Buddy's Show Boat (Cup and Saucer Lip)

We’re now in the Buddy era of Warner Bros animation, considered a real valley in the studio’s peak-and-valley history. Following the departures of Harman and Ising, the studio was desperately scrambling for a new director and a new star character. Tom Palmer was a failure (as seen with “Buddy’s Day Out” [which wasn’t edited for anything when aired on American television -- as far as anyone knows, though considering how anodyne that short is, it probably wasn’t cut for anything] and “I’ve Got to Sing a Torch Song” [which was cut for a lot on Nickelodeon]), and Buddy himself would be derided for being a mediocre clone of Bosko. Of the 24 Buddy cartoons that were released between 1933 and 1935, only five were shown edited on American TV (mostly Nickelodeon, but at least one was cut when syndicated to television in the 1950s and ‘60s). 

Because of this (and my healing from seasonal allergies to my eyes), posting will be a bit less frequent.

NOTE: The compare/contrast video I did isn't actually ten minutes long. I made a mistake in pacing and editing when I was creating it. I will make a new video (and replace the YouTube videos on other posts that were taken down due to copyright), but it's going to be a while.

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Director: Earl Duvall (misspelled as “Duval”)

Summary: Buddy has a traveling showboat, featuring dancing girls, African natives who can impersonate white French performers, and walruses that save Buddy’s girlfriend, Cookie, from a nameless thug (the same one from “Buddy’s Beer Garden” who hit on Buddy when he was cross-dressed as Mae West. I got it linked if you want to see the insanity for yourself).

The Channel: Nickelodeon (Nick@Nite version of Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon)

Part(s) Edited: Two scenes featuring stereotypically black performers were cut/altered:

• Both scenes at the beginning with Buddy piloting his showboat were cut to remove all scenes featuring the black coal workers singing "Swanee River" and stoking coal into the furnace (which magically has a mouth and eyes for no reason other than "1930s cartoons were weird"). While the audio was kept, the first visual was replaced with Buddy at the wheel of his showboat and the beginning of the scene with two sleeping guys holding fishing rods before the scene pans to two daschunds walking on the riverboat paddle and sniffing at two hot dogs hanging on the edge of the fishing rods. The second time, it just cut to a fish spitting at the bad guy after he spat at the fish first. The Video Comparison section provides a better look at how it was cut.
• Buddy introducing the African native as "Chief Saucer Lip" was completely cut, going from the audience cheering and applauding over Buddy and Cookie dancing with the chorus girls to Chief Saucer Lip's Maurice Chevalier impression.

What Wasn't Cut that Should Have Been Cut: 

• The chorus girls wearing nothing but bras and panties (hey, if "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" can be shown on Nickelodeon without the scene with the college coeds listening to Cros Bingsby in their pajamas/underwear, then Nickelodeon could have done away with that part. However, I think it cropping the scene or replacing it with alternate footage would have been too distracting. It didn't stop them from editing the black coal worker scenes, though). 

•  The bells on the old-timey telephone jiggling like breasts (again, Nickelodeon really shouldn't have picked and chose what was suggestive humor and what wasn't, especially if they're dealing with a pre-Code cartoon from 1933). 

•  The minstrel quartet welcoming people in to see Buddy's traveling show. When I get to "Go Into Your Dance," you'll see why Nickelodeon should have edited this.

How It Played Edited/Video Comparison: The first edit (with the coal workers) makes it obvious that something's cut, which doesn't mean much to something that has little to no story, but it means everything if you're trying to make the music match the visuals. Cutting to recycled footage can be a bit distracting. As for the second edit? Kind of abrupt, but it doesn't affect anything. As always, here's a compare/contrast video I made (click here).

Availability Uncut: As of this writing (2024), there's no home media or streaming release of this short. It was on TV under Sunset Productions from 1955 to 1968 and Nickelodeon did air the edited version between 1988 and 1993 (the installment that aired this short, according to the Looney Tunes wiki premiered on September 16, 1990), but, outside of rare appearances on online video sites (mostly archive.org), there's nothing.