My boss, who was born at the beginning of the post-war baby boom, has rediscovered the cartoons from the Warner Brothers and Disney (really early Disney), thanks to online streaming platforms. One thing that occurred to him was that a great deal of the 1004 shorts had been made before he was born; which meant that from a generational perspective, he was looking at characters which in universe dated from before 1900. Indeed with a name like Elmer Fudd which was already an anachorism, it can't be anything but. In an online database of babies' names, Elmer reaches popularity among boys in the United States in 1893; coming in at No.32 (number 1 was John).
This led me to an interesting query - if we take the dates of birth of a bunch of different cartoon characters, can we learn anything over time? Indeed we can.
1876 Yosemite Sam
1899 Nate Slate
1899 Elmer Fudd
1917 Barney Rubble
1917 Boris Kropotkin
1917 Minka Kropotkin
1918 Fred Flintstone
1919 Wilma Flintstone
1921 Betty Rubble
1952 Fred Jones
1952 Shaggy Rogers
1953 Daphne Blake
1954 Velma Dinkley
1956 Homer Simpson
1956 Peter Griffin
1958 Lois Griffin
1958 Stu Pickles
1959 Marge Simpson
1959 Didi Pickles
1962 Pebbles Flintstone
1963 Bam Bam Rubble
1963 Stan Smith
1963 Francine Smith
1981 Bart Simpson
1983 Lisa Simpson
1984 Meg Griffin
1986 Chris Griffin
1987 Hayley Smith
1990 Tommy Pickles
1991 Steve Smith
1991 Dill Pickles
1992 Maggie Simpson
1999 Stewie Griffin
What we learn over time is who at any one point is making animated cartoons. If we look through the list of the cartoons from Looney Tunes, The Flintstones, Scooby Doo, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Rugrats (I have not actually seen some of these but I am led to believe that they represent a logical chain in television cartoon families), then what we find is that in general, the people who make cartoons tend to centre characters around the age of 15, their parents at around 40 and place babies under the age of 5. This of course leads to three very big holes.
The generations represented in this list are the Lost Generation, the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, Generation Y, and Generation Z. That then begs the question of what happened to the Interbellum Generation who lived in the gilded age before the First World War, the Silent Generation, and Generation X? What we should expect is a heap of cartoon characters who were born between 1900 and 1914 and the truth is that they don't really exist. Or don't they?
If we assume that Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper and Reggie Mantle are all 15 in 1942 then it places Fred Andrews and Mary Andrews as being born in 1901 and 1902. They are the missing Interbellum Generation characters. It also follows that the parents of Fred, Shaggy, Daphne and Velma are also of the Interbellum generation, born between 1900 and 1914. When we get to looking for Silent Generation characters, there is a massive hole. Their children should be late Boomers and Generation X; both of whom at first glance are absent from the list.
The reason why looking at demographics through the lens of cartoon characters is so interesting is because the amount of effort in terms of total labour hours that it takes to produce a half hour of animated feature, is an order of magnitude greater than producing live media. Speaking as a member of Generation X, I always found it interesting that media generally was never really produced for us as a generation. The cartoons that we got as kids were primarily designed to sell us things and they were all a bit naff.
Something really strange happened in the 1970s and 1980s. Television stations found that they could buy cartoons from the 1940s and 1950s on the cheap, and other cartoons were still in syndication from about 1969 onwards. In fact what you find is a cache of media that hasn't really survived that much into public consciousness because the public really didn't care.
In fact what you do get is that schismatic crack of media in about 1990, and the poster children of Generation X in terms of Cartoon Characters ends up being Beavis and Butt-Head. Both them and Daria would mist likely have been born in 1977. When the reset in the spin off series Daria happened, Daria Morgendorffer becomes a Generation Y character who was born in 1981, her sister Quinn was born in 1983 and is also from Generation Y and their parents of Helen and Jake Morgendorffer are both born in 1951 and therefore both Baby Boomers.
If you want to look for Generation X characters in cartoons, while you couldn't find very many of them when they were teenagers, you might begin to find them as they are having children in universe now.
Peppa Pig was born in 2000 in universe and her brother George was born in 2004. While they are both Generation Z, their parents Daddy and Mummy Pig, were born in 1974 and 1979 respectively and are our missing Generation X characters. Likewise, if we take the Australian cartoon Bluey, then Bluey who is presumed to be 6 years old in universe and her sister Bingo who is 4, were born in 2012 and 2014. Almost certainly this puts Bandit Heeler as being born no earlier than 1978 and Chili in 1980. If so, he is Generation X, she is Generation Y; their children are the tail end of Generation Z and the beginning of Generation Alpha.
Whatever the case, it is exceptionally hard to find Generation X characters in cartoons; largely because of the way that media has changed twice in the scope of a hundred years. Animated cartoons when from being produced for the cinema, to then being produced for television and then went through the same period of dark ages as full length animated cartoons went through. Those three generations, the Interbellum Generation, Silent Generation, and Generation X, experience a kind of cultural blindness in media; largely because of the technological shifts and the ravages of history out there in the real world. It also stands to reason that practically nobody exists in cartoons before 1885 because cinema didn't exist.
Aside 1:
https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1371475397842513923
"Cancel culture is spreading like wildfire. There is a call for Generation X, that is X, to lead the charge to save America from the social media mob. Can they do it?"
- Gillian Turner, 16th Mar 2021
Quite apart from the fact that to a degree works no longer belong to their creator but to the reader/viewer/listener who will interpret the works as they see fit, it is always the prerogative of the consumer in the current age to receive culture as they find appropriate. This was always true when it comes to the cultural reception of works from antiquity but it is worth remembering this also applies to any work from the past; since the past actually extends all the way to the moment just elapsed, then it certainly applies to works which have come from recent memory.
The almost humourous thing about Fox News' call for Generation X to "to lead the charge to save America from the social media mob" with respect to "cancel culture" is that Fox News is in part culturally responsible for creating the generation whom they previously derided as being slackers and disinterested. The forgotten latchkey generation of Generation X is quite frankly, perfectly happy to 'cancel' the furniture of culture which was never meant for them and which never represented them. If anything, Generation X feels the most affinity with the Silent Generation and Generations Z and Alpha who are and will quietly just get on with the job of remanufacturing the world.
Aside 2:
It's curious to think that The Simpsons as a piece of cultural furniture, could never have been made for Generation X. Homer Simpson proclaimed in one episode that he had a paycheque of $25,000; which even if you adjust for inflation, would have never been enough to buy a house had he been a Generation X character. It would have been increasingly difficult and eventually impossible to have a family of three kids and run a mortgage in such rude comfort on a single income, had he been a Generation X character.
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