Sunday, October 02, 2005

There's Always a Little One

My favorite recurring cartoon gag of all time is the one Sarah calls "There's Always a Little One." It's the gag where you see a whole bunch of identical creatures or things running across the screen and out of the shot, and then, after a slight pause, a smaller version of those creatures or things runs across the screen and out of the shot.

Examples that come to mind are mostly from Warner Brothers cartoons: the end of "Scaredy Cat" (a bunch of identical mice, followed by a much smaller mouse); the end of "Ready... Set... Zoom!" where the Coyote, disguised as a Road Runner, is pursued by a bunch of identical coyotes followed by a little Coyote; "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves", with six dwarves in jeeps followed by the Dopey takeoff in a smaller jeep marked "Peep," and "Bugs Bunny Rides Again" (a bunch of bullets followed by a lone bullet). There's also an episode of "The Simpsons," "Itchy and Scratchy Land," where a violent cartoon-themed amusement park features a parade of axes followed by "a cute little baby ax."

There must be others, though. Anybody else remember this gag, and can anybody name some other cartoons that use it?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Spongebob did a variation on this gag in an episode where a bunch of people fled out of a theatre in a panic and after they all left a single solitary speck fled. Quite hilarious.