Jul 19 2013

Hug Him And Squeeze Him And Call Him George (Video)

You’ve probably heard the line “I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George.” As I just wrote on Facebook, teaching it to my children is one of my great accomplishments as a parent. (Remember, quoting yourself may be tacky, but it makes fact-checking much easier.) I always thought the line came from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Now I’m not so sure.

I might even have the line wrong. If so, I’m not the only one.

What follows is a condensed version of my attempt to figure out where “I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George” came from, which led me down a big Internet rabbit hole (pun intended) of cartoons, John Steinbeck, and other stuff.

At first the Internet seemed to be telling me that the cartoon in question was “The Abominable Snow Rabbit”.

In the video above, the line is, “I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him…” Not an exact match, but very close. (Daffy Duck has a great line as well: “I know I’m a louse. But I’m a live louse.”)

Then I stumbled across an intriguing tidbit: “The Abominable Snow Rabbit” is an homage to John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.”

OK. Sure. Why not?

However, according to the Internet there are many cartoon homages to “Of Mice and Men.”

Really. There are.

Here is “Lonesome Lenny”, a 1946 Tex Avery cartoon, described thusly on IMDB: “Screwy Squirrel is bought in a pet shop to be the companion of a daft dog so strong that he squeezes his playmates to death.” Well all righty then. The dog’s name is Lenny, and he calls his new pal George. (Lennie and George are the main characters in “Of Mice and Men.”)

(Tip of the hat to the folks on this AWN forum page for pointing me towards “Lonesome Lenny”.)

But there is another Tex Avery short, “Of Fox And Hounds”, released in 1940, that is also an “Of Mice and Men” thing. This is where the immortal line “Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?” came from. (I taught that one to my kids as well. I’m an awesome dad.)

(Hat tip to LanguageHat.com. No pun intended that time.)

Research note: Lest anyone think that my sources are limited to Wikipedia and pages I found via The Google, here is a link to The New York Times’ review of the 1939 film version of Steinbeck’s book (starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr.), which states that “Of Mice and Men” has been “endlessly parodied in Warner Bros. and MGM cartoons”. (Personally, I prefer “homage” to “parody” in this case. But let’s not split hairs. Or hares.)

“Of Fox And Hounds” seems to be the first animated homage to “Of Mice and Men.” But, with apologies to Bono, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. None of this tells me the source of “I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George.” Thinking that perhaps the words came from Steinbeck, I did some searching on Google Books, eventually changing my query to the phrase “Tell me about the rabbits George.” That opened a whole new rabbit hole of references.

Lennie, George and rabbits are apparently quite the thing. Who knew?

What did we learn? A lot. Haven’t answered my original question. But that’s OK.

(Thanks to the Facebook friends who inspired this post.)

Classic Looney Tunes – YouTube.


Jul 07 2013

New Batman Cartoon Looks Bad (BEWARE THE BATMAN)

There’s a new Batman cartoon coming out called Beware The Batman. It looks bad. Here’s video of the intro:

Also, a YouTube commenter — let’s call them “YouTubers” — points out the following (source):

Oficial page for the Oficial show eh? Don’t think so Oficial is spelt wrong 😛

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Internet, already in progress.

BEWARE THE BATMAN Opening Sequence Unveiled | Newsarama.com.

For more Batman (and others), check out our list of Superhero Animation on Demand.


Apr 28 2013

Superhero Animation On Demand

As promised, here is a list of Superhero Animation that you can watch on demand. Some notes/comments/caveats:

DaddyTips Featured Video

– Most recent update: April 30, 2013

– All are available via Netflix unless otherwise indicated.

– Titles listed may suddenly become unavailable… or even better, new titles may show up. Such as Batman Beyond and Justice League which are now on Netflix. The greatness of this fact cannot be overstated.

– This page may be updated when new shows are added. I’m also going to make a different page for live action superhero programming. Because I’m cool like that. And I have a Geek Gold Card.

– This may shock some of you, but I have something to say about every single one of these shows. Therefore I will write posts for each entry as time permits. Check back for updates.

Without further ado, here is the list. If you know of anything I missed, leave a comment or contact me directly. This is important stuff, folks. Read more »


Mar 31 2013

Batman Beyond and Justice League Now on Netflix

Two of the best superhero cartoons ever are now available on NetflixBatman Beyond and Justice League.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaM1FKhrODc]

I’m futzing around on Twitter and I see this from IGN’s Joey Esposito:

 

So I tweets to Joey, I says, what Justice League cartoons? You mean these Justice League cartoons? Probably my favorite superhero cartoon ever? And he’s like, yeah. Netflix streaming. Batman Beyond too. I’m all, whoah. And he’s like…

OK, I can’t keep that going any more. Bottom line — if you have Netflix, you can watch Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and Batman Beyond on demand. Why aren’t you doing that right now?

h/t @JoeyEsposito


Apr 04 2011

Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Actually The Governator

Political Power Arnold Schwarzenegger comic

Arnold Schwarzenegger is actually The Governator. No, not just his nickname. An animated character.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing a cartoon where he plays a character called The Governator.

Seriously.

Real news is sounding too much like The Onion.

Quotes from Ah-nuld: Read more »


Apr 14 2010

Creepy Pooh Bear Is Creepy [Remixes]

As a lad, I loved Winnie the Pooh. That’s probably why I think Creepy Pooh Bear is creepy.

creepy-pooh-bear
Click image to see full-size. Fair warning: it’s creepy. Did I mention that?

Gives new meaning to a game of pooh sticks doesn’t it?

Creepy Pooh Bear Is Creepy [PIC].


Jul 14 2009

Crap I Used To Watch – Heckle and Jeckle

Man does this cartoon stink. But it was on. So I used to watch it.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1GoR5Dnzl4]