10 Bizarre Origins Of Your Favourite Cartoon Characters

7. Casper The Friendly Ghost Is A Dead Child

Another totally grim origin behind a seemingly cute cartoon character. Though the reason behind his actual demise is widely debated, the early depictions of Casper are that of a dead child, eternally tortured and unable to rest. This was disputed by Harvey Comics in the 1960s, who said that Casper was simply a ghost because his parents were already ghosts when they were married. The fact they originally showed him living beside his own headstone totally contradicted this, though; as well as the episode "There's Good Boos Tonight", in which he befriends a fox who gets killed and comes back as a ghost. That knowledge changes everything. Ghosts aren't just born from adult ghosts: Casper is definitely a dead kid who is desperately lonely, always making at least one friend in every episode, yet finding himself alone again in the next.