You Can Say That, But Not That

There’s nothing like inconsistency in foul language.

Take for example the Ub Iwerks cartoon Room Runners (1932). Flip the Frog lands at the bottom of the stairs and says, quite clearly, “Damn!”

Later in the cartoon, the rooming house manager spies Flip trying to skip out on his rent. After a take, she says “Well, I’ll be....” and mouths “damned” but it’s not on the soundtrack.



A telephone gets in a “Damn!” in The Cuckoo Murder Mystery, a 1930 Flip cartoon, while a bull says it in the 1933 Flip short Bulloney. Flip says it Ragtime Romeo in 1931, mouths it in 1932’s Funny Face, while a chequers-losing horse utters it in Fire-Fire, also in 1932.

Those of you who keep track of this kind of thing will know if there were other Flip cartoons where it happened.