History Headscratchers / Animaniacs

* Between this show, ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', and ''Freakazoid!'', there are a lot of references to pop culture, celebrities in particular. However, I also noticed that most to all of the jokes are affectionate to the famous people involved and are playful in nature. What I'm wondering is the people who write these shows--do they have any thoughts on ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' and its mocking of pop culture and celebrities, which is far more malicious and are more like personal attacks? (For instance, an episode has KanyeWest portrayed as a narcissist who becomes violent when offered help or suspecting anyone through wild accusations. The Steven Spielberg group of shows would never do something like that.) I know Trey Parker takes every opportunity to let people know that he hates actors unless they give him a reason to like them. Don't get me wrong; I love ''South Park''. But the way the Steven Spielberg batch of shows and ''South Park'' handles jokes on celebrities and some pop culture movements is like night and day.

** Because why not? Possibly it was also meant to clash with the fact that he's the least serious and the messiest, yet he is, in fact, the one with the Liverpudlian accent (voiced to sound like RingoStarr because Wakko is the shortest of the Warners). {{Irony}}, in other words, coupled with RuleOfFunny. JessHarnell actually decided to do the voice when auditioning (it was either Ringo or Lennon; Wakko was going to be auditioned by Harnell to be British either way), so there was probably a bit of ThrowItIn there, too.

* What happened to [[MsFanservice Minerva Mink?!]] I loved her skits! They were funny, and Minerva got her KarmicRetribution at the end! How come they kept the [[TheScrappy Hip Hippos]], but got rid of ''her ''? I know half of it was from the innuendo, but I re-watched her only two episodes, and nothing caught my eye as "risque", and yet they keep HelloNurse. Such a DoubleStandard.
** One joke character. Same as the Hippos and the pigeons, yes, but a one-joke character nonetheless. There's only so many funny ways you can show people freaking out to her presence.

*** And despite of this when she wants silence puts his fingers in the tufts on the sides of her head, while her real ears remain perfectly unobstructed :D.

* Why does Wakko have a British accent when the other 2 don't?

** Nobody bothered to tell him?

* Creator/{{Konami}}'s SNES game has the Warner Brothers/Sister helping Plotz to get back a stolen movie script. If they're working for the CEO this time, then why is Ralph still chasing them?

** Let's start off with the obvious. Even though they spent 60 years locked in that tower, they still consider it their home. Second, even if they love their home, they don't want to be sent home against their will.

* What happened to [[MsFanservice Minerva Mink?!]] I loved her skits! They were funny, and Minerva got her KarmaticRetribution at the end! How come they kept the [[TheScrappy Hip Hippos]], but got rid of ''her ''? I know half of it was from the innuendo, but I re-watched her only two episodes, and nothing caught my eye as "risque", and yet they keep HelloNurse. Such a DoubleStandard.

** Actually "Pigeon on the Roof" was a contract episode caught in the network transition. Animaniacs had some unfinished scripts after Episode 60 and Fox threw a couple of them together. That explains the episode quality for numbers 61 through 65.
* If Warner Brothers have been 60 years jailed inside the water tower and hate to be captured back after escaping then why do they keep entering back there?
** Let's start off with the obvious. Even though they spent 60 years locked in that tower, they still consider it their home. Second, even if they love their home, they don't want to be sent home not on their terms.

*** In one picture of Rita, [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/animaniacs_tv.gif she is shown with hands the color of the rest of her arm.]] Makes some people (including myself) think she was wearing WhiteGloves all along, just like what the Warner Sibs wear most of the time.

* I think the Warners are cats just like Rita, even though their ears look almost nothing like cat ears.

** I like to call that ambiguous cat species a newcat, more specifically a red-nosed newcat or a loce.
*** Newcats, which a fictional creature I like to think the Warners are, have higher foreheads and longer dewclaws (or "thumbs") than actual cat species.

** Another thing...maybe they thought she was too much of a bitch. Granted, she did get a Karmatic slap in the face, but her character was one that KNEW how hot she was, and used it to her advantage. Hello Nurse didn't go that far. She was simply a hot nurse; didn't manipulate people (not on a regular basis anyway) or lead them on. Or, maybe it's as simple as the character was not popular enough to warrant her own segment like Slappy or Rita & Runt.
** Best guess: the folks at Warner Brothers ''really'' didn't want to have to deal with enraged MoralGuardians over FurryFandom issues. Corollary: They probably already had their PR people fully engaged trying to save the show (see the Radar page for just some of the things they managed to save) and Minerva was considered expendable if they got to keep Yakko, Wakko and Dot un-edited.

* Was the red-haired woman in "Yabba Dabba Boo" a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Deanna Oliver? Only going by a YouTube comment on this one. The actual episode is on YouTube - can't remember where.

** One joke character. Same as the Hippos and the pigeons, yes, but a one-joke character nonetheless. There's only so many funny ways you can show people freaking out to her prescence.

*** ... How is her name a sentance?

** Perhaps they're some sort of weird hyprid of several different species?

** At the time, the idea of a cartoon for adults was still completely new, with people predicting the Simpsons wouldn't last three seasons. Plus, the show had enough humour for kids to run on that. The kids will think of "finger prince" as two nouns, not an action.

* If Warner Brothers have been 60 years jailed inside the water tower and hate to be captured back after scaping then why do they keep entering back there?

* If Warner Brothers have been 60 years jailed inside the water tower and hate to be captured back after scaping then why do they keep entering back there?

** Actually "Pigeon on the Roof" was a contract episode caught in the network transition. Animaniacs had some unfinished scripts after Episode 60 and Fox threw a couple of them together. That explains the episode quality for numbers 61 through 65.

** Quite probably, that ''was'' the point. A lot of Animaniacs cartoons ended up not making sense; that was part of the appeal of the show.

*** [[WordOfSaintPaul Saint]] [[IncrediblyLamePun Paulsen]] says in his podcast that Yakko hated Berle's breath. Whether you accept this (because who knows Yakko better than RobPaulsen?) or not (because it isn't canon) is up to the reader.

** It was probably due to a number of reasons. The most commonly cited reason (and probably most likely) is indeed Bernadette Peters being too expensive to keep on the show. It's also been said that it was hard to come up with new songs for each segment - this is probably the least likely, when you consider just ''how many unique songs'' pop up in the series as a whole. Running in the middle of the believability road is the darker tone of the segments: Rita and Runt never got a home for long, so many of the segments could be seen as having DownerEndings (though very mild ones, considering the people they ran into were all villains).

* Here's a question. What on earth was the point of the Goodfeathers segment "Pigeon on the Roof"? The entire segment just did not make any sense at all.

** The creators themselves don't know how they got [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar past the censors]]. According to WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's Animaniacs tribute.

*** [[WordOfSaintPaul Word of Saint]] [[IncrediblyLamePun Paulsen]] says in his podcast that Yakko hated Berle's breath. Whether you accept this (because who knows Yakko better than RobPaulsen?) or not (because it isn't canon) is up to the reader.

*** And despite of this when she wants silence puts his fingers in the tufts on the sides of her head, while her real ears remain perfectlly unobstructed :D.

** The creators themselves don't know how they got [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar past the censors]]. According to TheNostalgiaCritic's Animaniacs tribute.

*** The Simpsons was in its fourth season when Animaniacs premiered. It's pretty safe to say people had warmed up to the idea of animation for adults by then.
**** Not only that, but many cartoons in the 40's onward (MGM, Merrie Melodies, etc) contained jokes that kids wouldn't really get (like hating Mothers-in-law, why Catstello couldn't give Babbott "the boid", or cracks at the expense of the Axis powers). Even earlier, cartoons weren't even aimed at kids. I once saw clip of Porky Pig saying the phrase "son of a bitch".

***** The "son of a bitch" clip was made by the animators as an in-house gag never meant to be shown to the public. They would never have put anything like that in a real Looney Tunes short. (It is true, though, that before the HaysCode, some cartoons did have things that they wouldn't be able to get away with once the Code was in place, Ub Iwerks's FlipTheFrog being a notable example.)