Release Date:

August 22, 1953

Main Character(s):

Foghorn Leghorn, Barnyard Dawg, Weasel

Summary:

Foghorn Leghorn creates trouble for Barnyard Dawg when he’s guarding the chickens by letting chicks run away and be in danger of being caught by the Weasel. When the Weasel himself shows up, Foghorn and Dawg use him against each other.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1265 and was released as a Looney Tune.

This is the first of three Foghorn cartoons to feature the memorable character of the Weasel. This Weasel constantly responds with numerous enthusiastic “Yeah”’s, slurps loudly at the thought of a chicken meal, and is overall not very bright. He would also appear in 1956’s “Weasel Stop” and 1958’s “Weasel While You Work”, as well as in one of the two Foghorn Leghorn episodes from Looney Tunes Cartoons, “Weaselin’ In” (2021).

A model sheet reveals that the Weasel was originally going to be named “Willie”, although this was dropped likely due to them having made another cartoon with a completely different weasel named Willie called “The Sneezing Weasel” back in 1938.

The title is obviously a pun for “Pop Goes the Weasel”.

This is the first cartoon where Foghorn is officially named Foghorn Leghorn, with his name being above the title.

The cartoon provides a far tamer alternative to pouring a sticky substance over someone else to enable feathers to get stuck to them: Foghorn pours a barrel of syrup over Dawg and then covers him with the feathers from a pillow to have him become a “Red Island Rhode” for the Weasel (in a similar way, the 1992 classic “Home Alone 2” also has one where Harry and Marv get drenched in several cans of varnish and making their title, the Sticky Bandits become literal, which enables birdseed and then pigeon feathers to get stuck to said varnish).

The animator draft for the cartoon can be viewed here.

Favorite Scene:

The aforementioned scene of Foghorn covering Dawg with syrup and feathers to make him look like a chicken, followed by the Weasel taking Dawg back to his lair and begin peeling off the feathers as well as his fur.

What Happens in This One:

A sign saying, “Wanted: Weasel (Chicken Thief)” is shown, with a picture of the Weasel looking a lot more sinister than he actually is. Dawg is then seen marching on all fours while talking like a drill sergeant: “Hut, 2, 3, 4! Hut, 2, 3, 4! Hut, 2, 3, 4! Halt! About… face!”, before marching the other way and repeating, “Hut, 2, 3, 4!” numerous times. Foghorn, eating an ear of corn, watches him and remarks, “That dog-, I say, that dog’s strictly G.I. Gibberin’ idiot, that is. Supposed to-, I say, he’s supposed to guard us chickens”. Foghorn then joins Dawg in marching and eventually his drill sergeant talk in unison, “Hut! I say, Hut, 2, 3, 4! Hut, 2, 3, 4!” He stops and gets Dawg’s attention with, “Hey, Dawg!” Dawg asks him in a somewhat irritable mood, “What do YOU want?” (animated by Charles McKimson)

Foghorn informs Dawg, “You better, I say, you better keep a SHARP eye on us chickens. I hear the Weasel’s close by. Wouldn’t do to let any of them young’uns slither out under the fence, boy”. Dawg dismisses this with, “Ah, go peddle your papers!” Foghorn deliberately lifts the wire fence up slightly with his foot, allowing a chick to run out, “Jus-, I say, just trying to do you a good turn, Dawg!” (animated by Charles) He then yells, “Now look what ya done! You let a chick get out! Now, run, Dawg! Get him before the Weasel gets him!” Dawg chases after the chick, frantically saying, “Here, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick. Here, chick”. Foghorn opens the wire fence with his foot again, “There goes another one! Get him! Get him! Get him!” Dawg has just caught the original chick Foghorn let get out, before seeing he has to chase after a second one. Foghorn then lifts the wire fence up even higher with both feet as he hangs onto it, “Here’s a WHOLE mess of ‘em, Dawg! Better round ‘em up!” With both chicks in his hands, Dawg yells, “Hey! Cut that out!”, before chasing the entire flock of chicks as Foghorn watches (animated by Keith Darling).

Laughing at the work he made for Dawg, Foghorn remarks, “That-, I say, that dog’s busier than a centipede at a toe-counting contest!” The camera pans across to reveal the Weasel coming into view, before he slurps loudly in delight upon seeing the chicks. Dawg has managed to catch all of the chicks and is walking slowly so he doesn’t drop one. He accidentally does, but catches this chick with his tail before the Weasel can get him. Dawg struggles to put all of the chicks back into the yard through a knothole in the gate and obliviously tells the Weasel behind him, “Here! Hold these while I open the gate!”, but then screams in horror a second later upon realizing who he just gave them to as he shuts the gate back. “AAH! THE WEASEL!” He grabs the Weasel by the tail, “Oh, no ya don’t! Come back here!”, and leans him over the wire fence before shaking him around to set all the chicks free. Dawg then kicks the Weasel away, “Now beat it!”, before the Weasel is heard saying, “Yipe! Yipe! Yipe! Yipe! Yipe!” (brilliantly and hilariously animated by Rod Scribner)

After sighing in relief, Dawg spots (animated by Scribner) Foghorn having opened up a board in the fence and telling him, “Say, Dawg! This no-, I say, this knothole seems to be loose!” before removing it. “I’d better glue it tight before a chick gets out!” Dawg bangs on the board Foghorn opened and demands, “Hey! Gimme that!” Foghorn pushes a chick out through the knothole as Dawg watches the Weasel begin chasing the chick. Dawg slaps the chick out of the Weasel’s hands, “Drop that!”, to which the Weasel walks away saying timidly, “Yipe, yipe, yipe, yipe, yipe, yipe” (animated by Phil DeLara).

Dawg puts the chick back and says to himself angrily, “I ought to murdelize the big overstuffed feather-duster!” Foghorn walks out of the yard via the gate, and up to Dawg as he yells, “Dawg! I say, hey, Dawg! What am I doing on the OUTSIDE of the fence!? I belong on the INSIDE! I demand you put me back where I belong… Dawg!” Dawg begrudgingly agrees while picking Foghorn up, “Alright, alright. I’ll put ya’s back”. He complies by stuffing Foghorn through the knothole and forcing him all the way through by pushing him with a pole. Having gotten all his feathers removed from being pushed through the knothole, Foghorn is heard shivering, “Brr! Somebo-, I say, somebody close the door! I feel a draft!” (animated by Herman Cohen)

Later, the Weasel is seen sneaking along, before Foghorn opens another board in the fence and gets his attention. “Psst. Hey, Weasel. Look, boy, don’t waste your time on those little yellow fuzz balls! What you want’s a nice big eatin’ chicken, right?” The Weasel confirms, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!” and slurps noisily. Foghorn tells him, “Now, like I was saying, I know where there’s a nice, big, fine-eatin’ Red Island Rhode! You just wait right here, and when you hear me whistle, come a-runnin’!” The Weasel enthusiastically agrees with the same “Yeah!”’s (animated by Cohen)

As Dawg is heard doing his “Hut, 2, 3, 4!” marches again, Foghorn cracks open a barrel of syrup and pours it all over Dawg, who stops completely upon feeling the syrup completely engulf him. Foghorn then rips open a pillow to enable its feathers to fly onto the sticky Dawg, before putting a rubber glove on his head to make him resemble a chicken. He whistles to get the Weasel’s attention and yells, “COME AND GET IT!”, while rapidly ringing a triangle. The Weasel hungrily takes Dawg back to his lair (animated by DeLara).

With his left foot inside the Weasel’s small hole in the ground, Dawg is seen grimacing and then screaming in pain several times as the Weasel is seen ripping off not only the feathers stuck on him, but also his fur! Dawg eventually jumps out and then lets out an “Uh, oh” upon seeing the Weasel in his hole. He pulls him out and sets him straight, “Now, look, Weasel. You don’t want no dog, which I’m”. The Weasel shamefully shakes his head before Dawg continues, “What you want’s a chicken!”, to which the Weasel lets out several excited “Yeah!”’s and slurps. “Well, I know where there’s a big, fat, loudmouthed slob of a rooster, and I’ll tell ya’s how we’ll get him”, Dawg continues before handing him a piece of chalk and a mallet before indistinctly whispering a plan to the Weasel (animated by Scribner).

Having gotten cleaned up offscreen, Dawg knocks on the fence in the manner of a door. Foghorn peers over it and realizes, “Somebody, I say, somebody knocked!”, before Dawg runs under the board he was peering over, causing it to move and put Foghorn in a bending over position, and allowing the Weasel to clobber him with the mallet (animated by Charles). Dawg comes back out and scolds a dazed Foghorn, “Ain’t you ashamed? Intoxicated!” Foghorn slurs, “Why, that’s ridiculous! I’m a tea, I say, I’m a tea totaller! Yeah! (animated by Scribner) I never touch the stuff, boy!” The Weasel then draws a straight line from Foghorn’s foot to his hole with the piece of chalk as Dawg is heard saying, “Yeah, that’s what they all say!” (animated by DeLara)

Dawg then tells Foghorn, “Come on. Let’s see ya walk this straight line”. Foghorn complies while walking dizzily all the way, “Perfectly absurd, boy! Hmm, why, there’s nothing to walk, I say, there’s nothing to walk in a… a straight line! Boy, I… Anybody can walk… in a straight…, before stepping right into the Weasel’s hole, causing him to regain his senses. After the Weasel slurps hungrily in delight at Foghorn’s foot, Foghorn believes, “Must, I say, must be gonna rain! My corn’s hurting!” He then smells smoke as he realizes, “Say! Something’s burning! My foot’s getting hotter than a sweat band in a fireman’s helmet!” (animated by DeLara) It turns out the Weasel is beginning to cook his foot above a fire on a frying pan (animated by Darling), causing Foghorn to do several pain-powered flips in the air while screaming every time his foot touches the frying pan (animated by DeLara). Dawg is seen resuming his “Hut, 2, 3, 4!” marching when he hears Foghorn screaming and seemingly has second thoughts. “Oh, I can’t stand to hear the big schnook suffering like that!”, and walks away to presumably help him. He instead comes back with a pair of earmuffs so he can’t hear Foghorn screaming. Dawg confides, “Ah! That’s better!” and continues his “Hut, 2, 3, 4!” marching as the cartoon ends (animated by Charles)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕