Hockey Homicide is a 1945 Classic Disney Short directed by Jack Kinney, starring Goofy and narrated by Spike Jones stalwart Doodles Weaver. While it isn't formally part of the "How To" miniseries of Goofy cartoons, it (along with its sibling cartoons Double Dribble and Tennis Racquet) are often lumped in with them due to their similar focus on sports-themed slapstick.
The short features two teams, the Moose and the Pelicans (or is it the Loose Leafs and the Anteaters?) playing a game of hockey that grows increasingly violent. This short is (in)famous for its utterly bizarre climax and is often regarded as one of the funniest Disney cartoons ever.
This cartoon contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Played for Laughs. The narrator points out the heated rivalry between the team's respective star players, "Ice Box" Bertino and "Fearless" Ferguson, setting up the game as their final showdown. There never is a final showdown, as their violent bickering keeps getting them sent into the penalty box, preventing them from even taking part in the game.
- Butt-Monkey: The referee, to the point he has to wear a suit of armor (not that it saves him from getting a puck to the back of the head).
- The Chew Toy: Everyone. Not even the spectators are safe from getting pummelled.
- Dramatic Irony: The short ends with the hockey fans rushing the ice and beating each other up over their teams, while the teams themselves have stopped playing and are now in the audience watching them beat each other up.
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: One of the spectators gets mixed up and starts cheering the wrong team for a bit.Fan: Hooray! ...What am I saying?! Boooo!
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the rest period, as the rink is being cleaned you can see a Felix the Cat toy among the detritus being swept up.
- Gretzky Has the Ball: Done intentionally to show how much the game has descended into chaos. This was also a trademark of Weaver's, most famously used in Spike Jones' interpretation of Rossini's "William Tell Overture", which starts out as a commentary on a horse race, but for some reason, ends up describing a prize fight.
- Hated by All: "Clean Game" Kinney seems to be pretty disliked, as when he is announced as tonight's referee, a loud boo can be heard from the audience. And during the game, all the players have no issue with slapping him around like a ragdoll while playing.
- Hockey Fight: By the end, all Hell breaks loose when the entire stadium descends into utter chaos. Meanwhile, the players are calmly sitting in the bleachers watching the riot.Narrator: And that's why hockey is called a "spectator sport"!
- Inelegant Blubbering: The Loose Leafs' goalie bursts into tears and throws a tantrum when a puck gets past him.
- Literal Metaphor: The referee really does have eyes in the back of his head.
- The Long List: The announcer rattles off an enormous number of changes to the teams starting lineups, enough that it may as well be two entirely different teams taking the ice. At which point he reveals that it is two entirely different teams taking the ice.Narrator: Oh yes, the teams will be the Loose Leafs versus the Anteaters, instead of the Moose and Pelicans...
- Mid-Battle Tea Break: All the fighting in the stands stop when a 10-minute rest period begins. The fighting immediately resumes when the period ends.
- Motor Mouth: The narrator's dialogue gets faster as the game gets more intense. By the time the Hockey Fight starts, he's practically indecipherable.
- Oh, Crap!: How the ref reacts when he realizes he's about to get flattened by the incoming crush of players.
- Reality Has No Soundtrack: Paul J. Smith is credited for writing the music for this short, but the only music heard is an electric organ waltz when the ice polisher cleans the ice during the rest period. Otherwise, the background noise of cheers and jeers from the audience accompanies the short.
- Red Baron: A trio: "Ice Box" Bertino, "Fearless" Ferguson & "Clean Game" Kinney.
- Running Gag: "Here come Bertino and Ferguson out of the penalty box... *referee whistles* ...and there go Bertino and Ferguson back into the penalty box." Followed immediately by the ref losing control of his skates in increasingly catastrophic fashion.
- Also the scenes of two spectators beating each other up in increasingly violent ways.
- Stock Footage: Two notable examples, both of which are Played for Laughs.
- For the Running Gag, Bertino and Ferguson's fighting, and them getting sent to the penalty box, is the exact same animation used four times.
- To add bizarreness to the already insane riot, clips from older Disney films are seen, including How to Play Football, How to Play Baseball, Victory Through Air Power and even Pinocchio.
- Stock Sound Effect: When the players steal everything off of the goalie except his long johns, his sneeze is actually one of Sneezy's sneezes from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- Trouser Space: Clean Game Kinney keeps his pucks in his right pant pocket. It's implausible enough at the start, where he's shown with about a dozen...and then a goalie accidentally hits him near the end, whereupon thousands of pucks erupt from his trousers.
- Tuckerization: The narrator frequently calls out the surnames of the players, who are all named after various Disney artists and animators that worked on the short. Likewise the referee, "Clean Game" Kinney, is named for Jack Kinney, the short's director.
- Unnecessary Roughness: Bertino and Ferguson keep getting sent to the penalty box for this.
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating: The two spectators we see beating the living hell out of each other throughout the whole short mostly pummel one another to celebrate that their respective sides are winning at the moment.
- Visual Pun: A lot of the comedy is derived from the players repeatedly clubbing each other with their sticks - a literal case of Slapstick, if you will.
