Director(s): Tex Avery (credited as “Fred Avery”)
Summary: Not much to this one. It’s just a football game (American football. I know every other country in the world has “football” as a completely different game than what America has [what Americans call “soccer”]) played for the kind of chaotic absurdity that Tex Avery would be known for in his MGM shorts, including a running gag that gets lost in the shuffle of fast-and-furious (nothing to do with those car movies) gags until the very end (in this case, it’s a baby whose ice cream cone keeps getting licked by the man sitting next to him). In fact, there is a baseball version of this called “Batty Baseball” that Tex Avery did when he directed for MGM.
Fun Facts:
- The radio announcer’s line, “Have you had your fluffies today?” is a reference to the advertising slogan for ironized yeast in the 1940s, “Have you had your iron today?” What was ironized yeast? Ironized yeast were tablets made from iron and bread yeast used to help weight gain in women. You read that right: there was a time where skinny women weren’t considered attractive, but it was skinny in the sense of having no hourglass figure, no shapely curves where it mattered, not being so fat that the all-you-can-eat buffet calls in the SWAT team whenever they sense you coming, as seen by the shaking glass of water from Steven Spielberg's 1993 dinosaur movie, Jurassic Park. I have no idea what “fluffies” would be used for in the context of 1930s/1940s women’s health. Possibly some now harmful/illegal feminine hygiene thing, I dunno. This website has more information on “ironized yeast” and how female body image issues had bizarre remedies back in the 20th century.
- This cartoon was featured in clips on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode “Super Bowl” (third episode of the second season where Meatwad wins a pair of tickets to the Super Bowl from a bag of Doritos-style nacho chips [“Enchiladitos”] and Master Shake and Carl fight over who gets to go with him). I may have to watch that episode again, because I’ve seen ATHF (and the other Adult Swim cartoons from the early 2000s) and I don’t remember the scene that had this short.
A pretty good time, with Tex Avery purring along in a well-worn groove but in a way that's more comfortable than lazy. The gags are firmly in his "the more predictable and corny, the better" mode, but the execution, especially in the timing, makes it worthwhile. In particular, the short relies to a surprising degree on characters having slow, methodical, thoughtful reactions, easing their way into the customary Avery blow-ups. It's unusual, by the end of 1939, to see this style of humor deliberately slowed down rather than blasted at full speed, and while this does result in some droning stretches, it also leads to what I am almost tempted to call "character beats" - we do kind of get a sense of how these pratfalling goofballs function and think, and how that pays off in gags, rather than just smashing gags into them. I wouldn't want all the cartoons to be like this, but it's affable as a one-off.
...and this one from Charlie Bacho (Chunk Dunkin’), which isn’t exactly a review on the cartoon itself, but rather, the vibe of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies that were released that year (in fact, “Screwball Football” is the last WB cartoon of the 1930s — and 1939 — that has been shown edited on television):
Looney Tunes Retrospective #2: Leon Schlesinger (post Harman-Ising 1930’s)
The 1930’s were a wild time for Looney Tunes. After Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising left, the shorts become very inconsistent. Looney Tunes shorts that featured Buddy are terrible, but the Merrie Melodies that released around the same time were fantastic. Many directors also came into their styles this decade, particularly Tex Avery. I love Tex Avery and the way he can just fill a short with rapid-fire gags like this one. Friz Freleng mostly made Merrie Melodies, and his are too slow and not too funny. As for Looney Tunes, this was when Porky Pig emerged as a character and Robert Clampett handled him perfectly. Overall, this decade after Harman-Ising is inconsistent, depending on the director your short can be peak or boring slop.
Considering how much of those shorts (the ones that have had parts cut to them on television), this more-or-less matches my sentiments.
The Channel(s): Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and unnamed syndication
Part(s) Edited: Today, we have three channels (syndication technically counts as a channel, as it covers all the local stations and maybe some international networks that have aired Warner Bros. shorts as filler) that have edited two different scenes. It’s not as impossible as I make it out to be, as there is precedent for this type of thing.
- If you saw this on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, then you saw a version where the scene of the dim-witted referee nearly shooting himself in the head with the starter pistol he has in his hand was edited so that way the scene cuts to the spectators in the stadium switching sides for the second half before the gun is aimed at his head (the CN/Boomerang edit keeps in the scene of the gun slowly aiming itself at the referee’s head with every tick of his watch, but it cuts off midway through) and he fires (with him ducking out the way, coming out okay, and realizing his near-fatal mistake). The narrator's line, "And there's the gun that ends the half" is moved to the overhead shot of the stadium before the spectators switch sides (I guess to maintain continuity? I don’t know).
- If, however, you remember seeing this on a local affiliate that aired Warner Bros shorts as filler or part of a weekday afternoon or Saturday morning cartoon block (though not MeTV. MeTV had this uncut, even though they do occasionally edit for “gun to the head” suicides. It doesn’t happen as often as cuts for time or racially insensitive content, but it happens), then you probably saw a version where the ending joke of the baby shooting the man who kept stealing licks off his ice cream throughout the short was cut.
What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s):
- Can’t really say the CN/Boomerang edit grinds my gears since I had no clue Cartoon Network (and Boomerang) edited this until much later. Back when I was getting into the Warner Bros cartoons and discovering the many instances of past and present censorship, I only knew about the syndicated version where the “baby gunning down the man who’s been licking his ice cream” ending was cut. Looking at it now, yeah, this could have done with cutting the entire scene and not just an artful rearrangement. I like artful rearrangements for video editing as much as the next guy or gal or nonbinary pal, but, on this, this looks cheap and obvious...if you’ve seen the original version. If not, then, you’d be forgiven to thinking that it’s part of the cartoon, but this feels like one of those edits where even someone who’s only ever seen “Screwball Football” on Cartoon Network or Boomerang would know something is missing.
- The “baby shooting and killing a man over ice cream” ending: Can’t really tell you, since I’ve only heard about the edited for syndication version. As you’ll see in the Video Comparison section, I came up with two ways this would have been cut in syndication, if the stories about it being cut in syndication are true. As always, I welcome any and all corrections and additions so I don’t look like I’m parroting from other sources.
Video Comparison: I was feeling creative today with Filmora (see my AbstractStream: The New Hollywood 3000 entry about five ways I did one scene from my ongoing “Snow White: Generation A.I.” remix and the upcoming one about how I made a bizarre, microscopically short-lived sketch show weirder than usual), so, instead of a full video (though I will make one when I finally get to remaking the video comparisons. In fact, I might do that before I start the 1940s cartoons), I have two separate clips:
Cartoon Network/Boomerang Edit (the referee nearly shooting himself in the head, shown as if it were on SportsCenter):
Availability Uncut/Is or Was This on Streaming or Digital Download: Sorry, no “Physical Media/Streaming Media” timeline this go-around. Why? Because this hasn’t been available on that many home media or streaming releases. As of 2026, your choices to legally see “Screwball Football” uncut and uncensored are either the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laser disc (volume 3, side 7), which was released in 1992 or streaming on Tubi (which happened 33 years later in 2025). Hopefully, this will get released on Blu-ray with better picture quality. There’s no racial issues with this one, just some reckless gunplay that, while shocking both back then and now, isn’t too problematic for modern sensibilities.
And with that, I’m finished going over all the cartoons that were censored in the 1930s (with some detours, such as going over The Censored Eleven, The Banned Bugs Bunny 12, and The Hunter’s Trilogy, as well as pairing up 1930s cartoons with their later remakes, like “Porky in Wackyland” and “Dough for the Do-Do,” and doing special holiday-themed episodes). All I need to do now is collect and remake all the compare/contrast videos, since a lot of older installments no longer have YouTube videos of how the shorts were censored and a lot have watermarks on them back when I had to use the free version of Filmora 14/15. Because of this, it might take me a while to do the 1940s cartoons, but rest assured, this isn’t the end of "Drawn and Quartered"; just a much-needed break. P.W. Fontaine (she did cover the Pepe Le Pew cartoons, but I’m teaching her how to study other shorts), Sarthurva U., and Andrea Hicks will all be back to point out what’s been cut and guide you to where you can find your Looney faves uncensored (especially Sarthurva and Andrea, since they still need to do the final installment of the Porky Pig/Sylvester the Cat horror vacation short that was edited).
‘Til next time: Stay Looney and Be Merrie!
