Stan Wilson Poster by Charles Howell, 1972
I recently read that if Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populated on earth. I notice on my own little corner of that mythical country, an increasing number of its inhabitants are appearing incognito as cartoon characters. That seems curious to me because my understanding (especially since reading The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick) is that Mark Zuckerberg’s initial concept was that people could identify their friends not only by their names but by their faces – as in FACEbook.
In fact, except for highly unusual names, a search for someone on Facebook generally results in numerous people by that same name. But not with the same face. The whole concept of social networking is advanced by the association of a name with a face. But now that many people are replacing their profile pictures with Daffy Duck or Minnie Mouse, the problem of identifying a particular friend becomes more difficult. And why would people prefer to identify themselves as a cartoon character, anyway?
Not that I am against cartoons or animation. Far from it. My son, Charlie, has made his living as a script writer for ‘Saturday morning cartoons’ for more than thirty years. Most famously, he was the story editor and, for a time, producer of “Pinky and the Brain.” He actually won three Emmys during his time with that show.
Before getting into the writing end of animation, Charlie drew cartoons. One of my all-time favorite pieces of artwork is a poster he did freehand and without any references one afternoon in 1972 – an advertisement for a Coffee House appearance at the Green Shutter Hotel in Hayward, California, by our friend, folksinger Stan Wilson. The poster is a fabulous conglomeration of caricatures of strange celebrities like Tiny Tim – remember him? – and of familiar cartoon characters that apparently lurked in my (then) sixteen-year-old son’s mind. I must say… I feel a great affinity toward cartoons.
I’m just not sure that I’m crazy about my Facebook wall being covered with cartoon faces. I’m pretty sure that my Facebook friends who have recently chosen new photo I.D. cartoon faces have done so because they feel some special affinity to that character, or maybe they just think it’s a cute image. However, when I was researching this recent fad I found that there is a campaign afoot urging Facebook users to change their profile pictures to a cartoon character to show that they are against violence against children. Huh? Now we have to show such a no-brainer-idea by disguising ourselves as two-dimensional drawings? Does that mean that the rest of us are in favor of violence against children??? YIKES! And here I thought ‘social networking’ was simple.
“Pinky and The Brain”! I bow deeply to anyone that had a part in that extraordinary production. The next thing I’ll learn is he wrote the lines:
PINKY: “So what do we do tonight Brain?”
THE BRAIN: “The same thing we do every night Pinky, TAKE OVER THE WORLD!”
I don’t think that the cartoon faces will last, Sydney. The idea is to have all cartoon faces by tomorrow for child abuse awareness, but I doubt if anyone believes that those who don’t change their profile picture are pro-child abuse. Some of us don’t enjoy seeing our faces much of anywhere which has much due to vanity as anything. Personally, I favor a picture taken by a friend in 1969. That’s me, at least in my mind. Some like to honor someone. Two of my friends currently have pictures of their recently passed brother as their profile pictures. I will be changing mine on Tuesday to honor my father and uncle’s presence at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. In the meantime, I’m enjoying seeing what cartoons my friends loved. I love the Pinky & the Brain quote above. It was a favorite of my youngest.
I have had a hard time finding friends by their faces, since many of the friends I’m most interested in finding, I haven’t seen since we were teenagers! When I learned of the “Stop Child Abuse” campaign, I had recently changed my own profile pic to Scooby Doo, but decided to change it again, to a different cartoon that most would more closely associate with me – Disney’s Goofy! I figure the “effort” of making the change would make a louder statement than just leaving the cartoon I already had. I have a GREAT Goofy jacket my mother made (Mom was the best seamstress in the world, before Arthritis crippled her hands!). My jacket, I still wear on occasion, was made in 1983, when I was a Senior at IHS. Mom used a pair of my Levis for the waistband, moved the pockets to the new Chest area, and sewed another one to the inside liner linen, even used the pant legs for sleeves! The last real sewing project she did was to chop the right sleeve (following the amputation of my Right arm in 2002), and use the material to fashion another inside pocket, on the Right side, that I could reach easier with my remaining Left hand! The back and shoulder area is an officially licensed Goofy beach towel. Anyway, I love Goofy, and I’m probably as recognizable by his image as my own picture, 27 years after high school graduation?
I am finding the choices of cartoon characters interesting, perhaps a sneak peek into the lives of my online and lifetime friends. For myself, always the romantic dreamer, I had to choose Sleeping Beauty. Violent cartoons never did appeal to me. Well, the Roadrunner has to be the exception! Laughing with my Dad as that poor coyote got slammed, ONCE AGAIN, with an anvil was a hoot and a great memory!!
I view this cartoon campaign as just an excuse to show our “kid side”. We all know child abuse is not favored by us. So, I’m just enjoying seeing where my friends minds wander to in this venture!
Facinating about your son, Sydney. Not surprising considering the talent he was born into.
Merry Christmas to all !