Pilgrim Porky (Catch of the Day)

Because Thanksgiving (United States version. I know Canada had their version in October and other countries don’t celebrate the holiday) is right around the corner, I decided to jump ahead and do a “Drawn and Quartered” installment for “Pilgrim Porky,” which came out in 1940 (I finished the 1938 cartoons and will start on 1939 after this, my report on “Holiday for Drumsticks,” and my report on “Patient Porky,” which is more-or-less a sequel to “The Daffy Doc”). Please enjoy, have a safe and happy holiday (assuming you celebrate it), and try not to fill up too much on turkey. Tryptophan knock-out is real.

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

Summary: We see our porcine protagonist set sail from England to Plymouth Rock on the coast of Massachusetts in this historical parody of The Pilgrims leaving their native land for America. Plenty of visual gags and a running gag about a cook finding a big enough fish for the crew abound.

Fun Facts:

- The short has a gorgeous computer-colorized version that’s been under copyright since 1995.

- This did air on television, despite being one of many Warner Bros shorts that isn’t shown much on television or home media due to outdated racial stereotypes. If it didn’t, then I wouldn’t have it on my list, much less push it ahead so that way I can publish its Censorship Report on Thanksgiving (U.S. version).

- In yet another connection between Bob Clampett and Disney Studios (particularly the 1937 animated version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves), the narrator (voiced by Robert C. Bruce, who mostly played narrators of the WB and MGM Studio spot gag/newsreel parody shorts) says, “Heave-o, heave-o/It’s off to sea we go!” when Porky and the other Pilgrims set sail. No points on what that’s referencing, though you can click the link here if you truly and honestly don’t know.

The Channel(s): Nickelodeon

Part(s) Edited: All three scenes of the ship’s cook (meant to be a caricature of a black man, judging by the Eddie “Rochester” Anderson vocal impression Mel Blanc used and how much he looks like the elevator operator from “Patient Porky,” which I covered previously) were cut: when we first meet him and he dives in to get a fish; when we see him again, getting a medium-sized fish, only to be told by the narrator that it’s not big enough, and the end where a big fish swallows him.

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): Since the cartoon is a pretty light affair, I don’t think the edits hurt the cartoon much…outside of the abrupt ending after the Native Americans meet Pilgrim Porky and his crew. For those asking, “Why didn’t Nickelodeon cut the appearance of the Native Americans?”, the answer is quite simple: it would have ruined the continuity. I’m so sure this is one of those cases where Nickelodeon had to leave in the Native American stereotypes because they were germane to the story, whereas the black chef looking for fish in the ocean was 86’d for not being germane to the plot (what little it had of it. It was mostly a Tex Avery-style spot gag short, only Bob Clampett directed it).

Video Comparison: I’m doing something special this go-around. Instead of my compare/contrast videos, I decided to take the short in question and do a full re-enactment of what it was like as an “edited-for-TV” version. I did use to do this with the Bosko shorts, but that was a long time ago (I am still planning on re-creating the videos and putting them in a library for people to view instead of having to sit through my gassing on about the cartoons in question):

Availability Uncut: This has been released on home media. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. If you want to (legally) see how beautiful it is in color, then you can find it on the DVD release of the movie The Fighting 69^th (which has a Looney Tunes parody title: “The Fighting 69-1/2th,” a one-shot Friz Freleng cartoon that shows red ants and black ants going to war over an abandoned picnic lunch. That does have a Censorship Report attached to it, but I won’t get to it until later, as that came out in 1941 and is also included in the DVD version of The Fighting 69^th), starring James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, and George Brent. If you want to see “Pilgrim Porky” in glorious black and white, then I recommend either the fifth volume and fourth disc of The Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set or the fourth disc of the Porky Pig 101 DVD set. No Blu-ray releases as of yet. It wasn’t released for reel-to-reel projector, and it wasn’t available on any official or unofficial VHS, Beta, or laser disc sets.

Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: Nope. No Amazon Prime Video, no HBO Max (or just plain “Max”) [both in the United States and Latin America/Brazil], no iTunes, no Boomerang app, and definitely no Tubi. As I mentioned in “Fun Facts,” this was rarely shown due to racial and ethnic stereotyping, even though most of the focus is on the stereotypically black ship chef and not the Native Americans Porky meets (at least when it comes to Nickelodeon censorship).

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

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.