Cartoon Sunday: Axeman Cartoons' "Black Sheep"

How's it going lurkers? It is refreshing to see that some of you liked yesterday's blog, which featured Helicopter Girl's "Satan's Seventh Bride." I reiterate, it was something different than the usual. Let's continue this trend for today's Cartoon Sunday blog.

This blog takes a more horrific turn with this animated short being featured for today. 

Remember the English nursery rhyme, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep"?

"Bah, Bah, a black Sheep,

Have you any Wool?

Yes merry I Have,

Three Bags full,

Two for my Master,

One for my Dame,

None for the Little Boy

That cries in the lane."

In the 1744 London anthology, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song-Book, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" was published. 

Mother Goose's Melody was the next surviving anthology with a similar rhyme to the original.

The last line was revised as "But none for the little boy who cries in the lane," in the 1765 Mother Goose Edition. Over time, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" was modified as saying:

"Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes, sir, yes, sir,

Three bags full;

One for the master,

And one for the dame,

And one for the little boy

Who lives down the lane."

In 1761, some theorists claimed this nursery rhyme was a complaint against Medieval English taxes on wool and that it was about the slave trade. 

By the 20th Century, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" became a controversial topic, which included sparking debates about POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.

There are those, who automatically associate "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" with American Slave Trade from The South. 

Considering how obsessed Americans are today regarding "political correctness" ad nauseam, it goes without saying that the nursery rhyme is viewed as "racially dubious," "racist," etc. (Insert eye roll)

However, Katherine Elwes Thomas (author) suggested that in the 1930 book, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" referred to those, who resented the heavy wool taxation.

This was especially, when it came to the Medieval English "Great" or "Old Custom" Wool Tax of 1275. This heavy wool taxation lasted, until the 15th Century.

Aside from the controversy, Axeman Cartoons gives a sinister yet apocalyptic meaning to the nursery rhyme, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep."

In this Horror Animated Short, it appears that the black sheep is out for blood, while seeking restitution for something. 

Honestly, I cannot tell you what that guy did to the black sheep to cause all hell to break loose. It's as if the black sheep turned into Damien from The Omen. Yes, the black sheep is THAT  evil! 

Anyway, here is Axeman Cartoons' "Black Sheep" for today's Cartoon Sunday.

Axeman Cartoons "Black Sheep" (2016)