Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips

There are two ways to look at "Bugs Bunny Nips The Nips". The first and most obvious is that it is an extremely racist cartoon, with the worst Japanese stereotypes (bad teeth, glasses, and acting crazy) and the attitude towards Japanese people (such as when Bugs Bunny starts referring to the Japanese as "Japs", "Monkey Face", and "Slant Eyes".

The other way to look at it is as a reflection of its time. You have to understand the United States was at war, and cartoons like this no doubt boosted the morale of both soldiers and the people in the home front. If you understand cartoons like this provided a need at one time, and that it was a reflection of the times, then it's a lot easier to watch. In fact, there are several non-racist gags in the cartoon that can be enjoyed. Some viewers may also find that the cartoon is so over the top in its depiction of the Japanese that they won't be able to take it seriously.

I don't think Warner Brothers should have withdrawn this cartoon. Certainly not market it to impressionable children, but marketing it towards mature adults (perhaps on a collection of the other withdrawn Warner Brothers cartoons) would probably result in healthy sales. Well, at least the cartoon is currently available on YouTube for those wanting to see it.

Bugs bunny nips the nips is a 1944 cartoon, it is about bugs bunny in a box in the Pacific Ocean, and then it lands to Japan, then he ends up in a bush with a Japanese person, who tries to kill him, but then bugs bunny dresses up as a general, tricking him, however he isn't tricked, he then flies on a plane to chase bugs bunny, but the plane crashes, so he parachutes, then bugs gives him a anvil, this is half of the story, but I'm not gonna say the other half for spoliers, my opinion of it, I don't think it's Xenophobic but rather fascist phobic, if I was Japanese and I watched it I would not care as bugs bunny outwitted horrible humans in the cartoon, and bugs is a mischievous, sometimes sadistic rabbit, but here, he's a American marine, but still a slightly sadistic trickster.

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!

"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.

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.