Back in the day, when it came to drawing a cartoon character, one thing they couldn’t live without in terms of attire was a pair of fancy white gloves. Whether it’s a cat, mouse, or whatever Goofy (he’s officially classified as “Canis Goofus”), a whistling, walking, sketching animated hero wouldn’t be caught dead without a pair of immaculate white gloves – but why? In a world where an overly fidgety duck wore a sailor’s hat and shirt but nothing to cover his lower half, why were gloves so essential for characters who debuted at the forefront of animation?

The truth is that the unmistakable mittens were added to characters like Mickey Mouse as a byproduct of inspiration and necessity. Not only were they part of a shameful form of entertainment of the time, but also a radical method of creating characters who would eventually achieve iconic status in the years that followed. The next time you see Mickey putting on his gloves before heading out on an adventure, know that they were there because artists found them easy to draw and were partly inspired by blackface. Yeah.

According to “Birth of an Industry” by Nicholas Sammond (via Voice), the author explained that the animated characters were linked to the vaudeville and blackface minstrel shows of that era. Once you know this, it becomes an eye-opening discovery that you cannot ignore.

Sammond explains that they “were not only as the minstrels, they were minstrels.” The worst characters were baggy, baggy clothes, had painted faces, and, most importantly, wore white gloves. For Walt Disney’s creation, Mickey Mouse, he did not initially wear them, as they are absent from his public debut in the revolutionary “Steamboat Willie.” It would be a year before, in the animated short film “The Osprey House”, Mickey donned what would become obligatory with other characters. Even after vaudeville shows were phased out, the gloves worn by cartoon characters were not.

It wasn’t just from the Disney camp either. In addition to Mickey and Goofy keeping their prints from all the jovial antics they got involved in, Bugs Bunny also wore gloves and has done so ever since. While it may have been a sign of the times, it was also a simple technique for the animators. Sure, each character may have had a different face, but whether big or small, hero or villain, one glove fit all for a long time.

Animation has become much more detailed when it comes to character creation, but it was fairly common practice for decades to see characters with three fingers and a thumb on each hand – gloved for simplicity. Cutting a figure to create cartoon characters made the job easier and was a tactic that was carried out for years. “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy” and many other long-running series followed suit, with their main group of heroes having only four digits per hand, and some of them the most beautiful animated films that don’t come from Disney apply the same rule.

Over the years, many cartoons have had meta moments that beg the question not only of why they have three fingers (God in “The Simpsons” notably had four fingers), but also why some still wear finger gloves. this day. Even in “The Looney Tunes Show”, an episode called “Rebel Without A Glove” sees Bugs Bunny adjusting to life without the titular object and it makes for a strange spectacle. At least now, for the majority of animations, the gloves are off and some animated characters get an extra digit of extra detail.