Release Date:

June 3, 1939

Main Character(s):

Egghead

Summary:

A parody of Ripley’s “Believe It or Not” with “believe it or else” gags around the world. Egghead appears throughout the cartoon disbelieving everything, either vocally or walking across the screen with picket signs.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The banner above the Warner Bros. shield in this cartoon has the words “Warner Bros” in a different font.

This is Egghead’s last appearance before he would evolve into Elmer Fudd.

A scene involving the “berth of a baby” (a baby shown in a train compartment labeled “Berth 2”) was cut on all television broadcasts of the cartoon due to the two train porters being black men. Unfortunately, this censorship would affect the cartoon’s restoration that has so far only been shown on MeTV. While the whole cartoon was definitely restored, the full thing hasn’t been seen that way.

What I Like About This One:

Before the narrator starts to show his “odd and interesting facts that I have gathered from my many trips around the world”, Egghead immediately walks across the stage with a sign saying, “I don’t believe it” (his expression as well as the way he walks are also funny).

The first “believe it or else” gag shown is Mr. “Holstein Cud” who has consumed 50 quarts of milk a day for the last 2 years. His reply to the narrator is a moo.

A reverse snake-charming scenario where the snake is charming the snake charmer out of the basket!

A man building ships in bottles, except that he’s cooped up in a bottle while the large ship he’s building is outside.

A “human basketball”, a basketball player that dribbles his body like a basketball.

After we see “life on Mars” through a 200 foot telescope, a goony “Buck Dodgers” advertises his next Sunday paper. After his rocket blasts off, another rocket arrives, containing Egghead, who comes out to verbally say he doesn’t believe it.

The narrator saying that there is no life on the moon, but is proven wrong when three men are seen on the moon, apparently in the wrong picture. But as long as they’re there, they perform a trio chorus of “Sweet Genevieve”. The narrator tells them to speed it up since they don’t have a lot of time. So they sing the song very fast.

After a wishing well proves to be a fraud (a native wishes for a million dollars and the well replies, “So do I!”), Egghead walks across the screen again. This time, his sign says, “It’s a fake!”

“Mr. Chopovsky”, the world’s fastest woodchopper is shown in action, and moves out of the way- of a little tree barely taller than him!

“Mr. Nathaniel Nevermiss”, the world’s fastest knife thrower, asking for a doctor in the house after the offscreen result of throwing knives at his target (a stupid looking man).

With the aid of a super-sensitive microphone, we hear what a male ant says to a female ant: “Hey, Mabel!”

In the last gag, “Mr. Horace Buzzsaw”, the magician is about to perform a sawing in half routine when Egghead verbally says he doesn’t believe it a second time. So the narrator has Egghead be Buzzsaw’s volunteer for the sawing in half. After sawing through the box, the door is open, with Egghead sneering that he still doesn’t believe it. But then, his lower half walks away without him, much to his surprise. As the curtain closes, the screen blacks out on Egghead chasing his runaway lower half.

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org (this is an uncensored edit, with the restored print combined with the cut scene of the “berth of a baby” being taken from the Golden Age of Looney Tunes Vol. 3 laserdisc set, hence the lower quality).

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½