Believe It or Else

Believe It or Else
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Airdate:	3 June 1939
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	5161
Production Number:	8837
Copyright Renewed:	1 June 1967
Starring:	Elmer Fudd
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc Cliff Nazarro Danny Webb
Director:	Fred Avery
Written By:	Dave Monahan
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Animated By:	Virgil Ross Rod Scribner (uncredited) Irven Spence (uncredited)
Film Editor:	Treg Brown
Musician:	Carl W. Stalling

Believe It or Else is a 1939 Merrie Melodies short directed by Tex Avery.

Plot

The host says he has interesting facts to show that he's collected on his many trips around the world, but prototype-Elmer Fudd walks across the stage with a sign that reads, "I don't believe it." The facts and interesting incidents include:

• A man named Mr. Holstein Cudd has consumed fifty quarts of milk a day for the last two years. When asked how he feels, he responds, "MOOOO" and continues to drink.
• A Hindu snake-charmer that the host met while he was traveling last year. The snake plays on a flute, and a man comes out of a basket and undulates like a snake.
• A man who builds ship models in bottles, but he is actually inside a bottle and building a ship outside of one.
• Mr. Adolphus Hambone, the world's loudest hog caller, who can be heard from Arkansas to Walla-Walla, Washington. His yells cause pigs to sing, "I hear you calling yoohoo," as they hear his voice.
• A man who has not been out of his room for fifty years, but it's an old man locked in a prison cell who says, "I'm a bad boy."
• At a California university, the narrator states that he has found the human basketball. The man dribbles his round belly down the court and throws himself through the hoop.
• An optical illusion. The host is going to show the audience that the two squares on the screen them are not the same size. He asks the people in the audience to close their left eyes, and then their right eyes, spotting that someone in the audience was peeking. He then shows them three triangles formed from nine matches. He tells them it is possible to make 37 triangles out of the three. He rearranges the matches faster and faster until all is a blur, then displays a jumbled mess and suggests that the audience should try it on their friends.
• Atop Palomar Mountain, California, which has images via a telescope about life on mars. There are actually spaceships flying around the planet Mars, where a man named Buck Dodgers comes out of his spaceship and says, in an effeminate voice, "Don't miss me in next Sunday's funny paper, boy it's a killer thriller," before getting back in and taking off. Elmer Fudd also lands on Mars, and still doesn't believe it, before taking off. The telescope then shifts to the moon, where the host hopes to prove to the audience that there is no life. But a trio on their way to The Major Bowes Amateur Hour asks if he knows the way to Cleveland. The narrator asks them to sing their number and they do, a slow barbershop song, "Sweet Genevieve". He tells them to hurry up and they sound like a sped-up recording.
• In Egypt, there is a wishing well that will make your wishes come true. A man tells the wishing well, "I wish I had a million dollars," and the well replies, "So do I!" Elmer walks past holding a sign reading, "It's a fake."
• In the logging country of Tall-Timber, the announcer found Mr. Chopoffski, the world's fastest wood chopper. He quickly chops a tree and waits dramatically for it to fall, but it was only a stump in the first place.
• A man named Nathaniel Nevermiss, the country's most accurate knife-thrower. He throws his knives toward his sidekick off-screen, then appears shocked and asks the audience if there's a doctor in the house.
• For the first time on any screen will be shown the berth of a baby, a berth on a railcar.
• With the aid of a super-sensitive microphone, the audience is actually going to hear the sounds of ordinary ants. An ant loudly shouts to its mate, "Hey Mabel!"
• Lastly, the narrator introduces Mr. Horace Buzzsaw who can saw a person in half. Elmer Fudd walks by, and proclaims that the stunt is done with mirrors, and still doesn't believe it. He is encouraged by the narrator to step inside the box and see it for himself. He does, and still doesn't believe it, until he sees his legs walking off, and he chases after them.

Caricatures

• Lou Costello - "I'm a baaad boy."
• Buster Crabbe - as his character Buck Dodgers
• Major Bowes contestants
• Ned Sparks - wishing well voice

Availability

(1992) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 3, Side 8: The Evolution of Egghead

Censorship

• The version of this cartoon airing on Cartoon Network, its sister channel Boomerang, and MeTV is missing the "berth of a baby" sight gag because it featured two black on-board train employees. The Turner "dubbed" version master excises these scenes.
  • The Tooncast version had that scene uncut, but used the original Associated Artists Productions print.

Notes

• The cartoon is a parody of "Ripley's Believe It or Not!"
• This cartoon marks the final time that Elmer Fudd was voiced by Danny Webb. It is also the final cartoon with the first design with a handful of small tweaks in redesign of Elmer before he was redesigned for Chuck Jones and voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan for Jones' "Elmer's Candid Camera" (made in 1939, released in 1940).
• This cartoon has a special byline of "WARNER BROS." on the banner. This version of the banner also appeared on "Porky and Teabiscuit".
• MeTV+ aired a previously unreleased restored print of this short on Sunday Night Cartoons. However, it was aired censored, with the same edits as the 1995 Turner "dubbed version". No full version of the restoration is currently known to exist.

Gallery

Restored title card from MeTV airing

Screenshot of 2021 restoration from MeTV+ (standard definition)

Screenshot of 2021 restoration from MeTV (high definition)

Lobby card

Lobby card

Believe It or Else! (1939) - 2021 restoration - Intro and Outro + 42-seconds clip