[tim]

When I was a kid, I liked cartoons with dialogue. Hannah Barbera stuff, mainly. I just didn't get a lot of the older stuff and silents. While in high school, I started to get a few references, though. I remember seeing a Popeye cartoon where Wimpy was in a joint which we came to discover (via the pullback to the violin in the window) was called, "Baroque Burgers." One of my classmates told me to go back and watch this stuff again. "It wasn't written for children, but adults." He noted how Mighty Mouse, for example, had a lot of operatic elements. Subsequently, this was confirmed by listening to interview with the people who did stuff like Bullwinkle (another one I didn't care much for as a kid.) So, now as an adult, I'm a much bigger fan of stuff like Tom and Jerry or Warner Brothers cartoons. I "get" the subtleties of and can appreciate/understand the brilliancy that was over my head as a kid. I very much think that this is the key to good clowning. It has to play on numerous levels. Simultaneously to a higher level of intelligence and nuance as well as a simpler degree which anyone, even a child, can find naturally funny.