Patient Porky (It's Going Down, Thanks to the Elevator Operator)

As promised, here is the Drawn and Quartered post for “Patient Porky” to show how similar it is to “The Daffy Doc,” right down to being edited for outdated African-American stereotypes, with “Patient Porky” being more obvious than “The Daffy Doc.”

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

Summary: Porky is back in the hospital, but this time, he’s really sick. You see, he had a little too much cake at his birthday party, and needs medical attention. Unfortunately, the only doctor who will see him is a cat named “Dr. Chilled-Air” who should be strapped to the bed as a mental patient instead of checking the health of unsuspecting patients.

Fun Facts:

- “Patient Porky” has a lot in common with “The Daffy Doc.” Most sources (specifically, Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki) say this is a partial remake, and I agree with them to a point. Both shorts have title cards featuring an ambulance (which actually is a direct lift from “The Daffy Doc,” only it’s static on “Patient Porky”):

- Both have a crazy character in a hospital (“Patient Porky”’s hospital doesn’t have a funny name to it like “The Daffy Doc”).

- Both have Porky going to that hospital and encountering the crazy character.

- Both crazy characters have delusions of being a surgeon, despite little to no medical training (Daffy, at least, has a sheepskin and a medical license. The nameless cat is just a nutjob suffering from delusions of grandeur).

- Both have an anticlimatic ending after a comic chase where the crazy character uses a saw on Porky (the iron lung joke in “The Daffy Doc”; the “Do Not Open Until Xmas” sticker on “Patient Porky”), though “Patient Porky”’s ending is a bit more disturbing (and none of it involves an iron lung or being insensitive to those with polio). Porky’s stuck with this crazy cat until Xmas. By then, the cake will be long digested, but the cat will still operate on him with a saw.

- Some differences between “The Daffy Doc” and “Patient Porky” include:

- “Patient Porky” had a prototype Bugs Bunny (the one that sounded more like a knock-off of Woody Woodpecker and acted like Daffy Duck in a rabbit suit) in what would be his last appearance in a black and white short.

- Porky appeared half-way through the cartoon (at three minutes and 18 seconds in a cartoon that’s six minutes and eight seconds when shown uncut) instead of three-quarters in.

- Porky wasn’t sick in “The Daffy Doc”; Daffy just knocked him out because he needs a patient to prove that he’s a competent surgeon. Here, Porky is sick from a stomach ache caused by overeating (those are the worst, in my opinion). Since the cause is too much birthday cake, I wonder if this was meant to be a continuation of “Porky’s Party.” That had Porky and birthday cake in it. However, it also could just be an unrelated birthday that happened off-screen.

The Channel(s): Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network (not counting The Bob Clampett Show and a 2:45am showing on June Bugs 2001. Yes, that June Bugs 2001), Boomerang, Tooncast, MeTV, and MeTV Toons

Part(s) Edited: All of those channels edited the same scenes, which is every scene featuring the Rochester-sounding elevator operator naming off all the diseases and conditions that each hospital floor treats.

Just like “The Daffy Doc” and “Patient Porky,” there are differences as to how each channel cut the scene. If you watched this on Nickelodeon, Tooncast, MeTV, or MeTV Toons, you’ll notice that the Rochester scenes are cut with a dissolve effect from one scene to another, which looks obvious, but flows better than a hard cut from one scene to the next, like what Cartoon Network and Boomerang did.

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): Not much, actually. The only thing that gets to me is the fact that Nickelodeon, Tooncast, MeTV, and MeTV Toons made the edit more seamless than Cartoon Network and Boomerang. Then, there’s the fact that Cartoon Network aired this (uncut, no less) on June Bugs 2001. First off, the cartoon isn’t really considered a Bugs Bunny cartoon, despite the cameo from the crazy, prototype Bugs (heck, it’s barely considered a Porky Pig cartoon because Bob Clampett, at that point, was bored of the character and only had him in his shorts out of contractual obligation). Second off, this, as you know from one of my past posts, was the June Bugs 2001 that banned 12 Bugs Bunny cartoons for having racially insensitive caricatures, and here’s Cartoon Network coming in with an uncut short showing a racially insensitive caricature of a black man (voiced by a white guy doing a black voice, though Mel Blanc was so good at it, and it’s also the voice he used for Yosemite Sam, that I’m not even mad about it).

Video Comparison: The titles do go by fast, but that's what the rewind and pause buttons are for. On top of that, I explain everything in the blog. The videos are for evidence/re-enactments:

Availability Uncut: In yet another example of “The Daffy Doc” being considered the superior of the two, “Patient Porky” doesn’t have that many physical media releases. Its only VHS release was on the 1994 video Porky Pig: Days of Swine and Roses. The good news: it’s uncut and uncensored. The bad news (for the Looney Tunes completionist in your life): it’s computer-colorized, not in black and white. The original, uncut, black and white version is available on two DVD sets: the fifth volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection (on the disc dedicated to Bob Clampett’s best works) and the fourth disc of the Porky Pig 101 DVD set.

Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: If you can believe it, it was on HBO Max from 2020 to 2025 (when the service was first called HBO Max, then changed its name to Max before it reverted to its old name and got rid of their Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies library). It became one of many WB shorts to find a new home on Tubi. And yes, the cartoon is uncut, uncensored, and shown in black and white on both platforms.

‘Til next time, Stay Looney, and Be Merrie.