Nasty Quacks

I don't know if you've watched "The Looney Tunes Show" on Cartoon Network.

It's basically "Seinfeld" populated by classic Warner Bros. cartoon characters. Seriously. It's hilarious. Check it out.

Precocious Daughter got me watching the show, and now we watch it together. Because I like watching TV with her, and because at the end of the day my brain can't stand anything more sophisticated than slapstick and fart jokes sometimes. We both think "The Looney Tunes Show" is way funny, but for different reasons. The thing is, she's not all that familiar with the Looney Tunes in their original incarnation. When I was a kid, you couldn't turn the TV dial without hitting a Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck cartoon about five times a day. What? Oh..."turn the TV dial," i.e., walk across the room and change the channel on the TV without a remote. It didn't take long, because there were only six channels. Yes, really.


Also, TVs used to be furniture.

 The point, other than how old I am, is that by the time I was PDaughter's age, I knew probably 50 different Looney Tunes shorts by heart. And now it's funny to see how the new show plays off the old characters. But she doesn't have that frame of reference because you just don't see the old cartoons on TV very much. Time Warner keeps them locked up tight so they can repackage them on DVD every few years and sell them to people like me who used to watch them for free every damn day of their childhood.



Sure, I'll be funny. I need money first.

Beloved Spouse, of course, knows as many Looney Tunes riffs as I do. As if I could marry someone who doesn't know what I mean when I say "Name? Shropshire Slasher. Occupation? Shropshire Slasher." (Sigh...look it up, people.)  If you don't think the way to my heart is by quoting obscure old punchlines, you don't read this blog enough. You probably don't read this blog enough. Please start reading this blog more. Please. Pleeeeaaaasssse.

But I digress. Anyway, when BelSpouse and I get into one of our quoting fits, PDaughter sometimes looks at us as if we're crazy. As opposed to all the other times she looks at us as if we're crazy. So we always make sure we source the quotes for her. But it's not enough to know that a line comes from, say, an episode of "The Simpsons" or a Marx Brothers movie. As often as we can, we expose her to the original joke, which of course is always told better and funnier than when her dumb old parents try to recreate it.


Every generation thinks it came up with "OMG"
to describe its parents.

So when we watch "The Looney Tunes Show," inevitably we start to quote old Looney Tunes cartoons. And when it comes to Daffy Duck (who on the new show is a hilariously shallow, self-centered loser), our favorite  short is 1945's "Nasty Quacks." You know, the one where Daffy is little Agnes' extremely annoying pet duck. It's got subtle wartime humor, clever visual jokes, and a great punchline. And PDaughter has never seen it.

Well, it's time to rectify that. So this is for my 21st-century daughter, who thinks Bugs and Daffy and Yosemite Sam are modern inventions to make her laugh. The video quality on this is not awesome, and there might be a few small cuts in it. Maybe I'll find a more pristine version later. But for now, for PDaughter's viewing enjoyment and yours, I bring you "Nasty Quacks."