Animation is Taking the Edge Off of Political Correctness - Laughing At Ourselves Considered

Generally speaking animation and cartoons help us reflect and laugh at ourselves, not taking things so seriously, and generally that is a good thing right? Surely, consider the Dilbert Series if you will. Still, sometimes folks can't take a little joke, and throw a fit, for instance the Danish Cartoonist who showed the "Great Allah" in less than a favorable light, and had people rioting throughout the world of Islam and calling for his head.

The other day, there was an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal which discussed "self-mockery" and "commentary" with the use of animated videos on YouTube and in the Media. The article was titled; "Animation Nation" with a subtitle of "Quickly Generated and Produced Computer Cartoons Bring Forth Millions of Views Online" and then the article noted the benefits for advertisers and the tremendous number of advertising executives, corporate marketing departments, and famous Hollywood animation movie programmers were more than intrigued and indeed, planning more.

While many of the jokes are and animation characters out there do a good job of laughing at all the sound and fury throughout our society and civilization, animators must be careful not to offend or be willing to take the heat when they do. Take "Family Guy" for instance, heck they make fun of everyone, me and my own family heritage included, which is fine since they spread the wealth so to speak. Nevertheless, we must not forget the purpose of cartoon or political animation, or the often emailed, yet seldom spoken critique on stereotypical observations.

Over all, animation can do a very good job with such things, and we should be using it more often, rather than getting all angry across political, ethnic, generational, and economic class lines. It serves no real purpose to getting overly upset to no avail. But if we are to impose political correctness on cartoons, and animation, then we will fail to get the maximum benefits from the world's best animators and cartoonists.

Specifically, as the coordinator for a think tank, these issues often come up, and it has been our contention that we should use all the tools in the animator's toolkit to help us better understand ourselves. Perhaps, you agree, or disagree, maybe you have something to add in this regard. If so, it would be sure nice if you will email me your comments, questions, or concerns. Indeed, I hope you please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank http://www.worldthinktank.net/ - Lance Winslow believes it's hard work to write 22,222 articles; http://www.bloggingcontent.net/

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