Horribly Racist Moments From Looney Tunes You Missed Growing Up

In 1944's Angel Puss, a young man in blackface attempts to drown a cat, but it escapes without him knowing. As the cat torments and teases him as a "ghost," his simple and slow mind make him fall for prank after prank. In addition, the fact that the man would kill a living thing rather than pass up the money makes his character lazy and void of ethics.

This cartoon was included in the Censored Eleven list for the offensive racial stereotypes embodied in the main character, In fact, even his name is offensive, as "Sambo" is a derogatory slang term used to refer to Black males.

The title of 1943's Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs is offensive enough itself, but this all-Black World War II-era parody of Disney's Snow White gets worse. Animation supervisor Bob Clampett was inspired by Duke Ellington's Jump for Joy, consulted Black performers, and gave them voice actor roles, but the short didn't escape racism.

The Prince Chawmin' character has a full set of gold teeth and So White is used for several jokes with sexual undertones, including the implication that she slept with her assailants in order to escape. Black people aren't the only ones at the butt end of the racist jokes, either - there is even an advertisement for hit men that appears on-screen, reading, "We rub out anybody for $1.00; Midgets: 1/2-price; Japs: free."

Coal Black is part of the Censored Eleven and was banned for its racist characters. 

A short-lived Looney Tunes character named Uncle Tom made his debut in the 1931 Merrie Melodies short, Hittin’ The Trail For Hallelujah Land. In a not-so-subtle rip-off of Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, a singing steamboat sails down the river carrying musicians in blackface while stereotypically superstitious Uncle Tom has a run-in with cemetery skeletons.

Tom reappeared in the 1937 Merrie Melodies short, Uncle Tom's Bungalow, a parody of Uncle Tom's Cabin stuffed full of stereotypical Black characters. The cringeworthiness hits a peak as Tom is about to be whipped by the evil white villain and proudly proclaims, "My bottom might belong to you, but my soul belongs to Warner Brothers."

Both of these shorts are part of the Censored Eleven and were banned in 1968 by the studio.

1938's The Isle of Pingo Pongo uses a parody of a travel documentary to introduce viewers to a fictional South Seas island. Unfortunately, the islanders are all racist depictions of stereotypical natives with extremely dark skin, enormous lips, and odd-shaped heads.

Also released that year was the Merrie Melodies short, Jungle Jitters, in which a dog-like traveling salesman knocks on the door of a group of African cannibals under the rulership of a skinny white lady. Like the islanders of Pingo Pongo, the natives have large lips, speak primitive gibberish, and apparently keep in shape by using their nose rings as a jump rope.

Both of these shorts were added to the Censored Eleven in 1968.

1941's All This and Rabbit Stew is the only cartoon included in the Censored Eleven that features Bugs Bunny. Similar to shorts with Elmer Fudd, this cartoon matches Bugs in a battle of wits against a hunter who can't seem to beat the rabbit's pranks. In this case, the hunter is an unnamed character in blackface whose extremely slow mind and manner of speaking allow Bugs to get the better of him over and over again until he is eventually left with nothing but a leaf covering his privates.

Somehow, a confused character who appears as a literal "sucker" in a visual gag isn't as funny when he's a horribly racist stereotype. This one's as cringeworthy as they come.

During World War II, several animation studios used members of the Axis powers as villains in their shorts - this included the Japanese. A racist stereotype appeared in 1943's Tokio Jokio, where Japanese characters appeared with large, buckteeth and thick glasses. This character design appeared a second time in 1944's Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (a derogatory term).

In this second short, Bugs finds himself in Japan fighting a bucktoothed solider who speaks gibberish/broken English and runs after him with a big sword. Bugs also flirts with a sumo wrestler while dressed like a geisha, paints a flag on a palm tree every time he offs an enemy, and refers to a Japanese man as "monkey face." 

Both shorts were banned from being broadcasted again, and were excluded on VHS and Laserdisc sets.