Symphonie argotique

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.

Rich Hogan and Tex Avery took on cliches and catchphrases in this highly stylized 1951 short on a happy-go-lucky guy who must explain his life story to Angel Webster before being admitted to the hereafter.

The humor comes from the hipster's use of cliches and catchphrases that are hilariously given literal illustration by Avery and company, from getting up with the chickens, slinging hash, being shorthanded, and so forth. The cartoon is not only a masterpiece of visual description, it is a landmark experiment in limited animation, uncharacteristic of Avery for that time as he uses still poses to extract laughs, notably the shorthanded cook, chewing the rag, and going through red tape.

You'll be beside yourself with anger at first, but hotfoot it to see how slang will make you die laughing, even if the cat has your tongue.

Tex Avery is my all-time animation writer & director. Symphony In Slang is my all-time favorite cartoon. If I could , I would rate it one-hundred stars. Cartoon writer, Rich Hogan done the best work in Symphony In Slang, putting together at least sixty slang clichés & the animation that shows as the voice, John Brown, perfectly said numerous slang terms, throughout this all-time classic cartoon. Tex Avery's mind of continuous & numerous creations throughout his career, at any studio, is definitely that of an animation genius. Tex Avery's works & animation creations are extremely unique, especially during his fourteen plus years at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In my dictionary, Symphony In Slang is Extremely & Hysterically Humorous, from beginning to end!

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.

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.