I thought I'd take a stab at answering three questions that come up in cartoonists' conversations. The first is, "How dumb should a cartoon character be?"
The obvious answer is,"VERY dumb! The dumber the better!" That sounds right to me, but when you think about it, most dumb characters to date haven't been completely stupid.
Okay, I admit that Tex's dog in "Screwy Truant" comes close, and so does Beaky Buzzard...but I think I detect a few brain cells even in those characters.
Dumb characters aren't usually completely stupid. They're proud to be dumb.
They're both eager and stupid. They can't wait to get out of bed in the morning and do dumb things. Maybe totally dumb is the wrong way to go...but I admit that nothing else is as funny.
I don't hear any comments so I'll move on to the second question..."Should dumb characters slouch?"
When you think about it, very few live action comedians slouch.
In the main, they have pretty good posture.
Even the Python 'Gumbies" (above) don't slouch to much.
Classic dumb characters, the kind you see in one-panel print cartoons often slouch, but when you animate them...or in the case of live action, film them...giving them a slouch makes them appear lethargic and without goals. That can't be right.
No, in the main dumb characters shouldn't slouch. Er...okay, Beaky Buzzard slouched, and I don't have an answer for that.
The last question has to do with slouching when seated..."Are eager-stupid characters permitted to slouch when seated?" The answer to that is "Yes!" My proof for that is...well, they just are, that's all. It's my blog, and there's an end to it!
Space limits prevent me from addressing other pressing questions like..."How close should stupid characters stand when talking to each other?"
And "Do stupid people have equally stupid friends? Are they loners? Do they like to hang around intelligent foils?" These are important questions but we'll have to return to them another time.
3 comments:
The Lenny and George, (of Mice and Men) duo is a classic, used over and over in the cartoon realm. If the dumb one is a loner, i assume the viewer becomes the "intelligent" one in the interaction, determining how stupid they are by what actions they observe.
I'm glad you brought this up, because there's a question re: slouching that's been bugging me for a while. I think we can agree that a hunchback pose is not attractive on anyone, so how come Greta Garbo, who was almost always slouching, made it look elegant & beautiful?
Z: Interesting. Well, it seems right.
M: Garbo had a hunchback? Come to think of it, maybe she did. I never noticed. And she slouched? I think you're right, but she looked fine to me. Geez, now I'll obsess over it.
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