Marijuana in classic cartoons

[Isaac]

Hi everyone, let me start by saying I don't know hardly anything about cartoons so any info you can provide will be very useful to me. I'm a historian researching the history of marijuana in North America (especially Mexico) and this whole Speedy Gonzalez controversy got me wondering if there are any references to marijuana smoking in old Speedy or other cartoons? In the early 20th century it was quite commonly believed that marijuana was a "Mexican" drug and much of the anti-marijuana propaganda of those years made this connection between Mexicans and the so-called "loco weed". I know there's lots of drunkenness in Speedy cartoons (though I haven't seen one in years) but has anyone every seen any reference made to marijuana? How about in any other old cartoons? Thanks in advance for any info you all can provide.

[Matthew Hunter]

Only two that I know of, and both are not really meant to be 'drug humor'. Speedy Gonzales sings "La Cucaracha" several times in cartoons, and in one, "Gonzales Tamales" (1958 I believe) Speedy sings the true lyrics most of the way through...including a line "Por que no tiene marijuana par fumar." In "Mexican Boarders" (1962) Speedy's cousin Slow Poke Rodriguez sings the same song, and, whether as intended humor or not, Slow Poke is very hungry in this one.
-Matthew

[Nelson]

The first cartoon to deal with Marijuana refrences was the 1933 MGM/Flip The Frog cartoon, "Chinaman's Chance".In the short. we have Flip who is hired to track down a criminal who hides out in Chinatown and Flip goes through hideout to another to track down the bad guy.One of the scenes has Flip walking into an darkened opium den, in which he picks up a smoke pipe (which is laced with marijuana) smells the pipe and starts to smoke up.

By this time Flip winds up very stoned doing flips and dancing, in this cartoon and he's an officer in this cartoon.When Flip catches up with the crook he's so stoned that he looks at him and then Flip thinks he's a very sexy asian girl and jumps right into his arms stroking his shoulder until the crook slams him to the ground.This cartoon is banned for racial sterotypes, but it's major "Cult" classic among modern cartoon fans today!

[Thad Komorowski]

Gee, Nelson, I didn't know that happened in "Chinaman's Chance"! I'll have to watch it, next time I go through my tapes.


-Thad

[Nelson]

Thad..."Chinaman's Chance" could NEVER be shown on televison today with references towards drug use and racial stereotypes, but this is a great cartoon to watch.So see for yourself Thad and tell me what you think when you see this cartoon. :)

[Daffyfan2002]

I'm probably going to regret starting a conversation about this, but it is rumored that "Scooby-Doo" had hints of marijuana. I mean, Scooby Snacks; ghosts, hallucinations; and what do they put in those Scooby Snacks? If they're just dog biscuits how come Shaggy eats them too? Sorry to get back on the Sc---- - D-- subject, but I was just answering Nelson's question.

[lislebartman]

Originally posted by Matthew Hunter
Speedy Gonzales sings "La Cucaracha" several times in cartoons, and in one, "Gonzales Tamales" (1958 I believe) Speedy sings the true lyrics most of the way through...including a line "Por que no tiene marijuana par fumar."
-Matthew

I remember when CN broadcast "Gonzales' Tamales". As if being time-compressed was bad enough, that whole line that you qouted was looped with another lyric from the same song, obliterating any mention of the wacky tabackky!

[Thad Komorowski]

Yeah, that's a big rumor about Scooby Doo. In fact, I found a site listing the TOP 5 CARTOON CHARACTERS ON CRACK.

I don't recall all five, but I DO remember the number one character being Shaggy off of Scooby-Doo. There was also Olive Oyl, Daffy Duck, and Yogi Bear... :rolleyes:


-Thad

[Paul Penna]

Daffy's Danny Kaye routine in "Book Revue" has a rather large hint: following his rendition of "Cucaracha," a song whose full lyrics contain an explicit marijuana reference, with a quote from the Lucky Strike cigarette ad, "so round, so firm, fo fully-packed, so easy on the draw." And we all know the most popular method of Cannabis sativa consumption, don't we?

No, wait your turn, Alice...

[Larry T]

I know it's not a reference to marijuana per se, but in MGMs "Swing Wedding" one of the last frogs near the end of the cartoon breaks apart his trombone until he's left with a little piece from the fingering keys which kind of resembles a needle, then pokes it into his arm right where someone might jam a hypodermic needle in the same fashion-

He's then seen going absolutely haywire, jumping through a drum on the way out of the scene.....

[song cycle]

Originally posted by Daffyfan2002
I'm probably going to regret starting a conversation about this, but it is rumored that "Scooby-Doo" had hints of marijuana. I mean, Scooby Snacks; ghosts, hallucinations; and what do they put in those Scooby Snacks? If they're just dog biscuits how come Shaggy eats them too? Sorry to get back on the Sc---- - D-- subject, but I was just answering Nelson's question.

I read somewhere that in the early episodes of Scooby-Doo, only Shaggy has conversations with Scooby. I don't know if this is true but only Shaggy thinking that Scooby could talk would have been a decent running gag in an otherwise crappy cartoon (sorry Scooby fans).

[Matt Yorston]

Also, in the 1955 cartoon, "Jumpin' Jupiter!", when a panic-stricken Sylvester rushes into Porky's tent, Porky, now startled, exclaims, "Sylvester, have you been eatin' loco weed?"

[Isaac]

Originally posted by Nelson
The first cartoon to deal with Marijuana refrences was the 1933 MGM/Flip The Frog cartoon, "Chinaman's Chance".In the short. we have Flip who is hired to track down a criminal who hides out in Chinatown and Flip goes through hideout to another to track down the bad guy.One of the scenes has Flip walking into an darkened opium den, in which he picks up a smoke pipe (which is laced with marijuana) smells the pipe and starts to smoke up.

Do they say explicitly that it's marijuana? How do you know it isn't opium? That would make a lot more sense with the connection to the Chinese. BTW, thanks a lot for the info. This is great!

[Isaac]

Originally posted by Matthew Hunter
) Speedy's cousin Slow Poke Rodriguez sings the same song, and, whether as intended humor or not, Slow Poke is very hungry in this one.
-Matthew [/B]

What's the deal with this Slow Poke character? Do you think he's supposed to be stoned? And who writes this stuff? Is there a main guy who did the Speedy Cartoons or are we talking about a number of staff writers? Is it clear who wrote each episode? If so it seems like I could just track the guy down and ask him. Sorry for my ignorance.

[Jack]

Originally posted by Isaac


What's the deal with this Slow Poke character? Do you think he's supposed to be stoned? And who writes this stuff? Is there a main guy who did the Speedy Cartoons or are we talking about a number of staff writers? Is it clear who wrote each episode? If so it seems like I could just track the guy down and ask him. Sorry for my ignorance.
The credits tell you who wrote every cartoon, but I think both Warren Foster and John Dunn are dead. As is Friz Freleng (who directed those two cartoons).


Jack :D

[Greg Method]

Originally posted by Isaac
What's the deal with this Slow Poke character? Do you think he's supposed to be stoned?

I highly doubt that was the intention. He was created just so that there would be a comedic opposite to Speedy (in fact, essentially he was created as an ending gag for the cartoon "Mexicali Shmoes").

His voice and desire to eat didn't come about until his second appearance in "Mexican Boarders." And even then, I wouldn't say he had "the munchies."

I know there are all these rumors about Scooby and Shaggy (and it's terribly inappropriate that the upcoming movie supposedly plays along with the speculation), but I think one would have to really strain their eyes to see anything in Slowpoke.

[PorkyandDaffy]

There was also Olive Oyl, Daffy Duck, and Yogi Bear...

Scooby and Shaggy I can understand, but Daffy Duck? He's not high, just loony and crazy. Olive Oyl, I have no idea how they got that idea from her. And Yogi Bear - why, just because he's hungry a lot?

[Nelson]

Isaac- In "Chinaman's Chance" Flip The Frog does indeed smoke marijuana as for fans that have seen this cartoon will be back me up on this.The funniest moment is once he gets very high, the screen starts tog get blurry as Flip's eyes are droopy and he keeps on smiling and doing cartwheels through the marijuana smoke rings as the screen tilts (great camera animated scene) from one side to the other.

[Cartman]

I know this is not related to marijuana, but what about Popeye. There must be more in those cans than just spinach. And look at his oversize arms.

[Sogturtle]

Originally posted by Isaac


What's the deal with this Slow Poke character? Do you think he's supposed to be stoned? And who writes this stuff? Is there a main guy who did the Speedy Cartoons or are we talking about a number of staff writers? Is it clear who wrote each episode? If so it seems like I could just track the guy down and ask him. Sorry for my ignorance.

Isaac~

Slow Poke Rodriguez was simply the "Point/Counterpoint" character to Speedy Gonzalez, as the slowest mouse in all Mexico to the fastest mouse in all Mexico. I guess if we were to believe that Slowpoke was stoned on pot then we would similarly believe that Speedy was speeding on Speed :D. And the odds of them really intending it to be drug-humor are infinitismal (actor Robert Mitchum was arrested for pot in the late 1940's, but took years to escape the notoriery, the animators did not need such trouble...)Directors Friz Freleng and Bob McKimson alternated making the cartoons. The authorship of each Warner's cartoon is essentially a collaboration between the director and the credited writer(s), and it is believed though that some of the McKimson cartoons of the Fifties were regagged by Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng. As Jack intimated all of the involved individuals are (regrettably) quite dead, storyman Warren Foster 3 decades ago, McKimson 25 years back, Freleng in the mid-Nineties, Chuck Jones one month ago.

For a cartoon with drug references in the song lyric check out Fleischer's Betty Boop cartoon "Minnie The Moocher" ("really loves to kick the gong around"). The cartoon itself is quite surreal, though it's real director (Willard Bowsky) was known to be morally extremely upright and straightforward, (though quite possibly anti-Semitic). A verrrrrry unlikely sort to be smoking dope...

(I've told this before but...) The most extreme drug-reference cartoon EVER made was a pirate cartoon called "RABBIT HABIT". (Warner Brothers did not make, sanction or license this monstrosity!!). This diseased outing (horribly directed, and disastorously animated) starred Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd etc. There is nothing more weird and perverse than seeing your beloved cartoon heroes sitting around smoking dope, and shooting up on cocaine and heroin (till it's time for Daffy to pay up his local pusher!!). Definitely not for any child!!! But mercifully, as horrible as the film turned out, it is a virtual advertisement against the very-real evils of drug consumption!!!

[Joe Tully]

Originally posted by Cartman
I know this is not related to marijuana, but what about Popeye. There must be more in those cans than just spinach. And look at his oversize arms.

Very doubtful. Popeye and his oversized arms were around in comics for a long time before spinach was added to the equation. And in the comics, spinach wasn't around anywhere near as much as it was in the cartoons. Like with Scooby Doo, I think that this is a case of fans' coming up with whatever idea amuses them and sticking with it without trying to prove or disprove it with facts, just because the idea amuses them.

[Larry T]

Also, in the Lantz cartoon, "Bathing Buddies", one of the things Wally has on his list of items prohibited by tenants to practice is, "No Opium Smoking".

In addition, in "Knock Knock", one of the horses on Mr. Panda's roster is named "Opium" ("This one is a dope").... :p

[Daffyfan2002]

I thought of something else in this category. Actually, this is more of a video game, but it has been made into a cartoon. How about "Super Mario Bros." I mean, mushrooms that make you turn into a giant? Leaves that make you think you're a racoon that can fly? I thought I'd add that to the list.

[Patrick McCart]

Yellow Submarine has a handful of pot references (such as John smoking the word "GLOVE" which then turns into "LOVE via ash falling off.

It's not entirely on-topic, but the entire movie probably was made under the influence. (But is the best non-Disney animated movie, IMO.)

[don Jaime]

Couple of points - you'd smoke opium in an opium den. I doubt they'd even have marijuana in a turn of the century opium den.

And locoweed is an actual plant, related to the pea. It's fairly common in the West, where it's eaten by pasture animals. The active ingredient, swainsonine, affects the nervous system of horses, cows, and sheep, making them disoriented. "Locoism" involves staggering, circling, and drooling. It'll also stunt growth. There's not a lot of studies based on it, and as near as I can tell, no humans have ever tried it.

[Matthew Hunter]

Sccooby Doo's humor, I think, may have been unintentional in the beginning. (I would Doubt that Hanna and Barbera would have thought this up, and as I recall the first three episodes or so don't have this concept). However, there does seem to be a lot of evidence that the animators may have seen the double entendre forming and made it a subtext. It's kind of hard not to think Shaggy is stoned after eating the Scooby Snacks, and perhaps the reason he and Scooby become brave after eating them is altered judgement. This cartoon was made between 1969 and 1984, off and on in various incarnations, and I'd hardly call that a drug-free era culturally. Either way, Scooby Doo is a classic cartoon...in small doses (pun not intended!) And so what if there is a subtle drug reference in it...it's still a popular show. Not popular enough to warrant a takeover of Cartoon Network like it is now, though! Hmmm....wonder iff the Cartoon network people have ever considered censoring THIS one.... :eek: :p
-Matthew