everyone loves a hanging!

Caught the ALL BUGS REVUE, part of the Brattle's Bugs Bunny Film Festival, on Friday night. You really must check out at least one of the shows in the series. Cartoons—good and great ones, too—on the big screen in a darkened theater with a decent crowd, it's a grand experience. Wonderful if you're a fan and know them from your childhood, too.

In particular, the ALL BUGS REVUE includes some real gems, like "Rabbit of Seville" and "Hillbilly Hare," as well as some not-quite-classic, but pretty damn entertaining match-ups, Bugs vs. Sam the prison warden, Bugs vs. Sam the back robber, Bugs vs. the Black Knight (without time travel), Bugs vs. Rocky & Mugsy, and Bugs vs. Daffy in Hollywood. Alas, no "Rabbit season!"-"Duck season!" in this one, but I'm sure you'll find it in one of the other collections. =)

One bit of animated physical comedy kind of took me by surprise. It was in the Bugs vs. Sam the prison warden one, "Big House Bunny." Sam's chasing Bugs around the grounds inside the prison and Bugs takes a ramp up to the gallows. He steps on the trap door and pushes a button or pulls a lever, and the trapdoor takes him down to the ground like an elevator. The door rises again, and when Sam jumps on it, he gets his head caught in the noose, the trapdoor opens, and Sam falls right on thru, hanging himself. Of course, he's fine, gasping for air, but mostly ticked off, and miffed that his boss is yelling for him cuz he's screwed up once again.

I didn't remember that scene from my Saturday morning memories, but figured I must've seen it before. Maybe it was censored/removed forTV? In any case, confronted with it in the REVUE, I found that I simply couldn't give it the enthusiastic laugh that other bits of Looney violence tickled out of me. Weird, because I'm always laughing at hangings, too. I mentioned it to Ryan on the way out of the "finish line" reception and he agreed that it felt a bit *off* somehow. He went on to mention other bits of harshness, like the electric chair that makes an appearance in the next scene. Of course, I told him, "Yeah, see, now THAT's funny!" It wasn't hilarious—like Bugs strapping metal rollerskates on Mugsy and using an oversized magnet beneath the floorboards to ram him repeatedly into Rocky—but it didn't make me think twice about how I should react.

Is it that I'm getting old? Or was the gallows just a bad call for comedy? Or has something changed in the social/cultural climate that's made it not-so-funny? Do kids not play hangman anymore?

I'm quite certain I heard one of the kids sitting in front of me tell his mom, "I didn't get that one," after the gallows bit.

I hafta say, I haven't seen the execution of everyone's favorite Iraqi despot. I wasn't avoiding it, but I just didn't go looking for it. Perhaps I've been affected by it without knowing, my psyche buffetted by the execution/spectacle's unseen ripples in the cultural ether.

Do Looney hijinks still inspire laughs in you? Go see the series and check it out for yourself! "Rabbit of Seville!" (Channelling G.O.B.) Come ON! =)

Keep on keepin on~