Is snagglepuss gay

Heavens to Murgatroyd, the question isn’t “Is Snagglepuss gay,” it’s “How can he not be gay.” The very pink, very femme thespian fits just about every gay stereotype on record. After years of speculation, it's finally been confirmed: The classic and beloved cartoon star Snagglepuss is officially gay.

This may come as a shock to some, if they haven't really looked into. The comic depicted Snagglepuss as a gay playwright living in s New York City whose career featured parallels to that of Tennessee Williams and was also given a male human lover named Pablo who he was in a closeted relationship with.

Snagglepuss has found his true self a gay Southern gothic playwright who goes to Broadway in the s and struggles with his sexuality. DC Comics is reviving Hanna-Barbera cartoons for its. While LGBT pride, activists, and folklorists will like to use Snagglepuss as a gay icon because of his lavender fur colour, his lisping speech and his fondness for the theatrical, Joseph Barbera was once quoted as denying the likelihood, insisting that the character (and voice) were modelled on Bert Lahr (adding that Lahr "once beat up on his.

snagglepuss catchphrase

Now DC is going even further into the Hanna-Barbera vaults, and giving us a post-modern take on one of their earliest iconic characters, Snagglepuss. Created in , this was an era where gay characters in all forms of media were all coded — as being gay was extremely taboo, and in fact, illegal — but without a doubt, the character was meant to encapsulate and mock what American society thought of a gay man.

It would be unfair to beat up on Hanna-Barbera in particular for doing this, since basically every form of media tackled gay people disrespectfully at the time. The basic premise of this new series finds us in a world where talking anthropomorphic animals live alongside humans, if for no other reason than they did in those old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. But his marriage is a sham, and at one point he sneaks away to meet his male lover who is also human to boot, and a foreigner at a local underground gay watering hole, which happens to be the historic Stonewall Inn.

I should add, all of these details reflect in one form or another the real life of legendary playwright Tennessee Williams.

The entire idea of using a cartoon character like Snagglepuss to explore maybe the most paranoid and repressive time in American history might seem outlandish on the surface, but writer Mark Russell finds a way to make it all work. The entire premise of that movie is patently ridiculous, but since the film is played straight, it forces the viewer to ignore the trappings and pay attention to the actual story.

Snagglepuss is very much the same — once you get past the fact that lions and golden retrievers are just part of society, this is just a study of repressive American values in the first half of the 20th century. The writing by Mark Russell is witty and compelling enough to keep you seriously invested in its premise, no matter how silly it may seem on the surface and the art by Mike Feehan is perfectly serviceable, although nothing Earth-shattering.

What do you think of this deconstruction of a cartoon favorite? Be sure to let us know what you think down below in the comments.