Let it not be said we're completely out of material! We've still got some content for some good ol' Mature Musings!
Today's subject is a fun one, something I've wanted to cover for some time now. See, back in the old days of animation, they used to do this thing where they'd take something that was popular and make an animated version of it, usually with the wackiness turned up to eleven. So in that vein, there's a cartoon adaptation of the comic book movie, The Mask.
For those unfamiliar with it, the movie, which shares basically no elements with the comic it's based off, involves Jim Carrey getting his hands on a strange mask that ultimately removes the masks he has, that is, removes his inhibitions and the things keeping him from fulfilling his desires. And in doing so, he becomes, essentially, a crime-fighting Loony Tunes character, using classic Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, what have you cartoon gags to save the day and get the girl.
Unlike crazier ideas like, say, having Gilligan and crew get off the island only to end up stranded on a planet (which is a real cartoon, look up Gilligan's Planet if you're that curious), a movie like The Mask actually lends itself well to cartoon format, since all you really need to do is have the humans act less cartoony than the Masked hero. But one episode in particular is rather fun for what it has in it, something you wouldn't expect to show up on kids' TV.
See, there's an episode called "Flight As A Feather", the plot of which eludes me but seems to involve a feather following its way through several Mask adventures. There's a plot by a woman named Cookie Ba-Boom to blow herself and town hall up with dynamite as revenge for the mayor falling out with her; they also mention she used to be an "exotic dancer", kids who read this blog ask your parents. Well, the bombs she wears are the only thing she has, so when the Masked hero saves the day by spinning her around and removing the bombs and stuffing them into a blender, he gets a distraction to get out of there by using her as a distraction, since, of course, no bombs equals no clothes.
How they got away with that on kids TV is beyond me. It even involves a joke about how perverted older men are! Then again, this was around the time networks were still showing classic cartoons, which kids still watched despite being made for adults. It was certainly a time where things were a lot different then they were now, and while it does prove that nude women are often thought of as sexual things, its usage here shows that that fact can still be used as a joke.