# "I shoulda turned left at Albuquerque" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** cartoons-animation\ **Created:** [September 16, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796 "2020-09-16T22:29:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/101 "2020-09-17T20:33:44Z")
“La Jolla!” 🤣 I once had a landlady who’d moved from La Jolla to St Paul. God knows why… ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/102 "2020-09-17T21:02:14Z")
Late boomer (1960), of course I know it > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > “Did you ever find Bugs Bunny attractive when he put on a dress and played girl?”. Only when he put in the bear trap teeth as a Tasmanian she-devil… ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/103 "2020-09-17T21:12:43Z")
The gag was first used in a 1945 wartime cartoon. Bugs and Goering also dressed up as Wagnerian characters, and this was later reworked into “What’s Opera, Doc?” > **[Herr Meets Hare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herr_Meets_Hare)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Herr Meets Hare is a 1945 anti-Nazi Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on January 13, 1945, and features Bugs Bunny. This short, released not long before the collapse of the Third Reich, was the penultimate wartime themed cartoon from Warner Bros. (Draftee Daffy was the last) being released just under four months before Victory in Europe Day. > The cartoon opens with a faux Walter Winchell-like voice discussing... ---
**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:** [September 17, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/104 "2020-09-17T21:31:18Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Apparently the writers on Jack Benny’s radio and television programs (which featured Mel Blanc in the ensemble) liked funny-sounding California place-names, and the Warner Brothers writers evidently thought they sounded even funnier when Mel spoke them. [Train leaving on Track 5, for Anaheim, Azuza, and Cuc…amonga!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrTWjS9bT68) I bet a lot fewer people will get that one. I was born in 1951, and I remember the Jack Benny TV show using it. [Looney Tunes used it too.](https://youtu.be/yQq00lit_Fc?t=89) They especially liked Cuc…amonga. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/105 "2020-09-17T21:35:56Z")
I remember that phrase more from [Jan & Dean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5IzD4HrHhM). ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/106 "2020-09-17T22:36:28Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > > [@Chronos](#): > > > > of course I know the reference, and am surprised that any adult wouldn’t. > > Really? You’re surprised that there are adults in 2020 who wouldn’t get a reference to a specific cartoon short from 1945? I certainly am. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/107 "2020-09-17T22:40:36Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > 1947 and of course I know it. In fact, I use it often. Ranks right up there with “Duck season!” “Rabbit season!” and > > [“Yoiks! And awa-a-a-a-a-y!”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sICy5oSHHzA&ab_channel=kenpoarniceguy1) Ha, and in my head that was immediately repeated several times, more slurred each time. One of the best episodes of television ever. I also tend to start shouting [“HA! GUARD! PARRY! THRUST!”](https://youtu.be/8cuihrjLNAo) when I’m holding a stick. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/108 "2020-09-17T23:38:21Z")
The mistake Garth made was saying that he dressed up as a girl bunny. That isn’t true; he was either trying to look like a human or a Tasmanian She-Devil. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/109 "2020-09-18T00:15:53Z")
On your way to the Carrot Festival therein? Gen-X, and Mel was a God! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/110 "2020-09-18T00:50:14Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I’m pretty sure it was a running gag featured in several cartoons. Being unaware of the reference is almost as unlikely as being unaware of Bugs Bunny. Okay, now you’ve got me worried. I was a 50’s kid in San Diego, watched a LOT of TeeVee, LOVED the old WB cartoons as a child (and still do), thought I’d seen them all numerous times, and yet the Albuquerque line rings no bells for me. Can you (or anybody) determine how many times Bugs delivered the line? Or is this thread an elaborate hoax to gaslight me? ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/111 "2020-09-18T01:03:36Z")
It has its own [TVTropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WrongTurnAtAlbuquerque#:~:text=Advertisement%3A,divorced%20from%20their%20original%20goal.) reference! [Here is a mashup of Bugs missing his left turn…](https://youtu.be/e8TUwHTfOOU) ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/112 "2020-09-18T01:13:38Z")
Born in '77, and not sure what that makes me, but I knew the reference. Then I moved there. Now I take that left turn, when leaving the VLA and head home. Tripler I took that left turn in Feb '00, on the way to ND, too. ---
**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:** [September 18, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/113 "2020-09-18T01:30:06Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Alba-koy-kee Thinking back, it took me many years to make the connection of Bugs’ reference to the city in New Mexico. I had no idea that’s how the city was pronounced. It was a big “a-ha!” moment when I finally realized it. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/114 "2020-09-18T04:52:19Z")
[Un homage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKVVxYfk7Y0) du Cuca…monga. Presumably its funny because its true. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/115 "2020-09-18T06:12:45Z")
'61, I checked the link to make sure it wasn’t some obscure reference as opposed to the obvious. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/116 "2020-09-18T06:36:01Z")
I’m 50 and don’t remember a time **not** knowing it. My 15 and 12 year olds would have no idea. They grew up with Arthur, Caliou, and Wonder Pets. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/117 "2020-09-18T07:13:41Z")
My late brother was born in Albuquerque in 1947. No idea what my parents were doing there, since they came from Chicago and eventually ended up in California (I guess they turned right at Albuquerque) and then Minnesota (much to my chagrin). I always suspected my brother got a real thrill whenever he told people “I was born in Albuquerque.” I’m surprised he didn’t use a Brooklyn/Bronx accent when he said it. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/118 "2020-09-18T07:57:38Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Now, if I said, “Point me in the direction of Albuquerque,” would anybody get that reference? I guess nobody got this one. It’s from early-1970s TV: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/bfzssAiTVbs/maxresdefault.jpg "Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfzssAiTVbs) Yep, that’s the song called “Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque.” ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/119 "2020-09-18T09:33:52Z")
If you turn wrong at Albuquerque, do you end up stuck in Lodi again? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796/120 "2020-09-18T12:11:31Z")
Born in '64, yes knew the reference, yes tried to say the phrase in my best Brooklynese (Al-ba-coy-kee). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shoulda-turned-left-at-albuquerque/920796.md?page=7)