If there’s anything we here at cartoon journalism outlet The Dot and Line love as much as cartoons and journalism, it would be hard to pinpoint. That is why, when given the opportunity to speak with Vulture writer Nate Jones about cartoons, we decided that it fell decidedly on the “good idea” side of “Good Idea, Bad Idea.” At this weekend’s Vulture Festival in New York, Jones, as he has in the past, will moderate a panel called “Saturday Morning Cartoons” that will feature, like, half the cast of Archer, plus the voice of Linda Belcher and some other terrific voice actors. Thinking now would be as good a time as any to test his animation chops, we spoke with Jones about his five favorite cartoon characters. Here they are, ranked.
5. Chas Finster
“When I was a kid, the character I always used to identify with was Chuckie from Rugrats, as I’m sure many of the people who grew up to write for pop culture sites did—the scared, nervous best friend who was kind of a dork and kind of a dweeb but always had a good heart. And I loved his dad, Chas. I would see Rugrats and say, ‘I’m going to grow up into Chas.’ This is my destiny. There’s nothing I can do to diverge from this path.”
4. Stewie Griffin
“I’m not the world’s biggest Family Guy fan, but I think you can’t deny that Stewie is just a really unique character. There have been super-smart babies in pop culture before, but they took that trope to its furthest conclusions. I think the writing for him is just a little bit sharper than it is for some of the other characters on Family Guy. Maybe that’s just my taste, but whenever I think about my favorite lines from that show, his lines are the lines that I remember. There’s that good run where Brian is talking about writing a book, and Stewie goes on for, like, a minute just ranting: ‘Oh, you’re going to have a protagonist who’s going to learn stuff?’”
3. Linda Belcher
“She’s this type that everybody knows in real life but for some reason doesn’t show up in pop culture maybe as much as it should. There’s a romance to her and a fun to her—she’s not annoying. There’s a positivity to it, and an optimism, and I think that in other Jewish mom archetypes that doesn’t always come up. A lot of times they’re just nagging and annoying, whereas Linda, it’s more positive. And you can tell—[John Roberts] based it on his mom, and you can tell that there’s this real deep love of her in that performance.”
2. Eric Cartman
“He’s just so specific—he’s so selfish, terrible, and evil, but has such a deep insecurity that you almost can’t hate him for so long because you just know he’s just trying to fill this hole that will never be filled. Also his voice is really fun to do when you’re with your friends, and it’s really fun to annoy people with that. It goes a long way.”
1. Pam Poovey
“She’s such a versatile comic character. You can put her in all sorts of situations and she’ll always be funny. She’s got this gung-ho enthusiasm that really works. She never brings down a scene—she’s always heightening it and adding more energy to it. I think that’s always great, and I think Amber Nash does a great job voicing her.”
As told to John Maher.
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