June 8 is National Name Your Poison Day!

That's right, there is a National Name Your Poison Day.

That means Support Your Local Bartender, as opposed to Support Your Local Gunfighter and Support Your Local Sheriff.



Now how does National Name Your Poison Day relate to this blog? Well, frankly, it's as good an excuse as any to post a bunch of classic cartoons that feature inebriation, a well as clips of great movie comedians delving into that topic (at least onscreen).

One film that never fails to get me ROFL is Laurel & Hardy in BLOTTO.



In this classic 1930 short, the boys think they're brazenly putting one over on their wives by sneaking out to get smashed on bathtub booze.



The greatest cartoon involving altered states would be. . .



Of course, for this blog, National Name Your Poison Day means Prohibition-era cartoons, starting with Fleischer Studios.



Felix the Cat stars in one of the very best in that mind-bending genre. Otto Messmer and crew always deliver the goods - and producer/promoter Pat Sullivan very likely was stone drunk somewhere during the making of this cartoon.



Hands-down, this writer's favorite of all the early Harmon-Ising Merrie Melodies is YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOIN' (1931). The unabashed inebriates who heckle the cartoon's plucky protagonist, "Piggy," resemble characters from another great early Merrie Melodie, GOOPY GEER (1932).



In WISE QUACKS (1939) just one of many outstanding cartoons directed by Bob Clampett, Daffy Duck is a tad nervous about becoming a father and relieves stress by getting hammered on "corn juice." It creatively re-uses segments from the brilliant 1936 Looney Tune directed by Frank Tashlin cartoon, PORKY'S POULTRY PLANT and, as is the case with Clampett's crew, animated with a certain crazed glee. This review by the gang at Anthony's Animation Talk gets into the nuances.



Yes, even dogs get obliterated in Columbia cartoons from both the Charles Mintz and Screen Gems studios and dont ask how Rover got blitzed on local anesthetic in the following opus. If it's jokes about hallucinations and dangerous levels of inebriation you want, look no further than the work of director/gagman Sid Marcus!





Is it possible to make an entire cartoon about a cat who gets wasted on pickled herring? Yes. That might not be a good idea, but it's possible.



Are there any cartoons for National Name Your Poison Day that don't involve booze? Yes, this way-out 1938 Hugh Harman MGM cartoon, Pipe Dreams.



This "goodie goodie monkeys" opus definitely anticipates the hippie era by almost three decades, especially the scene with the simian trio taking hits off a pipe like Dennis Hopper thirty years later.



What was in that Helz Fire tobacco?



These monkeys act like they're smoking kif!



Any letters between MGM brass and Hugh Harman demanding an explanation for this cartoon must be hilarious - and we all know darn well that Harman ignored them!



Hugh Harman made some wonderful weird cartoons, including all three of the Gothic ones featuring the "goodie goodie monkeys."



In closing, noting that there is a dark side to National Name Your Poison Day, here's the late, great Robin Williams making comedy out of the painful realities of alcoholism and jumping into the flaming center of that volcano (in a definitely NSFW clip).



Sure miss that guy. Damn the horrific illness that killed him.