[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/OneFroggyEvening.jpg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:200:Hello, Mah Baby!]]

->''♬ Hello, mah baby, hello mah honey,\\
Hello mah ragtime gal,\\
Send me a kiss by wire,\\
Baby, my heart's on fire!\\
If you refuse me, honey, you'll lose me\\
And you'll be left alone\\
Oh baby, telephone\\
and tell me I'm your owwwwwwwwwwn! ♬''

Referred to by Creator/StevenSpielberg as "the ''Film/CitizenKane'' of animated film", this [[TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1955]] 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.

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]].

''One Froggy Evening'' has been named number 5 of The50GreatestCartoons.

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!!This cartoon provides examples of:

* AnAesop: The short reminds people to enjoy the good things, and not try to profit on them.
* 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.
* BeamMeUpScotty: People often refer to this cartoon as "'''A''' froggy evening"
* {{Bowdlerization}}: 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. Unlike most Looney Tunes gags that have been affected by censorship when aired on TV, this doesn't really alter it for better or worse, as both responses are believable. On the other hand, there ''is'' a bit of an obvious audio skip, meaning that something was cut.
* CassandraTruth: The construction worker tries to get people to believe the frog can dance, but the frog returns to normal every time because he spends so much time trying to get their attention.
* CharacterSignatureSong: Michigan J. Frog's ''"Hello My Baby"''.
* DiscoDan: Michigan J. Frog
* DistantFinale: A descendent of the poor sap happens on the frog.
* 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 possibly to repeat the cycle anew]].
* {{Earworm}}: "Hello mah baby hello mah honey, hello mah ragtime gaaaal..."
** The fascinating thing about that song was that, while it sounded quaint and old-fashioned even in the year the cartoon was released, it was about a ''new, high tech'' society that allowed for real-time long-distance relationships. Calling his honey a "Ragtime" gal meant she was ultra-modern; "Send me a kiss by wire" was not that far removed from the chatroom flirtation of today; and "Telephone and tell me I'm your own!" was about using a new high-tech gadget to get your message across.
* TheFifties: The dedication plaque on the new building indicates the short is set in 1955, the year of its release.
* TheGayNineties: Michigan J. Frog is from this era.
* HereWeGoAgain: The ending.
* JustHereForGodzilla: In-universe, the man manages to lure people into the theater after several failed attempts by offering free beer.
* KarmicTrickster: Michigan J. Frog
* 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.
* 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?
* NoNameGiven: Neither the man nor the frog were named when the short debuted. Michigan only gets his name many years later.
* NotSoImaginaryFriend: He exists, but people are convinced that it can't dance or sing.
* {{Oireland}}: Michigan mocks the popularity of mawkish Irish songs at the turn of the century by singing "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS5QXouYQTs Come Back to Erin]]."
* MimeAndMusicOnlyCartoon: One of the few ones in the 50s.
* PopularHistory: Several of the songs performed by Michigan J. Frog (including "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOo-zKk0x4Q Hello, My Baby]]") date later than 1892.
** This gets more bizarre in ''Another Froggy Evening'', in which he knows these songs ''in the Stone Age''.
* ProducePelting: The crowd in the theater where the man tries to exhibit the frog.
* 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''
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The frog is capable of living for centuries inside of a block of lead with no food or water.
* {{Retraux}}: "The Michigan Rag" is an original composition which imitates the 1890s style.
* SealedEvilInACan[=/=]SealedGoodInACan: The Frog, although it's debatable how "good" or "evil" it is, or whether it's solely the man bringing his own woe on himself for trying to take advantage of the frog.
* 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.
* 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.
** Or at the least learn from your first few mistakes and cut your losses.
** This was actually a very common theme in Chuck Jones' work. Like Wile E Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons the protagonist in this one ends up suffering horribly, yet it's PlayedForLaughs because he could, in theory, have given up at any time instead of compounding his failures with new ones.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: A younger viewer might wonder why the man doesn't just rent a camera and film the frog. 1950s movie cameras were expensive, needed a lot of supplemental lighting, and only gave good results in the hands of a skilled operator. And sound had to be recorded separately. Even if this was made later when cameras were more common and less expensive, it's possible the frog would not perform in front of filming devices anyway, knowing he's only out to profit.
* TimeCapsule: The frog's box.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Sort of; the story was based on that of [[http://www.eastlandvisitor.com/oldRipHistory.html Ol' Rip The Horned Toad]], but he might have been a hoax.
* YouHaveToBelieveMe: In pantomime, to the theatrical producer and the cop.
* {{Zeerust}}: The year 2056 in the final scene.
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