We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again Looney Tunes

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It's impossible to overstate the influence that Warner Bros.' archetype Looney Tunes cartoons have had on American comedy. Decades before Saturday Night Alive, The Simpsons, Adult Swim and Community, Bugs Bunny and his cartoon brethren were making ironic wisecracks, breaking the quaternary wall and dropping constant popular cultural references.

Simply the thing about those Looney Tunes pop cultural references is that while they may have been hilarious to our grandparents, a lot of them are absolutely baffling to modernistic viewers. I've always taken pride in being into weird sometime stuff – fifty-fifty equally a teenager, I was a center-aged grump who listened to sometime-fourth dimension radio – and I've been stumped past a lot of these things.

People are withal enjoying Looney Tunes cartoons despite the abiding references to forgotten movie stars and advert campaigns for products that oasis't been manufactured since the Eisenhower administration, and that says a lot nigh the high quality of the work produced by Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Tex Avery and other Warner Bros. directors. If you've spent your whole life wondering why the characters in these cartoons would sometimes turn to the camera, bug out their optics and say, "Well, something new has been added!", this is your lucky day! In this listing, nosotros'll finally get to the bottom of a few of the weird catchphrases that accept plagued Looney Tunes fans for generations.

1. "Well, something new has been added!"

This line originally comes from Jerry Colonna, one of Bob Promise'due south radio sidekicks. Hither information technology is in a prune from 1942'due south "The Hep Cat."

When the cat in the clip says the line, he doesn't merely say it like Colonna, he briefly takes on a scrap of a concrete resemblance to Colonna equally well. Colonna was a popular-eyed, gap-toothed, walrus-mustached swain who spoke in a loud, crazy vocalism with a vaguely strange emphasis. A lot of what Colonna said was total nonsense ("Greetings, Gates! Let'south operate!") but something about his screwy persona was delightful to mid-20th Century America. The animators at Warner Bros. seem to take been particularly crazy for Colonna, employing a number of his catchphrases ("GRUESOME, isn't it?") and caricaturing him in a bunch of cartoons. 1946's "Daffy Doodles" ends with an entire jury composed of Jerry Colonnas.

Merrie Melodies – Daffy Doodles (1946) by Cartoonzof2006

The Looney Tunes cartoonists even based a recurring character on Colonna, a little worm who starred in a pair of cartoons, "The Wacky Worm" and "Greetings Bait." In the latter cartoon, the Colonna worm actually meets a Colonna fisherman… it's like some not bad Colonna Circle of Life.

ii. "Duh, George."

Lewis Milestone'south 1939 picture show Of Mice and Men is one of the most gut-wrenching movies you volition always see. Based on John Steinbeck's archetype novella, the motion picture follows two luckless Depression-era migrant workers, George (Burgess Meredith) and Lenny (Lon Chaney, Jr.). Lenny is a big, pure-hearted, mentally-disabled man, a impuissant giant with the listen of a kid, and his friend George tries to go along Lenny out of problem as they travel the American highways desperately searching for work. Poor Lenny loves to hear George tell him over and over again about the ranch they'll ain someday, a beautiful place where Lenny tin care for rabbits. Spoiler alert for a 74-year-old picture: the dream fails to come truthful, and it fails to come true in but about the most horrible, middle-breaking manner imaginable.

Chaney'due south performance every bit the doomed Lenny was widely-acclaimed, and spawned a number of unlikely Looney Tunes catchphrases. "Duh, George," "Tell me near the rabbits, George," "I simply want to hold him and dear him and make him my friend". All were paraphrases of Chaney'southward lines from Of Mice and Men.

Here we encounter Daffy Duck getting worked over by a Lenny-esque Beastly Snowman in 1961's "The Abominable Snow Rabbit."

It's in really poor gustatory modality, when you lot recollect about it. In modern terms, imagine a goofball Adult Swim graphic symbol based on Sean Penn'south performance in I Am Sam. But then again, perhaps there's not much point expecting political correctness from a serial of cartoons starring Speedy Gonzalez, a pig with a debilitating stutter and a coyote with obsessive-compulsive disorder. (Real talk, Wile East.: No affair how many Acme gadgets you lot throw at the problem, you are never gonna take hold of that freaking route runner.)

3. "(Monkeys/Pussycats/Whatevers) is der cwaziest peoples!"

This one was inspired by Lew Lehr, a comedian who used to wear a lot of silly hats and speak in a faux, phlegmy German accent that I tin can't listen to for ten seconds without needing to clear my throat. One of his most popular short film series was chosen Dribble Puss Parade, which probably wasn't near as nasty every bit it sounds.

Lehr was best known for narrating newsreel footage of animals, such as this clip virtually a newborn giraffe.

Yous could say that Lehr was kind of the 1940s equivalent of the "Honey badger don't care" guy. (NSFW, and nigh ii years past its viral video heyday.)

The WB animators seemed to throw in the "cwaziest peoples" references kind of at random, and yous become the feeling that sometimes they did it because they just couldn't come up up with a proper ending for a drawing. This compilation of clips from 1948'south "Scaredy Cat" features a mouse imitating Lehr at the end, and information technology doesn't brand any more sense in the actual cartoon than information technology does here.

So, random mouse with a mustache and a Napoleon chapeau wacks Sylvester with a mallet, and and so quotes Lew Lehr for no obvious reason. The terminate. In this drawing, even knowing the origin of the catchphrase doesn't make it whatever less "cwazy".

four. "Of course you lot realize, this means war!"

Whenever Bugs Bunny said this, yous knew shit but got existent. His enemy had crossed the line, and now Bugs was going to utterly destroy them with a deadly combination of cunning, wisecracks and merciless cockteasing. (When you really terminate and think almost information technology, it'south kind of bizarre how often Bugs deployed crossdressing to brand his opponents so horny they couldn't think directly. He's like some kind of furry Dr. Frank North. Furter.)

"Of form you realize, this means state of war!" was originally said by Groucho Marx in the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup. By some accounts, Bugs' wisecracking, 4th wall-breaking character was partially inspired by Groucho. Bugs certainly imitated Groucho a lot, even going so far as to disguise himself as Groucho for a scene in "Slick Hare."

It'south kind of lamentable that you probably didn't know that "Of form yous realize, this means war!" was a Groucho line. The Marx Brothers have go a lot less well-known in recent decades, and that'due south something that must be corrected every bit soon equally possible. So go picket Duck Soup correct now, and as soon equally you're done, come back and finish this commodity. We'll wait.

5. "Come with me to the Casbah."

While a number of sources cite the 1938 picture Algiers as the origin of Pep? Le Pew'due south favorite come-on, the line was featured in the trailer but was never really said in the film itself. Le Pew himself was a spoof of Algiers' protagonist, Pep? le Moko, a French precious stone thief portrayed by Charles Boyer.

The amorous French skunk relentlessly pursued Penelope, an uninterested and oft terrified girl cat, through over a dozen basically identical cartoons. As keen as Chuck Jones was, if you lot've seen one Pep? Le Pew cartoon, you've basically seen them all. In the clip below we come across Pep? hit Penelope with a variation on his usual pickup line: "Y'all do non take to come up with me to the Casbah… We are already here!" That's about as close equally Jones' Lew Pew cartoons came to shaking up the formula.

Pep?'s schtick apparently seemed harmless and mannerly to audiences of the time, but these days it comes across every bit weird and creepy and sometimes even kind of… well, rapey. ("I pierce y'all with the ack-ack of love, flowerpot.") Non means non, Pep?!

This 2009 AT&T cartoon depicts Penelope being madly in love with Pep?.

Stockholm Syndrome, no doubt.

six. "Well, now, I wouldn't say that…"

Some Looney Tunes catchphrases don't sound that familiar out of context. In order to recognize them, y'all really need to hear them spoken in the original goofy cartoon voice. Example in indicate: "Well, now, I wouldn't say that."

In the following prune from the cartoon "Draftee Daffy," it's said by a little creep from the draft board who has spent a whole cartoon harassing Daffy Duck.

Now you lot recognize it, right?

"Well now, I wouldn't say that" was the catchphrase of Richard Q. Peavey, a nebbishy druggist portrayed by Richard LeGrand on the long-running radio one-act, The Great Gildersleeve. The series is all only forgotten at present but it was enormously popular back in the mean solar day, so much so that it spawned a TV series and four feature films. Peavey blazed the trail for a one thousand wacky sitcom neighbors to follow, by dutifully showing up one time an episode to say his inexplicably popular catchphrase with piddling justification, and and so getting the heck out of in that location.

You might say that "Well now, I wouldn't say that" was the "Giggity-giggity" of its day.

7. "He don't know me vewy well, do he?"

Crimson Skelton is a skilful instance of how somebody can be a huge star in his lifetime, and notwithstanding be near forgotten within a generation or two.

Skelton was a popular radio and TV comedian for decades, but time has not been kind to his broad, corny one-act, full of vaudevillian gags, hobo clowns and characters with names like Clem Kadiddlehopper and Freddie the Freeloader. If modern audiences recognize Skelton at all, information technology'south probably as the vocalism of Begetter Time in the seasonal TV favorite Rudolph's Shiny New year's day.

A few of Skelton'southward catchphrases volition alive on forever, thanks to Looney Tunes reruns. "He don't know me vewy well, do he?", "You bwoke my widdle arm!" and "I dood information technology!" were all taken from Junior, Skelton'southward "Mean Widdle Child" graphic symbol. But if Skelton'southward one-act has dated poorly in general, Junior's antics expect particularly dire to modern optics. (I'm afraid all those clips of portly middle-aged men wearing baby bonnets on The Jerry Springer Evidence have made us all come across "adult babies" very differently than our grandparents did.)

Here's a clip of Junior in action.

Yikes. Hopefully Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler will larn from Skelton'south example that comedians can only do these silly babytalk characters for so long before they start to read less as impish man-children and more than like sad grandpas who've wandered away from the rest dwelling house once more.

eight. "Plough OUT THAT Low-cal!"

You hear this one a lot in WB cartoons from the 1940s, always shouted in the angriest, most intimidating voice Mel Blanc could muster. It was a reference to the WWII air raid drills, when leaving your lights on at the wrong fourth dimension could bring a furious air raid warden pounding on your door. While Japanese Zeros never bombed the continental US, Americans had proficient reason to worry that an set on could come at any time. And then understandably, leaving your lights during an air raid drill on was seen as non merely unpatriotic, merely also dickish.

In "Elmer'due south Pet Rabbit," the cartoon below, Bugs Bunny hollers the line at the very terminate.

1940s Warner Bros. cartoons were full of wartime references like that, including a whole lot of stuff about the scarcity and deliciousness of meat. For example, here's a hillbilly flea singing a footling ditty chosen "Food Around the Corner" in the 1943 cartoon "An Crawling in Time."

This was when meat was rationed, and "Meatless Tuesdays" were a real affair. So information technology'southward not unlikely that a lot of the audience watching this cartoon had more sympathy for the hungry flea than they did for the poor dog.

Information technology kind of puts our current troubles in perspective, huh? Certain, maybe the economy is in the crapper and the government shutdown was abrasive as hell, merely at to the lowest degree nosotros've got Fatburgers to eat and we don't accept to worry most everyone dropping bombs on our heads while we're playing Angry Birds Star Wars II.

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Source: https://www.toplessrobot.com/2013/10/looney_tunes_bugs_bunny_merrie_melodies_catchphras.php

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