John Foster and George Stallings | Trouble / 1931 [animated cartoon]

swish, push, and swallow

 

John Foster and George Stallings (directors) Trouble / 1931

 

As I mention above, the Van Beuren Studios versions of 30 cartoons made between 1931 and 1933 of Tom and Jerry, have nothing to do with the 1940s Joseph Barbara and William Hanna MGM cartoon cat and mouse also named Tom and Jerry. In fact, when Official Films bought the earlier series in the 1940s, they renamed the central characters as Dick and Larry.

     In the earlier Tom and Jerry animated short, Trouble, the characters are ambulance-chasing lawyers, who, alas, have not had a case in a month. Jerry, always the optimist, demands Tom “cheer up,” as he finally attaches a board with their names and vocation on them on the front door of their shack. Jerry, to help in lifting Tom’s spirits, takes out his banjo while the two sing a duet.

     At that very moment a marching bad just happens along, and the two see the perfect opportunity to let the crowds know about their firm, pulling down the new sign and strapping it would Tom’s neck and they go marching in the parade.

     The marching band move forward and in reverse as they make their way down the street, their alternative movements all to the confusion and duress of Tom and Jerry. But what the viewer most notices is the larger-than-life bass drummer, who the Instagram poster of QueerAnimation describes by breaking down the image:

 

“First, the ‘teapotting’ pose, where a character rests one hand on their hip with the elbow at a 45-degree angle, and their other arm is bent outward to the side. This extended arm usually has the pinkie pointed out. Next, is the physique. On average, early gay cartoon characters are reed-thin, and move in a swishy, pompous manner. For the drummer, this is demonstrated by his dainty, tiptoe walk cycle. Lastly, another common detail is a made-up face complete with eyelashes and cupid bow lips, a touch which blurs the line between defining masculinity and femininity.”

      In short, the drummer represents yet another example in the early 1930s of the popular stereotypes of the gay pansy.

     What that commentator does not mention is that every time the trumpeter in the front line of the band, with Tom and Jerry in the lead, blows his horn, the blast pushes Tom forward, forcing his penis to make contact with Jerry’s ass, moving them several times into this uncomfortable simulation of butt-fucking. Finally, the horn swallows the two up, blowing them out again as, after a few magical calisthenics, they fall directly into the sewer.

     And almost before we realize that what we are truly missing in this stick figure faggot figures in any real penile shape, a blimp that looks more like an oversized pickle appears in the sky, flying through clouds, one of which looks very much like Harpo Marx smoking a cigar before the blimps moves off.

      A man can be seen scaling a high-rise building, his job apparently to anchor the blimp to the top of the building. But “accidents do happen,” as Tom has long argued, and realizing that the man is about to fall, the call goes out for an ambulance—which of course these eager lawyers just have to chase.

      Eventually, the man falls, slowly, very slowly to the ground, but instead of splatting against the concrete, floats up and off, falls back, and finally stands, tossing out dozens of his cards: Joe Spoof, Slow Motion Actor, a character as surely from cartoon-land as that endless survivor Wile E. Coyote.

 

Los Angeles, October 23, 2023

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (October 2023).