Line #58 WesternAnimation/OneFroggyEvening


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/OneFroggyEvening.jpg]]
2	%%[[caption-width-right:200:Hello, Mah Baby!]]
3
4	->''♬ Hello, mah baby, hello mah honey,\
5	Hello mah ragtime gal,\
6	Send me a kiss by wire,\
7	Baby, my heart's on fire!\
8	If you refuse me, honey, you'll lose me\
9	And you'll be left alone\
10	Oh baby, telephone\
11	and tell me I'm your owwwwwwwwwwn! ♬''
12
13	Referred to by Creator/StevenSpielberg as "the ''Film/CitizenKane'' of animated shorts", this [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1955]] Creator/ChuckJones ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]]'' short featured none of the regular Creator/WarnerBros stable, instead telling a standalone story about a construction worker who discovers a live frog inside the cornerstone of a building he's helping to demolish. To his amazement, the frog pulls out a little top hat and cane and starts to sing and dance. The construction worker naturally expects to strike it rich from his discovery. Unfortunately, the frog [[NotSoImaginaryFriend refuses to perform in front of anybody else]]. At the end, after becoming destitute and homeless, the man puts the frog into the cornerstone of a new building, and a flash forward reveals that a man of the future will soon suffer the same fate.
14
15	[[MimeAndMusicOnlyCartoon Told entirely without dialogue (not including the singing)]]. The frog would later be named Michigan J. Frog, after the only original song from the short, "The Michigan Rag", and become the mascot for [[Creator/TheWB the WB network]].
16
17	In 1995, Chuck Jones created a follow-up cartoon titled "Another Froggy Evening". It follows the frog throughout history meeting [[GenerationXerox strangely familiar men who attempt (and fail) to exploit him for money]].
18
19	----
20	!!"One Froggy Evening" provides examples of:
21
22	* AcmeProducts: The man works for the "Acme Building and Wrecking Co., Inc."
23	* AsideGlance: The man does one when the frog first starts singing and dancing. Later, a theatrical agent does an identical one when the man claims to have a singing, dancing frog.
24	* BeenThereShapedHistory: According to "Another Froggy Evening", a lone caveman built Stonehenge 300,000 years ago in order to exhibit Michigan J. Frog to other cavemen.
25	* BookEnds: The first and last scene show a construction worker discovering the frog and plotting to get rich off of its unique talents.
26	* {{Bowdlerise}}: When this cartoon aired on ABC's ''The Bugs Bunny and Tweety'' show and any installment show on the former WB network, the part where the man paints a "Free Beer" sign to get people to come in and see the frog was edited to make it look like the crowd came in because he hung a "Free Admission" sign.
27	* BreakoutCharacter: Michigan J. Frog appeared in this cartoon ''alone'', and yet became iconic and popular enough to be the mascot for the [[Creator/TheWB The WB]] network, and even make appearances on Kids' WB.
28	* TheCameo:
29	** In ''Another Froggy Evening'', Chuck Jones himself appears among the Romans booing the act. Also present, Siskel and Ebert. In that same scene, when the lions and tigers are released, tuxedo kitten Pussyfoot is TheRuntAtTheEnd.
30	** Michigan J. Frog himself makes a cameo in ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'' where he sings his classic "Hello Mah Baby" tune to [[ItMakesSenseInContext Bugs Bunny dressed as Marilyn Monroe.]]
31	* CassandraTruth: The construction worker tries to get people to believe the frog can sing and dance, but he takes too long trying to get their attention that the frog stops performing every time.
32	* CharacterSignatureSong: Michigan J. Frog's "Hello My Baby".
33	* DanceSensation: The {{Retraux}} original song "The Michigan Rag" fits this genre.
34	-->Everybody, do the Michigan Rag!\
35	Everybody likes the Michigan Rag!\
36	Every Mame and Jane and Ruth\
37	From Weehawken to Duluth\
38	Slide, ride, glide the Michigan\
39	Stomp, romp, pomp the Michigan\
40	Jump, clump, pump the Michigan Rag\
41	That lovin' rag!
42	* DesertedIsland: One of the places Michigan J. Frog ends up in "Another Froggy Evening". The fishing man who catches him has a box that says "[[Literature/RobinsonCrusoe R. Crusoe, Esq]]".
43	* DiscoDan: Michigan J. Frog brings the music of TheGayNineties to whatever time period he's found in.
44	* DistantFinale: Another poor sap happens on the frog in virtually the same way as the first scene.
45	* DownerEnding: The man's life is ruined by trying to use the frog, and ends with him sealing the frog away... only for another greedy man to find him a century later, [[HereWeGoAgain which repeats the cycle anew]].
46	* EarnYourHappyEnding: "Another Froggy Evening" gives one to the frog. He finally meets someone who not only understands his language but has no intention of exploiting him and just wants to hear him sing. They even sing together, as the short ends. The person in question? [[spoiler:Marvin the Martian.]]
47	* FanRemake: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgpi6QtTwXQ Virgilio Vasconcelos remade the first couple minutes as a student project, only in CG.]]
48	* TheFifties: The dedication plaque on the new building indicates the short is set in 1955, the year of its release.
49	* TheGayNineties: Michigan J. Frog is from this era. However, he also sings "I'm Just Wild About Harry", which was first introduced in 1921, and "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone", which was from 1930. In addition, he sings "Largo al factotum" the famous aria from the opera ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville''.
50	* GenerationXerox: In "Another Froggy Evening", various characters resembling the man from the original short have similar encounters with the frog.
51	* HereWeGoAgain: The ending.
52	* JustHereForTheFreeSnacks: The man manages to lure people into the theater after several failed attempts by offering free beer.
53	* KarmicTrickster: Michigan J. Frog's lack of dialogue [[AmbiguousSituation make his motives hard to decipher]], but it's a strong possibility he's deliberately stringing the construction worker along so he'll be foiled by his own greed.
54	* KnowWhenToFoldEm: When he sees the work that is being laid out for a new building, the now-destitute man decides to dump the boxed-up frog and go.
55	* LaserGuidedKarma: When you get down to it, that man is bringing his fate entirely on himself for trying to manipulate the frog for money. It goes pretty far, though.
56	* LyricalDissonance: Read the lyrics to [[http://froggyeve.tripod.com/comeover.html "Won't You Come Over To My House."]] Cheerful little tune, isn't it?
57	** The song itself is an interesting example of dissonance. The song as originally written as sung by the man, tells the story of a woman. As it's a sad lullaby about her finding a little girl that reminds her of her own dead child. The part Michigan sings is the chorus that is preceded in the song by making it clear it is the female's words.
58	* MimeAndMusicOnlyCartoon: One of the few to be produced in TheFifties.
59	* MistakenForInsane: The man and the frog are alone in the park until a policeman overhears the frog singing and approaches them. The man points at the frog to wordlessly tell the cop that [[CassandraTruth it was the frog]], but the frog has already clammed up at this point. The cop then has the man committed to a psych ward.
60	* NoDialogueEpisode: While Michigan J. Frog does sing, the characters never communicate through dialogue the audience can hear—only signs, gestures, and cartoon violence. "Another Froggy Evening" has a small conversation at the end, that works as something of TheReveal.
61	* NoNameGiven: None of the characters in the original short have names. Michigan J. Frog only got his name many years later.
62	* NotSoImaginaryFriend: The frog definitely exists, but people are convinced that he can't dance or sing.
63	* {{Oireland}}: Michigan mocks the popularity of mawkish Irish songs at the turn of the century by singing "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS5QXouYQTs Come Back to Erin]]."
64	* OriginsEpisode: Subverted in "Another Froggy Evening", which appears to be the story of the man's ancestors using their own methods to exploit the frog, leading up to the original short. However, the frog never ends up sealed in the cornerstone of a building. [[spoiler:He appears on a deserted island where Robinson Crusoe intends to eat him, but then a UFO grabs the box, frog and all.]]
65	* PopularHistory:
66	** Several of the songs performed by Michigan J. Frog (including "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello!_Ma_Baby Hello, My Baby]]") date later than 1892 (the year on the cornerstone where his box is buried).
67	** This gets even more bizarre in "Another Froggy Evening" in which he knows these songs ''in the Stone Age''.
68	* ProducePelting: The booing crowd in the theater where the man tries to exhibit the frog. Signaled by the drop of the curtain where only his face remains visible.
69	* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The frog sings a number of popular songs of the Gilded Age, as well as "''Largo al factotum''" from Rossini's ''Il barbiere di Sevilgia''.
70	* PunnyName: In "Another Froggy Evening", Saladus Caesar is the man in charge when the frog arrives in AncientRome.
71	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The frog is capable of living for centuries inside of a block of lead with no food or water.
72	* {{Retraux}}: "The Michigan Rag" is an original composition which imitates the 1890s style.
73	* TheRuntAtTheEnd: In "Another Froggy Evening", when the frog's latest victim is thrown to the lions and tigers, the last feline in the pack is a cameo of tuxedo kitten Pussyfoot from the Marc Antony shorts.
74	* ShoutOut: At the end, the frog is sealed inside the foundation of the "Tregoweth Brown Building", a reference to sound effects editor Treg Brown. Such crew shout-outs were very common in all the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes shorts.
75	* TheSingingMute: The Frog is mostly silent, but occasionally breaks out in a song.
76	* SkewedPriorities: The protagonist is not remotely dumbfounded by the premise of a singing dancing frog, and only starts to find the concept remarkable when he realises the profit he can make for it. When all attempts at this fail, he literally throws it away like a piece of worthless trash.
77	* SpaceWhaleAesop: Don't be greedy and try to take advantage of someone else for your own gain or your life will go downhill as a result--or in this case, don't take advantage of a singing frog to get rich or your life will be ruined.
78	** This is a common theme in Chuck Jones' work. Like Wile E. Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons, the protagonist ends up suffering horribly, yet it's PlayedForLaughs because he could have given up at any time instead of compounding his failures with new ones, going to ever more grandiose lengths and spending what's implied to be his life savings despite any observer being able to tell within the first few minutes that the frog absolutely ''will not'' play along.
79	* TimeCapsule: The frog's box.
80	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Sort of; the story was based on that of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ol%27_Rip_the_Horned_Toad Ol' Rip The Horned Toad]], but he might have been a hoax.
81	* YouDidntAsk: The end of "Another Froggy Evening" suggests that every time the frog croaked, he was actually asking if people wanted to hear him sing. Since no one gave him an answer (presumably because they don't speak frog and assumed he was just being nonchalant), he just sat there. Fortunately, one person is able to understand him and say "yes": [[spoiler:Marvin the Martian]].
82	* YouHaveToBelieveMe: In pantomime, to the theatrical producer and the cop.
83	* {{Zeerust}}: The year 2056 in the final scene.

Context WesternAnimation / OneFroggyEvening