Good Noose (Looney Tunes)

Good Noose (episode 908)
"Sure, but what could you do for an encore? Geez..."
Directed by: Robert McKimson Written by: Dave Detiege Release date: November 10, 1962 Franchise: Looney Tunes Prequel: "Mother Was a Rooster" (previous short) Sequel: "Shishkabugs" (next short)

Good Noose is a 1962 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson. In this short, Daffy Duck stows away on a ship and must convince the captain that he is a magician to avoid being hanged. It is often considered to be the worst Daffy Duck solo short to be directed by Robert McKimson.

Even Daffy mostly agreed that Captain and Mr. Tristan torturing himself is not funny.

Why This Is a (Pardon the Pun) "Bad Noose"

1. This cartoon is very strident, bitter and harsh towards Daffy Duck, much like "Golden Yeggs" and "My Little Duckaroo", as over here he is condemned to be hanged simply for stowing away on a ship.
   • Worse, this is the ABSOLUTE WORST Daffy torture episode ever produced, since Daffy receives the absolute worst amounts of torture in this cartoon, even when compared to other cartoons before and after this.
2. The Captain (a caricature of Charles Laughton) and Mr. Tristan are EXTREMELY unlikeable characters. The Captain has a utter lack of empathy towards the stowaways he hangs, Daffy Duck included, and displays traits of a high-functioning psychopath, while his pet bird, Mr. Tristan (equally lacking empathy) is an annoying, obnoxious and impatient spoiled brat whose voice will get on your very last nerve. In fact, they are so vile, that they make almost ALL of the Looney Tunes Seven Arts-era characters, as well as Daffy Duck and Road Runner from the late era, look so entertaining. Even Lawyer Goodwill from "The Case of the Stuttering Pig" wasn't so despicable as these two characters!
   • There's literally a scene of them holding a disturbing cheerful façade with sick smiles in front of an islander, who is completely oblivious to the mess Daffy Duck is in on the ship.
3. The short introduces complete, but notoriously uninteresting music scoring from William Lava. William Lava's music is highly contradictory to that of Carl Stalling's and Milt Franklyn's, and is (minus the title card music of this short) highly ill-fitting, dissonant, and lacks the rhythm and pace from the previous cartoons that makes the music feel upbeat and vibrant.
4. The short's title cards and credit photos are also reused images from some of "Daffy's Inn Trouble"'s title cards (which was a much better cartoon compared to this one), which is just showing how cheaply made this cartoon was.
5. The plot heavily revolves Daffy Duck trying to avoid being hanged. Due to the short's plot, it ended up getting the cartoon banned in the United States under the fear of young viewers attempting to imitate the actions done in the short, and was almost forbidden on HBO Max.
6. Daffy and Mr. Tristan's chemistry with each other is weak and ends up feeling as a mismatch between each other, not unlike Daffy's pairings with Speedy Gonzales.
7. Easily predictable gags, such as Daffy using an inflatable fish out of his hat to satisfy the captain.
8. The backgrounds are notably flat and the animation is a bit more limited, with washed out colors.
9. There is a very disturbing scene where Mr. Tristan cruelly locks up Daffy in a chest for 10 whole days. Daffy's appearance (pictured above) when the chest is opened after the 10 days is also very grotesque, and sympathy-inducing to look at.
   • In addition, when Mr. Tristan is called out by Daffy for switching boxes on the poor duck, Mr. Tristan GLOATS about it...
10. The cartoon's gags are rather not funny, but harsh and disturbing.
11. Poor ending, where Daffy attempts to blow up Mr. Tristan via a disappearing act trick, but ends up blowing up the entire ship, causing him to get attached to a noose by the captain.
12. In real-life, stowaways wouldn't really be hanged for jumping aboard vehicles, just kicked off or arrested by the police. This makes the Captain and Mr. Tristan's actions even more vile, because they could also be hanging innocent people or even the homeless, and all of this is done without remorse.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Daffy Duck is the only likeable character here in this short. Additionally, he does manage to give somewhat of a comeuppance to the captain and Mr. Tristan (unlike Rocky and his goons in "Golden Yeggs", Nasty Canasta in "My Little Duckaroo", or Limey Louie in "China Jones"), where he blows up their ship, even if it did cost the loony duck's life.
2. McKimson makes a fair attempt at a Charles Laughton caricature for the captain.
3. Robert Gribbroek's backgrounds, although flat by comparison with many of his earlier works, still please more than a few eyes.
4. Aside from Mr. Tristan, Mel Blanc does a good job voicing the characters, as always.
5. While William Lava's music is not very good, the music from the title card is rather catchy and sounds like it came from a "Popeye" cartoon. Fittingly, this is a boat short.

Trivia

• The short was rumored to be banned from HBO Max because of its violent scenes revolving around lynching, as well as presumed racial stereotypes (which is completely erroneous). However, these rumors are false and the short was restored for WarnerMedia RIDE, and is set to arrive on HBO Max later.

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