Porky in Egypt

One of Bob Clampett's many surreal cartoons has Porky Pig on vacation in Egypt, where he misses a tour. Boarding a camel, Porky travels through the desert, but the oppressive heat sends the camel into full-scale dementia! How funny to think of an American going to a foreign country expecting a really easy time, and this befalls him! Yes, "Porky in Egypt" mostly looks like a place holder in between the really great cartoons that in 1938 (aside from "Porky in Wackyland", others included "Daffy Duck in Hollywood"). But I still find it funny. And if I may say so, people often treat the desert as the least tolerable climate, but if you've ever experienced a hot humid climate such as the southeastern US, the desert actually feels quite nice.

Anyway, worth seeing.

Porky Pig is a tourist in Egypt. He misses the camel train with the rest of the tourists to see a mummy. He has to get his own camel, Humpty Bumpty. With the sun beating down hard on them, Humpty starts hallucinating.

This is a relatively early Porky Pig cartoon in black and white. There are some cultural issues especially in the beginning. That is not unexpected, but I cannot ignore them either. For the hallucinations, it is weird that the camel is the one hallucinating while the pig seems to be fine. It does fix it in the end which I like. I don't really care about the camel. It's more important for Porky to hallucinate.

Believe it or not, you still see this kind of shock-humor today, and you probably always will. This cartoon isn't some old-fashioned slam on Egyptians or their beliefs or way of life - it's just far-out absurd humor. For instance, in the very first scene we see a couple of the locals, dressed in Mid-East garb, waking up, beginning to chant and then - wham! - someone breaks out a pair of dice and a guy yells, "Come on, seven. Baby needs a new pair of shoes!" You see - absurd humor....and it IS funny. To emphasize that point, the very next scene has a veiled, what-looks-like, sexy woman with a great body passing by, the guys whistle....until she lifts the veil and we see a toothless old hag! A short time later, we see a long camel that can seat 10 people. Some of the humor is stupid or dated to the point where we miss it, but some are clever.

Anyway, Porky Pig is there and he misses the long camel ride, hitches one of his own and begins a trek in the desert. Then, this settles into a short story of "desert madness" when the brutal sun (and I mean "brutal) knocks Porky's camel for a loop.

At that point, this cartoon gets hilarious. Porky's camel (named "Humpty Bumpty") is delirious, hysterical and then thinks he's saved and begins playing bagpipes, doing an Irish dance, etc. - very, very funny stuff. Humptey is, by far, the funniest camel I've ever seen in a cartoon.

A slightly inferior companion piece to the stunningly brilliant "Porky in Wackyland", the first two minutes of this cartoon are fairly standard (though good) Warner Bros pre-WW II animation fare. Then: the camel freaks out, succumbing to that "desert madness", and the proceedings get totally out of hand. Some of the best cartoon mania anywhere (and surely one of the sources to the rumor that all early animators loved hallucinogenics). Alas, to the best of my knowledge, the camel never followed up his star turn in this one.

I love the Looney Tunes cartoons(well a vast majority of them anyway), and while he is not one of my favourites I do like Porky Pig. Porky in Egypt is not one of the best, as the first two minutes or so are rather standard with not much that is funny and the story doesn't really go anywhere, but it is fun. It does have an oddball nature, which people may love and others may find themselves perplexed, for me there were times throughout where I was one or the other. This said, the animation is great with the black and white looking beautiful and everything looks fluid, I especially liked what was done with Humpty Bumpty's nightmarish vision. The music has some authentic flavour while having the manic characterful energy often distinctive in Looney Tunes. The humour has Bob Clampett written all over it, and it all feels fresh and witty with the gags cleverly timed. Porky is endearing here if a little bland compared to Humpty Bumpty the camel, who bags all the best moments that help to make him one of the best supporting characters of any of Porky's cartoons. Mel Blanc is excellent as always in his vocal characterisations. Overall, not one of Porky's best, but fun especially for Humpty Bumpty. 7/10 Bethany Cox