Son of Looney Tunes Title Puns and Gags Quiz

Answer: Jack Benny

"The Horn Blows at Midnight" was not quite the flop in 1945 that, for comedic purposes, Jack Benny made it out to be. It was, however, his last starring feature. Only the title is referenced in the 1950 cartoon, which stars the rooster Foghorn Leghorn. Leghorn was based on the Senator Claghorn character played by Kenny Delmar on Fred Allen's radio show; Allen and Benny had a long-running mock feud on both radio and in films that each milked for countless gags over the years.

Answer: It had an all-Black cast

"The Green Pastures" was an adaptation of Marc Connelly's 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning play that depicted Old Testament stories as visualized by rural black children listening to their Sunday school preacher. The cartoon, which follows the general theme of the film, has long been withheld from circulation because of its use of stereotyped portrayals, including caricatures of many popular entertainers of the time, such as Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and the Mills Brothers.

Answer: Errol Flynn

Errol Flynn was the only one to have portrayed Robin Hood, in 1938's "The Adventures of Robin Hood." When the brief clips from the film occur in the cartoon, Bugs rubs his eyes and says, "No, it couldn't be him!"

Answer: D'Fightin' Ones

In the 1958 Stanley Kramer film "The Defiant Ones," Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis play escapees from a Southern chain gang who are manacled together. Their shared plight serves to gradually transform their initial antagonism into mutual respect and friendship.

In the 1961 cartoon, Sylvester the cat and a bulldog escape from the city pound chained together. The other punned titles are "The Last Angry Man" (1959), "Room at the Top" (1959) and "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955).

Answer: Life with Feathers

William Powell portrayed martini-swigging private detective Nick Charles (with Myrna Loy as his wife Nora) in six wildly popular "Thin Man" films between 1934 and 1947, and in 1947 also took on the role of Clarence Day in the film "Life with Father," adapted from the play whose record-setting run began on Broadway in 1939.

The cartoon borrows only its title pun from the film, the feathers in this case belonging to a lovebird chased by Sylvester the cat. Other film titles punned are "The Big Sleep" (1946), "The High and the Mighty" (1954) and "Of Mice and Men" (1939).

Answer: The Bug Parade

"The Big Parade," directed by King Vidor, was a 1925 silent extravaganza set in World War I. The 1941 Tex Avery cartoon consists of a series of unrelated gags involving insects. Other war movies punned are "The General Died at Dawn" (1936), "The Dawn Patrol" (1938), while "Pack Up Your Troubles" was the title of two Hollywood war comedies, one from 1939 in addition to the 1932 Laurel and Hardy classic.

Answer: The Wabbit Who Came to Supper

The undisputed star of the 1942 comedy "The Man Who Came to Dinner" was Monty Woolley, reprising his role in Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman hit Broadway play of 1939. Bette Davis shares supporting roles with Ann Sheridan, Reginald Gardiner and even Jimmy Durante.

The 1942 cartoon has Bugs Bunny (who else?) invading the domestic tranquility of Elmer Fudd. The other punned titles are either Davis starring or co-starring vehicles: "The Bride Came C.O.D" with James Cagney (1941), "All This, and Heaven Too" (1940) and "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964).

Answer: Design for Leaving

Just a year later, Lubitsch's 1933 comedy "Design for Living" would not have passed the self-censorship strictures of Hollywood's Production Code, depicting as it does the unwed and unashamed cohabitation of two men and a woman. Needless to say, that's not the subject of the 1954 cartoon, which has door-to-door salesman Daffy Duck annoying Elmer Fudd.

Other punned titles are "What Price Glory?" (1926), "Nothing But the Truth" (1941) and "Naughty But Nice" (1939).

Answer: You Were Never Duckier (1948)

"You Were Never Lovelier" was a 1942 musical starring Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth, with a score by Jerome Kern. The original 1937 "A Star Is Born," parodied in this 1938 cartoon, was not a musical, unlike the later remakes, in 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason, in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, and in 2018 with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. "My Favorite Wife" was a 1940 screwball comedy with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" a 1945 Elia Kazan-directed adaptation of the best-selling novel by Betty Smith.

Answer: Mutiny on the Bunny

The Oscar went to 1935's "Mutiny on the Bounty." Charles Laughton's Oscar-nominated performance as Captain Bligh was frequently parodied in cartoons, but not in this 1950 Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam nautical yarn. Bugs (or rather, Mel Blanc) did a brilliant Laughton/Bligh lampoon in the similar "Buccaneer Bunny" in 1948, though. Other film titles punned are "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), "A Star Is Born" (1937 and 1954) and "The High and the Mighty" (1953).