We scanned last week's 50,000 top Lycos user queries for the names of cartoon characters. The top 30 are listed below.
The percentages show a character's rank compared to all top 30 searches; in other words, among all people who searched for these 30 characters, 3.3% searched for Snoopy. Note that these are individuals, not shows. (More about that later). The top characters:
22.8% Sailor Moon
11.2% Winnie the Pooh
6.2% Scooby Doo
5.3% Goku
5.3% Pikachu
4.9% Batman
4.7% Superman
4.5% Mickey Mouse
3.3% Snoopy
3.2% Vegeta
3.1% Tweety Bird
3.1% Mew
3.1% Tigger
2.3% Bulma
1.8% Garfield
1.8% Betty Boop
1.6% Dilbert
1.3% Bugs Bunny
1.3% Arthur
1.2% The Little Mermaid
1.1% Trunks
1.1% Eeyore
0.9% MewTwo
0.8% Cartman
0.8% Charlie Brown
0.8% Donald Duck
0.7% Jessica Rabbit
0.6% Popeye
0.6% Asterix
0.6% Space Ghost
As we said, this list reflects characters rather than their shows. For instance, The Simpsons is a very popular show, but very few people search for Bart or Homer Simpson individually.
Clearly this isn't an exact science: Sailor Moon and Batman are both show names and character names, which gives them an advantage in the balloting. Same goes for Scooby Doo and others. Hey, even cartoon life can be unfair sometimes.
As for surprises: who would have put Winnie the Pooh up so high? And what in the world is Scooby Doo doing up at #3 a full 31 years after the show first aired? Isn't that a little too retro? (Ditto for Betty Boop, actually.) And Tweety Bird beats Dilbert?
Goku, Vegeta, Bulma and Trunks are all characters from the Dragonball series, in case you're out of that loop. (Some of those "trunks" searchers may be looking for luggage -- hard to know for sure.) Pikachu, Mew, and MewTwo are Pokemon monsters. You can see the Japanimation influence bubbling up through the old-timers on the list.
And even in the cartoon world the hubba-hubba factor prevails: Jessica Rabbit logs in at #27, while her poor husband Roger gets shut out again.
Note: all search spellings and variations are included in each character's total; for instance, the Winnie the Pooh rank includes searches for Whinnie the Pooh and Pooh bear. This list reflects actual terms entered into our search engine by Lycos users during the week ending March 25; it does not imply endorsement of these characters or their shows by Lycos. Please do not base your own Saturday cartoon viewing on this list.
