The Diet (cartoon)

"The Diet" is a 1963 animated short from King Features Syndicate that stars Beetle Bailey.

The Plot

The short is about Sergeant Snorkel's attempt to diet. It starts with a bugle boy blowing the chow music and every single major character running for chow. Sgt. Snorkel and Otto run right past them all and are the first in line. Once they get their food, they quickly wolf it down.

During the rest of that day, signs of Sarge gaining weight start to show; from buttons on his uniform popping and his belt breaking, to a scale going haywire and breaking, to him breaking his mirror and his bunk. Due to this and the ensuing laughter from the rest of the platoon, he decides to go on a diet.

He buys a diet book from the PX which has three simple rules:
*Rule 1: Don't eat.
*Rule 2: Don't eat.
*Rule 3: When not eating...don't eat.

When Otto seems to smile over possibly getting more food, Sarge points out one more thing in the book:
*...and that goes for your DOG too.

The chow call goes and, like trained Pavlov dogs, he and Otto run to the mess hall, but before he digs in, he remembers the three rules. He also tells Otto, "When I don't eat, you don't eat." to remind him of the other rule. He also sees the rest of the platoon about to dig in, and says, "And when WE don't eat, NOBODY eats!" then takes everyone's food away, even General Halftrack's.

In ensuing nights, Sarge and Otto end up having a dream where they sleepwalk to the mess hall and think Cookie is serving them chow, then proceed to eat the imaginary food at the table. While this goes on, Cookie explains to the rest of the platoon that this has been going on for a week, to which Beetle gets an idea.

The next night, Sarge and Otto have the same dream, but this time Cookie is really there and serves them real food. Just as they're about to finish their portions, the rest of the platoon surprises them awake. Sarge is not angry about breaking his and Otto's diet, but when Beetle says they're sticking to their diet, Sarge tells them they break their diet when he breaks his, and demands they all get fed.