Goofy Groceries

Template:Infobox Shorts wTabs Goofy Groceries is a 1941 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert Clampett.

Plot

One winter night as a grocery store owner closes his shop, the advertising mascots start to come to life. A cow for contended milk sings to a "Fulla tobbaco" bull, "If I could be with you," two other cows oogle and whistle at the bull while a cranky crab imitating Ned Sparks grumbles, "this love stuff makes me sick!"

A rabbit named Jack Bunny (a parody of Jack Benny) tells the band (conducted by a long-haired conductor, another parody of Leopold Stokowski) to start up and an ad for "Big Top Popcorn" comes to life while a dog barker for "Barker's dog food" addresses the crowd and tells them of the circus's attractions, including "Little Egypt Wiggly Gum", "Billy Poisies Aquackade" swimmers, and the "Tomatoe Can Can Dancers".

Meanwhile, an "Animal Crackers" gorilla hears the noise and starts growling at one point stating, "Gosh, ain't I repulsive", the gorilla stares at the female performs and smiles, he then begins his attack attempting to abduct one of the "Can Can Dancers", Jack Bunny sees this and rides a bottle of "Horse Radish" while an army of "Navy Beans" and "Turtle Soup Turtles" shoot at the gorilla, the gorilla defends himself with a Roman candle at one point destroying the bottle of horse radish Jack Bunny is riding, Bunny sees a box of "Washington Cherries" and snatches the axe on the cover while an army of chicks cheer him on, the gorilla shoot the axe with the candle, making it shrink Bunny dons a sheepish grin and backs into a corner.

Meanwhile Superman comes to life in a box of "Superguy soap chips" while the gorilla lights a stick of dynamite with Bunny's cigar, Superman says to the gorilla, "Hey you big ape" and the gorilla replies, "Yeah?" Superman is so scared he turns into a baby. A voice calls out, "Henry!" and the gorilla passes and says in a frightened voice, "Coming mother!' while his mother drags him away by his ear, Jack Bunny breathes a sigh of relief, only to realize he is still holding the dynamite, which explodes, leaving him in blackface he then does a Rochester impression "My oh my, tattletale gray!"

Availability

• (1992) LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Vol 2, Side 5
• (2005) DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc Two

Censorship

• When this short aired on Cartoon Network (barring its appearance on The Bob Clampett Show) and Boomerang, three scenes featuring black stereotyping were cut:
  • A scene of black children diving and swimming in a sink
  • A short scene of a black boy rushing into a house and hanging a "Quarantine: Measles" sign during the gorilla attack
  • The end where the stick of dynamite in Jack Bunny's hands explodes and turns him blackfaced, where he comments, "My, oh my! Tattletale gray!" a la Rochester from The Jack Benny Show, although a similar Rochester blackface ending from Bacall to Arms was left uncensored on both Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
• A local station in San Francisco, California (KOFY) cut the ending similar to Cartoon Network, but only the shot of Jack Bunny in blackface was cut. The audio, however, played as normal over a slowed-down "That's All Folks" ending card.
• The American Turner "dubbed" version also edited out the following three blackface scenes.

Notes

• This cartoon is notable as the first color cartoon Bob Clampett ever directed, after being reserved to making exclusively black-and-white Looney Tunes cartoons in previous years from 1937-1940 (usually starring Porky Pig). Hence, this releases Clampett from the severe $3000 budget and four-week deadline restrictions he previously had during production of his previous cartoons.
• Little Egypt was the stage name of at least three popular belly dancers. They had so many imitators, the name became synonymous with belly dancers generally.
• When Jack Bunny is on the horse, he says, "Buck Bunny rides again!" which almost sounds like "Bugs Bunny".
• With the exception of some dubbed versions of shorts from 1941-44, this is the last short to bear Carl W. Stalling's 1938-41 closing arrangement of the Merrie Melodies theme, as well as the last to contain the 1940-41 arranged opening theme. However, the original opening and closing titles were lost and reissued as a Blue Ribbon release, which replaced the 1940-41 opening rendition of the theme with the more brassy 1941-45 opening theme, but kept the original 1938-41 closing theme intact over the 1946-47 end title.  
• European 1995 print replaces original ending music cue with 1941-55 Merrie Melodies ending music cue.  

Gallery

External Links

• Watch This Short on SuperCartoons.net