Wholly Smoke

Wholly Smoke is a 1938 Looney Tunes cartoon starring Porky Pig and written by Frank Tashlin. The run time is 7 minutes.

ynopsis

The episode starts with an man at church ringing the bell to signal the beginning of Mass. The camera moves to the house of Porky Pig whose mother is calling to him to come downstairs. A younger Porky comes flying down the handrail of the stairs just stopping before crashing into a vase. His mother proceeds to give him a nickel for the collection plate at church including a disclaimer about not spending the money on candy. Porky reassures his mother and leaves. Along the way he runs into a bully standing alongside a wooden fence. The bully is practicing smoking tricks with a cigar when Porky arrives and chides him for smoking while underage. The bully then gets in Porky's face sarcastically accusing him of being a tough guy. After a few moments of arguing Porky offers a bet to prove he is not a wimp. The deal being the cigar for the nickel. Enticed by the proposition, the bully quickly gives up his cigar. Porky in turn tries to repeat the same set of tricks only for disastrous results. Porky soon goes into a haze and stumbles into a smoke shop. An anthropomorphic cloud shrinks Porky in size and then introduces himself as someone all smokers were well acquainted with, "Nick O'Teen". Nick then offers Porky all the smoking he can handle. Suddenly a wide variety of smoking devices comes to life a force feed Porky everything from chewing tobacco to smoke set to the tune of "Old Man Mose". At the culmination of the nightmare Porky awakens and rushes to church. As he is sitting reading his hymnal the collection plate starts coming towards him when he starts to panic. He races out of the church and grabs the nickel from the bully. He thrusts the cigar into the bully's mouth as it promptly explodes. He hurries back to church just in time to give his offering and the show ends with him promising never to smoke again.

Bully's Smoking Tricks

1. Blows a series of horsehoe shaped smoke that ring around a nearby fire hydrant.
2. Blows a hand with two fingers that poke Porky in the eyes.
3. Blows a series of concentric smoke rings in the shape of a target followed by an arrow that hits the bullseye.
4. Blows smoke into his hat and then pulls a "cloud" rabbit out.
5. Forms a goose shaped cloud that then flies off.
6. Bounces the cigar off of his shoe, head, and body only to catch it back in his mouth.

Porky's Smoking Tricks

1. Blows a similar target as the bully's however the arrow hits himself in the rear.
2. Forms a goose which lays an egg directly on his head.
3. Repeats the bouncing effect of the bully but chokes on the smoke when it gets back in his mouth.

Cultural References

# The man ringing the church bells does so with a hammer onto a base. A weight launches up through the steeple to the bell just like the Test of Strength games at a carnival.

# The address on Nick O'Teen's business card is 1313 Tobacco Road. This signifies that smoking tobacco is a road full of bad luck to go down.

# The four matches that light up and then quickly burn out are a reference to the Mills Brothers.

#The three cigars are clearly the Three Stooges (Larry, Curly and Moe)

#The next two "Crooner Cigars" are Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee.

#The pipe cleaner man is silent until he dips his head into a pipe and emerges covered in soot. He goes on to then give an impression of Cab Calloway.

#The cigarettes that march into a NO SMOKING sign is reminiscent of choreography by Busby Berkeley.

Censorship

*The version of this cartoon that aired on Nickelodeon, FOX's "Merrie Melodies Show", and Cartoon Network was a redrawn version that had the following edits from the original black and white version [http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/ltcutsu-z.html] :
**The beginning of the "Little Boys Shouldn't Smoke Song" where four matchsticks strike themselves and burn out to form blackface (while singing in the style of The Mills Brothers) was recolored so the blackface would be red.
**The part where a pipe cleaner sticks his head in a dirty pipe and comes out looking and singing like Cab Calloway was cut on FOX's "Merrie Melodies Show" and Cartoon Network. It was left uncut in the early 1990s on Nickelodeon, but by the mid-to-late 1990s, the scene was edited out, though in the flashback after the "NO SMOKING" cigarette march, one can see the part that was cut on Nickelodeon (the newer, redrawn version on Cartoon Network replaces the Cab Calloway part during the montage with the Indian cigars scene that, surprisingly enough, was cut when Cartoon Network aired the redrawn version of this cartoon).
**The short shot of Porky tied to a post while a tribe of Indian cigars dance around him was cut on Cartoon Network (but left in on "The Merrie Melodies Show" and Nickelodeon). The shot of Nick O'Teen using the butt end of pipes as drums was moved to the shot before the cigarette march scene and the Indian music he was drumming out was redubbed with music from the cigarette march part.

Availability

This cartoon can be found, uncut, uncensored, digitally remastered, and in its original black and white format on the fifth volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD series.