# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/61 "2021-04-15T03:16:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > And let’s not forget Robin Williams’ many impersonations in **Aladdin** , which were rendered into cartoon caricatures of Groucho Marx, Peter Lorre, William F. Buckley Jr., Rodney Dangerfield, and Jack Nicholson. Williams bragged that he’d turned a Disney cartoon into a Warner Brothers cartoon, evidently unaware of **Mother Goose Goes Hollywood.** Which reminds me: when Genie pulls out the “there are a few provisos, some quid pro quos” lecture and changes to a different caricature shape, what’s/who’s that referencing? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/62 "2021-04-15T03:23:08Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Which reminds me: when Genie pulls out the “there are a few provisos, some quid pro quos” lecture and changes to a different caricature shape, what’s/who’s that referencing? NM, I see [it’s Buckley](https://youtu.be/l7YexQXPeZo). Why anyone would recognize him from the catchphrase is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/63 "2021-04-15T03:27:04Z")
The old lady is Barbara Billingsly. . ._Leave it to Beaver’s_ mom! ---
**Author:** ![I.Dunno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/64 "2021-04-15T03:27:32Z")
My guess is that she was known for portraying a middle-class, suburban housewife and mother who always wore her pearls and looked ready to head out to a PTA meeting or choir practice. Only drank an occasional glass of wine and always voted Republican. The last person you’d expect to speak jive. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/65 "2021-04-15T03:52:10Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Which reminds me: when Genie pulls out the “there are a few provisos, some quid pro quos” lecture and changes to a different caricature shape, what’s/who’s that referencing? That’s the William F. Buckley imitation I mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/66 "2021-04-15T04:05:27Z")
Also the the "don’t you believe it " phrase was used in a radio horrorish twilight zone prototype called harumn scarrum… they played it right at the end of the broadcast so "people wouldn’t be scared " the funny thing you also have to remember is sometimes the cartoons played right before a movie the parodied actors were starring in or in some cases the movie its self …in the what’s up doc documentary there was a story about a tough guy actor warner’s had that they parodied endlessly (and they were getting mean about it ) the actor went up to termite terrace and threatened to pound all the animators if they didn’t knock it off … ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/67 "2021-04-15T11:03:20Z")
The cartoons _Aviation Vacation_ and _Magical Maestro_ by Tex Avery have segments where it appears that a hair has gotten caught in the projector. It dances across the screen, side to side and up and down. The payoff is that one of the characters in each cartoon finally reaches out, grabs the hair, and throws it away. There’s a story that projectionists across the country were going mad trying to clear that hair out of the projection mechanism - until they finally caught on that it was part of the cartoon. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/68 "2021-04-15T15:04:44Z")
‘Scoots’ in Cattanooga Cats used to exclaim, ‘Wavy chitlin gravy!’ I had no idea who Wavy Gravy was, or that the exclamation was a play on his name. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/69 "2021-04-15T15:12:43Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > A very young Robert Blake (aka “Beretta”), if I recall correctly. Or are you thinking of someone else? John Huston was the American tourist in the white suit. ---
**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 15, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/70 "2021-04-15T16:03:08Z")
Correct. When the movie came out in 1980, everybody in the theater my age or older laughed when she appeared and said “Hey! That’s Beaver’s mom! And she’s speaking _Jive_!” June Cleaver was the perfect 1950s American housewife, and yes, she did wear a nice dress and a string of pearls\* while she did housework. \*According to Jerry “The Beav” Mathers, this was because Barbara was very thin, and under the studio lights she had a shadow on her throat that made it look as though she had had a tracheotomy. The pearls covered up the shadow. ---
**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 15, 2021, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/71 "2021-04-15T16:09:56Z")
You would have had to have seen him on TV to get the joke. He hosted a political talk show called _ **Firing Line** _ where he interviewed guests in precisely that manner with his upper-class Eastern accent. He was known for appearing on other talk shows as well, like Dick Cavett’s and Johnny Carson’s. ---
**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 15, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/72 "2021-04-15T16:13:47Z")
I don’t think June and Ward Cleaver ever touched anything stronger than black coffee. They always drank it at dinner while “the boys” (Wally and Beaver) had milk. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2021, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/73 "2021-04-15T16:35:01Z")
I remember a Woody Woodpecker cartoon where his nemesis (don’t remember if it was Buzz Buzzard, Wally Walrus, or one of the one-shot characters) held up a sign saying “This shouldn’t happen to a dog (crossed out) woodpecker.” ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/74 "2021-04-15T18:14:10Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > This shouldn’t happen to a dog (crossed out) woodpecker. Perhaps [this film](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Shouldn%27t_Happen_to_a_Dog) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/75 "2021-04-15T18:24:55Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > and yes, she did wear… a string of pearls **\*snerk\*** ---
**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 15, 2021, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/76 "2021-04-15T18:30:35Z")
… And yes, Ward was sometimes hard on the Beaver. 🤭 ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/77 "2021-04-15T19:40:39Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > And let’s not forget Robin Williams’ many impersonations in **Aladdin** , which were rendered into cartoon caricatures of Groucho Marx, Peter Lorre, William F. Buckley Jr., Rodney Dangerfield, and Jack Nicholson. Williams bragged that he’d turned a Disney cartoon into a Warner Brothers cartoon, evidently unaware of **Mother Goose Goes Hollywood.** I saw some sort of compilation of Robin Williams’ work recently, and the host quoted the director of **Aladdin** (or somebody important to the film) as saying all the impersonations were ad-libs by Williams. In other words, the script just called for Williams to say specific lines, but Williams decided while recording to modify or change the lines and to do them as impersonations. The director (or whoever) said they had him booked for four hours of voice work, but it took longer than they planned because the sound / booth crew was laughing a lot of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/78 "2021-04-15T19:47:21Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > You would have had to have seen him on TV to get the joke. He hosted a political talk show called _ **Firing Line** _ where he interviewed guests in precisely that manner with his upper-class Eastern accent. > > He was known for appearing on other talk shows as well, like Dick Cavett’s and Johnny Carson’s. Plus he was well known for his use of esoteric vocabulary, which was where “proviso” came from. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/79 "2021-04-15T19:49:34Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > There’s one cartoon (probably a Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck) where the hero gets a whiff of the bad guy and goes “Beeee-Ohhhhh!” with a foghorn-like effect. > > This meme would have been instantly recognizable to radio listeners back in the '40s, since it was used in commercials for Lifebuoy soap. I remember people still using it when I was a wee lad in the late '50s and early '60s. Also used by Spike Jones in his classic records. He put in many references to current ads, like “don’t be half safe” and “call for you know who…” ---
**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:** [April 15, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944/80 "2021-04-15T19:49:46Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > > [@P-man](#): > > > > This shouldn’t happen to a dog (crossed out) woodpecker. > > Perhaps [this film](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Shouldn%27t_Happen_to_a_Dog) No. It was a common phrase long before that. Just as a data point, Universal’s newsreel after the atomic bomb was dropped (a year before the file) used the phrase. I’m seeing quotes from 1937. It’s not a reference to anything. It was just a common phrase. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-references-in-vintage-cartoons/939944.md?page=5)