Release Date:

July 3, 1948

Main Character(s):

Daffy Duck

Summary:

The ACME Baby Sitting Agency sends its star sitter, Daffy Duck, over to babysit a mother hen’s egg. It hatches a chick, who doesn’t understand the concept of babysitting and assumes Daffy’s a stranger, so he runs off. Daffy must catch the chick, but his attempts to get to him backfire, with most of them provoking the wrath of a bulldog named Spike.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1087 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was produced in Cinecolor, resulting in it being finished early. It also uses the 1949 orange rings with the black background.

The title is a play on words for the phrase “up standing citizen”. As sitting is the opposite of standing, this play on words is also used as the cartoon’s final line of dialogue.

The cartoon was originally titled “Daffy Duck- Babysitter”.

The animator draft for the cartoon can be viewed here.

“Powerhouse” plays during the scene where Spike backs Daffy up onto the roof of the barn before making him fall off.

Interestingly, this cartoon as well as Daffy’s next two appearances (“You Were Never Duckier” and “Daffy Dilly”, both directed by Jones) have him saying, “Sufferin’ succotash!” at one point.

What I Like About This One:

The agency’s president is a pig named “I. Squeel”, their slogan is “United We Sit”, and their motto is “Our Sitters Don’t Lay Down on the Job” (animated by Phil DeLara).

After I. Squeel gives Daffy the address for where he’s babysitting, Daffy tells him, “Consider it done!” and leaves (animated by DeLara). Instead of entering the elevator, he descends on the rug in front of said elevator (animated by Manny Gould).

On his way over to the barnyard, Daffy recites a rhyme about the blunders of babysitting: “Life is bitter for I’m a sitter and put little kiddies to bed. While I tuck the sheet around their feet, they’re busy slappin’ my head. They throw their trains and rattle my brains; my head is full of dents. No wonder I’m sour; goes on by the hour! And each hour I earn fifty cents” (animated by Gould).

Entering the henhouse, Daffy is shown by the mother hen to her egg. Daffy notes, “Hmm, a strong family resemblance” (animated by John Carey).

After the mother hen leaves, Daffy notices he’s moving without walking while reading “The Egg and I”. The chick has hatched so Daffy greets him, “Happy birthday, kid!” (animated by DeLara). The chick assumes Daffy is his mother, but Daffy replies, “Nah, I ain’t your mother”. He’s also not his daddy, uncle, cousin, or second cousin, so the chick comes to the conclusion, “Well, then you’re a stranger, and little kids should never have anything to do with strangers”. He then goes into a sob story, “I’ll face the world alone; bad cats will want to eat me; autos will run over me; dogs will chase me! Chicken hawks, tigers, lions!” before crying hysterically. Daffy asks him what’s the matter, to which the chick replies, “I scared myself” before reverting to calm again and walking out. “Oh, well. So long, stranger” (animated by Charles McKimson).

Initially laughing over the chick scaring himself, Daffy makes a realization: “Hey! Sufferin’ succotash! I gotta catch that kid!” and runs out of the henhouse in pursuit (animated by DeLara). Chasing the chick around a corner, Daffy ends up tripping over a large wooden hurdle set up by the chick who asks him, “Did you enjoy your trip, stranger?” (animated by Carey).

The chick runs and hides in the snoring Spike’s mouth but leaves when Daffy attempts to grab him. Spike wakes up to see Daffy with his hand in his mouth, with Daffy calmly panting and saying, “H-hello”. As Spike backs him up onto the barn roof, Daffy demands him to let go of his hand before finally freeing himself at the exact same moment he is in mid-air. After Daffy falls, Spike turns to the audience and shrugs (animated by Carey).

On the ground, Daffy is told by the chick, “Why don’t you stop hanging around here? Get yourself lost” (animated by Charles). Daffy chases after him, but skids near Spike who attempts to hit at him with a shovel as a warning to stay away (animated by DeLara).

Tired out from dodging Spike’s shovel attacks, Daffy soon chases the chick into another henhouse (animated by Carey) where the chick hides under a random hen. When Daffy attempts to reach for the chick, this hen gives him a suspicious look, so he imitates a train and moves away “chugging”. Unbeknownst to Daffy, the chick leaves (animated by Gould). The hen sees Daffy moving around in a barrel (animated by Charles), and attempting to reach for the chick so she replaces her nest with a feather duster with a dynamite stick underneath it. After the explosion, Daffy is unharmed but picks apart the remains of the dynamite stick like a flower and does the “loves me, loves me not” bit (animated by Gould).

Daffy spots the chick (animated by Carey) on top of a wire (animated by Charles), so he attempts to pole vault up to him. He loses his balance (animated by Gould), so the chick offers to give him a “hand”- a hand on a stick, that is (animated by Charles). Daffy falls backwards (animated by Gould), and destroys Spike’s doghouse. Spike compresses the stick’s hand into a fist and punches Daffy with it (animated by DeLara).

To the tune of “Umbrella Man”, Daffy uses an umbrella while walking across the wire (animated by Carey), but the chick blows at him so hard (animated by Charles) that it sends him flying backward and causing him to fall (animated by Carey) into a pigpen much to his annoyance. The chick asks, “Aren’t you gonna chase me, anymore? Or would you rather be a pig?” (animated by Charles)

Daffy next tries a slingshot which only fires him up against the side of the barn (animated by Carey).

Trying a catapult, Daffy launches (animated by Carey) high into the air over the chick (animated by Charles), and is about to land where Spike is rebuilding his doghouse. Seeing this, Spike moves his doghouse away from where Daffy will land, but he ends up landing on it anyway (animated by DeLara).

The chick assures Daffy, “Come on, stranger. You can do it this time” (animated by Charles) as Daffy uses a rocket which zooms out of control and stops in Spike’s doghouse just as he’s in the interior of said doghouse and rebuilding it again. Spike frantically removes the nails he was just hammering in and attempts to escape the explosion, but fails. After the explosion clears, Spike spanks Daffy with a piece of wood (animated by DeLara). The chick hands Daffy the phone, so Daffy can call the agency about this predicament: “ACME Sitting Agency? Well, your star sitter is gonna have to do all his sitting standing up!” (animated by Charles)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕