Pecos Pest

Although I am now 48 Years old, and have seen "Pecos Pest" countless times over the Years it is "still" funny as all get out, and even my Children just love this Cartoon. If I am on my out of the Door and I happen to see that it is on, whatever it is will have to wait for those 7 Minutes. It is I would say my number One favorite Tom & Jerry Cartoon. I also was intrigued by the person doing the voice of Uncle Pecos, and I always told my best friend I thought it was the guy who portrayed Shorty Kellems on the Beverly Hillbillies TV Show. Low and behold I found out Uncle Pecos was indeed voiced by Shug Fisher (aka George Shug Fisher)who did portray Shorty.

This cartoon introduces (for the only appearance, sadly) Jerry's Uncle Pecos (voiced by Shug Fisher, who also plays the "gee-tar" here, marvelously) who is gonna be a star on TV. A word of advice: stay on his good side. You do not want to rile this boy at all! I wonder if Uncle Pecos is the father to Jerry's cousin Muscles? Oh, well, I digress. The end of this is hilarious and there is an incredible guitar solo that Uncle Pecos does for an encore. Most highly recommended.

I'm not usually a fan of 'guest' characters in T&J cartoons, who are more often than not unbearably twee, but Jerry's Uncle Pecos (voiced by Shug Fisher) is anything but: when he needs a new string for his guitar, he pursues Tom like an unstoppable Terminator, fearlessly plucking the poor cat's whiskers to mend his instrument. As if this wasn't funny enough, he does so all the while singing a very silly song (Froggy Went A Courting) in a stuttering style that is quite frankly just bizarre. Bizarre and very funny!

To top it all off, there is a delightfully surreal gag at the end of the cartoon where Pecos, performing on TV, breaks another string and reaches out of the television set to pluck Tom's last whisker. Great stuff!

Having seen a lot of these Tom and Jerry cartoons, I usually enjoy a departure from the normal cat-chasing-mouse story, but this one just didn't connect. Once again, Tom suffers needlessly.

The story begins when Jerry receives a telegram one night which reads: "Me and My Guitar On Way To Big City for Television Debut --Stop - Will Spend Night With You, (signed) Uncle Peso"

Soon Uncle Pecos is there, a little guy with a long mustache, sombrero hat, cowboy boots and a two-string banjo. He can't stop singing, "Frog Went A- Courtin," which is going to perform the following night on TV.

The gag of the entire cartoons come next when a string breaks on the guitar. Uncle Peso wakes a sleeping Tom Cat and plucks out one of his whiskers. This happens about every 15 seconds the rest of the way, no matter what Tom does to get away from this maniac.

As mentioned, once again, poor Tom gets hurt while just minding his own business. The stuttering singer Uncle Peso, was cute for a short while but his act grew thin and too much of this cartoon - over half of it - was just him singing that stupid song.

Jerry's Uncle Pecos comes to visit, during which he practices playing for his big moment when he will get to play his guitar on stage in public. Trouble is, he keeps having an accident with the strings (they have a habit of breaking), and this trouble is further enhanced when he finds suitable replacements on Tom's face...

Very funny -- but then would you expect anything less?

This cartoon was the last to be produced by the legendary Fred Quimby. He retired after this cartoon was finished. Hanna and Barbera were to produce the remaining eighteen cartoons they did before MGM pulled the plug on the animation department in 1957.