You Know How These Gags Will End

Literal gags found their way into all kinds of Tex Avery cartoons. Eventually, it got to the point where he’d top the gag with a sign or some kind of commentary on the gag.

In Screwball Football, he treats them as is. Football announcer Reid Kilpatrick tells us Slobbovitz gets the ball and fades back for a long pass. “He’s fading. Fading. Fading.” He does.



There's a touchdown. Kilpatrick: “The cheerleader is yelling his head off.” He does.



I think my favourite literal pun is when Blottovich “recovers the pigskin” and the football escapes from his arms, squealing like a pig.

These are all pretty hokey, but I suspect they went off okay in 1939. Too bad the football didn't turn into a real pig, stop and turn to the camera and say, "This is silly," then continue on its run.

Avery does switches on a few of these gags in other cartoons, like the multiple horns (Car of Tomorrow, 1941, though I’ve seen it in a Columbia cartoon, too), and the stop-to-listen-to-the-radio one (Thugs With Dirty Mugs, 1939).

The running gag is great. There’s a murder, just like in Avery’s Batty Baseball at MGM.

The rotating animation credit goes to Virgil Ross.

Carl Stalling loads the soundtrack with that college favourite, “Frat.” We hear J.S. Zamecnik’s “College Stunts” and a bunch of old favourites, including public domainers “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” and “She’ll be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain,” “The William Tell Overture,” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby” for the running gag.