Hanna-Barbera and the LGBT+ Community

 

We'll have a gay old time, indeed.

Hanna-Barbera has been an obsession of mine for almost a year now. Their cartoons are still pretty fun to watch, but they obviously run the risk of being outdated in today's society. Here, I will be speaking on Hanna-Barbera's relationship to a group I'm a part of -- the LGBT community.

Obviously, due to censorship and homophobia, there couldn't be any LGBT characters on TV or in film back in the day, much less positive ones. If a gay or at least ambiguously gay character did appear, they were an unflattering stereotype (lisps, limp wrists etc). Despite this, H-B unintentionally created one of the gayest cartoon characters ever - Snagglepuss.

Heavens to Murgatroyd! He's pink, is into theatre, and talks like this, even. Ever since the first Snagglepuss cartoon aired, there have been rumors and jokes that he was gay. In order to stop the rumors that the character was gay, they added a female love interest for him named Lila Lioness, who was used a grand total of three times and later faded into obscurity.

During production of Johnny Bravo, Joseph Barbera playfully threatened writer Steve Marmel's life for suggesting that Snag was gay (and was egged on by Butch Hartman, unsurprisingly). Barbera insisted that Snagglepuss couldn't be gay because he was based on Bert Lahr, who beat his wife. You can read about it here.

However, the rumors were acknowledged and somewhat embraced later on. This Cartoon Network/Adult Swim promo suggests that Snagglepuss is gay by having him engage in workplace gossip with Wilma Flintstone, and overreacting to a broken nail.

In 2018, a DC Comic Book called Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles was published as part of the Hanna-Barbera Beyond initiative, which is basically a series of 3edgy5u H-B comic reboots. Penned by Mark Russell, Snag is depicted as a gay playwright living during McCarthyism/The Red Scare. Lila appears as Snag's beard, which is to say, she pretended to be in a relationship with him to cover up the fact that he was gay.

In the 2021 animated series Jellystone!, Snag is as flamboyant as ever, being into beauty. He is canonically gay in this continuity according to Melody Iza. (here)

During the late 60s/early 70s, Paul Lynde did some voice work for Hanna-Barbera. Paul Lynde was not-so-secretly gay, and often poked fun at his gayness. Gay/ambiguously gay characters tended to be portrayed not only as stereotypes, but also as antagonistic forces. Out of Lynde's four H-B roles, three of them were antagonistic.

Mildew Wolf from It's the Wolf!, a segment from The Cattanooga Cats, was a typical big bad wolf who tried to eat a little lamb named Lambsy. He often used paper-thin disguises, sometimes dressing up in drag, and generally was flamboyant. Interesting fact: some of the artists at H-B made a live-action film spoof of ITW. Here, Human!Mildew was just as campy as ever, although they conveniently made Lambsy a woman. Suddenly their dynamic becomes even creepier this way.

Then, Lynde played the Hooded Claw/Sylvester Sneekly on The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. However, he's not gay-coded doesn't really display any stereotypes.

After that, Claude Pertwee from Where's Huddles?. He is as close as you can get for a gay character on a 70s cartoon show. He's effeminate, hangs out with women, hates football, and has a pet cat named Beverly. He antagonized the main characters, Ed and Bubba.

Also, Lynde played Templeton from H-B's Charlotte's Web movie, but he doesn't count since he's a relatively heroic character and isn't gay-coded.

Mildew and Snagglepuss later went on to be the announcers of the Laff-a-Lympics. Why them specifically? The world may never know. Maybe it was internal joking at the fact that they are related to gayness in some way. Although, Lynde didn't voice Mildew here; John Stephenson did.

In the aforementioned Jellystone!, Mildew Wolf is canonically gay, as he tries to flirt with Shazzan.

In 1972, Hanna-Barbera debuted one of the first adult animated series, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. This show was the first time H-B directly dealt with political/topical issues. As such, at least three episodes featured explicitly gay characters who were little more than stereotypes.

In episode 5, "Help Wanted", the head of the local GLEE Chapter (Gay Liberation Employment Efforts) sashays into Harry Boyle's office, asking to be hired (context: Harry attempted Affirmative Action and a bunch of minorities came into his office asking to be hired beforehand). This went just as well as you'd expect. 

In episode 19, "Sweet Sixteen", Alice is having her 16th birthday party and is being catered. Harry is reluctant at having a catered party, but the caterer says "Ah, don't worry. I get along very well with fellas."

TV Tropes also claims that there's a gay debtor in an episode, but I have yet to find out which one it is.

Finally, the gay stereotypes present in H-B's shows for Cartoon Network. 

• Dexter's Laboratory had a backup segment called Dial M For Monkey. One DMFM cartoon called "Barbequor" featured a gay stereotype villain named the Silver Spooner, who is campy and is a fan of Judy Garland. This particular cartoon was later banned; not because of the stereotypes, but because they got in legal trouble for copying the Silver Surfer.
• What DID get banned for stereotypes is the Cow and Chicken cartoon "Buffalo Gals". In it, a gang of butch-looking bikers called the Buffalo Gals come into C&C's house and eat their carpet. "Carpet-muncher" is a derogatory slang term for lesbians. Their mom says she used to ride with them in college, which is a reference to experimenting in college. This episode was banned after viewers complained about the lesbiphobic stereotypes.
• Finally, HIM from The Powerpuff Girls. He's an effeminate sissy villain, need I say more?

In conclusion, H-B's relationship to the LGBT community is definitely an interesting and tumultuous one. It can help us learn about typical gay stereotypes and appreciate how far LGBT representation in animation has come. To me, the H-B franchise and characters just radiate LGBT energy and you can't tell me otherwise.

(PS: I know you're thinking "but what about race bannon and dr. quest/velma/huck?????" well these characters were portrayed as LGBT in works NOT created by H-B: Harvey Birdman, Mystery Incorporated, and the Snagglepuss comic respectively. also, the Simpsons once joked about Huckleberry Hound being gay, though I'm not sure where they got it from considering he sings about 'Clementine' all the time)