"Dough Ray Me-ow" is a 1948 Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Art Davis.
A dopey cat named Heathcliff is set to inherit a million dollars, which will revert to his "pal" Louie the parrot should he die. This leads Louie to come up with all sorts of schemes to bump off the cat.
"Dough Ray Me-ow" provides examples of:
- Bomb Disposal: When Heathcliff gives Louie the dynamite "candle", he frantically and fruitlessly tries to extinguish the fuse.
- Bowdlerization: When this short aired on FOX's The Merrie Melodies Show and on Nickelodeon's Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon, two scenes of dangerous, imitable activitynote were edited:
- Louie the parrot tricking Heathcliff into sticking electric wires in his ears by saying it's a radio, only for Heathcliff to actually get radio transmissions through his ears (while Louie does the same thing and gets electrocuted).
- Louie then tricks Heathcliff into walking along railroad tracks with a can over his head — and Heathcliff derails the train and somehow survives.
- Bully Bulldog: Louie pays a bulldog to pretend to attack him and then beat up Heathcliff when he comes out to help. Instead, Heathcliff thrashes the bulldog.
- Buffoonish Tomcat: The lunkheaded Heathcliff, due to him being Dumb Muscle, (implied) The Klutz, and The Fool.
- Cats Have Nine Lives: After getting blown by dynamite, Heathcliff's nine lives start leaving him... until Louie gloats to him about the inheritance.Louie: It's too bad you're going, Heathcliff. Because if you weren't going, you would inherit one million bucks! And you can't take it with you, you know!
[Life #9 whistles to the others, and they all go back down]
Heathcliff: D'ah, well, if I can't take it with me, I'm not goin'. - Cut the Fuse: Louie tries to disarm a stick of dynamite by cutting off the top of the fuse with a pair of scissors; against all logic, no matter how many times he cuts off the fuse, it just keeps continuing to spark further down the stick.
- Dumb Is Good: Heathcliff, an utter blockhead, but is very friendly and was shown to be caring towards Louie.
- Dumb Muscle: Also Heathcliff, who manages to beat up a bulldog who is "attacking" Louie and later manages to destroy a train just by standing in its way.
- Dunking the Bomb: Louie tries to dunk the dynamite stick in water to douse the fuse. The stick comes out limp and soggy, but quickly straightens itself and the fuse relights.
- Harmless Electrocution: Louie tries to get Heathcliff to stick some electrical wires in his ears by saying they're going to "play radio", only for the cat to actually picks up radio music. Louie, in utter disbelief, decides to try it on himself and, well...
- Hot Potato: Occurs when Louie tries to kill up Heathcliff with a birthday cake with a lit stick of dynamite hidden alongside three red candles. Heathcliff insists that he's three and tries to give the "candle" back to Louie, leading to a game of hot potato until Heathcliff looks at his birth certificate and realizes he is four, taking it back and getting blown up.
- Green and Mean: Also Louie.
- Inheritance Murder: Deconstructed with Louie where Heathcliff was oblivious to Louie's acts of murdering him because of Heathcliff's bizarre if childish logic & nearly dies because of his massive moronitude, but Heathcliff comes back to life with his nine lives when Louie reveals why he won't take any money with him with gloating.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Louie the Parrot, who first comes off as grumpy, patronizing and reclusive when Heathcliff stumbles around in his accident-prone nature, and he becomes an Smug Snake when trying to sell Heathcliff for his greedy, money-hungry benefit.
- Railroad Tracks of Doom: Louie leads a blinded Heathcliff into walking onto tracks in hopes that an oncoming train would do him in. The train ends up derailed and totaled, but Heathcliff emerges completely unscathed.Heathcliff: I done a baaaad thing.
- Running Gag: Heathcliff trying to crack open nuts in increasingly harmful ways.
- Shout-Out: The short opens with Louie reading the book Rooster's Millions, a play on Brewster's Millions, which is also about an inheritance causing trouble.
- Too Dumb to Live: Heathcliff being The Fool that he is, he does many acts no sane person would do. He nearly died at the very end, but his nine lives came back after Louie told him why Heathcliff will be inherited for one million bucks for himself.
- William Telling: Louie tries to kill Heathcliff by inviting him to play "William Tell" and firing an arrow to hit a tiny apple on his head. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't miss.
