The Subtext of Jonny Quest
I got the first years episode of the cartoon series Jonny Quest,
which I just watched this weekend and holy crap! Is this stuff
gay or what? Adult Swim did a neat satire of Johnny Quest with
it's Birdman Attorney at law series which I thought was a little
harsh, until I revisited my memories with the actual videos.
Jonny Quest was a cartoon show where blond - and very pretty -
ten year old Jonny travels the world with his bachelor scientist
father, Dr. Benton Quest, and Dr. Quest's large blond muscluar
companion, Race Bannon. Bannon serves as Dr. Quest's man Friday
doing everything including flying jets, teaching Jonny
self-defense, rescuing them from cannibals ... you name it.
The three of them travel the globe having adventures until a few
episodes into it they find a pretty brown boy named Hajji whom
they invite along. Then it's a threesome having adventures while
rarely being troubled by the presence of girls. It's never
explicitly stated that Dr. Quest and Race Bannon are gay lovers,
just as it's never explicitly stated that Hajji has been taken
along as a catamite to sate their twisted desires. But what else
could it be?
There is a female character named Jade who shows up in Hong Kong
and has some connection to Race. But it's real clear that he
wants nothing to do with her. The same goes for Jonny and Hajji
because - ewww girls are icky. Perhaps the lack of meaningfully
developed female characters on the show could also be due to
old-fashioned patriarchal mysogeny. It's a toss-up, but either
way - no chicks are allowed in this club.
I never really got exactly what kind of Doctor Dr. Quest really
is. He is a medical doctor, because he does medical things, but
he's also a scientific researcher. His scientific research
involves pretty much anything. Like, he's an anthropologist but
he's also a physicist, but it turns out that he's also a
chemical engineer, and he's a linguist, and a biologist. All
this in addition to practicing medicine. He's probably a
chiropractor, too. So, I guess they must have thought that
Doctor means you can do every type of job that might mean doctor.
These guys travel the world doing their best to extend the
American empire and take on their white man's burden. Constantly
they are running into 'primitive' cultures who are beating their
drums while saying 'Ooogah-Boobah' more or less. Don't worry.
These types can be easily tricked into worshiping our heros as
Gods by means of cigarette lighters or handily placed
loudspeakers. Or Race painted purple to imitate a Water God.
Silly non-American savages! The shows are totally unapologetic
with their stereotypes and believe me, if somebody has a German
or a Chinese accent you can tell which side of the Good/Evil
equation he's on. (Hint: Evil)
I do wonder why Race wasn't ever fired from his job. In two
seperate episodes he has to land their wonderful special jet
someplace remote because he has forgotten to do some sort of
maintenance. For instance, because Race neglected to put fuel in
the jet the whole crew has to land at a landing strip in the
Andes where a fugitive Nazi has his castle.
What is wrong with Race Bannon? He almost kills everybody
because he's too lazy to fuel up the jet. How did he not think
about this? Or another time he crashes the jet in a jungle
somewhere while remarking that he thought her heard some noises
in the engine when he was doing the pre-flight. So why did he
take off instead of trying to fix the problem?
There can only be one reason why he wasn't canned for these
gross incompetencies. Dr. Quest didn't want to fire his
boyfriend.