Director: Bob Clampett (credited as “Robert Clampett.” Sounds oddly proper for someone like him. Like calling Will Forte “Orville Willis Forte IV”), with Chuck Jones (credited as “Charles Jones”) as an uncredited co-director (though he is credited for animation).
Summary: Porky literally tries to teach his old dog new tricks, but a smart aleck puppy keeps trolling him.
Fun Facts: This is the first cartoon to use “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” as the Looney Tunes theme song (Merrie Melodies’ theme is “Merrily We Roll Along,” for those who use both interchangeably) and the first to use the ending card where Porky bursts out of the drum and stutters, “Th-Th-Th-That’s All, Folks!” (there’s a short-lived Bugs Bunny variant where Bugs bursts out of the drum, snacks on a carrot, and says, “And dat’s de end!” Kinda wished they did variations with other characters, like how the end of Tiny Toon Adventures had the characters close out the cartoon, like Gogo Dodo saying, “It’s been surreal!” and turning the TV off with a remote, Plucky saying, “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” or Dizzy Devil saying “Show over” and eating the rainbow-colored concentric circles until his eyes are the only things left. There’s a YouTube compilation of this, naturally).
The Channel(s): Nickelodeon (possibly)
Part(s) Edited: Nickelodeon’s redrawn-colorized version (according to the old Censored Cartoons Page and the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki) muffled out the young pup calling Porky’s dog an “old antique” after the old dog slams his head into a washtub that’s hanging on the wall outside Porky’s house.
What Grinds My Gears About the Edit: Not so much “grind my gears” as “make me ask a lot of questions about the veracity of the claim.” Editing a cartoon to remove a kid character insult an elderly character seems out of character for Nickelodeon (especially in the 1990s, when the whole aesthetic of that channel made kids and teenagers believe that they had the power and reasonable adult figures were old-fashioned and out-of-touch), so what was the point of this edit? I wouldn’t put it past the censors of that channel to show some hypocrisy (the syndicated/acquired shows can’t have any ageism and adult-bashing from kids, but the homegrown shows Nickelodeon made can). Then again, what if it wasn’t a censorship cut? What if the sound quality was so bad that the audio just strategically cut out on that part and fixing it was either a) impossible, or b) not cost-effective. Or what if the viewers couldn’t understand the pup’s dialogue and thought it was muffled or muted?
Video Comparison: I’m not going to do my usual “compare/contrast” or “edit approximation” video this go-around. What I am going to do is upload both the original black and white version and the redrawn-colorized version and let you, the reader/viewer, decide if any audio censorship was done. From where I stand, there was no editing, but if anyone has any evidence that says otherwise (f.eg, a video of when this short aired on Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon with the edit actually there for all to here), then please come up and testify.
Black and White version:
Redrawn-Colorized version:
Availability Uncut: It was already uncut (allegedly) when aired on television, but, if you want the black and white version where the audio is high-quality, then look no further than the Porky Pig 101 DVD (disc two)…and I mean that literally, because that’s the only physical media release it has. It was available on Boomerang’s streaming channel and HBO Max (back when it was first called HBO Max and then when it was just Max. Now it’s back to HBO Max), but was dropped between 2024 and 2025 (this year).
‘Til next time…