That was the beauty of the Golden Era episodes: the animation was wacky, the colors were crazy, and plots were absurd...yet they knew how to contrast that with completely grounded, based drama and elements that truly invoked real emotion. You know a TV show is a work of art when a fat, yellow-skin bald man with goofy eyes makes you feel legitimately emotional when you see him sitting on his car alongside the highway longing for his long lost mother who abandoned him.
I still remember that scene, all these years later.. for those who aren't old enough:
As mentioned above, what makes the scene work is there's no dialogue, no ruining it with heavy-handed "HEY, YOU SAD YET?!" monologue...or there being the PERFECT person for him to talk to coming along...
It's just him, sitting alone on the hood of his car, as evening fades into night, unable to do anything but just ... sit there and contemplate what life and fate have dealt him.... you're expecting
something because all shows do that.... EVERY one has a way to let the "Star" down easy from a loss, so you're waiting, waiting... and instead... without the baiting music ending, the credits just start rolling... he DOESN'T get the happy ending.
And it works because we've all been there.
When we experience trauma, genuine loss, we realize how badly TV lies to us...
The final days of a sick loved one, for example, aren't guaranteed to be full of poignant reconciliation or grand speeches like fictional characters get.
The last things your Mom says to you may be beautiful and memorable, but it also could be a harsh whisper for " morphine" or "get the nurse" and not "I'm sorry for that one time... you were right after all" with time for one final hug. They may code while you're in the bathroom down the hall and you don't even get the luxury of hearing the last words at all. They may be so drugged up and full of tubes that they
can't talk....
That's why she clonks her head, to make the point: nobody gets the luxury of planning a personal loss, they just happen, once, with no do-overs. What you get is what you get.
TV tells us a loved one dying will be a choreographed experience with all this deep significance and chances for personal growth and epiphanies a plenty... .
It's not, it's basically just you, watching your loved one die, and being unable to stop it..... and it's awful from start to finish.
So, seeing funny cartoon man have to live out his trauma the way we do, not with manufactured pathos made just for him, but alone, on a deserted road somewhere, where nobody can see him crack or bug him as he grieves, with no helpful greater power sending someone or something to make it at least a bit better.... is instantly recognizable as
human.
