Cartoon Lip Reading
Can deaf people read the lips of cartoon characters such as Fred Flinstone or Scooby Doo?
———- from Dr. Charles Jaworski of Coral Springs, Fl
Sure, if they wanted to. It isn’t easy to read lips, especially the lips of a cartoon character, and usually what that character is saying is so insubstantial as to not be worth the effort. Often, lazy animators have the characters say the same thing over and over again, like “Eat more breakfast cereal.” or “Boy, is this cartoon stupid.” If I were deaf and had gone to all the trouble to learn to read lips, then found myself watching Scooby Doo, I would probably fly into a rage and attack my television. Who knows what injuries I might suffer? Thank goodness that’s only a hypothetical scenario.
