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bootleg
Sunday Go to Meetin' Time is a 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng
Plot
Ringing bells in a lazy town announce that it is time to go to church. A black preacher with caricatured enormous lips greets his parishioners as he sings the song for which the short is named. A minstrel show dandy and his gal jazz up the song as they dance their way to church. A succession of gags featuring stereotyped black characters follows: a mammy and old uncle shine the heads of picanniny children; a woman steals a bra off a clothesline to use as a bonnet for her twin children. Lindvall notes that mammies were "ubiquitous in films dealing with black culture".
His mammy wife finds Nicodemus playing dice. She exclaims, "You good for nothing! Get yourself to that church. The Devil's gonna get you sure as you're born!" and drags him off by the ear. Nevertheless, Nicodemus slinks out the door, opting to steal some chickens instead. A knock on the head sends him to the "Hades Court of Justice". A demon there reviews his crimes: "Shooting craps, stealing chickens, missing church, raisin' dickens!" and sends him deeper into hell. Big-lipped demons carry him to the Devil himself, who sings to Nicodemus that "you've got to give the Devil his due." The boss orders some demons to "give 'em the works," but Nicodemus wakes to find the prods of pitchforks are really the pecks of chickens in the land of the living. He hears the church bells and makes haste to the meeting house.
Home Video
None, but bootleg VHS and DVD sets have this cartoon, obviously unrestored, as no such restored print has ever been released on home video.
Notes
- The short's stereotypical portrayal of black characters prompted United Artists to withhold it from distribution in 1968, making it one of the infamous Censored Eleven.
- However, it was announced in October 2010 that all Censored Eleven cartoons, including this one, will finally be available for release on DVD in 2011 on the Warner Archives collection of DVD sets. This has yet to come to fruition. It has been unknown if the DVD restoration will have the original titles as the original titles do exist.
- The cartoon was reissued in late 1944 after Schlesinger sold the studio, however, still bears his name, so the original closing was kept in the reissue.
- Sunday Go to Meetin' Time has a religious theme. This is because "churches were more easily portrayed in predominantly black settings due to the vivacity of their worship rituals."
Further Reading
- Bdeir, Ayah (Fall 2004). "That's all Sheikh: Arab representation in U.S. cartoons". CMS. 790. Media Theories and Methods I - Comparative Media Studies - Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Lindvall, Terry, and Ben Fraser (1998). "Darker Shades of Animation: African-American Images in Warner Bros. Cartoons". Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. Rutgers University Press.
- Straight Dope Science Advisory Board (February 5, 2002). "Did Bugs Bunny appear in a racist cartoon during World War II?" The Straight Dope.