Detouring America (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the United States/Big Chief Baby)

 

Director(s): Tex Avery (credited as “Fred Avery”)

Summary: A travelogue spoof showing viewers a tour of the United States, from literal cow-punchers in the rolling plains to mosquitos in the Florida Everglades and a human fly attempting to climb the Empire State Building.

Fun Facts:

• This is Termite Terrace’s second Oscar-nominated short (the first one being “It’s Got Me Again” from all the way back in 1932), and, like “It’s Got Me Again,” “Detouring America” got beat out by a Disney short. In this case, it was their adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Ugly Duckling.”

• This isn’t to be confused with “Cross-Country Detours,” which is also a travelogue spoof that has been edited on American TV, but that one is funnier and has a scene that a lot of people remember for lascivious reasons. If you know it, you know it. Otherwise, you’re going to have to look it up for yourself or wait until I get to it.

Letterboxd Says The Darndest Things: Oof! You’re not going to find many fans for this one, mostly because the reviewers know nothing about past celebrities and get easily offended over the outdated racial and ethnic caricatures. There was one review worth posting here that does make a good point, but I feel like every “anti-establishment” stand-up comic has made this joke at least once or twice in their careers, so it’s not exactly anything new (and, if they haven’t, shame on them. I thought their job was to smash the system with humor):

Greed, animal abuse, military propaganda and racism. I guess they really showed America as it is.

Yeah, the greed was a gag involving a California prospector finding gold and trying not to draw attention to it, only to fail when everyone else moves in on his territory, the animal abuse is either a mosquito screaming “OUCH!” after being swatted by an explorer in the Florida Everglades or a cow literally getting punched by a cow-puncher who sounds like then-popular comedian Jerry Colonna (who has been caricatured a lot in these old cartoons and even did the voice of the Mad Hatter’s buddy, the March Hare, on the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland); the military propaganda is just a look at a military academy where the soldiers from the waist up look ready for battle, but their legs and feet aren’t (it’s making fun of the military, not advocating it); and the racism isn’t as terrible as they make it out to be. It’s still potentially offensive, but it’s just a product of its time, as mentioned in those Looney Tunes DVD warnings they’ve had ever since Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume three.

It’s like no one knows what nuance, history, or humor is anymore. Anyway, enough whining. Let’s get to why you’re here: to see what was cut and why.

The Channel(s): Cartoon Network and Boomerang (Associated Artists Productions transfer). Even though the labels say that this was also cut on TBS, TNT, and MeTV, the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki doesn't say that those channels edited this short, I'm assuming they did, if they didn't outright ban it.

Part(s) Edited: Two scenes featuring outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes were cut:

• After the second check-up on The Human Fly’s climb up the Empire State Building, the uncut version had a scene where we go to Alaska, where a poor, black man is thumbing a ride while singing “Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny.” An Inuit (or “Eskimo,” as they were known back then) walks up, looks at the camera, shrugs his shoulders, and literally carries the black man to the Virginia state line. In my opinion, that’s actually sweet of him to oblige, despite their racial and geographical differences, but, considering how pro-slavery “Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny” is lyrically, yeah, it does kind of ruin it. Still, just the fact that the scene comes off as sweet at face value in something from 1939 shows that humanity and its history isn’t as awful as others claim.

• The second edit comes after the third check-up on The Human Fly, where we go to a Native American village in the American Sotuhwest. Despite claims to the contrary (which have been debunked on the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki, though not the old Censored Cartoons Page), the entire sequence with the Native American village wasn’t cut. What was cut was one scene where a Native American woman has her overgrown son on her papoose and tells him that it’s time to cut the umbilical cord and walk on his own, with the overgrown son whining that he doesn’t want to (still relevant these days regardless of race or ethnicity). The other scenes, like the Native Americans walking vertically down a cave village, the elder slithering out of a teepee after going inside for some “Wa-Hoo Snake Oil,” and an Indian snake dance involving actual snakes.

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): Nothing. It’s one of those spot-gag cartoons where it’s just a collection of jokes tied to a central idea. Even I didn’t notice that those scenes were gone until much later (though that’s because the censored version aired more on American TV than the uncut version and doing that does condition you into thinking it’s uncut...until you learn years later that it’s not). The completist who likes their past media uncut and uncensored (or close to it, as a lot of scenes do get lost to time or were only thought of, but never made real) might hate the edited version for “erasing history,” but, if the cartoon is as bad as Letterboxd says it is, then what’s the point of fighting over a censored scene  if you don’t care much for the cartoon it’s attached to?

I should also note that the vintage cinema channel, Turner Classic Movies (which does air some of what Cartoon Network and Boomerang airs, often with cuts, though some are uncut for historical reasons, like Herr Meets Hare) did air this uncut back in 1999. It’s not really a ground gear, but it should raise some ire over the hyprocisy of American censorship.

Video Comparison: 

Availability Uncut: Yeah, this one is strictly a mainstay on home media. For those who want it on a Warner Bros. cartoon compilation set, it’s on the fifth volume and second side of the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laser disc (which was still going on in 1997, which surprises me because I thought laser disc was phased out earlier than that). For those who want it as a bonus feature on a feature film release, then you can find on on the DVD and Blu-ray version of the film Each Dawn I Die (WB cartoon spoof is the 1949 short, “Each Dawn I Crow”), starring Gregory Raft and James Cagney. The DVD version came out in 2006 while the Blu-ray is a more recent release (2021). It’s also available as part of a 2008 collection of Warner Bros gangster movies called Warner Bros Pictures Gangster Collection, volume 2 (not very imaginative, but it does says what it is). “Detouring America” and Each Dawn I Die are both on the second volume, joining such other films as Bullets or Ballots, City for Conquest, “G” Men, San Quentin, and A Slight Case of Murder.

Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: Not as of this writing. Like I said before, this mostly was released on home media and seen on television.

‘Til next time: Stay Looney and Be Merrie!