Favorite 10 Animaniacs Episode Sketches

...Time for something completely different to most of the stuff on here. I just completing watching Animaniacs with my online friend ThorGunderson1058 and given his love for the series I thought I'd commemorate this occasion with a list of my top 10 episode sketches done in the series.  This was REALLY hard, I went through the list and picked ones I thought were contenders and had 28 so just know there was a lot of good options to choose from. I think you'll probably notice my tastes tend towards the romantic, sentimental stuff over the strictly comedic. Regardless I hope you enjoy.

10: When Rita met Runt (7B)
Animaniacs seems to like dualities represented by their characters. The Elder Slappy and the Younger Skippy (you could say it's generation gap-y), The fearless carefree Mindy and the anxious beleaguered Buttons, The genius Brain and the insane Pinky and so forth. However the duality most resonated with me with this duality, and this episode sets them up beautifully.

Rita is a cynical misanthropic cat and Runt is a naive trusting dog. There's something classical beautiful in the notion that they become friends initially because they were placed in animal shelter cages next to each other; able to talk to each other but unable to see each other and their corresponding species that are supposed to be at conflict. The episode sets up Rita's history and pain of dealing with humans who rejected her as she grew from being a cute kitten to just a cat. In that sense, Runt could be seen as her own hope which she mentally separates from, but remains protective of.

9: Katie-Ka Boom: Call Waiting (63C)
People have told me that I take things too seriously. And.....yeah they're probably right. Right or not, I have a long history of insisting that things are very important and should be treated seriously. Despite my lack of an explosive anger, I found the Katie-Ka Boom segments to be very relatable as well as very funny. I have mentioned before that I find humor about a character acting more casual then expected to be un-funny but humor about a character acting more dramatic then expected to be funny and yeah this is VERY much a case of the latter humor.

This episode in particular however I found particularly not just funny but relatable. I've had cases where parental obligations meant having to cancel plans with friends and the like, I'm sure most of us have. Not quite the same but it's similar enough, and I certainly thought that socially it would be the death of our relationship. Obviously it didn't and I was overreacting, so I can relate to the experience of the titular character.

8: Alas Poor Skullhead (39B)
Animaniacs takes place in a universe where cartoon characters subsist on laughter and humor the way we humans subsist on food and water. The Warners translate part of Hamlet's speech to Yorick's skull in a way that's surprisingly....cogent within the metaphysics of their universe.

"Alas, Poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy:  He hath bore me on his back a thousand times; And now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were bound to set the table on a roar?"  Not one now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing."

The famed Alas Poor Yorick speech is a speech about Hamlet's depressed state upon seeing the decay of humanity, the transition from a state of joy and merriment to inevitable death. Not something that translates to a children's cartoon....and yet the way it is translated it strangely fitting given their focus on humor and laughter as life. Particularly when Dot translates "where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were bound to set the table on a roar?" as "How come you're not funny now?" Which is a simplified translation yes, but also a reflection on how these cartoon characters would understand death, a cessation of laughter. Given Dot's sad expression saying this, in contrast to most of the sketch it can also be taken as how the Cartoon Beings understand dead members of their own kind; with confusion that they are "not funny now", that thinking of them makes them sad instead of laugh. It's not really expanded upon but it's a rather intriguing concept and a translation that works surprisingly well in the context of the series. 

7: A Very Very Very Very Special Episode (86A)

In-universe the concept of this episode is the Warners are trying to get a humanitarian cartoon award and so stuff their cartoon episode absolutely full of positive wholesome messages. Now I'm one of those old-fashioned people that completely 100% not only buy those positive wholesome messages (well mostly....they were saying that men finding a woman in a biking to be hot as "looking at women as objects" and Dot going to use violence as wrong since "violence didn't solve anything" but for the most part) but enjoy them being relayed to me. 

So in both a straightforward and ironic sense I enjoyed the episode. Technically the messages they are teaching are "supposed" to be not entertaining because they're clearly just preachy messages put it to get an award but not only do I not mind that, I was agreeing with it. And they do a really good job of stuffing them all in so (purposefully) unnaturally that it was also really funny in the way they intended. So yeah, the episode was entertaining me on the direct level they meant but also indirectly in the sense that I actually enjoy episodes teaching the messages they were parodying teaching.

6: Puttin' on the Blitz (31B)

Honestly I wish this episode was a full length episode. In the time it had, it had one of the most emotional moments in the series for me and showed immense thematic possibility. This episode has Rita and Runt in Poland during the Second World War during the German Invasion. The two reunite the little girl Katrina with her father as they escape the country and the hands of the Nazi.

Rita and Runt are opposed in their trust of others. If there was any historical events that would break one's truth in others, it would be the world wars. The episode indeed revolves around the worthwhile-ness of trusting of each other, which makes the climax all the more relevant. After Runt sacrifices his own chance at happiness to protect Rita, Katrina, and Katrina's father, Rita having just seen two examples of people failing to abandon their loved ones even at great personal expense (Katrina's father not abandoning her, and Runt not abandoning them) does the same and gives up her own chance of happiness to accompany Runt. 

5: Wild Blue Yonder (46B)

This episode is about a newly hatched bird who hatched while his mother was away, and so does not know who his mother is and eventually thinks a stealth fighter is his mother, on account of them both flying.

For a series usually not hugely pathos-based, there's a surprisingly......disturbing scene where the bird sees the fighter drop a large amount of missiles on an enemy base and assumes that they are his egg siblings, and attempts to save them, only to get almost blown up for his efforts. It is very sad however the ending is very sweet. After being reunited with his actual mother, his two actual siblings hatch and he prevents them from making the same mistake they did. It's a very sweet and emotional episode, touching on themes I like.

4: No Time for Love (89B)

This is a short episode about a cuckoo clock bird that falls in love with a real cuckoo bird. The cuckoo clock bird attempts to woo her but can only come out on the hour for seconds at a time. 

I love that this episode can be seen as a comedic romantic story with unusual characters, an interesting little fantasy story about a living cuckoo clock bird, and a metaphor for how our desires draw us together but extenuating circumstances (time/fate/inevitability) draw us apart. The ending is also really perfect for the story where the cuckoo bird goes inside the cuckoo clock, which if we're following the metaphor is in this case accepting and living within someone's limitations to be with them, which is part of the compromise of any relationship.

3: Baghdad Cafe (35E)

My first impression of this episode was different then my current opinion. It was humorous seeing Slappy replace Dot, and the confusion and awkwardness that causes. Going just off my first impression it would still have been one of the 28 I would have considered for this list but I don't know if it would have been in the top 10, let alone this high. However I then had the significance of this episode explained and it really made me appreciate it more. 

Slappy is an Elder Squirrel and represents the old way of the cartoons, using antiquated cartoon conventions and techniques as opposed to most of her cartoon contemporaries. The episode has her being pressured to do things the way Dot, and symbolically, most modern cartoons would but instead she ends up going off the rails and doing it the way she would have. The symbolic significance of this is a neo-classical statement, a reconstructionist statement in favor of the old ways. I really love the neo-classical philosophy, aesthetic and general temperament and so I have a massive fondness for this episode doing that, even if its part of an artistic tradition I am ignorant in. 

2: One Flew over the Cuckoo Clock (83)

This episode begins with the Elder Cartoon Squirrel Slappy going insane from her tv and losing track of reality. Her young nephew Skippy tries to put on a brave face and take care of her without letting anyone know what's going on. Eventually the authorities take Slappy away but Skippy still tries to bring her back to reality, visiting her everyday. Already the episode was so sweet, seeing the familial devotion that strong. Slappy didn't recognize her nephew but she is shown looking out the window shedding a single tear after he tells he'll "love you forever, Aunt Slappy".

Slappy is taken away and despite all his efforts, he can not keep going to see Slappy. Internally some of the other patients doubted Skippy's loyalty saying he would stop coming of his own accord. However despite her temporary insanity, despite the others trying to destroy her hope, Slappy notices Skippy not coming everyday, and the sheer realization that her nephew needs her is enough to bring her back to reality.

The episode is a really beautiful episode about the familial bonds of devotion that remain constant across time, that defy even madness. 

1: Smitten with Kittens (39A)

This episode features prominently three cute kittens so automatically it's 10/10 perfect episode :P beyond that though this episode prominently features maternal themes that really really got to me. Rita insists she doesn't want to look after the kittens or be anyone's mama citing first all the things being a mama requires, all the many things that she wouldn't want before adding in her song right after sadly "on the other hand, oh my mama, I love you mama, I'll never leave you mama..." which was just heart breaking coming from her. 

Despite her attachment to them, Rita in the end doesn't take them with her, but allows them to be taken to a better home then she could provide, simultaneously proving that she was completely wrong that she would not be a good mama by demonstrating the single most important quality of a good mama; putting their needs above your own. The episode really crushed my heart, it was amazingly emotional.