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Fun Porky & Daffy short, directed by the great Chuck Jones. The plot has Porky on a radio quiz show hosted by Daffy Duck. Basically Daffy subjects Porky to torture for fun and, eventually, the roles are reversed. So the entire short is a series of visual gags of Daffy trying to hurt Porky, with some comeuppance in the end. I can see where this might appeal to some (in fact, many of the reviewers here call it violent and mean-spirited). Personally, I don't think it ever crossed a line where it stopped being funny and just came across as sadistic. Lively music from Carl Stalling. Excellent voice work from Mel Blanc. The animation is nice but there's something different about how the characters are drawn here. It doesn't look quite on-model for 1950. Still, it's solid. I liked the short but your opinion may differ depending on how you feel about the violence. It's worth a look. Brought to you by the Eagle Hand Laundry.

This ranks as one of the funniest Looney Tunes cartoons ever and I'v seen just about everyone in my lifetime. It was puzzled by the comments of one of the reviewers saying it lacked imagination. I was quite an imaginative spoof of the old radio show and later game show (hosted by Bob Barker)known as "Truth or Consequences." The similar parallel has ridiculous questions being asked for which there can be no answer. The difference with sadistic host Daffy is that the contestant (hapless Porky) is brutually tortured (in rather innovative ways)with everything from boulders, safes and hammers to the use of dynamite, buzzsaws and even a gorilla. This is hilarious stuff and a must see for Looney Tunes fans.

"Listen, Mac. You've got 32 teeth. Ya wanna try for 16?" A gangster movie? Now, a cartoon featuring a radio game-show host and his foil. Wow, this is one mean, sadistic Daffy Duck. "The Duckster" asks contestant Porky Pig a number of questions, almost all of them impossible to answer. When Porky misses, or doesn't answer in time, he is severely pounded, beaten, drench, blown up, etc. (This cartoon is not for little kids.)

Some of it is funny with excellent dark humor that made me laugh out loud. Other things made me shake my head almost in disgust, because it is too mean-spirited in parts. I guess you just have to take this as dark humor and nothing else, otherwise this is probably too nasty for most people.

Porky does get justice in the end, however, and by then all of us are glad to see that. That's the trouble with some of these cartoons: it brings out the worst revenge thoughts in all of us!!

Ducksters, The (1950)

*** (out of 4)

Spoof of game shows has host Daffy Duck mistreating contestant Porky Pig by throwing boulders, safes and various other gadgets on him. Even though poor Porky is answering the questions correctly, Daffy keeps doing harm to him but soon things are going to change. There's not too much thought, screenplay wise, in this short from Merrie Melodies but it still manages to be quite charming and cute. The one thing that held it back a little for me was Daffy who just really didn't seem like himself here. We never really get that maniac attack nor any nice lines of dialogue. Porky on the other hand is his great self and the two do work well together.

It was Chuck Jones who coined the phrase "illustrated radio" to describe the excessively talky style of limited animation introduced to television by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera in the 1960s (ironically, the two directors responsible for the inspired Tom and Jerry cartoons of the 1940s and '50s, which were almost entirely devoid of dialogue). With a good cartoon, Jones argued, it ought to be possible to watch it with the sound turned off and still "get" most of it. Watch The Flintstones or Yogi Bear with the sound off, and for the most part you'll see people standing around motionless, with fixed, stock expressions on their faces, talking to one another.

There's no denying that Hanna-Barbera television cartoons are bad. But if they're "illustrated radio", is that WHY they're bad? Certainly not in itself - because this short cartoon, directed by (who else?) Chuck Jones, is illustrated radio if anything is. Watch it without the sound and you'll miss the jokes (even the visual ones) and have difficulty making sense of it. Listen to it without the images and you'll follow what's going on easily - and it will still be funny. Moreover, what we see and here is the broadcast of a radio station quiz show, with Daffy Duck asking outrageously unfair questions of Porky Pig. If this is not "illustrated radio", what is? And yet it's one of the best cartoons ever made.

Perhaps it's misleading to point out that the cartoon makes sense without the images. To some degree the sounds imply the images. If you hear Daffy saying, "I'm sthorry, your ansthwer isth incorrect" followed by a heavy thud, part of the humour is visual: you SEE what happens, even if you have your eyes shut. The animators realise what we ought to see perfectly and (of course) outdo what we would have visualised for ourselves. The facial expressions in particular are inspired. But the carefully chosen WORDS are as crucial to the cartoon's success as any other element. The humour of Porky's desperate yet polite pleas to end the torture is almost entirely verbal - and nothing in the cartoon is funnier. Jones, despite his official stance, could easily integrate ANY kind of humour into a seamless whole, because his cartoons are always rooted in a firm understanding of character and motivation. Jones's creations NEVER step out of character. Daffy (street-wise but world-foolish, as the saying goes) shamelessly writes the rules himself; Porky (Daffy's precise opposite) gamely abides by them. Porky wins, but Jones doesn't cheat to bring this about.