So if you watched Scooby Doo a lot, you probably would have at some point asked yourself ‘If it is ALWAYS a guy in a mask, why don’t they just tackle him and pull the mask off right away?’ Well, we got our answer, but some of us might not even have noticed it.
Scrappy Doo. Most of you probably just remember him as that really annoying, overly energetic dog that reminded you of those bully wannabees in school who bounced up and down challenging all the bigger kids to fight to prove how tough they were. What I noticed, and I hope some of you noticed, is that his plan is EXACTLY what the fans have been asking all along!
This is the character that finally introduces the idea of just kicking the monster’s ass and unmasking it, and the cartoonists portrayed him as one of the most annoying characters ever conceived. Even worse than Weasley because at least Weasley contributes to the solution most of the time that he’s around in his show even if we hate him too.
Scrappy’s presence adds no added element of danger or suspense, rarely does anything useful that the other characters couldn’t, and just annoyed us so much a lot of us probably WANTED him to go try fighting a monster to learn a little humility.
This can’t be accidental. Who really thinks ‘I bet this show would be so much better if we had an annoying brat running around with them’ Plus, he’s actually GOOD in 13 Ghosts if you can get past the fact that you are used to hating him. You know, the series where it ISN’T guys in masks.
I’m pretty sure you guys have figured out where I’m going with this, but for the sake of a proper conclusion to the entry I’ll say it anyway. It is my belief that the purpose of Scrappy Doo is to reinforce the suspension of disbelief by making the point of view of ‘Just knock him down and rip the mask off’ be represented by someone as annoying as possible.