# These toons are making me looney! or Old pop culture references in WB cartoons **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 27, 2002, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057 "2002-11-27T06:12:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/21 "2002-11-27T23:18:44Z")
Here’s one that’s bugged me forever: In the cartoon where Porky & Daffy are running the “baby factory” Daffy’s on the phone doing ‘customer service’. First he says, “No, I’m sorry Bing, you’ve used up your quota” which I get. Crosby had a million kids. But then he answers the phone and says, “Oh hello Mr. (somebody, Dupree maybe?)”. Then Daffy does a real shock take and says in an outraged voice, “Mr. Dupree, PAH-LEEZ!!” Who and what is this about? Is it a dirty joke of some kind? ---
**Author:** ![NutWrench](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nutwrench/32/20193_2.png) [@NutWrench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutWrench)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/22 "2002-11-27T23:21:32Z")
The Censored Cartoons page: [http://looney.toonzone.net/ltcuts/](http://looney.toonzone.net/ltcuts/) Lots of pop-culture references here. Mostly Warner Brothers, but some MGM cartoons, too. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/23 "2002-11-27T23:51:21Z")
I remember a different WB cartoon from the forties where the major singers of the day (Sinatra, Crosby, Calloway) were roosters competing for the hens in a henhouse. Sinatra’s caricature mostly showed how frighteningly thin he was back then. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/24 "2002-11-28T00:41:32Z")
…a **Porky Pig** reference where Porky stammers, “Sonofabyeea…sonofabayeea…SONOFAGUN!” Pause… **Porky** : “Bet you thought I was gonna say **‘Sonofabitch’** didntcha!” In all fairness, this might have been a **Mel Blanc** outtake, but a local radio station in Atlanta used to play the little snippet all the time on their morning show Quasi > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NutWrench \* > \*\*The Censored Cartoons page: [http://looney.toonzone.net/ltcuts/](http://looney.toonzone.net/ltcuts/) > > Lots of pop-culture references here. Mostly Warner Brothers, but some MGM cartoons, too. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/25 "2002-11-28T01:48:01Z")
**Hail Ants** , I remember that cartoon (mainly because of the fact that the exterior painting of the factory showed a gorgeously Moderne building I’d love to see in real life; yes, I’m a geek)… The name of the cartoon, it turns out, is “Baby Bottleneck” and it’s on the same tape as “Book Revue” which I spoke about in my O.P. I didn’t get the Bing Crosby reference at the time. I think “Mr Dupree” is actually “Mr Dionne,” a reference to the Dionne Quintuplets. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/26 "2002-11-28T02:16:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wumpus \* > The zoot-suited character _might_ be a parody of Cab Calloway (best known for “Minnie the Moocher.”) > > For other celebrity spoofs in Warner Brothers cartoons, see: > > [http://home.nc.rr.com/tuco/looney/lists/celebrities.html](http://home.nc.rr.com/tuco/looney/lists/celebrities.html) The clincher that Danny Kaye was intended is that in the cartoon Daffy begins his routine in front of a book whose title is clearly seen: “Danny Boy”. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/27 "2002-11-28T02:31:57Z")
The song Carolina in the Morning pops up in a lot of old tv. I remember seeing Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore do it on an episode of his show. I must have heard this song somewhat frequently as a kid because I’m familiar with the lyrics but I’ll be darned if I can remember where and when I heard it. I really love watching the old cartoons and trying to figure out all the references. I usually have to get Mom to help a bit with that but it’s a ton of fun. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/28 "2002-11-28T02:37:26Z")
Almost forgot. The “How **do** you dooo?” guy was an actor named Bert Gordon, aka The Mad Russian. I also saw him on an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show. A regular treasure trove, that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/29 "2002-11-28T02:46:10Z")
Blowero–The “cwaziest people” line is a reference to comedian Lew Lehrer. He narrated a series of Fox Movietone comedy shorts, and would often used the “Monkeys is Dah Cwaziest People” line. “How Do You Do?” is another Danny Kaye reference, this time to a Russian character he used to do (Russians became very popular after Germany invaded the USSR and the Russians joined the Allies). Racinchikki–Bing had all boys and was known to have wished for a girl. The other joke in “Baby Bottleneck” was a reference to the Dionne Quintuplets (“Mr Dionne, please!”). Krokodil–you’re thinking of “The Swooner Crooner”; you get to see rooster versions of Bing, Sinatra, Cab Calloway, Durante, and others. The thin Sinatra gag was used over and over again in many toons. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/30 "2002-11-28T02:46:21Z")
Love that song and will be singing it for Christmas! [http://www.perfessorbill.com/lyrics/lycaroli.htm](http://www.perfessorbill.com/lyrics/lycaroli.htm) I don’t know if this will make a link or not but it will give you an address for the lyrics. There was also a sort of gross version sung in the 1970’s or so. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/31 "2002-11-28T04:36:02Z")
Well, perhaps Kaye lifted it from Bert Gordon or vice versa. [Scroll down to “Duffy’s Tavern”.](http://www.old-time.com/bytes/) ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/32 "2002-11-28T06:23:36Z")
There are a lot of pop music references in Warner Brothers (and other) cartoons that were probably meant as jokes but are now simply part of the cartoon vocabulary. For instance, a good-looking cartoon babe is often accompanied by the music cue “You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby” or “Ain’t She Sweet.” Chickens in a farmyard are accompanied by the same piece of music (but I’ll be darned if I know the title–anyone?). I’ve also heard “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” many times in cartoons. The song “Hello My Baby” sung by Michigan J Frog in “One Froggy Evening” is a real song, released around the Aughts of last century. FISH ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/33 "2002-11-28T06:42:43Z")
Also there’s that one where Yosemete Sam is chasing Bugs Bunny around a circus big top. Bugs slams a door in Sam’s face, and Sam pounds on it and yells “open the door!”–upon which he turns and faces the audience to remark, “you notice that I didn’t say ‘Richard?’” I’ve been told that refers to a popular song in the 1940s called “Open The Door, Richard”. Now, could someone explain to me what the “Hennnry!” / “Coming, Mother!” exchange is all about? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/34 "2002-11-28T07:04:10Z")
Chickens in a farmyard=Turkey in the Straw. There is a song-- two, actually-- in this very old Merrie Melody that I have on tape. No “name” cartoon characters. The little chick wants to sing a swing song, but his mother makes him sing something like a hymn. _Drink to me with only thine eyes and I will drink with mine. . ._ and the song he wants to sing has the words \* I wanna singa about the moona in a Juna in the springa. . .\* I always thought that they were just songs for the cartoon. Now I’m wondering if these were popular back then and if so, when. This is a great tape, btw. I brought it from a video store for my kids when they were 4. It’s five hours long and has some pretty old cartoons: Betty Boop, Lil Audrey with her mammy, a bouncing ball sing-along and cool anthropomorphized cars that party all the time. What is Bogey saying “Why did you hit me in the face with a coconut cream pie” a reference to? ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/35 "2002-11-28T07:08:57Z")
The "Henry!..“Coming Mother!” is a reference to The Aldrich Family of radio, and Henry was played by Ezra Stone. He became a movie director; he appeared in two episdoes of _Emergency!_ as a director (in both epsiodes, that is). ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/36 "2002-11-28T07:13:14Z")
The guide I found early has that answer too: [http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/c.html](http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/c.html) > [@](#): > > Coming Mother > > Phrase usually uttered in a cracked adolescent voice by Henry Aldrich, played, mostly, by Ezra Stone, on the radio show The Aldrich Family. > > Used in a variety of situations in WB cartoons, including by a mother and son ant in Farm Frolics (Clampett, 1941), Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941, with Henry Fonda saying it), Goofy Groceries (Clampett, 1941, said by the gorilla), Book Revue (Clampett, 1946, said by Henry VIII). The horse in the Private Snafu short The Home Front (Tashlin, 1943) also uses the phrase. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/37 "2002-11-28T07:39:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Biggirl \* > \*_The little chick wants to sing a swing song, but his mother makes him sing something like a hymn. Drink to me with only thine eyes and I will drink with mine. . . and the song he wants to sing has the words \* I wanna singa about the moona in a Juna in the springa. . ._ I always thought that they were just songs for the cartoon. Now I’m wondering if these were popular back then and if so, when. > \*\* Well, the first one was actually popular as an eighteenth-century drinking song, I believe. The text is by Ben Jonson. (Mmmmm…Ben Jonson. ;)) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/38 "2002-11-28T08:04:01Z")
Those were owls, Katisha. To Guy Proposki: “The Swooner Crooner” has some strange twists; the Crosby and Sinatra roosters cause the hens, who had not been producing eggs, to lay huge piles of eggs, each far greater in volume than the hen’s own body. And they also cause one hen to lay an egg that hatches into a hen chick–which lays an egg, too–_one_ egg, considerably larger than the newborn hen chick that laid it! :eek: But the strangest twist is at the very end, when the Crosby and Sinatra roosters sing to Porky himself–and _he_lays eggs! ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/39 "2002-11-28T08:06:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dougie\_monty \* > **Those were owls, Katisha.** True. Though I wasn’t the one who brought up the cartoon in the first place… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057/40 "2002-11-28T08:53:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dougie\_monty \* > \*\*Those were owls, Katisha. > \*\* More specifically: “Owl Jolson” in _I Love to Singa_ (Avery, 1936), a parody of _The Jazz Singer_ (Al Jolson) ( [http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/index.html](http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/index.html) is your friend. Same for Tuco and Nonstick ( [http://www.nonstick.com/](http://www.nonstick.com/) ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-toons-are-making-me-looney-or-old-pop-culture-references-in-wb-cartoons/139057.md?page=3)