L'olimpiade della risata

I was born in 1976 so I grew up with all these crazy beloved Hanna-Barbera characters. The Laff-A-Lympics are a great show idea of mixing lots of your favorite HB characters, esp the older characters like Huckleberry Hound. The format I'd the show is a great idea AND when you factor in the "who's competing this week? You get a lot more fun. All the locations are awesome. Also it's always fun to see how the Rottens are cheating and (gasp!) are they going to get caught?!? Add to that the silliness of cartoon logic-Speed Buggy and Tinker LOSE the dune buggy race?!? Yakky Doodle is supposed to pull Grape Ape?!? And there's a 3 dog sled race, do the Scoobies strap in Scooby Doo, Scooby Dumb and Dynomutt? Nope they make the Teen Angel girls pull Captain Caveman! So for all that, this is an amazing show concept and delivers all that 5-10 year old me could want.

Now I've rewatched this as an adult and let me just say this-THESE OLYMPICS ARE RIGGED! When you're a kid-it's the Rottens, you're constantly having to keep an eye on them. But they're not the real issue-it's clear that the REAL cheaters are the Scoobies! The name of the show tells you all you need to know, the Scoobies dominate this thing, and it's not even close. Having WAY too much time on my hands, I recorded the wins. And here is the breakdown: in 24 episodes, 1st place wins, Scoobies 14, Yogis 7, the Rottens manage a measly 2 and the final episode is a 3 way tie. Where do I begin? The Yogis are CLEARLY the better team, have more team members, a lot more diversity of talent and a 40 foot gorilla! But time and time again they suffer losses from the no good Scoobies. Tell me how Quick Draw McGraw (the FASTEST draw in the West) loses ANYTHING?!? What about Yogi? He is LITERALLY smarter than the average bear!! But he's taking a loss to Shaggy?!? Get out of here with that nonsense. If the Great Fondue does bad magic, the Rottens get minus 50 points-but if Babu "yapple dapples" it's gold, baby, it's gold for the Scoobies all day. Disgusting.

The opening is your first tip off- every show intro focuses on Scooby, Dynomutt and Captain Caveman who are ALL on Team Scooby. Bias much?!? Sure, there's plenty to like in Team Scooby and they've got 4 solid super heroes (Caveman, B Falcon, Dynomutt AND Hong Kong Phooey!) but the lopsided refereeing is shameless. When the Scoobies win 8 of the first 10 episodes, it's pretty clear the fix is in and the Rottens are just a red herring.

Watching this as adult, my real beef isn't with the Rottens-Daisy Mayhem is going to Daisy Mayhem. I EXPECT that. But I tell you what hurts the most, what really cuts: Snagglepuss. That cat got his start on Yogis show in 1961! That's 60 years of friendship. Does Snagglepuss do the right thing? Does he keep the games on the up and up? Oh heck no! He's clearly been bought and paid for by the Scoobies. Seeing this betrayal is hard. It's embarrassing seeing Snaggiepuss just sitting there, with all his authority, watching this miscarriage of justice and just punking over his old friend. Snag needs to "exit: stage fraudulent."

After Olympic fever swept the nations, especially in the United States during its bicentennial in 1976, a substitute was badly needed until the next Olympic Games in 1980. Fortunately, Hanna-Barbera provided the necessary relief in animated form with this terrific series. At least 45 of their classic cartoon characters were featured on this show competing for the gold medal. The All-Stars were divided into 3 teams. First are the Yogi Yahooeys, which featured Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Huckleberry Hound, and other wacky animal characters featured in hundred of shorts that were first seen in the late 1950's to early 1960's. Second are the Scooby Doobies featuring (obviously) Scooby-Doo, his sidekicks Shaggy and Scooby-Dum, as well as their fellow crime fighters and mystery solvers (including superheroes Captain Caveman, Hong Kong Phooey, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt) whose shows debuted in the late 60's to early '70's. The Scoobys team was my personal favorite since I first saw their shows as a kid in this particular decade. Last and least, we have the Really Rottens, most of whom appeared only on this show. The only exception was team captain Mumbly, who was featured in "Mumbly, Relentless Detective", which was part of H-B's "Tom and Jerry Show" a couple of years earlier. Ironically, he was the good guy in that series, but here with the wrong crowd, Mumbly is particularly deceitful and conniving. Paired with teammate Dread Baron, they strike a strong resemblance to Dick Dastardly and Muttley from "The Wacky Races". If you've seen that show, you know they were just as diabolical. As a matter of fact, I can even recall at least a couple of Laff-A-Lympics where Mumbly was called Muttley. Is it possible that they're brothers (or even cousins)? They certainly have similar traits!

As for the show, the main objective for each team was to score the highest number of points to earn the gold medal. The majority of events had the simple scoring process of 25 points for the winner, 15 for second, and 10 for third place. There were occasional 50-point bonus events which could help a team get back into the competition or pull them away depending on whoever was trailing or leading at the time. Though some events were similar to real-life Olympic events, others were pretty offbeat and quite unusual, which likely means they could only be done in cartoons like this. Among the weird events were racing on ostriches, camels, kangaroos, rickshaws and unicycles, as well as more daring events like scavenging for creatures like vampires, the Abominable Snowman, and the Loch Ness Monster. With events like these, each Laff-A-Lympic was bound to be a major adventure!

While the Scooby and Yogi teams competed with flair and determination (and crazy hilarity), the Rottens always resorted to cheating and usually sabotaged their opponents' efforts to win. However, with rules and regulations in place, they very rarely got away with their dirty deeds. In some cases, they suffered point deductions if their efforts went too far. So it was no surprise that they usually ended up as the third place bronze medalists. But unlike Dastardly and Muttley from the aforementioned Wacky Races, the Rottens actually did win at least a couple of Laff-A-Lympics. It just goes to show that even the down-and-out group will eventually have their day if they keep trying.

Overall, this was a very entertaining show to watch as a kid (and even an adult). This show was the perfect venue to showcase Hanna-Barbera's All-Stars. Since the real Olympics bring the nations of the world together, "Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics" brought many of H-B's characters in the same environment. Though some individual cartoons allowed for a few cameos from other characters, this was about the only show where members of Yogi's and Scooby's teams could interact with each other. This concept was nothing but pure genius from the minds of William Hanna and Joe Barbera!

At 18, I grew up on the classic cartoons such as Scooby Doo, Wacky Races and Yogi Bear and I still do. I first came across Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics going through a Scooby Doo phase and after one episode I was hooked. The animation was surprisingly good, it was crisp, clean and smooth, and the music was great. The theme tune is simple in some ways but definitely memorable and not annoying. The writing is witty and hilarious, and while every episode derives from the admittedly terrific concept it was great to see how The Really Rottens resorted to cheating, who won each race(I found myself rooting for the Scooby Doobies) and what sort of things they did. The real joys were the characters though. Snagglepuss is a great commentator, I love his voice and his dialogue, and Mumbly's exasperated mumbles and facial expressions when the Really Rottens lost or were caught cheating are priceless. I also loved seeing Scooby, Captain Caveman, Yogi Bear and Dread Baron(who looks very like Dick Dastardly). The voice acting was also solid, I especially liked Mel Blanc's Captain Caveman, then again I may be biased as I love Mel Blanc. Overall, a great show from my childhood, and had a terrific concept. 10/10 Bethany Cox

If you like old cartoons, this one is is perfect for you. It features mostly all of the Hanna-Barbera characters in an "Olympic" style setting. There are 3 teams: The Yogi Bear's, the Scooby Dooby's, and the Really Rottons. Each episode, the individual teams try to win enough events to get the gold metal. The Really Rottons hardly ever win, because they mainly resort to cheating. If you like old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, check this one out. I think it may still be playing on Cartoon Network.

Can you imagine your kids, glued to the television, watching a cartoon as if it were the real Olympics and rooting for their favorite team of cartoon characters to win? that's sort of exactly what this show was. I vaguely remember arguing with the twins next door about what team was better and worrying that the Really Rottins would win even though they always cheated and....the 80s were insane for children.

Cartoon crack.

And hysterical to boot.

Unfortunately, as you get older, it's harder to really identify with cartoons and root for your favorite teams like you did when you were really little.

It's harder to suspend your disbelief enough to convince yourself that, yes, this is a real competition like the Olympics for cartoons...

But as a kid, this was awesome and as an adult, well, it's as nostalgic as it is embarrassing. The vague memories of your five-year-old self and how memorized you were by the Olympics, how much you felt was at stake...well...

The good news is that now you can introduce it all to 5 year-olds and watch them get as excited about it as you were.