Tuesday 12 January 2021

Another Helpful Sign By Tex Avery

There’s a snake gag in the middle of a bunch of war rationing gags in Tex Avery’s What’s Buzzin’ Buzzard (1943). The Leo Gorcey buzzard (or is it a vulture?) skids to a stop, turns green and faints when he sees a rattle snake. The snake is just the Jimmy Durante buzzard in a poor disguise.



“Lookit ‘im!” says the Durante buzzard to the camera (he gestures just like Durante). “He’s even a-scared of a snake!” He turns and then walks right toward a real snake, whom we are assured is a real snake thanks to one of Avery’s helpful signs.



Now the Durante buzzard turns green and faints. There’s a momentary pause, the buzzard lifts his head up and says in a normal voice “And so am I.”



Kent Rogers is the Gorcey buzzard. The Durante buzzard sounds to me like the Durante cat in The Cat That Hated People a few years later (listen to the way the two say “Ya see what I mean?”.

2 comments:

  1. Every cartoon viewer worth his salt knows a Jimmy Durante caricature, but I never knew who the other buzzard was supposed to be- other than a generic buzzard. For the longest time, I thought that was Don Messick doing his voice in a very early appearance. He sounds nothing like Kent Rogers, better known for doing another considerably dumber buzzard.

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    1. Messick was still in the military. I'm not quite sure when he arrived in California.

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