[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ILoveToSinga.jpg]]

I Love To Singa was an extremely popular [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]] short directed by TexAvery (or, as he is still credited here, "Fred Avery," with his animators, [[ChuckJones "Charles Jones"]] and Virgil Ross) that premiered on [[TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation July 18, 1936.]] The cartoon, designed to feature the eponymous tune by [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg]], has a plot mirroring that of Al Jolson's most famous film, ''TheJazzSinger''; uncoincidentally, Jolson (with CabCalloway) had introduced the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uQdCcD_pG8 song]] in a 1936 WarnerBros. feature, ''The Singing Kid''.



This short was also a runner-up on The50GreatestCartoons list. It has also made it onto ''The100GreatestLooneyTunes'' list.
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!!Tropes Used In This Short Include:

* AmbiguouslyJewish: The owls speak with heavy Teutonic (Yiddish?) accents; the plot is based on that of ''The Jazz Singer'', which deals with the conflict between an Orthodox Jewish cantor and his son.
* AnimatedMusicVideo: Many of the WarnerBros. shorts made at this time were designed to push the sales of songs that appeared in their feature films; this was no exception.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Almost literally, as the protagonist retrieves his trophy from outside the black irised-in screen at the end.
* CatchPhrase: Professor Fritz Owl: "Enough is too much!"; Owl Jolson: "I love to singa!"
* {{Earworm}}: Don't attempt to watch this unless you are prepared to singa, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a, for the next few days-a.
* FeatherFingers: Able to play a variety of musical instruments
* FourFingeredHands: Averted only in the "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" bird
* FunnyAnimal
* HalfDressedCartoonAnimal
** BarefootCartoonAnimals
** TheOneWhoWearsShoes: Jack Bunny
* HeyItsThatVoice: The young Owl is voiced by Tommy Bond, AKA "Butch" of "TheLittleRascals" series.
* HopelessAuditionees: A line of HopelessAuditionees are trying out for “Jack Bunny’s” radio talent show; however, averting the second part of this trope, he gives them no encouragement at all.
* IndecipherableLyrics: The middle section of the song:
-->''I was born a singin' fool-a,''
-->''Lah-de-dah!''
-->''Ol' Major Bowes is gonna spot me,''
-->''Got through Yale with boula-boula,''
-->''Lah-de-dah!''
-->''Old microphone's got me!''
** "Major Bowes" was the master of ceremonies of a popular radio amateur competition.
* IrisOut: Subverted in a bit of [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth-wall tomfoolery]].
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Jack Bunny and Owl Jolson are take-offs on [[TheJackBennyProgram Jack Benny]] and Al Jolson, popular radio personalities of the day.
* NonMammalMammaries: Mama Owl
* OwlBeDamned: Averted
* TheOwlKnowingOne: If not supremely wise, at least extremely cultured.
* PieEyed: All the characters, in a rare color example.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The owlets perform the beginnings of various classical works: the tenor part from the Sextette of Donizetti's ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYIRlQ8QbmI Lucia di Lammermoor]]''; [[RobertSchumann Schumann's]] ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq7ncjhSqtk Träumerei]]'': FelixMendelssohn's ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2XFrgJGPrM Frühlingslied]]''; and ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoKrw-0dze Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes]]'' (words by Ben Jonson, melody anonymous).
* [[TheTelevisionTalksBack The Radio Talks Back]]: Perhaps one of the earliest examples:
-->'''Mama Owl:''' ''I vonder if they found my leetle boy!''
-->'''Police Radio:''' ''No, we didn't, lady!''
* SimpletonVoice: The stuttering bird.
* {{Slapstick}}: The sequence in which Jack Bunny is disposing of the talent show losers.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: All the owlets look exactly alike, except for "Owl Jolson's" red coat and blue tie.
* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: The female birds have eyelashes, to distinguish them from the males.
* [[ThroughAFaceFullOfFur Through A Face Full Of Feathers]]: When Fritz Owl throws his son out, his feathery face turns bright crimson from rage.
* TitleDrop: Every few seconds -- Avery has the owlet restart the song several times, while other sections of the song are obscured, as if to drive the title of the short into the audience's head. Even Fritz Owl himself picks up on that particular line.
* {{Toon}}
* ToothyBird: The stuttering bird
* TrapDoor: How Jack Bunny disposes of his rejected amateurs
* WhiteGloves: Jack Bunny
* WholePlotReference: The plot is based on that of Al Jolson's most famous film, ''The Jazz Singer'', in which the father of the title character rejects his son for wishing to sing jazz music; in that film, however, the father and son are reconciled only at the father's death-bed, and the son sings the Mourner's Kaddish at his father's funeral.
** Also this version has no one in blackface; the lack (or at least, reduction) of ValuesDissonance allows the cartoon to have retained more cultural popularity than the film upon which it is based.

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