ReFrederator Blog

Today’s film isn’t just about men in uniform — it was originally designed exclusively FOR men in uniform. “Spies”, starring Private Snafu, is one of a series of cartoons commissioned by the U.S. Government to be shown to our troops during World War II. These little gems were all created by top talent (today’s toon was directed by Chuck Jones’ and written by Ted Geisel aka Dr. Seuss) and were usually spliced into longer magazine style films screened by G.I.’s throughout the world.

Snafus differed from normal theatrical releases in three ways. First of all, no matter how funny or entertaining, each was designed to teach a specific lesson (remember — these were considered training films!) Secondly, earthy humor and sexual innuendo was ratcheted up a couple of notches. The target audience were young service guys, and many traditional censorship taboos were simply ignored. And finally, much of the subtext in these shorts is pretty dark — Snafu is a total screw-up, and the consequences of his actions are usually dire. At the end of a typical cartoon, Snafu is either implicitly or explicitly… dead!

After all, the guy’s name is an old Army acronym: ‘Situation Normal — All Fouled Up.’ Only they never said ‘Fouled.’

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Dave Kirwan