Bugs Bunny announces, "Our Laugh-a-thon is going strong! Call now, operators are standing by!" One such operator is Taz, who is chewing up his desk and telephone in the background.
The line above the Looney Tunes title reads "and away we go!" while a blurb in the upper left, just under the Johnny D.C. character proclaims, "Now with extra pages! More Bugs! More Daffy! More laughs!"
Bugs tries to introduce himself, but is interrupted by Daffy who introduces himself and explains that they're hosting the Night of a Million Laughs Telethon! In twenty-two pages, they'll raise one million laughs to help out people who lack a sense of humor. Daffy immediately launches into his routine of dull jokes. When he finishes, not only is there no applause, but the laugh counter reads minus one.
The telethon style, supposedly having much in the way of entertainment but all in short bits, is set up here. With the exception of the final two stories (probably the "extra pages" advertised on the cover) each story is a single page. Including Pledge Broke, which holds the theme for the comic, there are three three-page stories but in general each page of them could stand on its own.The "Night of a Million..." may be from a real telethon, possibly as "Night of a Million Stars." (EC)Wile E. Coyote poses as a traffic cop and stops Road Runner. The coyote is then run over by an improbable mob of kids. It seems that Road Runner is a crossing guard.
It's unusual to have human involvement in a Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon, but isn't too surpring here. In the very first Coyote and Road Runner cartoon, Fast and Furry-ous (Jones, 1949) Wile E. first used the crossing guard bit. (EC)
The background changes. What is open desert in the second panel is solid rock in the last panel.Foghorn Leghorn tries to tell Egghead Jr. how to draw a cat. Foghorn demonstrates and draws a crude cat face, while Egghead draws Sylvester. When he criticizes the drawing, Sylvester replies with his own critique of Foghorn.
Leonardo Dicaprio is an actor whose most famous role is perhaps as the male lead in the 1997 movie Titanic. Sylvester is getting him confused with Leonarda Da Vinci. (EC)Daffy and Porky are playing a card game. When Daffy tells Porky to "Go fish." the pig does exactly that.
Someone goofed. Daffy's final word should be "threes" rather than "three's." (EC)A proud Mugsy gets to plan a robbery by himself. He successfully robs a bank, but it's a blood bank.
A few men are waiting at a bus stop when several women run by. They wonder what is going on. They don't wonder for long as Pepe Le Pew soon approaches.
One mad scientist visits another and finds that his night's rampage has been cancelled, but not for reasons one might expect. Rather, Gossamer is having a bad hair day.
The mad scientists are from Hair Raising Hare (Jones, 1946) and Water Water Every Hare (Jones, 1952), the former based on Peter Lorre. (EC) While villagers with torches would be expected to ruin a mad scientist's night, it seems strange for excorcists to be a concern. (EC)Bugs is again interrupted by Daffy, who shows Elmer Fudd as the poster boy for the humor impaired. The duck suggests that whoever can make Fudd laugh would be the funniest comedian around. Daffy tells another joke that doesn't work. To Daffy's disgust, Bugs gets a laugh by merely asking his stock question.
Sylvester sings his version of opera, which has Tweety complaining about the noise. The suggests Tweety try earmuffs. The bird does, but the muffs cover Sylvester's head as they are truly Jumbo sized.
Don is masculine (examples: Don Giovanni, Don Corleone), but La is feminine. (EC)Junyer, er, Junior Bear's diving demonstrates that doing well and making a big splash are not always the same thing.
Is WB trying to reform how the young bumbling and bunling bear's name is spelled? It's been "Junyer" for some time, but here it's the more proper (but less funny) "Junior."Mugsy tries to rob Witch Hazel, who takes his request for dough quite literally. Rocky attempts to explain and when he mentions a desire for greenbacks, Hazel is perfectly willing to accomodate the crooks.
The State of the Union Address is announced and Taz appears. He proceeds to chew up the speech and the podium. The announcer explains he made a mistake and that was the Taste of the Union Address.
Foghorn tries to tell Egghead Hr. how to draw a mouse. The rooster again draws a crude mouse, while Egghead draw Speedy Gonzales. When Foghorn criticizes the drawing, Speedy zooms past and leaves the rooster in a bewildered heap.
The mouse that Foghorn draws looks a bit like Hanna-Barbara's Pixie Mouse, complete with bowtie. If that name isn't familiar, perhaps what Mr. Jinks the cat who chased him (and Dixe Mouse) is, "I hate meeces to pieces!" Pixie, Dixie, and Jinks were featured in segments of The Huckleberry Hound Show. (EC)Daffy attempts to play the piano. The audience throws vegetables, but the duck is prepared and catches them with a net. Daffy wasn't really out to make music, he was stocking the salad bar.
Tweety needs his sunglasses repaired, but Granny can't find the glue. Sylvester appears, demonstrating that glue and suntan lotion are not interchangeable.
Marvin has a mundane, and canine, explanation for crop circles.
The puzzled farmer is Porky.Rocky is no longer letting Mugsy plan any crimes. Instead they go to a baseball game. Mugsy then demonstrates why fans should not steal bases.
The stereotypical Irish cop who appears in many Rocky and Mugsy comics appears again here. (EC)Yosemite Sam tells bartender Bugs Bunny to set him up. The rabbit obliges, but not as Sam intended.
Foghorn Leghorn tells Egghead Jr. how to draw a "big, fat turkey." The rooster makes a couple comments about how fat parts of the drawing should be. Foghorn is not amused to find that Egghead has drawn him.
Witch Hazel grades child witches on their ability to conjure dragons. One student produces a disappointingly tiny dragon, but its size does not indicate its power.
Hecate is a name of a charcter in MacBeth. Hecate, or Hekate, is also the name of the Greek Goddess of the crossroads. Rigeletto is the name of an opera. The other magic words are nonsense, though pastafazool is more typically used to sound like Italian nonsense.A waiter regales gophers Mac and Tosh with several hours of tiresome complaints. The gophers made the mistake of asking for the whine list.
While the apostrophe in "D'ont" seems misplaced at first, it's intentional. It brings out the "D'oh!" of a regretted result as popularized by the character Homer Simpson. The waiter is the floorwalker from Hare Conditioned (Jones, 1945) who was based on the radio character the Great Gildersleeve. (EC)Daffy's stand-up routine has the audience snoring with only one page left and almost twenty-thousands still needed. Daffy brings the count up to the needed one million with a performance of zany slapstick.
Once again the zany Daffy proves to be funnier than the non-zany Daffy. Bugs overstates the needed number of laughs. Rather than twenty-thousand, 17,603 are required.This story is a reprint. It was previously published in the October 2000 issue of Looney Tunes (#69) under the same title, Image is Everything.
This story is a reprint. It was previously published in the October 2000 issue of Looney Tunes (#69) under the same title, Lights, Camera, Traction!
Note: The last two stories being reprints, and of relatively recent stories at that, suggests that the need to fill the "extra pages" advertised on the cover came late in the production of this comic. Producing new stories, or even just re-lettering stories published outside the U.S.A., would take time while fully completed U.S. published stories would be about as ready to use as anything could be. It will be interesting to see if the additional pages are continued in future issues and, if they are, to see just what fills those pages. ...PN
* Issue Index * Tabular Issue Index * Story Index * Creative People * Disclaimer *
* Animaniacs Comic Kompendium * Production Index (Text) * Warner Bros. Cartoon Companion *
Last updated 13 November 2004