Tuesday, 12 November 2019

The Old Traffic Light Gag

Ceiling Hero (1940) is full of gags that you can see a mile away and some that Tex Avery used over and over again. (The cartoon ends with the “Mmmm...could be!” catchphrase of Mr. Kitzel from the Al Pearce radio).

One of them that Tex pulled off every once in a while is the stop-and-go gag. This one is the variation that involves the big-small aspect (like the beer sliding on the bar in The Shooting of Dan McGoo in MGM). A stop sign goes up. A plane waits for a little plane to cross the “intersection.” The go sign goes up. The plane carries on.



You’ll notice the “Go” sign is cut off. That’s because there’s a inking error and the plane is going right through it.



It seems only the dog/tree gag of Avery’s repertoire is missing.

Rod Scribner is the credited animator. Dave Monahan contributed to the gags. These spot gaggers at Warners were getting awfully tired by 1940.

1 comment:

  1. Oh yeah, this one was loaded with gags about every ten seconds. I remember the pilot bails out of his malfunctioning plane. The parachute reads " Good to the last drop ". He hits the ground only to look up and see a sign that reads " Next time take the train ". Good one.

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