A few weeks ago, none other than former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins published an essay in The Wall Street Journal called “Inspired by a Bunny Wabbit“, wherein he extolls the virtues of Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes cartoons. He outlines their influence on his work, and even includes four poems from his first published collection written about the four pillars of Looney (“Bugs”, “Daffy”, “Porky” and “Elmer”). I love this highbrow-meets-lowbrow mentality, discussing the pleasures that can be derived from these works that most English professors would probably publicly deride – and it’s not just knee-slapping humor that Collins advocates, but also the bizarre takes on sexuality and cosmopolitanism that run rampant in these classic animations. I’ve long believed that there’s plenty of rich material to be found in classic popular culture, and hearing a poet laureate share that opinion is wonderfully vindicating. Now to write my epic poem based on Terry and the Pirates…