Beginning Responsibility: Lunchroom Manners (1959) User Reviews

Be A Wimp!

[boblipton · 3/10 · 12 May 2023]

The narrator of this Coronet short speaks his lines exhorting his audience to be polite and clean like he's talking to dull toddlers and isn't sure of his intellectual or moral superiority. Seriously, what is it about this mid-century instructional films made by Coronet and others for the classroom that causes them to act as if their audience was composed of idiots likely to go haywire at a direct statement? After beginning with a short, dull puppet show, we follow a student whose motivation in life is not to behave in the manner of a short, dull puppet. Instead, he acts like a prig.

And everyone else at his table does too, leaving it spotless. This the narrator informs us, as if we are three-year-old morons, is much more fun.

No it isn't. Who doesn't enjoy a food fight?

Whatta hunka cake!

[Mike Sh. · 6 November 2002]

Of all the classroom instructional shorts made in the twenty years or so after the Second World War, this is probably the most well-remembered due to its inclusion in Pee-Wee Herman's HBO special back in the early Eighties. It's also a favorite of mine because it reminds me of my earliest school days back in the late 1960's. The short haircuts, the Suburban School/Institutional architecture, the prevailing spirit of patriotism and respect for authority - those were great and innocent days. Vietnam? Racial strife? Political demonstrations in the streets of Chicago being busted up by maniacal Daley cops? Mick Jagger pleading "Let's just cool out" while drug-and-booze-crazed Hells Angels bust heads at a racetrack? We who attend public schools in Suburbia knew none of it. Ours was a world of family, faith, and Space-Age optimism, thanks to our parents, teachers, and school volunteers. Would that the youth of today could know such happiness and innocence.

I was also entranced by the size of the chocolate cake our protagonist got as a reward for his good lunchroom manners. I don't remember school desserts being that capacious...

An extremely pointless short that ends up being unintentionally hilarious.

[TheOneManBoxOffice · 2/10 · 8 July 2017]

You know what a lot of us remember from back when we were in elementary school? Those educational shorts that our teachers would force us to watch as part of their curriculum, whether they were about a certain subject such as science or music, or just about everyday common sense. This one falls under the latter, and if there is one studio that intentionally talks down to its audience as if they were preschoolers, it's Coronet Films.

"Lunchroom Manners" is considered to be their most notorious one of their entire catalog for the above-mentioned reason. It's the story of a boy named Phil, who watched a puppet show in his class revolving around a messy character named "Mr. Bungle" and his antics in the lunchroom.

The idea was that the teacher was encouraging her class to act respectfully during lunch and not make a mess. Fair enough, and that's the same message they were trying to convey in this short...except they go through every, single, solitary action this kid takes. He goes to wash his hands. He uses a hugely unnecessary amount of soap. He dries his hands. Goes to the lunchroom. Waits in line instead of cutting to the front, and to quote the king of Siam from "The King and I" (1956) , "et cetera, et cetera, et cetera". Now I dunno what children in the '60s were like at the time, but I seriously doubt that any schoolchild at the time was this stupid to the point where they have to go through a step-by-step program about something so simple as having lunch.

So what of the film itself? Well, in short, it's incredibly funny for all of the wrong reasons due to the absurdity that an educational short had to be made about the bare-assed basics of maintaining good human hygiene, as if this was that big of an issue at the time next to, I dunno, the fear of nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union? This wasn't the only one of its kind, either, as there were a few that were made before this one, specifically from Young America Films, and if you've watched a fair share of "Mystery Science Theater 3000", you'd know exactly what I'm talking about.

"Lunchroom Manners" is a rather pointless educational short and above all, a cinematic oddity through and through. Even though I'm giving this one star, it's worth looking at if you want to have a good laugh, though I highly recommend looking up the Rifftrax version, as the roasting commentary is borderline hilarious.

Hilarious classroom short of yesteryear

[TKCandy · 10/10 · 22 July 2004]

I saw this for the first time in a classroom in 1975 in first grade and a handful of times on the old "Night Flight" on the USA channel. It's a film short to show good manners - not only in the lunch room, but in the classroom, the lunch line and the bathroom as well.

It is one of those riot-us films that make you laugh as it teaches you to wash your hands before eating as this kid uses a gallon of soap to do so....and to comb your hair before you go to lunch - as these boys whip out their pocket combs for what has to be 2 mm of hair. All while this Disney-type narration rolls in the background "Joe would never cut in line. That's something a Mr. Bungle would do". "Mary covers her mouth when she sneezes." "Ricky is running in the lunchroom. 'Do we run in the lunchroom?' Mrs. Smith asks. No. That's something a Mr. Bungle would do."

To offer one last description: It is a propaganda film for manners with a real live, antiquated 'Goofus and Gallant' (of Highlights for Children) portrayal. It is ridiculous - and I wish I owned it.

The only place you'll find it now is on the original 1981 "Pee Wee's Playhouse" HBO Special - they show some of it there. Make sure you look for the kid to grab dessert.

Pee Wee Herman has the best line after showing the film on the aforementioned HBO special. "Big enough piece of cake or what?!?!"

Indeed. Thumbs Up.

Mr. Bungle!

[Gyrofrog · 6 November 2002]

As seen on the original "Pee-Wee Herman Show" (which predates the more well-known "Pee-Wee's Playhouse"). Typical 16mm film for classroom use, teaching good manners and hygiene. Most notable for using the name "Mister Bungle" to identify transgressors. I remember having to watch films like this (especially on rainy days) 20 to 25 years ago, and even back these were old!