Nutty News is a 1942 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Bob Clampett.
The cartoon has no plot to speak of, and is a string of spot gags travelogue spoof in the vein of Tex Avery, with narration provided by Elmer Fudd (who is offscreen for the whole picture).
Tropes:
- Anachronism Stew: At the end of the cartoon, three Battleships are shown sailing together in a line: the first is identified as the USS Connecticut, the second is identified as USS Mississippi, and the third is the USS California (which, naturally, is the only one the sun is shining on). At the time the cartoon was released, the Connecticut (BB-18) had been scrapped in 1923 (and as a Pre-Dreadnought it was obsolete anyway), and the California (BB-44) had been sunk at Pearl Harbor (though probably after the scene had been animated); only the Mississippi (BB-41) was in active service at the time.
- Bait-and-Switch: The art studio scene, where it sets the audience up to think the artist is going to show them a nude woman painting, only to reveal he painted his thumb instead.
- Bowdlerization: The version of this short shown on Nickelodeon cut the sequence featuring an invention to help little boys stay still in the barber chair when getting their haircut: a jack-in-the-box with Adolf Hitler as the jack.
- Most versions of this short shown on TV (particularly the version that was on Nickelodeon) replaces the Credits Gag where the title card is upside-down before correcting itself with the title card already right-side-up.
- Creator Cameo: Several Looney Tunes staff are caricatured as incidental characters, including Leon Schlesinger, his assistant Henry Binder and animator Ken Harris.
- Credits Gag: The opening credits are accidentally placed upside down before being quickly realigned.
- Epic Fail: The gag involving a pro baseball pitcher trying to throw a silver dollar across a river, only to wind up throwing it no more than a few feet in front of him.
- The man at the restaurant wearing a rearview mirror to see if anyone behind him is going to steal his coat and hat somehow managed to get his pants stolen while having dinner.
- Interactive Narrator: During the firefly scene, Elmer Fudd asks the fireflies to light up, but is told by them to be quiet instead. He also interacts with an artist and baseball player later on.
- Interspecies Romance: The punchline of the fox hunting vignette is that the lead hunting dog is flirting with the lady fox while the other hunting dogs are still scrambling to find them.
- Its Awlays Sunny In Miami: Referenced in the final scene in the cartoon as a sight gag- if it's always sunny in California, it's always sunny on the USS California!
- Limited Animation: During the rabbits multiplying gag, the only thing that is animated is their mouths—the rest of it is just drawn as part of the background.
- Newsreel: A parody of one, featuring Elmer Fudd as the narrator.
- Rotoscoping: Used for a couple very brief shots of a fox hunter in silhouette.
- The Runt at the End: A much smaller dog falls behind the pack of hunting dogs.
- Sexy Silhouette: The unseen model that is (seemingly) being painted by an artist is depicted like this.
- Shout-Out:
- When a moose whacks a hunter with his own moose caller, he stands triumphant and bellows a Tarzan yell.
- The baseball player, Carl Bubble, is a take on real-life player Carl Hubbell.
- Single-Season Country: Referenced via sight gag at the end of the cartoon, when the USS California is shown in perpetual sunlight, even when the rest of the fleet is in the middle of a storm.
- Standard Snippet:
- "Tales of the Vienna Woods" plays during the restaurant scene.
- "You're a Horses Ass" plays when an artist shows the audience he was painting his thumb instead of the model.
- Beethoven's "Minuet in G" plays during the baseball skit.
- Stock Footage:
- The father duck taking his ducklings for a walk is reused from Clampett's Chicken Jitters (1939).
- A few fox hunting gags are reused from Of Fox and Hounds (1940).
- Visual Pun: The rabbits "multiplying" scene, which has two rabbits quickly multiplying mathematical sums (two times tables).
- Wartime Cartoon: Some topical references are made to World War 2. During the barber scene, a spring loaded mask of Hitler is used to scare a kid stiff so his hair can be trimmed. The firefly gag also involves the bugs refusing to light up because they're having a blackout.
