Bugs Bunny has been around since 1940, and in that time, he’s managed to piss a lot of people off. In one corner there’s Daffy and Elmer and those guys. They’re pissed, for sure. But when Bugs Bunny isn’t making life miserable hopeless hunters and faceless martians, he’s sticking it to minority ethnic groups. See for yourself:

Ah, Bugs. You and your whacky catchphrases. “What’s up doc?” “Ain’t I a stinker?” “Please don’t beat me, mastuh.”

So what’s the deal with this clip? The 1953 short “Southern Fried Rabbit” finds Bugs attempting to flee to Alabama to escape a carrot famine. Bugs runs into some trouble with Confederate soldier Yosemite Sam around the Mason-Dixon line, so he tries on some disguises like Abraham Lincoln, Stonewall Jackson Scarlett O’Hara, and… uh a black face slave right out of a minstrel show. Different networks cut this in different ways, but I definitely remember seeing this as a kid.

In case you’re unfamiliar, in vaudville routines and really old movies white actors would paint their face to play African Americans. It’s pretty much synonymous with racism even though it hade made appearances in network prime time until 1981. But nobody likes it anymore, so to see it in a cartoon for children is kind of jarring, but keep in mind this was 1953.

So that’s kind of bad, but a beloved character deserves a freebie, right?

Except “Southern Fried Rabbit” wasn’t his only transgression. In 1944’s “Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips”, Bugs cathartically expresses America’s WWII sentiments regarding the Japanese. The cartoon begins with Bugs inexplicably floating in the ocean (probably shoulda made a left at Albuquerque) waiting for an island to show up, because “islands tend to turn up in this type of picture.” The island he lands on happens to be filled with extreme racial stereotypes to which he shows no mercy. To be fair, the first solider he meets tries to stab him in the head, so this is kind of all in self defense. Bugs basically kills all of them, but not before calling them “Monkey Face” and “Slant Eyes.”

What is it about rabbits in drag that men find irresistible?

I didn’t quite understand the title at first, but apparently Japan’s word for Japan is “Nippon”, and “Nip” became a racial slur at the time. You know, for morale.

That’s the end of Bug’s crimes against humanity, but the Warner Brother animation studio has quite the track record for this sort of thing. Check out “The Censored Eleven” list of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melody cartoons that were pulled from syndication. You can tell they’re terrible just by the titles:

Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land (1931, directed by Rudolf Ising)
Sunday Go to Meetin’ Time (1936, rereleased as a Blue Ribbon in 1944, directed by Friz Freleng)
Clean Pastures (1937, directed by Friz Freleng)
Uncle Tom’s Bungalow (1937, directed by Tex Avery)
Jungle Jitters (1938, directed by Friz Freleng)
The Isle of Pingo Pongo (1938, rereleased as a Blue Ribbon in 1944, directed by Tex Avery)
All This and Rabbit Stew (1941, directed by Tex Avery)
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943, directed by Robert Clampett)
Tin Pan Alley Cats (1943, directed by Robert Clampett)
Angel Puss (1944, directed by Chuck Jones)
Goldilocks and the Jivin’ Bears (1944, rereleased as a Blue Ribbon in 1952, directed by Friz Freleng)

I copied and pasted the list, don’t think for a second that I would have arranged this data so meticulously for you. But I added the hyperlinks, so hey, that’s something.

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