#19 -- Bully for Bugs


Title - Bully for Bugs
Director - Chuck Jones
Released - 1953

Reason for Placement --

There are actually two reasons I'm putting this toon on the countdown. First of all, there is the simple fact that this is a fun toon with one of the most famous moments in Looney Tunes history: the Slap Dance, set to the tune of "Las Chiapanecas".

The second reason is the story behind why Jones and Michael Maltese decided to make this short: while working at Termite Terrace one day, Eddie Selzer, who took over the position of studio head after Leon Schlesinger in 1944, burst in and announced (for apparently no reason whatsoever) that bull fights were not funny and they were not to make a cartoon about one. So what do Jones and Maltese do? Yep, make a bull-fighting cartoon. According to Jones' biography Chuck Amuck, they felt they had to as Selzer had proven time and time again to be wrong about virtually anything. And of course, he was easily wrong about this.

1 comment:

  1. The second reason was also the reason Chuck Jones continued with the Pepe Le Pew cartoons (only replace "bullfights aren't funny" with "French, sex-mad skunks"). And I think Selzer also hated jokes involving camels (as seen in Friz Freleng's "Sahara Hare")

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