Hey, guys!
Thought I’d do something different and put in an MGM short that’s has had a history of being censored on American TV. I know I said a while back that I was going to do MGM shorts (which means both the Tom and Jerry cartoons and the MGM cartoons, some of which were the Tex Avery-directed shorts he did after getting fired from Warner Bros), but that was after I was finished the WB cartoons. Since this is Thanksgiving weekend (which does include Black Friday or “Day One of the Three-Day Thanksgiving Hangover”), I decided to surprise everyone and do an MGM cartoon early.
Director(s): Tex Avery (MGM edition, where the gags are wilder and more plentiful)
Summary: A dopey Pilgrim who sounds like Droopy Dog hunts a turkey who sounds like Jimmy Durante for the first Thanksgiving. World War II gags abound (as seen with the black market butcher shop, the fact that The Mayflower has a “C” ration card, which means that it gets more fuel than the “A” and “B” cards; and one Pilgrim crying over being a 1-A [the opposite of 4-F, meaning that you were physically and mentally capable of being drafted for military service]), as well as a running gag featuring a bear wearing an “Eat at Joe's” sandwich sign.
Fun Facts:
- There are Internet sources claiming that Daws Butler voiced a character in this cartoon, which is inaccurate, as Daws Butler’s first cartoon short was “Little Rural Riding Hood” (the last of the Wolf and the Redheaded Showgirl cartoons that started with “Red Hot Riding Hood” in 1943), which came out in 1949.
- The Droopy Dog-sounded Pilgrim was actually an impersonation of Bill Thompson’s Droopy voice done by Tex Avery himself, as the real Thompson was drafted to fight in World War II.
- The Pilgrim is actually recycled from the character Big Heelwatha from the MGM Tex Avery short of the same name (or referred to by its alternate title, “Buck of the Month”), which came out in 1944, was a Screwy Squirrel cartoon, and, unlike this short, didn’t see much airtime in America due to Native American stereotyping that couldn’t easily be edited out, as you’ll see in the video below.
- The Jimmy Durante turkey was originally supposed to appear in a funeral scene on the 1980s animation/live-action hybrid detective film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but the scene was deleted.
- Fontella Bass’s music video for the 1965 song “Rescue Me” used clips from this short, as did the NBC sketch show, Saturday Night Live, on the season 41 (2015-2016 season) episode hosted by Ronda Rousey with musical guest, Selena Gomez. For reference, this is the sketch that has a clip from that cartoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6uvv1aS5_I&feature=youtu.be
The Channel(s): TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and MeTV
Part(s) Edited: As the video will tell you, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and MeTV cut an entire sequence for two things that American TV censors and political correctness in general don’t think is very funny: suicide gags and race jokes.
After the “Eat at Joe’s” bear passes by the Droopy Pilgrim and the Jimmy Durante turkey, the original, uncut version fades to the next scene, where the Durante turkey reverses the musket so the barrel is aimed at the Droopy Pilgrim’s head, then whacks him with a spanking paddle, prompting the Droopy Pilgrim to aim and fire. The Durante turkey is shocked that the Droopy Pilgrim’s head is no longer on his shoulders, but it turns out, it’s tucked in his shirt. The Droopy Pilgrim then sees some feathers behind a log and thinks it’s the Durante turkey, but instead pulls out an angry Native American chief. The pilgrim ends up sheepishly babbling his way out of getting scalped, leaving his teeth temporarily in the air. As soon as the Native chief walks away, he encounters another Native American man, who identifies as a “half-breed,” which, as mentioned on the June Bugs 2001 post when I went over why 1960’s “Horse Hare” was banned, is an offensive term for someone who is mixed race, particularly someone who is half-white American and half-Native American, which is fantastically depicted here as one side of the Native American man is, in fact, a Native American while the other is a blond, white man in a blue suit, gray slacks, and black and white shoes. The “half-breed” then holds up a sign that reads, “Heap Corny Joke,” which was Tex Avery and his writers’ way of pointing out how lame the joke was (it was common in his MGM shorts, and I am so sure is the granddaddy of all those characters who like to break the fourth wall and point out the flaws and cliches in the work they’re in).
Yeah, all of that was edited on TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and MeTV, though I want to point out that the musket part seems like it would have and could have slid by no problem on MeTV, since they normally don’t edit for accidental suicide (intentional, yes, but not accidental) or gun jokes that could end dangerously if imitated in real life. The other channels…not so much. While the MGM Fandom Wiki may tell you that the entire sequence was cut because of the Native American stereotypes, that’s only scratching the surface, and you know me, I want to make sure an edit that’s spoken in as few words as possible is exactly that when I go watch it on my computer or DVD/Blu-ray set. If there’s more to the scene, I will make a note of it.
What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): That a large chunk of the short was missing, obviously. Since Tex Avery cartoons like this are more gags than actual story, it means fewer laughs for those who expect to see it, even if those laughs are seen as problematic by today’s standards.
Video Comparison: I’m back to using Filmora 15, now with no watermarked exports, because I paid for that yearly subscription, finally. I’ll still find a use for CapCut, no matter how minimal. Anyway, here’s the video:
Availability Uncut: Its home media release history is good, spanning from 1993 to 2021. “Jerky Turkey” first appeared on The Compleat (that’s how it’s spelled) Tex Avery laserdisc (side 2), which released every Tex Avery MGM short, including the ones that were normally banned and censored for outdated racial stereotypes. Ten years later (2003), it appeared on La Collection Tex Avery (The Tex Avery Collection), which was a French release of 98% of Tex Avery’s MGM filmography (the Fandom Wiki page explains in full what was banned and censored and why). Twelve years after that (2015), “Jerky Turkey” was released as part of the Blu-ray release of the musical Anchors Aweigh, starring Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, and Gene Kelly, with songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, as well as The Frank Sinatra Five Film Collection (which I’m so sure includes Anchors Aweigh, since there are people out there who would rather get a full DVD or Blu-ray collection than just an individual movie). Six years after that (2021), the third volume of The Tex Avery Screwball Classics Blu-ray is released and, wouldn’t you know it, “Jerky Turkey” is on there, uncut, uncensored, and restored from the 1995 Turner print.
Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: No for both, even though HBO Max and Tubi have (or “have had,” in HBO Max’s case) a Tom and Jerry cartoon library that have Tex Avery cartoons mixed in (that was released before the Looney Tunes one). The good news is this cartoon (alongside “To Spring” from 1936 and “Doggone Tired” from 1949) are the only Tex Avery shorts that have fallen into the public domain, meaning you can see them on YouTube and other video websites without fear of being taken down for copyright infringement.
‘Til next time, Stay Looney, and Be Merrie (yeah, I know. This is an MGM short, but the catchphrase is too good to change).
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