Symphony in Slang

More cleverness from Tex Avery, this one involving wordplay. After a brief setup that has a hipster showing up at the Pearly Gates in Heaven and speaking in a way that makes St. Peter seek out Noah Webster for help, a string of roughly 95 visual puns follow, a breakneck speed of one every four seconds or so. The man tells his life story and in every clause of every sentence we see a clip of what the words could mean if taken literally. "I was beside myself with anger," he says, and we two of him sitting there, with a fiery red fellow labeled "anger." Some of them are pretty corny but there's no time to groan because it's on to the next one, something I liked about it. Light and playful fun.

This is a great Tex Avery cartoon that suffers slightly from its age. That's because the film creates literal representations of all the "hip slang" that the main character says--and I mean LITERAL! The problem is that this guy died and is trying to explain his life to the guys at the Pearly Gates but they have absolutely no idea what he's saying. Phrases such as "chew the rug" and "cat got your tongue" are completely beyond these heavenly beings. And these hip phrases (for the early 1950s) come one after another after another. So much that you barely have time to even think about them because the next one comes so quickly. A few modern kids might be stumped at what these phrases actually mean, so I advise kids to watch this with an old person to act as translator!

I had first seen this Tex Avery cartoon from M-G-M on the Tom & Jerry show on weekday afternoons during the late '70s. In this one, a man enters Heaven puzzling St. Peter and Noah Webster with his various slang terms when telling his life story. I'll just now say that the literal gags come fast and furious with each slang word the guy mentions and one would have to watch this cartoon more than once to get all of them! Anyway, this was one of the most hilarious of Avery's shorts I've ever seen! So on that note, Symphony in Slang is highly recommended.

Symphony in Slang is a clever MGM cartoon created by the surrealtic Tex Avery. Which also the short is also surrealistic. They find a dead guy on heaven tell his story to Noah Webster and they don't get his language (slang). Things like "I was with a silver spoon in my mouth" or "I was really in a pickle, the proprietor drew a gun on me, but I gave him the slip, and hid in the foot hills". It's very creative. Tex Avery has always been a great creator of animation.

A new fellow arrives at Heaven's Gate. The guardian is unable to understand his new slang and brings him to Noah Webster, the master of the dictionary.

This Tex Avery short reminds me that he's the one who coined the phrase What's Up Doc, a local teen slang from his school days. This is fun and imaginative. I love the cat closing.