Left Turn at Albuquerque
When I left the house this morning I had a plan for my day, and a destination in mind. Really I did. Unlike most days when I roll out of bed and I'm almost immediately flying by the seat of my pants, I knew where I was going and what I was doing. Nothing was going to distract me.
I pretended I didn't see my neighbor bury what looked like a dead body in his back yard. I ignored that big friendly Collie when she came running up to me, barking for help. (Timmy would have to get himself out of the well this time.) I got in my car, turned on the radio just in time to catch Les Nessman's farm report, and headed west.
But then this thing led to that thing and well, you know how it goes. Suddenly I was on the run, being pursued for a crime I didn't commit, so I hid out with a sarcastic little alien who liked to snack on cats but he ratted me out in exchange for his own freedom when the government came looking for him. I escaped, of course, then got myself stranded on what I thought was an uncharted desert island with seven other castaways,,,but so many people kept showing up each week that it felt more like the middle of Times Square. To make a long story short, now I'm three million years into deep space with a senile computer and a hologram of my dead bunk mate and an android who loves to clean toilets.
I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque. Then maybe I could have avoided having to disguise myself as a woman with Tom Hanks and being chased across the countryside with the Duke boys and serving drinks at a bar where everybody knew my name. Well, my fake name, anyway.
Wait a minute. Let's go back to that left I missed in Albuquerque. It is of course one of Bugs Bunny's signature catchphrases, second only to the iconic "What's up, Doc?" Bugs said the line in so many classic Warner Bros. cartoons, shuffled into so many different orders in reruns over the years, that its origin is probably a mystery to you. So let's start there. With the first of all of those missed left turns.
Herr Meets Hare, one of the last major wartime cartoons from Warner Bros./Merrie Melodies, was released less than five months after the death of Adolf Hitler in 1945. The seven minute short begins with a Walter Winchell-like radio report announcing that Nazi leader Hermann Goering may be "soothing his jangled nerves at his hunting lodge." We then see Bugs Bunny popping out of a hole in front of a sign indicating he is in Germany's Black Forest.
"Black Forest, Black Forest," Bugs mutters to himself as he stares at a map of the western United States and scratches his head. Then, for the first time ever: "Say, you know? I knew I shoulda made a left turn at Albuquerque."
Goering points his musket at Bugs, and five and a half minutes of hilarity ensue. Bugs disguises himself as Hitler, Stalin and Brunhilde (from Wagner's opera), and Adolf himself appears near the end, portrayed as almost as much of a buffoon as Goering.
Herr Meets Hare was unofficially banned from broadcast or video distribution for many years on the grounds that it is offensive by today's standards. (Dealing with Nazis in a joking manner is offensive? Well goodbye Hogan's Heroes, 'Allo, 'Allo!, and all of your relatives.) It aired on the Cartoon Network at least once in 2001, on Turner Classic Movies in 2007, and was finally released on DVD in 2008.
On record, credit for the line goes to Michael Maltese, who wrote many of the great WB shorts of the era and later worked for Hanna-Barbera, but its origins may lie in an experience shared by many of Warner's animators. According to various accounts, cartoon director extraordinaire Chuck Jones and/or several colleagues got lost while traveling from the east to Hollywood, and ended up in rural New Mexico. The experience was memorable enough to create an inside joke that eventually became a running gag in Bugs Bunny cartoons. Our favorite wascally wabbit was trying to get to Hollywood (or sometimes Las Vegas) but always got diverted in Albuquerque.
And the confusing intersection in Albuquerque that likely inspired this famous line? According to some, Central Avenue (the famous Route 66) and Rio Grande Boulevard (New Mexico 194).
Yes, I spend way too much time thinking about this kind of stuff.
If you've never seen it, Herr Meets Hare may disappoint if you're too preoccupied with its status as a rare or controversial cartoon. But if you take it at face value (and take into account the time and place in which it was made), you may discover a funny little tune worthy of being restored to its proper place in the classic Merrie Melodies songbook.
I pretended I didn't see my neighbor bury what looked like a dead body in his back yard. I ignored that big friendly Collie when she came running up to me, barking for help. (Timmy would have to get himself out of the well this time.) I got in my car, turned on the radio just in time to catch Les Nessman's farm report, and headed west.
But then this thing led to that thing and well, you know how it goes. Suddenly I was on the run, being pursued for a crime I didn't commit, so I hid out with a sarcastic little alien who liked to snack on cats but he ratted me out in exchange for his own freedom when the government came looking for him. I escaped, of course, then got myself stranded on what I thought was an uncharted desert island with seven other castaways,,,but so many people kept showing up each week that it felt more like the middle of Times Square. To make a long story short, now I'm three million years into deep space with a senile computer and a hologram of my dead bunk mate and an android who loves to clean toilets.
I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque. Then maybe I could have avoided having to disguise myself as a woman with Tom Hanks and being chased across the countryside with the Duke boys and serving drinks at a bar where everybody knew my name. Well, my fake name, anyway.
Wait a minute. Let's go back to that left I missed in Albuquerque. It is of course one of Bugs Bunny's signature catchphrases, second only to the iconic "What's up, Doc?" Bugs said the line in so many classic Warner Bros. cartoons, shuffled into so many different orders in reruns over the years, that its origin is probably a mystery to you. So let's start there. With the first of all of those missed left turns.
Herr Meets Hare, one of the last major wartime cartoons from Warner Bros./Merrie Melodies, was released less than five months after the death of Adolf Hitler in 1945. The seven minute short begins with a Walter Winchell-like radio report announcing that Nazi leader Hermann Goering may be "soothing his jangled nerves at his hunting lodge." We then see Bugs Bunny popping out of a hole in front of a sign indicating he is in Germany's Black Forest.
"Black Forest, Black Forest," Bugs mutters to himself as he stares at a map of the western United States and scratches his head. Then, for the first time ever: "Say, you know? I knew I shoulda made a left turn at Albuquerque."
Goering points his musket at Bugs, and five and a half minutes of hilarity ensue. Bugs disguises himself as Hitler, Stalin and Brunhilde (from Wagner's opera), and Adolf himself appears near the end, portrayed as almost as much of a buffoon as Goering.
Herr Meets Hare was unofficially banned from broadcast or video distribution for many years on the grounds that it is offensive by today's standards. (Dealing with Nazis in a joking manner is offensive? Well goodbye Hogan's Heroes, 'Allo, 'Allo!, and all of your relatives.) It aired on the Cartoon Network at least once in 2001, on Turner Classic Movies in 2007, and was finally released on DVD in 2008.
On record, credit for the line goes to Michael Maltese, who wrote many of the great WB shorts of the era and later worked for Hanna-Barbera, but its origins may lie in an experience shared by many of Warner's animators. According to various accounts, cartoon director extraordinaire Chuck Jones and/or several colleagues got lost while traveling from the east to Hollywood, and ended up in rural New Mexico. The experience was memorable enough to create an inside joke that eventually became a running gag in Bugs Bunny cartoons. Our favorite wascally wabbit was trying to get to Hollywood (or sometimes Las Vegas) but always got diverted in Albuquerque.
And the confusing intersection in Albuquerque that likely inspired this famous line? According to some, Central Avenue (the famous Route 66) and Rio Grande Boulevard (New Mexico 194).
Yes, I spend way too much time thinking about this kind of stuff.
If you've never seen it, Herr Meets Hare may disappoint if you're too preoccupied with its status as a rare or controversial cartoon. But if you take it at face value (and take into account the time and place in which it was made), you may discover a funny little tune worthy of being restored to its proper place in the classic Merrie Melodies songbook.
Comments
Post a Comment