The Timid Toreador is a 1940 Looney Tunes cartoon, co-directed by Bob Clampett and Norm McCabenote , and starring Porky Pig.
The cartoon is set in a Mexican town. After an opening filled with sight gags, we're treated to Porky Pig strolling through the streets and selling very spicy hot tamales, one of which roasts a chicken that unwittingly eats one of the tamales. Elsewhere, a bullfight takes place between a cowardly matador, Punchy Pancho, and a bull named Slapsy Rosenbull. After some comedic escapades between the bull and his victim, Porky unwittingly walks into the ring and lands himself in hot water when the bull starts gunning for him.
Tropes:
- Animate Inanimate Object: In the opening, a lady is washing a pair of long johns and whacks it with a paddle to straighten it out. Not a moment later, the long johns spring to life and whack her behind with the paddle before diving back into the fountain, leaving the woman staring at the viewer in stunned silence.
- Beastly Bloodsports: The centerpiece of the cartoon involves a bullfight.
- Big Eater: Slapsy devours Porky's entire box of Hot Tamales in seconds, and immediately comes to regret it afterward.
- Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: Porky's Hot Tamales are so spicy, that a chicken explodes from eating just one of them. Slapsy the Bull is sent reeling out of control when he foolishly downs Porky's whole box of them.
- Chekhov's Gun: The hot tamales are instrumental in defeating Slapsy in the end.
- Comedic Sociopathy: While the matador is risking getting gored by Slapsy the Bull, the announcer keeps a jovial attitude through the whole thing. He even casually messes with a yo-yo while commenting on the bullfight.
- Girly Scream: The matador lets off a few of these as Slapsy chases him.
- Oh, Crap!: Porky does a double take when he realizes too late that Slapsy is gunning for him.
- Out of Focus: Porky is absent from more than half the cartoon, and doesn't factor into the plot until the climax.
- Public Domain Animation
- Shout-Out:
- The sombrero-shaped restaurant seen in the opening is a reference to an old chain of Los Angeles restaurants called the Brown Derby.
- Slapsy Rosenbull is a reference to then-famous boxer Maxie Rosenbloom.
- Porky impersonates Oliver Hardy for the ending gag.
- Standard Snippet: While he's selling tamales, Porky is strutting to the staple south of the border tune "La Cucaracha" with his own lyrics on top.
- Stock Footage: The shot of the audience throwing their hats in the air is reused animation from a Frank Tashlin color cartoon called Little Pancho Vanilla (1938).
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Another matador at one point rests on his horse and uncontrollably laughs at Slapsy, setting himself right up as a target. Thankfully, he doesn't die when Slapsy rams him—he just gets mashed up with his horse into a centaur for a sight gag.
- Porky foolishly walks right into an active bull ring to sell his hot tamales. He doesn't realize his gaffe until the bull is literally breathing down his neck.
- Visual Pun: The poster advertising the bullfight in the opening lists the matadors, toreadors and picadors, as well as a 'cuspidor' (a spittoon).
