The Impatient Patient

The Impatient Patient is a 1942 Looney Tunes short directed by Norman McCabe.
==Plot ==
While traipsing through a swamp, Daffy Duck seeks to deliver a telegram to "Chloe." He finds the home of "Dr. Jerkyl", and hopes that the physician can cure his hiccups. Daffy's hiccups are so severe that they cause him to damage or destroy everything around him.
Dr. Jerkyl captures Daffy and restrains him to a doctor's chair. Hoping to scare Daffy in order to cure his hiccups, Dr. Jerkyl drinks a potion that turns him into an ogre. Terrified, Daffy asks him who he is, and he responds, "I'm Chloe." Daffy then reads him the telegram, which is a cheerful Happy Birthday message from apparently Frankenstein.
Chloe chases Daffy around the laboratory until the radio is accidentally switched on, prompting him to dance. Once the music ends, the chase resumes. Daffy scrambles to the lab table and mixes a potion, which turns Chloe into an infant. Daffy hits the infant with a hammer. "He don't know me very well, do he?"
==Caricatures==
*Napoleon Bonaparte - Cuckoo
*Red Skelton's Mean Widdle Kid
==Availability==
DAFFY DUCK TALES FROM THE DUCKSIDE.jpg|(1992) VHS Daffy Duck: Tales from the Duckside (computer-colorized)
===Streaming===
Lt boomerang.jpg|Boomerang App ( - ) (black and white, unrestored transfer)
Lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2023) (restored, black and white)
lt max.jpg|Max (2023 - 2024) (restored, black and white)
== Notes==
* This is the final cartoon to use the "Porky on the Fence" opening. The openings of all Looney Tunes cartoons after this would use the "bullseye" rings, similar to Merrie Melodies but usually thicker, until 1964.
* The initial soft chanting of the name Chloe and the opening swampland setting are a reference to the 1927 song "Chloe (Song of the Swamp)", written by Gus Kahn and Neil Moret and performed by artists like Eva Taylor, Bessie Brown, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Spike Jones.
* Dr. Jerkyl and his alter ego Chloe are a reference to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a story by Robert Louis Stevenson about a man with a severe split personality.
* Chloe's birthday message comes from Frank N. Stein, a reference to Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, a novel by Mary Shelley.
* The scene where Dr. Jerkyl mixes the potion would later be reused in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse" (1947), a Tom and Jerry cartoon from MGM.
* The computer-colorized version and certain prints of the black-and-white version (including the 2020 restoration) have the wrong opening music playing over the opening logos, i.e. the 1939–41 arrangement of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", instead of the correct 1941–45 arrangement of the theme music. Additionally, the 1939–41 arrangement is sped up to better suit the timing of the title cards.
* This cartoon entered the public domain in 1970 as Warner Bros. did not renew the copyright in time.
* This cartoon premiered with Across the Pacific.
==Gallery==
380-Credits.png
ImpatientPatientRestored.jpeg|Cropped screenshot of 2020 restoration
The Impatient Patient (1942) - Dark.jpg
The Impatient Patient (1942) - Doc.jpg
The Impatient Patient (1942) - Scary Face.png
ImpatientPatientMODELPARTIAL.png|Model sheet
==References==
Category:Shorts
Category:Black-and-white cartoons
Category:Cartoons directed by Norman McCabe
Category:Looney Tunes Shorts
Category:Daffy Duck Cartoons
Category:1942
Category:Post-1935 Black & White Looney Tunes
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons written by Don Christensen
Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons in the Sunset Productions package
Category:Public domain films