Release Date:

April 22, 1950

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam

Summary:

Bugs Bunny mistakenly tunnels into “Sing-Song” Prison when escaping from hunters, where prison guard Yosemite Sam (as “Sam Schultz”) mistakes him for a prisoner. Bugs spends the rest of the cartoon heckling Sam and getting him in trouble with the warden.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1115 and was released as a Looney Tune.

Notably, Sam is on the right side of the law for once. By the end, however, he loses his position thanks to Bugs’ antics, and ends up as a prisoner. Interestingly, Sam would be portrayed as being a whole lot more civilized and trying to get along with others in the Looney Tunes Show with a few notable instances including “Fish and Visitors” (2011) where becomes an unintentionally obnoxious house guest when he moves in with Bugs and Daffy after his house, which runs on solar energy, shuts down (due to the sun getting blocked by dark clouds); a subplot in “You’ve Got Hate Mail” (2012) where after Daffy accidentally sends hate mail to everyone he knows, Sam actually thanks Daffy for it and tries to be a better person to the point of changing his appearance (to the point of shaving off most of his hair to look like a normal person) and hosting a book club only to revert back to his old self once he finds his guests annoying; and in “Mr. Wiener” (2013), which mostly revolves around Daffy trying to win a hot dog eating contest to earn the title of “Mr. Wiener” (hence the title), Sam enlists Bugs’ help for him to perfect a stunt where he attempts to jump a long line of fifteen motorcycles by driving a school bus over them off a ramp.

The title is a play on words for “big house”, which is a slang term for prison.

The cartoon contains a variant of the line “I’m only three and a half years old” with Bugs saying he’s not 777174 but 3 ½ (unaware that the former number refers to one’s prisoner number).

“Sing Song Prison” is a parody of “Sing Sing Prison”.

The cartoon was included in the 1980 TV special “The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special” with an alternate gag during the scene of Sam chasing Bugs to the gallows. Instead of Sam getting hanged, the trapdoor for the gallows (which Bugs uses as an elevator) instead acts like a springboard which propels him away like a catapult.

This is the other Freleng cartoon to have backgrounds by Philip DeGuard.

This article claims that McKimson’s “Mexican Mousepiece” (1966) is akin to this one when they actually aren’t (the plot of that one has Daffy trying to send Speedy’s friends overseas to poor, starving cats, only for Speedy to constantly thwart him. Clearly a different plot than this one!). As someone who finds the cartoons from that period to be unjustly overhated, the criticism “most of the cartoons in these eras rehash previous and better cartoons” is so stupid, it legitimately irks me (just because a cartoon reuses a setting from a previous cartoon or is similar to it doesn’t make it a “rehash”!).

The cartoon was restored for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 DVD set in 2003 in normal pitch. It was restored again for HBO Max in 2020, but it is significantly worse than the Golden Collection master because not only are the titles photoshopped like with almost all HBO Max masters, the audio is also now inexplicably low-pitched! The other cartoons that are in normal pitch on the first Golden Collection, but inexplicably low-pitched in their HBO Max masters include “The Ducksters”, “Bunker Hill Bunny” (both released five months later), “Big Top Bunny” (1951), “Water Water Every Hare” (1952), “Don’t Give Up the Sheep” (1953), “Lumber Jerks” (1955), and “Baton Bunny” (1959). These are all yet ANOTHER reason as to why I’m not keen about getting cartoons already restored on DVD being put out on Blu-ray because if all of these particular cartoons end up being put on disc in HD, then they’d very likely be using these masters with butchered audio and all. I don’t have a problem with the cartoons that were originally low-pitched on the first Golden Collection, because those cartoons still looked absolutely fine. I have an issue with this one and the other seven mentioned having low-pitched audio in their HD masters because they WEREN’T low-pitched in their Golden Collection masters and said Golden Collection masters also didn’t have photoshopped titles.

What I Like About This One:

The rendition of “Down in the Valley” over the opening credits.

Fleeing from offscreen hunters during rabbit season, Bugs pants, “Gosh. I gotta find me a sanctuary in a hurry or those hunters will make hassenpfeffer out of me!” Going into his hole (animated by Ken Champin), Bugs ends up tunneling into “Sing Song Prison”. Unfamiliar with this place, Bugs climbs out of the hole and laughs, “Eh, too bad to disappoint those eager nimrods”. Sam suddenly runs into view and beats Bugs up to which Bugs dazily asks, “Eh… what’s up…. doc” (animated by Virgil Ross).

It turns out Sam has mistaken Bugs for another prisoner, “Tryin’ to pull an es-cape, 777174, huh?” Thinking Sam means age, Bugs replies, “You’re mistaken, mac. You see, I’m not 777174. I’m only 3 1/2”. Sam exclaims in bewilderment, “3 1/2!?” but then decides to make do with it while chuckling fiendishly: “Okay. So you’re 3 1/2” (animated by Ross).

The next scene shows Bugs in a prisoner outfit and wearing the identification number of 3 ½ while pounding rocks with a sledgehammer. “My mother told me there’d be days like this”, he laments. Sam declares, “You’ll do 50 years or my name ain’t Sam Schultz!” Bugs tricks him into believing a prisoner has escaped and while Sam’s not looking, Bugs puts the iron ball he’s attached to in Sam’s cannon so that once Sam fires it as an alert (animated by Ross), Bugs goes sailing over the prison wall. “Toodle-loo, Mr. Schultz! It’s been nice knowin’ ya!” (animated by Champin)

Sam goes out in a police car and quickly brings Bugs back (animated by Champin). He orders Bugs to get in the jail cell to which Bugs just shrugs and does so without a word. After Sam locks him up, Bugs comments, “Gee, I don’t get it, doc. How come you locked me outside”. “Outside!? Why, you’re INSIDE”, Sam replies. Bugs chuckles, “Oh, no I’m not. I’m outside. YOU’RE inside”. Sam falls for this, tells Bugs to get “in”, while Sam gets “out”. He only realizes his error upon seeing Bugs walking away with the keys and sarcastically saying, “Boo-hoo. Now I’ll never see my wife and kiddies again. Boo-hoo-hoo” (animated by Gerry Chiniquy).

Sam gets out and confronts Bugs with a rifle, “I’m gonna give you solitary confinement for 99 years!” Bugs retorts, “Ah, you wouldn’t be so tough if you weren’t wearin’ that uniform!” “Oh, I wouldn’t, huh?”, Sam asks and strips down to his undershirt. Deciding “Yep. I guess you would, alright”, Bugs puts on the officer outfit so that Sam unknowingly puts on the prisoner outfit. He then blows the whistle where several guards mistake Sam for a prisoner and beat him up (animated by Ross).

In a jail cell, Sam demands, “Get me a mouthpiece! I want a habeas corpius!” Bugs disguises as a sympathetic guard and tells him he’s getting him out. “I haven’t forgotten what you done for Mary and the kids, see?” He gives him an escape kit disguised as a loaf of bread and tells him to follow the map inside. Digging a hole (animated by Arthur Davis), Sam seemingly comes up in a random jungle and makes his way through it. Upon emerging from it, the “jungle” is revealed to actually be the large plants in the warden’s office! The warden yells, “Schultz!” before asking, “Just WHAT is the meaning of this?” The scene then cuts to the outside of the warden’s office where the warden is heard yelling, “I won’t stand for any more of your nonsense! Now get out! Out!” Sam leaves in a disgruntled manner, muttering, “I hate him” (animated by Champin).

Sam chases Bugs to the gallows: “Come back here, ya muley-headed maverick!” Bugs uses the trapdoor for the noose as an elevator to descend. When Sam attempts to use it, he gets hanged. After Sam trashes around hanging while ranting in unintelligible gibberish, he hears the warden yelling, “Schultz! Office!” (animated by Champin)

It turns out this actually came from Bugs, who is disguised as the warden and offers him a cigar. He then tells Sam to grab a chair to which Sam ends up grabbing the electric one. “Schultz, I’ve been getting some good reports about you. Oh, uh, pardon me. Have a light”. Bugs pulls the switch for the electric chair, which fries Sam and disintegrates his cigar. When Bugs asks, “Warm enough for ya, Schultz?”, he accidentally detaches his fake mustache with his cigar, causing Sam to get wise. A chase ensues with it eventually going back into the warden’s office (animated by Davis). The real warden is now back at his desk and upon seeing Sam with his billy club, asks a lethargic, “Yes?” before Sam clubs him upon mistaking him for Bugs. A large lump grows out of the warden’s head to which Sam sheepishly hammers said lump back down into the warden’s head. We cut again to the outside of the warden’s office, where he gives Sam one final warning: “I’ve had all the tomfoolery I’m taking from you! Quiet! One more slip, you strudel-brained bonehead and you’ll be looking for another job! Now get out! Out!” (animated by Chiniquy).

Finding Bugs walking along, Sam confronts him: “Halt! Stay where you’re at!” and then opens the prison door and orders Bugs to get out. Acting confused, Bugs walks out after giving a shrug. Sam then puts a large padlock on the interior of the prison door and gleefully jumps up and down: “He’s gone! I’m rid of him!”, only to hear the warden again yell, “Schultz! Office!” Upon realizing what this means, Sam gives an “Oh, no” before making his way back to the warden’s office (animated by Chiniquy).

Sam is now a prisoner and while he’s pounding rocks, he angrily mutters, “I’d like to know what dirty stool pigeon squealed on me!” Bugs flutters his eyebrows at the audience and literally imitates a pigeon while standing atop a stool (animated by Chiniquy).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕