Release date: July 17th, 1937
Series: Merrie Melodies
Director: Tex Avery
Starring: Mel Blanc (Egghead), Tex Avery (Red, Cowboys), Billy Bletcher (Clerk, Egghead), Sons of the Pioneers (Singers), Danny Webb (Foreman, Egghead)
Tex Avery would debut a whopping 3 characters in 1937: Daffy, Egghead, and Elmer. But, with Tex, he’s gotta keep it interesting, and the confusion between the last two characters is certainly interesting history. Out of confusion or just simplicity (because “Egghead” is much less of a mouthful than “prototype Elmer Fudd”), many fans refer to the proto-Fudd as Egghead, believing that he later evolved into Elmer Fudd.
That, however, is not true. Egghead and Elmer are entirely independent characters. Egghead has open eyes and USUALLY has hair (here is an exception), and is voiced by Danny Webb (again, an exception is made here… mostly.) Elmer has closed eyes, wears a derby hat, and is voiced by Mel Blanc for the most part (Danny Webb voices him in Cinderella Meets Fella, further confusing matters). To save space, I made it so that you can read more about the difference between the two here. Interesting history indeed!
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| Model sheet of Egghead. |
For even more interesting history, this is Irv Spence’s first animation credit, and Paul Smith’s first cartoon in the Avery unit, moving over from the Freleng unit. Spence would depart for MGM in 1938, whereas Smith would stay with Avery until 1940, where he would head off to Walter Lantz.
Egghead is eager to become a “rootin’, tootin’, shootin’, snootin’, high falutin’, tootin’, shootin’, rootin’, tootin’ cowboy”, much to the bewilderment of his peers. To prove himself worthy, he goes on a dangerous, treacherous quest only the most worthy could conquer: wrangling an innocent little calf.
Mel Blanc’s over-enthusiastic cries of “YIPEE! WAHOO! GET ALONG, LITTLE DOGGIE, GET ALONG!” paired with Irv Spence’s loony animation collide to open the cartoon. Our hero, the eponymous Egghead, bucks back and forth on his trusty (off-screen) steed against a western panorama. That is, until a pan out reveals that our cantankerous cowhand is actually hopping wildly back and forth on a pogo stick, cleverly situated in front of his comically enlarged calendar. A great, classic fake-out, enhanced by Mel’s energetic shrieks and spence’s spastic animation.
Egghead resides in a boarding house, a space unfit for maintaining his wildest cowboy dreams. All of the commotion reaches the lobby of the boarding house, disturbing the landlord, voiced by Billy Bletcher. The landlord isn’t at all keen on Egghead's racket and literally throws him to the street–Bletcher’s monologue is nothing short of hilarious as he rambles on all the way through, from initially hearing Egghead’s noise to throwing him out. “Well, dadburn that dadburn noise, dadburnit! I’ll put a stop to that, dadburnit. Dadburnit, the dadburn boardin’ house ain’t no dadburn place to play dadburn cowboy! Now get out and stay out, dadburnit! …burnit… n… burnit—I mean, dadburnit!”
As Egghead collects himself, his daze is cut short by the book so conveniently sprawled out in front of him, among other belongings. A book of job offerings has conveniently flipped open–fortune seems to smile upon our hero:
Some more fun Irv Spence animation as Egghead rips the paper out of the book, his bulbous nose prodding the page as he scans the words, too good to be true. “Buck Egghead rides again!” our protagonist declares, waving his hat around in celebration.
We receive a brief little montage of Egghead traipsing towards the post office, writing the fated address out on the envelope. We don’t see the contents inside the envelope, only animation of egghead walking into the post office and writing on the envelope off-screen–a great way to build suspense.
"Home on the Range" is yodeled by a group of cowboys in conjunction with a well-executed multi-plane pan (Tex has used this technique before–I Love to Singa comes to mind) of Bar-None Ranch in Wahoo, Wyoming. The shot exposing the singing cowboys is structured quite similarly to the shots of the barbershop quartet singing in Tex’s directorial debut, Gold Diggers of ‘49, albeit the animation is slightly more exaggerated, with the necks of the cowboys extending on their held out note. The cowboy strumming the guitar appears to be a caricature of Paul Smith (though I’d also take this with a grain of salt.) Many portions of this cartoon have Avery-isms of both past and future shorts–certainly fun to dissect!
Great gag setup as the “leader” of the ranch gazes out of his window from inside, traipsing out the door, which is comically fitted to match his wide gait. He alerts his band of singing cowboys to the approach of the pony express–sure enough, the words PONY EXPRESS are emblazoned on some sort of object concealed by an iris. Iris in to a horse pulling a trailer, the self-titled pony express, with a triumphant fanfare to boot.
Nonstop gags are to be expected in a Tex Avery cartoon, but that doesn’t make the constant amount of punches any less amusing. The leader declares “C’mon, boys! In ya saddles! Let’s ride out and meet the man!”
With that, all of the cowboys whoop and holler as they all jump on their horses. They take off… and move about 2 inches forward until they all halt and reach their destination. It’s a gag tried and true used in many cartoons, but the execution is just as satisfying here as it is in the others.
The horse comes to a halt, a chipper pony express “rider” emerging from the trailer to hand the boys their envelope before heading off again. As to be expected, it’s none other than Egghead’s letter. EXCELLENT gag payoff as we finally see the contents of the envelope after minutes of gut-wrenching suspense: Egghead himself flops out of the letter and onto the ground. The matter-of-factness and sincerity of the entire gag sell the whole thing.
Once again, Irv Spence is at the hand of egghead’s introduction, which can hardly be summed up in greatness: Mel Blanc, Billy Bletcher, and Danny Webb all contribute to his vocals. Mel Blanc gives the tongue tied, squeaky, Daffy-esque voice of “i’s a rootin’, tootin’, shootin’, snootin’, high falutin’, tootin’, shootin’, rootin’, tootin’ cowboy, fella! And I saw your ad, so I came for the job.” Billy Bletcher’s booming baritone takes over, the juxtaposition absolutely bludgeoning as he belts out “because, because, because, because…!” finally, Danny Webb takes over for the finale, imitating the squeaky voice of a teenage boy going through puberty–”today, I am a maaaaan”, lampooning the traditional declaration given by young men at their bar mitzvah, marking their introduction to adulthood. This line would be reused in another Avery entry, I Wanna Be a Sailor, just a few months later. The gag is topped off by Egghead proudly puffing out his chest and struggling to keep his pants on. Three great voice actors, great lines, and super fun animation, it’s hard to go wrong! The Mel Blanc/Danny Webb Elmer/Egghead conundrum ensues.
The lead cowboy decides to test Egghead and see if he’s a worthy addition, enlisting in his buddy Red for help. Red (voiced by Tex Avery himself) squeals “OKAY, BOSS!” in a super high, grating, squeaky voice, a jab at famous western star Andy Devine, lampooned more than once for his raspy vocals–Tedd pierce would also harp on Devine with his portrayal of a squeaky voiced pig in Friz Freleng’s My Little Buckaroo just a year later.
Per the leader’s request, Red rolls a cigarette with just his mouth (with a lot of fun, eye-crossing animation provided by Irv Spence yet again), proudly sticking the cigarette out of his maw, lit and all, giving a self-satisfied grin towards the audience. The lead cowboy demonstrates his love of safety and concern for his friends’ well being as he whips out a pistol, giving it a good twirl before shooting right at the cigarette.
Red is unscathed, his cigarette now split in half as a result. “Now here, you try, pardner,” the cowboy urges on Egghead. Egghead gives a polite nod and tip of the hat before reaching for the gun, the weight of the gun bringing egghead falling to the ground beneath its weight. Once more, Red prepares to roll another cigarett
e, this time a corn cob pipe (
Morbidly (yet hilariously so), Egghead struggles with the gun but manages to fire. Predictably, he misses–shooting straight at Red. Wonderful setup as a floating hat and boots are all we see after the cloud of smoke dissipates. Red assures he’s okay by waving a white flag from the recesses of his hat, his whole body dropping out of the hat and running away. His cowboy hat is still suspended in mid-air, and for the cherry on top, he darts on screen for a mere second more to retrieve his hat, a gag borrowed from Picador Porky. Simultaneously predictable yet not, with some wonderfully fluid animation and great timing.
Egghead is now the laughing stock of Bar-None Ranch. The leader, however, is a bit more forgiving, ordering his guffawing cronies to wrangle a calf and see what Egghead can “do with it.” next act of redemption is a cruel one: the leader hands Egghead a branding iron and instructs the novice to brand the poor little calf. Despite the cruel nature of the gag, the audience is already alerted that Egghead’s attempts to redeem himself will be laughable and in vain.
The shot of Egghead galloping along with the hot iron is strikingly similar in comparison to Porky trotting along with a red-hot horse shoe in The Village Smithy, both shots awfully foreboding in the “this isn’t going to go well” sense.
Egghead’s victim, a terrified little calf, attempts to escape the clutches of the cowboys wrangling it, but it seems the calf has been defeated. Egghead dives into the crowd, and a puff of smoke obscures the action going on… once the smoke clears, we see that Egghead has branded his fellow cowboys instead, the calf unharmed, trotting away with its tail proudly in the air (in a very similar manner to the bull(s) in Picador Porky.)
Now, the leader orders Egghead to go after the calf. If he gets it, he gets the job. Thus launches another Tex Avery staple gag–egghead hops into a crowd of horses, emerging out of the gaggle on a diminutive little pony instead (with a score of “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” to boot–Carl Stalling must have been quite eager to use the composition now that he could.) The same gag would be used in a number of other cartoons, the 1946 Avery droopy cartoon Northwest Hounded Police coming to mind.
We’re treated with some refreshingly dimensional, rather Tashlin-esque dynamics and angles as the calf leaps and bounds over a number of fences, with Egghead hot on its trail, screeching another victorious call of “Egghead rides again… and again… and again! And another time!” The animation is very well executed and tastefully dynamic.
Momentum of the chase is purposefully broken as both the calf and Egghead begrudgingly screech to a halt, obeying the rules of the road as they wait at a stop sign before resuming the chase again. Another Avery-ism–purposefully stopping in the middle of a chase for a “breather” gag.
In an attempt to fake-out the clueless cowboy, the calf enlists in the aid of cartoon physics to save its hide (literally) as it crawls beneath a cliff and stands upside down, right on the edge. Egghead saunters on past, much to the glee of the little calf. Yet, Egghead realizes he’s been foiled, and we get some more wonderfully dynamic and cartoony animation as the horse whips around, sending Egghead slingshotting around from the background to the foreground, positioned on the horse the entire time. Treg Brown’s electric guitar twang/slide effect enhances the gag nicely.
Realizing its pursuers are still coming in hot, the calf slides to the edge of another cliff (this time accompanied by a less suitable violin slide sound effect) before scampering down the edge in a last minute effort to escape. Egghead and his trusty steed screech to a halt, peering down over the edge of the cliff. The gags just keep on coming–in more Tex Avery greatness, the horse takes a rather conveniently situated set of stairs carved into the side of the cliff, its complacent grin and dainty little descent topping off the gag.
A Carl Stalling favorite, “In the Stirrups”, accompanies the wild goose chase between the calf and Egghead as the two run over hill and dale through the beautifully painted landscape. Yet another Avery-ism—a wide, distance shot of mayhem unfolding on screen. Against all odds, egghead manages to herd the terrified, exhausted calf back in its own. It seems Egghead actually DOES ride again! He approaches the cornered calf (using the same high pitched Daffy croon in a stark future parallel to Porky’s Last Stand), and, once more, a ball of smoke obscures the action unfolding.
Instead of a terrified calf wrangled up in a ball, we’re greeted with a cow-tied Egghead, with the calf shaking its little fists in the glory. Once more, this causes the cowboy cronies to erupt in a uproarious fit of laughter.
With great effort, a heartbroken, dejected Egghead manages to produce exactly one (1) tear, reflecting his tremendous heartache. Once more, Irv Spence is responsible for the close-up, a very funny one indeed. Those wrinkles are almost Scribner-ian.
A dejected Egghead trudges past the cowboys, their mocking laughter definitely stinging, even if it’s directed towards someone who is hardly endearing such as Egghead himself. Thankfully, the all too forgiving leader consoles egghead (offhandedly mocking his diminutive stature in the process), saying that he’s finally in.
To Egghead, it’s too good to be true—and a happy ending in an Avery cartoon is definitely too good to be true indeed. Wonderful animation as the leader swaps Egghead’s cowboy hat out for a pith helmet, thrusting a trashcan in his grip. Egghead now gets the honors of being the street sweeper (to put it politely), an ending reminiscent of the classic Drip-Along Daffy. The Egghead/Daffy parallels keep on coming!
Tex closes with a final bang: as Egghead cries “Buck Egghead…!”, the whinnying of a horse grounds the chipper street sweeper into reality, reminded of his duties. His exuberance melts into disdain, the triumphant backing score backing down in favor of a mournful violin as our hero grumbles “…sweeps again.” Iris out.
This review is full of praises for the gags and the animation in the cartoon, which are both very good. However, with that said, is this the best Tex Avery entry? Not at all. Is this a bad entry? Not at all. For someone like me who’s endured the Bosko, Buddy, and even Beans eras, this cartoon is like Heaven sent—for the average viewer who is more acquainted with Tex’s future masterpieces at WB and later MGM, this is definitely a step down from his greatest.
Irv Spence’s animation shines bright in this cartoon and is certainly the highlight, which is both good and bad. It highlights his work and allows him to make a name for himself, but he also puts the other animators at the Avery unit to shame. Bob Clampett's and Chuck Jones’ absences are certainly felt—Virgil Ross is another star of the Avery unit, Sid Sutherland can be difficult to discern, and Paul Smith’s animation is seldom exciting, so consequently the animation can sometimes look rather poor when it isn’t a Spence scene. Nevertheless, his work is definitely something to look out for.
The gags are amusing, some more predictable than others, but definitely amusing. Egghead isn’t a very endearing character—they did a great job of making him obnoxious—but Mel’s vocals (and technically Billy Bletcher’s and Danny Webb’s) breathe lots of life and vivacity into the character. Really, his voice is just Daffy Duck’s voice of the '30s (though a bit less spitty.) That whole “I am a man” sequence is nothing short of hilarious.
In short, not one of Tex’s best, and one that you could both skip or watch. I lean more towards the “give it a watch” side, for the historical significance of Egghead’s debut, but also for shining moments such as Irv Spence’s wild character animation and some of the gags. This cartoon doesn’t have the same energy that previous entries such as Porky’s Duck Hunt (and even Uncle Tom’s Bungalow, all things considered) uphold, but if you’re Tex Avery, that is one difficult flame to maintain, one that would sometimes burn out. In this era of Avery cartoons, the flame has certainly calmed down, but it’ll reignite for the 1938-1939 season at least. So, in all, amusing short with bits of greatness to it (and historical significance) that leads me to give it a recommendation.
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