LGBTQ representation in adult animation

In the United States, before the enforcement of the Hays Code, some cartoon shorts contained humor that was aimed at adult audience members rather than children. Following the introduction of the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, independent animation producers attempted to establish an alternative to mainstream animation. Initially, few animation studios in the United States attempted to produce animation for adult audiences, but later examples of animation produced for adults would gain mainstream attention and success. Adult animation in the United States includes shows with superhero, sci-fi, and fantasy elements. Some of the most prominent animations with these mature themes include '' The Simpsons'', ''BoJack Horseman'', ''South Park'', ''Futurama'', and '' Archer'', along with other adult animated television series, feature films, and animation in other forms which helped the genre expand over the years.

Pre-Code animation

The earliest cartoon series were based upon popular comic strips, and were directed at family audiences. Most animation produced during the silent film era was not intended to be shown to any specific age group, but occasionally contained humor that was directed at adult audience members, including risqué jokes. Writer Michael Tisserand argued that all animations were "adult swims in the early days of American animation," with shapes which were hand-drawn, frolicking and not behaving "correctly" before audience members who "reacted with shock at this new life they were witnessing." Some scholars, like Jason Mittel, stated that the assumed audience of these early cartoons, particularly ''Looney Tunes'', has alternated from their initial unspecific audience, to children, and back to general audiences as "classics". The earliest known instance of censorship in animation occurred when the censorship board of Pennsylvania requested that references to bootlegging be removed from Walt Disney's 1925 short '' Alice Solves a Puzzle''. One of the earliest animated pornographic films was ''Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure'', produced circa 1928. It has often been suggested that the film was produced for a private party in honor of Winsor McCay. According to Karl F. Cohen's 1998 book, ''Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America'', rumor held that the film was developed in Cuba years after it was completed, because no lab in New York City would process the film. When a print was screened in San Francisco in the late 1970s, the program notes attributed the animation to George Stallings, George Canata, Rudy Zamora, Sr. and Walter Lantz.

The Motion Picture Association of America, then known as the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association, was established in 1922 as the result of public objection to adult content in films, and a series of guidelines were established, suggesting content that should not be portrayed in films. Until the Hays Code was enforced, many animated shorts featured suggestive content, including sexual innuendo, references to alcohol and drug use, and mild profanity. In the 1933 short '' Bosko's Picture Show'', Bosko appears to use profanity, although it has also been suggested that the character is saying "fox", or even " mug". Apart from this, in the 1920s and 1930s, X-rated cartoons were produced and shown, building upon the "small non-theatrical industry" which had developed "around pornographic films before WWI."

The latter cartoons came at time when the U.S. military began to commission animated films to train recruits. Also see page
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/ref> This morphed into the U.S. Army's First Motion Picture Unit, which existed from 1942 to 1945 located at Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California. The unit included filmmakers like Frank Capra, ''Looney Tunes'' creator Rudolf Ising, animator Frank Thomas, and cartoonist Dr. Seuss, and it produced hundreds of animated "training films on a continuous schedule." Animation was integral in these films, helping pilots fly airplanes, soldiers learn the fine points of military camouflage, or train others how to correctly use hand-held weapons.

The Betty Boop series was known for its use of jokes that would eventually be considered taboo following the enforcement of the Hays Code, including the use of nudity. Betty Boop was initially drawn as a dog, and cast as the girlfriend of another Fleischer character, Bimbo. Betty was redesigned as a human, but the series continued to suggest a love relationship between the two that went further than the normal relationship between humans and their pets. The short ''Is My Palm Read'' contains a scene in which Betty is shown as a child between the ages of four and five, bathing in the nude. In the 1970s, this scene was shown out of context in performances by The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. Concert audiences were not aware that Betty was supposed to be a baby in the sequence.

Another short, '' Bamboo Isle'', contains a sequence in which Betty dances the hula topless, wearing only a lei over her breasts and a grass skirt. According to animator Shamus Culhane, Fleischer Studios and Paramount Pictures were shocked by the sequence, but because it was a major sequence, it could not be cut out of the film. Culhane also states that he does not remember any instance in which the film was censored. Betty's hula animation was reused for a cameo appearance with Popeye the Sailor

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