Sh-h-h-h-h-h

A little man works as a percussionist in a nightclub. He sits in the middle of the horn section and gets blasted over and over. His doctor tells him to go somewhere quiet. He checks into a hotel where quiet is followed to the letter. Just as he is about to go to sleep, a hornblowing, laughing couple get the room next to him. As he tries to get them to be quiet, he is tormented by them. It's like those Droopy/Spike cartoons where everything he does backfires. This is dark but quite funny.

Plot: Droopy is supposed to play watchdog over a bear hibernating for the winter, and is competing with another dog for the job.

My brother and I saw this some Saturday morning 30 years ago and we still giggle about it today. Too bad it's not on video; maybe someone can give me a shout it you hear otherwise.

I have been asking around for simply years for this cartoon but I never knew how many H's were in the title to be able to search correctly.

Well, I will do my best to purchase it at whatever the cost.

This cartoon is by far of my dear favorites of all time. The hilarity of beyond funny. True comedic situations that is leaps and bounds in the same direction but way ahead of its time of the great Simpsons cartoons. Having realistic themes with outlandish results is what makes this cartoon fantastic. I cannot stop laugh when I see this or even think of it. On www.youtube.com I can only find this cartoon in french I believe it is in. If only I can find it in English, I'll be one grateful camper.

The horns, the laughing nurse, the signs at the resort ...everything is over the top genius.

Sh-h-h-h-h is one of Tex Avery's last cartoons and is an excellent effort. The plot here revolves around a Mr. Tweedle and his need for peace and quiet because of his nerves. His efforts to get some quiet-and their effect on him-offer the traditional complement of sight gags as well as verbal humor, something not always found in Avery cartoons. A wonderful piece of work done for Walter Lantz. Highly recommended.

As we all know Tex Avery has made more than his share of great animated works. From "Symphony In Slang" to "Who Killed Who?" to one of the best of the Droopy cartoons "Three Little Pups". But those were all with MGM. Avery was canned after MGM's animation department was shut down, so he found employment for MGM rival Walter Lantz."Sh-h-h-h-h-h" is the undisputed Master of the Crazed Cartoon's brilliant masterpiece. It was also his last animated short.

Our story tells us about a Mr. Twiddle, a little man who works in a VERY noisy nightclub playing percussion while the horn section blows their trumpets right in his ears, making him a nervous wreck. He goes to see psychiatrist, Dr. I.M. Jittery (get it?), who tells him that his nerves are shot and unless he goes away so he can get some quiet rest he'll just blow up. So Mr. Twiddle goes to The Hush-Hush Lodge in the Swiss Alps, a place that prides itself on absolutely no sounds made whatsoever. Not long after Twiddle hits the hay, the people in the next room start to badly play a trumpet while howling with laughter. Twiddle tries to get them to stop but no avail. Each effort he makes is met by an even ruder response from these pests who seem to be enjoying torturing him. For example: Twiddle slips a note under the door saying to please stop the noise. The people in return instantly slip a note under the door telling him to "Aww shutup". And it goes on. That's the source of the cartoon's gags and sure, you get the usual Avery-styled barrage of them. But the main thrust is that Twiddle - along with us the viewers - never see who these sadistic noisemakers are. They are kept a complete mystery until being reveled in the cartoon's ingenuous twist ending (which I downright refuse to tell you here). We also see the unfortunate fate that befalls poor Mr. Twiddle.

This is also one of the most downright bizarre and weirdest cartoons ever made. For starters the cartoon's underlying atmosphere concerning Twiddle's ordeal seems dark and the ending, while it is great, itself feels macabre. There is also little dialog spoken throughout - for the most part all we get are a sparse array of sound effects. But mostly it's that laughter that gets to you. It goes on and on and on. Even as the cartoon fades out in it's final seconds we hear absolutely nothing but that crazed laughter. You're left with a very strange, and even creepy, feeling after Sh-h-h-h-h-h is over. And this is what makes this cartoon brilliant. Only Avery could take something plain like a laugh recording and frame a cartoon around it in such a way that he not only makes us smile with his trademark sight gags but chills our blood at the same time with a vivid weirdness. And to me this is the genius of Tex Avery, of his being able to easily twist the viewer around, to make us laugh but instead of leaving us smiling we're creeped out. And this was the last cartoon Avery ever made. After Sh-h-h-h-h-h was finished it was semi-retirement with some occasional television work for him until his death in 1980. He definitely saved his best short for last.

For those of you who have been trying like hell to see this one (it used to play occasionally on television among the other Walter Lantz cartoons, but now it's seldom - if ever - played anymore) it is on the Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection (Volume 1) DVD boxed set. So now you can watch Tex Avery's brilliantly comedic and macabre final film and see just what made this man the legend he has become.