Symphony in Slang
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Symphony in Slang
| image = Symphony_in_Slang_title_card2.jpg
| caption =
| director = Tex Avery
| writer = Rich Hogan
| story = Rich Hogan
| animator = Michael Lah
Grant Simmons
Walter Clinton
| background_artist = John Didrik Johnsen
| starring = John Brown
| music = Scott Bradley
| producer = Fred Quimby
| studio = MGM cartoon studio
| distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
| released = {{Film date|1951|06|16|U.S.|1958|06|13|U.S. re-release)}}
| color_process = Technicolor
Perspecta (re-released in 1958)
| runtime = 6 minutes, 43 seconds
| language = English
}}
Symphony in Slang is a 1951 cartoon short film directed by Tex Avery, written by Rich Hogan and released with the feature film No Questions Asked by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.{{cite book |last1=Lenburg |first1=Jeff |title=The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons |date=1999 |publisher=Checkmark Books |isbn=0-8160-3831-7 |pages=146–147}} Minimalist and abstract in style (many of the "gags" are created either with single, still frames or limited animation), it tells the story of a man (voiced by radio actor John Brown of My Friend Irma and The Life of Riley fame), who finds himself at the Pearly Gates explaining the story of his life to a bewildered Saint Peter and Noah Webster (also Brown) using slang of that era. The majority of the short is made up of sight gags based on Peter and Webster's literal interpretations of phrases such as "raining cats and dogs".
Plot
A swing-savvy hep cat reaches Heaven and steps before Saint Peter. When asked to account for himself, his response is so peppered with slang that the Peter cannot understand him and seeks the help of the dictionary-penning Noah Webster. As the protagonist narrates his life story in his slang-heavy dialect, we see a series of sight gags based on literal interpretations (such as being born with a silver spoon in his mouth).
The protagonist lived on the poverty line due an early failed career in foodservice. He travelled and met a girl named Mary in Chicago. He took her out dining, where she ate "like a horse" but he could not afford to pay the bill, upsetting a toothbrush-mustached restaurant proprietor. The narrator was incarcerated but eventually escaped and went to see Mary in New York City. She, however, was silent (due to the cat having her tongue). The protagonist learned that Mary was seeing an "old flame", who looks much like the stood-up waiter.
After another round of traveling, the protagonist went to make another plea to Mary. He was surprised to find her with many children, forcing her hubby to perform nonstop housework (to his chagrin). The narrator was so amused that he died laughing. Back in Heaven, the protagonist asks if Webster has followed him. Webster stammers, due to the cat having his tongue.
Availability
- Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 1 (Blu-Ray)
In popular culture
About 25 seconds at the end of the Madvillain song "Strange Ways" consists of a largely continuous sample of the film.{{cite web|url=https://www.whosampled.com/sample/337686/Madvillain-Strange-Ways-Symphony-in-Slang-That-Mary-Was-Going-Around-With-an-Old-Flame/|title=Madvillain's 'Strange Ways' sample of That Mary Was Going Around With an Old Flame scene in Symphony in Slang|access-date=October 15, 2021|website=WhoSampled}}
References
External links
- {{IMDb title|0044095}}
- [http://wardomatic.blogspot.com/2007/11/symphony-in-slang.html Analysis of Symphony in Slang]
- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/wardomatic/sets/72157603301340180/ Gallery of images from the cartoon including layouts, backgrounds and stills.]
{{Tex Avery}}
Category:Films directed by Tex Avery
Category:1951 animated short films
Category:1950s English-language films
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films
Category:1950s American animated films
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer short films
Category:Films scored by Scott Bradley
Category:Films produced by Fred Quimby
Category:Cultural depictions of Saint Peter
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio short films