All The Wascally Wabbits

If you’re around the same age as me, or even older or younger, you may be familiar with “Bunnykins” china. This is a pattern made by Royal Doulton featuring adorable anthropomorphized rabbits and it’s been a staple of baby showers, christening gifts, and Christmas presents for decades. I had a Bunnykins bowl, mug, and plate when I was a child, and my daughter also had one. Even today, they’re still popular and I sell a lot of them at the antique market. The other day, I was offered a really good deal on a box of Bunnykins china—plates, bowls, mugs, and egg cups—and I couldn’t say no. I brought the box home and started to unpack it, showing each piece to Ken, until he looked at one carefully and his brow furrowed:

Ken: What the hell is going on HERE?
Me: What are you talking about? It was a really good deal.
Ken: Not that. What are these rabbits DOING?!

It was in that moment that I realized two things. First, that I had never actually looked closely at the rabbits on the china, and second, that the rabbits on the china are INSANE. On one plate, the mother rabbit, who’s dressed like a character from Little House on the Prairie, is apparently trying to hang wallpaper (?) and she’s being swarmed by an assortment of lagamorphic “helpers” who are systematically destroying both the wallpaper and the room she’s trying to redecorate. One bunny has dumped a bucket of paste on another’s head, there’s ripping and tearing and randomly, and a mouse is running away with one of the rolls.

On a different piece, a bowl, the same mother rabbit is losing her sh*t because she’s taken her bunnies shopping and they’ve overturned a vegetable cart and are now rioting like an insurrectionist mob. They’re stomping on cabbages, throwing potatoes, and the same random mouse is part of the mayhem AGAIN. And on a mug, there was a scene of the mother and her horde at the butcher’s shop, only the butcher was a pig dressed in an apron and hat, and he was selling her what LOOKED LIKE PORK while her bunny babies destroyed his shop. Exactly what kind of life lessons is Royal Doulton trying to teach young children? Because it seems very subversive and violent and all the people who buy Bunnykins china because “it’s so cute” have obviously never looked closely at it either because I think the person who created these scenes is an anarchist and I’m surprised that none of this china has hidden messages on it like “Rabbits cannot make the revolution. Rabbits can only be the revolution.” Seriously—if you have any of this stuff in your house, take a good long look at it—and then go vandalize something.

Speaking of taking a good long look at something, the other day, I was on Facebook Marketplace and I saw an ad for a “Leather Reclining Couch” that made me look at it for a very long time, mostly because I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on, like either the guy was completely unaware that his photos were being used for the ad, or it was the most clever marketing ploy since Royal Doulton created their bunnies with an attitude. 

I call this first picture “Paint Me Like One Of Your French Girls” and it’s a very good example of how you can use this couch in a very suggestive way. The second picture I’ve dubbed “The Thinker” because he’s obviously deep in thought, contemplating how to blow up a space station or whatnot.

And in the last picture, he’s obviously emulating the famous painting by Henry Wallis entitled The Death of Chatterton.

All I know is that the couch is “Pending” which means someone is planning on buying it, and I really hope for their sake that this guy comes with it.

47 thoughts on “All The Wascally Wabbits”

  1. The Bunnykins china sounds more like a re-run of an episode of The Three Stooges than actual dinnerware. Just my thoughts on the subject. I do find them to be humorous, to be fair.

    Also, as for the couch, I am reminded of a time when I took someone to the hospital from a construction site. The patient had somehow managed to shoot themselves in the foot (literally!) with a large nail gun. The emergency room was full at the time, so we were told to set the patient up in the hallway of the emergency room. The patient sat down in a chair, and I grabbed a nearby chair for their foot, per the patients request.

    While I was doing paperwork, I was happy to see that the patient had been moved to an open bed. The chair, however, was being wrapped in plastic and had been labeled as trash. I asked the nurse why they were throwing the chair away and their response was, “it has dirt on it”.

    My reply at that point was sarcastic, and I said, “peoples naked asses sit on beds all day and you don’t throw those away.”

    Which brings me to the $200 couch. While I find it amusing that there is a full-grown man trying to recreate the George Costanza painting from the television show, Seinfeld, I guess that the old saying, “you get what you pay for”, actually holds some merit.

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  2. Bunnykins, I’m around your age and I’ve never heard of it. I saw the pictures you posted and I never saw it either. But when you look at it closely, Ken is right, they are some manacle rabbits in that dish ware, lol. I love people with a great sense of humor like the dude selling that leather couch 🤣.

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  5. Reminds me of the glass cases containing porcelain figurines, what used to be this vast array of ivory white, glossy creatures, features painted in pastel rose and cornflower blue, but in today’s dens, man caves in fact, are legion D&D figures, medieval weapon replicas and dioramas of Smaug or Sauron.
    Grandmas of a certain working class would let you look at the delicate characters, but touching was out of the question.
    Millennials are far more likely to crack the case, hand you, one at a time, a dozen gothic painted trolls, wargs and succubi, these last being the most popular.

    I’ve always posted my forsale items sans humans. I’m gonna remember the fatman’s trick. A plain, leather couch? Dismiss. A couch with a strange bloated model posing with intent? I’ll take it!

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  6. The Bunnykins china reminds me of Beatrix Potter whose books my mother gave me when I was very young because she thought they were cute and I loved them because they’re weird and even dark. I mean, Mr. Jeremy Fisher, the frog, gets grabbed by a fish and dragged down. He escapes and serves his guests roasted grasshopper. I love that most adults only see the superficial cuteness but kids see what’s really going on. Most adults—Ken is obviously still in touch with his inner child.

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  9. I, as much as anyone, can appreciate cartoons that tell a really messed up story! Bonus points for the artwork looking cute and wholesome, but hiding a deep dark secret. Not cute and wholesome is reclining couch guy….

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  12. I have never had China but that’s funny as Hell. Only Ken would look that closely and ask that question.
    As for the Recliner Couch: at least the guy was reclining..in his own ways. And Sorry but he’s got both on George Costanza!

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  13. Bahaha! I never looked at the Bunnykins pieces in that way, but you’re right! They ARE anarchists. I just thought those little bunnies were a little mischievous, but clearly they are bent on destroying the social order. Very subversive.

    I’m raising a glass to the George Costanza Recliner Couch Guy. Cheers!

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  17. Love the Bunnykins! I’ve never heard of them before, but now I’ve got to check them out! Anyway, as I was reading and looking at the dishes when I suddenly felt the need to listen to a little Sex Pistols! Don’t know if you like them or not, but watching the rabbits while listening was fairly amusing. 🙂 For your pleasure, Suzanne! —

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