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One of the things about Hart that really influenced me is how specific some of his characters were. Most cartoon characters are pretty simple stereotypes, but the kind of cartoons I respond to most are the ones with the most unique personalities - and the artists who are able to draw the personalities, not just write them.
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What do I mean by specific?
I could also say a character who has a few traits that you would never think to put together, some odd contradictions and some random unrelated traits. That's how real people are.
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Most people don't analyze things into their separate parts. If they did, they would realize that many things and people they think of as whole entities are really mishmashes of odd parts. We glue the mismatched parts in our heads and don't question them. The most interesting people are the ones with the most mishmash.
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SIMPLE CARTOON PERSONALITIES
Think of how many generic cartoon stereotypes there are.![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKM_jIngDZHQUejOr-C8cwOIFW69_dPoQ0hLnsh1LaKEG6Lw6owThyw0j7Hd6v5rPsv4JTrBrr5oqLHEKrgJ9gVLg0wtODpg_jM1zC0bqwFkIYCR4CNM2EeFgiWlMiI_3et-7NTQ/s400/jr1.jpg)
Animation has the worst history of shallow characters. Mickey, Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, etc. Characters who either have no trait at all, or just one.
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JOHNNY HART'S RANGE OF SPECIFICITY
Johnny Hart has characters that range from the completely generic to the most specific.B.C. has no personality.
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Thor is a frustrated inventor who sometimes has a way with girls. Not enough to make a full character.
Peter is a snooty know-it-all. We've seen that many times.
Curls is sarcastic.
The cute girl is the cute girl. That's it.
The fat Broad is more interesting. She is a man-hunter. She loves men but also wants to dominate them. She hates snakes and beats them to a pulp.
Hart's most specific characters though, have the oddest traits.
CLUMSY CARP
Clumsy Carp is clumsy. By itself, not much of anything.![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmmkVauMSt72Sr2GjFCkWA0_ZqQ1oT0d2Ht4eGgDGlHnwS7ot4GvK6OysP23cnAMM_dJcNTJi0McSS_RTm4mTFTWAm22Ceg8GIO0CfxwuFCkG4ZsqnLuSCBF2nc0yRR87Kr_4JLg/s400/2clumsy.jpg)
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WILEY
Wiley is the oddest, most specific character of all. He has the most unique and unrelated traits:
He is a poet.
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He is scraggly and has a peg leg.
He is superstitious.
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He distrusts anything new - especially women. The very fact that women are so appealing makes him distrust them. When Hart combines Wiley's phobias it's really funny.
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I always wondered - how did Hart decide on these weird combinations of traits? They work great and real people are like that, but it's not usual to see it in cartoons. Did he just sit down and make a list of these traits and build a character around them? Or did he draw Wiley first and then come up with traits for him?
Other specific characters in comics and cartoons tended to evolve. Popeye wasn't quite as weird as he became later. Bugs evolved over a few cartoons. The Peanuts characters started as generic characters and little by little grew specific odd traits.
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Hart and Schultz' comics are not as funny as the best animated cartoons, or Don Martin comics, but they have something else that we instinctively crave in entertainment- characters that seem real - and by real, that usually means unexpected combinations of odd traits. We read those comics because we like to follow the adventures of the characters. We don't need a belly laugh every step of the way. The weirdness of the personalities and how they play off each other is entertainment.
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CARTOONISTS ARE AT A DISADVANTAGE TO ACTORS IN CREATING CHARACTERS
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We in cartoons have to come up with it almost from scratch and that's why cartoon characters in general are pretty stereotypical and simple compared to live characters. So when someone like Johnny Hart comes along and creates specific characters from scratch, it's mighty impressive.
STEREOTYPICAL GROUPS MADE UP OF UNRELATED RANDOM TRAITS
You could take this idea of unrelated odd traits a step farther and think of whole groups of people who are stereotyped. Like, you're either a "democrat" or a "republican". When you actually list the beliefs and traits that make up either group, you can find a lot of unrelated randomly selected attributes that the poor members have to believe and accept in order to belong to their chosen stereotype.Republicans believe in Guns and Jesus - 2 completely incompatible philosophies.
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Democrats believe in defending the rights of the poor, but wouldn't be caught dead hanging out with any of them. They also believe in political correctness and not offending other groups - even though the poor people they defend are probably the least politically correct people in the country.
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