So a line in a story by mabelreid brought this series on, of which this is the first installment. As an avid Looney Tunes fan, I can assure you that yes, smart people do, in fact, watch cartoons (when they're done well). I hope you enjoy. :)

Disclaimer: Standard one found on all my stuff. If I owned the bunch at Quantico, well....

There were lights blinking in the old storage closet.

It was after five o'clock, and Emily was just packing up her things for the night. For once, the team didn't have a case looming; they'd just gotten back from Delaware after catching a pair of serial killers who enjoyed torturing their victims by dragging them behind a fishing trawler in the ice-crusted ocean.

What the hell is going on in here? she wondered, leaning against the door to listen. There were strange sounds emitting from the tiny space—wild laughs, shouts, explosions, and the sound of…

"Okay, what the…" Emily said to herself as she opened the door. What she saw nearly made her drop her things in shock. In an overstuffed desk chair was Reid, staring intently at a film playing against the white concrete-block wall of the closet. And he was laughing.

"Reid?"

The young man nearly jumped a foot in the air, turning to discern the unexpected intruder. "Emily," he said, looking meek. "Wh-what are you doing in here?"

"I was gonna ask you the same…" Suddenly the fat dog-like character was falling down the stairs, and the sight made her giggle.

"It's research," Reid said, gesturing up at the screen.

"Research?" Now the woman was intrigued.

"Yeah. You'd be surprised."

"Enlighten me." Emily pulled up a chair. "What's this one about?"

"Oh, this one's a classic," Reid replied, the excitement shining on his face. He quickly stopped the DVD projector and began the film again. "Leon Schlesinger production, 1943, directed by Frank Tashlin. It's considered to be one of Tashlin's masterpieces in the short subject."

"Okay," Emily said. "But how is this research?"

"Well…watch."

The film began, and as the pig and the duck tried every idea in the book to escape the hotel, Emily giggled louder.

"See how the manager tries to charge them even more after he falls down that flight of stairs? That's a classic case of narcissism right there."

"How so?"

"They don't have money to begin with, which he's figured out, but he still tries to get them to pay an exorbitant fee?"

"Ah. Well, the duck's got an overblown ego."

"You caught that too."

"Hard not to," Emily said. "He's always taking the lead, he's confident—even overconfident to the point that he figures he can charm his way out of the bill, and when that doesn't work they try the Plans B through…how many was that so far?"

"I think there's about five ways in this one."

"And the pig—clearly subservient. He's meek, calm, definitely the cooler head."

"The 'straight man'." Reid said, giggling at the sight of the two character in question sailing through the sky on a rope swing. "That's obviously not going to…no, you need to jump off…aw…"

"Ouch. Narcissist manager's got some issues."

"Oooh, oooh—here it comes…"

"Aaah!" Emily shrieked with laughter. "He locked up Bugs Bunny?!"

"Yeah," Reid said, his voice weak from laughter. "His only black-and-white appearance."

"Seriously, what are you doing in here?" Emily asked, catching her breath.

"I was looking over my collection to see if I could find something humorous that might show some insights into different forms of psychopathy. Then I remembered these."

"Looney Tunes as profiling tool?"

"Oh, yeah. Plus, you learn things about the time period they're representing. Satire takes a lot of intelligence to do well, you know."

"Honestly? I didn't think you were into cartoons."

"My mom wasn't that happy I watched them, but she remembered Looney Tunes from the movies when she was a kid, and let me watch them. She said they were the only ones that showed intelligence and could be moderately educational."

"Were they?" Emily asked.

"I was seven. I liked them because there were talking ducks and rabbits and things that exploded. As I got older I really began to see the value of them, and even more so after I'd had this job about a year."

Emily poked her head out of the closet door. The bullpen was now nearly empty, save for JJ pulling files and a few lights in a couple of offices. "Got any more?" she asked.

Reid held up five sets of DVD boxes. "Will this do?"

"Come on," she said, unplugging the projector. "I think we need better chairs. And some tablets. And an evidence board."

"Why a board?"

"Because I think we need to profile more of these cartoons." When Reid looked at her as though she'd told him Martians were invading the BAU, she added, "I have to give the lecture next week for the cadets. I think this might work as a combination training tool and stress reliever."

"Oh. Well then, we need to start with some of the better ones…"

The cartoon being profiled in this segment was "Porky Pig's Feat," a Tashlin short. You can probably find a version on YouTube somewhere, and it's in the third volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set.