Wackyland 4: What’s It All About?

My previous posts on Porky in Wackyland have been about limited aspects of the cartoon: overall structure in the first post, self-conflict in the second post (along with more structural analysis), and the third post was about some gags used in introducing the do-do. Now I want to step back from that and look at the whole cartoon: What’s going on?

Why’s Porky going to Wackyland? We aren’t told. We have to infer his motive, if possible, from the newspaper cover announcing his trip:

While it is possible that Porky is a naturalist interested in rare creatures, the emphasis on the do-do’s value suggests a different motive: He wants to get rich, quick!

According to the Wikipedia, the phrase “get rich quick” has been around since the beginning of the 20th century. By the time this cartoon was made, it was a well-known cultural trope. If “get rich quick” is what Porky was up to, then Porky in Wackyland would be a commentary on get-rich-quick-schemes.

The film’s basic comment follows from the fact that Porky doesn’t get rich: such schemes don’t work. Porky sets out to get rich and what happens? He ends up in this crazy place where nothing makes any sense. It’s worse than that, however. The cartoon makes a very interesting comment on the kind of craziness that is “get rich quick.”

Recall the self-conflicted characters that appear in the first half of the cartoon. We have the man who’s holding the bars behind which he is imprisoned:

And the cat-dog that chases itself silly:

Then, at the half-way point where it’s given a self-contained vignette of its own, the three-in-one stooges:

Not only does Clampett devote almost half a minute to these guys, but he works hard at a gag about the traditional triple-ball sign of a pawn broker:

The little light bulb at the left tells us: “He says his mama was scared by a pawn broker’s sign.” We can puzzle all want over just what that’s supposed to mean. What the statement, and the image, does is to put the notion of pawning one’s stuff at the very middle of this cartoon that’s satirizing get rich quick schemes. Pawning one’s stuff is NOT a way to get rich quick. But someone who’s in the position of having to pawn stuff may be vulnerable to the seductions of such schemes. That vulnerability is at the psychological heart of this cartoon.

It’s only after this vignette that Porky reappears and takes an active role in seeking out the do-do. Up to this point he’d just been getting acclimated to Wackyland and not doing much of anything. Now he starts on the chase.

But it’s not much of a chase. The do-do may be out in front and, in that minimal sense, is being chased by Porky. But the do-do is manipulating Porky every bit of the way, even at the very end, at which point he reveals all his comrades. As there are lots of do-dos, none of them is worth a dime. Porky’s been played for a sucker; he’s been conned.

Of course, con games depend on the active complicity of the mark. They wouldn’t work if the mark didn’t want to believe that, however implausible it may be, scheme is going to make them rich, rich, rich! In that sense the con-man is working the mark against himself. And that, I suggest, is why we have those self-conflicted characters in the first half; they implant the idea of self-conflict in our minds so that it can serve as a subconscious frame for the action in the last half of the cartoon.

Just as the cat and the dog are joined at the middle, so in a sense, Porky and the do-do are the same character, but divided against itself. The do-do is no more, and no less, than an expression of Porky’s desire to Get Rich and therefore to transform his life in a miraculous way.

And so Porky does all sorts of silly things in order to keep the dream alive. It’s the dream that matters. And, in the end, the dream collapses in on itself.

As we knew it would. For that’s how cartoons go, is it not? Porky, of course, is Everyman, which means that he is us. And you know what Pogo said about us and the enemy; we are one and the same. We too often daydream of getting rich quick. And yet we can watch Porky in Wackyland without a trace of self-consciousness. It’s not serious, it’s just a cartoon. And so we relax, enjoy it, laugh ourselves silly, and thereby purge ourselves of the “get rich quick” demons, at least for awhile. In this way this wacky cartoon helps us keep our sanity.

* * * * *

Here’s a coda by Nina Paley: