Specifically, how deep the rabbit (pun intended) hole goes.
Specifically, looking at Betty Boop's cameo at the Ink & Paint club.
At first glance, it's a take on Hollywood's ageism, where men are allowed to age gracefully and women are allowed to age away from the cameras. Betty, a black-and-white toon a decade past her heyday, is stuck hawking cigarettes for all-human audiences to get by while technicolor ingenues like Jessica Rabbit headline night after night and marry movie stars like Roger. Her "what a lucky girl" line comes off as funny, since now two generations of starlets consider a goofball like Roger to be a memetic sex god.
But if you look back at Betty's career and Hollywood history?
It gets real dark real fast.
See, Betty got her start as a sidekick of a Fleisher studios character named Bimbo the dog (who was himself a fairly obvious dollar store version of Mickey Mouse). Bimbo was intended to be the cigar-chomping, wisecracking star. Betty, while always sweet on Bimbo, upstaged him so completely that she was the title character of the shorts they appeared in within two years.
Unfortunately, her character would only remain at its height for two years after that. Still in a relationship with Bimbo, Betty established her bona fides as the girl looking for a good time with a heart of gold. She was THE animated sex symbol of her time.
Then the Hays code went into effect in 1934.
Bimbo was immediately fired (because God forbid a human be in a romantic relationship with an animal), and Betty had all of the innuendo and sensuality that formed her act taken away by the censors. While she made do as best she and the animators could, it wouldn't be enough.
She headlined her last short in 1939.
Now take all of that, and watch that scene at the Ink & Paint club again.
Betty's not only seeing Hollywood ageism in the new generation of starlet hitting the spotlight.
She's seeing a technicolor toon being allowed to publicly keep her marriage to an animal toon. When Betty wasn't.
She's watching a toon at the height of sexualization bring down the damn all-human house. When Betty wasn't.
Jessica has EVERYTHING that the industry took from Betty over a decade ago.
And she sums it up in a wistful, "Yeah, what a lucky girl." Then shuts Eddie's mouth before it draws flies and gets back to work.
And as a last little stick it in and twist?
The one and only Fleisher studios character that didn't get so much as a background appearance in WFRR?
Bimbo.
"What a lucky girl."
Holy fucking shit, Betty.
I did not plan on you making me cry tonight, but here we are.
Specifically, looking at Betty Boop's cameo at the Ink & Paint club.
At first glance, it's a take on Hollywood's ageism, where men are allowed to age gracefully and women are allowed to age away from the cameras. Betty, a black-and-white toon a decade past her heyday, is stuck hawking cigarettes for all-human audiences to get by while technicolor ingenues like Jessica Rabbit headline night after night and marry movie stars like Roger. Her "what a lucky girl" line comes off as funny, since now two generations of starlets consider a goofball like Roger to be a memetic sex god.
But if you look back at Betty's career and Hollywood history?
It gets real dark real fast.
See, Betty got her start as a sidekick of a Fleisher studios character named Bimbo the dog (who was himself a fairly obvious dollar store version of Mickey Mouse). Bimbo was intended to be the cigar-chomping, wisecracking star. Betty, while always sweet on Bimbo, upstaged him so completely that she was the title character of the shorts they appeared in within two years.
Unfortunately, her character would only remain at its height for two years after that. Still in a relationship with Bimbo, Betty established her bona fides as the girl looking for a good time with a heart of gold. She was THE animated sex symbol of her time.
Then the Hays code went into effect in 1934.
Bimbo was immediately fired (because God forbid a human be in a romantic relationship with an animal), and Betty had all of the innuendo and sensuality that formed her act taken away by the censors. While she made do as best she and the animators could, it wouldn't be enough.
She headlined her last short in 1939.
Now take all of that, and watch that scene at the Ink & Paint club again.
Betty's not only seeing Hollywood ageism in the new generation of starlet hitting the spotlight.
She's seeing a technicolor toon being allowed to publicly keep her marriage to an animal toon. When Betty wasn't.
She's watching a toon at the height of sexualization bring down the damn all-human house. When Betty wasn't.
Jessica has EVERYTHING that the industry took from Betty over a decade ago.
And she sums it up in a wistful, "Yeah, what a lucky girl." Then shuts Eddie's mouth before it draws flies and gets back to work.
And as a last little stick it in and twist?
The one and only Fleisher studios character that didn't get so much as a background appearance in WFRR?
Bimbo.
"What a lucky girl."
Holy fucking shit, Betty.
I did not plan on you making me cry tonight, but here we are.
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