Sunday Go to Meetin' Time

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Sunday Go to Meetin' Time is a Merrie Melodies cartoon by Warner Bros directed by Friz Freleng back in 1936[1]. The cartoon was released on August 8, 1936. Due to the racial stereotypes of colored people along in the short, the cartoon was withheld from being aired, and included into one of the Censored Eleven shorts.

The first of three Censored Eleven cartoons to be reissued as a "Blue Ribbon" release was this short, back in 1944. According to Henry Sampson's book That's Enough Folks, one person complained to an African American newspaper about the film's re-release during World War II. The film is aired and then passed on to television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, despite the person's criticisms being ignored.[2]
Despite its attractive animation and harmonious musical numbers, the cartoon was withdrawn from the broadcasting in 1968 because the ethnic aspect was no longer appropriate.


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Plot

The setting of a rural, religious African American community on Sunday morning unites both parts of the cartoon, but their representations of African Americans vary. All the characters are dark-skinned and have enormously large lips.
The first half begins with a song from the church's minister welcoming his visitors. Then, while singing the film's title song, a well-dressed couple tap-dances to church. A mammy and an old uncle polish the heads of pickaninny kids, and a woman takes a bra off a clothesline to use as a bonnet for her twin children are among the gags which follow.
Following on the second half Nicodemus the cartoon's protagonist discovered by his wife while playing dice. She exclaims, "You good for nothing! Get yourself to that church. The Devil's gonna get you sure as you're born!" and yanks him away by the ear. Nevertheless, Nicodemus, on the other hand, slinks out the entrance, preferring to steal some chickens instead. He is summoned to the "Hades Court of Justice" by a blow to the head.
"Shooting craps, stealing chickens, missing church, raisin' dickens!", a demon reminisces all Nicodemus sins. Through some kind of pinball game Nicodemus was sent into deeper hell. Big-lipped demons carry him to the Devil himself, who sings to Nicodemus that "you've got to give the Devil his due." The boss orders some demons to "do the works," but Nicodemus wakes up to find pitchforks prodding him. Scared by his hallucination Nicodemus hears the church bells and rushed toward the church to attend the meeting and join singing along with the others.

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The Controversy

However, the first half of the film includes racial gags, which are likely to have raised red flags for United Artists when the corporation decided to withdrawn the cartoon from television syndication in 1968. The stereotype of African American lethargy appears in multiple scenes here. A sleepy African American's bald head acts as a clapper for the church bell in between the first two tracks, but his laziness and sleepiness keep him from waking up inside the bell.
A cutaway from the tap-dancing then reveals a shuffled man with closed eyelids. He tips his hat on cue when a woman passes by him, despite the fact that he tends to be sleepwalking (or sleep-shuffling). One joke about skin color was lifted from Ub Iwerks' previous year's cartoon Little Black Sambo, in which adults rub soot on children and polish them to "clean" them for church.
The second half begins with more stereotyped behavior-based gags. When Nicodemus' wife pulls him by the ear and drags him to church, he is playing craps. They're both speaking in minstrel dialect, and Nicodemus sounds eerily similar to African American character actor Stepin Fetchit, who made a living as the sleepy character. Nicodemus sneaks out and attempts to steal chickens after hearing a few seconds of the song "All God's Chillun Got Shoes." By 1968, dice gambling and chicken theft had become tired racial stereotypes.


External Link

Sunday Go to Meetin' Time video in Dailymotion

References