By a Waterfall

Tex Avery directed several “competition” spot gag cartoons involving Droopy and Spike. Gags tended to be quick (and some were predictable). Avery and his writers didn’t linger on them.

Here’s an example from Droopy’s Good Deed (1951). The premise is funny, as in funny peculiar. Spike is a bum who takes the place of a little Boy Scout in a contest to “meet the president.” Why Spike would want to meet the president is odd, but let’s brush past that.

The gag is set up with a shot of the page of the Scout Manual.



Spike tries to get rid of Droopy by sawing off a log on a stream. Note animator Grant Simmons has Spike’s pinky up.



Anyone who has seen enough cartoons (not necessarily Avery ones) will know what’ll happen, just like it does when a bad guy saws off a branch only to have the branch stay in the air and the tree with the bad guy fall over. I guess in theatres the audience could have seen Spike’s expression better.



The gag is about 14 seconds and then its on to the next one.

Mike Lah and Walt Clinton also animate on this short. Rich Hogan was the story man.