There were earlier cartoons which foisted the same doggie puns on theatre audiences. One of them was The Pooch Parade, a 1940 spot-gag short from Columbia.
The puns in this one really make you cringe, and you can probably guess the punch lines before they happen. There’s a Spitz, a watch dog, a Mexican hairless, a bird dog, Doberman Pinchers, everything except the “setter” gag. But there’s one I don’t get.
The film cuts a couple of times to a Newfoundland dog, except he’s not there. The narrator wonders where he could be. A hand pulls down a map of Newfoundland. The map morphs into a barking dog. “Thanks a lot,” responds the narrator.
Someone is going to have to explain this one to me.
Allen Rose was responsible for the story on this one. Harry Love and Lou Lilly are the credited animators, but there’s no director mentioned on screen. Mel Blanc supplies his dullard voice and his falsetto/lady voice. The narrator is Jack Lescoulie-esque, but it’s not him.
I think that the joke is that the narrators can't find the Newfoundland dog initially and then he ends up finding him. Basically...he "found" the NewFOUNDland dog. Who is depicted as the land of Newfoundland. It's two puns for the price of one!
ReplyDeleteYeah...a typical Columbia unfunny pun.
(Bafflingly, a lot of those tired dog puns were still being reused as late as the 1958 WB toon Dog Tales, which contains a Newfoundland joke and reused Charlie Dog animation (see how I connected this cartoon back to this post?). Though considering that it was written by late-50s Tedd Pierce and directed by post-shutdown McKimson, I'm not surprised (the poinsettia joke is funny though)).
Thanks, Mejo. I will pretty much accept any explanation that has some logic to it (which Columbia avoided at times).
DeleteI'd forgotten the Nfld. joke in the McKimson cartoon. The pointsettia joke comes out of nowhere and that's why the old groaner works.
"Thanks, Mejo. I will pretty much accept any explanation that has some logic to it (which Columbia avoided at times)."
DeleteYou're welcome! That's what I'm here for. :)
They really missed an opportunity here by failing to pair up the Newfoundland with a Labrador....
ReplyDeleteIn addition to what Mejo stated, the reason for the map being pulled down is probably for those US patrons, who'd never set foot off their front porch, to spell it out that Newfoundland is a place.. SEE? GET IT??
ReplyDeleteI mean, how many Americans are familiar with Canadian geography...
Once the war arrived, as least far as the U.S. was concerned, I imagine Americans got to know other parts of the world pretty quickly, if they didn't know some of them from WW1.
DeleteLooking at a map is how you find new lands. Haha.
ReplyDelete