Of Thee I Sting

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Bacall to Arms	Walky Talky Hawky

Blue Ribbon
Original Title

Airdate:
17 August 1946 Blue Ribbon reissue: 12 January 1952

Series:

Looney Tunes

MPAA Number:	Production Number:	Vitaphone Number:
10717	LT-3-16 1260 (reissue)	1488

Copyright Renewed:

4 September 1973^[1]

Crew

Voice Characterizations:

Mel Blanc (uncredited)
Robert C. Bruce (uncredited)

Director:

I. Freleng
Original material:
Frank Tashlin (uncredited)

Written By:

Michael Maltese

Producer:

Eddie Selzer (uncredited)

Film Editor:

Treg Brown (uncredited)

Musician:

Carl Stalling

Of Thee I Sting is a 1946 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng.

Title[]

The title is a pun on the Broadway musical Of Thee I Sing.

Plot[]

In Target for Tonight-style, a narrator describes a mosquito attack upon a man in his cabin who has safeguarded his porch against insect invasion.

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Notes[]

Much of the animation was recycled from the Private Snafu short "Target Snafu", which was directed by Frank Tashlin.^[2]
- Freleng was often mis-credited as the director of "Target Snafu", but it is more likely a Tashlin cartoon judging by its animation and cinematography.
Some reused animation was also changed:
- A scene where group of mosquitos perform a Nazi salute after finding the last missing piece of a map was changed to them doing an American salute instead.
- The scene where a mosquito sergeant knocks over a row of mosquito soldiers was changed to have him inspect one of the soldiers instead.
This is a post-war short, but it is done in the style of war-time newsreels. By this time, most Warner Brothers cartoons had reduced their references to the war to minor elements.
The names of the planes in the attack are: Gravel Gertie (a Dick Tracy villain), Bugs Bunny, Sweet Sioux (with a pin-up girl who looks like the red-headed singer from Tex Avery's "Red Hot Riding Hood"), and Mrs. Kalabash (a mysterious character often referred to by Jimmy Durante).
This was the earliest re-released short in the Looney Tunes series to keep its ending music. Both American and European Turner "dubbed" versions replace the 1946-55 ending rendition of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" with the 1941-55 ending rendition of "Merrily We Roll Along".
- As the restored print uses the soundtrack of the Turner print, the ending music error persists.
A 16mm black and white print of the cartoon with the original titles was sold on eBay in 2022.^[3]
- In the original titles, the WB shield is still there when the "LOONEY TUNES" captions appear, likely due to an animation error.
- As Warner Bros. only restores 35mm prints, the Blue Ribbon titles were restored instead.

Gallery[]

References[]

↑ https://archive.org/details/catalogofc19733271213libr/page/110/mode/1up?view=theater
↑ ^ p.78 Shull Michael S. & Wilt, David Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945 2004 McFarland
↑ [1] eBay listing of a 16mm print with original titles

External links[]

[2]

[1] ttps://archive.org/details/catalogofc19733271213libr/page/110/mode/1up?view=theater

[2] .78 Shull Michael S. & Wilt, David Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945 2004 McFarland

[3] [1] eBay listing of a 16mm print with original titles

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