Buy a share of freedom, today!
"Any Bonds Today?" is the fan nickname for a 1942 untitled War Time Cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd and directed by Bob Clampett. With a total length of 1 minute and 38 seconds long it's the shortest officially released Looney Tunes cartoon of The Golden Age of Animation.
This was one of the 12 Bugs Bunny cartoons banned by Cartoon Network for showing now racially insensitive content, though, much like "What's Cookin' Doc?", this is one of the least offensive shorts on that list. At worst, the short comes off as a product of its time, thanks to the short scene of Bugs donning blackface and singing like Al Jolson, as well as the fact that it's a commercial encouraging viewers of the time to buy war bonds.
Any Tropes Today?
- America Won World War II: Or, America Will Win World War II, if the people in the audience would purchase war bonds.
- Blackface: Bugs at one point sings in Blackface. Many modern viewers assume he is imitating a black person, but in reality this is a shout-out to popular singer Al Jolson and his role in The Jazz Singer.
- Bottle Episode: Bugs, Porky and Elmer sing and dance on a stage in front of a background featuring patriotic and militaristic imagery. This is the only location seen in this propaganda War Time Cartoon.
- Bowdlerization: When this cartoon aired on the Cartoon Network ToonHeads special about lost, rare, and obscure Warner Bros. works (both live-action and animated), the entire blackface part was cut by using a simple page-turning effect. It was also one of 12 Bugs Bunny cartoons to be banned for racially insensitive content.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: The final appearance of the chunkier version of Elmer Fudd that they experimented with in 1941-42.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Not only is this the shortest ever released Looney Tunes short from The Golden Age of Animation, but it is also the only one where no actual story takes place.
- Minimalist Cast: Only Bugs, Porky and Elmer appear in this cartoon.
- No Plot? No Problem!: Bugs, Porky and Elmer sing and dance in order for the audience to buy war bonds. That's all that happens. But seeing that this cartoon was rushed out after the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7, 1941, and only made to support the war effort it's understandable.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The title card reads Leon Schlesinger Presents Bugs Bunny, but it is commonly referred to as Any Bonds Today?, since the entirety of the short is a performance of that song.
- Patriotic Fervor: The cartoon plays on the fact that if you buy war bonds you're protecting "the land of the free" against the Axis.
- Propaganda Machine: A blatantly direct propaganda cartoon.
- Pun-Based Title: Bugs imitates Al Jolson's song "Mammy" and changes it into "Sammy", referencing Uncle Sam.
- Questioning Title?: "Any Bonds Today?"
- Repurposed Pop Song: The song "Any Bonds Today" was basically Irving Berlin doing a rewrite of "The Yam" (which includes "any yams today?" as a repeated line), which he wrote for Carefree in 1938. In turn, that was based on a never-recorded 1931 Berlin song called "Any Love Today?".
- Shout-Out: Bugs at one point sings in Blackface, imitating Al Jolson's hit song "Mammy" from The Jazz Singer.
- Time Marches On: Nowadays it's only interesting as a historical curiosity.
- Uncle Sam Wants You: Invoked in the opening lyrics of the song.The tall man in the tall hat and the whiskers on his chin
Will soon be knocking at your door and you ought to be in.
The tall man with the tall hat will be coming down your way
Get your savings out when you hear him shout "Any bonds today?" - War Time Cartoon: Bugs, Porky and Elmer want the audience to buy war bonds.
