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Famous "Furries"
13 years ago
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While I'm in the process of getting my laptop up and running again, here's something for you to think about until I can get my AC2012 Post-Con Report sorted out.
The average person doesn't know what a Furry is. I like to explain it as "people who like cartoon animals" since those are simple terms that most people are capable of comprehending. But something that not a lot of people realize is that Furries are in fact a part of everyday life, even for the most mundane of humans. Take for instance the simple act of grocery shopping. How many times have you gone down the cereal aisle and noticed that "silly rabbit" on a box of Trix, or Tony the Tiger, encouraging kids to "earn their stripes" from the front of every box of Frosted Flakes? Then there's the popular world of sports. Many teams have animal mascots. Off the top of my head, I can think of the Miami Dolphins, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Penn State Nittany Lions. The university I attend has the Huskies, and my high school was the Cougars. People have been anthropomorphizing animals since long before the Furry Fandom came into the picture. So if you ever need to explain what Furries are, here's a list of well-known, yet often unacknowledged Furry characters:
* Tony the Tiger
* the Trix rabbit
* Toucan Sam
* the Cookie Crisp wolf
* Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters
* pretty much any sports team mascot
* the cast of the Sly Cooper video games
* Ratchet from the Ratchet & Clank video games
* the Vlasic Pickles stork
* the Biker Mice from Mars
* Sonic the Hedgehog (and friends)
* the cast of Adventure Time
* the cast of Regular Show
* the cast of The Amazing World of Gumball
* any meme featuring an animal
I think that pretty much covers it for now. Feel free to expand the list if I've forgotten any.
The average person doesn't know what a Furry is. I like to explain it as "people who like cartoon animals" since those are simple terms that most people are capable of comprehending. But something that not a lot of people realize is that Furries are in fact a part of everyday life, even for the most mundane of humans. Take for instance the simple act of grocery shopping. How many times have you gone down the cereal aisle and noticed that "silly rabbit" on a box of Trix, or Tony the Tiger, encouraging kids to "earn their stripes" from the front of every box of Frosted Flakes? Then there's the popular world of sports. Many teams have animal mascots. Off the top of my head, I can think of the Miami Dolphins, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Penn State Nittany Lions. The university I attend has the Huskies, and my high school was the Cougars. People have been anthropomorphizing animals since long before the Furry Fandom came into the picture. So if you ever need to explain what Furries are, here's a list of well-known, yet often unacknowledged Furry characters:
* Tony the Tiger
* the Trix rabbit
* Toucan Sam
* the Cookie Crisp wolf
* Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters
* pretty much any sports team mascot
* the cast of the Sly Cooper video games
* Ratchet from the Ratchet & Clank video games
* the Vlasic Pickles stork
* the Biker Mice from Mars
* Sonic the Hedgehog (and friends)
* the cast of Adventure Time
* the cast of Regular Show
* the cast of The Amazing World of Gumball
* any meme featuring an animal
I think that pretty much covers it for now. Feel free to expand the list if I've forgotten any.
So adding to the list: Bowser himself, anthropomorphic turtle-dragon. The entire Koopa Jrs as well.
Hell, half the entire background characters of the entire Dragon Ball series have anthropomorphic animals, walking, talking, driving cars & trucks, as heroes, as villains, as military generals and the King of the World is a Schnauzer! All living amongst humans and the humans are so used to it, that they don't even notice, why would they? Isn't this the kind of paradise some of us have?
I think what really helped the fandom come up in Japan was because of Akira Toriyama, whom may just be a fur himself. Why not, in Japan: We have crossdressing female singers and actresses. Constant anime cons and stuff. So, the furry fandom, it's not very much different from the anime convention, just replace anime with animals, add the otherkins (like me), add the very dedicated, and other characters we have in the real world.
Add the fact those who got the fandom its roots, the one that crosses my mind is Friz Frieleng, creator of the Looney Tunes in the 1930s. Hanna & Barbera's works from 1957-2006. Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw were the very first two memorable works in 1958.
Add Peanuts, because of Snoopi and Woodstock. Add Garfield and Odie. Add Heathcliff. There's endless examples. Yet, certain people are just oblivious to it, including the Haters, as every work and fandom will have them, always.
You make excellent points Z, :) just thought I'd add my dollar cents to this.
Like back in the 40s & 50s where they'd show a cartoon before the actual feature. I know of one movie theatre in Bethlehem that did that, the Roxy Theater if you have ever been down there. It's a pretty old theatre too, one showing room and a wide audience seating like old theatres used to have instead of the stadium seating trend nowadays.
I'm waiting on the Balcony seating trend to take place :P We started flat, then went to a slant, then it became narrower and smaller, but still on a slant. It then became a stadium seating trend. Then it became an IMAX & 3D trend. Heh, it's funny.