oscaralbert Review of Don't Axe Me

Don't Axe Me (1958)

This brief cartoon features several anomalies within the Looney Tunes Universe . . .

[6/10 · 26 April 2018]

. . . including a rare appearance by an equally speech-challenged MRS. Elmer Fudd, as well as an exchange in which Barnyard Dog speaks directly to Mrs. Fudd during a Game of Charades, and she understands and replies back in American (as opposed to Bow-Wow). This latter conversation implies a means of communication which does NOT exist between Elmer and his mutt, based upon the lack of such a link during earlier scenes between the two males. (But who's expecting internal consistency from a cartoon, anyway?) When DON'T AXE ME is considered within the context of Warner Bros.' always prophetic Animated Shorts Seers division, however, perhaps the most salient thing about it is the sequence of items--axe, straight razor, axe again, and finally shot gun--with which Elmer--representing the Red Commie KGB Russian-backed White House usurper--seeks to behead Daffy Duck, who doubtless is a composite stand-in for all of the political hack stooges, Fifth Columnists, Quislings, and Traitors making up the Kremlin's "Cabinet" in Washington, DC, Today. With DON'T AXE ME, the Clairvoyant Looney Tuners are foreshadowing the current DC Swamp Critter Chaos, in which no member of the treasonous administration is safe in their position since Moscow is calling all of the shots.