Jeepers Creepers is a 1939 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert Clampett.
Title[]
The title is from the song (performed by the ghost) "Jeepers Creepers", from the Warner Brothers' film Going Places.
Plot[]
One late evening at the Podunk City Jail, a report is sent out to the car Porky drives. So he goes to investigate the location. He is warned to be careful, as there may be some ghosts at the house.
At the location, a bunch of strange goings-on occur throughout the house. Inside a bunch of noise is coming from the ghost listening to spooky radio show. He turns off the radio, then resumes smoking his cigar. Then using the smoke rings he eats them like donuts with his coffee. He then sings for a moment and screams and makes noises all of the sudden before resuming.
He then switches songs and quickly takes a bath when he hears someone knocking. Quickly getting downstairs the ghost sees Porky outside of the door. He imitates a woman and tells Porky to come in, then vanishes.
Porky sneaks around while trying to determine what may be going on and the ghost hides in a random room. He puts two frogs into a pair of shoes and then puts them down, to make it seem as if someone is following Porky. The shoes soon get stuck around a jacket hanging pole and eventually a jacket or blanket gets draped over it, making it resemble a figure dressed in a pure black cloak. Behind Porky is the ghost creeping up on him. He bangs on the lid of a pot/pan to scare him, then vanishes again as Porky turns to see the "figure" approach. As he opens the door, Porky finds the ghost and runs up multiple flights of steps and right into the ghosts arms.
Upon realizing this he quickly runs down all of the steps and out the door. The ghost chases Porky outside and Porky quickly drives his car. As the ghost acts as a hitch-hiker, Porky speeds on by, stopping for a moment to come back and hold up a sign saying "No riders". He then speeds on by again as exhaust smoke from his car blows on the ghost.
Censorship[]
- This cartoon was shown as a colorized version (either redrawn from the 1960s or computer-colorized in the 1990s) on syndicated airings on local TV channels, on American Cartoon Network compilation shows outside of "The Bob Clampett Show" and "Late Night Black and White" (i.e., The Acme Hour, The Looney Tunes Show, and Bugs and Daffy), the "Merrie Melodies Show" (FOX Network edition, not syndicated), and on Nickelodeon so the ghost would be opaque and yellow. The actual editing of the ending (where the ghost, after getting exhaust smoke blown on him, is left in blackface commenting "My, oh my! Tattletale Gray!") has been done in different ways:
- The syndicated showings of the redrawn version showed the actual ending, but had the ghost in purple face so the blackface joke would be less offensive.[1]
- On Nickelodeon, the cartoon used a fake iris-out to abruptly end the cartoon after Porky's car blows exhaust in the ghost's face.[1]
- On Fox's Merrie Melodies Show, the cartoon ends after Porky drives past the ghost, who is trying to hitchhike.[1]
- On Cartoon Network in America (save the versions shown on Late Night Black & White and The Bob Clampett Show), the cartoon ended with an abrupt black-out as Porky's car blows exhaust in the ghost's face.[1] Overseas Cartoon Network channels (as seen on the picture in the Gallery section) have aired a computer colorized version, which leaves the offending scene intact, but, curiously, doesn't colorize the blackface ghost (except for the tongue).
Gallery[]
