Crazy Cruise

Crazy Cruise is a 1942 Merrie Melodies short planned by Tex Avery and finished by Bob Clampett.
== Plot ==
In a travelogue through many different countries, on a southern plantation, The Sportsmen Quartet harmonize on "Swanee River" in the background as a tobacco worm is munching on a tobacco leaf. A hand holds a microphone near the worm. The worm launches into the fast-talking patter of a tobacco auctioneer, ending with "Sold to an American!" and expectorates tobacco juice into a spittoon.
A map showing Florida and Cuba also traces the path of a cruise vessel. It takes a straight line from the Gulf Coast to Havana for a stop at Sloppy Joe's bar. It then takes a meandering series of aimless spirals, while "How Dry I Am" plays in the underscore.
Now sailing along the ocean, the camouflage of a warship called the S.S. Yehudi is invisible except for its crew, flags, and the smoke billowing from its chimney.
Now soaring over the Alps, a "low flying" airplane is skimming up and down the mountainsides like a skier.
Still in the Alps, a comic triple shows a St. Bernard dog with a small keg of Scotch around its neck, followed by another St. Bernard with a keg of soda, and finally a St. Bernard pup carrying a smaller keg, containing "Bromo".
An agile mountain goat springs from peak to peak, finally diving over a cliff.
In the Sahara Desert, a number of pyramids appear, including ancient stone renderings of the Trylon and Perisphere, which originally appeared at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
The Sphinx just sits there, century after century, then says, "Monotonous... isn't it?"
An oil well in Europe is about to yield a "gusher" for an axis of the United States. After some rumbling and pressure buildup, the well erupts - emitting just one large drop of oil, which lands in a spittoon.
Deep in the jungle, an insect-eating plant is about to consume a "poor little" bumblebee. The plant chomps down on the bee, which then buzzes furiously inside the plant's mouth. In yet another spit joke, the plant finally expectorates the bee with a loud "OUCH!" and the bee walks away smugly.
A group of African animals is lined up at a "water hole", which turns out to be a functional drinking fountain, with an adult zebra holding a young zebra up to it.
Flying over an African landscape, a female-shaped body of water is called Veronica Lake.
A pair of Caucasian safari hunters, dressed in white, led by a typical stereotyped pygmy guide, are in search of giant cannibals. The trio disappears behind some trees. After a silent pause, and a loud clatter, the pygmy runs out from behind the trees and shouts excitedly in a mixture of pseudo-African double-talk and the words of "The Hut-Sut Song". To the left, the giant cannibals are holding the seemingly tiny white men, who resemble rolled up cigarettes. The cannibal holding the taller of the two men remarks, "King-Size!"
Three cute little grey-and-white rabbits are playing in the jungle. A vulture appears in the sky. The fearsome-looking bird, with a Japanese stereotyped face and Japanese flags on its wings, dives toward the bunnies. They run behind some weeds, which fall away, revealing an anti-aircraft gun and the rabbits wearing Civil Defense white helmets. They fire loud volleys at the bird, which is blown away. Bugs Bunny gives the thumbs up sign with both hands, and says, "Eh, t'umbs up, Doc! T'umbs up!" Bugs' ears spring into a "V for Victory" sign, as "We Did It Before (And We Can Do It Again)" plays in the underscore.
== Caricatures ==
* Jerry Colonna - "Monotonous, isn't it?"
* Veronica Lake
== Goofs ==
* The sphinx initially has no mouth.
== Availability ==
Golden-Age-of-Looney-Tunes-3-F.jpg|(1992) LaserDisc The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 3, Side 5: Early Avery
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5.jpg|(2007) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc 3
== Censorship ==
Two racial stereotype gags are cut when shown on Cartoon Network and its sister channel Boomerang:http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-c.aspxhttps://archive.org/details/june-bugs-2001-marathonhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1gXrDTd1-GS_4fQrNXQgxrydoqf6OHOy0/view?usp=sharing
*The entire sequence of two hunters (caricatures of director Friz Freleng and writer Michael Maltese) getting captured by African cannibals and compared like cigarettes.
*The final scene of the rabbits (one of which is Bugs Bunny himself) fighting back against a vulture (who looks like a World War II-era Japanese caricature) is partially cut to remove the actual shot of the vulture bearing down on the rabbits. This censored scene was shown as a clip in the ToonHeads episode about World War II cartoons entitled "The Wartime Cartoons".https://archive.org/details/toonheadsthewartimecartoons
==Notes==
*This short was planned to be directed by Tex Avery, but was eventually completed by Bob Clampett, due to Avery's departure from the studio following creative differences over the ending to "The Heckling Hare."
**Neither man is credited for this cartoon, as the Warner Bros. studio rules at the time forbade departing animation directors from being credited for cartoons and working animation directors for being credited for other directors' works.
*The Turner "dubbed version" replaces the original 1941-1955 Merrie Melodies ending music cue with the 1938-1941 Merrie Melodies ending music cue.
*This is the final cartoon where the title, the credits, and the MPPDA number are present on one card at the start of the cartoon.
* The scene with the rabbits shooting a massive gun to take down a vulture is a repeat gag of deer doing so against a vulture in "Africa Squeaks".
==References==
Category:Cartoons directed by Tex Avery
Category:Cartoons directed by Bob Clampett
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Shorts
Category:1942
Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons
Category:Spot Gag Cartoons
Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons animated by Charles McKimson
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by John Didrik Johnsen
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Robert C. Bruce
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger
Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package
Category:One-Shot Cartoons
Category:Cartoons with uncredited directors