# cartoon suicide reel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 17, 2016, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910 "2016-12-17T05:14:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/1 "2016-12-17T05:14:48Z")
[“Here, butterfingers”](https://youtu.be/PFDKWbg2xjg) Happy holidays, folks! ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/2 "2016-12-17T10:35:37Z")
Taking “Th-th-that’s all folks” way too literally. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/3 "2016-12-17T13:33:04Z")
The past was a different world. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/4 "2016-12-17T15:55:16Z")
I love Pepe’s one-frame heart at 1:57. The joke wasn’t about suicide; it was about comic overreaction. It’s akin to John Cleese’s rant in _Cheers_. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/5 "2016-12-17T16:30:38Z")
> [@AtomicDog](#): > > The past was a different world. No kidding. I was reading some “Terry and the Pirates” comics from the 1930s and there was a story where Terry was stuck on an island with some dangerous criminals. His solution to the problem? Use some “gaslight” tactics to turn them against each other and then get the last surviving crook to commit suicide. Problem solved, kids! ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/6 "2016-12-17T20:24:52Z")
Heck, there was an entire story arc in the[Mickey Mouse newspaper strip of Mickey trying to off himself!](http://www.slightlywarped.com/comics/suicidalmickey/suicisalmickey.htm) Mickey Mouse! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/7 "2016-12-17T20:30:44Z")
Tom & Jerry dejectedly sitting on the tracks, waiting for the train to come. There’s a link in a recent “weird cartoon” thread. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/8 "2016-12-17T20:34:29Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Tom & Jerry dejectedly sitting on the tracks, waiting for the train to come. > > There’s a link in a recent “weird cartoon” thread. Also at the very end of the OP’s video. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/9 "2016-12-17T21:00:10Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Also at the very end of the OP’s video. Oh, okay. I’m on my work computer so at the moment so streaming content like YouTube is verboten. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/10 "2016-12-17T21:20:05Z")
This reminds me of a “Christmas special” I ran across last year. I can’t remember exactly who was on it, but it starred several of the prominent TV stars of the times (1950s, give or take.) The whole special took place in a department store, with the people shopping for Christmas gifts (it was actually pretty similar to a Seinfeld episode.) One story thread that developed throughout the special had someone buying a wallet for an employee, which the salesman gift wrapped. The buyer kept changing his mind on which one to buy and what he wanted written on the card, with the salesman having to change the sale, unwrap the wallet, and wrap the new one each time. At the end of the sequence, the frustrated salesman walks into the back room, and you hear a single gunshot. Merry Christmas, everyone! ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/11 "2016-12-17T21:37:54Z")
Incomplete without **Drinky Crow**. Too bad I can’t find the clip. He helps a squirrel gather nuts for two dollars. Buys a bottle of hootch for one, drinks himself drunk. Does it again the next day, and the next. Forth day, buys a gun for $3 and blows his brains out. Great cartoon! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/12 "2016-12-17T21:44:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > This reminds me of a “Christmas special” I ran across last year. I can’t remember exactly who was on it, but it starred several of the prominent TV stars of the times (1950s, give or take.) The whole special took place in a department store, with the people shopping for Christmas gifts (it was actually pretty similar to a Seinfeld episode.) One story thread that developed throughout the special had someone buying a wallet for an employee, which the salesman gift wrapped. The buyer kept changing his mind on which one to buy and what he wanted written on the card, with the salesman having to change the sale, unwrap the wallet, and wrap the new one each time. At the end of the sequence, the frustrated salesman walks into the back room, and you hear a single gunshot. Merry Christmas, everyone! [Jack Benny Christmas Shopping Show,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7cML2elJIY) 1957. The final scene starts at about 24:20. Jack Benny is the shopper, and Mel Blanc is the clerk. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/13 "2016-12-17T21:51:30Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [Jack Benny Christmas Shopping Show,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7cML2elJIY) 1957. The final scene starts at about 24:20. Jack Benny is the shopper, and Mel Blanc is the clerk. Thanks. I googled Red Skelton, I googled Bob Hope, then I gave up (and assumed someone here would know.) ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/14 "2016-12-17T23:42:37Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It’s akin to John Cleese’s rant in _Cheers_. I must’ve missed that one, and I’m not able to find it now. Got a link to a clip? ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/15 "2016-12-18T00:14:32Z")
And some people think Lenny Bruce and the National Lampoon invented pitch black humor. Incidentally, you can find a lot of suicide gags in early silent comedies. One scene that comes to mind is from a Harold Lloyd film where a despondent Harold tries to off himself by jumping off a bridge only to find that the water just goes up to his shins. Then there’s the Buster Keaton movie “Cops” where Buster commits suicide by cops at the end. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/16 "2016-12-18T03:35:02Z")
> [@MindsEye\_Watering](#): > > I must’ve missed that one, and I’m not able to find it now. Got a link to a clip? I can’t find the video, but [here is the transcript](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0539856/trivia?item=qt0461791). Imagine Cleese in Basil Fawlty mode saying it; it won him an Emmy. I also note that he talked about suicide, too. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-suicide-reel/774910/17 "2016-12-18T21:57:38Z")
I’m wondering how long ago that stopped being used “straight” as a funny gag? (I’m not counting modern things like \*Family Guy \*consciously attempting to be shocking.)