Monday, March 31, 2008

Snafu

I don't doubt that at least 99% of everyone in the United States is familiar with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig...the whole stable of Warner Brothers cartoon personalities are some of the most recognizable icons in history.

But there aren't too many who know about one of their characters who was extremely popular with American GIs fighting in World War II: the bungling Private Snafu, whose sole purpose was to entertain and educate our soldiers overseas.

Warner Brothers released several "message" cartoons to the general public (softcore propaganda), but Private Snafu was the sole property of the military. As such, he got away with a lot more risque shenanigans than you'd expect.

As relatively raunchy as they are (especially for the times) it might surprise you to know that one of it's writers was Ted Geisel, who was also the man responsible for "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", "Horton Hears a Who" and several other legendary children's books he penned under the nom de plume of Dr. Suess.

Here's a Snafu short called "BOOBY TRAP"

(NOTE: You'll need to turn off the music player at the bottom of the page unless you want to know what a Private Snafu cartoon sounds like with a soundtrack by Sigur Ros)

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