Line #28 WesternAnimation/TokioJokio


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b41020b069025039ce2867b3ad65211d.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[JapaneseRanguage Oh, cock-a-doodre-do, prease!]]'']]
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4	"Tokio Jokio" is a [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1943]] WarTimeCartoon made in the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' series, directed by Norm [=McCabe=], who also directed ''WesternAnimation/TheDucktators'' (1942), his final directing credit for the ''Looney Tunes'' series before drafted into the army, with Frank Tashlin finishing the cartoon midway in its production. It's basically an anti-Japanese propaganda vehicle, presented in the style of a {{Mockumentary}} and considered to be one of the most racist cartoons Warner Brothers ever made (though it is not a WesternAnimation/CensoredEleven cartoon. Just a WartimeCartoon with heavy anti-Japanese sentiment). The majority of the jokes present the Japanese as ugly, stupid, weak and incompetent, while the rest are just [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame puns.]]
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6	[[ValuesDissonance Understandably]], the cartoon has been banned from public broadcast and distribution in America, falling into PublicDomain as a result. Nickelodeon actually ''did'' have this short in its library when it had the rights to air Warner Bros. cartoons as part of ''Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon'' and ''could'' have aired it, but decided not to. Meanwhile, Cartoon Network aired clips of this [with show announcer, Leslie Framm, explaining how cartoons like ''Tokio Jokio'' and others around this time were particularly cruel to the Japanese] as part of their ''[=ToonHeads=]'' special on World War II cartoons[[note]]the clips shown were the title card, the air raid siren gag where it's just two Japanese guys taking turns sticking themselves in the butt with a needle and screaming, and the "Japanese club sandwich" sequence[[/note]].
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8	Director Norm [=McCabe=] left Warners soon afterwards to sign up for military service (making this his final WB cartoon, and his most notorious due to how much of an UnintentionalPeriodPiece it is, if online discussions about old cartoon shorts are anything to go by), but nevertheless decades later he saw all of his war time propaganda cartoons as a [[CreatorBacklash personal embarrassment]].
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11	!!"Tokio Jokio" provides examples of:
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13	* AchievementsInIgnorance: The Japanese submarine being built underwater, as mentioned below under ArtisticLicensePhysics.
14	* AdolfHitlarious: Hitler shows up, wiggling his nose in confusion ''a la'' Charlie Chaplin's "Charlot" (or "Little Tramp") character when he receives Hess' postcard.
15	* AlliterativeTitle: The title card is called "'''N'''ippo'''N'''ews of the Week" and "'''N'''ippon '''N'''ifties Fashion". This was TruthInTelevision (at least for the first); the official Japanese newsreel during the war ''was'' called "Nippon News" (日本ニュース -- ''Nihon Niyusu''). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3wcIz0xFVE See here for an example]]
16	* AmericaWonWorldWarII: The cartoon was one of many produced at the time to boost up the morale of the US audience.
17	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The caricatures of [[UsefulNotes/IsorokuYamamoto Admiral Yamamoto]], general Masaharu Homma, and even Rudolph Hess don't resemble them at all. The Japanese are also depicted as so weak and pathetic that, had this cartoon been realistic, it would beggar belief that they could be a threat to any other country.
18	* ArtisticLicensePhysics: The Japanese are all building a submarine while the boat is at the bottom of the ocean. None of them seem to have any problem working on this object while being underwater. They don't even use breathing apparatus. Which makes you wonder why they would need a submarine in the first place?
19	* AsianAndNerdy: All Japanese are pathetic wimps.
20	* AsianBuckTeeth: All Japanese have buck teeth in this cartoon. The sports announcer even loses his pair of fake teeth when the cartoon iris closes around them.
21	* AsianSpeekeeEngrish: The letter "l" and "r" are replaced all the time.
22	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Most characters look straight into the camera at various points. [[JustifiedTrope Of course]], it is supposed to be an in-universe news broadcast.
23	* CirclingVultures: The rooster who appears in the opening shot is revealed to be a Japanese vulture in disguise, grinning in an evil and kooky manner.
24	* DatedHistory:
25	** Japanese admiral UsefulNotes/IsorokuYamamoto is depicted as a villain in this cartoon. He was certainly responsible in planning the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, but later historical research has proven that he felt rather reluctant to attack the USA — not out of moral convictions, but in the belief that picking a fight with the US was just going to result in a Japanese defeat sooner or later. Of course, the makers of this cartoon couldn't have known this.
26	** Mixed with BeamMeUpScotty: Admiral Yamamoto ''did'' talk of dictating peace terms in the White House, but it was far from the BadassBoast depicted in this short. The actual context of the quote was him trying to impress upon his superiors the true enormity of the task they had set themselves in attacking Pearl Harbor — Yamamoto wasn't promising to dictate peace terms in the White House, he was saying that the only way for Japan to definitively win against the United States was to invade, fight across the breadth of the American continent and do just that. In short he was telling his superiors "you're asking the impossible. They're not going to roll over and die with one bloody nose."
27	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The cartoon is in black-and-white, just like contemporary newsreels and all of Norm [=McCabe=]'s animated shorts in the brief time he was a Warner Bros. director. It happens to be one of the last wide-release WB shorts to be so.[[note]] Their ''Private Snafu'' shorts, produced by and for the military, continued to be in black-&-white.[[/note]]
28	* HurricaneOfPuns:
29	** The cartoon is announced as "Japanazi propaganda".
30	** A literal listening post, aircraft spotter, catapult device, tricycle landing gear, and mine sweeper are shown.
31	** UsefulNotes/HidekiTojo presents "Kitchen Hints" and demonstrates how to make a "club sandwich". It involves him making a sandwich out of a rationing card, then hitting himself over the head with a club.
32	** The Japanese sports journalist Red Togo-San is a pun on "Red" Barber and Ed Thorgerson.
33	** The "Japanese King of Swat" is a baseball player who literally uses a fly swatter.
34	** The segment "Headline '''Poison'''alities", instead of "personalities".
35	** Radio propagandist Lord Haw-Haw is depicted as a donkey called "Lord Hee-Haw".
36	* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: This cartoon was made at a time when this country's army was a veritable threat.
37	* JapanesePoliteness: The Japanese keep saying: "Oh, sorry, me so sorry, regrettable incident please" and variations thereof.
38	* JapaneseRanguage: A lot of the Japanese in this cartoon is standard English where "l" and "r" are replaced with one another.
39	* MisterBig: Yamamoto is presented as a small, pathetic guy walking on stilts.
40	* {{Mockumentary}}: The cartoon is announced and presented as a news reel captured from the enemy.
41	* NationalStereotypes: The Japanese all have big glasses, AsianBuckTeeth, an imbecilic grin, express JapanesePoliteness, speak AsianSpeekeeEngrish, rub their hands constantly and are short in stature. The Japanese "rising sun" flag frequently pops up. Carl Stalling's music also mimicks traditional Japanese music.
42	* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: The "King of Swat" misses the fly and gets swatted himself by the insect.
43	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: UsefulNotes/HidekiTojo, admiral Yamamoto, general Masaharu Homma, Nazi radio propagandist Lord Haw-Haw, Rudolph Hess, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini all make cameo appearances.
44	* NoFourthWall: When Yamamoto talks about the chair reserved for him in the White House a title card explains that the following scene will show the ''actual'' chair reserved for him: the electric chair.[[labelnote:Fun Fact]] No one was ever specifically electrocuted for war crimes. Admiral Yamamoto was shot down over New Guinea in April 1943, coincidentally not long before this cartoon came out. Prime Minister Hideki Tojo survived the war but was hanged by the Nuremburg Commission for war crimes, as were nearly all of Japan's civilian and military leaders… with the notable exception of Emperor Hirohito, who was intentionally spared (this infuriated [[UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur General MacArthur]] and likely led to his insubordination during Korea some years later) and actually died in January 1989 of duodenal cancer. On the European side, Mussolini was shot by his own people, Hitler shot himself, Lord Haw-Haw was hanged, and Rudolf Hess died in prison in 1987.[[/labelnote]]
45	* PropagandaMachine: "Tokio Jokio" is an anti-Japanese propaganda cartoon, specifically aimed to ridicule the Japanese army who were the enemy of the Allied Forces back then. But, some jokes don't even have anything to do with their military. The "Kitchen Hints", "Fashion" and "Sports" segment take potshots at the Japanese for no other reason than to ridicule them in these fields too.
46	* PublicDomainAnimation: The cartoon has fallen into public domain, likely because Warner Bros. was so ashamed of it that they didn't renew the copyright.
47	* PunBasedTitle: "'''To'''kio '''Jo'''kio" is a pun both on "Tokio" (an older spelling of Tokyo) and "Tojo".
48	* RacialFaceBlindness: Enforced. All Japanese people in this cartoon look alike: big glasses, buck teeth, imbecilic grin and small stature.
49	* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
50	** The Japanese sports journalist Red Toga-San is a pun on US sports journalist Red Torgerson.
51	** The donkey radio presenter Lord Hee-Haw is a reference to William Joyce, aka ''Lord Haw Haw'', an American Anglophile who worked for the Nazis and presented anti-American radio propaganda during the war. In 1945 he was arrested and hanged in 1946 for high treason.
52	** The joke where Hitler receives a post-card from "a friend abroad", who is revealed to be Rudolph Hess in a prison, with the line "Wish you were here", refers to Hess's surprise landing in the UK in 1941, where he tried, without Hitler knowing about it, to make peace with the British. Instead he was made a prisoner immediately. When Hitler heard about this he was furious.
53	** Mussolini sitting as "Ruin No. 1" amidst Roman ruins referred to the fact that he had already been ousted out of power in 1943. Still, the Nazis put him back in power as head of a small puppet state called the Sàlo Republic.
54	** It may surprise a lot of modern audiences that the "human torpedo" referenced in this cartoon was an actual device used by the Japanese, as part of their many suicide missions to attack the enemy. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiten See also here...]]
55	* ShoutOut:
56	** A Japanese baseballer is called "the King of Swat"; this was a play on the nickname of Creator/BabeRuth, the "Sultan of Swat".
57	** During the electric chair scene the soundtrack quotes from Music/FryderykChopin's "Funeral March".
58	** When Hitler is shown "Oh du Lieber Augustin" is played.
59	** When Mussolini is shown the "Figaro" aria from ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville'' from is quoted.
60	** When the submarine crashes "Taps" is played, as the Japanese soldier takes off his hat.
61	* TheShowMustGoWrong: Every demonstration the Japanese give to their audience goes spectacularly wrong.
62	* StandardSnippet: "Oh du Lieber Augustin" and "Figaro" were used a lot in cartoons from that era whenever Germans or Italians were depicted.
63	* StuffBlowingUp: A Japanese man sees an incendiary bomb, waits five seconds before approaching it, but gets blown up anyway.
64	* ThoseWackyNazis: Hitler and Hess are ridiculed.
65	* TimeMarchesOn: It's obviously a product of its time. However, one scene was dated even when this cartoon first came out. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is targeted, but by the time this cartoon was released he had already been killed.
66	* TombstoneTeeth: As part of the racist caricature, Japanese people are depicted as conniving and possessing large rectangular teeth.
67	* WartimeCartoon: One of the more infamous examples.
68	* YellowPeril: Somewhat granted, seeing it was made during wartime.

Context WesternAnimation / TokioJokio