The Plausible Impossible Abstract

Saturday morning cartoons and cartoon movies are one of society's first teachers for children. Characters like Wile E. Coyote, Bugs Bunny, and Daffy Duck are often the first personalities children are exposed to besides family. In these cartoons, several philosophical links can be made to existentialism, reality, death, and suffering. Cartoons often suspend physics to make the situation funnier, but in doing so, a reality is presented to children which is not real. Some characters, like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, are locked in a never-ending struggle against each other. The aggressive, unintelligent behavior displayed by characters like Wile E. Coyote is, whether we know it or not, being impressed upon young children. Finally, cartoon characters never experience true sorrow, trauma, or death. These experiences are impossible to escape in reality; yet, in cartoons, they are rarely examined. When death does occur to cartoon characters, it is never finite. The characters always return in the next episode without any psychological trauma or fundamental change in their personality. These cartoons, however innocent they are intended to be, are nonetheless influential in teaching children about the world. The concepts that children learn through cartoon violence and struggles must be unlearned if the individual is to ever fully understand the true nature of the world.

~From CJ Skinner and Shane Coffing