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A Broken Leghorn is a 1959 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson.

Title[]

The title is a play on "a broken leg."

Plot[]

Foghorn Leghorn takes pity on Miss Prissy, whom the other hens are ridiculing because of her inability to lay an egg. To give her confidence, Foggy slips one of the other hen's eggs in Miss Prissy's nest. Before long, the egg hatches a baby rooster. When Foggy hears this, he is furious, "We don't need no more roosters around here! We've got one and I'm it! I'll straighten this out one cotton-pickin' minute!" Foggy tries to stop them, but they stare at him angrily. Foggy decides to play along.

The rooster chick makes a comment in jest to Foggy that, "You must be the rooster whose job I'm taking over!" Foggy takes this comment seriously and, fearing replacement after the tyke flawlessly crows, decides to kill the baby rooster.

Foggy makes his attempts under the premise of teaching the chick to be a rooster. However, each of these attempts ends with Foggy getting the worst end of things:

  • Having the baby rooster retrieve a ball by crossing a busy highway, so the youngster can learn why the chicken crossed the road, "To have a ball". The chick returns the ball safely and challenges Foggy to help him make sure he did it right. Foggy does, thinks he's gotten the ball safely when there's a moment of no traffic, and gets run down twice.
  • Teaching him patience by waiting by a downspout at the farmhouse. Foggy sends down a stick of dynamite, but the chick bats it back, and it explodes in Foggy's face causing Foggy to remark, "Just one of those days, I guess."
  • Helping him learn to eat corn on the cob, hoping he won't notice the ear has been tied to the trigger of a shotgun hung on a tree branch and the barrel pointed at where he is to stand. The chick tugs harder and harder, enough for the barrel to flip into Foggy's face and shoot him point-blank, causing him to say, "Well, back, I say, back to the old drawing board".
  • By now frustrated, he helps the chick learn to dig for worms. Actually, the "worm", a piece of string, has been pulled into a mound of dirt concealing a landmine. When the chick digs elsewhere hoping to find the worm, Foggy shows him how to do things properly and gets blasted.

Foggy has enough, "I'll just have it out with the boss, it's gotta be that kid or me! One of us has gotta go!" Seconds later, a truck is pulling away from the farm with Foggy caged inside the cargo bed. He exclaims, "Well, when, I say, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go!"

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • On ABC, the "dynamite in the rain gutter" sequence and the "corn cob on the rifle" sequence (mentioned in the Plot section) were cut.
  • On the WB, only the "corn cob on the rifle" sequence was cut.
  • The CBS version edits out three parts: the two parts edited on ABC and a shot of the chick crossing the busy highway and avoiding traffic (but not Foghorn crossing and getting hit) for the same reason Nickelodeon edited a similar scene in "Honey's Money": to cut down on possible copycat incidents involving children running into busy streets.

Notes[]

  • After only two cartoons in which Miss Prissy had a more extensive vocabulary than her trademark "Yeeeesss", "Little Boy Boo" (1954) and "Feather Dusted" (1955), this cartoon returns to Miss Prissy only saying her trademark "Yeeeesss" as in her earliest appearances, "An Egg Scramble" (1950), "Lovelorn Leghorn" (1951), and "Of Rice and Hen" (1953). Interestingly, Little Boy Boo also depicts Foghorn pursuing Prissy for his own selfish needs. Foghorn would do this again one last time in "Strangled Eggs" (1961).
  • This cartoon marks the only time where Foghorn is aware of what is happening among the hens with which Miss Prissy lives.
  • The crew card erroneously lists Robert Gribbroek with the other animators instead of specifying layouts.
  • This is the final original short written by Warren Foster before he left for John Sutherland Productions in 1957.

Gallery[]

TV Title Cards[]


Preceded by
Weasel While You Work
Foghorn Leghorn cartoons
1959
Succeeded by
Crockett-Doodle-Do
Foghorn Leghorn Cartoons
1946 Walky Talky Hawky
1947 Crowing Pains
1948 The Foghorn Leghorn
1949 Henhouse Henery
1950 The Leghorn Blows at MidnightA Fractured Leghorn
1951 Leghorn SwoggledLovelorn Leghorn
1952 Sock a Doodle DoThe EGGcited Rooster
1953 Plop Goes the Weasel!Of Rice and Hen
1954 Little Boy Boo
1955 Feather DustedAll Fowled Up
1956 Weasel StopThe High and the FlightyRaw! Raw! Rooster!
1957 Fox-Terror
1958 Feather BlusterWeasel While You Work
1959 A Broken Leghorn
1960 Crockett-Doodle-DoThe Dixie Fryer
1961 Strangled Eggs
1962 The Slick ChickMother Was a Rooster
1963 Banty Raids
1964 False Hare
1980 The Yolks on You
1996 Superior Duck
1997 Pullet Surprise
2004 Cock-a-Doodle Duel
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