I used to think that cartoon characters were real "people," and I used to tell everyone that I was going to marry Mighty Mouse. My dad liked to tease me and insist that Pearl Pureheart was going to get him first.

Anon

At around age 3 or 4, I thought cartoon characters were real actors but just in a cartoon world that was filmed and shown to us. I imagined bugs bunny and daffy duck sitting together at lunch eating their sandwiches and discussing their latest 'work'.

mel

I used to believe that spinach made me strong. Popeye was a popular cartoon back then. I ate spinach one night and then ran outside to where our little swingset had fallen over. I picked it up and righted it, and had proof that, yes, spinach works. But I still never ate much of it.

T.R.

I remember a kind of discussion in third class about "Did dinosaurs and cavemen live at the same time?"
One of the pupils said they did, and "The Flitstones" were the proof.

Anke

When I was four or five I owned a Disney Land sing-a-long video which I would watch every single day and even though Disney is supposed to be the happiest place on earth I would cry my eyes out everytime I watched it. This was because I believed I was in love with Chip (from Chip and Dale) and was completely heartbroken because I couldn't go to Disney Land. So I had to settle with kissing my tv and pretending he was with me...(I later made it to Disney World and wasn't all that impressed with Chip)

lil H.C.

When I was little, I was so frigtened of the land of the giants. I thought there was actual person who were that big and would take me away. I also remember being scared of the incrediable hulk (altho Im a huge fan now) and everytime my mom got mad, I would run out the room screaming 'HULLLLLLKKK!!!'

Kayleia Clear

When I was 5, I saw a cartoon where a 100 year old Bugs Bunny said goodbye to a 100 year old Elmer Fudd, as Elmer was tricked into a grave, whereupon Bugs buried him alive. I thought this is how people died when they were old; they climbed into a grave and were buried alive.

Anon

From about the time I was three years old till I started going to school I watched a really old cartoon called 'Roger Ramjet' who was an American superhero. At the end of the show they play the theme song which is about Roger Ramjet saving the nation from the bad guys and for that time I would stand in front of the TV saluting to the American flag. For the first few years of my life I believed I lived in the USA

Aussie gal in an American world

As a kid, I watched a lot of Tex Avery and Warner Brothers cartoons. And sometimes, in those cartoons, when one of the characters was in a sticky situation, they would pull out a pencil and draw things. Like, if they wanted to escape somewhere, they'd draw a door. I used to believe that you could do this in real life, so in the front hallway of my old house, I drew a picture of a window, thinking that if I ever wanted to run away from home, I could climb through it.

Also in the same cartoons, characters would draw a picture of themselves on a rock or something, and the villian would, thinking it was their victim, go run into the rock. My brother (who's two years younger) used to chase me around the house and try to bit me, so one day I drew a stick figure of myself on the side of a cabinet and tried to lead him to it, thinking he'd see it and believe it was me, and he'd run into the cabinet and leave me alone.

Funky Cold Candita

When I was little I thought people had black outlines just like cartoon characters. I would watch everyone and try to see their "black line" and sometimes I would swear up and down I actually saw one.

SugarDragon

I used to think that cartoon characters were real and the tv station just turned up the color to make them look so bright.

Manda-Lynn

Up until I was six, I was wondering why there wasn't any background music in real life (because there's background music in cartoons).

Queen Anne's Lace

I used to hide a dinner knive under a pillow for one week, believing that I could take it, yell "for the honor of Greyskull!!" and be transformed into She-Ra by magical powers... never worked..

caroft

I used to believe that some day, they'd finally let the Coyote catch the Road Runner. I was so wrong. Le Sigh.

Givema Break

my boyfriend used to think that Hanna and Barbera were two women that did all the cartoons

Helen

I used to believe that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really DID exist, and I'd spend hours squatting next to manhole covers and storm drains calling them "Michelangelo! Donatello!" and waiting for them to come out and play with me.

Maria G.

In the cartoon Superted, Superted has to say the secret word to activate his powers. I thought that if you turned up the volume loud enough and listened really hard it was possible to hear the word and become Super as well.

Caroline

I used to think that actors and actresses on television programmes where actually realistically drawn cartoon characters.

Rebecca

once, when i was about 4, at a party my family had in the garden, a friend of my parents told me if i stare really hard at the tv aerial on the roof i could actually see all the Disney characters, ie Goofy and Donald Duck sitting up there. i honestly thought i could see them. it never ever occurred to me that they might not b there, and that by waving at them i would look deranged, so i carried on waving at television aerials right up until i was at least 12.

Sara

Whenever I watched Tom & Jerry cartoons when I was a kid, I always thought it was amazing how they did all these strange things like squash themselves flat or stretch. One thing I always thought was funny was when a cartoon character was inflated like a balloon, and I used to think that this was possible in real life.

I always wanted to find out, so I would do things like inflate a balloon and then inhale it all to make my belly swell up, and I once tried to use a bicycle tyre pump to fill me with air. I even asked my cousin to take the tube of a snorkel and blow air into it into me to try and blow me up.

I eventually stopped doing this (thankfully) when I not only realised it was impossible, but it wasn't very healthy for me to do this sort of thing. Heh, I wish I hadn't realised it sooner though, to save myself the embarrasment.

Anon