NOTE: Because most of the celebrities identified here will be unfamiliar to most readers, I have provided links to their Wikipedia pages as a diving board for the inevitable fall down the rabbit hole of old-school Hollywood trivia and history.
Director: Frank Tashlin (credited as “Frank Tash”)
Summary: Porky competes in a celebrity-studded car race, where the favorite to win is Borax Karoff (Boris Karloff). Can Porky beat him and win the $2 million dollar prize (which comes to $1.63 after something called a “less tax”. And don’t get me started on what those figures would be when adjusted for current inflation…)?
The Channel(s): Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Boomerang
Part(s) Edited: Just one, and it’s a very fleeting cut, whether you’ve seen this edited or not. The redrawn- and computer-colorized versions shown on all three channels (though Cartoon Network once had an uncut computer-colorized version, as seen in this picture:
The station identification bug doesn’t lie, and it doesn’t look like it was PhotoShopped or was created with A.I., since PhotoShop would be too obvious and A.I. as we know it now wasn’t around when this aired on Cartoon Network between 1992 and the early 2000s) edited the scene at the beginning of the race where all the drivers speed off was cut to remove the part where a vehicle driven by Stepin Fetchit trails behind them on a racecar called, “The Knee Action Special,” which is a bike meets an Olympic-style luge (not bad for those who want to take it easy and help the environment, but really not appropriate for a race that favors fast cars).
What Grinds My Gears About the Edit: Nothing. The edit is seamless and a throwaway joke like that doesn’t add much to the story…unless, of course, you’re a purist who hates it when television censors anything it airs, from classic cartoon shorts to contemporary movies and TV show reruns. The scene is only there because the cartoon is about celebrity caricatures of the era in a road race, from the comedy stars like Edna May Oliver, W.C. Fields, and Charlie Chaplin to the more serious stars, like Boris Karloff, Greta Garbo, and John Barrymore (yes, he is related to Drew Barrymore). Stepin Fetchit would definitely be in the comedy section, as that kind of racial humor was popular in its day. If I have one complaint about the edit, it’s that Cartoon Network and Boomerang should have cut W.C. Fields using booze to jump-start Edna May Oliver’s car, since Cartoon Network does have a history of editing out alcohol references, though, compared to editing out outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes, editing for alcohol references is a tad more inconsistent.
How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: Right here, now without watermarks!
Availability Uncut: Your choice: the Looney Tunes Golden Collection volume three DVD set (which is the start of the classic cartoon DVDs having warnings about some of the shorts containing content now considered “politically incorrect” or “problematic” due to outdated racial and ethnic caricatures) or the Porky Pig 101 DVD set (using the same copy from the former DVD set). Will it ever see a remastered for Blu-ray, streaming, or digital download version? Maybe, but not likely.
‘Til next time…
