Wholly Smoke

One of the classic Looney Tunes shorts, this actually teaches a good lesson. In it, Porky is on his way to Sunday school when he sees a young bully smoking a cigar. Foolishly betting the nickel he is given to give to the collection plate, Porky soon finds himself at a smoke shoppe, where Nick O'Teen shrinks him and puts him in a nightmarish situation as he traps him and tells him he is at the right place "and he gets all the smoking he can handle", leading to a song as poor Porky is subjected to torture by anthromorphic smoking products (some designed like popular celebrities and characters at the time), which hammers the message in.

The short is good, and the song is not too scary, as it has a lot of comical moments and does teach Porky (and the viewer) a good lesson. This is also one of the shorts to have been done in color (however, the color version is infamous for having random scenes edited or removed on different networks, mainly because of two instances of blackface (one of them being recolored for Cartoon Network, which also removed the Indian Pipe scene). However, regardless of which version is seen, it is a good short that teaches a good leson: little boys shouldn't smoke.

Frank Tashlin's "Wholly Smoke" appears to be a cartoon version of "Reefer Madness". The plot has Porky Pig on his way to Sunday school when a thug gets him to take a puff from a cigar. From there, Porky experiences a sort of acid trip in which a character named Nick O. Teen shows him cigarette and cigar caricatures of celebrities of the era (The Three Stooges, Bing Crosby, etc.) warning Porky not to smoke.

Like I said, it's a "Reefer Madness" kind of idea: a wholesome youth takes one puff and gets hooked. Of course, this cartoon basically got everything right while "RM" got everything wrong (it claimed that marijuana is a narcotic; in reality, marijuana is a weed). And besides, marijuana doesn't kill people, while countless people have died from cigarettes. And you don't even want to know what they put in the cigarettes. The people behind this cartoon may have not known how accurate a cartoon they made.

So, it is a pretty neat cartoon. Not all that preachy, just a little bit hokey what with the Sunday school part. Mind you, there is a black-face scene.

Just watched this Looney Tune Porky Pig cartoon on YouTube as linked from the Saturday Morning Blog. It has the child-pig going to church but on the way he encounters a bully his size who challenges him on his toughness by smoking on his cigar. Needless to say, some nightmares result..."Supervised" by Frank Tashlin, Wholly Smoke is quite entertaining when it goes on a delirium as Porky dreams of various smoking products singing and dancing about the dangers of smoke. Quite a bit of caricatures of famous celebrities like The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly), Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee, and Cab Calloway abound and while some might be offended by the blackface matches, you might not notice right away since no stereotypical dialect comes out of them. Almost like a Max Fleischer cartoon yet with the Warner Bros. attitude that was just emerging from these Termite Terrace products. So on that note, Wholly Smoke is well worth seeing.

just a reminder that this was made back when smoking was still a common thing for the public. And didn't know that smoking was not healthy to do.

Porky was given 5 cents to give at church and was told not to spend it.

On his way to the chapel, he find a kid smoking a cigar. He tells him little kids shouldn't smoke. The kid doesn't think Porky is man enough to smoke. So Porky bet on his nickel that he can smoke.

After getting dizzy and coughing a lot he winds up at a smoke shop. And is greeted by Nick O'Teen the smoke cloud dude. He was pleased to see that Porky is interested in smoking so Nick tests if Porky really does like to smoke. But getting his pipe, cigar, cigarette and tobacco friends to sing and remind that little kids shouldn't smoke.

For a cartoon this old it does have a good message in letting kids know that you shouldn't smoke at a young age.

But if this was made decades later it be "Smoking is bad for you". But can't blame the way people thought of smoking back in the olden days.

Sad thing is this is one of the many Looney Tunes that's been censored a few times. I never seen an uncut version or uncensored version of this fine cartoon.

I hope one day it'll be part of a collection of uncut Looney Tunes DVD.

Wow, who would have thought it? They made an anti-smoking cartoon in 1938! Pretty amazing....and wild, too. This Porky Pig cartoon has our favorite porker learning a lesson about smoking, especially at a young age. Too bad the message was just about kids smoking, instead all of us.

Without going into the story, I was fascinated by a number of the sight gags in here like the smoke ring blowing contest; Porky's German mother, Mr. "Nick O'Teen" (who lives at 1313 Tobacco Road); the harmonizing matches; the cameo appearances of The Three Stooges, Bing Crosby, Cab Calloway, Hispanic dancers from Havana....and more.

A great lesson, and a great cartoon!