in celebration of my recent post-a-thon, i have one final post today.
...why do you think most cartoon characters have only four fingers???


even this guy has only four.
and these two... , and .

well, except this guy.

i expect you to all be creative with your answers!

My most logical one: it is too much detail for a small drawing. 4 fingers gets the message across that it is a hand, which is what they want to show

Of course this was asked before:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m3fingercartoon.html

The exception is probably because the hand is an important detail in that emoticon. it's "talk to the hand" so it makes sense to represent it as good as possible.

well, i feel much better knowing that i'm not the only one wasting brain cells by wondering why that is.

in my own quest, i reached another conclusion: thumbs are a must, but it isn't really anatomically necessarily to have five fingers.

i've also noticed that [/I]most characters[/I] get hands: pigs, cats, sponges, dogs, mice, coyotes and ducks. some do not, like horses and roadrunners.

i also want to know why they are half-dressed many times: daisy duck and minnie mouse wear their dresses too short and male characters wear jackets often, but no pants.

Mind.. side note.. if you want things italics, the first [/i] should be without a /

yeah, i don't know what's up with that. i press the italic button...sometimes i get them and sometimes i don't. i could see if i were putting it in manually, so to speak.

Hrmmm... interesting.. if I remember I will check forumer to see if a bug report is there yet.

i'm trying to think if it has ever happened anywhere else. hrmmm...
i don't think so. at least, not that i can recall.
well, at least i know what to look for before i click *reply*.

Posted on the forumer forum: here

Wait and see.

That I don't know, I never considered cartoon animals sexy... at most I wondered why do they have clothes at all, not why the dress is too short... I thought it's a cute way to humanize them conveying the idea that they are only cartoon characters and that the people who draw them don't shoot for realism.

i agree that the particular animation that i've been referring to is in no way meant as realism. i just find it odd to note what things animators put emphasis on or choose not to and i find it interesting and funny. cartoon animals aren't sexy, but they are portrayed very frequently in assorted relationships, including romantic relationships and marriage. my comments about dress and such were meant jokingly, though. much of what i see probably doesn't mean a thing, but i still can't help notice details.