While most cartoon characters are either right-handed or change hands to fit whatever makes the best pose for a particular frame, we have noticed that there seem to be quite a few cartoon characters that are clearly and consistently left-handed.
Examples include:
- Bart Simpson, Ned Flanders and Mr Burns from The Simpsons (and, occasionally, Marge) - The show's creator, Matt Groening, is himself left-handed.
- Chuckie from Rugrats
- Link - the sword-wielding hero from The Legend of Zelda
- Chris Griffin from Family Guy
- Doug Funnie from Doug
- Arnold from Hey Arnold!
And if we include puppets as well:
- Kermit the Frog from The Muppets
(a creation of the late Jim Henson, also left-handed, as were a lot of the other Muppets) - Bear in the Big Blue House
We are sure you know many more examples and if you do please add them as a comment to this article below and if you can put a link to a page where there is a picture of them being left-handed that would be great and we will build up our list.
What is it that makes the artist or animator draw a left-handed character? We would be very interested in your thoughts:
Is it because the artist is left-handed?
Are there more left-handed cartoon artists than you would expect from the 10% or so of left-handers in the population?
Is there anything special about animation that makes a left-handed character easier to draw than the right-handed ones?
Is it because when a cartoonist is drawing them he draws their writing hand on the same side as his writing hand (his right, their left)?
Are there deliberate reasons for making some characters left-handed - to seem a bit "quirky" or rebellious (Bart?)
Left-handed puppets are interesting. The Big Blue Bear is left-handed on the show; he seems to do most things with his left hand. This is because the head controls are important and a right-handed puppeteer's right hand is busy moving the head and mouth and has to do other things with their left hand. In a similar fashion, a lot of The Muppets are left-handed, because their puppeteers are right-handed, so the right hand is almost always used to operate the puppet's head.
What about left-handed puppeteers? Is it really hard to do as the puppets are designed for right-handed use?
We found this video that gives some explanations:
Talking about Link, the star of the Zelda series, he claims it was "inherited" from his Dad, the game designer who is left-handed himself. However, in later versions of the game Link turned right-handed for far more practical reasons to do with the controller positions on Gamebox, Wii and Nintendo machines.
We would also be interested in links to cartoons about being left-handed. Here is one page we found (though not particularly funny!)
https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/l/left_handed.asp
I am sure we can find funnier cartoons than these?
Please post your views on this and any other left-handed characters you can find as comments below.
Comments 46
https://www.reddit.com/r/southpaws/comments/36f32o/jerry_from_the_cartoon_tom_and_jerry_is_lefthanded/
SpongeBob claims to be ambidextrous, but in another episode claimed to have two left hands.
And I think Piglet from Winnie the Pooh wrote leftie as well.
But that's all I can think of.
Steve and Hayley confront their mother and tell her that there's nothing wrong with beeing a leftie and that they won't think less of their mother because of it.
At the end of the episode when Francine is trying to use the left hand for every day use she slits Steve's throat but that was just a gag...
Jim was definitely right handed. When a right handed puppeteer has their dominant hand inside the puppet's head, the puppet's left arm is easier to control with the puppeteer's own left hand - hence making their puppets left handed.
So yup, I'm completely left handed so my puppets generally look right handed :)
Dave Goelz often works Gonzo and his characters with either hand. This is particularly "handy" when signing autographs at the same time as wearing a puppet, lol!
So there you have it...
Mike
I'm surprised you didn't find Left-Handed Toons (https://www.lefthandedtoons.com/) in your search for cartoons. Basically it is a couple of guys who drawn cartoons with their non-dominant hand.
There is a photograph of Ms. Guisewite herself documenting this at www.prlog.org/10470285-visiting-artist-program-launches-at-pasadena-special-education-school
https://www.ayesongs.com/2012/08/gail-scott-space-pilot-volume-1-2/
Warning: her friend Lynn speaks Glaswegian. Apologies to all the non-Scots readers.
I know that a lot of cartoonists and comic artists use mirrors to check facial expressions and how people hold things. However, if you want to draw a hand doing something complicated, it is easiest to pose your own non-drawing hand as a model. In this case, lefties will tend to draw righties and righties will tend to draw lefties. For variety I invoke my superpower of ambidexterity to work both ways.
However there are a number of puppeteers who started out as puppet-builders who puppeteer with their secondary hand. Consequently Terry Angus and Richard Coombes are right-handers who choose to puppeteer lefthanded for this reason. It is likely that similarly there are probably lefthanders who started out as puppet-builders who would choose to puppeteer right handed (I've heard rumours that Dave Goelz might be one, but that is a rumour, would be nice if someone in the know could confirm it) There have also been instances of performers who though right-handed had to puppeteer lefthanded on some jobs either because of injury or more often position of puppet on set (Sesame Street performers Jerry Nelson and Carroll Spinney being examples). BUt of course there puppeteers who puppeteer lefthnded because they themselves are naturally lefthanded. Mike Quinn is one example. But perhaps the best known example is of a truly left-handed puppeteer is Louise Gold, not least because not only was she one of the puppeteerson The Muppet Show itself, she was also a leading puppeteer on Spitting Image!
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