Symphony in Slang (1951)

Directed by

Tex Avery

Genre

animation, comedy

Country

United States

Runtime

7 min

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 46 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A man arrives at the Pearly Gates and tells Saint Peter and Noah Webster the story of his life using slang. They take his words literally, leading to a series of visual gags that show their misinterpretations.

humorouswhimsicalfast-pacedplayfulinventivenostalgicabsurdclever

What happens

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. 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". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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