Cartoon Characters
Why do cartoon characaters have only 4 fingers on each hand?
———- from Harry Hamill of Colorado Springs, CO
Computer animation has become so sophisticated and lifelike that it’s become necessary to devise a way to distinguish cartoon characters from real people. So the FCRA, the Federal Cartooning Regulatory Agency, mandated that all cartoon characters have three or four fingers. Three fingered cartoon characters tend to wear white gloves, though this is more the result of a convention started by the Disney Studios rather than a federal directive. That is not to say that all humanoids with less than five digits are cartoon characters. Many very real people share that condition as the result of birth or accident. A far more convincing test of cartoon-nature comes when such a person runs off a cliff. A cartoon character will linger, seeming to stand on air for a few seconds. A human will not.
Computer animation has become so sophisticated and lifelike that it’s become necessary to devise a way to distinguish cartoon characters from real people. So the FCRA, the Federal Cartooning Regulatory Agency, mandated that all cartoon characters have three or four fingers. Three fingered cartoon characters tend to wear white gloves, though this is more the result of a convention started by the Disney Studios rather than a federal directive. That is not to say that all humanoids with less than five digits are cartoon characters. Many very real people share that condition as the result of birth or accident. A far more convincing test of cartoon-nature comes when such a person runs off a cliff. A cartoon character will linger, seeming to stand on air for a few seconds. A human will not. 