Comments on: Intergalatic Hijinx

By: 2oonhead

2oonhead — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The aliens talk backwards!
Backwards talking
at 0:01:47 - “Yankee Doodle went to town”
at 0:02:01 - “Yankee Doodle went to town”
at 0:02:14 - ? “(garbled) appear traffic here, I’m not picking it up, can you? HEY!”
at 0:03:06 - “one two three four five six seven”, repeated 3 times.

Fascinating laboratory.

By: Rich Markow

Rich Markow — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a couple others in the other cartoons you’ve posted: The “takes” performed by the car salesman in “Happy Days” are Jimmy Finlayson’s trademark reactions in the Hal Roach shorts; the mermaid hostess in “Rocketeers” is a very badly executed caricature of “Queen of the Nightclubs” Texas Guinan. (No excuse for this - she was operating wihtin a few blocks of the Van Bueren studio!) I have also seen Scrappy in “Showin’ Off” perform dancer Joe Frisco’s trademark cigar & derby routine to Frisco’s trademark music, “Darktown Strutter’s Ball.”

Ther’s loads of others - fleeting radio catchphrases of briefly popular comics, radio personalities (Tony Wons - “Are ya listenin’?”)etc. - that go by pretty fast. Warners seems to have liked using imitiators of such comics, such as Al Pierce or Joe Penner, as the basis for entire characters. A shortcut, I guess, when you have crank out cartoons on schedule.

By: Rich Markow

Rich Markow — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Almost forgot to add - “Mr. Nobody” in “Betty Boop for Preident” is inspired by Bert Williams. He died in 1922, but would have been remembered by all or most of the cartoon’s original audience.

By: Dave Kirwan

Dave Kirwan — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

I like the slightly off beat ones. There’s a Terrytoon “Bugs Beetle and His Orchestra” where a spider does an okay Edgar Kennedy ‘face wipe’ for instance…

By: Joel Schlosberg

Joel Schlosberg — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

I noticed a Harpo Marx caricature; comedian cameos seems to be a running theme in these old cartoons, including balloon versions of Laurel, Hardy and Chaplin in “Balloonland” and Felix the Cat’s brush with Chaplin in “Felix in Hollywood”.

By: Dave Kirwan

Dave Kirwan — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah, and the real estate agent in “Talking Magpies” is doing a Hugh Herbet… they’re all over the place!

By: Rich Markow

Rich Markow — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The Yankee Doodle laugh was a regular schtick (over)used by vaudeville & film comedian Benny Rubin.

By: Dave Kirwan

Dave Kirwan — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for the origin on the Yankee Doodle bit. I’ve heard that thing pop up in all kinds of places over the years, was always a little shakey on what the frame of refrence was.