television. Children's programming had to have a certain amount of educational value. Slapstick, fart jokes and violent character deaths (as well as coming back to life by way of being re-inflated through one's thumb) weren't enough.

This was met, by me, with annoyance. An honor roll student who stayed out of trouble, I didn't feel the need to have one more area of my life where adults were going to make things tedious. I didn't roll my eyes in class (that the teachers saw). I did my work. (Science fair projects thrown together at 2 in the morning is what we all did, thank you very much.) I was quiet. My teachers in elementary school adored me. And then that great American outlet for humor, (misogyny, racism, violence aside) is going to be tampered with? I was not amused.

PSA: If you use hashtags & I know you, I may slap you..

 And then a certain Mr. Steven Spielberg, or rather his production company, or rather a whole bunch of people who ended up being assisted by Amblin Entertainment & produced by Mr. Spielberg (It is a bigger process than I have time or patience to give proper due.) entered the fray. And they created glorious things like Tiny Toons, Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain.

I can't remember my phone number half the time, but catchphrases from this stuff has taken  up permanent residence in my gray matter.

Brain stem! Brain stem!

Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons, I knew exactly when my favorite shows were on. I have fond memories of getting up before everyone else in my house on a Saturday, fixing myself a bowl of cereal, and tuning in to the zany antics and pretty colors at my disposal. So it was kind of a big bummer to learn recently that Saturday morning cartoons as I knew them don't really exist. Now kids get home and go to one of a handful of cartoon channels for an endless stream of entertainment.

Not that anything compares, IMHO, to the genius of what came before. I'm a little bitter and showing my age. I'm okay with that. I'm sure I'll be shaking my fist in the sky and yelling for those darn kids to get off my lawn. Or something.

Don't get me wrong. One selling point of our television provider was one or two of the cartoon channels. The one that showed old cartoons. And then they redid them and stopped showing the originals. Not that I have time to watch, but I'm still bitter. Don't EVEN get me started on what 'they' did to Jem.