A Pest in the House is a 1947 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.
Title[]
The title is an appropriate play on "a guest in the house" and the film noir Guest in the House (1944).
Plot[]
A labor shortage "became so bad" that employers are compelled to hire "anybody or anything". Daffy is a hotel bellboy and Elmer is the manager in the Gland Hotel. A tired man demands peace and quiet, and threatens violence against Elmer if disturbed. "Just one more thing. I'm a tired man. I gotta have my sleep, plenty of it. So see to it that I get lots of peace and quiet. BECAUSE IF I'M DISTURBED AT ANYTIME, I'M GONNA BUST YOU RIGHT IN THE NOSE! " Daffy, Jerry Colonna-like, remarks: "Likable chap, isn't he!" Daffy does many stunts that keep the man awake, complete with escorting him to room 666. Every time he is awakened, the increasingly-irritated man trudges to Elmer's station, to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel", and at the moment where the song would say "pop", he busts Elmer in the face.
- Daffy pounds a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door and wakes the exhausted man up, and when the man opens the door, Daffy accidentally pounds his face.
- Daffy, in an attempt to get "a little fresh air" into the room, opens a window. However, the noises in the city are so loud that it frightens the man to the point that he literally jumps out of his bed. The man soon closes the window and attempts to fall back asleep...only for a drunken man to sing "How Dry I Am" in the other room. The man, clearly about to beat the drunk up, is stopped by Daffy who tells him that he'll "muzzle that inebriated canary." This seems to work...but Daffy shortly after is intoxicated too, and joins in singing. The man is awoken by Daffy's hiccups and laughter, which gives Elmer another punch in the face.
- Daffy is singing and cleaning a window and finds a small speck. Daffy repeatedly scratches it, with the screeching waking and irritating the man. He calls Elmer by telephone, and somehow punches him through the phone!
- Daffy hears a funny story about a salesman trying to sell something to a farmer when the farmer doesn't want it. Daffy soon after wakes the man to tell the story and the man nonchalantly walks down to Elmer, who is protecting himself with a knight's helmet only for the man to punch him. Then, Daffy doesn't even remember how the joke ends, but still laughs. Elmer comes in and shushes Daffy in an attempt to make him quiet, only to be beaten again.
When Daffy says it is too cold, he decides to fix the radiator. Elmer, fearing getting beat up again, chases after Daffy. Daffy's method of "fixing" the radiator is smashing a tube with a wrench, which produces a loud ringing noise. Knowing that the noise will go up to the man's room, Elmer rushes to cover the heater to prevent the noise from bothering the man. This works, but not before the heater emits a loud whistle. This bothers the man, so Elmer unscrews it and covers it with pillows. Daffy, thinking that Elmer is the source of the whistling, rants to him by saying "So, a fine kettle of fish! Here I work myself down to the skin and bones trying to keep this guy asleep, and what do you do? Blow whistles! Just when I got things so quiet you can hear a pin drop, you bust in here and bust out with a whistle and you snafu the whole works! How in the name of all things reasonable do you expect a guy to get his slumber when a goof like you goes around making noises like a one-man 4th of July celebration?! He needs peace and quiet! It's positively outrageous!" Elmer nervously tries to shush Daffy but Daffy's screaming obviously wakes the now enraged man, who is so mad there are red swirls in his eyes, and he is gritting his teeth. Elmer hurries downstairs so he and Daffy can switch places in an effort to fool the man, but Elmer gets beat up anyway. Daffy, again like Jerry Colonna says, "Noisy little character, isn't he!"
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- The version that aired on Kids' WB! edited out the part where the man is kept awake by a drunk man in the next room singing "How Dry I Am" and Daffy tells the man that he will "muzzle that inebriated canary" only to drink up with the drunk man and sing along in harmony.[3]
Goofs[]
- Towards the end of the cartoon, when Elmer rings for Daffy and Daffy runs up to the front desk and says, "Yes, sir!", his lips do not move.
- When Daffy sings "Time Waits for No One" while cleaning the window, his lips are not moving when he sings the last line of the song.
Notes[]
- The film is notable for featuring a sort of "in-between" interpretation of Daffy. He is not necessarily the zany, impish interpretation used famously by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, nor is he the greedy, self-preservationist version that Chuck Jones later popularized in the 1950s. As Paul Dini says in the DVD audio commentary for this cartoon, "[In this cartoon, Daffy] is really kind of almost like a sprite. He's just a little, almost elfin creature who's not really out to hurt anybody or has any ill will or malice toward anybody. He's just completely out of his mind."
- The Business Man is voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan, who also voices Elmer Fudd, albeit without Elmer's L and R speech impediment. He would later make a cameo appearance as the sleepy announcer whose job gets taken over by Hubie & Bertie and in the bleachers in the 1996 movie Space Jam cheering for Michael Jordan after Michael wins.[4]
- It was only one of three non-Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1947 not to be reissued. The others were "Catch as Cats Can" and "Mexican Joyride".
- The cartoon was followed up in 1948 by "Daffy Duck Slept Here", wherein Daffy (this time as a fellow guest) again doesn't let a hotel patron sleep - in this case Porky Pig.
- The name of the "Gland Hotel" is a pun on that of the title establishment in the movie drama "Grand Hotel" (1932).
- The businessman's room number is 666, which is a reference to "the number of the Beast", i.e. of the Antichrist, in the New Testament Book of Revelation. This is because of the "Hell" the tired guest had to go through because of Daffy.
- This is the final cartoon to use the original MPPDA logo on the credits card. It would be updated to remove the "D" on the logo, resulting in "MPAA" for all cartoons until it was changed again in "The Music Mice-Tro".
- This is the last Cartoon that Basil Davidovich animated in Chuck Jones' unit.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, Revised, New York, NY: Plume, page 429. ISBN 0-452-25993-2.
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig3281213li/page/158/mode/1up?view=theater
- ↑ http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-p.aspx
- ↑ Paul Dini. A Pest in the House - DVD audio commentary - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5.