I threw together a few examples of my favorite classic cartoon gag.
Most of these are from cartoons written by Mike Maltese, so while he didn't invent the gag (it was used in many cartoons and in live-action films as well, like a Three Stooges short), it seems like he was the one who used it the most.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
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9 comments:
The repetition actually makes that gag a lot funnier. Good work.
Spielberg also paid tribute to this gag in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. There are at least two or three instances in the movie where a half-dozen or so variously-shaped UFOs fly by, followed a few seconds later by one tiny one trying to catch up.
And it's important to the gag that the "little one" not only comes last - after a suitable gap - but also does something to attract attention to itself, whether it's the little robot stopping, jumping then heading off in a totally different direction, the little wolf giving that grin and giggle, the little coyote with the bib and eating utensils, the little mouse not just running out but being cast out by the kitten, or the smallest dwarf with the outsized cap and golf clubs, the littlest one always has to set itself apart not just be being little and racing to catch up.
Aside from the live action uses, Warners may also have borrowed from the way Disney used Dopey in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (Clampett had the Jeep-Beep-Peep gag using his own version of Dopey in "Coal Black", as well as building the entire end gag around his oral recuperating abilities).
Great montage!
And totally off topic here, some kind YouTube user has posted up a never aired pre Taxi Andy Kaufman pilot. Enjoy it for the curiosity value, watch it and understand why it never made the screen http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stick+around+andy+kaufman
That was so absurd! :D Thanks for the laugh.
I just notice the curious nature of this very gag yesterday while watching KITTY KORNERED: Porky forcibly pulls a reluctant cat from it's hiding place in a mouse hole and the cat drags along a long string of mice out with him. Sure enough, pulling up at the rear of the string is one very tiny mouse who makes some very funny expressions... There is something tireless about the comic grammar of it...
I think Avery used it twice in DAN McGOO: the gruesome "kid's" noose in the opening shot and then the cocktail drink that crosses the crosswalk at the bar after some "grown up" beer mugs shoot thru first.
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