My brother and I visited with our dad yesterday evening, and he happened to have a VHS cassette of one of his favorite childhood cartoons that he had borrowed from the library: Underdog. I found several negative themes rampant in the episodes on that cassette: sexism, cruelty to animals, and stereotyping of ethnicities. Sweet Polly could not do anything for herself; she always relied on her hero Underdog to save the day. The implication is that women are dependent on a strong male. Another theme is cruelty to animals; Underdog viciously attacked a pack of rats, shot the feathers off a flying bird, and pummeled a series of bats. One of the main villains in one of the two episodes besides the antagonist Simon Bar Sinister had a Russian accent, taking a cue from the bad-guy Russians on such movies as the James Bond series. The rest of the villains that Simon Bar Sinister recruited for his army had urban working-class accents. Again, the implication is that blue-collar laborers are nothing but criminals.
Underdog represents the conservative Republican American ideal: He is courageous, patriotic, obedient like any good dog, and ready to fight the predefined "bad guys." When he pops one of his Underdog pills, an American flag and tanks flash in his eyes as he regains his super strength to fight the bad guys. Indeed, he symbolizes how the Republicans view mainstream America: as the underdogs to them, the fat cats. The Republicans expect us underdogs to obey the will of our betters, the president and his administration and the majority caucuses in the two houses of Congress. Those who don't are very nearly traitors. As Shoeshine Boy, Underdog is meek and obsequious—just as the Republicans want us to be. As Underdog, he takes his community's call to action and uses all due force; essentially, he becomes a soldier.
The main characters of this cartoon exhibit varying degrees of psychopathology; so I have taken the liberty of diagnosing them according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision, published by the American Psychiatric Association.
Underdog/Shoeshine Boy
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, predominantly inattentive type (314.00)
- Underdog pill-induced mood disorder with manic features with onset during intoxication (292.84)
- Dissociative identity disorder (300.14)
Sweet Polly Purebred
- Histrionic personality disorder (301.50)
- Dependent personality disorder (301.6)
Simon Bar Sinister
- Oppositional defiant disorder (313.81)
- Narcissistic personality disorder (301.81)
12 Jan 2006, 11:45 am
