[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i_love_to_singa_1.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350: We bet you’ve got the song in your head just looking at this.]]

"I Love to Singa" is a ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]]'' short directed by Creator/TexAvery (or, as he is still credited here, "Fred Avery", with his animators, [[Creator/ChuckJones "Charles Jones"]] and Virgil Ross) that premiered on [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation July 18, 1936.]]

The cartoon, very popular at the time, was designed to feature the eponymous tune by [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg]], has a plot mirroring that of Creator/AlJolson's most famous film, ''Film/TheJazzSinger''; un-coincidentally, Jolson (with Music/CabCalloway) had introduced the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uQdCcD_pG8 song]] in a 1936 Creator/WarnerBros feature, ''The Singing Kid''.

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!!"I Love to Singa" provides examples of:

* AmbiguouslyJewish: The owls speak with heavy Teutonic (Yiddish?) accents; the plot is based on that of ''Film/TheJazzSinger'' (Al Jolson himself was Jewish), which deals with the conflict between an Orthodox Jewish cantor and his son.
* AnimatedMusicVideo: Many of the Creator/WarnerBros shorts made at this time were designed to push the sales of songs that appeared in their feature films; this was no exception.
* BarefootCartoonAnimal: Almost none of the characters wear shoes, [[TheOneWhoWearsShoes except Jack Bunny.]]
* BeYourself: The overall moral of the short, as it was Owl Jolson being his jazzy self that won the family the trophy.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Almost literally, as the protagonist retrieves his trophy from outside the black irised-in screen at the end.
* CharacterCatchphrase: Professor Fritz Owl: "Enough is too much!"; Owl Jolson: "I love to singa!"
* CigarChomper: Jack Bunny constantly has a cigar in his mouth.
* CuteOwl: Owl Jolson himself is an innocent, idealistic child with dreams of becoming a jazz singer, with a ridiculously cute appearance to match.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Fritz Owl angrily kicks Owl Jolson out of his home after he catches him secretly singing jazz. He immediately regrets his actions, though, and ultimately reconciles with Owl and his love of jazz by the end.
* DreadfulMusician: While Owl Jolson mostly advert this with his natural jazz singing talents, he becomes this when he feels pressured by his family into singing classic songs he doesn't enjoy such as "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes", developing a tick that almost cost him the price when his family goes to the radio to support him.
* FantasyForbiddingFather: Fritz Owl disapproves of his son's dreams of singing jazz.
* FeatherFingers: Able to play a variety of musical instruments
* FourFingeredHands: Averted only in the "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" bird.
* FunnyAnimal: All of the animals in the cartoon are shaped like real animals dressed in clothes.
* GetOut: Fritz Owl, in an act of impulsive anger, literally throws Owl Jolson out of his house and hurls insults at him afterward, solely because he won't stop singing jazz. He quickly comes to regret it.
-->"Stop, STOP! Enough is too much! Out of my house, you hotcha! You crooner! You falsetto! You jazz singer! You... you... you...(Closes door; then opens it again) Phooey!"
* HalfDressedCartoonAnimal: Most of the characters wear shirts or vests only.
* HopelessAuditionees: A line of them 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 and unceremoniously dumps them through a TrapDoor instead.
* IrisOut: Subverted in a bit of [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth-wall tomfoolery]].
* LargeHam: The father does nothing small and his voice is booming.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Jack Bunny and Owl Jolson are take-offs on [[Radio/TheJackBennyProgram Jack Benny]] and Al Jolson, popular radio personalities of the day.
* NonMammalMammaries: Mama Owl clearly has breasts under her [[FormFittingWardrobe form-fitting]] cardigan.
* TheOwlKnowingOne: Fritz. If not supremely wise is at least extremely cultured.
* PacingATrench: As Owl Jolson was being born, PanickyExpectantFather Fritz was outside pacing around that formed into a rut.
* {{Parody}}: The song is a parody of the clichés of popular songs of the era, with Harburg's lyrics using many stock phrases and rhymes that audiences were familiar with.
* 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 ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYIRlQ8QbmI Lucia di Lammermoor]]''; [[Music/RobertSchumann Schumann's]] ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq7ncjhSqtk Träumerei]]'': Music/FelixMendelssohn's ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2XFrgJGPrM Frühlingslied]]''; and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoKrw-0dze Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes]]'' (words by Ben Jonson, melody anonymous). Some of the songs the auditioners perform include "Listen to the Mockingbird" (played on a harmonica), "Nola" (played on a saxophone) and "Turkey in the Straw" (played on an accordion).
* ReferenceOverdosed: Harburg's lyrics for the middle section of the song need a lot of annotation:
-->''I was born a singin' fool-a,''
-->''Lah-de-dah!''
-->''Ol' Major Bowes is gonna spot me,''
-->''Got through Yale with boola-boola,''
-->''Lah-de-dah!''
-->''Old microphone's got me!''
** ''The Singing Fool'' was the title of Al Jolson's second film after ''The Jazz Singer''.
** "Major Bowes" was the master of ceremonies of a popular radio amateur competition.
** "Boola-boola" is the Yale University Fight Song.
** "Old Rocking Chair's Got Me" is a song about an old man who spends all his time in a rocking chair, waiting to die.
* RockIsAuthenticPopIsShallow: Owl Jolson wants to sing popular music, but his parents, especially his father, don't approve and want him to embark on a classical career instead.
* TheTelevisionTalksBack: Perhaps one of the earliest examples, although with a radio:
-->'''Mama Owl:''' I vonder if they found my leetle boy!\\
'''Police Radio:''' No, we didn't, lady!
* SimpletonVoice: The "Simple Simon" stuttering bird (voiced by Lou Fulton, who was half of the Oscar and Elmer comedy team that was appearing on KFWB's ''The Last Nighter'' comedy show when this short was made).
* {{Slapstick}}: The sequence in which Jack Bunny disposes of the talent show losers, ejecting them from the studio in amusing fashion via a TrapDoor.
* StandardSnippet: In addition to the title song, several other songs from the Warner library are heard.
** The blackbird auditions by singing the title song from ''Film/LaughClownLaugh''.
** The fat white hen attempts to sing "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" before getting stuck in the trap door and being hammered down.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: All the owlets look exactly alike, except for Owl Jolson's red coat and blue tie.
* TelegraphGagSTOP: As Owl Jolson is ready to perform, the receptionist at the station is reading a telegram.
-->We just received another telegram, Station GONG. Stop. Your program coming in great. Stop. Think it's fine. Stop. Glad to hear your amateurs. Stop. They're all very funny. (''camera pans back to show her continually pushing away the deliveryman as he keeps trying to hold her'') Stop! Keep up the good work. Stop! Good luck. STOP! The gang. ''STOP!'' (''she pushes him offscreen and he crashes'')
* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: The female birds have eyelashes, to distinguish them from the males.
* ThroughAFaceFullOfFur: Or feathers, in this case. 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.
* ToothyBird: The Owl family and the stuttering bird.
* TrapDoor: How Jack Bunny disposes of the amateurs who fail their audition, after ringing his bell with a mallet.
* TrapDoorFail: The fat pigeon lady can't fit through the trap door, so Jack Bunny hits her on the head with his mallet to shove her through.
* WhiteGloves: Jack Bunny wears them which gives him more in common with Bugs Bunny.
* WholePlotReference: The plot is based on that of Al Jolson's most famous film, ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', in which the father of the title character rejects his son for wishing to sing jazz music; however, there are at least a couple of key differences:
** In ''Jazz Singer'', 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.
%%** Additionally, ''I Love to Singa'' 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.
* WorldOfFunnyAnimals: There are no humans in sight.
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