Chicken Reel

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is running a farm where a chick is born that is black instead of pink and yellow. All the birds hate it, until....

Well, this falls into the cartoon plot that I call "the useful idiot", which I get tired of for its many appearances in 1930s cartoon: everyone hates the useful idiot because he is different, until he turns out to be useful, so that's fine.

All of these cartoons arose out of the story about the Ugly Duckling. That however, is about beauty, and not everyone is beautiful. Yes, I know, you think that everyone is beautiful, your hideous offspring most of all, but that's not the case. To make the point stick, the outcast must turn out to be useful. So we should love and tolerate everyone because they have hidden talents, even if they are disgusting.

I ask how often we need a skunk, or a freak reindeer with a bioluminescent nose. Not often enough to make them worth the bother. You'd better learn to tolerate those marginal people, lest they go away and you become the most disgusting individual. Because when it comes down to it, you're not that much better looking than the useful idiot, and way less useful.

At least this one has some clever gags.