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Episode 77
This Pun For Hire
When
the show really embraces animation’s comedic potential, the resulting cartoon
is a contender for a true work of art.
In a world where most great animated products are a result of an underlying
story or action spectacle, it’s remarkable that these series highlights are
still impressive today. It’s a way of
showing that even things that only exist to make people laugh have a place in
the world too. This cartoon is such a
top contender taking every opportunity for humor and rolling with it while
never distracting from the plot at hand.
It’s
got a 1940s setup with the Warners as private eye detectives caught in the
middle of a standard film noir plot, only not nearly as bleak. All throughout, there are comedic jabs at all
the conventions of the genre. Some of
them show awareness to how what they’re doing is all part of the routine.
There’s Yakko reading the opening narration off the script, or confusion over
slang detective terms or fabricated backstories. Other jabs are literal takes on expressions, making for genius comedic takes. Yakko
says he and his siblings finished a case, as in a soda case. He describes
themselves as a well-oiled machine as they pop out of a hood. At one point,
he’s given a drink with a mouse with it described as a Mickey, causing him to
respond that he works for Warner Bros playing his role in a battle with a certain rival
company.
Things like this continue when
the cartoon’s plot is firmly established as a client portrayed by an even more
sexually attractive than average Hello Nurse. She reports a case that her boss, portrayed
by Dr. Scratchansniff, has gone missing after obtaining a black statue of a
pigeon (Squit of the Goodfeathers).
Think of it as a direct tie to one of the most famous film noirs, The Maltese Falcon. Anyway, the key appeal factor is how
successfully the Warners play off of Hello Nurse in some of their most
elaborate interactions in the series.
While she’s the straight woman trying to get to the point, they, really
Yakko and Wakko, are on fire with gags playing to her attractiveness. Wakko follows her with a giant magnifying
glass while she’s asked if she’s been tailed. Yakko pays more attention to how
she talks than the actual case. There’s a hilarious running gag where she keeps
winning a date with Wakko when answering minor questions.
Still the Warners pay great attention to
the task at hand that they take to a local tropic music club, jokes and
all. Along the way, there’s one comedic
surprise after another. Ralph the Guard
plays a fat bongo player who constantly needs to read the script to figure out
what to say. Minerva Mink shows up as a
mystery lady who wants ownership for that bird statue and using a heater she’s
packed to get it, which by the way is a literal heater. Then it turns out that Dr. Scratchansniff
never left, as he’s also after the statue, and intimidating everyone with a
Peter Lorre impression he tries way too hard at. Once Hello Nurse reveals herself as a femme
fatale also after the statue, there’s humorous wordplay as Yakko figures out each
suspect is trying to get the statue for a studio. The mink works for Fox, the pair of legs
works for Paramount, and the guy who needs rehearsal works for Universal. Even Dr. Scratchansniff is in on this shtick
as he brings a filter in the statue to Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg,
and David Geffan of Dreamworks. With
that, it’s interesting that the cartoon ends on a gag well ahead of its time
considering how big Dreamworks has become ever since it was just a fledgling back in
1995. Though really the gag’s probably
there for a Spielberg reference.
This
is one of the works of this show that practically has it all. The plot is simple, yet masterfully executed,
the hilarious plays on detective tropes are genius and plentiful, the cast is
diverse, and it’s overall solid entertainment.
For that, it’s no doubt a highlight of the Kids WB era of this show.
A++
Star Truck
I’m
sure it’s a solid science-fiction show, but for one reason or another, I’m just
not into checking out Star Trek. I’m also sorry to say that I’ve been unable
to check the show out prior to writing these reviews. However, I know of its existence and some of
its principal elements making it easy for me to tell what parodies of the
franchise are referencing. Now, this
show has had a fair number of Star Trek reference
jokes in the past, but now it’s got a whole cartoon dedicated to the
franchise. In fact, if you went in not
knowing this cartoon is meant to be a parody, you’d probably believe that this
is just an animated interpretation of the actual Star Trek. The actual crew
members seem so serious and in tune to their mission that the setting is almost
a little too authentic. The only comedic
backbone to the setup is that the ship is shaped like an actual truck, hence
the play on words in the title.
Obviously, the humor really picks up when the Warners show up as alleged
delegates for the crew, though they’re actually stand-ins for the more
alien-like delegates. The catch is that
the Warners see the space crew setup as a favorite TV show of theirs, pointing
out references to their favorite episodes all the way. It’s an amusing clash of perspectives on the
matter where one side is completely serious, while another geeks out of being
onboard the ship and interacting with the cast.
That’s a pretty accurate portrayal of what it feels like for a show crew
and their fans being in the same place.
What’s more, even if you only have a slight Star Trek knowledge like I do, it’s easy enough to guess what’s
being referenced. Captain Kirk is marked
by his unusual speech pattern from his actor, William Shatner. Dr. Spock is the monotone figure with pointy
ears, but is given a funny gag where in trying to read the Warners’ psyche, he
adopts many of Wakko’s odd mannerisms.
It’s just comedy gold seeing outlandish actions coming from a serious
figure. Anyway, there’s a joke on how
Scottie suddenly gets fat as he starts the cartoon thin and attractive, but
quickly gains weight when Wakko introduces him to donuts. The often referenced Wrath of Khan scene complete with Captain Kirk yelling out the name of
its parody, Korn, also plays a role in the plot as Korn gasses the entire
ship. The only way out of this is the
zany nature of the crew's delegates as the Warners were fortunate enough to have
seen this episode before. They avoid
being gassed, and take Korn’s ship out by managing to apply a blow from a giant
mallet. So it’s comedy and joking around
with serious tones that saves the day, and the only thanks the
Warners want is a promise that the crew won’t sue them. Then to finish it off, there’s another random
Pinky and the Brain cameo which is a lot of fun but also interesting how with
how often they show up here after getting a spinoff.
As a whole, I give credit to this cartoon
being a fun parody for anyone, even if they’re not familiar with all there is
to know about Star Trek. Seeing the original show can help you get the
parody, but it’s awarding enough that it’s successful as a comedic work by
itself.
A
Go Fish
When
it comes to Wakko, he’s easily the most outrageous Warner sibling. For that fact alone, he’s more than worthy
enough to carry entire gag-driven cartoons by themselves, even if it’s for the
best that they’re only a few minutes long.
After proving his comedic worth with an elaborate Rube Goldberg device
and expressing his own way of playing bingo, Wakko’s crazy ways come at their
most endearing.
Just a few years before
Pixar released their Academy Award-winning short Gerri’s Game, Wakko made the idea of playing a game with himself
all his own. As the title suggests, it’s
the favorite card game of Go Fish. It
starts out charming enough as he plays on one side of a table, then runs to the
other side to finish each play. However,
it really gets funny when Wakko gives his portrayal of the Go Fish players more
aggressive traits. When one player wins,
another accuses him of doing so unfairly.
Following this is an amusing sequence of Wakko brawling with himself. The humor of the scenario shows even more as
he fires a cannon, and also plays the role of the target. To finish the fighting, Wakko gets himself in
a fight cloud built for one, hops out of it while it’s still going, whacks it
with a mallet, and we cut to the mallet already on his head. It’s crazily impressive how Wakko just nails
the role of the instigator and the victim, and the last scene shows promise for
more as he decides to play the card game of War by himself. Given his tendency to take things literally,
you can only imagine how things will escalate there.
Short as this cartoon is, it’s as long as it
needs to be to present Wakko at some of his most random and hilarious.
A+
Multiplication
Mathematics
is often seen as one of the hardest bits of school work to get. It’s popularized as a subject most school
kids seem to have the most trouble with, at least in TV shows. For that, it’s very fitting that this show
has an entire song about one of the most prominent forms of mathematics,
multiplication. Then again, making
entertaining music out of educational topics is somewhat of a trademark of the
series.
Adding to the intrigue of the
song, it opens with a character who hasn’t been seen since Episode 21, the
Warners’ school teacher Ms. Flamiel. The
Warners engage her in witty banter against her strict teaching methods in class
clown practices that are just as if not even more hilarious than they were in
“Chalkboard Bungle.” The culmination is
Yakko getting called to the board to multiply 47 by 83. As usual, he has a really fun way of going
through the process and working music into the whole thing. On its own, he goes through the whole
sequence very fast, which wouldn’t be helpful if someone was doing
multiplication without any visual aids.
Fortunately, the cartoon portion exists to help everyone understand
perfectly every step Yakko sings. The
lyrics and the visuals of doing the problem mesh perfectly into a fun way of
interpreting exactly what it takes to multiply numbers. It kind of makes me wish I knew of the song
when I first learned multiplication way back in grade school. The visuals themselves may not be
spectacular, but they show what’s absolutely necessary and is sure to
accomplish what it sets out to do for all students.
As a result, like many other educational
musical numbers, it’s great fun you wish was shown in the actual educational
system more often.
A
Cartoon Ranking
1. This Pun for Hire
2. Go Fish
3. Buttons in Ows
4. Star Truck
5. Gimme the Works
6. Hercules Unwound
Song Ranking
1. Multiplication
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