Today Would Have Been the 100th Birthday of Chuck Jones

If you have to ask who Chuck Jones was, I pity you, for you were not born into a world in which Looney Tunes seemed to be on the air 24 hours per day.

I can't really state how much impact Bugs may have had on me and my occasionally completely inappropriate responses to thuggishness.

this is my manifesto

I contend that Warner Bros. and the cartoons made at the studio under the eyes of huge talents like Fritz Freleng (an extraordinary talent), Tex Avery (who would go on to do his own work) and Hanna & Barbera (also - left to do their own work), were a huge cultural touchstone for folks who grew up in multiple decades from the 60's - 80's, when one could pretty much count on the likes of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to teach them important lessons about not taking things all that seriously, even when faced with dynamite or a falling anvil.


Of the WB cartoon directors, my favorite is still Chuck Jones, a man who's brilliance affected as many or more Americans as Jack Kirby, but whose contribution to American culture goes similarly unremarked.

Chuck may not have created Daffy or Bugs, but he imbued them with the spirit we still cherish today.  He also was largely responsible for the popularization of characters like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, which is absolutely Chuck from the first ill-fitting sock, and Horton Hears a Who.

Jones directed some of my favorite WB cartoons, including:

Duck Dodgers in the 24th and 1/2 Century!

What's Opera, Doc (Kill the Wabbit!)

The Rabbit of Seville


Duck Amuck


And, of course, One Froggy Evening.