Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Anchoress

Home
Catholic
What Is American Culture?

What Is American Culture?

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 7:45 pm by Elizabeth Scalia

What Is American Culture? 2017-03-17T19:45:29+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Yesterday my son and I were flicking through television channels and we hit a stand-up comic from India who was trying to make a joke about “American culture” or the “lack” thereof. In his routine he was defending the Americans as “actually having culture” to his father, who could not see beyond hotdogs.

The audience wasn’t laughing and Buster felt badly for the guy. “They’re not laughing,” he said.

“No,” I answered… “he’s got an audience of white Americans sitting there earnestly asking themselves, ‘wait…what IS our culture?’”

Buster thought for a second and said, “well, outside of Jazz and baseball…hotdogs…barbeque…what is our culture?”

Later that evening, I was watching a Terfel concert and the orchestra was playing Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, and I turned to Buster and said, “American culture is this: we hear Ride of the Valkyries and think, “Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit, kill da Wabbit!”

And there is nothing wrong with that! Chuck Jones’ brilliant Wagnerian parody, What’s Opera, Doc? is a splendid example of American culture, as is his other “what-fresh-existential-hell-is-this” masterpiece, Duck Amuck, wherein Daffy Duck finds himself and his ego at the mercy of an unseen illustrator, who is a real “stinker.”

I haven’t seen these cartoons in years, and I’ve been enjoying watching them for this post. They display a quintessentially American proclivity, which is to dress down the fuss-budgets, and stick a pin into the inflated head. It is an utterly American trick to take something “great,” like opera, and to play with it – to treat classicalism to an affectionate (and humorous) tweaking with the knowing wink that we are being ridiculous and extraneous and a little naughty. It is quite an American thing, to take an Ayn Randian sort of question and ponder it under the persona of a pretty buoyant (to a point) Daffy Duck, taking it to extreme conclusions one might never reach without – ahem – some sort of medical/herbal assistance.

And, it’s simply having fun for fun’s sake.

Before politically correct cartoons became the order of the day, our children were exposed to The Barber of Seville as explained by Bugs and Elmer, Rossini’s music splendidly choreographed with flowering hair tonic, sassy clippers, a preening, cross-dressing senorita, hatchets, guns, swords and cannons.

“Welcome to my shop, let me cut your mop…yyyyyyyes, you’re next, youuuu’re so next!”

Okay, so I’m a sucker for cartoons…I can’t stand what the humorless prudes and nanny-staters have done to them. In fact, when asked to name the 20 folks screwing up America – they were #1 on my incomplete list:

Whoever decided that Saturday morning cartoons should be used to “educate children” to “be nice” to each other, and that Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, if shown at all, could not be shown being shot, blown-up, erased, squeezed into tiny spaces, sent flying from a cannon, played like violins, dropped into glasses of water, blown to smithereens by Martians, unfeathered unto nakedness, or tricked into playing “Believe Me If All (Those Endearing Young Charms)” correctly on the piano, thus being sent to heaven wherein they wear halos and pluck on tiny harps. They can, however, be shown in drag. Whole generations are growing up being thought of as too delicate to watch cartoon characters being shaped into musical instruments, and they’ve lost exposure to thinking outside the box.

Actually…what our kids are losing is exposure to the concept that “anything you can imagine, you can do.” That all thoughts and feelings – even the kind of fresh and audacious ones – are okay to have. They’ve been denied permission to think in ways beyond the proscribed platitudes of “tolerance.” And they haven’t been allowed to simply think like human beings who occasionally get fed up with each other, and to work it out in their imaginations rather than sitting and stewing in online echo chambers full of seething resentment.

Of course, the online echo chambers are also quintessentially American. “Let’s find people who think like we do and spew invective at anyone else…”

Hmmmm…maybe the hyperpartisanship and drastically divided blogosphere is a direct result of our kids (and ourselves) being denied the opportunity to work out our frustrations in silly and fun, ultimately good-natured ways…like cartoons.

Bugs took down every pretentious elitist by mocking them, he jeered at Hitler. Daffy Duck’s pretensions and greed made us look at ourselves with both critical understanding and shrugging self-forgiveness. Watching him grasp and splatter his way through life, we could be a little more generous with each other – we recognized a human condition.

American culture has always been – up until pretty recently – a culture that could laugh at itself, even as it took on heavy responsibilities. From the earliest revolutionaries – from Ben Franklin on – we’ve been able to look at the world and ourselves and dream big but with a wink to keep egos in check. Thus, the man who wrote: “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes,” was also the man who wrote: “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,” without fear of losing his face.

Chesterton said: “…solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.”

Americans have always had that lightness, and perhaps that’s why it has been easy for some to misjudge American backbone or resiliency, or resolve.

Maybe the war on terror would be going better – or we’d be more unified in our vision – if Bugs were, today, allowed to put on a dentist’s smock and implant a few sticks of dynamite into Osama bin Laden’s mouth? Or if he could walk up to a John Kerry and smack a hat over his head and down to his knees? If he could go hunting with Dick Cheney?

“Ohhhh Bwunhillllde, youwe so wuvwy…”

“Yes, I know it…I can’t help it…”

“Ohh Bwnhilde, beee my wuuuuv!”

Only Americans would seriously analyze What’s Opera, Doc? Only an American would write an exhaustive (and wonderful) analysis of a cartoon baseball game, starring Baseball Bugs.

Perhaps American culture is suffering because she is no longer allowed elegant and clever satire unless it is laced with a poisonous and snide irony. Human beings like Jack Cafferty and Keith Olbermann can combust on the air like punctured cans of hairspray, but Bugs and Daffy and Elmer aren’t allowed to shoot Saddam, or make fun of Ted Kennedy, or Ann Coulter, or Kos.

That’s a damn shame, too. Maybe next election, we could have a referendum on loosening the strictures put upon a great American medium, and we’ll all learn to share a chuckle, once in a while.

RECLAIMED VIA the WAYBACK MACHINE: most links lost.

"Remaking" Ourselves

'Remaking' America

Baseball

Previous Post

October 21, 2006

There is an Art to Good Politics

Next Post

November 29, 2006 Anti-Clintites: The Weirdest Headline of the Day

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Shema" mean in Hebrew?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Wait Hear Pray Obey