A Day at the Zoo

This is one of the cartoons that Warner Bros. would occasionally produce in the late 1930s and early 1940s that was centered around a series of gags,[3] usually based on outrageous stereotypes and plays on words, and topical references, as a narrator (Robert C. Bruce) describes the action in a rapid-fire succession of anthropomorphic behavior, pun gags, or any combination thereof.

In this cartoon, the unifying thread is a visit to the zoo and the various animals therein: a wolf in his natural habitat (standing next to a door, a play on the phrase "wolves at the door"), a pack of camels (smoking Camels), a North American Greyhound (the bus, not the dog breed), "two bucks..." (white-tailed deer) "...and five (s)cents" (five skunks), two friendly Elks, monkeys who toss peanuts to their spectators, a baboon that convinces the zookeeper to switch the baboon's place with a similar-looking human onlooker, another monkey that scolds an old lady for defying the order not to feed the monkeys, a groundhog (and his separately housed shadow), another skunk gag in which the skunk (with its onlookers in a circle a considerable distance away) is seen reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, a giraffe that is fed its meal of corn by way of a ladder, white rabbits that multiply via adding machines, an owl (and the obligatory "hoo/Who" gag), a "South African talking parrot" that eschews crackers for "a short beer," an "Alcatraz jailbird" who insists he is innocent alongside a stool pigeon that insists the jailbird is guilty, an ostrich laying a large egg that, when she stumbles, cracks and reveals a dozen chicken eggs, an elephant new to the zoo without his trunk because it got lost in luggage on the way there, pink elephants left over from last year's New Year party, a former circus performer reading a newspaper who used to perform as a lion tamer before (as he puts the newspaper down) he reveals a lion bit off his head, and a Rocky Mountain wildcat (gone wild because he had won a sweepstakes on "bank night" that he was required to be present to win, and he wasn't there).

The running gag in this cartoon involves Egghead, who is repeatedly seen taunting a lion in its cage. The narrator repeatedly warns Egghead to stop, at which point Egghead shies away and admits (in a Lou Costello impersonation) "I'm a ba-a-ad boy" before eventually returning to his taunting. In the end, the lion is seen at peace; when the narrator presumes Egghead learned to leave the lion alone, the lion shakes his head in disagreement, opening his mouth to reveal Egghead swallowed whole.

• Danny Webb and Mel Blanc as Egghead (uncredited)
• Danny Webb as Owl, Jail-Bird, Second Panther (uncredited)
• Mel Blanc as Elk Named Bill, Baboon, Monkey, Parrot, Lion, Telephone Announcer, Stool-Pigeon, Mother Ostrich, First Panther, Wildcat (uncredited)
• Tex Avery as Another Elk Named Bill (uncredited)
• Arthur Q. Bryan as Joe Jumbo (uncredited)
• Robert C. Bruce as Narrator (uncredited)

• A remake/sequel, Who's Who in the Zoo, would follow in 1942, with Porky Pig as the zookeeper.
• The final scene in this cartoon would be alluded to a decade later in "Hare Do", in which Elmer Fudd (which evolved from Egghead) is swallowed up by a lion as part of the closing gag. Egghead's next and last cartoon, "Believe It or Else", is a parody of Ripley's Believe It or Not!.
• This cartoon was re-released into the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies program on November 8, 1952.[4]
• Danny Webb voiced Egghead, Owl, Jail-Bird and Second Panther,[5] Mel Blanc voiced him laughing and the animals,[6] Tex Avery voiced the other Elk named Bill[7] and Arthur Q. Bryan voiced Joe Jumbo.[8] All four voice talents were uncredited.
• Through eBay auctions in 2007, the original titles have been found for the cartoon, but it is unknown if they have been acquired for future video releases.[9]
• This cartoon's 28-year copyright period in the United States expired in 1967 due to United Artists, the copyright owners to the pre-1948 cartoons at the time, failing to renew the copyright in time.

• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1929–1939)
• List of films in the public domain in the United States

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to A Day at the Zoo.

• A Day at the Zoo on IMDb
• A Day at the Zoo at The Big Cartoon DataBase