Warner Bros Cartoon References

[Brad from Georgia]

I'm noticing more and more little references to Jack and the gang in the classic Warner Bros cartoons. Some, like the Benny-esque Casper Caveman in "Daffy and the Dinosaur" (he was voiced by Jack Lescoulie) or the numerous "Jack Bunny" characters, are pretty obvious. Jack is caricatured in "Malibu Beach Party" and one or two other cartoons, and of course he voiced "himself" in "The Mouse that Jack Built."

I think I'll start to put together a list of other references that are directly or indirectly related to Jack and the program--the "auctioneer" voices, the tag line "so round, so firm, so fully packed," and so on. Just noticed another one recently: in the 1948 Bugs Bunny carteoon "Hot Cross Bunny." This is the one in which Bugs is an experimental rabbit and a short, weirdly-accented mad doctor proposes to switch the bunny's brain with a chicken. In the operating theater, Bugs mistakenly thinks he's supposed to perform for an array of stolid, scowling doctors, and he breaks into his routine...to silence, not applause. Bugs cringes a little and mutters, "Gee, what a tough audience! Not like in St. Jo' . . . they loved me dere!"

[Yhtapmys]

I think I'll start to put together a list of other references that are directly or indirectly related to Jack and the program--the "auctioneer" voices, the tag line "so round, so firm, so fully packed," and so on.

I think the first one was in a cartoon about some dopey stuttering guy who wins an amateur contest hosted by Captain Benny. Can't remember the title now. It was in colour, so Freleng would have directed it, and it had a typical Norman Spencer score, so it would have been around 1935. The Benny "amateur show" idea was brought back by Tex Avery in "I Love to Singa" (1936), a cartoon I still find annoying.

My favourite obscure Benny reference is at the end of 'Page Miss Glory' (1936), where Miss Glory (Bernice Hansen) looks down into where a pit orchestra would be and says "Play, Don!" just as Benny did with Don Bester.

There are all kinds of Rochester gags, and Mel Blanc did the train announcer on one because I heard it first on a cartoon as a kid before ever hearing the Benny show.

Yhtapmys
"Drive your blues away!"

[LLeff]

The Benny "amateur show" idea was brought back by Tex Avery in "I Love to Singa" (1936), a cartoon I still find annoying.

Wow, that's a first. Any time I've ever heard mentioned (or mentioned myself) "I Love to Singa", everyone who knows it breaks into happy song. But hey, I'm not a fan of the Si-Sy routine and everyone seems to love that. To each their own.

[JohnM]

But hey, I'm not a fan of the Si-Sy routine and everyone seems to love that. To each their own.

It was very funny the first time I heard it, but by the fifth or sixth, not so much.

[Yhtapmys]

The Benny "amateur show" idea was brought back by Tex Avery in "I Love to Singa" (1936), a cartoon I still find annoying.

Wow, that's a first. Any time I've ever heard mentioned (or mentioned myself) "I Love to Singa", everyone who knows it breaks into happy song.

It's the kid's voice. It's annoying (I hate it in the Green Fedora cartoon, too). And every time I hear him add the "ah" onto the end of lyrics, I keep asking "Why is he doing that?" But I've heard Cab Calloway do the song and it works for him.

But hey, I'm not a fan of the Si-Sy routine and everyone seems to love that. To each their own.

There's a guy I work with at the local ballpark and several times during the season, we'll somehow launch into the Si Sy Sue routine. I still think it's funny. How can anyone dislike Mel Blanc?

Yhtapmys
"Drive your blues away"