The classics are beloved: "Rabbit Of Seville" (1949), with Elmer and Bugs rewriting Rossini; "What's Opera, Doc?" (1957), with Bugs as Brunnhilde pursued by Elmer as Siegfried. Looney Tunes prospered at a time when a mass audience could be relied upon to know something of the core repertoire and conventions of opera, ballet, the fine arts. It's trickier doing that now, when no one knows nothing but rock'n'movies'n'TV shows. On the other hand, Looney Tunes can also be said to have pioneered, animated shorts-wise, the post-modern. See "Duck Amuck" (1953), in which Daffy struggles to hold the narrative together as the hand of a malevolent cartoonist keeps intruding to switch backgrounds, remove props and humiliate the duck with embarrassing costumes. At the end of the picture, the camera pulls back to reveal that the sadist behind Daffy's misfortunes is none other than Bugs himself.I look back to my childhood when our cultural education was such that, among other similar experiences, George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra would host all of the elementary school children at least once a year to play for us and explain what was behind the notes. Szell even went so far as to tell us when to applaud and when not to. That's really something I wish the crowds at Tanglewood knew, as they often obscure the opening of the next movement with their absurd clapping.
There are now bar owners, welders, and carpet cleaners in northeastern Ohio who can explain what is a divertimento and why it's important. The subsequent generations can tell you why the slaughter of a lion that they didn't know about the day before is the purest act of evil in the history of the human race, but can't find Zimbabwe on a map.