I miss Bugs Bunny.

I miss the Tasmanian Devil, Foghorn Leghorn, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner and all those other wonderful characters drawn by the animators at Warner Brothers and voiced by Mel Blanc.

I miss the slapstick humor, the sight jokes and the little off-handed double entendres in the cartoons that were part of my childhood years and even now provide me with a laugh when I think about the cartoons that brought me joy as a child and an adult.

I hate to sound like a cynic, but what was at one time called “kidvid” by sociologists and TV critics has gotten pretty lame, full of talking airplanes and trucks that for all the world seem exceedingly, exceedingly perky but nowhere near funny. And what substitutes now for cartoons isn’t much better, based on what I’ve seen on the tube.

There really hasn’t been a new series of entertaining animated characters since “Tiny Toon Adventures” and “Animaniacs” went off the air sometime during the 90s.

“Tiny Toons” was the creation of Steven Spielberg and centered around a group of young toons similar to Bugs and company attending Acme University to get their toon degrees. The humor was good, fast-paced and enjoyable. And brought the child in me out again.

“Animaniacs” followed the adventures of the Warner bothers, Yacko and Wacko, and their sister Dot, who in various episodes managed to raise havoc and play on stereotypes and old cliches. The humor had a political edge that an adult would understand, but a child could enjoy. I would love to find some “Animaniacs” on DVD. My daughter recorded some episodes on videotape, but they were lost in Katrina.

Since the loss of “Animanics” and “Tiny Toons,” and the demise of Bugs and friends, I’ve been, and still am, in cartoon withdrawal. I miss the belly laughs they brought.

The little boy in me wants Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, the Tasmanian Devil and Bugs and Daffy. I want to laugh until I cry.

Maybe that’s what we all need to set our world right — let our inner child come out and play.

It’s time to bring back the cartoons of old so we can bring that child back out to laugh and teach us not to take ourselves as seriously as we do.