Jerky Turkey

* Video A
* Video B

**Jerky Turkey** is a 1945 cartoon directed by Tex Avery.

## Plot

In 7/8/1620, Pilgrims, riding a caricatured *Mayflower* with a number of World War II-era anachronisms (such as a navy gunnery deck, a Henry J. Kaiser nameplate and a fuel rationing card) land at Plymouth Rock and establish a colony, where they quickly separate into "Ye Democrats" and "Ye Republicans." The Pilgrims all stand in line for cigarettes (some are caricatures of Avery's animation crew), while the town crier bemoans that he has been made eligible for the draft {"1-A"}.

A pear-shaped Pilgrim, who speaks with the milquetoast mannerisms of Bill Thompson (who was unavailable and had to be impersonated by Tex Avery because of his being inducted into war service), emerges from his dilapidated teardrop trailer home and goes hunting for a turkey for a Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey, seeing an easy mark and speaking in an impersonation of Jimmy Durante, offers himself to the pilgrim, only to use this as the start of a series of rapid-fire gags that stretch the limits of even cartoon physics, with the turkey consistently getting the best of his increasingly befuddled and frustrated opponent. Eventually the two make up and decide to "eat at Joe's," following the advice of a clapboard-wearing bear advertising his steakhouse that appears throughout the film. When they reach Joe's steakhouse, the door closes, loud thuds are heard, and the bear is seen grinning and picking his teeth, as the swallowed-whole turkey and pilgrim sulk in the bear's stomach. The pilgrim closes the cartoon holding up a sign of his own: "DON'T eat at Joe's."

## Availability

* (1984) VHS - *Cartoon Classics... in Color Volume 2*
* (1993) LaserDisc - *The Compleat Tex Avery*, Side 1
* (1998) DVD - *Cartoon Crazys Goes to War*
* (2001) DVD - *Cartoon Explosion Vol. 1*
* (2002) DVD - *Bugs Bunny and Friends Vol 6*
* (2004) DVD - *Cartoon Craze Presents: Gumby: Gumbasia*
* (2011) DVD - *300 Cartoon Classics*
* (2015) Blu-ray - *Anchors Aweigh* (Warner Bros.)
* (2015) Blu-ray - *Frank Sinatra Five Film Collection* (Warner Bros.)
* (2021) Blu-ray - *Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 3* (restored; Warner Bros.)

## Censorship

* On Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and early 1990s TBS and TNT, the joke about the half-breed (the Indian chief that's half American Indian and half a blond, white guy) was cut.

## Notes

* Internet sources claiming Daws Butler provided a voice are incorrect, as he did not arrive in Hollywood until after World War II.
* The turkey in this cartoon was originally intended to appear in the deleted Marvin Acme funeral scene in the 1988 Touchstone/Disney film *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*.
* Preston Blair, Ed Love, Ray Abrams and Irven Spence are caricatured as pilgrims.
* This is one of three MGM cartoons that are currently in the public domain in America, joining "To Spring" (1936), and "Doggone Tired" (1949).

## References

1. ↑ http://www.whataboutthad.com/mgm-cartoon-filmography-by-production-number/
2. ↑ https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/pretty-long-wait-wasnt-it-tex-averys-voice-actors-volume-3/
3. ↑ *The Animated Film Encyclopedia*, Graham Webb, McFarland Publishers, 2000.
4. ↑ *Daws Butler Characters Actor*, Joe Bevilacqua and Ben Ohmart, Bear Manor Media.
5. ↑ http://jimhillmedia.com/editor\_in\_chief1/b/jim\_hill/archive/2014/05/08/storyboards-reveal-what-marvin-acme-s-funeral-in-quot-who-framed-roger-rabbit-quot-would-have-looked-like.aspx