Symphony in Slang

More cleverness from Tex Avery, this one involving wordplay. After a brief setup that has a hipster showing up at the Pearly Gates in Heaven and speaking in a way that makes St. Peter seek out Noah Webster for help, a string of roughly 95 visual puns follow, a breakneck speed of one every four seconds or so. The man tells his life story and in every clause of every sentence we see a clip of what the words could mean if taken literally. "I was beside myself with anger," he says, and we two of him sitting there, with a fiery red fellow labeled "anger." Some of them are pretty corny but there's no time to groan because it's on to the next one, something I liked about it. Light and playful fun.

A jitterbugger shows up at the Pearly Gates, and tries to tell St. Peter the story of his life. But he speaks only in slang, which Peter interprets literally.

It's a very nice example of Tex Avery's ability to fill a cartoon with so many gags that you can't help but laugh. Some are good, some are unremarkable, some are very funny, but the sheer volume keeps you laughing throughout.

Like many of Avery's cartoons, you get the impression that the structure of the story is determined by the fact this is a six-minute cartoon, and he could keep it up for hours on end.

This cartoon is typical of Tex Avery in that there are a lot of sight gags, but is atypical in that the running monologue is as important to the humor as the sight gags are. Avery cartoons tend to be more weighted towards visual gags and placed less emphasis on verbal humor, but the premise of the short-how slang would seem to someone who didn't understand what was meant-required a more verbally oriented approach. In less rational moments, I wonder what Avery would make of some modern expressions. Then I go lie down until the feeling goes away. Recommended.

I had first seen this Tex Avery cartoon from M-G-M on the Tom & Jerry show on weekday afternoons during the late '70s. In this one, a man enters Heaven puzzling St. Peter and Noah Webster with his various slang terms when telling his life story. I'll just now say that the literal gags come fast and furious with each slang word the guy mentions and one would have to watch this cartoon more than once to get all of them! Anyway, this was one of the most hilarious of Avery's shorts I've ever seen! So on that note, Symphony in Slang is highly recommended.

Rich Hogan and Tex Avery took on cliches and catchphrases in this highly stylized 1951 short on a happy-go-lucky guy who must explain his life story to Angel Webster before being admitted to the hereafter.

The humor comes from the hipster's use of cliches and catchphrases that are hilariously given literal illustration by Avery and company, from getting up with the chickens, slinging hash, being shorthanded, and so forth. The cartoon is not only a masterpiece of visual description, it is a landmark experiment in limited animation, uncharacteristic of Avery for that time as he uses still poses to extract laughs, notably the shorthanded cook, chewing the rag, and going through red tape.

You'll be beside yourself with anger at first, but hotfoot it to see how slang will make you die laughing, even if the cat has your tongue.