Detouring America (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the United States/Big Chief Baby)

 

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

Summary: A travelogue spoof showing viewers a tour of the United States, from literal cow-punchers in the rolling plains to mosquitos in the Florida Everglades and a human fly attempting to climb the Empire State Building.

Fun Facts:

• This is Termite Terrace’s second Oscar-nominated short (the first one being “It’s Got Me Again” from all the way back in 1932), and, like “It’s Got Me Again,” “Detouring America” got beat out by a Disney short. In this case, it was their adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Ugly Duckling.”

• This isn’t to be confused with “Cross-Country Detours,” which is also a travelogue spoof that has been edited on American TV, but that one is funnier and has a scene that a lot of people remember for lascivious reasons. If you know it, you know it. Otherwise, you’re going to have to look it up for yourself or wait until I get to it.

Letterboxd Says The Darndest Things: Oof! You’re not going to find many fans for this one, mostly because the reviewers know nothing about past celebrities and get easily offended over the outdated racial and ethnic caricatures. There was one review worth posting here that does make a good point, but I feel like every “anti-establishment” stand-up comic has made this joke at least once or twice in their careers, so it’s not exactly anything new (and, if they haven’t, shame on them. I thought their job was to smash the system with humor):

Greed, animal abuse, military propaganda and racism. I guess they really showed America as it is.

Yeah, the greed was a gag involving a California prospector finding gold and trying not to draw attention to it, only to fail when everyone else moves in on his territory, the animal abuse is either a mosquito screaming “OUCH!” after being swatted by an explorer in the Florida Everglades or a cow literally getting punched by a cow-puncher who sounds like then-popular comedian Jerry Colonna (who has been caricatured a lot in these old cartoons and even did the voice of the Mad Hatter’s buddy, the March Hare, on the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland); the military propaganda is just a look at a military academy where the soldiers from the waist up look ready for battle, but their legs and feet aren’t (it’s making fun of the military, not advocating it); and the racism isn’t as terrible as they make it out to be. It’s still potentially offensive, but it’s just a product of its time, as mentioned in those Looney Tunes DVD warnings they’ve had ever since Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume three.

It’s like no one knows what nuance, history, or humor is anymore. Anyway, enough whining. Let’s get to why you’re here: to see what was cut and why.

The Channel(s): Cartoon Network and Boomerang (Associated Artists Productions transfer). Even though the labels say that this was also cut on TBS, TNT, and MeTV, the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki doesn't say that those channels edited this short, I'm assuming they did, if they didn't outright ban it.

Part(s) Edited: Two scenes featuring outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes were cut:

• After the second check-up on The Human Fly’s climb up the Empire State Building, the uncut version had a scene where we go to Alaska, where a poor, black man is thumbing a ride while singing “Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny.” An Inuit (or “Eskimo,” as they were known back then) walks up, looks at the camera, shrugs his shoulders, and literally carries the black man to the Virginia state line. In my opinion, that’s actually sweet of him to oblige, despite their racial and geographical differences, but, considering how pro-slavery “Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny” is lyrically, yeah, it does kind of ruin it. Still, just the fact that the scene comes off as sweet at face value in something from 1939 shows that humanity and its history isn’t as awful as others claim.

• The second edit comes after the third check-up on The Human Fly, where we go to a Native American village in the American Sotuhwest. Despite claims to the contrary (which have been debunked on the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki, though not the old Censored Cartoons Page), the entire sequence with the Native American village wasn’t cut. What was cut was one scene where a Native American woman has her overgrown son on her papoose and tells him that it’s time to cut the umbilical cord and walk on his own, with the overgrown son whining that he doesn’t want to (still relevant these days regardless of race or ethnicity). The other scenes, like the Native Americans walking vertically down a cave village, the elder slithering out of a teepee after going inside for some “Wa-Hoo Snake Oil,” and an Indian snake dance involving actual snakes.

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): Nothing. It’s one of those spot-gag cartoons where it’s just a collection of jokes tied to a central idea. Even I didn’t notice that those scenes were gone until much later (though that’s because the censored version aired more on American TV than the uncut version and doing that does condition you into thinking it’s uncut...until you learn years later that it’s not). The completist who likes their past media uncut and uncensored (or close to it, as a lot of scenes do get lost to time or were only thought of, but never made real) might hate the edited version for “erasing history,” but, if the cartoon is as bad as Letterboxd says it is, then what’s the point of fighting over a censored scene  if you don’t care much for the cartoon it’s attached to?

I should also note that the vintage cinema channel, Turner Classic Movies (which does air some of what Cartoon Network and Boomerang airs, often with cuts, though some are uncut for historical reasons, like Herr Meets Hare) did air this uncut back in 1999. It’s not really a ground gear, but it should raise some ire over the hyprocisy of American censorship.

Video Comparison: 

Availability Uncut: Yeah, this one is strictly a mainstay on home media. For those who want it on a Warner Bros. cartoon compilation set, it’s on the fifth volume and second side of the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laser disc (which was still going on in 1997, which surprises me because I thought laser disc was phased out earlier than that). For those who want it as a bonus feature on a feature film release, then you can find on on the DVD and Blu-ray version of the film Each Dawn I Die (WB cartoon spoof is the 1949 short, “Each Dawn I Crow”), starring Gregory Raft and James Cagney. The DVD version came out in 2006 while the Blu-ray is a more recent release (2021). It’s also available as part of a 2008 collection of Warner Bros gangster movies called Warner Bros Pictures Gangster Collection, volume 2 (not very imaginative, but it does says what it is). “Detouring America” and Each Dawn I Die are both on the second volume, joining such other films as Bullets or Ballots, City for Conquest, “G” Men, San Quentin, and A Slight Case of Murder.

Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: Not as of this writing. Like I said before, this mostly was released on home media and seen on television.

‘Til next time: Stay Looney and Be Merrie!

Porky's Picnic (Plain as the Black on Your Face/In a Detroit Minute)

 

Director(s): Bob Clampett (credited as “Robert Clampett”)

Summary: Porky and his girlfriend, Petunia (the one that’s actually nice to Porky instead of the one from “Porky’s Romance,” who only likes Porky because he had chocolates and flowers for her) go on a picnic near the zoo, and Porky must keep an eye on Pinky, Porky’s mischievious nephew, who keeps trying to cut off a squirrel’s head with a pair of scissors (yeah, that’s beyond mischievous and straight up “sign you’re raising a future serial killer.” At least by today’s standards. Back then, no one really cared).

Fun Facts: 

• This short is the first time since “Porky’s Romance” that Petunia Pig (Porky’s love interest in the same vein as Minnie Mouse or even Honey from the Bosko and Honey cartoons) was shown, though she was seen in “Scalp Trouble” as a picture on Porky’s wall and she would have been in “Porky’s Party,” but Bob Clampett uninvited her.
• Unlike Frank Tashlin’s version, this version of Petunia Pig is actually likeable, but incredibly bland (much like Porky himself in these shorts where he’s not paired up with someone crazy like Daffy).

• The 515 train in this short is the same one from “Porky’s Railroad” and this Tex Avery color cartoon called “Streamlined Greta Green.”

Letterboxd Says The Darndest Things: Feelings about this cartoon range from “It sucks” to “It’s fairly standard, but has its moments.” Tim Brayton combines those two sentiments into one somewhat verbose review with a two-and-a-half-star review tacked on:

Not without its compensations: there are some interesting staging choices, including the needlessly complex and artful use of translucent foreground elements at one point, and the short has exceptionally clear designs on the comic possibilities of Porky's stutter leading him to words that are, by all apparent logic, more complicated than the one he couldn't spit out. But more than any of Bob Clampett's sleepy, disposable "I grow weary of this guileless pig" 1939 Porky cartoons, this feels like we're actually watching the animation, storytelling, and gagwork regress in real time: this feels just so extremely much like a cartoon from the first half of the '30s (it feels like multiple specific cartoons, in fact), from the scenario to the languid pace of the gags to the way that the cruel and selfish Petunia Pig, whose torment of Porky was funny because it was mean, has been rebooted as a nice cartoon girlfriend who is way too close to Cookie, paramour of the dreaded Buddy, for comfort. Anyway, I know where this is all going because it's 84 years later and the Looney Tunes would spend the decade after this transitioning from "the funny animal cartoon series put out by Warner Bros." into "an American institution and one of the greatest bodies of work in the history of comic cinema", but if I were a cartoon fan watching this as they came out in '39 (if indeed such beings existed in '39), I strongly feel that this is the point I'd be bailing out on Porky.

Sc8lo’s review focuses more on Pinky Pig’s unsettling penchant for comic animal abuse, brings up a strange choice in story beat that most wouldn’t notice immediately, and steals my bit on revealing where the cartoon is available uncut (if it’s available on home media at all):

What starts out as a cutesy short winds up being a bit maniacal thanks to the inclusion of Pinky Pig in his second and final appearance. His inclusion does throw up a lot of questions. What is his relationship to Porky here and why is he going around trying to decapitate squirrels like Cropsey from The Burning?

Why does Porky offer to take Petunia on a picnic only to go straight for a nap as soon as they arrive?

This short is available on Porky 101.

Finally, we have Horse Man Jack, who expresses his dislike for the short and brings up a good reason (one of many, actually) why I don’t consider the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons child-friendly:

I’ll always find it funny how much the Looney Tunes shorts hate children considering that they’re, you know, popular with children. Unfortunately this one isn’t funny and the classic Ye Olde Cartoon “throw in a blackface gag for no reason” moment sours the mood.

To be absolutely fair to Horse Man Jack, the Looney Tunes shorts weren’t “meant for children” when they were in theaters. That only started to happen thanks to television reruns and being put on Saturday morning, weekday afternoon syndication, and cable, where they were edited to make them child-friendly. At least the home media releases had them uncut and, later, they were made for both family viewing and for collectors who want the shorts uncut, uncensored, and with a warning about how some of the jokes and scenes haven’t aged well, but will be shown as a reminder of our less-enlightened past so we can make a more enlightened future (I don’t know how that’s going to work, but I admire their optimism).

The Channel(s): Nickelodeon and syndication (WKBD in Detroit, Michigan during the 1980s)

Part(s) Edited: 

• The WKBD version that aired back in the 1980s took a chunk out of the first two and a half minutes of this short — definitely for time reasons/more commercials, but the scene of Pinky detaching the side car from the motorcycle and him and Petunia racing dangerously down the road and nearly getting hit by a train could be seen as a content cut for dangerous, imitable behavior (if that were true, then why weren’t the running gag of Pinky trying to cut a squirrel’s head off with scissors and scenes of Pinky wandering off to harass the animals at the zoo cut?) and scenes of peril and threat (even though the peril and threat has a reassuring outcome). WKBD also shortened Petunia kissing Porky as a reward for rescuing Pinky, not because it may be seen as sexual, but because Porky had mud on his face and when Petunia kissed him, it transferred onto her and put her in blackface because her lips weren’t covered in mud.

• Nickelodeon’s version left in the beginning, but also aired two versions where the blackface kiss was edited: the computer-colorized version where the kiss was shortened (so, same version as WKBD) and a redrawn-colorized version where the scene in question was left in, but the lips were also colored brown so the blackface just turns into a face covered in mud, though, if you look at the scene closely, you’ll see that there’s one frame when Petunia pulls back where the lips are still white. In fact, here's that frame now:

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): Not much for the “blackface kiss” part, since that’s justified. However, I would like to add that, despite Cartoon Network’s and Boomerang’s histories of editing out outdated depictions of African-Americans and black people in general (which includes blackface), that scene wasn’t edited or altered in any way. I understand The Bob Clampett Show version not doing it, since that show had most of their shorts unedited (or close to it), but “Porky’s Picnic” was shown outside of that series on installment shows like The Looney Tunes Show (2003 edition), Bugs and Daffy, and The ACME Hour. What’s that about?

WKBD cutting the first two and a half minutes of it — yeah, there’s no excuse for that, except for wanting more time for commercials. The first two and a half minutes do lay out a lot of exposition for this short (however thin it might be) and cutting it just ruins it.

Video Comparison: 

Availability Uncut: As of this writing, the only place you can find this uncut, uncensored, but not restored/remastered on physical media is on the Porky Pig 101 DVD set, which came out in 2017.

Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: It was on streaming from 2021 to 2023 on Warner MediaRIDE (which was only available as a streaming service in Honda cars). After that, it was gone. It’s not even on Tubi, which I don’t understand. The blackface kiss could have squeaked by unnoticed and there are a lot of cartoons besides this that have kids behaving badly, so what makes this one so special that it’s not allowed to be shown? Maybe it’s because it’s not that well-liked.

‘Til next time, Stay Looney and Be Merrie