Cow Meets Prohibition Alcohol

What cartoon has the funniest cows? My vote goes to Farm Relief, a 1929 short by the Charles Mintz studio for Columbia.

There’s a great opening cycle where cows are squirting their milk into a metal jug while they become flat-headed and cross-eyed.

Later, a cow is weaving all over the place after drinking prohibition hooch from a blind pig (it’s an actual pig with dark glasses).



The cow staggers over to the other barnyard animals and demonstrates the alcohol content in what the pig’s selling by sticking out his tongue. There’s a fire on it. A mouse pulls out a cigar and lights it on the tongue.



The Krazy Kats were directed by Ben Harrison and Manny Gould. But who needs Krazy Kat (especially the non-Herriman version) when you have Bossy tripping around on bootleg booze.

I am not a fan of much of the Columbia studio’s work, but there always seems to be something pretty weird and funny in the early sound cartoons by Charlie Mintz’s crew.