Tonight's Wild Wednesday feature is a 1951 cartoon by the master of the absurd, Tex Avery, called "Symphony In Slang."
The story here is that a hipster has died and gone to heaven, and Saint Peter at the Golden Gate can't understand what this guy is talking about!
So he escorts the hep cat over to see Noah Webster of Dictionary fame who died in 1843, to see if he can understand what this poor fellow is talking about, so he can expedite his entrance into the holy gates!
From that point on it's just a series of fast moving gags all based on slang terms, or what are, or were, every day colloquialisms, as the man describes his life in detail, right up to the very end!
These are the images going through Webster's mind as this guy's life story is spit out.
First off, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth!
He got a job because the proprietor was short handed!
He got fired so he went back to his little hole in the wall!
He was beside himself with anger!
He went to Texas to make some dough punching cattle!
He meets a good looking gal named Mary and he's all thumbs!
Mary's clothes fit her like a glove!
She looked mighty pretty with her hair done up in a bun!
Finally, Mary gives him a date!
They go out to eat and he has a cocktail.......
.......And Mary has a Moscow Mule!
Mary let her hair down!
His check bounced and he finds himself in a pickle!
Leaving Mary behind, he runs off and hides in the foothills!
He gets sent to jail and finds himself up against it!
After going through a lot of red tape, he gets sprung from the jug!
A bunch of the boy's were hanging around at Joe's Malt Shop!
He hears through the grapevine that Mary is going around with an old flame!
Years later, when he finally gets back to Mary, she has a bunch of little ones, and he thought it was so funny, he died laughing, and that's how he ended up in heaven!
Um, interesting-looking cartoon, but my main reaction is a cheery "WTF?"
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