The Booze Hangs High is a 1930 Looney Tunes short directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising.
Plot[]
A cow walks away. Bosko walks in, and they start to folk dance around. When the cow starts to dance, his pants fall down, provoking Bosko to laugh out loud, upsetting the cow until he leaves. Bosko then walks over to his horse, laughing, and the horse begins to laugh!
Bosko then dances to the carriage that's attached to the horse, grabs a whip, and turns it into a violin bow. He plays the horse's tail as a violin. Realizing he's out of tune, he turns the horse's ears like tuning knobs to tune the horse's tail. They begin their ride in a tune with Bosko playing the horse's tail and the horse dancing like an ice skater and a broom before Bosko takes a rake and plays it like a banjo while the horse tap-dances. A mother duck and her three ducklings are walking and dancing before stopping to dance again. One little duckling doesn't dance because the duckling has to use the restroom. He tells the mother duck who advises him to go off-screen. He comes back and the four ducks jump into a pond.
After this, Bosko goes back to play the horse's tail. After about thirty seconds, Bosko goes off his horse to tend to feeding the pig and two piglets garbage. The pigs eat the garbage messily until one piglet finds a bottle of booze. They try to open it but fails until one pig has an idea. He uses his tail like a corkscrew to open it. Once they do, they pop the bubbles to the tune of "How Dry I Am". They both take a swig and instantly get drunk, giggling before the father pig finds the booze and takes a swig of his own. The drunk father pig "bah's" to "One Little Drink" then tosses the bottle which unfortunately lands on poor Bosko, getting him drunk.
He begins to sing "Sweet Adeline" with the pigs like a barbershop quartet. The father pig goes back to his "One Little Drink" solo but regurgitates a corn cob. Embarrassed, he picks up the corn cob, flicks off a kernel and opens a door to his stomach and puts it back in his stomach. To reach a very low note, Bosko pulls on the pig's tail which ends the solo. After the solo, Bosko and the pigs do a dance one last time.
Censorship[]
- When this cartoon aired on Nickelodeon, the scene of the pig belching up a corncob, flicking one kernel off it, and sticking it back in his stomach was cut. In contrast, Nickelodeon's original programming at the time was known for its gross-out humor, and an earlier scene of the duckling squirming and whispering to his mother that he needs to use the bathroom was not cut.[3]
Availability[]
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6, Disc Three (restored)
Anna Christie (restored, HD)
Goofs[]
- At the last second where Bosko and the pigs say "Aye!" at the end, Bosko's nose turns white.
- At the very first second when Bosko and his Horse begin to move the cart, Bosko's shirt/chest turns white. This happens multiple times while doing this during the episode.
- The second Bosko rides his cart, the small parts attached to the wheels and the horse go missing. When the ride finishes the second time they finally re-appear.
Notes[]
- The cow walking away is an inside gag from Disney's "Plane Crazy".
- This cartoon short is featured in the 2015 live action movie "Stormageddon". In the opening scene at military camp, the camp's computer gets hacked and "The Booze Hangs High" is briefly featured on the computer screens.
- This may be the earliest cartoon to show a character desperate to use the bathroom.
- This cartoon entered the public domain in 1959 as Warner Bros. did not renew the copyright in time.
Gallery[]
_-_Low_Note.png "The Booze Hangs High (1930) - Low Note.png (351 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ [Wilmington, Del.] News Journal, October 31, 1930
- ↑ https://www.booktopia.com.au/cartoon-voices-of-the-golden-age-vol-2-keith-scott/ebook/9798215217610.html
- ↑ The Censored Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Guide https://web.archive.org/web/20160502110754/http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/b/