Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips

Our favorite looney tune is cruising somewhere on the pacific ocean, finally hitting some beautiful peaceful island... until a Japanese soldier comes up and they have a fight, first on the ground, then up in the air. Bugs gives him some heavy bomb (at least that's what I think it was) so the crazy Japanese guy falls down. Bugs: 'Happy landing'!

Then he takes on a sumo wrestler and in the end serves grenade-filled icecreams to, as he puts it, 'Japs, hundreds of them!'.

As you probably understand, this is propaganda and nothing else. Some would call it racist or whatever but you probably have to consider the time it was made in. There are better propaganda movies though as this is just a bit of a silly one...

4/10.

"Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" is one of the many cartoons that you would have to watch not as straight-forward entertainment, but rather so as to see the sorts of stereotypes that pervaded during WWII. In this case, the world's most famous rabbit washes up on a Pacific island and has to battle a whole slew of stereotyped Japanese people (and at one point even goes so far as to use the derogatory term for a Japanese person). He goes to some rather ugly extremes.

Yes, it's totally racist, but definitely worth seeing as a reference. I wonder whether or not the Axis governments commissioned propaganda movies portraying Americans as ignoramuses; I know that the Japanese government showed its troops Abbott & Costello movies and claimed that all Americans were like that.

"Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips". A Bugs Bunny cartoon produced in 1944, during the second World War.

The film features grotesque Japanese stereotypes.

That "definition" aside, I've seen a lot of these "politically incorrect" cartoons, and I say that this sort of thing should not be hidden.

People of Japanese descent may find it offensive, but if this cartoon is to be shown on television at all, there's a simple solution: put a disclaimer on the screen before airing it! That is much more reasonable than hiding the truth completely. Aside from the Japanese stereotypes, this cartoon, IMHO, is very amusing. The current generation of children who watch these cartoons on television have a right to know what's behind their backs.

WWII was an awful thing, but the children may find it interesting to learn about that period of time and see the cartoons and movies produced in that time, to get an idea of the political views of the time. It would make them curious. I am only 14 years old, but we have been weaned on Looney Tunes for decades. The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons have been virtually everywhere in the public since 1930, and this is one of them. WB may be ashamed to be associated with this cartoon, but like it or not, it's there and it was made more than 50 years ago. They act as though these "offensive" cartoons don't even exist! They may have the legal control to ban this cartoon from the air, but then what? Delete all references to WWII from history books? Historical truth should not be shielded and stood behind. There's nothing that can be done about the past, so the past might as well be acknowledged to the people of the present. So as a final word, I say this cartoon is not offensive if you can put yourself in the timeframe in which it was made. Thanks for taking the time to read my discourse, for I have strong opinions about things like this.

It's obvious that this type of material is unlikely to be produced today. But the ridiculous sensitivities of the past decade should not preclude us from viewing that which has been produced in the past. Warner Brothers has seen fit to make it difficult to near impossible to see any of the controversial cartoons within it's vault. This includes this and several other classic Bugs Bunny cartoons. Frankly this kind of forced censorship should not be allowed. I was able to get a hold of this cartoon and I must say that it is quite funny. One just needs to be aware of it's context and it's time frame. Many of the Bugs Bunny cartoons have either been removed from any type of circulation or edited to the point of unwatchability. The latter because of supposed excessive violence for children. Well Bugs was always on a level beyond children anyway. When the twenty mallet hits to Pete Puma's head is reduced to just one hit ... it's not funny anymore. It's the twenty that made it funny in the first place. Back off WB and allow us to watch what we want to watch and to be intelligent enough to discern the context in which it was made!

Yes, this cartoon can be offensive to Japanese people now and then. However, please take into consideration that this cartoon was propaganda. Propaganda is not supposed to be politically correct. It is supposed to make the viewer have a certain view on a certain issue. This was made when the United States was at war with Japan. And I believe every country involved in World War II had its propaganda cartoons. Countries produce propaganda cartoons and animated things when there is a strong backing throughout the country of that view. World War II had strong backing everywhere. There has been no war since that has been so strongly backed by the public so we have not seen such racist propaganda. Do understand that this short was developed to make people dislike the Japanese. I think it was good propaganda for its time. We don't believe it now because we're not at war with Japan and we have gotten over those stereotypes. However, at the time, people believed that. I think it might be offensive if you take it as a short made with no purpose. But if you understand that its propaganda and understand what that means, its not offensive at all.