PIG AND DUCK MANIFESTO #2: Bob McKimson
The next director in our Pig 'n Duck Manifesto is none other than Bob McKimson! He's just behind Bob Clampett for my ideal pig and duck dynamic, but might actually be a more pervasive influence on how I structure/imagine the dynamic.
It's actually pretty ironic that he comes on the heels of the Clampett post: in said post, I talk at length about the comparative sweetness of Clampett's Porky and Daffy--since he had the benefit of directing so many of their early shorts and really nurturing their dynamic together, there's the benefit of more earnest and general "cuteness" with Porky and Daffy at their most primordial. They're more of an unlikely but dynamic duo rather than a true dynamic of one against the other. There's a feeling of sorts of them being joined at the hip, even when they act antagonistically.
McKimson's pig and duck gives me the same amount of joy through the utter opposite. His Porky and Daffy are almost ALL antagonism. Porky is some of his most violent, reckless, brash and generally awful in the McKimson shorts, whereas Daffy can be at some of his most obnoxious and slimy and generally-unpleasant-as-a-pest. If I could describe them (and McKimson's direction/preferences for characters in general) in a word, it would be "meaty". They're meaty and mean and both obnoxious and discordant. And it makes for some of the most entertaining cartoons!
I love when Porky and Daffy are buds, but I also love when Porky is threatening to cut Daffy's head off and Daffy is calling him names and running him ragged and Porky is resorting to the worst versions of himself in retaliation. I honestly tend to default to the discord/antithetical attitudes when thinking of their dynamic first and foremost, in that their differences and how they contrast and the comedic potential from that always immediately come to mind. I think a HUGE portion of that is shaped by McKimson's handling. BUT, as we'll also see blips of, their dynamic isn't entirely all discord--like the Clampett dynamic, there's a slight undertone of them both being on the same level. They're unified through being the worst versions of themselves. And there are moments of amicability that come out of that, though, in contrast to Clampett's shorts, are almost entirely played for laughs.
McKimson's first Looney Tune he ever directed was Daffy Doodles, which is my favorite short of his and in my top 5 cartoons ever made. It's rife with all of the discord and chaos I love about the McKimson pig and duck team-ups and character flaws (moreso on Porky this time than Daffy), but he still hadn't really come into his own as a director yet--because of that, there's a certain "restraint" in terms of the cynicism and brashness of his later cartoons that keeps the appeal high in this one.
In it, Porky is a cop tasked with catching the notorious Mustache Maniac, running afowl (heh) and covering the city in mustachio'd graffiti. Daffy's goals of graffiti narrow from the city to almost specifically just Porky, clearly getting a very manic thrill out of the chase as Porky is at his wits end. Such a thrill to the point that he voluntarily handcuffs himself to Porky and turns himself in--all just for one last mustache slapped on the pig's face in the process.
There's a certain delicateness to this short not really present in the other McKimson's that makes it incredibly compelling to me. The direction is split and sympathetic to both characters, and there are moments where we both get to essentially "share" the emotions and psyche of the character on-screen. There's much more broader analysis I can, have, and will again provide on this, but to keep it pig-n-duck relevant (and save room for other shorts to be discussed) I'll try to be brief.
One of the best examples of this emotionality is a bit where Porky is grumbling to himself about how he'll catch Daffy "if it's the last thing I do"--moments after, we get to see, through Porky's eyes, a wide, sprawling pan of Daffy's handiwork as ad after ad after ad is vandalized. We've been seeing Daffy's handiwork all throughout this cartoon, but this specific moment has such a grandiosity to it that's coupled by keeping Porky in the foreground. It's more impactful with that framing, as we're explicitly seeing it through his eyes. It reads like a moment of true awareness and even awe at the extent of Daffy's pursuits, as if even Porky--who's been chasing him down all this time--is realizing that Daffy is really, really dedicated to his craft. The grandiosity of the pan, the swelling music, keeping it framed from Porky's perspective and the detachment of not being able to see his face and that emotional ambiguity therein, it just feels like a prime moment of Porky getting wrapped up in Daffy's world, so to speak--if only for a single moment. I also really love the "if it's the last thing I do" line, I know it's hyperbole but how long does he think he's gonna be chasing after him? This is indicative of another broader point that'll be a recurring theme of this post and is being hinted at here: Daffy has a knack for swiping Porky into his own pace and world and "level", able to disarm and distract and essentially play the perfect mind games that lower Porky's guard. It never feels malicious though, just playful.
The whole short is absolutely rich and I could spend hours gushing about it (and have!), but I'm prioritizing the interactions between pig and duck moreso than directorial prowess--so it's time to move on to some McKimson shorts that feel like "definitive" pig and duck to me.
Daffy Duck Slept Here is one of many perfect encapsulations of the Porky and Daffy dynamic. It's an entire short focusing on the odd couple dynamic and conflict of demeanors: Porky and Daffy have to share a hotel room and it goes as well as you would ever imagine such a sentence to go.
And that's why it's great. It's a very simple premise, simply hinging on that one sentence, but is made so full and entertaining purely through how well Porky and Daffy play off of each other with their diverging personalities. Porky just wants some quiet and sleep, Daffy bursts in drunk and starts hopping on the bed and being way overbearing and just a complete and utter nutjob (he has a friend who's a six foot tall invisible kangaroo, justifying Porky's claims of Daffy being an utter nutjob, only for it to be revealed that Daffy actually DOES have this kangaroo friend, somehow). Awful attempts at sharing a bed result in Porky dropping Daffy out of a 30 story hotel room (and calmly remarking afterward that he "hated to do that"); a vengeful Daffy does the same to Porky by tricking him--somehow--into believing his train is awaiting right out the 30 story window, only for this to actually be true.
If it sounds bonkers, that is because it IS and yet the character is still somehow rooted so firmly into the short and even into these utterly asinine story beats. It's just a classic example of Daffy being loud and ignorant and pushy and overbearing clashing with Porky's reservations and stubborness and stodginess. They both manage to be subtly ridiculous in their own ways that they end up complimenting each other's ""quirks"", to put it nicely, rather than it feeling like two brick walls interacting. This is maybe mirrored by how the end of the short is a "standstill", in that neither of them really win or lose. It's a textbook example of their odd couple appeal. It's my second favorite McKimson short behind Doodles, and one whose interactions I've not only internalized but effectively let dictate my interpretation for them.
Similar candidates for "archetypal pig and duck cartoon" are, but not limited to: Boobs in the Woods, Thumb Fun, and Fool Coverage.
Woods is another that's basically just a huge set-piece for character interaction and interplay rather than a meaty story: Porky is trying to camp in peace and Daffy bothers him incessantly. That's it. It sounds dry on paper, but, like Slept Here, ends up having SO many interactions chock full of individual "archetypes" that really just show how well rounded these guys can be.
And that's a big reason why I love that one so much: there's a lot of emotional variety in the interactions in this one. Very heavy on the philosophy of Daffy talking circles around Porky and sweeping him up into his own games, and with Porky having to snap himself out of it multiple times. Daffy heckling Porky for a fishing license devolves into him asking for a marriage license, and when Porky earnestly and quaintly expresses that he's not married, Daffy yanks the bait and jokingly proposes to him--that then sparks a suddenly irate pig to start throwing rocks at Daffy, which Daffy is quick to turn into an impromptu baseball game that Porky IMMEDIATELY succumbs to. He has a dedicated moment where he actually comes to his senses in front of/with the viewer, and the gag of the sequence ends up being how susceptible he was to Daffy's heckling ("Hey, what am I sliding for? I'm not DiMaggio! My name is Porky P-P------mud.")
It's very back and forth, but feels "intrinsic", so to speak. There's a lot of Daffy sweeping Porky into his charismatically hectic energy that is just too magnetic despite Porky's stubbornness to adhere (and perhaps exacerbating said stubbornness in the process when realization inevitably strikes), but there are also quite a few moments where Porky is able to disarm Daffy in his own more frank, blunt ways. There's a bit where Daffy repeatedly attempts to trick Porky into thinking he's caught a fish, only to end up empty handed--Porky actually catches Daffy in the act of this and even plays along to humor him for a round. There's a moment where he looks out of the corner of his eye and sees Daffy coming back in, and the next time he dives to see if the fish is there, it's really moreso humoring Daffy and confirming his own suspicions. There's just a nice, tangible back and forth that is sort of imbued--they're both doing these petty mind games, both trying to catch each other off guard or even humoring the other.
Thumb Fun is another cartoon that has this sort of equilibrium, but is potentially a bit more "amicable" with it. Like Slept Here, it's framed from the odd couple perspective: Daffy manages to "convince" (force himself into) Porky into picking him up as a hitchhiker and, like Slept Here, that premise goes as well as you'd expect.
The best way I can describe the vibe of their relationship in this one is, truly, colloquially, as an "old married couple". The antagonism isn't as open as the aforementioned examples as Porky is a little more neutral in his "hospitality" (which is maybe more accurately described as ignorance and just bumbling through), but we get a lot of glimpses at how even in a more neutral environment their personalities clash. Porky isn't dropping Daffy out of a 30 story window, but he is scolding him for wanting to speed--and bragging about his own good driving habits... while not looking at the road in the process--and Daffy is getting impatient at how stodgy Porky is. He wants to pick fights and cause road rage that Porky tries in futility to navigate around, but that too ends up with him slapping Daffy in the face to give him back control of the wheel so that Daffy doesn't get slapped in the face picking a fight... again, the McKimson shorts joyously bring out the worst versions of these characters in the most entertaining and hilarious way possible!
Their bickering doesn't even feel wholly antagonistic as it just does the logical (...well, maybe) result of placing two people with equally stubborn convictions and naturally diverging personalities together. It's also just fun seeing the more "neutral" and amicable moments too, ie where Porky isn't wanting to wring Daffy's neck. There's a back and forth of him being impressed by or putting stake in what Daffy's doing, whether that's shoving all of his belongings into Porky's tiny trunk (that explodes anyway) or attempting to sweet talk a cop out of a speeding ticket (which goes horribly awry, trunk explosion incident related). You see how their personalities diverge with the more clear cut antagonistic moments, but also the moments where they're on the same page--Porky anxious about the speeding ticket and Daffy's confident but impulsive shystering, Porky managing to reduce their fine by being cordial and his perfectly Porky-self and Daffy demanding that that's not good enough and arguing for less (which gets them more)... it again just feels fully rounded, somehow
Fool Coverage is again emblematic of all that's been discussed above. A lot of push and pull--it's a more domestic setting (Daffy tries to scam Porky into buying life insurance by deliberately setting up pitfalls for him to injure himself, and as you may imagine, Daffy suffers the brunt of his own slimy hubris) and so there isn't necessarily the axe slinging and gun toting and face slapping of the prior films, and even again some innocent, admiring impressionability on Porky's behalf--Porky has a few tricks up his sleeve in this one too, but he's gently obliging of Daffy's attempts to humor him (and Daffy even says to the audience, in relation to this, "How naive can ya be?"). Another intriguing example of two opposing demeanors and what happens when you set them loose together.
McKimson's characterization isn't necessarily deep, per se, but covers a lot of bases for these guys. Despite all of the antagonism and cynicism and "groundedness" of these characters (slapping Daffy in the face is a much more grounded action than chasing him with a gun--though McKimson's Porky has done that too--and the realism of the action feels more shocking and thusly amusing), there really is a sense of these guys being on the same page. Daffy is maybe more visibly eccentric than Porky, but I'd argue that McKimson's Porky is some of the most eccentric that Porky gets--and he's already a pretty innately, if quaintly, eccentric character! It's almost Laurel and Hardy-esque, or The Three Stooges Minus One. They're unified in their "unseemly" habits and quirks and characterization. I think it's telling that a lot of McKimson shorts have so much back and forth between the characters that it feels like a tie, even if it isn't exactly. Daffy is more the fall guy than Porky is, but both put up a terrific fight to get to this point.
And there are still glimpses of """friendship""", or perhaps "harmony", throughout. They're not two forces explicitly against each other, but sort of feeding into each other. They're the sum of their differences... maybe. The more that McKimson's filmography with them stretches on, the more they seem to mellow out (if Dime to Retire were made about 6 years earlier, I'm not sure it wouldn't have ended with Porky pulling a gun on Daffy... or an axe, or dropping him from a 30 story window, or), but that odd couple dynamic remains.
So much to the point that it winds up being a sort of unifying force. I am again pulling out the famed "McKimson ladder image", as I think this drawing he did just illustrates this dynamic and point best, and touches upon some of the unlikely friendliness (or partnership, is perhaps the better word) that serves as an undercurrent to their dynamic. Two peas of the same stubborn, impressionable, quirky pod
Daffy's Inn Trouble is the last pig and duck joint McKimson directed, and while I can't exactly say it's good (late-era McKimson is a discussion for another post), it's "emblematic". It's the early '60s at this point and McKimson's dynamic for the characters has softened up considerably--any acerbicness on Porky's behalf is almost accidental and mainly observational, but somehow Daffy manages to turn it into a back and forth--if only by and against himself--while Porky remains detached throughout. Daffy thinks Porky is treating him unfairly as he works at his inn (and to be fair, Porky giving him a new broom as a present is pretty hilariously backhanded) and then works to set up his own rival inn to "get back" at Porky. He thusly spends the whole cartoon goading him into a tug-o-war that Porky is both oblivious to and wants no part of, which only fuels Daffy's vengeance, before his hubris does him in again.
There are some notes on Daffy's characterization in this one that are better suited for an analysis on the cartoon itself rather than the pig-n-duck dynamic, in that he's much more openly antagonistic than he has ever been previously in the McKimson shorts. But it never comes off as unpleasant, somehow--mainly due to Porky's non-reactions, it's essentially Daffy against himself as Porky just quaintly observes the hole he's digging for himself. Essentially a McKimson take on the Chuck Jones dynamic, only more angry, vengeful, cynical, and meaty.
The ending to the short is a big example of the "secret sauce" to the Porky and Daffy dynamic for me: Daffy's attempts to sabotage Porky prompt the discovery of an oil deposit beneath Porky's hotel, which prompts Porky to upgrade his hotel into a big ritzy splurge and he "cordially" hires Daffy back as bygones are bygones. He directs Daffy to his new office... which is a broom closet, and prompting a disgruntled Daffy to rightly quip "Y'know, I'll bet if he put his mind to it, he could be positively ob-NOX-ious!"
THAT'S IT! YES! That's it!!! I think it's a bit easy to miss at times, but Porky can and often IS as obnoxious and petty and quirky as Daffy is, and the McKimson shorts display this the best. It takes two to tango. Daffy is maybe more forward with his pushiness and antagonism, but Porky both entertains it and pushes back just as much as he does--just in his own way. They are again on the same level: they're both complacent in the messes they get themselves into. It's a two-sided dynamic.
And that's just why I love the McKimson dynamic so much. It's brusque, it's mean, it's grounded, it's ridiculous, but never feels unfair or undeserved. Porky and Daffy both dig their own graves. It's never all 100% antagonism, though, as that aforementioned undercurrent of equilibrium is very much felt. I've often compared Porky and Daffy's dynamic as a sort of "sibling rivalry"--they're like the siblings who are very very close in age and because of this can be very close, but the competitiveness and pettiness and squabbling is ramped up to the nines.
McKimson's dynamic maybe is the most formative version to me, or at least the one I unconsciously borrow from the most. I'm a sucker for odd couple dynamics and comedic foils and contrast, but especially if there's still a sort of unifying throughline. Perhaps there's also something liberating about seeing Porky, so known for being cute and quaint and reserved and a little quirky but not to a distracting degree, being a stubborn, irrational, often clueless and very petty force of nature who invites Daffy's heckling unto himself as much as he tries to fight against it. I also just love McKimson's Daffy and his take on the duck is my favorite flavor of cynicism: he can be slimy and unnecessarily indignant and insensitive and forceful and clueness, but, somehow, there's still an underdog component to him and a charisma. Charisma through lack of charisma, maybe.
I have often said that this photo is Porky and Daffy, and I think the McKimson dynamic is the prime suspect in me thinking that.
For as much as I love when they're buds, I just love any two-sided conflict between them and especially if it's irrational and stupid and again that same flavor of sibling rivalry. There are shades of this in arguably all the directors' takes, but this was McKimson's staple and I believe a huge component of why I am such a fan.
BOB MCKIMSON PIG 'N DUCK SHORTS YOU SHOULD WATCH (links included):
discoholicmusic
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
prguitarman
dailybridgerton
stormborns
gracieabrams
ellievsbear
