Early to Bet

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Early To Bet
series = Merrie Melodies


caption =
director = Robert McKimson
story_artist = Warren Foster
animator = Phil DeLara, Emery Hawkins, Charles McKimson,Rod Scribner
voice_actor = Mel Blanc, Stan Freberg
musician = Carl W. Stalling
producer = Edward Selzer
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = May 12, 1951
color_process = Cinecolor
runtime = 7 min
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0043495
preceded_by =
followed_by = Early to Bet is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon short released on May 12, 1951 starring The Gambling Bug which infects others with the desire to gamble. He wears a green tie,a red jacket,a brown hat,and a white tuxedo. "Early to Bet" is the only appearance of this character. The Gambling Bug is probably created by Robert McKimson because he is the director of the short.

"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" (the theme for Looney Tunes) is featured in this cartoon.

It is available on DVD as part of "" - the only one-shot on that volume.

Plot synopsis

Some of the Gambling Bug's examples to gambling are these: one man has had a dinner at a cafe.He wants to bet the waiter a coin flip and the waiter begs to make him just pay the bill of the repast he deserves to. Men will also have a money bet that a fly will land on their glass first(and they don't know they're not wearing glasses). The third example is a man has won a casino slot machine of three orange pairs but his prize are three oranges. The narrator tells the audience "So remember folks, the gambling bug will get you if you don't watch out!" and soon the bug argues.

After the narrator gives us some clues to beware of the gambling bug, the bug goes on a vacation thinking that he will leave his victims today. Suddenly, he sees a gamboled dog telling a black and white cat if he'd like to play the Wheel of Penalty card game. The cat disagrees and says he's through playing cards with him. The Gambling Bug then bites the cat's ear and soon the cat loses. The cat spins the wheel and his penalty is Penalty #14. The penalty is the Gesundheit. He is forced to blow bubble gum and then get affected by sneeze powder, causing him to sneeze and the big bubble gum covers him. The bug bites the cat again and this time the cat got Penalty #75. The penalty is that the winner shoots a toilet plungerat the apple on the loser's head,but the dog shoots the plunger into the cat's face. The bug bites him again and the cat gets Penalty #36.The penalty is to roll out the barrel of gunpowder. The dog then puts a firematch on the gunpowder and the cat blows up and flies back onto the ground.

The cat tries to play again but the dog quits. The bug decides to play with the cat but the cat gets a card of four hearts. The bug tries and he gets a card of two hearts, so the cat whacks him with a Post Newspaper as the penalty.