Porky in Wackyland and Dough for the Do-Do (A Do-Do-Double Feature)

Director(s): Bob Clampett (for “Porky in Wackyland”); Friz Freleng (uncredited for “Dough for the Do-Do”)

Summary: Both shorts center on Porky traveling to Darkest Africa (where the African country of Niger [that one “g” is very important! It doesn’t need to be doubled. And it’s pronounced “Nye-jer”] would realistically be on the map) to capture the last dodo in existence (Dodo birds actually lived on the island of Mauritius, which is near Madagascar [yes, it’s not just a 2000s kids’ animated movie]) for a four sextillion (which is 21 zeroes on the short scale system, as used in the United States, Canada, and most other English-speaking countries, barring Great Britain. The long scale, used in Great Britain, France, and Germany, has 36 zeroes in their sextillion) dollar reward. And if you think I’m going to run this through the inflation calculator to see how much purchasing power that is in 2025, you’re “Cuckoo! Cuckoo!”

Fun Facts: “Porky in Wackyland” is quite famous -- nay, it’s one of the most iconic Warner Bros. cartoons ever made. Besides having a color sequel in “Dough for the Do-Do” and the Do-Do (named Yoyo Dodo retroactively) having a son named Gogo Dodo on the 1990s version of Tiny Toon Adventures (the one where the voice actors are Charlie Adler [later replaced by John Kassir], Tress MacNeille, Don Messick, Joe Alaskey, Kath Soucie, Cree Summer [credited as “Cree Summer Francks”], Gail Matthius, Frank Welker, Danny Cooksey, Jeff Bergman, Gregg Berg, Maurice LaMarche, and occasionally, Noel Blanc), “Porky in Wackyland” is:

One of four cartoons put in the National Film Registry and considered “culturally relevant” by the Library of Congress in the United States

The only National Film Registry entry not directed by Chuck Jones

The only National Film Registry entry that’s a Looney Tune (the rest are Merrie Melodies)

On the final installment of Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon (speaking of this cartoon and Nickelodeon, expect a lot of online comments on how this cartoon “predicted” CatDog just because it had one fleeting scene of a creature that’s half-cat, half-dog) that aired on September 11^th…of 1999 (ha! Gotcha!)

In at #8 on The 50 Greatest Cartoons list (so it made the Top Ten, but not the Top Five).

Much like “Have You Got Any Castles,” also the closest a Censored Eleven cartoon has come to airing on American TV, as some of the scenes would later be recycled for “Tin Pan Alley Cats.”

The Channel(s): Sunset Productions/Guild Films and Nickelodeon (for “Porky in Wackyland”); ABC (for “Dough for the Do-Do”)

Part(s) Edited:

Uncut Scenes	Was Edited on the Sunset Production/Guild Films print for U.S. Syndication	Was Edited on Nickelodeon	Was Edited on ABC
Porky seeing a black, wide-mouth duck saying “Mammy” as he passes by him	No	Yes (“Porky in Wackyland” only)	Yes (“Dough for the Do-Do” only)
Three-headed freak going Three Stooges on itself (read: slaps itself, pokes its eyes, tweaks its nose)	No	No	Yes (“Dough for the Do-Do” only)
Do-Do pops into frame on the WB shield and slingshots Porky into the ground	Yes (“Porky in Wackyland” only)	No	Yes (“Dough for the Do-Do” only)

As you can see from the chart, the remake “Dough for the Do-Do” is more edited than “Porky in Wackyland,” though that’s because ABC was stricter against showing violent and racially insensitive content. The third cut on ABC (the WB shield one), however, was done, not just because of slapstick violence (the slingshot), but because of copyright/studio rivalry reasons. You see, back before Disney made ABC its bitch, ABC was the bitch to a theater chain that was part of Paramount Studios (the same Paramount that’s now associated with Nickelodeon) and Warner Bros was one of Paramount’s rivals,so showing a symbol from a rival company was (most likely) against the rules (at least from the legal department, not Standards and Practices [the network censors]). “Porky in Wackyland”’s reason for cutting the Warner Bros. shield part when syndicated by Sunset Productions/Guild Films was because Warner Bros back in the 1950s initially didn’t want to be associated with television, because television was considered the imminent death of the movies (it still is, but now you have the Internet, streaming, people giving up on TV and media in general for many reasons, from boredom to hating how politicized, sleazy, mindless, and/or overly inoffensive and politically correct it’s become [yeah, I don’t get it, but that’s Internet commentary for ya]; and, if you can believe it, books [yes, people still read, even if some have learning difficulties]).

What Wasn’t Cut But Should Have Been: I…don’t think there’s anything…at least for “Porky in Wackyland.” ABC’s version of “Dough for the Do-Do” could have cut Porky getting a brick dropped on its head (like how “Homeless Hare” cut Bugs dropping a brick on Hoicules the construction worker’s head). They already cut the Al Jolson duck,  the three-headed freak abusing itself (in a non-sexual way; I know “abusing oneself” is a euphemism for masturbation in some circles), and the WB shield/slingshot part. Why not cut a fourth scene and go for the record?

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): Nothing, though it did use to confuse me as to why the WB shield part would be cut from the Sunset Productions/Guild Films version. The same scene in “Dough for the Do-Do” at least had a good reason that I discovered right off the bat (copyright reasons/the network it played on wasn’t associated with Warner Brothers, so they couldn’t legally show it).

Video Comparison (still using Wondershare Filmora free version. I would use Da Vinci Resolve, but that eats up a lot of gigabytes on my computer [No video should be 4.18 gigs if it’s only three minutes, as seen with my severely-edited “Jungle Jitters” video]. Will definitely buy the version that doesn’t export watermarked videos before 2025 is over, as this is the time of year I make a lot of money at my job because of the increase in hours and paid holiday time):

“Porky in Wackyland” edits:

 

“Dough for the Do-Do” edits:

(forgive some of the errors in the video; I was behind schedule due to work and software issues)

Availability Uncut: Since “Porky in Wackyland” (and, to a lesser extent, “Dough for the Do-Do”) is considered one of the iconic Warner Bros. shorts, both have been released on home media.

“Porky in Wackyland” releases:

Ham on Wry: The Porky Pig Laser Collection (LaserDisc, 1993)

Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition, volume 7: Welcome to Wackyland (VHS, 2000)

Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume 2, disc three (DVD, 2004)

Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: volume 2, disc one (DVD, 2004)

Looney Tunes Collection: Best of Tweety and Sylvester, volume one (DVD, 2005, available in Region 2 areas)

Looney Tunes Big Faces Box Set: Tweety Pie (DVD, 2011, available in the United Kingdom)

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, volume 2 (DVD and Blu-ray, 2012; Blu-ray was later brought back in 2025)

Looney Tunes 3 Feature Collection Best Of (2012, “Porky and Daffy” disc, DVD, available in Region 2 areas)

Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection, volumes 2 and 3 repack (2014, DVD)

Porky Pig 101 (2017, DVD, disc 3)

Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection, volumes 1-3 repack (2018, DVD)

“Dough for the Do-Do” releases:

The Looney Tunes Video Show, volume 6 (VHS, 1982, Canada and UK release only)

Warner Bros. Cartoons Golden Jubilee 24 Karat Collection: Porky Pig’s Screw Ball Comedies (VHS and Beta, 1985, time-compressed)

Longitude and Looneytude: Globetrotting Looney Tunes Favorites (1994, LaserDisc)

Looney Tunes Presents: Taz's Jungle Jams (1998, VHS)

Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume 1 (2003, DVD, disc 2)

Looney Tunes Collection Best of Daffy and Porky (2004, DVD and video CD, available in Region 2 areas)

Looney Tunes Big Faces Box Set: Daffy Duck (2011, DVD)

Looney Tunes 3 Feature Collection Best Of (2012, “Porky and Daffy” disc, DVD, available in Region 2 areas)

Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: “Porky in Wackyland” isn’t available on streaming or digital download as of this writing, but “Dough for the Do-Do” is (I don’t understand why. Anything “Dough for the Do-Do” has, “Porky in Wackyland” does too, so why choose one over the other?). “Dough for the Do-Do” was on Boomerang’s streaming service from 2017 to 2024 and is now on Tubi as part of the 700 to 800 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts available for free. If you’re into digital downloading, you can find it on iTunes or Amazon Prime Video (exact uploading years for both services are unknown, but it’s there and that’s all that matters).

‘Til next time…

September in the Rain (No Plot? Plenty of Problems!)

 

Director: Friz Freleng (credited as “I. Freleng”)

Summary: Your typical “midnight in the store” cartoon. This one is in a grocery store on a rainy night where the products and their label mascots come to life and do bits and musical numbers (some of which are recycled from other shorts, since Freleng did do that). It’s short, it’s sweet, it’s played straight, and while not that many people like it, I think it’s fine for what it is.

Fun Fact: This was submitted and screened for an Academy Award nomination, but was never picked. That...might be for the best, given how painfully average it is, but the rotoscoping on the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers dance is at least worth something.

The Channel(s): TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and on DVD.

Part(s) Edited: All the black caricatures are cut from this short, though the 1995 Turner dubbed version at least left in the Al Jolson “Dream of Wheat” (Cream of Wheat) mascot serenading the Aunt Emma (Aunt Jemima, now known as “Pearl Milling,” which yeah, does sound like the name of a U.S. Southern black woman and “Aunt Jemima” could have been her nickname when she became known for her pancakes or what her white slave owners called her) mascot with the title song. I’ve never seen that version; I’ve seen the version where every black caricature is cut and the cartoon, which already has a 5-minute, 47-second runtime, now runs at 3 minutes and 32 seconds (or 4 minutes and 36 seconds, if it’s the version where the Al Jolson/Aunt Emma part was left in, but not the performance of “Nagasaki” at the end).

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit: On the one hand, the cartoon was just a collection of musical numbers and light comedy bits, so complaining about how the edits ruined the cartoon is kinda stupid on my end (not as stupid as making an already short cartoon shorter, but that’s neither here nor there). On the other hand, it’s obvious that parts are cut because of the jump in music.

Video Comparison: Instead of doing one video showing the uncut vs. cut scenes, I’m showing the actual cartoon vs. the common edited version (Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TBS, TNT, and on DVD) and the 1995 Turner dubbed version (which probably aired on Cartoon Network, TBS, and TNT back in the 1990s, though it could have been made for unnamed syndication and some home media releases):

Uncut Version:

Edited Version #1 (version where all black caricatures are cut)

Edited Version #2 (version where the Al Jolson/Aunt Emma part is uncut, but the ending isn't):

Availability Uncut: Yeah, about the only place this is available uncut is The Golden Age of Looney Tunes laser disc (volume 4, side 10). The DVD version of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie, Carefree, has an edited version, though I don’t know which one (the one where all the black caricatures are cut or the one where at least the Al Jolson/Aunt Emma scene was uncut). It hasn’t been on television since…I wanna say, the early 2000s (last seen on Cartoon Network) because, even with the parts cut, it’s just filler. Be glad that the uncut laser disc version can be found on sites like archive.org.

‘Til next time…

The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Not Kid-ding Around, or The Singing Kid Is Not All White)

 

Director: Frank Tashlin

Summary: Forest animals (a lot of which are caricatures of singers, actors, and radio personalities of the time) participate in the Woodland Community Swing Variety Show on radio station KUKU.

The Channel(s): Cartoon Network

Part(s) Edited: During the performance of the title song, there’s a sequence where we pan across a row of animal-based caricatures of celebrities that were popular at the time of the cartoon’s release in theaters. When Cartoon Network aired this in the 1990s, they shortened the pan to remove the appearance of the blackfaced Al Jolson caricature named “Al Goatson: The Singing Kid” (“kid” as in “baby goat,” not “human child,” though, from what I’ve seen and experienced personally, one tends to act like the other).

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit: Like the previous entry, this doesn’t “grind my gears,” but it does make me question some things. Namely, “Why would Cartoon Network just cut the Al Jolson goat when you also had Fats Swallow, the bird/toad(?) caricature of Fats Waller, who was black and often caricatured on such Warner Bros. shorts as ‘Clean Pastures’ and ‘Tin Pan Alley Cats’? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just cut the entire pan across the celebrity animals, as cutting in the middle of a panning shot is jarring and will make even first-time viewers realize that something’s gone?”

On top of that, I had the good fortune not to see this edited. It was uncut on an early 2000s showing of The Acme Hour (a cartoon block that aired for one hour on weekdays and two hours on weekends that mixed Warner Bros cartoons with Fleischer Popeye shorts and both MGM cartoons [Tom and Jerry and the shorts directed by Tex Avery when he was fired from Termite Terrace] and had bumpers that showed POV shots of what it’s like to be on the business end of classic cartoon slapstick, such as getting hit in the face with a wooden plank, having a piano and an anvil fall on your head, skating on rocket-powered rollerskates, etc), but, sadly, only once. After that, the short was phased out and replaced with other cartoons. The Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki is where I heard that it was edited. While I do want to take that website’s word for it, I can’t really believe them 100% unless I have evidence like, say, a video clip of the cut scene, complete with Cartoon Network’s station identification bug. 

Since we don’t have one, I’ll just do an approximation edit.

Video Comparison: Hot, fresh, and rife with commentary from me. Not much, but it’s a start:

Availability Uncut: This one isn’t as widely available as it should be (should it be, though?). It was on the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laser disc (volume 4, side five) and its most recent appearance is on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume three (disc two, which features Warner Bros cartoons with celebrity caricatures and pop culture references of the day. Anyone who tells you The Simpsons and Family Guy are the only cartoons that are stuffed with pop culture references and celebrity caricatures hasn’t seen a Looney Tunes cartoon beyond what they remember, either vividly or vaguely, from childhood. It’s lousy with it, and Internet forums, wikis, and comments sections will be happy to guide you on what you missed…assuming you can put up with petty arguments and misinformation).

‘Til next time…

I Love to Singa (Gogo Dancer)

Director: Fred “Tex” Avery

Summary: Another early Tex Avery cartoon that doesn’t feel in-character for him, but, unlike “Page Miss Glory,” Tex probably didn’t hate this one as much. This one is the story of an owl family that prides itself in classical music and opera, but are left reeling when one of their children is a jazz singer (back then, jazz was seen with the same disdain as rap and hiphop in the 1980s and 1990s: if you were white and into that, you were a disgrace to your family or a race traitor/poseur). When forcing the jazz singing son (named Owl Jolson) to sing opera doesn’t work, Owl gets thrown out and decides to make it on his own as a jazz singer. His first gig: a radio amateur hour, where anyone who doesn’t win over Jack Bunny (a very common pun name on comedian Jack Benny) gets rejected and ejected from the studio.

And if this short still isn’t familiar to you, the sound clip of Owl Jolson singing the title song was used on the very first episode of Comedy Central’s South Park ("Cartman Gets an Anal Probe") when Cartman is controlled by the anal probe and the cows use alien tech to make Officer Barbrady sing.

The Channel: TNT (on The Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show)

Part(s) Edited: Two scenes were cut for time (as there wasn’t anything offensive about the two scenes cut):

1) After Owl Jolson is hatched and shocks his parents with his rendition of “I Love to Singa,” Fritz Owl decides that the best way to “cure” Owl’s jazz singing is to force him to sing “To Cilia,” which doesn’t work, as Owl keeps interjecting, “I Love to Singa” in between verses.

2) When Owl Jolson runs away from home, he happens upon Jack Bunny’s Amateur (spelled “Amatuer”) Radio Show, where contestants keep getting gonged and put through the trap door for bad performances.

How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: The way I edited it on the video is probably not how it played out on The Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show, but it’s one of those edits that Nickelodeon used to be able to do when it aired Looney Tunes cartoons: tried to salvage the cartoon and had a sense of humor about editing the shorts. If you remember Rudy and Gogo and how “I Love to Singa” was cut, then, by all means, describe it in the comments or email me. For now, enjoy the video:

Availability Uncut: This one is popular enough to be released on home media. I'm not going to list them all (a full list can be found here), but I am going to list the DVD and Blu-ray titles that have this short uncut, uncensored, and with original titles restored (if you've ever seen it on television, it was probably the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodie version):

• Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume 2 (on disc 2)
• Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection, volume 2 (also disc 2, which would be the last disc on that collection, since Spotlight Collections were the scaled-back version of the Golden Collection).
• The 2005 DVD release of the 1927 movie The Jazz Singer (which I don't recommend, not because of the blackface on the cover being potentially offensive, but because the version shown is the 1995 Turner dub that might not have the original titles to it). The 2013 Blu-ray release of the same movie does have the original titles to "I Love to Singa," so I do recommend that for the completionist Looney Tunes fan.
• Looney Tunes Collection All-Stars volume 3 (this is only available in Australia)
• The DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray versions of the 2006 animated movie, Happy Feet. (I know I shouldn't have included HD-DVD, since it pretty much lived and died in the mid-2000s because Blu-ray kicked its ass, but there are probably people out there who still have HD-DVD players for some reason).
• The DVD and Blu-ray versions of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection (volume 1, disc 2)
• The Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection DVD
• The Looney Tunes Parodies Collection DVD (most recent as of 2025; it was released five years ago).

Is It Available on Streaming and/or Digital Download?: For digital download, it’s on iTunes Video. For streaming, it’s on Tubi (as of 2025). Strangely, HBO Max (both when it started out as “HBO Max” and when it was “Max” and both the United States feed and the Latin American/Brazil feed) didn’t carry this one, and I personally don’t know why.

Your FAQ on Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and The Censored Eleven (and Goin' to Heaven on a Mule)

Q: Hey, where have you been? I haven't seen you since last year.

A: I have a life outside of this blog. I go to work, I deal with family problems, I have to put up with the crap accumulating from the outside world, and I have creative blocks just like every other writer and content creator on and off the Internet. Now, I’m back and ready to do things differently for my blog. Some of these are changes for changes’ sake, but most are just, “I was bored with how things were going, and I need to use the tools I acquired in order to make this a more creative and engaging blog.”

 

Q: What tools? Are you going to use A.I.?

A: Yes and no. While I do have a handle on fixing and revising my writing myself (since it’s one of the few things I’ve learned from the American public school system that’s actually useful in my daily adult life), there will be times I have to use A.I. for research, feedback, and brainstorming. It’s not like I’m novel or screenplay writing with A.I. (which, in the name of full disclosure, I will do, but, as with here, it’s mostly for research, brainstorming, and feedback since four years of majoring in writing for film and television has stated that my fiction writing is good, but not good enough for major mainstream publication without some outside help and practice. I just want to be the best I can in fiction writing and keep up with the times). I’m not going to use A.I. video and images on The Censored Cartoons Blog, mostly because I can easily find and create screenshots and video clips for my work.

 

Q: So, what’s up with the Censored Cartoons Blog? Is it still going?

A: Yes. Probably not as frequently as promised, but it’s not going to be shut down or abandoned like so many promising blogs and websites (or the last time I did a cartoon blog. It was a Wordpress blog called "Saturday Morning Hangover"). I am aiming to make this a Saturday morning thing, since I grew up when Saturday morning cartoons were still around and often included the Warner Bros. Cartoons (though I also grew up when Cartoon Network became a basic cable channel and Warner Bros. cartoons, as well as Hanna-Barbera and MGM [now owned by Warner-Discovery], were on regardless of day or time), but don’t be surprised if you see a post on Sunday or between Monday and Friday. My advice is to subscribe to the blog, so you don’t miss out.

 

Q: That’s good to hear. Are you going to start today?

A: I am.

Q: What’s today’s cartoon?

A: I’m not going into the individual entry today. I’m going to do a batch of cartoons. Today, I’m going to look into The Censored Eleven, plus “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule.”

 

Q: What is The Censored Eleven?

A: The Censored Eleven are eleven Warner Bros. shorts pulled from distribution in 1968 by United Artists (former owner of the A.A.P library) due to pervasive caricatures of Africans and African-Americans that are considered offensive, both by the standards of 1968 and now (especially now).

Q: There are a lot of Warner Bros. shorts that have outdated caricatures of Africans and African-Americans. What makes these eleven shorts so special?

A: I’m sure there are animation historians out there who know the answer to that question, because I don’t. I’m guessing these are the ones that are so packed with outdated stereotypes of Africans and African-Americans that merely editing them isn't an option. If you don't believe that, then it was probably a random decision.

Q: Are you seriously going to cover cartoons with stereotypically black characters on Black History Month? What the hell is wrong with you?

A: Nothing. If anything, covering how Africans and African-Americans were/are depicted in media is a good thing to cover on Black History Month. It shows what we as a people have/had to put up with just to fight for equality and better representation. I'd like to see high school and college classes pull this off.

Q: Okay, I apologize. So, which shorts are part of the Censored Eleven?

A: Ah, you’ve come to my favorite part of the FAQ. The following shorts that are officially a part of the Censored Eleven (complete with date, director, and brief summary) are:

• “Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land”: One of Harmon and Ising’s early, near-plotless musical cartoons from 1931 featuring Piggy (a short-lived possible prototype of Porky Pig, but really a clone of Bosko and Mickey Mouse, given when this short was released) as a river boat captain whose boat is the stage for a band of black musicians and dancers. Piggy's girlfriend is assisted by her reliable servant, Uncle Tom, who gets lost in a graveyard filled with dancing skeletons. This is the only Censored Eleven short shown in black and white and the only one that premiered during Herbert Hoover’s presidency in the United States. The other ten premiered when Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was in office.

• “Sunday Go to Meetin’ Time”: The first color Censored Eleven short. A Friz Freleng one-shot musical, showing black people in a poor, Southern town getting ready for Sunday church service, except for a man named Nicodemus, who would rather spent Sundays shooting craps. It’s getting so that his wife (who has no time for shiftless, lazy men like himself) has to drag him to church, but this time, Nicodemus bails so he can steal chickens. He almost succeeds, but ends up getting hit on the head and goes to Hell where The Devil goes over his worldly misdeeds.

• “Clean Pastures”: Another Friz Freleng one-shot musical featuring African-American caricatures, themes of vice and virtue, and how Freleng uses the Christian notions of Heaven and Hell in his cartoons. This one (which I can only assume is part of a short-lived animated series about black people and Heaven, or, as it’s called here and in “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule,” “Pair-O-Dice”) from 1937, features St. Peter worrying about black people’s souls in Harlem (which, according to this short, is its own country rather than a city in New York) and doing what he can to recruit new souls. When sending a Stepin Fetchit-esque Gabriel angel as a recruiting officer fails, the other angels (caricatures of jazz musicians Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, and Jimmie Lunceford) decide that a hot jazz number called “Swing for Sale” works better in making Heaven a happenin’ place to be.

• “Uncle Tom’s Bungalow”: We take a break from musical numbers and Friz Freleng with this spoof of the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, directed by Tex Avery and released the same year as (and right after) “Clean Pastures.” As with most Tex Avery spoofs of the time, expect a lot of fourth-wall breaking, some (now-considered) hokey gags, and a dig/plug at the parent studio (“My body might belong to you, but my soul belongs to Warner Bros.”). Tex Avery also did “Uncle Tom’s Cabana,” but that’s an MGM cartoon where the title character tells his many children the story of how he created a nightclub with his white showgirl girlfriend, Little Eva (played by the same sexy nightclub singer from “Red Hot Riding Hood,” “Swing Shift Cinderella,” and other shorts cut from “Red Hot Riding Hood”’s cloth) to pay off his debts to Simon Legree. If you want my opinion, “Uncle Tom’s Cabana” is funnier, but “Uncle Tom’s Bungalow” serves as a rough copy of Tex’s later brilliance when it comes to parodying serious works (or works that people take seriously).

• “Jungle Jitters”: We’re back to Friz Freleng and his black stereotype cartoons, and what a cartoon to return to. This one (and another I’ll get to later) is not considered the best of what’s already a very problematic lot. This one, released in 1938, centers on a dopey salesman who tries to peddle his wares in an African cannibal colony where the natives want to literally have him for dinner (read: eat him) and the colony’s white queen wants to marry him. It’s not as good as it sounds (and it definitely could have been with better writing), but, apparently, the Latin American Spanish-speaking world likes it, because it has aired in that region.

• “The Isle of Pingo Pongo”: Continuing with the Africans as primitive natives stereotype, we have this Tex Avery cartoon -- his first travelogue spoof (but not many would know it since it doesn’t air on television nor is it available on official release) where an ocean liner explores the splendor of the title island location. Fun fact: this was submitted for an Academy Award nomination in 1938, but wasn’t picked. I can’t imagine what would happen if this was nominated and won. Would it have changed the course of animated cinema history or not? Discuss.

• “All This and Rabbit Stew”: Another Tex Avery Censored Eleven short (released three years after “The Isle of Pingo Pongo” [1941]), and this one is packed with a lot of things that would shock casual Looney Tunes fans. This is one of Tex Avery’s last cartoons after he got fired from Warner Bros. Studios (then called Leon Schlesinger Studios or, more informally, Termite Terrace) because of creative differences over the ending to “The Heckling Hare”; it plays out like “A Wild Hare” (Tex Avery’s seminal cartoon that first pairs Bugs Bunny with Elmer Fudd) with Elmer as a slow-witted black man and ends with Bugs beating him in craps and stealing all his clothes; and, despite being banned, is actually in the public domain (joining “Hittin’ the Trail to Hallelujah Land” and “Jungle Jitters,” meaning that the rest are still under copyright, despite Warner Bros. not wanting anything to do with these cartoons), and has been shown in clips in other media: the Spike Lee joint Bamboozled (which is about offensive African-American stereotypes, so it would make sense to have it there as part of the film’s theme), a music video on the PBS kids’ show Shining Time Station, and the made-for-DVD/Blu-ray documentary King Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution. This is also the only Censored Eleven short starring an established Warner Bros character (Bugs Bunny) and the only one a part of another list of WB shorts that have been banned because of racially insensitive content: The Banned Bugs Bunny 12 (which I will touch on later).

• “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves”: One of only two Bob Clampett cartoons that are a part of the Censored Eleven (and both released in 1943), and the only one that most fans would consider the best of the lot, despite its outdated content (there’s also WWII-era Japanese bashing, some fleeting bashing of little people, and references to wartime rationing and military service). This is basically Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (the Disney version that was insanely popular at the time and still is, judging by the many rip-offs, parodies, homages, and a much-despised live-action remake coming soon) if Snow White was a doe-eyed, pig-tailed, mini-skirted Jezebel, her Evil Queen stepmother hoarded rationed products like coffee, rubber, and sugar and called a hitman service to take out her stepdaughter after seeing her dance with the Prince, whom the Queen requested from the Magic Mirror; the Prince was a zoot-suited coward who had dice and gold teeth as part of his grille; the Seven (or Sebben) Dwarves were in the Army instead of gem miners; and it ended with Dopey getting Snow White to wake up instead of the Prince, which is odd, because, in the actual Disney movie, Grumpy was beginning to like Snow White near the end (up to and including crying at her funeral), and, according to Walt Disney himself in this behind-the-scenes documentary I found at the library years ago, Bashful was the one who was secretly in love with Snow White. Though Dopey did come back for seconds and thirds when Snow White was seeing the dwarves off to work, so maybe Bob Clampett was onto something...

• “Tin Pan Alley Cats”: Part two of Bob Clampett’s hot black jazz duo of shorts. This one doesn’t get as much love as “Coal Black…”, but it is a fascinating watch, if not for the fact that this is a better remake of “Porky in Wackyland” than the 1949 short, “Dough for the Do-Do.” In this short, a Fats Waller-esque cat is off to a night filled with wine, women, and song at the Kit Kat Club, where a group of conservative religious protesters are gathered outside, trying to guide anyone going in on the path of righetousness (some things never change…) and a trumpet player sends the Waller cat out of this world and into Wackyland.

• “Angel Puss”: The only Censored Eleven cartoon directed by none other than Chuck Jones, and probably his most hated pre-1948 short (there are others, but this is somewhere in the top 10 or 20), but not because it’s slow, boring, and trying too hard to be like Disney. This one is hated because of outdated racial stereotypes, cat murder, and gaslighting, three things that will trigger anyone and everyone in this day and age (but so does a stiff breeze and a differing opinion). In this 1944 short, a young black boy is paid to drown a cat, but gets cold feet because he doesn’t want to hurt animals, but there aren’t a lot of job opportunities for him because of his age and race, so it’s this or nothing. Fortunately, the cat about to die breaks free from the sack and loads it with rocks to make it look like he’s in there, then spends the rest of the short dressed as a ghost and scares the poor black boy for kicks.

• “Goldilocks and the Jivin’ Bears”: The final Censored Eleven short (and the first Warner Bros cartoon to be produced by Eddie Selzer, Leon Schlesinger’s replacement following Schlesinger’s retirement), a Friz Freleng one-shot short combining Goldilocks and the Three Bears with Little Red Riding Hood, both with a hot jazz sensibility. You can tell this was Friz Freleng’s attempt at being Bob Clampett, but Freleng’s and Clampett’s directing styles are too different. Freleng doesn’t do wild and raunchy like Bob Clampett does wild and raunchy. If any other director could have done “Goldilocks and the Jivin’ Bears,” I’d have gone with Frank Tashlin. Tashlin's wild and raunchy is a bit more restrained...unless it's "I Got Plenty of Mutton," but even that didn't go to Bob Clampett levels of raunchiness (the ram's horns going erect is as close as it's going to get, but can easily be mistaken for Clampett at first glance).

Q: Where does “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule” fit in to all of this?

A: It fits in to all of this because, if you’ve ever seen the cartoon (willingly or otherwise), you’ll know that it has everything a Censored Eleven cartoon is notorious for, but, sadly, it wasn’t included into the syndication package that had the Censored Eleven on it. Personally, I’d gladly trade out “Hittin’ the Trail to Hallelujah Land” for “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule,” since the former cartoon isn’t as heavily stereotypical as the others. "Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land" feels like one of those shorts that could have aired on television with little to no cuts in the past (think from the 1960s to around the early 1990s) before getting phased out due to changing times and stricter censorship measures in children's/family entertainment.

 

Q: Which Censored Eleven cartoons should I watch? Should I even watch them?

A: No one’s forcing you to. I think that's the one thing people forget about these shorts: you don't have to watch them if you don't want to. If you feel that the racial caricatures are too much for you (whether or not you know the historical context behind them), then you can skip them over (including “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves”). If you know these were made during a different time, are curious about old school animation, are a fan of old school animation, would rather watch something from the past because the present stuff is severely lacking in political incorrectness, or are doing media research (either for school or for fun), then, by all means, indulge. 

Here’s a quick list I made as part of the original idea for this post called, “White People’s Guide to Watching the Censored Eleven” (a lot of points are repeated from earlier, so consider this a quick summary):

1) Watch "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves," maybe "Tin Pan Alley Cats" and "Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land" (since the latter isn't that offensive).

2) Unless you're morbidly curious, avoid "Jungle Jitters" and "Angel Puss," as they are considered the worst/most offensive of the lot.

3) You have to see "All This and Rabbit Stew" at least once, since it's a Bugs Bunny cartoon that has never seen airtime or official home media release.

4) The rest really depend on personal preference, how deep your curiosity is, or how badly you want to punish yourself:

a) "Clean Pastures" is worth watching because of the "I Got Swing for Sale" sequence (or if you want to learn about the jazz musician caricatures in the short, like Cab Calloway, Jimmie Lunceford, and even Louis Armstrong). The Stepin Fetchit caricature will put you off, but he's there for story reasons (St. Peter being so out of touch that he would assign the Stepin Fetchit angel the task to try and save the souls of late 1930s Black America, which, according to the opening montage, is filled with such vices as dancing girls, booze, hot jazz, and gambling).

b) "Uncle Tom's Bungalow" has its moments, but you have to be familiar with the actual story, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", to get it. That being said, the "My body might belong to you, but my soul belongs to Warner Bros." line is funny and it's nice to see something from back then have a positive portrayal of an interracial friendship (Eva and Topsy). Tex Avery would later direct "Uncle Tom's Cabana" during his MGM years, and that's funnier than this.

c) "Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears" is pretty average (though it has good music and the black caricatures aren't that offensive, since they're mostly animals), so you won't be hurting anyone's feelings if you decide to pass on it.

d) Besides the title song and "You Got to Give the Devil His Due", "Sunday Go to Meetin' Time" is best enjoyed as research for a college essay about the correlation between African-Americans and religion and how this is depicted in American media, past and present. "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" is also good for a college essay about travelogues and their effects on how America view other countries, specifically those considered "exotic tropical paradises."

5) "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" is not a Censored Eleven cartoon, but due to content and unavailability on American television (Nickelodeon, back when it held the rights to air Warner Bros. cartoons, had the rights to air this, but Standards and Practices vetoed against it), it does qualify, in my opinion.

6) None of the other cartoons banned for outdated racial caricatures ("Africa Squeaks,"  "Kristopher Kolumbus, Jr.," the World War II shorts filled with Japanese caricatures and references to Hitler and Nazis, any cartoon that has Native American caricatures, etc) are part of the Censored Eleven. Some bush-league Internet critics will try to refute this claim, but don't listen to them.

7) The most important rule: Watching these cartoons is entirely optional. If they don't appeal to you for whatever reason, don't watch them.

Q: Are there any other studies or reviews about The Censored Eleven (and "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule")?

A: Anthony's Animation Talk and The Hick Critic at least try to study, analyze, and review the shorts, despite being white and feeling very uncomfortable about the subject matter. If book-reading is your thing, the essay "Darker Shades of Animation: African-American Images in the Warner Bros. Cartoons" by Terry Lindvall and Ben Fraser from the essay anthology Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation is a good read.

Q: Are any of these cartoons available on official home media? Where can I watch them?

A: As of this writing, The Censored Eleven aren’t available on any official home media. It came close to being available between 2010 and 2011, but, like all, major studios these days, they backed out due to backlash. As mentioned before, “Hittin’ the Trail to Hallelujah Land,” “Jungle Jitters,” and “All This and Rabbit Stew” have fallen in the public domain in the United States and are easily available on public domain videos, while the rest will have to wait until later in the 21^st century to approach public domain status. However, all is not lost. There are video sites and bootlegged physical media distribution centers that have most, if not all, of the shorts.

Q: So how are you going to end this blog post?

A: Same way I always do: with links to the uncut and uncensored versions of the cartoons I was just talking about. Here is a playlist of The Censored Eleven from Archive.org, and here's the video for "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" (it's part of a playlist for every Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies short ever made between 1929 and 1969. The video and audio quality isn't as good, but some day, someone will have the guts to remaster it, whether or not it gets an official release). If the links are dead, then I suggest an online or YouTube search.

The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (A Recycled Mess, or I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas)

 

Director: Rudolf Ising

Summary: On a cold and snowy Christmas Eve during the Great Depression, an orphan boy is visited by Santa Claus and joins him on his sleigh ride back to the North Pole, where the boy gets to play with all the toys Santa has in his workshop.

The Channel: Cartoon Network (on Late Night Black and White)

Part(s) Edited: If you think a wholesome cartoon like this couldn’t possibly have problematic content in it, then this must be your first time here. The second half of the cartoon does have some outdated depictions of African-Americans (like most cartoons of the time) and Cartoon Network cut the following that they felt was offensive:

• The orphan boy winding up the Sambo Jazz Band toy (“sambo” being an offensive term for a black person, though it’s more for someone from South India, not an African-American, as there’s a children’s book called Little Black Sambo and it’s supposed to be about a South Indian, not an African-American. It was probably used as a slur for both either way). The Sambo Jazz Band toy was also seen (and edited on Cartoon Network) on the MGM cartoon, “Toyland Broadcast” (which I had on a video featuring Christmas-themed MGM cartoons and loved as a kid, despite the outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes).
• A white baby doll falling into a coal bucket and coming out in blackface, doing the Al Jolson “Mammy!” schtick, with an actual mammy doll responding, “Sonny boy!”
• The title character and her black back-up singers from “Red-Headed Baby” appearing again to sing “The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives.”

How It Plays Edited: The Looney Tunes wiki and the old Censored Cartoons Page have described the edited version as “severe.” While the edits do make some of the scenes feel disjointed, it pales in comparison to the actual severe edits seen on “September in the Rain,” “Bacall to Arms”, and most of the post-1948 Warner Bros shorts aired on free TV (particularly on ABC and CBS, though NBC’s take on “The Turn-Tale Wolf” and The WB’s hatchet job editing to “A Star is Bored” qualify).

Video Comparison: 

Uncut version:

Edited Version:

Availability Uncut: This is a public domain cartoon (has been since 1962), so it’s not too hard to find on YouTube or whatever YouTube substitute you prefer. If you’re a physical media fan, then you can find it on either the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc (volume 3, side one, dedicated to Harman-Ising cartoons), as a special feature on the DVD version of the 1933 film Lady Killer starring James Cagney, or as a special feature volume three of The Warner Gangsters Collection. It's also been mocked on Rifftrax, the modern, YouTube generation version of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

It should also be of note that this is the last Harman-Ising short that’s in the public domain in the United States (for now, at least) and the only public domain short in 1933, which means that the rest of the censored cartoons I go through are still under copyright (unless otherwise noted, as there are some 1930s and 1940s cartoons that have fallen into the public domain and a few were made as educational/propaganda material for the U.S. government, so they never had copyrights to begin with) and I’ll have to change how I do the video comparisons to reflect that.

You Don't Know What You're Doin' (Suffering From Car Exhaust-ion)

 

Director: Rudolf Ising

Summary: In this, the debut cartoon of Bosko clone, Piggy, our title character takes his date, Fluffy, out for a night at the orchestra playing the title song. The date goes pear-shaped when Piggy mocks the orchestra for not knowing what they’re doing and gets a contact high from some heckling drunks.

The Channel(s): The edited version I found was from a channel called QTV, which could either be a channel in Scotland, The Gambia, or Pakistan. I’m going to go for Scotland or possibly The Gambia, because I can’t imagine a Pakistani channel airing this due to the sequence with the drunks (Pakistan is a Muslim country and alcohol anything is considered taboo to their religion).

Part(s) Edited: Light edit this time around: the part where Piggy’s scooter farts his exhaust in the snooty usher’s general direction and the usher finding himself in blackface and doing the Al Jolson “Mammy!” plea to the camera cuts off before the usher finds himself in blackface, going from that scene to the curtain that reads, “Asbestos” and the band playing as Piggy and Fluffy come in.

How It Plays With the Edit: The edit is fairly obvious…for those who’ve seen the uncut version before. If you haven’t or aren’t familiar with the recurring gags in the earlier Warner Bros shorts, you probably wouldn’t know the scene was there. As always, here is a video comparison:

(original version)

(redrawn, colorized censored version)

Availability Uncut: While it has been in the public domain since 1959 and can easy be found on online video sites, “You Don’t Know What You’re Doin’” has had two official releases. It was first released in 1992 on the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc (second volume. It’s on side one of the disc called “Musical Madness,” which is an apt description of the short). Its most recent release was in 2008, on the sixth volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD, on the third disc dedicated to the early black and white shorts.

Correction: The most recent sighting of “You Don’t Know What You’re Doin’!” on home media is actually as a special feature on the third volume of Warner Archive’s “Forbidden Hollywood” DVD collection, celebrating the racy and scandalous films (by early 1930s standards, though some of it could still hold up) made before the Hays Code cracked down on salacious content in mid-1934. The third volume features such films as Other Men’s Women, The Purchase Price, Frisco Jenny, Midnight Mary, Heroes for Sale, and Wild Boys of the Road. The pre-Hays Code era really knew how to title a movie.

Bosko the Doughboy (Censorship is Hell)

 

(Please note: this is not to be confused with “Battling Bosko,” which is about Bosko being a boxer and hasn’t been edited for anything on a notable American TV channel or in unnamed syndication. Also, the video versions of this short may contain quick cuts and flashing lights that could cause issues with photosensitivity or trigger those who violence/war-based PTSD. Viewer discretion is strongly advised)

Director: Hugh Harman

Summary: In a shining example of how not every Bosko cartoon was inoffensive fluff, this outing sees out hero in WWI-style trench warfare. The juxtaposition of the horrors of war with the rubber hose humor and physical comedy that was common in animated shorts like this is what sells it.

The Channel(s): Nickelodeon

Part(s) Edited: Just because this short is a vast departure from your typical Bosko cartoon doesn’t mean it isn’t still a Bosko cartoon. Much like “Sinkin’ in the Bathtub,” “Box Car Blues,” and “Ups ‘n Downs,” the version shown on Nickelodeon’s Nick@Nite version of Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon cut the ending where, after Bosko rescues the nameless hippo from swallowing a cannonball, the cannonball explodes on Bosko and he does the Al Jolson in blackface “Mammy” schtick.

I’m amazed the rest of the comedic war violence wasn’t edited, nor was the scene of the longjohns dumping the bomb on the cannon by opening up its back flap (I’m guessing this was an early example of scatological [“bathroom”] humor in the same vein as the duckling who had to go on “The Booze Hangs High”).

How It Plays With the Edit: Another sign that this is a Bosko cartoon at heart: the ending, while abrupt, doesn’t affect the rest of the short.

(original version)

(approximation of how the Nickelodeon edited version played out. Nickelodeon's edits were a lot nicer than what I came up with, so don't take this as actual footage)

Availability Uncut: And just like that, we have a trait that separates it from most other Bosko shorts. This one does have an official release. It’s on the sixth and final volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set (on the second disc, which features wartime cartoons. A lot are the World War II-era shorts that would otherwise be edited or banned from airing, but there are some that just take place in a wartime setting). It’s still a public domain short (and has been since 1960), so, if you don’t want to buy the Golden Collection DVD, you can easily watch it on YouTube or other video websites. I recommend the CCCartoons version, which actually has it uncut and in high quality.

Update: As of 2026, "Bosko the Doughboy" is also available (restored and in high-def) as a special feature on the Blu-ray version of the movie Possessed, starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford.