Tokio Jokio (The Jokio's On Me)

In researching and gathering evidence of TV channels censoring the classic Warner Bros. shorts (and some post-classics as seen with “The Duxorcist,” “Blooper Bunny,” and “Museum Scream”), I do come across false evidence and conjecture that I either try to disprove or leave as legitimate evidence until proven otherwise. Well, this one I fell for hook, line, and sinker until proven otherwise. Why? Because I thought it was completely reasonable and believable that it would and could happen. So, in the spirit of April 1st (April Fools' Day), please enjoy this brief post:

Director: Norm McCabe (planned, credited as “Cpl. Norm McCabe”); Frank Tashlin (completed, uncredited)

Summary: A newsreel spoof of “vicious Japanazi propaganda,” showing the inner workings of one of our enemies during World War II…and just how incompetent they are, because this is U.S. propaganda against our enemies of the time, so, of course, we’re going to play just as dirty as they did.

Normally, this is where the “Channel” and “Part(s) Cut” segments would be, but not this time. It’s pretty clear that this cartoon never saw the light of day after it premiered in theaters, due to its heavy World War II references and offensive caricatures of Japanese people. However, I do want to point out that this short came close to airing in the modern day not counting that ToonHeads special about World War II cartoons (on that version, “Tokio Jokio” [a] wasn’t shown in full, but I watched the short enough times to recognize the scenes, and [b] actually was prefaced with the warning that the caricatures were unflattering and cruel by today’s standards. I don’t see Nickelodeon being that sensitive and discreet about such matters).

Nickelodeon (back when they had the rights to air Warner Bros cartoons as part of their Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon installment show) actually had the rights to air this, as well as “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule” (a.k.a, “the Censored Eleven Cartoon that Could Have Been, But Never Was”), the 1938 version of “Injun Trouble” starring Porky Pig, the 1969 version of “Injun Trouble” that starred Cool Cat and was the final new Warner Bros short released theatrically (but not the last one overall), and “The Ducktators” (another World War II cartoon directed by Norm McCabe and one most people actually like more than “Tokio Jokio”), among other shorts. Of course, no censor in their right mind aired “Tokio Jokio” or any of the other shorts listed here (and some that weren’t, but were on the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki page for Nickelodeon), not even in edited form, because an edited version of this would be too short and too nonsensical (even though this is one of those “string of gags” shorts and not one with an actual story) to air on television.

…which brings me to this point. When I was looking for video evidence of how the Warner Bros cartoons were censored on television, I came across a YouTube channel that has since been shut down that had what I thought was evidence that “Tokio Jokio” did air on Nickelodeon with parts cut (a lot of parts cut) before being phased out for other shorts. It seemed believable. Nickelodeon aired a lot of obscure and second- (third-, and sometimes fourth-) tier post-1948 shorts that the others channels wouldn’t touch...until Cartoon Network got their hands on them, so airing an obscure black and white World War II short could have made its brief, but memorable rounds before being yanked due to complaints from parents and/or racial advocacy groups or the censors sobering up and realizing their mistake felt like something Nickelodeon would do.

Turns out that wasn’t the case. Just as I had published my discovery on the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki page for “Tokio Jokio,” it was taken down. I wasn’t punished for it, but I did feel kind of foolish. That’s why I do my best here to make sure my posts are accurate and welcome anyone who feels otherwise to tell me so, so I can correct my mistakes.

Video Comparison: I’m not going to explain how it plays uncut vs how it plays edited because this is one of those “You have to see it to believe it” moments. Plus, for a video alleging that it’s proof that Nickelodeon aired “Tokio Jokio,” whoever created it did their homework on how it hypothetically would be edited. That’s why I fell for it.

Uncut Version:

(Allegedly) Edited Version:

Availability Uncut: Considering how loathed it is in most classic cartoon fan circles, you can bet that no one is clamoring for this to be remastered and released for public consumption, at least not until a proper WWII cartoon collection on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K finally gets created. However, for the purist completionist collector and the morbidly curious, “Tokio Jokio” is readily available on online video sites, as it’s been in the public domain since 1971.

Addendum Post: Porky's Prize Pony (The Reports of These Similarities Are Greatly Exaggerated)

The following is an addendum post. As I mentioned in the previous one for Milk and Money, there is a similar edit done to this cartoon that, according to the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki and the Censored Cartoons Page (old and new), is a recycled scene. This post is here to show that, while there is a fleeting similarity to it, the censored scene is not recycled or reanimated footage.

Director: Chuck Jones (it’s one of his early works that he was ashamed of, though this wasn’t his Disney clone work. This was his “Trying to distance myself from Disney” work)

Summary: Similar to “Milk and Money,” this is also about Porky, a horse race, and a horse who becomes an unlikely champion. Unlike “Milk and Money,” this one has Porky as a jockey (instead of mistakingly becoming one) whose champion racing horse is incapacitated due to accidentally drinking water tainted with horse liniment (at 125% alcohol?!) and the only way Porky can win is if a well-meaning, but very relentless and annoying farm horse (who may or may not be the one from 1942’s “The Draft Horse,” but has the personality of Charlie Dog) becomes his ride.

The Channel(s): Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and MeTV (including MeTV+ and MeTV Toons)

Part(s) Edited: The beginning of the scene where the horses are called to the starting line and Porky runs to get his horse (who is passed out drunk from drinking liniment-tainted water) is edited because one of the foreground characters is a stereotypically black stable hand leading a horse to the starting line.

How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: The approximation I did I feel is well-done, but probably isn’t representative of how Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, MeTV, MeTV+, and MeTV Toons did it. I expect at least one of the channels to either use a still of the announcer horns to cover the scene while the audio plays normally. My money is on Nickelodeon, since their censorial cuts back then had some semblance of humor and creativity. MeTV and its spinoffs are my second choice, but the way they edit ranges from “standard” to “fooling around with video editing software and trying to pass that off as a censorship cut,” as you’ll see on “Hop and Go” and “Bugs Bonnets”. For now, though, enjoy this approximation video:

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit: This isn’t one of those edits that would grind my gears. For one, I understand why it would be cut (stereotypical depictions of blacks/African-Americans aren’t tolerated today or even the alleged “good old days” of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s), even though the black caricature is tastefully done (which is an odd thing to say about a caricature of any race, skin color, gender, or creed, since caricature is supposed to exaggerate, but Chuck Jones was good at drawing distinct and diverse human characters). For two, the edit job done to get rid of the scene is fairly standard. If any of the channels mentioned did make the edit look obvious to even the most naive viewer. Lastly, if said edit is the worst thing about the cartoon (which isn’t that bad for an early Chuck Jones short, but I don’t see anyone clamoring for this short to be recognized and reassessed), then the cartoon isn’t too bad.

Probably the only gear-grinding thing about the cut is what wasn’t cut, and that’s the close-up of the bottle of horse liniment being 125% alcohol. I can picture Cartoon Network and Boomerang either digitally erasing it (in an artful, inconspicuous way, like the “You Beat Your Wife” sign on “Wideo Wabbit” or the Japanese man hiding in the phone on the Private Snafu short, “Spies,” not in the artless, conspicuous way exemplified with the “No Dogs Japs Allowed” sign on the MGM short, “Blitz Wolf” or the “Kick-Ass” sign on the Cartoon Network original show, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?) or cutting the liniment pouring into the water bucket and Porky’s original racehorse drinking from it, making it look like the other horse crashed into the stable and knocked out the racehorse (assuming this and the black stablehand parts were edited on Cartoon Network. A video showing a hypothetical edit of this will be forthcoming).

Availability Uncut: As of this writing, this is only available on the Looney Tunes Collector’s Edition VHS from 2001 (volume 12: Porky and Daffy) and the Porky Pig 101 DVD set, which has every black and white Porky cartoon ever made, including the ones that would either be banned or censored on American television (international channels may vary). However, there is some good news: this has been in the public domain since 1969, so you can watch it on most online video sites (assuming they don’t take it down because it belongs to Warner Bros., despite not being under copyright anymore).

Here’s the full, uncut black and white version of the cartoon.

Here are two versions of the redrawn, both of which have the scene with the black stable hand. One redrawn version is the unrestored version that did air on television (with the stable hand part cut, obviously); the other is 4K upscaled with A.I. and was probably someone experimenting with how that would look.

And last, but not least, the whole point of this blog post: proof that “Milk and Money” and “Porky’s Prize Pony” do NOT have the same scene:

Milk and Money (Out of My Stable Hands)

 

Director: Tex Avery (credited as “Fred Avery”)

Summary: Porky and his farm nag (worn-out horse) work in milk delivery to help his father save the farm from foreclosure. Thanks to a horsefly, Porky and the nag find themselves in a horse race with a cash prize for the jockey and his ride.

The Channel(s): Cartoon Network and Boomerang (the compare/contrast video does say “Cartoon Network,” but it also applies to Boomerang, since Boomerang airs/aired the same classic cartoons as Cartoon Network).

Part(s) Edited: A brief scene of the black stablehands leading the horses to the starting line.

How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: With the way I edited it, I tried to make it so that way the horse immediately saw the horse race and went to the starting line (I also cropped the shot of Porky and the horse at the starting line to get rid of the black stablehand running off before the start of the race). I’m not 100% sure if Cartoon Network and Boomerang edited it this way, but let’s say, for the sake of argument, they did. If this is what Cartoon Network and Boomerang did, then the cut is seamlessly done and makes it look like the horse knew that the horse race was a last-ditch effort to earn money needed to save Porky’s farm (as opposed to the horse just wanting some oats and finding himself in the race completely by accident, which is funnier, as the whole thing is a comic misunderstanding).

As always, here’s a video comparison:

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit: Not much, except the fact that Nickelodeon and (possibly) MeTV, MeTV+, and MeTV Toons aren’t listed as possible channels that have censored this short. “Porky’s Prize Pony” also had a scene featuring a black stablehand walking by during the preliminaries to a horse race (it’s not similar or recycled from “Milk and Money,” as the Looney Tunes fandom wiki or the old Censored Cartoons Page has stated. I will do an addendum post about it) and those channels cut that scene. I’m going to chalk it up as, “It was edited on those channels, but there’s nothing to prove or disprove it.”

Availability Uncut: You can find this uncut, uncensored, and remastered on disc four of the fifth volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set, on disc 1 of the Porky 101 DVD set (which has every black and white Porky Pig cartoon ever made, including some that have never aired on American TV [or have, but were edited] due to outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes), and the Blu-ray version of The Devil Doll, starring Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O’Sullivan, and Frank Lawton, and directed by Tod Browning (the same Tod Browning who did Freaks).

I Love to Singa (Gogo Dancer)

Director: Fred “Tex” Avery

Summary: Another early Tex Avery cartoon that doesn’t feel in-character for him, but, unlike “Page Miss Glory,” Tex probably didn’t hate this one as much. This one is the story of an owl family that prides itself in classical music and opera, but are left reeling when one of their children is a jazz singer (back then, jazz was seen with the same disdain as rap and hiphop in the 1980s and 1990s: if you were white and into that, you were a disgrace to your family or a race traitor/poseur). When forcing the jazz singing son (named Owl Jolson) to sing opera doesn’t work, Owl gets thrown out and decides to make it on his own as a jazz singer. His first gig: a radio amateur hour, where anyone who doesn’t win over Jack Bunny (a very common pun name on comedian Jack Benny) gets rejected and ejected from the studio.

And if this short still isn’t familiar to you, the sound clip of Owl Jolson singing the title song was used on the very first episode of Comedy Central’s South Park ("Cartman Gets an Anal Probe") when Cartman is controlled by the anal probe and the cows use alien tech to make Officer Barbrady sing.

The Channel: TNT (on The Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show)

Part(s) Edited: Two scenes were cut for time (as there wasn’t anything offensive about the two scenes cut):

1) After Owl Jolson is hatched and shocks his parents with his rendition of “I Love to Singa,” Fritz Owl decides that the best way to “cure” Owl’s jazz singing is to force him to sing “To Cilia,” which doesn’t work, as Owl keeps interjecting, “I Love to Singa” in between verses.

2) When Owl Jolson runs away from home, he happens upon Jack Bunny’s Amateur (spelled “Amatuer”) Radio Show, where contestants keep getting gonged and put through the trap door for bad performances.

How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: The way I edited it on the video is probably not how it played out on The Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show, but it’s one of those edits that Nickelodeon used to be able to do when it aired Looney Tunes cartoons: tried to salvage the cartoon and had a sense of humor about editing the shorts. If you remember Rudy and Gogo and how “I Love to Singa” was cut, then, by all means, describe it in the comments or email me. For now, enjoy the video:

Availability Uncut: This one is popular enough to be released on home media. I'm not going to list them all (a full list can be found here), but I am going to list the DVD and Blu-ray titles that have this short uncut, uncensored, and with original titles restored (if you've ever seen it on television, it was probably the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodie version):

• Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume 2 (on disc 2)
• Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection, volume 2 (also disc 2, which would be the last disc on that collection, since Spotlight Collections were the scaled-back version of the Golden Collection).
• The 2005 DVD release of the 1927 movie The Jazz Singer (which I don't recommend, not because of the blackface on the cover being potentially offensive, but because the version shown is the 1995 Turner dub that might not have the original titles to it). The 2013 Blu-ray release of the same movie does have the original titles to "I Love to Singa," so I do recommend that for the completionist Looney Tunes fan.
• Looney Tunes Collection All-Stars volume 3 (this is only available in Australia)
• The DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray versions of the 2006 animated movie, Happy Feet. (I know I shouldn't have included HD-DVD, since it pretty much lived and died in the mid-2000s because Blu-ray kicked its ass, but there are probably people out there who still have HD-DVD players for some reason).
• The DVD and Blu-ray versions of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection (volume 1, disc 2)
• The Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection DVD
• The Looney Tunes Parodies Collection DVD (most recent as of 2025; it was released five years ago).

Page Miss Glory (Matron Makes Most of Wardrobe Malfunction)

Director: Tex Avery (uncredited); Leadora Congdon (credited, though she was credited for layout and background work, as well as being the “moderne art” designer and conceptualist). It’s confusing, yes, but Tex Avery did direct this cartoon, even though he didn’t care much for it, as it was out of his humor wheelhouse (even though a thorough viewing shows that there are some Tex Avery-ish gags in this. They were most likely scaled back because the cartoon is more eye candy than a laugh fest).

Summary: The staff of a hicktown hotel await the arrival of a female guest known as “Miss Glory.” A bellhop, who has dreams of bellhopping for the more refined, upscale city hotels, falls asleep and gets his wish, leading to a big musical number and string of gags involving drinks, the excesses of the wealthy, the appearance of one “Miss Glory”, and how everyone there wants to see her.

The Channel: Syndication/local affiliate (WNEW in New York, circa the 1980s)

Part(s) Edited: Once again, I’m amazed at just what American TV censorship (whether from a major network or a minor affiliate station) finds objectionable in something that doesn’t seem it. This time around, we have this: Somewhere in the 1980s, WNEW in New York City cut the part where the bellhop thinks a snooty, Margaret DuMont-style society matron is the fabled “Miss Glory,” but isn’t, as she takes one look at him and walks away, not knowing the bellhop is stepping on the train of her yellow dress. When her dress strategically comes apart behind a potted plant (even though she is wearing a slip, it’s treated like nudity because of Hays Code restrictions and the fact that most slips are sheer/see-through), the matron decides to treat the audience to a fan dance, until we see that her slip has a patch on it. The consensus (at least on the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki) is that the scene was considered too risqué for children/family audiences. I would have said because the scene ran long, but who says it can’t be both?

How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: I did this approximation/compare and contrast video as the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki worded the edit, which is as follows,

“When this short aired on New York's WNEW channel in the 1980s, the sequence where the snooty society matron's dress rips off (because the bellhop had been standing on it) and she does a fan dance with fern leaves to cover up was cut due to being too sexually suggestive for a family/child audience.”

To me, that means that, after the three butlers and the rural bellhop drunkenly sing the end of the title song, the edited version goes straight to the rural bellhop applauding something off-screen and the fat man at a table yelling for service. I feel that WNEW’s version did include the bellhop asking the snooty matron if she’s Miss Glory, but cut off before she walks away. Either way, the cut is very obvious for a scene that doesn’t make or break the cartoon’s already meager plot:

Availability Uncut: You’re in luck. This is available uncut (sadly, not in public domain, despite that the title song is, and currently not on streaming, even though this doesn’t have any problematic content. Maybe art deco is too pretty for today’s audiences) on the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc and VHS (volume 1, “1930s Musicals”), as a special feature on the DVD version of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie, Top Hat; on disc four (the most-requested one-shots) of the sixth and final volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set (and disc 2 of the shorter, more family-friendly Spotlight Collection DVD set); on the DVD and Blu-ray version of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, volume 2 (the Blu-ray version of which has become very hard to find); a DVD called Looney Tunes Musical Masterpieces, and a repackaged version of Looney Tunes Musical Masterpieces that comes sandwiched with Tom and Jerry’s Musical Mayhem and the Scooby Doo movie, Music of the Vampire.

The Cat Came Back (Plunger, Mousetrap, Poke 'Er Eye)

Quick note before I start: I know I said I was going to change up the blog and take it to a new direction, but I have five entries on the back burner formatted in the old style. For ease of transition (and because I'm still thinking of new ways [or a new way] to approach my entries), the entries to this short, Milk and Money/Porky's Prize Pony, I Love to Singa, and The Village Smithy will be in this style. After another full post covering a group of similarly censored cartoons (it will either be the Banned Bugs Bunny 12 or The Hunter's Trilogy), I will transition over to my as-yet new style (I am considering a podcast-style transcription with accompanying video and picture stills, but nothing is set in stone yet). So, enjoy these last five entries as they are.

Director: Friz Freleng

Summary: In this platonic version of Romeo and Juliet, a kitten and a mouse, despite being taught by their respective mothers that they and their kind are sworn enemies of the other, run off and become friends. When the two end up getting trapped in a sewer, will the two warring families put aside their differences and save their children?

The Channel: Unnamed syndication

Part(s) Edited: Going by the old Censored Cartoons Page and the Looney Tunes wiki, there are four parts edited for seemingly no reason (though at least one part has a justified reason for being edited).

• The momma mouse training her kids on how to run through a mousetrap without getting caught
• The momma cat getting poked in the eyes (and the momma cat poking the momma mouse in the eyes after thinking back to why they're enemies in the first place) [this counts as two cuts, and is probably the only justified edit, as eye-poking is often considered dangerous, imitable slapstick violence, especially if you've ever seen a Three Stooges short with the classic trio of Moe, Larry, and Curly]
• The momma mouse using a plunger to get the kitten and mouse out of the sewer.

Please Note: the accompany video refers to the momma mouse as a "momma rat." That's my bad for doing these on lack of adequate sleep.

How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: Not too bad, though the eye-poking part being edited is obvious. Without it, there's no reason why the momma cat and mouse hate each other (besides the fact that cats and mice don't get along anyway). Here's the compare/contrast clip:

Please Note #2: I switched over to Filmora for this video because it works better. There's a watermark on it because I have the free version. Somewhere on this journey, I will get a paid version, but that's probably not going to happen. DaVinci Resolve is good and I will come back to it, but Filmora has better features and I will stick with it unless otherwise noted.

Availability Uncut: It is available for streaming (uncut, naturally. It's not problematic by modern standards, outside of some violence, drowning peril, and species discrimination, but it's cute and charming enough to get away with it) on HBO Max (now called "Max"). If you're looking for a physical release of it, there's only two choices: The Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc set (volume 5, side 5, "Pesky Pets") or the Blu-ray version of the movie The Walking Dead (no relation to the graphic novel or the AMC series) starring Boris Karloff and Ricardo Cortez.

Your FAQ on Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and The Censored Eleven (and Goin' to Heaven on a Mule)

Q: Hey, where have you been? I haven't seen you since last year.

A: I have a life outside of this blog. I go to work, I deal with family problems, I have to put up with the crap accumulating from the outside world, and I have creative blocks just like every other writer and content creator on and off the Internet. Now, I’m back and ready to do things differently for my blog. Some of these are changes for changes’ sake, but most are just, “I was bored with how things were going, and I need to use the tools I acquired in order to make this a more creative and engaging blog.”

 

Q: What tools? Are you going to use A.I.?

A: Yes and no. While I do have a handle on fixing and revising my writing myself (since it’s one of the few things I’ve learned from the American public school system that’s actually useful in my daily adult life), there will be times I have to use A.I. for research, feedback, and brainstorming. It’s not like I’m novel or screenplay writing with A.I. (which, in the name of full disclosure, I will do, but, as with here, it’s mostly for research, brainstorming, and feedback since four years of majoring in writing for film and television has stated that my fiction writing is good, but not good enough for major mainstream publication without some outside help and practice. I just want to be the best I can in fiction writing and keep up with the times). I’m not going to use A.I. video and images on The Censored Cartoons Blog, mostly because I can easily find and create screenshots and video clips for my work.

 

Q: So, what’s up with the Censored Cartoons Blog? Is it still going?

A: Yes. Probably not as frequently as promised, but it’s not going to be shut down or abandoned like so many promising blogs and websites (or the last time I did a cartoon blog. It was a Wordpress blog called "Saturday Morning Hangover"). I am aiming to make this a Saturday morning thing, since I grew up when Saturday morning cartoons were still around and often included the Warner Bros. Cartoons (though I also grew up when Cartoon Network became a basic cable channel and Warner Bros. cartoons, as well as Hanna-Barbera and MGM [now owned by Warner-Discovery], were on regardless of day or time), but don’t be surprised if you see a post on Sunday or between Monday and Friday. My advice is to subscribe to the blog, so you don’t miss out.

 

Q: That’s good to hear. Are you going to start today?

A: I am.

Q: What’s today’s cartoon?

A: I’m not going into the individual entry today. I’m going to do a batch of cartoons. Today, I’m going to look into The Censored Eleven, plus “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule.”

 

Q: What is The Censored Eleven?

A: The Censored Eleven are eleven Warner Bros. shorts pulled from distribution in 1968 by United Artists (former owner of the A.A.P library) due to pervasive caricatures of Africans and African-Americans that are considered offensive, both by the standards of 1968 and now (especially now).

Q: There are a lot of Warner Bros. shorts that have outdated caricatures of Africans and African-Americans. What makes these eleven shorts so special?

A: I’m sure there are animation historians out there who know the answer to that question, because I don’t. I’m guessing these are the ones that are so packed with outdated stereotypes of Africans and African-Americans that merely editing them isn't an option. If you don't believe that, then it was probably a random decision.

Q: Are you seriously going to cover cartoons with stereotypically black characters on Black History Month? What the hell is wrong with you?

A: Nothing. If anything, covering how Africans and African-Americans were/are depicted in media is a good thing to cover on Black History Month. It shows what we as a people have/had to put up with just to fight for equality and better representation. I'd like to see high school and college classes pull this off.

Q: Okay, I apologize. So, which shorts are part of the Censored Eleven?

A: Ah, you’ve come to my favorite part of the FAQ. The following shorts that are officially a part of the Censored Eleven (complete with date, director, and brief summary) are:

• “Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land”: One of Harmon and Ising’s early, near-plotless musical cartoons from 1931 featuring Piggy (a short-lived possible prototype of Porky Pig, but really a clone of Bosko and Mickey Mouse, given when this short was released) as a river boat captain whose boat is the stage for a band of black musicians and dancers. Piggy's girlfriend is assisted by her reliable servant, Uncle Tom, who gets lost in a graveyard filled with dancing skeletons. This is the only Censored Eleven short shown in black and white.

• “Sunday Go to Meetin’ Time”: The first color Censored Eleven short. A Friz Freleng one-shot musical, showing black people in a poor, Southern town getting ready for Sunday church service, except for a man named Nicodemus, who would rather spent Sundays shooting craps. It’s getting so that his wife (who has no time for shiftless, lazy men like himself) has to drag him to church, but this time, Nicodemus bails so he can steal chickens. He almost succeeds, but ends up getting hit on the head and goes to Hell where The Devil goes over his worldly misdeeds.

• “Clean Pastures”: Another Friz Freleng one-shot musical featuring African-American caricatures, themes of vice and virtue, and how Freleng uses the Christian notions of Heaven and Hell in his cartoons. This one (which I can only assume is part of a short-lived animated series about black people and Heaven, or, as it’s called here and in “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule,” “Pair-O-Dice”) from 1937, features St. Peter worrying about black people’s souls in Harlem (which, according to this short, is its own country rather than a city in New York) and doing what he can to recruit new souls. When sending a Stepin Fetchit-esque Gabriel angel as a recruiting officer  fails, the other angels (caricatures of jazz musicians Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, and Jimmie Lunceford) decide that a hot jazz number called “Swing for Sale” works better in making Heaven a happenin’ place to be.

• “Uncle Tom’s Bungalow”: We take a break from musical numbers and Friz Freleng with this spoof of the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, directed by Tex Avery and released the same year as (and right after) “Clean Pastures.” As with most Tex Avery spoofs of the time, expect a lot of fourth-wall breaking, some (now-considered) hokey gags, and a dig/plug at the parent studio (“My body might belong to you, but my soul belongs to Warner Bros.”). Tex Avery also did “Uncle Tom’s Cabana,” but that’s an MGM cartoon where the title character tells his many children the story of how he created a nightclub with his white showgirl girlfriend, Little Eva (played by the same sexy nightclub singer from “Red Hot Riding Hood,” “Swing Shift Cinderella,” and other shorts cut from “Red Hot Riding Hood”’s cloth) to pay off his debts to Simon Legree. If you want my opinion, “Uncle Tom’s Cabana” is funnier, but “Uncle Tom’s Bungalow” serves as a rough copy of Tex’s later brilliance when it comes to parodying serious works (or works that people take seriously).

• “Jungle Jitters”: We’re back to Friz Freleng and his black stereotype cartoon, and what a cartoon to return to. This one (and another I’ll get to later) is not considered the best of what’s already a very problematic lot. This one, released in 1938, centers on a dopey salesman who tries to peddle his wares in a African cannibal colony where the natives want to literally have him for dinner (read: eat him) and the colony’s white queen wants to marry him. It’s not as good as it sounds (and it definitely could have been with better writing), but, apparently, the Latin American Spanish-speaking world likes it, because it has aired in that region.

• “The Isle of Pingo Pongo”: Continuing with the Africans as primitive natives stereotype, we have this Tex Avery cartoon -- his first travelogue spoof (but not many would know it since it doesn’t air on television nor is it available on official release) where an ocean liner explores the splendor of the title island location. Fun fact: this was submitted for an Academy Award nomination in 1938, but wasn’t picked. I can’t imagine what would happen if this was nominated and won. Would it have changed the course of animated cinema history or not? Discuss.

• “All This and Rabbit Stew”: Another Tex Avery Censored Eleven short (released three years after “The Isle of Pingo Pongo” [1941]), and this one is packed with a lot of things that would shock casual Looney Tunes fans. This is one of Tex Avery’s last cartoons after he got fired from Warner Bros. Studios (then called Leon Schlesinger Studios or, more informally, Termite Terrace) because of creative differences over the ending to “The Heckling Hare”; it plays out like “A Wild Hare” (Tex Avery’s seminal cartoon that first pairs Bugs Bunny with Elmer Fudd) with Elmer as a slow-witted black man and ends with Bugs beating him in craps and stealing all his clothes; and, despite being banned, is actually in the public domain (joining “Hittin’ the Trail to Hallelujah Land” and “Jungle Jitters,” meaning that the rest are still under copyright, despite Warner Bros. not wanting anything to do with these cartoons), and has been shown in clips in other media: the Spike Lee joint Bamboozled (which is about offensive African-American stereotypes, so it would make sense to have it there as part of the film’s theme), a music video on the PBS kids’ show Shining Time Station, and the made-for-DVD/Blu-ray documentary King Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution. This is also the only Censored Eleven short starring an established Warner Bros character (Bugs Bunny) and the only one a part of another list of WB shorts that have been banned because of racially insensitive content: The Banned Bugs Bunny 12 (which I will touch on later).

• “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves”: One of only two Bob Clampett cartoons that are a part of the Censored Eleven (and both released in 1943), and the only one that most fans would consider the best of the lot, despite its outdated content (there’s also WWII-era Japanese bashing, some fleeting bashing of little people, and references to wartime rationing and military service). This is basically Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (the Disney version that was insanely popular at the time and still is, judging by the many rip-offs, parodies, homages, and a much-despised live-action remake coming soon) if Snow White was a doe-eyed, pig-tailed, mini-skirted Jezebel, her Evil Queen stepmother hoarded rationed products like coffee, rubber, and sugar and called a hitman service to take out her stepdaughter after seeing her dance with the Prince, whom the Queen requested from the Magic Mirror; the Prince was a zoot-suited coward who had dice and gold teeth as part of his grille; the Seven (or Sebben) Dwarves were in the Army instead of gem miners; and it ended with Dopey getting Snow White to wake up instead of the Prince, which is odd, because, in the actual Disney movie, Grumpy was beginning to like Snow White near the end and, according to Walt Disney himself in this behind-the-scenes documentary I found at the library years ago, Bashful was the one who was secretly in love with Snow White. Though Dopey did come back for seconds and thirds when Snow White was seeing the dwarves off to work, so maybe Bob Clampett was onto something...

• “Tin Pan Alley Cats”: Part two of Bob Clampett’s hot black jazz duo of shorts. This one doesn’t get as much love as “Coal Black…”, but it is a fascinating watch, if not for the fact that this is a better remake of “Porky in Wackyland” than the 1949 short, “Dough for the Do-Do.” In this short, a Fats Waller-esque cat is off to a night filled with wine, women, and song at the Kit Kat Club (where a group of conservative religious protesters are gathered outside, trying to guide anyone going in on the path of righetousness. Some things never change…), where a trumpet player sends the Waller cat out of this world and into Wackyland.

• “Angel Puss”: The only Censored Eleven cartoon directed by none other than Chuck Jones, and probably his most hated pre-1948 short (there are others, but this is somewhere in the top 10 or 20), but not because it’s slow, boring, and trying too hard to be like Disney. This one is hated because of outdated racial stereotypes, cat murder, and gaslighting, three things that will trigger anyone and everyone in this day and age (but so does a stiff breeze and a differing opinion). In this 1944 short, a young black boy is paid to drown a cat, but gets cold feet because he doesn’t want to hurt animals, but there aren’t a lot of job opportunities for him because of his age and race, so it’s this or nothing. Fortunately, the cat about to die breaks free from the sack and loads it with rocks to make it look like he’s in there, then spends the rest of the short dressed as a ghost and scares the poor black boy for kicks.

• “Goldilocks and the Jivin’ Bears”: The final Censored Eleven short (and the first Warner Bros cartoon to be produced by Eddie Selzer, Leon Schlesinger’s replacement following Schlesinger’s retirement), a Friz Freleng one-shot short combining Goldilocks and the Three Bears with Little Red Riding Hood, both with a hot jazz sensibility. You can tell this was Friz Freleng’s attempt at being Bob Clampett, but Freleng’s and Clampett’s directing styles are too different. Freleng doesn’t do wild and raunchy like Bob Clampett does wild and raunchy. If any other director could have done “Goldilocks and the Jivin’ Bears,” I’d have gone with Frank Tashlin. Tashlin's wild and raunchy is a bit more restrained (unless it's "I Got Plenty of Mutton," but even that didn't go to Bob Clampett levels of raunchiness. The ram's horns going erect is as close as it's going to get), but can easily be mistaken for Clampett at first glance.

Q: Where does “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule” fit in to all of this?

A: It fits in to all of this because, if you’ve ever seen the cartoon (willingly or otherwise), you’ll know that it has everything a Censored Eleven cartoon is notorious for, but, sadly, it wasn’t included into the syndication package that had the Censored Eleven on it. Personally, I’d gladly trade out “Hittin’ the Trail to Hallelujah Land” for “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule,” since the former cartoon isn’t as heavily stereotypical as the others. "Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land" feels like one of those shorts that could have aired on television with little to no cuts in the past (think from the 1960s to around the early 1990s) before getting phased out due to changing times and stricter censorship measures in children's/family entertainment.

 

Q: Which Censored Eleven cartoons should I watch? Should I even watch them?

A: No one’s forcing you to. I think that's the one thing people forget about these shorts: you don't have to watch them if you don't want to. If you feel that the racial caricatures are too much for you (whether or not you know the historical context behind them), then you can skip them over (including “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves”). If you know these were made during a different time, are curious about old school animation, are a fan of old school animation, would rather watch something from the past because the present stuff is severely lacking in political incorrectness, or are doing media research (either for school or for fun), then, by all means, indulge. 

Here’s a quick list I made as part of the original idea for this post called, “White People’s Guide to Watching the Censored Eleven” (a lot of points are repeated from earlier, so consider this a quick summary):

1) Watch "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves," maybe "Tin Pan Alley Cats" and "Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land" (since the latter isn't that offensive).

2) Unless you're morbidly curious, avoid "Jungle Jitters" and "Angel Puss," as they are considered the worst/most offensive of the lot.

3) You have to see "All This and Rabbit Stew" at least once, since it's a Bugs Bunny cartoon that has never seen airtime or official home media release.

4) The rest really depend on personal preference, how deep your curiosity is, or how badly you want to punish yourself:

a) "Clean Pastures" is worth watching because of the "I Got Swing for Sale" sequence (or if you want to learn about the jazz musician caricatures in the short, like Cab Calloway, Jimmie Lunceford, and even Louis Armstrong). The Stepin Fetchit caricature will put you off, but he's there for story reasons (St. Peter being so out of touch that he would assign the Stepin Fetchit angel the task to try and save the souls of late 1930s Black America, which, according to the opening montage, is filled with such vices as dancing girls, booze, hot jazz, and gambling).

b) "Uncle Tom's Bungalow" has its moments, but you have to be familiar with the actual story, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", to get it. That being said, the "My body might belong to you, but my soul belongs to Warner Bros." line is funny and it's nice to see something from back then have a positive portrayal of an interracial friendship (Eva and Topsy). Tex Avery would later direct "Uncle Tom's Cabana" during his MGM years, and that's funnier than this.

c) "Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears" is pretty average (though it has good music and the black caricatures aren't that offensive, since they're mostly animals), so you won't be hurting anyone's feelings if you decide to pass on it.

d) Besides the title song and "You Got to Give the Devil His Due", "Sunday Go to Meetin' Time" is best enjoyed as research for a college essay about the correlation between African-American and religion and how this is depicted in American media. "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" is also good for a college essay about travelogues and their effects on how America view other countries, specifically those considered "exotic tropical paradises."

5) "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" is not a Censored Eleven cartoon, but due to content and unavailability on American television (Nickelodeon, back when it held the rights to air Warner Bros. cartoons, had the rights to air this, but Standards and Practices vetoed against it) does qualify, in my opinion.

6) None of the other cartoons banned for outdated racial caricatures ("Africa Squeaks,"  "Kristopher Kolumbus, Jr.," the World War II shorts filled with Japanese caricatures and references to Hitler and Nazis, any cartoon that has Native American caricatures, etc) are part of the Censored Eleven. Some bush-league Internet critics will try to refute this claim, but don't listen to them.

7) The most important rule: Watching these cartoons is entirely optional. If they don't appeal to you for whatever reason, don't watch them.

Q: Are there any other studies or reviews about The Censored Eleven (and "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule")?

A: Anthony's Animation Talk and The Hick Critic at least try to study, analyze, and review the shorts, despite being white and feeling very uncomfortable about the subject matter. If book-reading is your thing, the essay "Darker Shades of Animation: African-American Images in the Warner Bros. Cartoons" by Terry Lindvall and Ben Fraser from the essay anthology Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation is a good read.

Q: Are any of these cartoons available on official home media? Where can I watch them?

A: As of this writing, The Censored Eleven aren’t available on any official home media. It came close to being available between 2010 and 2011, but, like all, major studios these days, they backed out due to backlash. As mentioned before, “Hittin’ the Trail to Hallelujah Land,” “Jungle Jitters,” and “All This and Rabbit Stew” have fallen in the public domain in the United States and are easily available on public domain videos, while the rest will have to wait until later in the 21^st century to approach public domain status. However, all is not lost. There are video sites and bootlegged physical media distribution centers that have most, if not all, of the shorts.

Q: So how are you going to end this blog post?

A: Same way I always do: with links to the uncut and uncensored versions of the cartoons I was just talking about. Here is a playlist of The Censored Eleven from Archive.org, and here's the video for "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" (it's part of a playlist for every Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies short ever made between 1929 and 1969. The video and audio quality isn't as good, but some day, someone will have the guts to remaster it, whether or not it gets an official release).