# Weird references in vintage cartoons **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** cartoons-animation\ **Created:** [April 14, 2021, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944 "2021-04-14T03:30:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [April 14, 2021, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/21 "2021-04-14T14:37:48Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@hogarth](#): > > > > It was a long time before I learned that “Open the Door, Richard” was a popular song at the time. > > Well, it was until just now that I learned that! > > Hollywood Steps Out was the one that got me. Imagine a seven year old in 1968 seeing that one. A pointless (to a kid) parody of celebrities that I’d never heard of, and not funny if you don’t know what is being parodied, and barely funny if you do. I mean, I’ve watched a lot of old movies since then, and I still don’t recognize some of the people. > > [Hollywood Steps Out - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Steps_Out) Yeah, you really need a scorecard with this one! I’m sure it had audiences rolling in the aisles in 1941, though. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2021, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/22 "2021-04-14T14:40:38Z")
One line I found kinda creepy as a child: “What for you bury me in the cold, cold ground?” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/CzDtYJLfA9Q/maxresdefault.jpg "taz cold cold ground") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzDtYJLfA9Q) _Gotta_ be a reference. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/23 "2021-04-14T14:43:31Z")
_All aroun’ de ol’ plantation, hear dat mournful sound!_ _All de d—ies am a-weepin’,_ _Massa’s in de cold, cold ground!_ ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/24 "2021-04-14T14:44:44Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > I don’t think e.g. Ann Margrock on the Flintstones is the same type of thing. Stony Curtis. STONY CURTIS!! ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/25 "2021-04-14T14:46:02Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > It was a long time before I learned that “Open the Door, Richard” was a popular song at the time. I was listening to the '40s station on Sirius XM recently, and to my delight I heard “Open the Door, Richard” for the first time. I also recently heard on the same station “What Do They Do On a Rainy Night in Rio”, which Bugs is playing on the banjo in Long-Haired Hare. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/26 "2021-04-14T14:56:02Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I was listening to the '40s station on Sirius XM recently, and to my delight I heard “Open the Door, Richard” for the first time. I also recently heard on the same station “What Do They Do On a Rainy Night in Rio”, which Bugs is playing on the banjo in Long-Haired Hare. I’m imaging this as a twilight zone episode, and a looney toons fan is the only one that hears this oldies station that only plays songs used in cartoons. > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Stony Curtis. STONY CURTIS!! Perry Masonite. Rock Quarry James Bondrock Alvin Brickrock Superstone! And my favorite TV show, Adamstone-12 ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/27 "2021-04-14T15:03:04Z")
^ Perry Gunite – “Rocks on the rocks. Bartender! put that in a dirty glass!” (No one agrees on the spelling of Gunnite.) Rock Roll – “And Rock is gonna roll with all his might in Bedrock, Twitch! Twitch!” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/28 "2021-04-14T16:14:58Z")
The one that confused me was an early Porky Pig cartoon where a strange figure emerges from a pond and says to Porky “Wanna buy a duck?”. It wasn’t until the age of Google that I finally learned about [Joe Penner](https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/radio-round-up-wanna-buy-a-duck-joe-penner/). ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/29 "2021-04-14T18:07:25Z")
I never understood the popularity of obscure actors like Hugh Herbert in 40’s cartoons. But I suppose it makes as much sense as the popularity of Lego commercial memes on YouTube. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/30 "2021-04-14T18:37:54Z")
They were hardly obscure back then. You might not have known their names right offhand, but you would certainly recognize them as bit players from Three Stooges shorts or tough guys in gangster movies, f’rinstance. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/31 "2021-04-14T19:59:03Z")
From post #1: > [@squeegee](#): > > One that caught me just now was this one: a Tom and Jerry mixup where the radio says there’s an escaped white mouse that will _esplode!_ if mishandled. So of course Jerry dies himself white and messes with Tom. Then the actual white mouse shows up, Tom bampfs it and boom, the city is leveled. Then we get [this scene](https://youtu.be/YqGuxOH4Sg4?t=167) after the explosion. This _has_ to be a reference to something, doesn’t it?!? This note appears under that video: > The phrase “Don’t you believe it!” uttered ghostly a bass voice - a quote from of popular American radio broadcasts of the 1940s. Tom also pronounces the her in a series of “Mouse Trouble”. > > Extremely explosive little mouse is a parody of the atomic bomb. I take mild exception to calling stuff that’s before your time “weird.” 🤨 ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/32 "2021-04-14T20:21:09Z")
“Come up and see me sometime” didn’t mean anything to my seven year old self in the mid 80s. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2021, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/33 "2021-04-14T21:04:22Z")
Most weren’t even that obscure during the 70s when I first saw the cartoons. A lot of them (e.g…, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, and James Stewart) were still alive and active. Others that weren’t like Bogart and Gable, were still recognizable since their movies were still frequently shown on TV. (Keep in mind, these films and cartoons were “only” 30 to 40 years old during the 70s. They were as far removed to me then as stuff from the 80s and 90s is now.) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/34 "2021-04-14T21:24:03Z")
I didn’t know at all who Hugh Herbert was…until I googled. As soon as I saw his face --“Oh, _that_ guy.” ---
**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:** [April 14, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/35 "2021-04-14T21:37:45Z")
A slightly different example: Carroll O’Connor was a relatively unknown actor in 1963, when he was cast as a Roman senator in _ **Cleopatra** _. Audiences watching the movie ten years later invariably laughed when they saw Archie Bunker wearing a toga. I used to drive my mother crazy watching TV in the '70s by always saying “Oh, that guy/chick. He/she was in _ **Star Trek** _!” whether or not I knew their names. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/36 "2021-04-14T21:39:20Z")
I recall a couple of cartoons that revolved around auto races, in which one of the vehicles was a bathtub on wheels being rowed by one or more people\*. The bathtub carried the caption “Floating Power;” it wasn’t until years later that I realized it referred to an [innovation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_Power) which was introduced by Chrysler in the 1930s that reduced engine vibration. \*ETA: Or perhaps the engine was in a bathtub; my recollection is not necessarily crystal-clear. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/37 "2021-04-14T21:49:29Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Most weren’t even that obscure during the 70s when I first saw the cartoons. A lot of them (e.g…, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, and James Stewart) were still alive and active. Others that weren’t like Bogart and Gable, were still recognizable… But this is where I think WB and others made a misstep. If they hadn’t featured “current” celebrities, the cartoons would be timeless. (side note: I remember the first time I heard ‘contemporary’ rock music in an animated movie. My first thought was ‘THIS is not going to age well.’) NARRATOR: “Nooo, it didn’t.” You don’t see Disney having a George Clooney cameo in Moana, or interrupting SOUL by drawing a so-detailed-it-doesn’t-fit-the-style Kim Kardashian in the afterlife… ---
**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:** [April 14, 2021, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/38 "2021-04-14T21:50:48Z")
> [@digs](#): > > You don’t see Disney having a George Clooney cameo in Moana, or interrupting SOUL by drawing a so-detailed-it-doesn’t-fit-the-style Kim Kardashian in the afterlife… I think I might have seen a pop culture reference in an episode of “Family Guy”, though. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/39 "2021-04-14T22:00:10Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Most weren’t even that obscure during the 70s when I first saw the cartoons. For my 7 year old self, if I knew who they were, they weren’t celebrities so much as one liners. Al Jolsen sang Mammy (in blackface no less) and that’s all he ever did. Jimmy Cagney says “you dirty rat”, and that’s it. Jack Benny plays the violin and is a miser. Cary Grant says “Judy, Judy Judy”. Watching too much Rich Little on Hollywood Squares didn’t help my lack of historical knowledge of these former celebrities. 🙂 Humphrey Bogart shows up in a Bugs Bunny cartoon right out of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and if I wasn’t for wikipedia I still wouldn’t know what he was doing, because I still haven’t see it. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2021, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/40 "2021-04-14T22:07:20Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Humphrey Bogart shows up in a Bugs Bunny cartoon right out of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and if I wasn’t for wikipedia I still wouldn’t know what he was doing, because I still haven’t see it. Then you probably didn’t get the line “We don’ need no steenkin’ badges!” in _ **Blazing Saddles** _ either. After she saw _ **Airplane!** _ for the first time, I had to explain to my daughter that she got only half the joke when she laughed at “The old woman who spoke Jive.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944.md?page=3)