Patient Porky is a 1940 Looney Tunes short directed by Bob Clampett.
Plot[]
Porky checks into a hospital with a stomach ache caused by overeating at his birthday party. Instead of a real doctor, he encounters a crazy cat patient posing as "Dr. Chilled-Air", After an X-Ray showing a birthday cake with only one piece missing and candles still lit in Porky's stomach, that cat decides to take Porky on as his own patient. He throws Porky into a bed and rushes him off to the operating room where he intends on performing surgery on him with a huge saw. Realizing the cat's intentions, Porky panics and tries to escape and runs back to his house (the same house from Porky & Daffy) with the cat hot on his trail. Porky opens the door to his bedroom and slams the door shut. The cat throws open the door and finds Porky laying in his bed, smiling with the covers pulled over him and runs over to him. Thinking he has the upper hand, he again attempts to operate on Porky, but after lifting Porky's gown he sees a "Do Not Open till Xmas" sticker on Porky's belly. The cat then ponders "Christmas?" then jumps into bed right next to Porky and states, "I'll wait!" much to Porky's dismay.
Caricatures[]
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- With the exception of broadcasts during The Bob Clampett Show, Late Night Black and White and, ironically, a rare 2:45am showing of the infamous 2001 June Bugs marathon that banned 12 Bugs Bunny cartoons that had racial stereotypes in them [2], Cartoon Network and Boomerang's version cuts all the scenes of Rochester as an elevator operator stopping at each floor and naming off all the diseases and conditions that are treated there. Nickelodeon and MeTV also edited this short, though Nickelodeon and MeTV used fade-in effects to cover each scene while Cartoon Network's and Boomerang's edited versions used a hard cut from one scene to the next.[3][4]
Notes[]
- Dr. Chilled-Air is a reference to Dr. Kildare.
- This cartoon is a partial remake of "The Daffy Doc", with a crazy cat replacing Daffy. As such, certain scenes are reused.
- Both cartoons were directed by Bob Clampett.
- The title card reuses the silhouette of the two ducks on the ambulance that was originally used for "The Daffy Doc".
- In real life, it is illegal to impersonate a doctor.
- The Spanish dubbing uses the 1936 Porky's Signature theme on the opening titles instead.
- The three people that the switchboard operator pages are Sir Gerry, a pun on the word "surgery"; Dr. Ehrlich, the titular character from the film Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet which was released the same year as the cartoon; and Dr. Cyclops, which was the name of a film also released the same year.
- Dr. Chris Chun's name is a play on that of Dr. Christian, a character played by Jean Hersholt in a series of six features released 1939-1941. The cartoon doctor is a caricature of Hersholt.
- Although this short was released a month after "A Wild Hare", the zanier, prototypical Bugs Bunny makes a brief cameo appearance. This would also be the final time this earlier incarnation of the character appears in a black-and-white cartoon.
- This is the last cartoon with the 1939-1940 Porky Pig intro before "Calling Dr. Porky".