Most of the characters I create are wise asses, bunking authority and refusing to settle down just because it’s the norm, probably because I am one at heart myself. I grew up running around with a large group of smart ass Jersey guys, and you had to be quick and biting or you’d be eviscerated quickly. Year after year of this shaped my writing style very quickly. Harry McLaughlin, who I had done both Bloo’s Gang and Ignoramooses with earlier that year, clearly felt the same way. We would quite often have little running gags and voices between us where we would try to ‘out- smartass’ each other. It wasn’t always clear who won because we were both pretty good at it but it made us laugh all the time and I think a lot of our collaborative writing came from these little ‘smartass’ sessions. Anyway, here’s a short we did called Woolley Mammoth in 1997 right after The Ignoramooses. why we couldn’t give him a better name I don’t know. It was never made into a What A Cartoon short simply because they ran out of slots, but I like to think it would have been one if they had done more because I always found it pretty funny and I hope you do too.
