11 Old Cartoon Characters Who Wouldn’t Fly Today

Questionable cartoon characters have been around since, well, basically the beginning of animation. If you have ever seen the World War II propaganda films animated by none other than Dr. Seuss, you know that’s true. Cartoons are often exaggerated, and that can work for humor.

On other occasions, though, those exaggerations can be dicey, even inappropriate. A character can become a broad ethnic caricature. Even if there was not intentional malice, these cartoon characters are probably done for, or at least in need of being tweaked.

Why do some people bother criticizing cartoon characters? Probably because impressionable kids watch them. Kids can be susceptible to dumb ideas that grown-ups are able to process as jokes.

Speedy Gonzales is a classic Looney Tunes protagonist alongside Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and many more.

But he’s also an ethnic stereotype. Speedy is the “fastest mouse in all Mexico.” He wears a sombrero and has that classic, infamous “Mexican accent” that was used for Mexican cartoon characters for decades. A fast mouse from Mexico is totally fine, but the trappings of Speedy are questionable.

Of course, his cousin Slowpoke Rodriguez is way more questionable, but he’s also much less known.

First, a key distinction. Heckle and Jeckle are two wisecracking magpies created by Terrytoon. They are not the characters from Dumbo.

The Disney movie is largely sweet and gentle, but the crows traffic in minstrel-like stereotypes that abounded in the era.

Once you get old enough to realize this, watching Dumbo feels quite different. When Tim Burton directed the live-action remake, the cartoon character crows were nixed. We’ll see those crows again when elephants fly (in real life).

One more Looney Tune cartoon character for you. Pepe Le Pew is a skunk, a famously malodorous animal, who is extremely aggressive and doesn’t take no for an answer when he sets his eye on a young lady. Her terror is as much a source of the comedy as his cluelessness.

You could also make the case that Pepe is a French stereotype, but that’s the least of his problems.

He’s relentless, forceful even, and it feels icky. Parents who want to teach their kids that they can’t kiss anyone without permission — and can’t be kissed without permission — will see lots of red flags in Pepe, one of the stinkiest of all cartoon characters.

South Park is a show for adults, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone do not care about offending anybody. Their humor has outpaced good taste time and time again, they know it, and they don’t care. It’s part of the fun of South Park.

But Timmy… yow. Timmy is handicapped in a somewhat vague way. He’s in a wheelchair and mostly just says his own name.

It’s notable, though, that the other kids treat Timmy with respect — or at least what passes for respect in South Park. So there’s that.

Lady and the Tramp is such an iconic movie that it changed eating spaghetti forever. It’s beautifully illustrated, and the storyline is lovely. But the Siamese cat cartoon characters do not stand the test of time.

The fact that the cats are antagonistic toward Lady is fine. The problem is that Siamese cats are traced to Siam, the former name of Thailand, and so Lady and the Tramp decided to turn them into nefarious Asian stereotypes. The voices are particularly egregious.

Again, here is a case where the live-action remake dismissed the characters in question with swiftness.

Like Trey and Matt of South Park, Seth MacFarlane is not afraid to do something just to be shocking. It works for him, given how long Family Guy has been on. While Quagmire has certainly been at the center of many a ribald joke and questionable bit, he’s not as one-note, and thus not as disputed, as Herbert the Pervert.

You may know him as the old man in a bathrobe with the soft, high-pitched voice. Or, you know, the cartoon character who is, well, a pedophile. Herbert has mostly been used to make cringeworthy jokes related to Chris Griffin, and has been a much-disputed character from the beginning.

Notably, while for years Herbert was a recurring cartoon character on Family Guy, he’s appeared less frequently in recent years and is now considered a “guest” character.

These days, basically all of Ren & Stimpy would not fly on Nickelodeon. The show is just too gross and too weird for modern children’s programming. Maybe the show could be brought back for adult audiences someday.

Among the many iffy characters from Ren & Stimpy, George Liquor is probably the iffiest. For starters, there’s no way a modern children’s network would abide a cartoon character named “George Liquor.”

The idea of an ultraconservative blowhard is fine and dandy, but George Liquor was loathed by many people at Nickelodeon, even back in the ‘90s. Liquor was at the center of “Man’s Best Friend,” the episode of Ren & Stimpy that Nickelodeon did, indeed, ban.

In Robert Zemeckis’ indelible Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jessica is a human cartoon woman married to Roger Rabbit. She’s a parody of a sexpot, all slinkiness and Kathleen Turner’s voice. We get it, but these days “getting it” doesn’t suffice for many.

Now, some people love Jessica Rabbit. The joke is fine. She’s steeped in cartoon history and noir tropes. And yet, we’re sure a modern reboot of Roger Rabbit would make some changes, because these are more sensitive times.

If you don’t remember Freak Show, that’s fine, and also probably for the best. It only lasted seven episodes on Comedy Central, and centered on the “Freak Squad,” a group from an old-timey “freak show” performers who do jobs for the U.S. government.

Who make up the group? Well, the World’s Tallest Nebraskan probably would fly, though he is treated like a dumb hillbilly, so even this character is questionable. There are the conjoined twins, the gay Republican, and Primi, a premature baby who can talk and stuff. It’s all weird, and wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny in these days of social media outrage.

Even typing out the name of this character really sucks. If you grew up watching Tom and Jerry, unless you were watching the old short films, you likely have not seen this particular woman. Tom and Jerry’s violent antics are fine, but the caretaker (sometimes owner) of the house they live in was long a problem.

Look, it’s right there in the name. Ms. Two Shoes is a “mammy” stereotype. The way she is animated, particularly early on, is wildly racist. Animated characters like this don’t really exist anymore, and for good reason. It was basically minstrelsy in cartoon form.

Apu was a funny secondary character on The Simpsons, and he was complex. He was smart, hard- working, a family man, and at the center of a few fun episodes. The proprietor of the Kwik-e-Mart is a fine character, but he’s now a visuals-only character on The Simpsons now after some vocal complaints.

Apu is Indian, which plays into the old stereotype of Indian men running convenience stores, but he was voiced by Hank Azaria. Azaria did a broad accent, and the complaints got louder over the years. In time, Azaria said he would not voice Apu any longer.

You might also like this list of SNL Characters They Wouldn’t Do Now, or this list of Shameless ’80s Comedies That Don’t Care If You’re Offended.

Main image: Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Disney

Editor’s Note: Corrects formatting, main image and intro.